Comments on: Give the animals a go!

By: nasking

nasking — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 00:24:22 +0000

We give regularly to WSPA. And other animal rights organisations, including Wildcare Australia. That helps give the animals, the other species we share this planet with, a go. Remonds me, I must use our credit card to send the RSPCA some money…they helped save one of our cats Emi (Emerald…those eyes) many years ago.

By: nasking

nasking — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 09:34:34 +0000

Interesting topic Brian. Well said Laura.

Yep, we are one morally developed lot…I imagine that aliens, if they exist, will find us most enlightening:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUFYzY-ZdZg

After I put the bear Gravatar up I went back to the Kodiak bear search on google a few hours later…& lo & behold a bunch of hunters had ensured pics of dead & brutalised bears topped the page. Supposedly the Bush family dig hunting. As does Cheney it seems.
N’

By: BilB

BilB — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:34:46 +0000

There are some nice salads, Klaus. Chicken Salad comes to mind, and rattle snake salad (strips of steak).

Note for Laura…I am trying to cut back. Carnivor..>…Omnivor…>….Herbivor. It takes time.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:24:03 +0000

On vegetarianism and domestic animals, I heard on ABC radio recently that 97% of the animal biomass on the planet is either humans or animals who exist to serve human purposes. So when I said, give the animals a go I was definitely thinking about wild animals.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:17:24 +0000

aidan, thanks for the link about post-glacial rebound. From there, this is the deal re Britain:

In Great Britain, glaciation affected Scotland but not Southern England, and the post-glacial rebound of northern Great Britain is causing a corresponding downward movement of the southern half of the island.[8] This is leading to an increased risk of floods, particularly in the areas surrounding the lower River Thames. Along with rising sea levels caused by global warming, the post-glacial sinking of southern England is likely to seriously compromise the effectiveness of the Thames Barrier, London’s most important flood defence, after about 2030.

So I guess it’s a bit like a see-saw.

By: Klaus K

Klaus K — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:06:54 +0000

While it’s widely believed that you don’t win friends with salad, I have come to understand that this is untrue. I have befriended a rabbit and several guinea pigs with what is basically a nice salad twice a day, and they are rather good friends indeed. As yet I haven’t managed to win any humans with this approach, but I hope to.

By: Jobby

Jobby — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 06:22:38 +0000

Sorry, I’m just teasing, Laura.

By: laura

laura — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 06:18:16 +0000

no, that’s why vegetarians eat vegetable protein.

By: Jobby

Jobby — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 06:03:55 +0000

Well, I’ve damn near stopped using the car and now cycling everywhere … but I live pretty far out from work (an hour of full tilt going at it every morning) which takes a fair bit of energy. Salad ain’t gonna cut it.

By: laura

laura — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 05:58:43 +0000

haha…you all know that driving less and a vegetarian diet are the two most effective things individuals can do to reduce their carbon footprints. If this latest round of news about the likely consequences to animal life of our current trajectory concern you, then you need to stop eating meat.

By: Crass

Crass — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:57:53 +0000

mmmm, snails…..drool.

By: BilB

BilB — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:41:44 +0000

Jobby,

If you stick to slugs and snails you will OK.

By: Jobby

Jobby — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 03:56:22 +0000

Give the animals a go – yes – stop eating meat, right now, today

What? All of them?

How about if I just eat the ugly, nasty animals that no-one really likes?

By: The Intellectual Bogan

The Intellectual Bogan — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 02:40:46 +0000

Seems incredible to me, but it was prepared at Durham University, presumably not by the janitor.

Doesn’t entirely surprise me. Durham have some credentials in this, as, when the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne was still King’s College Durham, it was home to a young chap by the name of Stanley “Rocky” Runcorn, who was one of the leading lights of plate tectonics back in the ’50s.

By: aidan

aidan — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 02:10:19 +0000

There is quite a nice explanation of post-glacial rebound at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-glacial_rebound

By: philiptravers

philiptravers — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 01:40:41 +0000

I cannot make a great intellectual point here,but,if 99% of all species have disappeared,and,there still seems to be some in abundant,why does the 99% or even the present abundance,actually disallows the thought,that even humanity has been disturbed,and set back a many a time!? My first conscious exposure to human suffering,in the sense factual matters became self-evident tribulations,was Bangla Desh when the Beatles popularised what they couldn’t handle themselves!Surely,even recent events where massive numbers of people effected by seasonal matters,doesn’t disallow the insight lesser numbers of population have already,been affected regularly!? There are many sources of history besides English speaking ones,which require matters to be considered carefully about what affects humanity has had when developing settlements.If,I am not the sum total of my genetic make-up,that which were my relatives before today,then,I must simply be the oppurtunities and failures of today coalescing with whatever is knowledge,and its practical use.Thereby,I am as ancient,and my genes would of discovered ice as much as fire,and had to survive,which must of meant more than one overwhelming attitude to animals etcetera in the environment.Much of history,at times, shows a lot of respect for animals,as much as the intelligence etcetera of creatures… Today as folk, rather than as folklore, indicates the same sort of attitudes.Science still today is making these abilities of creatures intelligence gain new footholds in our minds.No doubt these insights may improve the prospects of human survival again,and,again.We must take as many species with us into the future,and,unfortunate economic matters of design as settlement and activity are destroying this potential.To be overwhelmed by that,as fact,probably also means an underwhelmed attitude to what maybe possible.The individual may not be blameworthy,in terms of conservation entirely,on these matters.Locking oneself entirely by the order of magnitudes of mathematical construction,is too inhibiting.Let the lion within roar,with the appreciation of what the individual could achieve in a setting less complex than mathematical construct.

By: laura

laura — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 01:10:50 +0000

Give the animals a go – yes – stop eating meat, right now, today

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:21:44 +0000

BilB, I do know that the earth’s crust will flex as the weight of the ice sheet comes off. I’ve heard the Britain, for example, bobbed up and down like a cork. Have a look at this animation.

Seems incredible to me, but it was prepared at Durham University, presumably not by the janitor.

When we look at Greenland we’ll sea the phenomenon of “icequakes” caused by the ice sheet shifting over the land.

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 21:53:28 +0000

hannah's dad, in searching for the above link I got the impression that a fair bit of effort had gone into saving the little critter. Take this recovery plan (pdf) for example prepared by Dr Alan Horsup. Objective 6 is to carry out a relocation project to start a second colony and so it is coming to pass. If climate change proceeds as expected, there is going to be much to do. If it's rally bad many animals won't have a chance. Hansen mentions many instances of species already in trouble.

By: BilB

BilB — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 21:19:08 +0000

“None of these high profile events had anything to do with climate change as such”

I have seen it suggested in several places that the redistribution of weight, as ice becomes water and moves around the globe, could be providing enough pressure, over the huge areas affected, to cause additional tectonic plate joint movement. Movement that would happen regardless but is happening sooner because of the additional forces.