Animals
No Country for Exotic Pets
Weak laws mean Canadians can legally own wild animals even though there’s no way their needs can be met in people’s homes. A report by World Animal Protection www.worldanimalprotection.ca says 1.4 million wild animals are kept as pets in Canada including 14,181 crocodiles and alligators, 186,104 wild cats e.g., leopards and tigers, and 164,678 snakes including Burmese pythons.
Food
Toronto “The Good Food City”
As the fourteenth city to sign the C40 Cities Declaration, Toronto joins Tokyo, London and LA in proposing to adopt a “Planetary Health Diet” to reduce the impact of two major culprits in climate change and biodiversity loss – meat consumption and food waste. It aims to improve the health of citizens by offering more affordable, sustainable plant-based options. GHGs from food could rise by 38% by 2050, (eating animals would account for 75% of this). www.C40.org
Climate Change
Number Threatened by Coastal Flooding Soars
A new study says sea level rise and coastal flooding will impact 300 million people by 2050 as opposed to the 80 million people estimated by previous research. The report in Nature Communications, relies on new elevation data and AI for a more accurate assessment of coastal topography and flood risk due to climate change. The most vulnerable regions are Southeast Asia and China. www.nature.com
speaking words of wisdom
“We cannot go about our lives as if they were only ours. In a way that was not true for our ancestors, the lives we live will create a future that cannot be undone.”
— Jonathan Safran Foer, author.
“… our arrogant world view has driven us far beyond the planetary boundaries. Now, when we’re in the beginning of an ecological and climate collapse, I hope we rethink our relationship with Nature.”
— Swedish MP, Rebecka Le Moine.
Photo: Planet Friendly News
on the horizon
Photo: Yarne Fiten/Unsplash
Are the Beef and Dairy Industries On the Path to Collapse?
A new report by independent think tank, RethinkX (who analyze technology-driven disruption), argues that they are. www.rethinkx.com The report says food production based on fermentation and plant-based ingredients could gain market share faster than previously thought. “We’re on the cusp of the deepest, fastest most consequential disruption in food and agricultural production since the first domestication of plants and animals ten thousand years ago.” The report goes on to say that by 2030 the number of cows in the US will have decreased by 50%, and “the cattle farming industry will be all but bankrupt. All other livestock industries will suffer a similar fate …” The report says new technology will replace the way protein is produced and enable the transition to a more efficient and sustainable food system.
However, the report noted the barriers to such a transformation citing the current political support (which includes massive subsidies) for incumbent industries, the need for new production infrastructure to supply the new protein products, and the need for consumer acceptance. That said, the report also notes that it only took a generation for the food system to evolve from small-scale, family-type farms to industrialized animal agriculture.
Even if the timeline doesn’t unfold as rapidly as the RethinkX forecast, the trend line is clear and the shift will undoubtedly be accelerated by climate change. People are becoming increasingly aware of the significant environmental damage being done by factory farming including water and air pollution, deforestation, biodiversity loss, highly inefficient uses of land and water and the fact it emits more GHGs than all global transportation. Add to that, greater understanding of the western diet’s negative impacts on human health, and the threat of antibiotic resistance (antibiotics are fed to livestock to protect them from disease in overcrowded factory farms), and you have powerful reasons for people to be receptive to change. Increasingly, people are concerned about animal welfare too. Approximately 70 billion land animals are raised and slaughtered for food a year globally, most of whom spend their entire lives enduring the conditions of factory farms. These are all reasons to reassess the current food system and help drive the search for and acceptance of new ways of delivering sources of protein to feed the nearly 10 billion people expected to inhabit the planet by 2050.
Perspective
Meet Famous Primate Painter, Pockets Warhol
He’s a commissioned artist who, judging by his photo, clearly relishes his work. His paintings hang in homes all over the world including those of celebrities such as Ricky Gervais and Queen guitarist, Brian May. Pockets is a 27-year-old Capuchin monkey and the sale of his work helps raise money for his home -- the Story Book Farm Primate Sanctuary in Ontario www.storybookmonkeys.org. As the only primate sanctuary in Canada, Story Book Farm, run by Daina Liepa, provides a loving home for 22 primates including lemurs, a spider monkey, macaques, baboons and capuchins who’ve been rescued from research labs, roadside zoos and the exotic pet trade.
Season’s Greetings
An original painting by Pockets is his holiday card for 2019. All proceeds go to Story Book Farm Primate Sanctuary. www.storybookmonkeys.org
Planet Friendly News talked to Pockets’ muse, Charmaine Quinn, to find out how the artist likes to work. She said Pockets paints about once a week and Charmaine selects the colours. But, she says, there’s never any pressure on him to paint, he only does it if he feels like it. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out who inspired the choice of his last name. Charmaine said she knows an artist in New York who lived not far from Warhol and he told her that Andy would’ve been supportive of Pockets’ work. Check out Pockets’ extensive gallery and see some amazing work www.pocketswarhol.blogspot.com
time to give pigs their due?
We used to think only humans were smart enough to use tools but since Dr. Jane Goodall’s groundbreaking research in the 1960s discovered chimpanzees using tools; elephants, crows and dolphins have been observed using them too. Now, it’s the turn of pigs – specifically, Visayan warty pigs, native to the Philippines. According to a three-year study recently published In the journal Mammalian Biology, the pigs were observed engaging in the unprompted use of tools to build nests.
Good news
Oprah Winfrey has taken up the challenge posed by Suzy Amis Cameron (wife of director, James Cameron), to eat at least one plant-based meal a day based on Suzy’s new book, “The OMD Plan”. “This is something we can all do. Wanna join me?” Oprah tweeted her 42.6 million fans.
A non-animal research lab has opened at the University of Windsor in Ontario. Every year, more than 25 million dogs, cats, monkeys, horses, mice, guinea pigs and others are forced to endure painful experiments for tests that have been shown to have limited applicability to humans. The lab will use human cells and tissue from cadavers and 3D printing to replicate human tissue.
A proposed constitutional amendment in Sweden would enshrine the rights of nature and protect the natural world from exploitation and abuse by giving it legal status. This would give people and governments the ability to defend and enforce these rights. The legal rights of nature are already recognized in countries such as Ecuador, India, New Zealand and Columbia. www.commondreams.com.
data points
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) confirmed that July 2019 was the warmest month globally on record.
Summer will last longer as global average temperatures increase more than 1.5C leading to extended warm dry periods -- especially in Eastern North America. www.wri.org
Climate change has a bigger impact on the North Atlantic jet stream than previously thought — affecting aviation and making for bumpier rides by creating more turbulence. Wind speed at higher altitudes increased by 15% between 1979 and 2017. www.wri.org
There will be an increase in tropical cyclone-related flooding along the US Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, with the largest impacts in the Gulf of Mexico. www.wri.org
Changing public sentiment was evidenced in research conducted by Cardiff University, Wales. More than one-half of respondents think we should eat less meat, and 67% think we should be flying less.
the deeper dive
Tackling the Climate Crisis: Adaptation or Mitigation?
challenge
The science is clear, the climate crisis is here and the evidence is mounting. “Wildfires, higher temperatures, rising seas, floods, fiercer storms, droughts, city taps running dry….” This gloomy but realistic picture is painted by the Global Commission on Adaptation (GCA) www.gca.org in their recent report on climate change action. The chart above shows how damage from global heating gets worse as temperatures rise. But there are solutions and we can act to slow down the worst impacts of climate breakdown. The key question is, with limited time, what are the most effective actions to take?
response
There is a debate about which of two distinct paths we should choose. The first, “mitigation”, comprises measures designed to reduce and avoid the GHG emissions that are fuelling the climate crisis and further global heating. They require large scale transitions to low carbon systems — in sectors such as energy, transportation and agriculture/food — require international action, and deliver results over a longer time period given the lag time of our climate system. The more we reduce emissions now, the easier it will be to adapt to changes we can no longer avoid.
The second path is “adaptation”, measures designed to alter our behaviour and systems to protect people, infrastructure and the environment now. The changes are more local e.g., health care and water systems afflicted by high temperatures, or city and coastal infrastructure where people in low lying areas are vulnerable to rising sea levels and flooding.
Critics believe that a focus on adaptation could be used as an excuse by some policy makers not to pursue the radical shift to a low carbon world needed to slow down global heating. But mitigation alone could take years to slow global heating while investing in adaptation will help the millions struggling right now with the multiple impacts of the climate crisis.
The Global Commission on Adaptation makes the compelling case that investing $1 trillion in five key areas this year will deliver up to $7 trillion in benefits to people, the environment and economies over time.
The report comes from an expert group, led by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Bill Gates, and the head of the World Bank, and environment ministers of 20 countries including China, India and Canada. The GCA recommends focusing on five sectors to make the biggest difference including: strengthening early warning systems; more resilient infrastructure; mangrove coastal erosion protection; dry land crop agriculture; and, more resilient water management.
The results can be dramatic. In 1970, Cyclone Bhola led to 300,000 deaths in Bangladesh. In the last 20 years, the country strengthened disaster preparedness including early warning systems, cyclone shelters and stronger buildings. A cyclone in 2007 led to 3,363 deaths and a similar storm in 2019 caused five deaths. The report says that if developing countries invest $800 million in these systems, they could save thousands of lives and between $3-16 billion a year.
Investing in nature-based solutions (see chart above) can deliver huge benefits such as coastal protection, storm water drainage and cooling for cities. Mangrove forests provide $80 billion in avoided losses by protecting coastlines and 18 million people, and restoration has a 10:1 benefit-cost ratio. The report says that with proper investment all nature-based solutions could provide 33% of the mitigation required to contain global heating to 2C.
As this last example shows, we need to pursue both paths, mitigation and adaptation, to meet the multiple threats of global heating. The report calls for a revolution in planning and decision-making by both public and private sectors. “Adaptation is not an alternative to a redoubled effort to stop climate change, but an essential complement to it.”
Editor’s note: Over 1,100 people have now visited www.planetfriendlynews.com and we share news and information across five platforms. So, we came to the conclusion we needed some help, and we’re pleased to welcome Jessica Scott-Reid to the PFN team! A Canadian writer, animal advocate, and plant-based food expert, Jessica’s stories appear regularly in media across Canada and the US -- including The Globe and Mail, Maclean’s magazine, and The Toronto Star. Jessica will be writing a regular blog for our website starting mid-November so please check it out. Thank you!