Rainforest Rescue: Fish and other seafood from aquaculture are often touted as an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional fishing, but the reality is much grimmer: Fishing fleets are emptying the oceans to produce fishmeal and fish oil as feed for the aquaculture industry. Global seafood consumption has more than doubled over the past five decades. Every year, 80 million tons—almost half of the seafood on our plates—is produced by aquaculture, an industry that builds floating cages for salmon, artificial ponds for prawns on the coasts, and tanks for seafood in factory buildings—essentially, aquatic factory farms. But aquaculture is not the solution to overfishing that it is often touted to be. In fact, it is worsening the problem. Trawler fleets sweep up vast quantities of wild fish and grind them into fishmeal and fish oil to feed farmed fish. Far from being sustainable, this is an incredibly inefficient and wasteful process: It takes up to five kilos of edible fish such as anchovies, mackerels or sardines, for example, to produce a single kilo of salmon. More than two-thirds of the fish meal produced worldwide and three-quarters of the fish oil are now used as feed for farmed fish. The Dutch foundation Changing Markets has investigated how fishing fleets are emptying the oceans off Africa and Asia to supply fishmeal factories in the Gambia, India and Vietnam. The fishmeal and fish oil produced there is supplied to industrial aquaculture operations in countries such as China, Norway and the UK. The seafood thus produced ends up in the coolers of supermarkets such as Sainsbury’s, ALDI, Lidl, Co-op, Tesco, Asda, Iceland, Morrison’s, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer. Aquaculture pollutes the local marine environment with vast amounts of excrement, chemicals, antibiotics and other waste. The industry occupies bays, coastlines and mangroves, destroying natural ecosystems and ruining the livelihoods of traditional fishing communities.
>>>Urge European supermarkets, including Sainsbury’s, ALDI, Lidl, Co-op, Tesco, Asda, Iceland, Morrison’s, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer to withdraw from industrial aquaculture.

GREY2K USA Worldwide: Dog racing has blood on its hands. Live lure training isn’t just a myth—it’s a reality. GREY2K USA investigators have revealed a multi-state conspiracy of cruelty involving the torture and killing of rabbits to “blood” greyhounds. In live lure training, small animals are used to excite and enhance a chase instinct in young dogs. Typically, screaming animals are dangled before greyhounds, dragged in front of them on ropes, or simply set loose to be attacked. They often suffer cruel and miserable deaths. In March 2020, investigators documented at least forty-five greyhounds killing dozens of jackrabbits over a two-day period on a farm in Keota, Oklahoma, and similar activities were witnessed in Elgin, Texas, and Abilene, Kansas, in June and July. The individuals shown “blooding” or baiting greyhounds have business connections with national dog racing activities and fellow participants from multiple jurisdictions. Every person shown in a new undercover video has business connections with dog racing across multiple jurisdictions.
>>>Urge Oklahoma US Attorney Brian J. Kuester, Texas US Attorney John F. Bash, Kansas US Attorney Stephen R. McAllister and West Virginia Governor Jim Justice to enforce federal and state laws to end this cruelty.

New Zealand Anti-Vivisection Society: Every year in New Zealand, hundreds of thousands of animals suffer for research, testing and teaching. This is typically for cruel and outdated practices, with animals providing a poor scientific model for humans. Developments in human medicine, science and technology are all possible without the use of animals. From cell-cultured organoids and 3D printing, to the use of human cells and sophisticated computer models, there are many scientific methods that can be used instead of cruel, outdated and unreliable animal experiments. Using animals for science does not start in a lab. It is driven by decisions much further down the track. Funding and policy decisions are a major driver of animal experimentation. A lack of transparency and openness means the public rarely knows what is going on. And laws are often weak and selectively enforced. Regulators must improve outdated sections of law that are sending money to the wrong places, laws that fail to monitor animal experimenters, and laws that do not give enough information about what happens to animals used in science.
>>>Urge New Zealand’s House of Representatives to pass legislation that transitions scientific institutions from animal-based methods to non-animal-based methods for research, testing and teaching purposes.

Cause for concern…

Human activities like burning fossil fuels, factory farming and deforestation—tied to a steadily increasing human population—continue to increase the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Now a major new climate study has ruled out less severe global warming scenarios, estimating that the Earth’s global average temperature will most likely increase between 2.3 and 4.5 degrees Celsius. If the warming reaches the midpoint of this new range, it would be catastrophic, warned NASA physicist Kate Marvel, who called it the equivalent of a “five-alarm fire” for the planet.

• Major new climate study found that warming is extremely unlikely to be on the low end of estimates (Piers Forster, Zeke Hausfather, Gabi Hegerl, Steven Sherwood and Kyle Armour, Carbon Brief)
• Earth could hit critical climate threshold in next five years (Alex Fox, Smithsonian Magazine)
• Humans need to do better if we’re to avoid ocean system collapse (Carolyn Cramer, Stellenbosch University)
• Changes in farming urgent to rescue biodiversity (Firstpost)
• Babies born near natural gas flaring are 50% more likely to be premature (Kristina Marusic, Environmental Health News)
• Supreme Court spurns environmental challenge to Trump’s border wall (Jan Wolfe, Reuters)
• Homes of wealthy Americans have carbon footprints 25% higher than lower-income residences (University of Michigan)
• Cuba’s strikingly beautiful snails threatened by illegal trade (Telangana Today)
• Report exposes rampant illegal fishing in North Korean waters (Global Fishing Watch) 

Round of applause…

“A bipartisan bill that would spend nearly $3 billion on conservation projects, outdoor recreation and maintenance of national parks and other public lands is on its way to the president’s desk after winning final legislative approval,” reportsMatthew Daly for the Associated Press.

• Congress passes sprawling plan to boost conservation, parks (Matthew Daly, The Associated Press)
• Michigan to adopt new, low PFAS drinking water limits (Garret Ellison, Grand Rapids Press)
• In neutral situations, pigs turn to humans, initiating interactions as much as dogs do (Eötvös Loránd University, Phys.org)
• Stronger pollution standards could save 143,000 lives (Rachel Frazin, The Hill)
• Plugging orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells can create jobs, reduce pollution (Jason Bordoff, Daniel Raimi and Neelesh Nerurkar, Center for Global Energy Policy at Columbia University)
• Can India lead the ‘vegan economy’ against future pandemics? (Ankush Das and Kowthamraj VS, Forbes India)
• Increased consumption of plant proteins linked to lower risk of death (BMJ)
• 10th-grade girls discover asteroid nearing Earth while participating in a Space India and NASA school project (Nicholas Rice, Travel + Leisure)

Parting thought…

“When going vegan I think the hardest part was my ego giving up ‘the right to eat whatever I wanted.’ As I sat on that thought I realized doing that is simply taking away animals’ rights to live free lives. I personally could never kill an animal so I wasn’t going to let other people do it for me and then just buy them at the store or a restaurant.” —Ethan Dolan

Earth | Food | Life (EFL) explores the critical and often interconnected issues facing the climate/environment, food/agriculture and nature/animal rights, and champions action; specifically, how responsible citizens, voters and consumers can help put society on an ethical path of sustainability that respects the rights of all species who call this planet home. EFL emphasizes the idea that everything is connected, so every decision matters.

Click here to support the work of EFL and the Independent Media Institute.

Questions, comments, suggestions, submissions? Contact EFL editor Reynard Loki at [email protected]. Follow EFL on Twitter @EarthFoodLife.

League of Conservation Voters: President Trump has ceased enforcement of virtually all environmental laws at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The policy is set to expire next month, but the administration may seek to extend it. EPA enforcement must be restored immediately. Every hour these suspensions are in place, pollution can be ramped up without punishment or accountability for Big Polluters. This is a grave danger to public health, particularly for communities of color, as well as Indigenous and low-income communities already suffering the worst consequences of environmental injustice. “By signing this executive order, Donald Trump is muzzling the voice of environmental justice communities, and continues to make clear his total disregard for those speaking out and fighting for racial justice and a sustainable environment,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York said in a statement.
>>>Demand the EPA to restart enforcement immediately.

Citizens for Alternatives to Animal Research and Experimentation: Boston Children’s Hospital is killing mice and rats to develop an enhanced version of botulinum toxin, a product already in widespread use for cosmetic and medical use. These live animal tests are deadly, harrowing and completely unnecessary. Since 2011 scientists have developed an in vitro alternative to using mice and rats to study the safety and efficacy of botulinum toxin. Called the cell-based assay, it is considered superior to the mouse test, especially when investigating the cellular and intracellular effect of the toxin. Inexplicably, some scientists at Boston Children’s Hospital are still using barbaric animal tests. In one phase of the test, researchers dissected pregnant rats and removed their living embryos so they could extract cortical neurons from their brains. Another phase involved the egregious LD50 test, which injects enough toxin to determine which dose causes death in 50% of the animals. Botulinum toxin, which causes muscle paralysis, was injected into mice to test for local and systemic paralysis. Systemic paralysis causes a slow death as it gradually affects the respiratory muscles, causing mice to gasp hopelessly for air. Some will die by asphyxiation, but other mice will die because they cannot reach food or water. Their death is the result of dehydration and weight loss, and not the toxin per se, making the animal test even more unreliable, in addition to being incredibly inhumane.
>>>Urge Boston Children’s Hospital to stop paralyzing animals to test botulinum toxin and immediately employ the cell-based assay that was developed for this purpose.

PETA: Droughts and bushfires have decimated Australia’s landscapes and the animals living there, and yet the government continues to allow permits to be issued for the slaughter of wildlife. Extensive research by the Kangaroo Roundtable—a partnership of organizations, scientists, researchers and academics concerned about kangaroo conservation—indicates that reported Australian kangaroo populations are already overestimated. This would be concerning at any time, but after some 7.3 million hectares of land were burned in the recent blazes and an estimated 1 billion animals were killed in them, it’s more important than ever that we take the pressure off our native animals by favoring conservation over cruel killing. And make no mistake: the killing is cruel. Kangaroos are hunted after dark, increasing the risk that the shots won’t kill the animals instantly, subjecting them to long, painful deaths. Hunters are required to shoot at-foot joeys (kangaroo babies out of their mothers’ pouches) and decapitate or “crush the skull and destroy the brain” of those still in the pouch. The government must stop issuing permits to landholders and commercial hunters to kill native animals.
>>>Urge the New South Wales and Victoria governments to stop issuing permits to kill wildlife.

• New report underscores racial prejudices in Superfund sites (Marty Johnson, The Hill)
• Over 5,600 fossil fuel companies have taken at least $3 billion in COVID aid (Emily Holden, The Guardian)
• Facebook is exempting climate change misinformation from fact-checking (Rachel Frazin, The Hill)
• When it comes to animal rights, the philosophy of humanism has significant limitations (Robert Griffiths, Philosophy Now)
• The long history of murdered animal rights and environmental activists (Brandon Kirkwood, Vegan News Now)
• Growing farmland in Europe could reduce endangered bird habitat by up to 50% in the next century (University of East Anglia, ScienceDaily)
• UN expert calls out exploitation of Moroccan women on strawberry farms (Kristen Gianaris, Morocco World News)
• Big pharma’s u-turn threatens 450-million-year-old species on front line of coronavirus defense (Nishan Degnarain, Forbes)
• Mortality of trees triggered in 2018—the hottest, driest year on record—will continue for several years (University of Würzburg)
• Consumption of products derived from vulnerable wildlife species pervasive in Laos (San Diego Zoo Global, American Association for the Advancement of Science)
• Light pollution gives invasive cane toads a belly full of grub (Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Phys.org)
• Microplastic fiber pollution in the ocean impacts larval lobsters at each stage of their development (Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences)
• Rising water temperatures could endanger the mating of many fish species (Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research)

Round of applause…

• Your sunscreen may be killing coral reefs—here are the brands to try instead (Rebecca Carhart and Dobrina Zhekova. Travel + Leisure)
• VIDEO: Ex-poachers are now protecting endangered sea turtles (Katie Valentine, Lady Freethinker)
• Hugh Laurie: How we treat animals now will be condemned in 100 years (Liam Pritchett, LIVEKINDLY)
• For the first time in nearly 50 years, endangered California condors have been spotted at Sequoia National Park (Kailyn Brown, The Los Angeles Times)
• Bali hosts first center to return captive dolphins to the wild (Sultan Anshori, Reuters)
• A London bakery turned vegan overnight after owner watched a video on the dairy industry (Liam Gilliver, Plant Based News)
• “Protect 30% of the planet for nature,” scientists urge in new report (Heather D’Angelo, Arizona State University)
• Global wildlife surveillance could provide early warning for next pandemic (Tamara Bhandari, Washington University School of Medicine)
• Four ways life as an animal activist taught me to change the world (Christine Jackson, PsychCentral)
• Fish alternatives are next big thing in vegan products (Elizabeth Green, Food Ingredients First)
• Plant-based diets can help promote healthful aging and mitigate the global burden of disease (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine)

Parting thought…

“Oh Beautiful for smoggy skies, insecticided grain,
For strip-mined mountain’s majesty above the asphalt plain.
America, America, man sheds his waste on thee,
And hides the pines with billboard signs, from sea to oily sea.” 
―George Carlin

Earth | Food | Life (EFL) explores the critical and often interconnected issues facing the climate/environment, food/agriculture and nature/animal rights, and champions action; specifically, how responsible citizens, voters and consumers can help put society on an ethical path of sustainability that respects the rights of all species who call this planet home. EFL emphasizes the idea that everything is connected, so every decision matters.

Click here to support the work of EFL and the Independent Media Institute.

Questions, comments, suggestions, submissions? Contact EFL editor Reynard Loki at [email protected]. Follow EFL on Twitter @EarthFoodLife.

BirdLife International: It’s no secret: our natural world is in terrible shape. Our unsustainable system is causing climate chaos and putting over one million species at risk of extinction. As COVID-19 reminds us, the destruction of nature harms people directly. Lest we forget, we are part of nature, and we need a healthy planet to survive together. A post-COVID recovery must be a green recovery with the human right to a healthy natural environment at its core. How can something as fundamental as life on Earth be treated with such neglect? We need to completely change the way we treat our home. We, as do all other living beings, deserve the right to a healthy natural world. It may seem overwhelming, but it’s true: to emerge from these crises, to ensure our future and that of the planet, we need to entirely transform humanity’s relationship with nature.
>>>Urge the United Nations to include the right to a healthy natural environment at the UN Human Rights Council, in the UN General Assembly and as an urgent topic at the UN Summit on Biodiversity in September 2020—and ultimately in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Avaaz: Adani Group, an Indian multinational conglomerate, is planning to launch the new Godda coal plant, which will displace thousands of Indigenous Adivasi people and drain 36 billion liters of water from the Ganges river every year in order to produce dirty energy for Bangladesh. If Adani’s proposal succeeds, coal will be mined on Aboriginal land in Australia, impact the Great Barrier Reef, cause harm to the Gangetic dolphins and olive ridley turtles in India, and take away Indigenous lands and livelihoods, all just to provide expensive, polluting power.
>>>Urge Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to reject Adani’s dangerous coal plant.

In Defense of Animals: To the horror of compassionate people everywhere, the Trump administration has overturned previously banned hunting practices allowing the merciless massacre of unsuspecting bears and wolves in Alaska to begin. Hunters are now able to enter the dens of hibernating mother bears and bear cubs as well as mother wolves and wolf pups to violently kill them in cold blood. The Trump administration’s new rule overturns previously enacted hunting bans which were put into place by the Obama administration in 2015 to prohibit highly controversial and undeniably cruel hunting practices in Alaska’s national parks. The rule took effect on July 9 and will leave the “management” of Alaska’s wild animals to the state rather than the federal government. Under this new rule, unimaginably brutal practices are allowed to destroy animal families living on more than 20 million acres of national preserves in Alaska, including baiting brown and black bears with human food, hunting hibernating mother bears and cubs in their dens using artificial light, killing wolves and coyotes in their dens during the denning season when mothers wean their young, using dogs to hunt black bears, and hunting and shooting of swimming caribou from boats.
>>>Urge former Vice President Joe Biden to publicly pledge to overturn this heartless rule in order to protect sleeping mothers bears and their cubs and denning mother wolves and their pups.

Letter to editor…

Replying to “Japanese Banks Violate Own Climate Policies in Push for Coal in Bangladesh”):

“Thank you for sharing so much, please do keep up the important work.” —Steve De Quintal (Toronto, Ontario)

Cause for concern…

“Though researchers have known for decades that climate change will roil farming and food systems, there exists no clear global strategy for building resilience and managing risks in the world’s food supply, nor a coherent way to tackle the challenge of feeding a growing global population, on a warming planet where food crises are projected to intensify,” reports Georgina Gustin for InsideClimate News.

• Climate change will disrupt food chain even more than COVID-19 (Georgina Gustin, InsideClimate News)
• Rapid Arctic meltdown in Siberia alarms scientists (Isabelle Khurshudyan, Andrew Freedman and Brady Dennis, The Washington Post)
• Global warming will cause ecosystems to produce more methane than first predicted (Queen Mary University of London, ScienceDaily)
• Millions of abandoned oil wells are leaking methane, a climate menace (Nichola Groom, Reuters)
• Northern right whales are on the brink, and Trump could be their last hope (Lisa Friedman, The New York Times)
• COVID-19 outbreaks at American meat-processing plants being kept quiet (Lewis Kendall, The Guardian)
• COVID-19 has led to a pandemic of plastic pollution (The Economist)
• Dust sweeping across the southeast U.S. warns of a growing risk to infants and children in many parts of the world (Rob Jordan, Stanford University)
• Two-thirds of Americans think government should do more on climate (Alec Tyson and Brian Kennedy, Pew Research)
• Podcast: The toll of the culture of silence in animal research (Undark Magazine)
• Gold mining stunts Amazon rainforest recovery (Brooks Hays, UPI)
• Air quality impacts early brain development (Trina Wood, University of California – Davis)
• More evidence of causal link between air pollution and early death (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health)
• UN sounds alarm on climate refugees (Yessenia Funes, Earther)
• Human overpopulation: The decisions we make about our own families affect nonhuman families too (Carter Dillard, Animal People Forum)

Round of applause…

A unity task force composed of supporters of former Vice President and Senator Bernie Sanders has devised a broad environmental plan for Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. The recommendations include eliminating carbon pollution from power plants by 2035, achieving net-zero emissions for all new buildings by 2030, upgrading up to 4 million buildings and 2 million households within five years to save more energy, and building sustainable, resilient energy grids in rural America and in tribal areas lacking energy infrastructure. 

• Sanders-Biden climate task force calls for carbon-free power by 2035 (Rachel Frazin, The Hill)
• Judge shuts down Dakota Access Pipeline—could lie dormant for more than a year (Hannah Northey and Carlos Anchondo, E&E News)
• Ninth Circuit rules to restore protections for Yellowstone grizzlies (Helena Dore, Bozeman Daily Chronicle)
• A new paper outlines a roadmap for creating, for the first time, an agreed list of all the world’s species, from mammals and birds to plants, fungi and microbes (Public Library of Science, Phys.org)
• Vets walking pets: Strolls with shelter dogs may reduce PTSD symptoms in military veterans (Gisele Galoustian, Florida Atlantic University)
• First Cambodian province bans sale and consumption of dog meat (BBC News)
• UK’s largest dairy producer invests £4 million into a vegan factory (Audrey Enjoli, LIVEKINDLY)
• Food taxes and subsidies would bring major health gains, study shows (University of Otago)
• How a meatless world could lessen COVID-19 impact (Jonathan Glover, The Spokesman-Review)
• Students create 3D-printed vegan salmon to drive sustainability in the seafood industry (Totally Vegan Buzz)
• Vegan cheese industry projected to increase by nearly 300 percent by 2030 (Anna Starostinetskaya, VegNews)
• Are Animal Rights an Ecofeminist Issue? (Namrata K, Feminism in India)

Parting thought…

“We need the tonic of wildness… At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.” —Henry David Thoreau

Earth | Food | Life (EFL) explores the critical and often interconnected issues facing the climate/environment, food/agriculture and nature/animal rights, and champions action; specifically, how responsible citizens, voters and consumers can help put society on an ethical path of sustainability that respects the rights of all species who call this planet home. EFL emphasizes the idea that everything is connected, so every decision matters.

Click here to support the work of EFL and the Independent Media Institute.

Questions, comments, suggestions, submissions? Contact EFL editor Reynard Loki at [email protected]. Follow EFL on Twitter @EarthFoodLife.

Market Forces: In the wake of the fiercest storm Bangladesh has experienced this century, Japanese financial institutions and coal developers are trying to push three new coal power stations, fueling extreme weather and climate change. Locals on remote Matarbari Island on the southeastern coast of Bangladesh are still dealing with the devastation of super cyclone Amphan, which has displaced over two million people. But these communities are also contending with a massive build-out of coal power which threatens their lives and livelihoods, and will worsen the extreme weather conditions caused by climate change. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI), Sumitomo Corporation (Sumitomo), and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) are pursuing proposed new coal power stations totaling 3,100 MW of capacity. These projects have displaced local communities, destroyed livelihoods and violated workers’ rights. They would worsen air pollution, killing thousands of people over the lifetime of the projects, and would increase climate impacts on the already vulnerable Bangladesh, releasing over 506 million metric tons of CO2 throughout the plants’ operational lifetimes—five times more than the entire country’s carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels and industry for 2018—and violate the climate policies of JICA, NEXI, SMBC and Sumitomo.
>>>Urge JICA, NEXI, SMBC and Sumitomo to withdraw from these dirty and dangerous coal projects.

Change: Pulau Kukup (Johor) National Park in Malaysia was established in 1997 to protect the world’s second largest mangrove island, a biodiverse habitat that supports a number of rare and threatened species, including migratory waterbirds that use the park as a stopover site during their the perilous journey along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, one of the world’s great bird migration routes. In 2018, however, the Johor government revoked its legal status, thereby paving the way for large-scale development, which will cause the loss of biodiversity and critical ecosystem services and release the carbon from the mangrove forests.
>>>Urge the Johor government to save Pulau Kukup National Park.

GREY2K USA: Commercial dog racing is cruel and inhumane and should be outlawed. In a welcome move last week, Gulf Greyhound Park in La Marque, Texas, the biggest greyhound track in the state,  announced its immediate closure. Citing poor revenues—and in response to growing outrage over the terrible number of racing injuries—management has decided to surrender its gambling license. But there are still two licensed tracks remaining. Racing greyhounds are kept in small stacked cages for long hours each day. They have little ability to interact with each other and are afforded just brief “turn-outs” in closed pens to relieve themselves. When taken out to race, they suffer broken legs, fractured spines, seizures and paralysis. Some dogs are even electrocuted. Texas must do better.
>>>Urge Governor Greg Abbott to support legislation to prohibit dog racing in Texas.

Cause for concern…

Analysis of thousands of vertebrate species reveals that extinction rates are likely much faster than previously thought. Researchers are calling for immediate global action, such as a ban on the wildlife trade, to slow what is known as the “sixth mass extinction.” “What we do to deal with the current extinction crisis in the next two decades will define the fate of millions of species,” said study lead author Gerardo Ceballos, a senior researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s Institute of Ecology. “We are facing our final opportunity to ensure that the many services nature provides us do not get irretrievably sabotaged.”

• Extinction rate is likely much higher than previously thought: Loss of land-based vertebrates is accelerating (Lindsay Filgas, Stanford University)
• ‘Incredibly reckless’: Trump moves to expand fossil fuel drilling in Alaska’s western Arctic region (Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams)
• Communities with large minority populations are among the most vulnerable in the U.S. to the effects of climate change (Thomas Frank, E&E News)
• Half of the world’s population exposed to increasing air pollution, study shows(University of Exeter)
• Arctic Ocean acidification will be worse than scientists thought (Brooks Hays, UPI)
• Shark finning: Why the ocean’s most barbaric practice continues to boom(Matthew Keegan, The Guardian)
• More than a third of the fish stocks around the world are being overfished(Nigel Hunt, Reuters)
• Thousands of tons of microplastics are falling from the sky (Scott Hershberger, Scientific American)
• Poaching of jaguars is on the rise, and a new study links their slaughter to corruption and investment from Chinese companies (Rachel Nuwer, The New York Times)
• Sick trophy hunters share Tripadvisor-style reviews boasting of ‘exciting’ ways to kill lions and elephants (Mark Hodge, The Irish Sun)
• Mass breeding techniques could harm farmed female octopuses (Claire Hamlett, Sentient Media)
• Urban tree deaths are linked to leaks from gas pipes below streets (Phil McKenna, InsideClimate News)
• The hidden complications of ‘cruelty-free’ beauty (Sara Radin, British Vogue)

Round of applause…

• Britain, birthplace of coal industry, to close last plant (Benjamin Storrow, E&E News)
• Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which would have delivered natural gas across Appalachian Trail, canceled (Ivan Penn, The New York Times)
• Indonesia’s national anti-poverty program has reduced deforestation by about 30% (Johns Hopkins University)
• Meat giants may face billions in long-term carbon taxes (Agnieszka de Sousa, Bloomberg Green)
• Mara the elephant has finally found sanctuary after 50 years working in circuses and zoos (Tennessee Tribune)
• Bogota could be first city in Colombia to ban bullfights (Totally Vegan Buzz)
• The Netherlands bans fur farms (Brandon Kirkwood, Vegan News Now)
• Meet the Indonesian doctor who has rescued more than 1,000 stray and abandoned dogs (Nivell Rayda, CNA)
• Roosters saved from life in the cockfighting ring in Turkey (Daily Sabah)
• Vegan leather made from cactus is now a thing and we’re obsessed (Perri O. Blumberg, The Beet)

Parting thought…

“Consumption of affluent households worldwide is by far the strongest determinant—and the strongest accelerator—of increased global environmental and social impacts.” —Lorenz Keysser

Earth | Food | Life (EFL) explores the critical and often interconnected issues facing the climate/environment, food/agriculture and nature/animal rights, and champions action; specifically, how responsible citizens, voters and consumers can help put society on an ethical path of sustainability that respects the rights of all species who call this planet home. EFL emphasizes the idea that everything is connected, so every decision matters.

Click here to support the work of EFL and the Independent Media Institute.

Questions, comments, suggestions, submissions? Contact EFL editor Reynard Loki at [email protected]. Follow EFL on Twitter @EarthFoodLife.

Care2: Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the meat production industry has faced major difficulties. From massive outbreaks of the virus amongst employees at meat processing plants, to roadblocks in food distribution chains causing massive product waste, proof that the industry is built too feebly to withstand a crisis has been abundant. Many meat farmers have responded to the crisis by “depopulating” their animals. This is a rather sterile term for mass, gruesome murder, the details of which were unclear—until now. A May 2020 investigation into a large pork producer in Iowa and its depopulation methods revealed that pigs—animals that are known to have the emotional and cognitive intelligence of dogs—are being roasted and suffocated alive. Workers at Iowa Select Farm, where this mass slaughtered took place, essentially closed all ventilation points and then pumped in heat and steam. There is video footage of the poor animals crying and screaming while they slowly died. Those who didn’t die from torture were forced to lay among their family members until workers came by with bolt guns to finish the job. The piglets were reportedly ripped from their mothers and killed in barns filled with gases. For too long, the United States meat industry has operated on the foundation of cruelty and the hope that the public would turn a blind eye.
>>>Urge the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to investigate this merciless massacre, and hold whoever is responsible accountable for egregious animal cruelty.

Center for Biological Diversity: The Togo wolf pack in Washington is on the verge of annihilation. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has recently issued a new kill order for members of this wolf family. Since 2012 the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has killed 31 wolves, wiping out the Wedge pack, Profanity Peak pack, Sherman pack and Old Profanity Territory pack. The Togo pack could be next. The vast majority of these killings have occurred on public lands and on behalf of the same for-profit livestock operation, which refuses to adequately watch over its cattle. Science shows that nonlethal measures work best to deter wolf-livestock conflicts. But the department has ignored this. It just keeps killing wolves, sometimes destroying whole packs. Wolves and packs can flourish, if the state just gets out of the wolf-killing business.
>>>Urge Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife director Kelly Susewind to stop the slaughter of Washington’s gray wolves.

Rainforest Rescue: A proposed land reclamation project and sand mining in Malaysia threaten a nesting ground of vulnerable Olive Ridley turtles and a marine biodiversity hotspot. Gertak Sanggul is a vital landing site in the Malaysian state of Penang for the Olive Ridley turtle, which migrates thousands of kilometers around the Indian Ocean between its feeding and nesting sites. It is the smallest and most rarely sighted marine turtle in Malaysian waters and listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. This marine biodiversity hotspot would be destroyed by the Penang South Reclamation (PSR) project to create three artificial islands for the development of condominiums. The lack of public consultation and availability of detailed information is shocking in view of the project’s scale: 1,821 hectares (4,500 acres or 7 square miles). The project is expected to generate 3.2 million tons of carbon emissions annually.
>>>Urge Malaysian Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to reject land reclamation and save the Olive Ridley turtles.

Cause for concern…

• Trump EPA won’t regulate toxic compound linked to fetal brain damage (Lisa Friedman and Coral Davenport, The New York Times)
• Decline in green energy spending might offset COVID-era emissions benefits (Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, ScienceDaily)
• New study reveals how runaway human population growth collapses the role of wildlife in the world’s ecosystems (Colorado State University, ScienceDaily)
• Mississippi set to be 13th state to criminalize fossil fuel protests (Alexander C. Kaufman, HuffPost)
• Activists protesting against environmental injustices around the world suffer from high rates of criminalization, physical violence and murder (Autonomous University of Barcelona, Phys.org)
• The march of human progress is strewn with dead animals (Bhavdeep Kang, Free Press Journal India)
• Rotting corpses and  animal abuse at farms supplying pig meat (Joe Mellor, The London Economic)
• The wildlife trade is a multibillion-dollar industry that threatens biodiversity (University of Helsinki, Phys.org)
• China’s Yulin Dog Meat Festival: Sick celebration where dogs are blow-torched alive sparks fury (Brian McGleenon, Express)
• New footage shows cats crammed in cages ready to be served as food in China (Eliza Erskine, One Green Planet)
• Latest climate models warn of more intense droughts to come (Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com)
• Climate gentrification: How extreme weather is displacing low-income residents from their communities (Yvette Killian, Yahoo!)
• Mangrove trees won’t survive sea-level rise by 2050 if emissions aren’t cut (Rutgers University)
• Millions of Americans lack access to quality parks, report reveals (Nina Lakhani, The Guardian)
• Climate change to bring greater threat of agricultural weeds for farmers (James Fyfe, Newshub)

Round of applause…

“It won’t be enough to simply slash carbon emissions to zero,” writes Earth | Food | Life reporter Daniel Ross, in Truthout. “We’ll also need to suck up to 1 trillion metric tons of carbon from the biosphere over the 21st century.” Now, Australian researchers have set a record for carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) using new technology that looks like a sponge filled with tiny magnets.

• Australian researchers set record for carbon dioxide capture (Monash University, Science Codex)
• Victory for activists as China reclassifies dogs as pets in new guidelines (Sally Ho, Green Queen)
• Scientists unlock secrets of Ethiopia’s superfood in race to save it from warming climate (Science Bulletin, Medium)
• Colombia: Congress votes to end animal testing for cosmetics (Cruelty Free International)
• Global pork giant faces calls to produce 100% vegan meat amid COVID-19 (Robbie Lockie, Plant Based News)
• Simple way of ‘listening’ to chicks could dramatically improve welfare (University of Plymouth)
• These 8 unexpected migration routes give you reason to go birding this summer (All About Birds)

Parting thought…

“Science and poetry are, in fact, inseparable. By providing a vision of life, of Earth, of the universe in all its splendor, science does not challenge human values; it can inspire human values. It does not negate faith; it celebrates faith.” —Jacques-Yves Cousteau

Earth | Food | Life (EFL) explores the critical and often interconnected issues facing the climate/environment, food/agriculture and nature/animal rights, and champions action; specifically, how responsible citizens, voters and consumers can help put society on an ethical path of sustainability that respects the rights of all species who call this planet home. EFL emphasizes the idea that everything is connected, so every decision matters.

Click here to support the work of EFL and the Independent Media Institute.

Questions, comments, suggestions, submissions? Contact EFL editor Reynard Loki at [email protected]. Follow EFL on Twitter @EarthFoodLife.

Citizens for Alternatives to Animal Research: Research laboratories across the country have been killing off large populations of animals because of staff shortages and closures relating to COVID-19.  At the same time, the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW) is allowing laboratories to continue to breed animals despite these mass killings. As reported by the media, many facilities have already killed large percentages of their animal populations amounting to tens of thousands of animals, mostly mice and rats who are killed through cruel methods like carbon dioxide suffocation and neck-breaking. OLAW has ignored requests by animal advocacy organizations and the public to temporarily halt breeding despite the mass killings taking place. This waste of taxpayer dollars and complete disregard for sentient animals is appalling and must be stopped.
>>>Urge Congress to compel the National Institutes of Health to ban the breeding of animals used in research during the pandemic.

Center for a Humane Economy: The night-time slaughter of Australia’s iconic kangaroos adds up to the largest land-based commercial slaughter of wildlife on the planet. And it’s focused on a native species freely ranging in their habitats, living in social groups, raising their young. It’s wrong to kill animals for their skins when we have alternative fabrics and fibers for shoes. The majority of soccer players from youth to pros already wear cleats made from synthetic and plant-based materials since they offer superior performance on the pitch. The kangaroo skin models, because they are so inhumane, are moral relics. When commercial hunters shoot female kangaroos, the Australian Code of Practice instructs shooters to check the pouch for joeys—then to bludgeon them to death. This is the fate of hundreds of thousands of dependent young each year. The 2019-2020 Australian fires killed more than a billion animals, including an unknowable number of kangaroos. Imagine those lucky kangaroos rescued, cared for and now being released back into the wild, only to be shot in the head due to the demand created by your soccer shoes. As one of the two largest purchasers of kangaroo skin in the world, Nike drives the killing. If Nike stopped the buying, the shooters would stop the killing. Nike says it is committed to sustainability, but if it is, how can it participate in the biggest massacre of wildlife in their native habitats in the world? Nike will change its way if consumers revolt over this wildlife-killing policy. Together we will convince Nike that forgoing kangaroo skin is the only sporting decision.
>>>Urge Nike to save kangaroos from being made into soccer shoes and phase out the use of kangaroo skins in their supply chain.

Change: A pregnant elephant was killed in the Indian state of Kerala, after she was fed a pineapple stuffed with explosives by locals. The gentle soul had come out from the nearby forest to the village in search of food. When she ate the pineapple, the firecrackers burst inside her mouth, causing her unbearable pain and agony. She roamed around hungry, unable to eat anything. But even in distress, the gentle giant did not hurt a single villager or damage any homes. To alleviate her pain, she went and stood in a river with her mouth and trunk submerged. Forest officials who were called in couldn’t rescue her and she died standing in a river. This is one of many cruelties that was only brought to light because of a good forest officer who spread the word on social media.
>>>Urge Kerala officials to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators of this heinous crime to the fullest extent of the law.

Cause for concern…

• Jane Goodall warns humanity will be ‘finished’ after COVID-19 without ending ‘absolute disrespect for animals and the environment’ (Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams)
• Mass extinctions are accelerating, scientists warn (Rachel Nuwer, The New York Times)
• EPA soot proposal is an assault on communities of color, critics say (Jean Chemnick, E&E News)
• Trump EPA limits states and tribes’ ability to protest pipelines, energy projects (Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis, The Washington Post)
• Trump opens Atlantic sanctuary to commercial fishing, dismissing threats to whales and other marine wildlife (Valerie Volcovici, Reuters)
• Trump administration looks to fast-track logging on public lands (Rebecca Beitsch, The Hill)
• New Trump public land rules let Alaska hunters kill bear cubs in dens (Emily Holden, The Guardian)
• 10 horrible things NIH does to monkeys with your tax dollars (Danny Prater, PETA)
• Animal activist group secretly tapes euthanization of pigs, says they were ‘roasted alive’ (Donnelle Eller, Des Moines Register)
• Black cats turned into paste, sold as coronavirus remedy in Vietnam (Donna Miller, Gruntstuff)
• ‘In what world is that OK?’: 13,000 sign petition to close University of Guelph’s Arkell animal research facility (Jonathan Duncan, Guelph Mercury Tribune)
• British trophy hunters making thousands offering blood-thirsty tours to kill elephants, lions and rhinos (Christy Cooney, The Scottish Sun)
• Outrage over $735 million bullfighting bailout plan to save cruel blood sport(Lucy Connolly, UNILAD)
• The world’s deep oceans are warming, and that’s bad news for deep-sea creatures (University of Queensland)
• Oklahoma tops list of illegal shipping of fighting chickens (Clifton Adcock, Woodward News)

Round of applause…

The Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument in Maine has been certified as an International Dark Sky Sanctuary, protecting it from any form of light pollution. Not only does light pollution prevent seeing stars from the ground, but it also negatively impacts wildlife, from nocturnal animals and insects to plants.

“Designation as a Dark Sky Sanctuary recognizes this incredible resource that does not in many places today in this country, much less anywhere else in New England,” said Katahdin Woods and Waters Superintendent Tim Hudson. “Experiencing the night skies here will take you back in time to the night skies first experienced by the Wabanaki 11,000 years ago and the many people who have followed in their footsteps since, including John James Audubon, Henry David Thoreau, Theodore Roosevelt, and others.”

• Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument in Maine certified as International Dark Sky Sanctuary (International Dark-Sky Association)
• World can likely capture and store enough carbon dioxide to meet climate targets (Caroline Brogan, Imperial College London)
• If leaders want to protect humans from coronavirus, then we need to act quick on animal rights, too (Philip Lymbery, The Independent)
• In targeting animal rights activists, North Carolina violated the First Amendment, court rules (Will Doran, The News & Observer)
• It’s time to rethink the disrupted U.S. food system from the ground up (David R. Montgomery, Jennifer J. Otten and Sarah M. Collier, The Conversation)
• What do humans owe to wildlife in urban spaces? (Alyson Fortowsky, Sentient Media)
• Judge says Trump administration failed to protect endangered sage grouse habitat when it issued energy leases (Matthew Brown, Associated Press)
• Islamabad high court recognizes the rights of nonhuman animals (Nonhuman Rights Project, GlobeNewswire)
• VIDEO: Adorable rat sisters escape horrors of lab and find loving home (Jane Wolfe, Lady Freethinker)
• Vegans have better endurance, new study finds (Eliza Erskine, One Green Planet)
• Vegan seafood: The next plant-based meat trend? (Christine Ro, BBC News)
• 10 vegan books by Black authors to add to your reading list (Mohini Patel, VegOut)

Parting thought…

“Stones grow; plants grow and live; animals grow, live and feel.” —Carl Linnaeus

Earth | Food | Life (EFL) explores the critical and often interconnected issues facing the climate/environment, food/agriculture and nature/animal rights, and champions action; specifically, how responsible citizens, voters and consumers can help put society on an ethical path of sustainability that respects the rights of all species who call this planet home. EFL emphasizes the idea that everything is connected, so every decision matters.

Click here to support the work of EFL and the Independent Media Institute.

Questions, comments, suggestions, submissions? Contact EFL editor Reynard Loki at [email protected]. Follow EFL on Twitter @EarthFoodLife.

Citizens for Alternatives to Animal Research: The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has released a Strategic Plan detailing its research priorities for fighting COVID-19.  Unfortunately, the plan recommends ineffective and cruel animal studies while omitting non-animal methods that can provide more efficient, human-relevant data. Additionally, it prioritizes infecting animals with coronavirus even though abundant evidence has shown that animals do not express COVID-19 infections in the same way humans do, if at all. NIAID’s plan ignores cutting-edge non-animal models like organoids and organ-chips that, unlike cruel animal experiments, have been shown to accurately mimic the human response. There are far more effective methods for studying COVID-19 that do not involve harming and killing animals.
>>>Urge NIAID to prioritize superior, human-relevant methods to study COVID-19.

Humane Decisions: Capturing and confining dolphins and orcas in concrete pools is killing them—physically and psychologically. Both captive orcas and dolphins die prematurely from living in restrictive captivity. They experience deep psychological trauma and neurosis from boredom, stress and anxiety. Every day they are denied the company of their families and are prevented from expressing their natural instincts and behaviors. They are also denied the ability to swim up to 100 miles a day as they normally would. In captivity, they live diminished lives where (before the lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic) they must perform tricks, entertain people against their will, or withstand being touched and handled by people nonstop for hours. These dolphins have no choice but to inhabit small and shallow concrete swimming pools, and cannot escape. Because of the constant stress and inability to escape, dolphins have bitten children due to their stress and fear. These businesses endanger both dolphins and the public, and are often in violation of federal laws and animal welfare laws.
>>>Take these steps to help bring an end to marine mammal captivity.

Animal Legal Defense Fund: The life of tigers exploited for profit is no life at all for these majestic creatures. Cubs are taken from their distressed mothers moments after they’re born, and are worked to exhaustion and often physically abused so they can be passed around for tourist photo opportunities. Meanwhile, adult tigers live out their days in cages—most of which are completely inadequate for their needs. Many captive tigers will never see the sky, feel the grass, or enjoy any behaviors that come naturally to them. Because cubs can only be “handled” for a few months, drugging tigers to be compliant and docile is commonplace. When they get too old and their existence is no longer profitable, they are often irresponsibly sold into the pet trade or killed. The Big Cat Public Safety Act (H.R. 1380) seeks to prohibit the private ownership of big cats, direct public contact, and dangerous public interactions with big cats such as cub petting.
>>>Join Joaquin Phoenix, Glenn Close, Anjelica Huston, Christopher Walken, Alan Cumming, Olivia Wilde and dozens of Hollywood stars in urging Congress to pass the Big Cat Public Safety Act.

Letter to editor…

Replying to “Collisions With Buildings Kill Up to a Billion Birds a Year in the U.S. Alone—but There’s a Solution | Take Action Tuesday @EarthFoodLife”:

I am bird-friendly. I do not have a cat. —Paul Whittaker (Ontario, Canada)

(Editor: According to the American Bird Conservancy: “Outdoor domestic cats are a recognized threat to global biodiversity. Cats have contributed to the extinction of 63 species of birds, mammals, and reptiles in the wild and continue to adversely impact a wide variety of other species, including those at risk of extinction such as piping plover.” Cat guardians can make their felines safer for birds by keeping cats inside or on a leash.)

Cause for concern…

• Drinking water in Minnesota threatened by 49 million tons of factory farm waste overload (Environmental Working Group)
• Paper mill still polluting Potomac River in Western Maryland, state attorney general alleges in lawsuit (Jean Marbella, The Baltimore Sun)
• UN climate talks likely be delayed a year due to coronavirus (Somini Sengupta, The New York Times)
• EPA employees allege leaders interfered with science in watchdog survey(Rachel Frazin, The Hill)
• COVID-19 reveals inherent cruelty of agribusiness (Jesse Harris, Sentient Media)
• Counties with meatpacking plants report twice the national average rate of COVID-19 infections (Sarah Graddy, Environmental Working Group)
• Another COVID-like disease from elephants can pose threat to public health(Northeast Now)
• Pesticides disrupt honeybee nursing behavior and larval development (Goethe University Frankfurt)
• New research confirms that modern sea-level rise is linked to human activities—not to changes in Earth’s orbit (Rutgers University)
• Global environmental changes are leading to shorter, younger trees (University of Birmingham)
• A few ‘superpolluters’ spew majority of annual industrial pollution, says new study (Shelly Leachman, Futurity)
• Climate change is making hurricanes stronger, researchers find (Henry Fountain, The New York Times) 

Round of applause…

“Cows tell the difference between people, remember people who have been kind to them and nurse grudges,” writes Indian MP Maneka Sanjay Gandhi, a staunch animal rights activist and environmentalist. “They are easily offended and will ignore you forever until you try very hard to make friends again. But ultimately, they are forgiving. They make friends for life. They can be obstinate, gentle or aggressive. Above all they are wise. If you choose to see a cow the way you see your dog, she can be very good company. They love each other, have friends and enemies. They communicate with people—if you are willing to listen. They like music. They are problem solvers—which means a high degree of intelligence.”

• Why cows are much like humans (Maneka Sanjay Gandhi, Mathrubhumi)
• Recognition of animal sentience on the rise (Ross Kelly, VIN News Service)
• States sue to block Trump from weakening fuel economy rules (Hiroko Tabuchi, The New York Times)
• Renewables top coal in the U.S. for first time in more than 130 years (Rachel Frazin, The Hill)
• ‘We’ve never seen this’: Wildlife thrives in closed U.S. national parks (Jeremy Miller, The Guardian)
• Coronavirus shows we must get serious about the well-being of animals(Kendra Coulter, The Conversation)
• Woman files lawsuit against Chicago poultry market after hearing animals screaming and crying (Eliza Erkskine, One Green Planet)
• Wuhan bans hunting, eating wild animals in response to coronavirus (Kaelan Deese, The Hill)
• A Chinese ban on animal cruelty can be an easy soft power win for Beijing(Kadira Pethiyagoda, South China Morning Post)
• EU protects bees by committing to 50% drop in pesticides by 2030 (Audrey Enjoli, LIVEKINDLY)
• Wildlife ecologist urges gardeners to form one big ‘national park’ (Katherine Roth, Associated Press via ABC News)
• Kate Nash: “I Went vegan after watching ‘Okja’—I never thought I would” (Robbie Lockie, Plant Based News)

Parting thought…

“If you care about the working poor, about racial justice, and about climate change, you have to stop eating animals.” —Jonathan Safran Foer

Earth | Food | Life (EFL) explores the critical and often interconnected issues facing the climate/environment, food/agriculture and nature/animal rights, and champions action; specifically, how responsible citizens, voters and consumers can help put society on an ethical path of sustainability that respects the rights of all species who call this planet home. EFL emphasizes the idea that everything is connected, so every decision matters.

Click here to support the work of EFL and the Independent Media Institute.

Questions, comments, suggestions, submissions? Contact EFL editor Reynard Loki at [email protected]. Follow EFL on Twitter @EarthFoodLife.

American Bird Conservancy: Migratory birds are streaming northward at this moment, filling American neighborhoods and yards with song. If you are fortunate enough to spot the Common Yellowthroat (above), it means that once again, these birds have surmounted the myriad threats they face during their journey. Birds contribute nearly $80 billion to the U.S. economy, but collisions with glass windows, walls, and other structures kill up to a billion birds a year in the U.S. alone—making this one of the greatest human-caused threats to bird populations. But there are solutions, and even during these unprecedented times, there’s still much you can do for birds from home, like making your backyard bird-friendly—and telling your elected federal lawmakers you want them to help reduce bird collisions by co-sponsoring the Bird-Safe Buildings Act (H.R. 919), which would reduce these needless deaths by requiring public buildings to incorporate bird-friendly building design and materials, which would also help reduce of energy use and operating costs.
>>>Urge your U.S. senators and U.S. representative to co-sponsor the Bird-Safe Buildings Act.

Lady Freethinker: In a devastating step backward for animal rights and public health, China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs could reclassify mink, raccoon dogs, and foxes as “livestock” rather than wild animals, likely in an effort to skirt the country’s recently imposed wildlife trade ban and allow the fur industry to continue to operate uninhibited. Every year, over 50 million animals are needlessly tortured and killed at fur farms in China, where innocent creatures are crammed into dirty, overcrowded cages. They waste away in their own feces, malnourished and suffering, awaiting death from electrocution, toxic gases or bludgeoning. These conditions are similar to those that experts believe sparked the COVID-19 pandemic. Humans and potentially disease-ridden animals come within unnaturally close proximity to one another, giving deadly diseases the chance to spill over onto a human host. Two fur farms in the Netherlands were recently quarantined after several mink tested positive for COVID-19, serving as a sobering example of just how interconnected animal cruelty and human health are. China has recently taken steps in the right direction—including banning the dangerous wildlife trade—but these policies must be enforced.
>>>Urge China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs to keep mink, raccoon dogs and foxes classified as wildlife, not livestock.

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine: In response to COVID-19, Wayne State University in Detroit announced on March 25 that it was sending most staff and faculty home and cutting back to a “minimal operational level.” In response to the Physician Committee’s request that Wayne State release any dogs in the study and end the experiments once and for all, university president M. Roy Wilson, MD, responded. Dr. Wilson wrote that five dogs are currently assigned to the experiments, and the university is finding homes for two dogs who aren’t yet “instrumented”—in other words, they haven’t yet had devices implanted in their hearts and around major blood vessels. But the other three dogs have had devices implanted and “are completing their studies,” which means they are being forced to run on treadmills while heart failure and/or hypertension are induced. Even when they are not running on treadmills, the dogs often have their hearts artificially “paced” at more than twice the upper normal rate. The heart failure and hypertension experiments have been conducted at Wayne State since 1991 and cost taxpayers $11.6 million. While legislation is pending in the Michigan legislature that would outlaw such experiments, now is the time for the university to end them once and for all.
>>>Urge Wayne State University president M. Roy Wilson to release any dogs currently in the studies and end the experiments.

Cause for concern…

• Climate change contributes to skyrocketing rates of infectious disease (Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica)
• Sea level could rise by more than 1 meter by 2100 if emission targets are not met (Jonathan Watts, The Guardian)
• ‘Stealth bailout’ shovels millions of dollars to oil companies (Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Bloomberg)
• Trump signs order easing regulatory enforcement on businesses (Cheryl Bolen, Bloomberg Environment)
• Shocking video shows Asian wet markets still selling bats, monkeys (Adam Schrader, New York Post)
• Journalist arrested for reporting on palm oil tycoon’s alleged land grab in Borneo (Hans Nicholas Jong, Mongabay)
• Russian supertrawlers off Scottish coast spark fears for U.K. marine life (Karen McVeigh, The Guardian)
• Food workers handling meat eventually experience psychological numbness and decreased empathy for the animals who died in the process (Lancaster University)
• Trump administration denies Endangered Species Act protection to Pacific fisher, a weasel-like woodland mammal (Steve Gorman, Reuters)
• New Zealand bails out cruel greyhound racing industry with $44 million COVID-19 emergency support package (Zane Small, Newshub)
• Lack of insects in cities limits breeding success of urban birds (British Ecological Society)

Round of applause…

• COVID-19 crisis causes unprecedented 17 percent plunge in global carbon emissions (Victor Tangermann, Futurism)
• Vegan diet can help prevent pandemics like COVID-19, 300 doctors say(Totally Vegan Buzz)
• California animal sanctuary sent two planes to Iowa to rescue 1,000 chickens who were going to be euthanized (Amanda Jackson, CNN)
• ‘Happy Cows’ advertisement ruled misleading (Lisa Isaacs, Independent Online South Africa)
• Activists use social distancing to draw attention to animal confinement (Dylan Forest, Animal People Forum)
• Emissions from road construction could be halved using today’s technology(Green Car Congress)
• Scientists successfully develop ‘heat resistant’ coral to fight bleaching (BBC News)
• Could lockdown be the death of bullfighting in Spain? (Ashifa Kassam, The Guardian)
• Another dog meat farm closes in South Korea (Kitty Block, Humane Society of the United States)

Parting thought…

“Mainstream religions continue to limit their potential and responsibility to serve the common good because they are human-centered. The spiritual core is corrupted and displaced by materialism and objectification, especially of animals; so many species are treated as objects and commodities and everything in the natural world as an exclusive human resource.” —Dr. Michael Fox

Appalachia Georgia Friends of the Bears: In Georgia, there are three distinct populations of black bears: North (aka Appalachia), Central and South Georgia. The population estimates are 3,000, 30 and 800 respectively, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resource’s Strategic Management Plan for Black Bears in Georgia (2019-2028). Although the American black bear is no longer on the Endangered Species List, the worldwide black market for bear parts and bear bile remains, putting Georgia on the front line of this illegal trade. But there is hope in the form of bi-partisan legislation: H. Res. 2264 – The Bear Protection Act of 2019, and the Senate companion bill. The bill calls for the conservation of global bear populations by prohibiting the importation, exportation and interstate trade of bear viscera and items, products or substances containing, or labeled or advertised as containing, bear viscera.
>>>Urge the Georgia U.S. Congressional delegation to support the Bear Protection Act.

Total Liberation International: Mattress company Casper brought Canada Goose CEO Dani Reiss to join their board of directors in 2019. Casper has been praised by PETA for advertising their mattress as “vegan,” using no animal-based materials. In their ads, Casper also uses photos of happy dogs enjoying the comfort of Casper dog beds. As a company that has used vegan messaging and makes products that benefit animals, Casper should make the ethical decision to cut ties with Dani Reiss, since Canada Goose profits from and supports the mass suffering and death inflicted on countless animals, including coyotes caught in traps, and ducks, geese and sheep held captive inside farms, torn away from their families and denied any comfort in their brutally shortened lives. “While Canada goose has committed to using only “reclaimed” fur for the trim on their $$1,000 parkas beginning in 2020, PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman said that the company “is attempting to ‘humane wash’ its image by switching from fur taken from coyotes whom trappers have recently caught in steel traps to fur that may already be on the market, which is also a product of the cruel actions of trappers.”
>>>Demand both Capser and Canada Goose be held accountable by immediately ending the use of all animals, including down and wool.

Earth Institute at Columbia University: Your carbon footprint is the amount of greenhouse gases—including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, fluorinated gases and others—that you produce as you live your life. The Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project determined that in order to hold the global temperature rise to 2˚C or less, everyone on Earth will need to average an annual carbon footprint of 1.87 tons by 2050. Currently, the average U.S. per capita carbon footprint is 18.3 tons. By comparison, China’s per capita carbon emissions are 8.2 tons. We all have a ways to go to get to 1.87 tons. (Renee Cho)
>>>Use the EPA’s carbon footprint calculator to find out how much carbon and money you will save by changing some daily actions.

Cause for concern…

“During the COVID-19 lockdown, U.S. federal agencies have eased fuel-efficiency standards for new cars; frozen rules for soot air pollution; proposed to drop review requirements for liquefied natural gas terminals; continued to lease public property to oil and gas companies; sought to speed up permitting for offshore fish farms; and advanced a proposal on mercury pollution from power plants that could make it easier for the government to conclude regulations are too costly to justify their benefits,” reports Emily Holden for The Guardian.

• Trump dismantles environmental protections under cover of coronavirus (Emily Holden, The Guardian)
• Trump’s farm relief won’t protect essential farmworkers from COVID-19 (Scott Faber, Environmental Working Group)
• Potentially fatal combinations of humidity and heat are emerging across the globe (Earth Institute at Columbia University)
• Climate change will expose agricultural workers to unsafe conditions, warns study (Sam Mehmet, New Food Magazine)
• Suffocating healthy farmed animals during pandemic is not “euthanasia” (Dena Jones, Sentient Media)
• Corporate TV news largely ignored the relationship between environmental justice and COVID-19 (Elvondo Cooper, Media Matters)
• ‘Tiger King’ Joe Exotic was found guilty of 17 counts of wildlife-related federal crimes, including killing five endangered tigers (Danny Prater, PETA)
• More mountain lions to be killed under proposed hunting plan in Colorado (Breanna Sneeringer, OutThere Colorado)
• Food wrapping, fishing gear and plastic waste continue to reach the Antarctic (British Antarctic Survey, ScienceDaily)
• High microplastic concentration found on ocean floor (Jonathan Amos, BBC News)

Round of applause…

• Why this farmer went from raising chickens to growing industrial hemp (Lauri Torgerson-White, NationofChange)
• New proposed legislation aims to help at-risk farmers switch from animal to plant-based agriculture (Anna Starostinetskaya, VegNews)
• Worldwide bee population buzzing back thanks to coronavirus lockdown (Dana Kennedy, New York Post)
• Conservationists sue Trump administration over border wall (Rachel Frazin, The Hill)
• COVID-19 crisis set to eradicate demand for fossil fuels, says IEA (Jillian Ambrose, The Guardian)
• Rather than cull millions of livestock, let’s end animal agriculture (Joseph Winters, Harvard Political Review)
• The story of Charlotte, the rescued calf who was born in a slaughterhouse (Michelle Blake, Sentient Media)
• Spending at least 120 minutes a week in nature is associated with good health and wellbeing (Matthew P. White, et. al., Nature)
• Thai elephants, out of work due to coronavirus, return to their natural habitat (Associated Press)
• Vegans and vegetarians have a 9% lower risk of death compared with omnivores (Alina Petre, Healthline)
• Meet the octogenarian taking care of Lebanon’s abandoned dogs during the coronavirus crisis (Sunniva Rose, The National)
• Fundamental animal rights must be written down in Finnish Constitution, argues researcher (Mari Peltonen, University of Helsinki)
• Naples-Fort Myers Greyhound Track closing after race with no spectators (Greg Hardwig, Naples Daily News)

Parting thought…

“I hope that some of the ways we currently still treat animals, the way that we factory-farm them, for instance, will seem [in the not-too-distant future] completely unbelievable and unacceptable.” —Miranda Fricker

Earth | Food | Life (EFL) explores the critical and often interconnected issues facing the climate/environment, food/agriculture and nature/animal rights, and champions action; specifically, how responsible citizens, voters and consumers can help put society on an ethical path of sustainability that respects the rights of all species who call this planet home. EFL emphasizes the idea that everything is connected, so every decision matters.

Click here to support the work of EFL and the Independent Media Institute.

Questions, comments, suggestions, submissions? Contact EFL editor Reynard Loki at [email protected]. Follow EFL on Twitter @EarthFoodLife.