The Role of Imaging and Audio Science in Conservation
David Attenborough’s ‘Wonder of Song’ documentary focuses on the study of the evolution of bird song. However he discusses the very first recordings of Humpback calls (manipulated to x2 speed they sound a bit like birdsong) and he highlighted that at the time of these new underwater recording, humans were killing whales in their thousands and had been for centuries, almost to the brink of extinction. When the beautiful and sorrowful recordings of Humpbacks were shared with humanity in the 1960s, we heard their song and there was a sudden shift in attitude, a shift towards stopping whaling fleets, and new organisations began campaigning to end whaling. Perhaps even Paul Watson was affected and motivated by the sounds of humpacks in the first years of his campaigning?
With those first recordings, we heard humpback whales and connected with them, and felt empathy and an affinity with them. We wanted to protect them.
As we use technology to learn about nature, including using imaging and audio techniques in particular, we are able to connect to and relate to nature in a way many of us had clearly failed to do beforehand. Think about coronavirus – you know what it looks like and can therefore get a sense of scale and understanding of it because a scientist imaged it using SEM, and then digital artists expanded on those images. See here:
Humans are visual animals. Art and photography have enabled us to connect with nature in exactly the same way. I will defend the sciences of imaging and audio science because this is how much it can make a difference to the natural world, along with hugely advancing diagnoses and treatments, and scientific understanding in general. Attenborough’s films themselves are a testament to that. Wildlife photography and film is a testament to that. Imaging technology is fundamental to learning and science, and it seems also instrumental to convincing us visual humans to preserve the natural world.
Additionally, watch the documentary as it was very good!
Extinction Rebellion: Extremism?
This is (I presume) a screenshot taken of new (now redacted) police guidelines relating to government-led advice on handling the organisation Extinction Rebellion.
To clarify, Extinction Rebellion state:
“Extinction Rebellion is an international movement that uses non-violent civil disobedience in an attempt to halt mass extinction and minimise the risk of social collapse.”
The government and police force have effectively implied that ER are a terrorist organisation. ER’s response can be found here. https://rebellion.earth/2020/01/10/how-dare-they-extinction-rebellion-responds-to-terrorism-slur-by-police/
If protesting loudly against the destruction of our planet and all living things on it, including ultimately ourselves, is somehow seen as extremism, then you know the system itself is ruled by insane oligarchs and fascists who wish to strictly control the narratives and push us further into capitalist and consumer-led environmental destruction and death. This is an attempt to silence and destroy rightful dissent against a broken system. We are not extremists; we are humans who are wide awake to the insanity of the world we currently live in and who desperately want to stop the destruction and ecological collapse happening all around us right now.
100s of dolphins tortured in Japan in alarming Facebook Live stream
And so the vile, arrogant brutal atrocities in the cove in Taiji, Japan continue, year after year, while the world remains blissfully ignorant of the evil these men do for six months of every year to migrating cetaceans unfortunate enough to swim past this little cove off the southern peninsula of Japan. Money is made, greed is satiated, murderous killing occurs and the world’s precious wildlife is decimated by Japan. When will this be called out and stopped as the heinous, greedy, short-sighted, violent, cruel and unacceptable activity that it is?
http://www.ibtimes.co.in/100s-of-dolphins-tortured-in-japan-in-alarming-facebook-live-stream-713359
Dolphins escape from Taiji facility in Japan – BBC News
It’s so tragic that these animals are so traumatised and conditioned to rely on handouts for resources that they gain their freedom after someone cut the nets and they don’t know what to do with it. Awful breaking of a wild animal’s autonomous, free spirit.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-38515187
The Toll of Dolphins Under Siege in Taiji | The Huffington Post
Thanks to Huff Post for sharing the plight of Taiji dolphins with its readers. It’s actually six months of every year that the Japanese fishermen commit these heinous crimes against nature and allow greed and ignorance to rule the town of Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture. Half of every year they slaughter dolphins. It should be absolutely illegal to do what they do but instead they get rich from selling those they spare from the butcher’s knife to marine amusement parks around the world.
Don’t visit dolphin shows. Your ticket funds this massacre in Japan every year. Supply and demand; stop demanding dolphins entertain us, they’ll stop taking them for captivity and killing the rest.
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_586d520be4b068764965c601?timestamp=1483650102083
Wolf trapping – A diary of moving from East London to Montana
A fascinating read. I will never, ever understand hunters of any kind. Their logic and ethics are utterly skewed.
“But I learn that Jim Posewitz is that uniquely Western American who has made it his life’s work to improve ‘the image of hunting with an emphasis on fair chase ethics’ and has focused ‘on putting hunters at the forefront of our nation’s conservation ethic.’ He’s exactly the sort of person I find impossible to understand. Is it just semantics? When he talks of conservation, does he mean the conservation of a way of life based on when the trapper ruled and the West was won by guys who slept under the stars dreaming of the dead wolves at their feet the next morning? As Rick Bass says about hunters in his book The Ninemile Wolves, ‘there’s nothing harder to stereotype than a “hunter”.’ I would add that this is also true of trappers: they claim to love the wilderness, they call themselves sportsmen, outdoorsmen, and yet they are happy inflicting pain on animals in return for the price of their fur. Most hunters eat their prey, whereas trappers do it for money.”
What we eat has bigger consequences for the planet than we ever thought – The Washington Post
“The most ambitious of these scenarios proposed reducing animal-based protein consumption in all parts of the world where consumption (from any food source) exceeded 60 grams of protein and 2,500 calories daily — targeting 1.9 billion people worldwide in total. The proposed shift would bring these populations’ protein consumption down to exactly 60 grams daily by reducing only animal-based protein in the diet.”
US-appointed egg lobby paid food blogs and targeted chef to crush vegan startup
US-appointed egg lobby paid food blogs and targeted chef to crush vegan startup
http://gu.com/p/4c4y2?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_WordPress
Propaganda, brain-washing, ramming it down our throats, food police, agenda…sound familiar?
Veganism is a social justice movement, amongst many other things. It’s about freedom from oppression, tackling damaging and detrimental assumptions about the human species’ place in the world and liberating those who are abused and killed in their billions. Meanwhile, governments want to maintain the status quo of mindlessly using and abusing other animals for human pleasure and profit because…they can. Because it’s easy to turn living, feeling animals into commodities – ‘products’ – and commit mindless mass slaughter when those animals have no voice.
And because…profit. Money is the root of all evil? It certainly is where factory farming is concerned.
Dragon Mother 
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