Polar Bears Are Left Out In The Cold By CITIES – Born Free : Videos & Petitions To Sign Please

“This news arrived in my inbox. Just devastating news from the CITES convention for polar bears…who it seems are going to be left out in the cold!!! Watch the video then read the briefing below!!

Polar bears left out in the cold by CITES

Published on 7 Mar 2013 – Born Free

Will Travers, Born Free CEO, is saddened by today’s vote at the Bangkok meeting of CITES, which soundly rejected a proposal to increase protection from commercial trade for the polar bear, imperiled by the impacts of climate change.

This morning, the Conference of Parties to CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) currently taking place in Bangkok, discussed a proposal by the United States asking for higher protection of the iconic polar bear (see video above).

This species, completely dependent on sea ice for survival, has seen its number s fall to around 20,000-25,000 in recent years. This has in part been caused by a dramatic decrease in the extent of both winter and summer sea ice (showing a reduction of up to 20%) over the past 30 years, exacerbated by hunting for domestic and international trade amongst other factors.

Found in just five countries in the circumpolar region (Canada, Denmark (Greenland), Norway, Russian Federation, and the United States), this species has caught the attention of the international community in recent years as the story of their decline has become common knowledge.

So, what will CITES Parties do to increase its protection and offer a life line to the world’s largest and best known bear species…WELL NOTHING!!!!

The precautionary principle, on which this proposal was largely based states that ‘where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation’.

So what this means is that if we are not sure of the effects an action is having, better to stop and reassess rather than proceed, possibly past the point of no return.

Today however, the Parties to CITES unfortunately threw precaution to the wind and voted not to increase global protection through greater trade restrictions despite the numerous current and ever looming threats to this species. It remains to be seen how this will contribute to the polar bear’s demise

News Link:-http://www.bornfree.org.uk/campaigns/bears/bear-news/article/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=1259

ENDANGERED POLAR BEAR

Uploaded on 2 Oct 2010

The things we do every day can greatly affect the environment.
Français :
http://www.lourspolaire.com/aiderlour…
http://www.naturavox.fr/climat/L-Ours…
http://www.planete-urgence.org/vous/e…

English:
http://www.savebiogems.org/polar/
http://www.adn.com/2010/06/26/1342804…
http://www.polarbearsinternational.or…
http://www.nationalgridfloe.com/
http://savingthepolarbear.org/
http://www.ehow.com/how_2285388_save-…

Polar bears are inquisitive, flexible and opportunistic, adept at exploiting their Arctic habitat.  Global warming is considered to be polar bears’ greatest threat and causes ice to melt earlier and freeze later. 

Bears have less time to hunt, have a longer summer fast and wait longer to resume hunting, causing loss of condition and potential conflict situations when hungry bears come in contact with people.  Meanwhile in captivity, intelligent and adaptable polar bears can suffer particularly badly in zoos, circuses and marine parks.

Polar bears are dying. As global warming accelerates, the sea ice they depend on for survival is literally melting away. Bears are starving and drowning as they have to swim farther and farther to reach solid ice. Some are even turning to cannibalism in a desperate search for food. Those trapped on land hundreds of miles from the nearest ice often wander near villages in search of food and are shot.

As if that weren’t enough, oil and gas drilling is destroying and polluting their fast-dwindling Arctic habitat.

A third of all polar bears — including all bears in Alaska — will be extinct by 2050 if current trends continue. The rest of the species will be gone by the end of the century.

But it’s not too late to save the polar bear if we join together and take immediate action. The science is clear.  We know what needs to be done — we just need to build the political support to do it.

Please sign the petition below to encourage President Barack Obama to rein in global warming and save the polar bear now.

Click the link below to sign the petition please:-

Petition & News Link:–http://www.savethepolarbear.org/

Global Ban On Polar Bear Trade Turned Down

Published on 7 Mar 2013

An international conference of 178 member nations of an environmental group opts to allow trading of polar bear parts to continue.An international ban on trade in polar bears has been banned because of fears it would distract from the bigger threat of global warming.
The proposal put to representatives of the 178 member nations of the Convention on International Trade In Endangered Species (Cites) had divided conservationists.
They all agreed that the main risk to the world’s largest carnivorous land animal came from habitat loss but differed over whether international trade also put the bears at risk of extinction.
Polar bears, widely seen as the animal on the front line of global warming, are predicted to be hard hit by melting polar ice caps.
But the debate at the Cites meeting in Bangkok focused on the additional threat to the species posed by international trade. “The polar bear is facing a grim future, and today brought more bad news,” said US delegation head Dan Ashe who warned the polar bear population could fall by two-thirds by 2050.
“The continued harvest of polar bears to supply the commercial international trade is not sustainable.”
The ban was rejected by 42 votes to 38, with 46 abstentions among the nations who participated in the poll in Bangkok – the proposal needed a two-thirds’ majority support to be passed.

Polar bears are prized for their skins – particularly in Russia – as well as other body parts such as skulls, claws and teeth and their are strict controls over their international trade.

About half of the roughly 800 polar bears killed each year end up in the international trade, mostly wild bears from Canada, according to expert estimates cited by the US.

The US, Canada, Russia, Denmark (Greenland) and Norway are home to a global population of 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears.

The WWF, which chose to oppose the ban in favour of concentrating on global warming said “habitat loss from climate warming, not international trade, is the primary driver” of an expected population decline.

Canada, which hosts the largest portion of the global population of polar bears and is the only country that still exports polar bear parts, opposed a ban, citing the need to preserve the traditions of the Inuit, an indigenous minority living mostly in the north of the country.

“The polar bear advances strong emotion. It is an iconic symbol of the Arctic,” said Canadian delegate Basile Van Havre.
Глобальный запрет на Polar Bear торговли Отклонен
ホッキョクグマ貿易に関する世界的な禁止が下がってい
全球北極熊的貿易禁止拒絕
Prohibición mundial de oso polar Comercio Rechazado
Proibição global de urso polar Comércio recusou

Please sign, Just a few on-line petitions to help save the polar bear:-

•  http://www.change.org/petitions/world-leaders-save-polar-bears
• http://www.causes.com/actions/1717624-save-the-last-20-000-polar-bears
• https://secure.humanesociety.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=5265
• http://www.savethepolarbear.ca/

Protecting the polar bear, great links & facts:- http://animals.about.com/od/bears/a/polar-bear-protection.htm

Praise President Obama for Keeping Animal Cruelty Out of the Military

“Please sign the petition below…no animal should suffer for military training!”

Target: President Barack Obama

Goal: Commend President Obama for signing a bill that will eliminate animal cruelty from military drills

For years, Department of Defense (DOD) regulations have required that military trainers use humane alternatives to animal cruelty whenever possible. However, video footage of a recent Coast Guard training session in Virginia Beach revealed horrifying animal abuse.

Fortunately, President Obama just signed the National Defense Authorization Act into law, a section of which requires the Secretary of Defense to submit a plan within two months for phasing out the use of animals in military training. The President deserves praise for taking a stand for animals, and to be encouraged to keep the pressure on the DOD.

Animals have been a part of military trauma training for many years. The exercises, which mutilate and ultimately kill animals, are meant to replicate battlefield injuries and are supposed to help soldiers learn how to save lives in battle. However, a report from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) claims that the exercises did little to help soldiers learn how to save others.

Public outcry against military training involving animals reached a fever pitch after PETA obtained video footage of goats being mutilated by a company hired by the military to assist in training. The shocking footage showed goats–alive and inadequately anaesthetized being stabbed, having their legs broken and cut off with tree trimmers, and getting their organs pulled out. The whistle-blower who provided the footage to PETA also claimed that goats were shot in the face and hacked to pieces with axes–while they were still alive.

The fact that practices like this continue to exist is all the more horrifying given the availability of extremely lifelike training dummies which, according to PETA, “can breathe, bleed, talk, and even ‘die.’”

All these facts make the passage of legislation prohibiting the use of animals in training long overdue. While this is a victory, there is still more to be done. Thank President Obama for signing anti-cruelty legislation into law, but urge him to continue pressuring the DOD to phase out animal use as quickly and effectively as possible.

Petition Link:-http://forcechange.com/51308/praise-president-obama-for-keeping-animal-cruelty-out-of-the-military/

Related: Animals used in Coast guard Training: both links contains the graphic video:–

• https://preciousjules1985.wordpress.com/2012/04/21/goats-legs-removed-in-video-coast-guard-wont-verify-video-involves-their-personnel-graphic-video/
  
• https://preciousjules1985.wordpress.com/2012/12/05/animals-are-being-shot-ask-the-department-of-defense-to-investigate/

Greenpeace – Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf.

The White House and BP have been hiding the truth about the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf.

The (horrible) picture below is of a “critically endangered” Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle. It’s just one of many never-before-seen images we’ve obtained that paints a very different picture than what we were being told at the time. We have to act.

Other pictures show garbage bags full of dead sea turtles, a dolphin struggling to hold on for life in the poisoned water and sperm whales swimming through a sheen of oil. What else about the Gulf disaster is the White House and Big Oil hiding from the public before they finish the settlement?

It’s not too late. The government has yet to announce the amount of money BP owes for the damages caused by the disaster.

Take action and demand that the White House immediately make publicly available all the images, files and documentation before they reach a settlement with BP.

It’s important that the public know exactly what BP is being held accountable for and that the White House is holding the oil giant to it in the settlement.

President Obama likes to talk about how much land and coastal area his administration has opened up for drilling. The administration has even given oil giant Shell the green light to drill for oil in the pristine waters off the coast of Alaska this summer. Is this damage the risk that the administration finds acceptable with offshore drilling?

Enough. Tell the White House to publicly release everything they have around the Gulf disaster, make BP pay what they owe and put a stop to ALL new offshore drilling right now.

Say No to Destructive Drilling in the Arctic

“Video by my dear friend & animal warrior; Louise Du Toit”

“Let us all OPPOSE ARCTIC DRILLING and any other destructive actions towards our beautiful planet and all wildlife.” – Louise du Toit”

This summer, exploratory drilling will begin in the Arctic Ocean unless we stop it.

The Arctic must be off limits to oil drilling, for the simple reason that a spill would be impossible to clean up there. The Arctic is home to polar bears, walrus, bowhead whales and other endangered and highly sensitive wildlife; oil drilling in its remote, ice-choked waters would carry unacceptably high risks of environmental destruction and loss of life.

President Obama has given approval to Shell to drill for oil this summer in the vulnerable Arctic. In hopes of uncovering new sources of dirty fossil fuels, Arctic drilling could also unleash more than 11 billion tons of carbon pollution — making it ever more difficult to stave off devastating climate change.

We have a powerful opportunity now to stop drilling before it spoils the Arctic and its wildlife. Take action now to tell Obama not to allow drilling to go ahead in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas.

Read more here:- Center for Biological Diversity

Read this document about the impact drilling:-Arctic Ocean Drilling: Risking Oil Spills, Human Life, and Wildlife

Click to sign petition here:- Say No to Destructive Drilling in the Arctic.

Click here to sign:- Petition to Ban Arctic Oil Drilling

Click here to sign:- Tell Cruise Ships to Stop Spewing Filth Into Our Pristine Oceans

Click here to sign:- PETA – Sign Pamela Anderson’s Petition to Help End the Seal Slaughter

Click here to sign:-Stop the Next Offshore Oil Disaster

Click here to sign:- Tell Congress to end the big oil bailout – USA

Obama Administration Must Keep the Arctic’s Wild Seas out of Drilling Plan | Frances Beinecke’s Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC

Obama Administration Must Keep the Arctic’s Wild Seas out of Drilling Plan | Frances Beinecke’s Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC.