Veggie Revolution

5 new facts you can use: Why do colds & flu strike in winter?

2012-02-09T15:58:00.001-05:00

Why do we get more colds and flu in winter?
It's true we're more likely to catch colds and flu during winter. But why? Growing up, I was told that getting chilled outside would give me a cold. "Put on your coat or you'll get sick!," my mother would shriek as I blasted out the door.

But we don't catch colds or flu from going outside scantily clad.

If you read signs posted in schools and doctors' offices, you know that respiratory viruses are transmitted primarily by touch and by inhaling infected droplets.

But how does that translate to more colds and flu in winter? The answer does involve cold air, but has nothing to do with our bodies feeling chilled.

We suck down more particles, deeper into our lungs....
Recent studies at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have turned up several explanations. The studies relate to nasal and throat secretions laden with viruses. They disperse differently in cold air.

When a person spews out viruses by sneezing or coughing, the airborne droplets are much smaller at the lower temperatures and lower humidity of winter. Smaller droplets carry farther and stay suspended in the air longer, thereby increasing the likelihood they'll be inhaled by someone else
These smaller droplets can be inhaled more deeply into the respiratory passages and lungs, increasing the chance that the person inhaling them will be infected by the virus
In summer's warmer temperatures and higher humidity, airborne droplets are bigger and sink to the floor. At 75-80 degrees F, the risk of infection by droplets suspended in air is virtually zero.
Flu viruses are more stable in colder, drier conditions - meaning that they remain infectious for a longer period after leaving the sick person's body
Cold air makes the normal mucous in our respiratory tracts more viscous and sticky. The sticky mucus clogs up the movement of the tiny hair-like cilia that normally move in waves to expel particles from our respiratory passages. So inhaled viruses tend to stay where they land, reproducing and causing a respiratory infection.

Now you know, how can you protect yourself?
Avoid standing close to someone who's sneezing or coughing. The sooner you leave the area, the better. If you're the sick one, cover your nose and mouth with a sleeve when you sneeze or cough. Keep those virus-laden particles out of the air and off your hands.

Guard against transmission by touch as well
Viruses linger on doorknobs, ATMs, money, pens - so when in public, wash your hands often and avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth.

For more information about the flu, see this CDC web page.

Keywords: colds flu influenza why do we get colds in winter

New food book slams it home: "Healthy Eating, Healthy World"

2012-01-07T18:01:00.817-05:00

Young hogs on a N.C. factory farm. Photo: Sally Kneidel

I was recently asked to review the book Healthy Eating Healthy World. Imagining it to be a cookbook, I readily agreed. But when the book arrived in my mailbox, I was surprised to find not a cookbook but an impressive and comprehensive volume as to why humans must stop consuming animal products, and fast. I already have a number of books about the damage and suffering caused by the meat industry and the ingestion of flesh, eggs, and dairy. Consider Diet for a New America, Food Revolution, The Way We Eat, Forks Over Knives, Eating Animals, Animal Factory, The China Study, my own Veggie Revolution, among others. Why would anyone need another book on the subject? Is this one special?

A go-to source for all the evidence
It is special. Healthy Eating, Healthy World by J. Morris Hicks is one of the very few books that cover just about every major argument that can be made for choosing a plant-based diet. The information in the book is documented by scientific studies, cited in Hicks' 306 footnotes. The book contains few if any brand-new revelations; rather, its merit lies in its tying together scads of information from disparate angles and sources. Hicks has painted the big picture - how livestock are no longer compatible with a viable future for a planet with shrinking resources and a mushrooming population. Nor are animal products improving our personal health and longevity.

Vegan diet reduces chance of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, assorted cancers
The first part of the book reviews the considerable health benefits of a plant-derived diet. Hicks summarizes the findings of Dr. T. Colin Campbell, co-author of The China Study, and the medical research of Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, whose prescribed plant-based diet actually reverses heart damage in his patients. These specific health benefits of vegan dining have been described elsewhere, in the documentary Planeat for example, but warrant inclusion in Hicks' book as well. A plant-derived diet has been shown to reduce the likelihood of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, various cancers, and other ailments. Citing research, Hicks also dispels common myths about vegan diets, such as difficulty in getting enough protein, calcium, Vitamin B12, omega-3 fatty acids, and so on.

Meat industry is a key driver of oil depletion
Since health is a prime motivator among those who shun animal products, health was a good place for Hicks to begin his exposition. But the next part of the book is the dearest to my own heart - the section on how the meat and dairy industry impact our fragile planet. The most "special" aspect of Hicks' book to me is his description of how the livestock sector is accelerating the oncoming freight-train that will entirely derail modern society - the ominous but inevitable "end of oil." From the oil-based fertilizers for feedcrops to the refrigerated trucks that transport packaged loins and rump roasts, the animal-product industries consistently slurp down 30% of the oil used on the planet. Your switching to an animal-free diet will do more to protect our oil reserves than switching to a hybrid car.

Greenhouse gases, deforestation, pollution...
Hicks of course addresses the standard environmental complaints about the meat industry - deforestation for grazing and the cultivation of feedcrops, pollution from the 9 truckloads of livestock waste per year per person in the U.S., and the volume of greenhouse gases resulting from the creation and distribution of animal-products.

Hell on earth
Hicks also has a chapter entitled "Hell on Earth" that reports on the unrelenting misery of animals raised on factory farms, a well-documented fact by now, which I photographed and wrote about myself (with my co-author) in Veggie Revolution and Going Green. This suffering has been going on since animal production began to be industrialized in the mid-1900s. Peter Singer and Jim Mason first detailed the heinous and hidden operations of CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations) in their landmark 1980 book Animal Factories.

What to do
The last part of Hicks' book is about solutions and his prescription for change, which is worth reading. For the individual, the change is simple. Buy some vegan cookbooks, or look for vegan meal plans on the internet, and stop eating animal products.

Be a shopping-cart activist
I enthusiastically recommend this book, because changing the way we eat is perhaps the most powerful action we can take to improve the future prospects of our trampled planet, our civilization, and our health. Anyone can easily do it, with so many wholesome and tasty plant-based options in markets these days.

A strong educational tool
Hicks' book is a great resource for anyone interested in health, animal welfare, wildlife, the environment, climate change, and the end of oil. The book is an especially useful tool for educators - to inform their own lessons, or to assign as student-reading. It's also especially useful for parents because they're shaping the future pilots of spaceship Earth - and frightfully few people, at present, understand the heavy repercussions of our diet choices.

Should have included...
I wish Hicks had written more about climate change and the mass wildlife extinctions that will result from climate change and are underway right now. I wish he had referenced the so-important work of Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang, two World Bank scientists who documented that the livestock sector is responsible for half of the world's greenhouse gases. Their paper "Livestock and Climate Change," published by Worldwatch Institute, is in my view one of the most important papers published in the last decade. Instead, Hicks referenced "Livestock's Long Shadow" by U.N. scientists, which is a valuable analysis, but is outdated by the work of Goodland and Anhang.

For a deeper and more thorough coverage, read Lester Brown's work
In spite of these shortcomings, Healthy Eating Healthy World is among the most useful current volumes to review most ramifications of our diet choices. For those who want more in-depth coverage of our environmental crisis including the role of livestock, I strongly recommend Lester R. Brown's Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization. Lester Brown is founder of Worldwatch Institute, founder and president of the Earth Policy Institute, and author or co-author of more than 50 books on global environmental issues. He has been honored with multiple prizes worldwide.

More books about the end-of-oil, and sustainability solutions
I also recommend these four books on the over-exploitation of the planet and what we can do about it: The Long Emergency, The Post Carbon Reader, The End of Growth, and Deep Green Resistance (or other books by Derrick Jensen).

Some of my other recent reviews of books and DVDs about food:
My review of vegan cookbook "Blissful Bites: Food bytes from an inspired chef"
Urban gardening in offbeat settings: My review of DVD "Truck Farm"
My review of new vegetarian cookbook: "Veggiyana: The Dharma of Cooking"
My review of documentary "PLANEAT: Nothing changes the planet as much as the way we eat"
The Happy Herbivore: Best, most versatile cookbook since Moosewood
My review of new food film: "What's on YOUR plate?"

Keywords: Healthy Eating Healthy World J. Morris Hicks food book review Lester Brown Lester R. Brown Derrick Jensen end of oil climate change livestock sector Jeff Anhang Robert Goodland meat industry sustainability vegan diet

Licorice hailed as "Medicinal plant of the year"

2011-12-07T12:55:00.000-05:00

Licorice plant, Glycyrrhiza glabra

Seems most people either love licorice or hate it. I can’t stand it. But I had no idea that licorice has medicinal properties until I came across a surprising news flash in my daily perusal of conservation articles. Licorice has been named “Medicinal plant of the year 2012″ because of its importance to human health worldwide. Who knew? “Licorice is special because it can quickly sooth sore throats and coughs and was used centuries ago to treat coughing, hoarseness and asthma by Ancient Greek and Egyptian physicians,” said Dr. Johannes Mayer, a medicinal botanist at the University of Würzburg. The plant was selected by a panel from the University of Würzburg and two conservation groups: WWF and TRAFFIC.

It’s all in the root
Licorice has been used not only for respiratory ailments, but also as a mood-elevator and for its purported anti-inflammatory and antiviral effects, among other things. So far, more than 400 different compounds have been isolated from the root, the only part of the plant used medicinally.

One of the most widely used compounds from licorice root is glycyrrhizin, which is 30 to 50 times as sweet as cane sugar. Today, the licorice extract used to make licorice candies is derived by boiling the root of the licorice plant then evaporating most of the water. The extract can be purchased in syrup or solid form. Googling turns up numerous vendors of the stuff.

The licorice plant, Glycyrrhiza glabra, is a legume that’s native to several continents: Australia, the Americas, eastern Asia, and the Mediterranean area – quite a broad distribution. At maturity, it’s a woody shrub about 3 ft tall. The plant is not related to anise, star anise or fennel, which all have similar tastes. I can’t stand them either!

Growing demand could threaten plant
Currently, licorice root is used to make medicinal teas, candy, herbal liqueurs, and “gan cao” (a traditional Chinese medicine). Germany has seen a recent surge in the popularity of “natural medicines” and now imports about 500 tons of licorice root per year; 100 tons of that are used to brew medicinal teas. The growing demand for licorice in Europe and China has raised concerns about over-harvesting of the plant. In 2010, WWF and TRAFFIC created a “FairWild Standard,” an international standard to encourage socially-just and environmentally-sustainable harvesting of wild licorice and other plants.

Protecting plants and workers
Roland Melisch of TRAFFIC says that consumers can purchase FairWild certified products with confidence that the wild plants have been harvested sustainably and that profits will be distributed fairly to all in the chain of production, including the low-earning gatherers, who rely heavily on the gathering of wild plants to support their families. At present, the FairWild website offers at least two herbal teas made from licorice root that meet the FairWild standard. More will be forthcoming. Sounds like a valuable new certification procedure, pertaining only to plants and animals harvested from wild populations. Sorely needed. I’m glad to see it, even for one of my least-favorite tastes.

A few of my previous posts about overharvesting:
Monkeys and parrots pouring from the jungle
Illegal trade in animals and animal parts: what you can do
Can a warmer planet feed us?
Trade a major threat to primate survival
Orangutans dwindle as Borneo, Sumatra converted to palm-oil plantations

Keywords: licorice FairWild overharvesting fair trade sustainable harvest TRAFFIC WWF University of Wurzburg Johannes Meyer Chinese medicine medicinal tea sustainability socially just

Brain may sabotage effort to diet

2011-11-21T11:27:00.000-05:00

When lean people have full stomachs, neural signals cause their brains to stop wanting food. The positive feelings associated with food are turned off. But a new study from Yale reports that the brains of obese people react to food differently.

Willpower and reasoning
In this study, 9 lean and 5 obese adult volunteers underwent brain scans while looking at pictures of foods such as ice cream, french fries, cauliflower, or a salad. All the volunteers arrived for the first scans with empty stomachs and relatively low blood sugar, and all of them reported wanting the food in the pictures, especially the high-calorie food. For all 14 hungry volunteers, the scans showed that the brain areas that control positive reinforcement and desire for food were active and turned on, but the parts of the brain associated with willpower and reasoning, such as the prefrontal cortex, were not active. No surprise there. When we're hungry, food is attractive and eating feels good. And we're reluctant to stop until the hunger is gone.

Unexpected findings
The interesting part of the study occurred when the volunteers arrived full and sated, with normal blood-sugar levels. It turns out, the brain scans of the obese volunteers were the same whether they were full or hungry. The part of the brain that controls desire for food and regards food as positive reinforcement were still active even when their stomachs were full. And the part of the brain that regulates willpower and reasoning was still inactive even when they were full.

In contrast, the brain scans of the lean volunteers with full stomachs showed a decrease in their desire for food, and higher activity in the part of the brain associated with reasoning and willpower.

Implications are huge
Yale endocrinologist Robert Sherman, coauthor of the new study, says the surprise was that the part of the brain that regulates willpower over eating was mostly turned off in obese people, regardless of hunger and blood-sugar levels. The implications of this study are enormous. Coauthor Sherman says the findings suggest that brain functions "may perpetuate obesity."

So what now?
What's the solution? Most weight-loss programs say keep the high-calorie foods out of the house. If we have to nibble, we should go after the fruits and vegetables. That's not so easy this time of year, with all the attention to holiday foods. We can't control what shows up on the platters at holiday gatherings. But it may be a little easier to control what we keep in our kitchens.

8 Egregious Animal Abuses by the Meat Industry

2011-11-10T11:09:00.001-05:00

This is the third post in a series about reasons to consider a vegan diet.

Earlier:
Top 5 Ways Livestock Wreck the Planet
Top 7 Health Reasons to Bypass Animal Products

While researching our books Veggie Revolution and Going Green, Sadie and I wrangled our way into several factory farms - our home state of N.C. is full of them. North Carolina has more hogs than people, and is a major poultry state too. Why? Because land is cheap, environmental laws are lax, and NC is the least unionized state. So the meat industry is free here to exploit immigrant and minority labor and pollute our rivers. Smithfield has the world's biggest hog "processing plant," in Tar Heel, NC, where 35,000 hogs per day are slaughtered. The Cape Fear River runs right by, to receive the effluent. Most states that produce a lot of animal products exclude farm animals from animal-cruelty laws. So anything that's common practice in animal farming is legal, regardless of how abusive or cruel it is. Hundreds of inhumane practices warrant comment in a post such as this. But I chose situations I witnessed while researching our books - those that had the biggest emotional impact on me.

A sow confined in a farrowing crate with her piglets. Photo: Sally Kneidel

1. Most breeding sows in the U.S. spend their lives in "gestation crates" so small they can't turn around.
The sows have no bedding, no straw, nothing to do but lie there - for 12 years. They breathe the foulest air you can imagine - after I walked through the buildings, everything I had reeked of fresh feces, including my camera. The rooms with rows of "farrowing crates" were the saddest sight, for me. Just before piglets are born, a sow is transferred from her gestation crate to a farrowing crate, where a metal bars (see photo) immobilize her and keep her teats always available to the piglets. The piglets are removed after 3 wks, then the sow is inseminated again and moved back to the gestation crate. Under pressure from animal activists, some pork producers have pledged to phase out gestation crates by 2017. But these narrow, bare crates are still the norm. Veterinarians consider pigs as smart as dogs, and without ample places to root and explore, pigs are bored to the point of insanity. Imagine keeping a dog for 12 years in a crate so small it couldn't turn around. The public wouldn't stand for it. So why do we allow it for pigs?

5-week-old chickens in a Tyson broiler shed. Photo: Sally Kneidel

2. The Tyson broiler farm I visited had 24,000 chickens crammed into each shed.
As I entered a dimly-lit broiler shed, I felt claustrophobic - the air was so thick with feather and fecal dust that I had trouble breathing; the floor was spongy with 18 months' accumulation of feces. The chickens in the shed were crowded, but would get much more crowded after 2-3 more weeks' growth. Crowding maximizes profits by maximizing the number of birds in the expensive heated space, but also by keeping the birds immobile - inactive birds gain more weight. Tyson chickens are bred to be constantly hungry and to grow unnaturally fast, gaining 6 lbs in 7-8 weeks, most in the breast muscles (the most expensive cut). Some gain so fast their legs collapse and they starve, unable to reach the automated food and water dispensers. The farmer has to do a "walk-through" every day to pull out the dead birds. When the chickens have reached the target weight for slaughter at 7-8 weeks, a crew of Tyson "catchers" come in. Hidden cameras have shown the catchers literally throwing the live chickens into the crates (up to 5 birds per hand is allowed). For a description of the slaughter and processing of the chickens, read this excerpt from the book The Way We Eat by Peter Singer and Jim Mason.

3. Breeder chickens must be kept hungry all the time, or their own weight will kill them.
We visited a Tyson breeder farm, which produces fertile eggs and chicks to populate the broiler sheds. The breeder or parent chickens are allowed to live for 63 weeks (much longer than broilers) because they have to reach sexual maturity, unlike the broilers. The shed we visited contained 11,500 hens and 1,200 roosters. The breeders, being older, are bigger than broilers (9 lb hens, 12 lb roosters). They looked to me just as tightly packed in the shed as the broilers were, but the farmer said they're not, because the roosters have to be able to move around to reach all the hens. As the hens lay fertile eggs in their roosting boxes, the eggs roll out of the shed by automation, then are transferred elsewhere to hatch into chicks. Since the breeders (as parents) must have the same genes for hunger and weight gain as the broilers, the breeders could all grow to fatal proportions with their longer life spans. To prevent this, the breeders are fed minimal diets and are always hungry, said the farmer. These chickens have also been bred to lay eggs with abnormal frequency, and around 10% of the hens drop dead from "blowout" - the physiological stress of egg overproduction with a minimal diet.

Laying hens at Food Lion egg factory. Photo: Sally Kneidel

4. At the Food Lion egg factory I toured,five hens were stuffed into each 18" x 20" cage.
Cages were stacked floor to ceiling, housing 1.2 million hens at the site. These hens lay "table eggs" for human consumption. Each hen, with beak clipped to prevent fighting, spends 2 years in a cage until her body is spent. "When they're done," said the manager, "we can hardly give them away." Walking up and down the aisles, I saw the hens had bare red patches and stripped feathers from trying to dust bathe on a metal grate and trying to brood missing eggs - the eggs roll onto the conveyor belt as soon as they're laid. Many had feces on their heads and shoulders from the hens stacked above them. The hens have been engineered to lay 3 times the number of eggs as a normal rural hen. If the rate of production wanes, food is withheld for several days, which forces the hens to molt, and then egg production picks up. An occasional "forced molt" is recommended by the industry to maximize production. The sheds where hens were undergoing a forced molt were very quiet. This was the worst air of all the factory farms I visited - there was a dusting of "snow" (fecal and feather dust) on everything, including me. Under the cages was an 8' ft deep trench full of hen feces. It's emptied only when the hens are replaced, every 2 years. The buildings had outdoor fans, but none were operational.

5. "A dairy cow is a milk factory. There's not much quality of life in a dairy cow,"
said the dairyman. A family dairy cow used to produce milk for 10 to 12 years, maybe live as long as 20 years. Nowadays, in the industrial-sized dairies that can house 10,000 to 18,000 cows each, a cow is generally worn out after only 3 years - her body is pushed to its limits and just gives out. In one of these mega-dairies, a cow is impregnated roughly once a year to maximize her milk production. She may also be injected every other week with BST (bovine somatotropin) to increase milk production 10% more. The continual pregnancies and abnormal milk production place a huge strain on the cow's body. The concrete floor is hard on her feet and legs, and the weight of pregnancy makes it more so. When her milk production drops too low or she has chronic leg problems or fails to become pregnant, she's slaughtered for low-grade meat. In a typical confinement dairy, a third of the herd is culled every year. What happens to the calves that result from the continuous pregnancies? Many consumers have the impression that humans take the milk the calf doesn't want. But the calves are whisked away from mom only a few hours after birth. Female calves may be raised on formula to replace the milk cows culled from the herd. Male calves may be sold at auction, or tethered alone in wooden stalls for 16 weeks, fed low-iron diets to make their flesh pale, and then slaughtered to be sold as veal. How do cows feel about losing their calves just after birth, when their systems are flooded with mothering hormones? They look for the calf and often bellow continuously, sometimes for weeks. Said Dr. Temple Grandin, "That's one sad, unhappy, upset cow. She wants her baby....it's like grieving, mourning."

6. The unnatural corn diet fed to 90% of beef cattle makes them very sick.
Cows evolved to eat grass. But corn leads to faster weight gain, so at 6-7 months of age, 80-90% of beef cattle are transitioned to an abnormal diet of up to 85% corn. At the same time, they're trucked to large feedlots; one feedlot may have as many as 200,000 steers, grouped in pens of 900 or so. The cattle spend all their time standing or lying in a gray muck of feces and urine, with access to an always-full trough of corn and food additives, until they reach slaughter weight at 12-14 months of age. Corn causes cattle stomachs to be more acidic than they should be. The industry's "Feedlot Magazine" says all corn-fed cattle develop painful "sub-acute acidosis" at some point in the feedlot. The "Beef Cattle Handbook" (for feedlot managers) says animals with sub-acute acidosis "are plagued with diarrhea, go off their feed, pant, kick at their bellies, salivate excessively, and eat dirt." This condition often leads to very painful stomach ulcers, which when perforated, lead to liver ulcers. "Acute acidosis" is generally fatal. Feedlot management is a race between erosion of the digestive system and growth to slaughter weight. An effective feedlot manager sees to it that growth wins and the animal reaches slaughter weight before it succumbs to disease. For more details about feedlot life, see Michael Pollen's article "Power Steer." For info about what goes on in cattle slaughterhouses, read Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser.

7. Are fish insensitive, just because they're not mammals?
Fish are smarter than you might think. I studied the behavior of cichlid fish as a project in college, and I was astonished when I realized the school of fish that I was observing all recognized me personally. Their tank was was in a hallway constantly full of other biology students, but when these fish saw me nearby, they all immediately came to the surface and toward me - because they knew I was the one who fed them. This was regardless of what I had in my hands. Several studies report fish intelligence, and sensitivity to pain. Dr. Culum Brown trained fish to find a hole in a net on only 5 attempts. When re-tested 11 months later, the fish remembered instantly. Dr. Lynne Sneddon showed experimentally (with bee venom and acetic acid) that rainbow trout feel pain and distress, make efforts to relieve the pain, and show relief when injected with morphine. Fish are the only vertebrate animals harvested on an industrial scale, with long-lines, gill nets, bottom trawlers, etc. Death by suffocation takes about 15 minutes; others are clubbed, pulled aboard with pickaxes, or bleed out when their gills are cut off. We treat fish as if they're vegetables, and we do it to a lot of them - humans haul in 88 million tons of fish each year just from the oceans. I haven't mentioned our decimation of fish populations - read about that here. For more about the sensitivity of fish, click here. For info about farmed fish, click here and here.

8. Foie gras - who would eat it?
Fois gras is the liver of a duck or goose that has been fattened by force-feeding it a mash of corn boiled in fat. The animal is fed far more than it would normally eat; a funnel with a long tube is used to push an excessive volume of food into the bird's esophagus 2-4 times per day. The resulting fatty liver of the bird is considered a delicacy by some, especially in France. But many investigators have reported that the birds live a miserable life: grossly overweight, immobile, with numerous damaged organs. For more info about foie gras, read here. To see a video of Kate Winslet's comments on the cruelty behind foie gras, click here.

Keywords: factory farming animal cruelty animal welfare hog farms poultry farms fish feedlots breeder farms humane farming foie gras

Top 7 Health Reasons to Bypass Animal Products

2011-11-01T20:08:00.007-04:00

Nicci and Sadie chop onions for a vegan stew. Photo: Kneidel

Previous post: Top Five Ways Livestock Wreck the Planet

1. Protect your heart. Multiple studies report that the consumption of beef, pork, and lamb increase the risk of heart disease. Cardiologist Caldwell Esselstyn, in a 20-year-study, found that patients who adhered to his plant-derived diet reduced their cholesterol from an average of 240 mg/dL (high risk) to below 150 mg/dL - the total cholesterol level seen in cultures where heart disease is essentially nonexistent. In addition, Esselstyn's patients who had already experienced heart attacks or bypass surgery, etc., had virtually no further cardiac events after adopting his diet. His work is featured in the new documentary PLANEAT.

2. Vegetarians are 40% less likely to get cancer compared to meat-eaters, according to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Colon cancer is one of several cancers linked to meat consumption. Total fat and saturated fat, which tend to be higher in animal products than in plant-derived foods, increase colon-cancer risks. The same is true for breast cancer. Countries with a higher fat intake, especially fat from meat and dairy products, have a higher incidence of breast cancer. In Japan, for example, the traditional diet is much lower in fat, especially animal fat, than the usual western diet, and breast cancer rates are low. In the 1940s, when breast cancer was very rare in Japan, less than 10% of the calories in the Japanese diet came from fat.

3. Milk is a "stew of hormones"
Recent studies in adults have linked cow's milk with an excess cancer risk in the prostate, and to a lesser extent in the breast and ovaries, notes oncologist Michael Pollak of McGill University. Researchers suspect milk's "natural stew of hormones, growth factors and other biologically active chemicals" to be causative agents, reports Janet Raloff in Science News. Scientists at the National Cancer Institute analyzed grocery-store milk and found that whole milk contains the smallest quantity of estrogens; skim and buttermilk contain the most. Here's a quandary: although whole milk may contain the least estrogens, it contains the most saturated fat. And saturated fat has been associated with colon cancer for some time. What to do? Jettison the milk. See my previous post about milk and cancer.

4. Diabetes and obesity associated with meat-eating
An August 2011 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that eating as little as 1 daily serving of red meat (beef, pork, lamb) increases your risk of type 2 diabetes. In the study, one daily serving of unprocessed red meat raised the diabetes risk about 20%. Worse, "one serving per day of processed meat like a hot dog or sausage was associated with a 50 percent increased risk of diabetes” said study co-author Dr. Frank Hu of the Harvard School of Public Health. “That’s pretty high.” In addition, those who ate the most red meat were less likely to eat fruits and vegetables and more likely to be obese and to smoke. “I think we should change our mindset in terms of protein sources in our diet,” said Dr. Hu. For the summary article, click here. For my previous post about fast foods and health, click here.

5. Fish infused with mercury
U.S. coal-fired power plants release over 48 tons of mercury into the air annually; Asia releases even more. All this airborne mercury winds up in freshwater and oceans - and in fish. The EPA says a mercury blood level below 5.8 mcg/L is safe for pregnant women; the agency estimates that at least 8% of U.S. women of childbearing age have blood mercury levels higher than that. In the Northeast, 20% of such women do. In NYC, 25%. One San Francisco physician found that 89% of patients who said they often eat fish had elevated levels. Symptoms are neurological, ranging from loss of balance to cognitive problems. Says Dr. Nicholas Fisher of Stonybrook, "95 to 100% of the methylmercury in our bodies comes from eating seafood." When the EPA tested predatory and bottom-dwelling fish from 500 lakes, they found mercury in every single one; half were unsafe to eat. Another study by the USGS found mercury-contaminated fish in all 291 streams and rivers they tested. Are any fish safe to eat? If you want to check it out, go to gotmercury.org or epa.gov/ost/fish. For more info, see Sierra Magazine's Nov/Dec 2011 article "This much mercury...how the coal industry poisoned your tuna sandwich."

6. One egg has twice the cholesterol of a Quarter Pounder with Cheese
Aside from the periodic salmonella outbreaks, even uninfected eggs can be a hazard to your health. According to Susan Levin, writing for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, 70% of the calories in an egg are fat calories. Eggs also have "a surprising load of saturated fat, which causes the liver to produce more cholesterol, which in turn increases the risk for cardiovascular disease." A typical egg contains 212 milligrams of cholesterol, more than the 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee recommends for an entire day. An egg contains more cholesterol than a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder with Cheese, which sports a hefty 94 milligrams of cholesterol. There is no recommended minimum intake of cholesterol, but 200-300 mg is the recommended daily max.

7. Chicken is "one of the most dangerous...."
Time magazine has called chicken one of the most dangerous items in the American home. Recent studies report that more than 30% of U.S. chicken is contaminated with Salmonella, and 62% is contaminated with Campylobacter. According to the USDA, these two pathogens cause 80% of the illnesses and 75% of the acute deaths associated with meat consumption. Regarding the saturated fat issue: many consumers have replaced red meat with chicken, believing chicken to have less fat. But chicken is not low-fat. According to The George Washington University Health Plan, "Three ounces of lean top round has 5 grams of fat, while three ounces of roasted chicken thigh has 13 grams of fat. Even without the skin, the roasted thigh has 9 grams of fat." For more info and sources about human health and poultry, click here.

What to do?
Avoiding animal products is no longer difficult, given the profusion of substitutes in today's grocery stores and farmers markets. For ideas on family meals, check out some of the menus and cookbooks reviewed on this site.

Sadie peruses local produce at a farmers market. Photo: Sally Kneidel

Coming soon: Top 5 Humane Reasons to Choose a Plant-based Diet and Skip the Animal Flesh

Keywords: vegan health animal products vegetarian health health hazards of meat health hazards of eggs health hazards of milk health hazards of animal products healthiest diet healthy diet

Top 5 ways livestock are wrecking the planet

2011-10-29T18:20:00.004-04:00

Photo: Sally Kneidel

Helping the environment is just one reason for dumping animal products from your diet. But it's a big one. It may be the most powerful choice you can make to help our ailing planet.

If your family gives you a hard time during the upcoming holidays for rejecting that turkey leg, tell them some of these surprising eco-facts about the havoc wrought by livestock.

1. LIVESTOCK DRIVE CLIMATE CHANGE
The livestock sector is responsible for at least half of the world's greenhouse-gas emissions. That's according to two environmental-assessment specialists employed by the World Bank Group, Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang. Their meticulous analysis is reported in their landmark Worldwatch article "Livestock and Climate Change". Check out this short summary of Goodland's and Anhang's work. See also "Diet for a low-carbon planet" by Alan Miller, for the same conclusion. How can livestock generate such a volume of GHG? Fermentation in the guts of livestock creates 37% of human-induced methane; methane is much more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO2. Deforestation to graze livestock or to grow their feed is another major source of emissions. Goodland and Anhang also assess the carbon in livestock respiration. "Livestock (like automobiles) are a human invention and convenience, not part of pre-human times, and a molecule of CO2 exhaled by livestock is no more natural than one from an auto tailpipe."

2. LIVESTOCK WORSEN WATER SHORTAGES
Nearly half of all the water used in the United States goes to raising animals for the dinner table, according to calculations by author John Robbins. Water usage is a major environmental concern, given that water shortages are cropping up all over the planet these days. Droughts due to climate change, and the booming human population, contribute to the problem. But the livestock sector is responsible too - using vast quantities of water to irrigate feed crops for livestock. One pound of beef requires 2,400 gallons of water to produce, while one pound of wheat requires only 25 to 108 gallons. Notice, that's the water for just one pound of beef. A typical "2 sides of beef" from one steer weigh 700 lbs when arriving at the grocery. You do the math.

3. LIVESTOCK DOMINATE ARABLE LAND
Livestock production accounts for 70% of all agricultural land on the planet, and 30% of the land surface of the planet. Consider this in relation to the fact that the world's human population has expanded from 6 billion to 7 billion in just the last 12 years - more and more people needing to be fed. Expansion of livestock production is a key factor in deforestation, especially in Latin America. 70% of previously forested land in the Amazon is occupied by pastures, and livestock feedcrops cover a large part of the remainder. In addition to deforestation, about 70% of grasslands in dry areas have been degraded by overgrazing, compaction, and erosion by livestock. These facts are all reported in "Livestock's Long Shadow," a 2006 research document from the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization.

4. LIVESTOCK POLLUTE
Livestock is the world's largest source of water pollution, according to the United Nations' FAO. Major sources of pollution from livestock production include animal waste, antibiotics and hormones, fertilizers and pesticides used on their feedcrops, and sediments from eroded pastures or trampled streams. In the U.S., livestock are responsible for 55% of erosion and sediment, 37% of pesticide use, and a third of all N and Ph pollution of freshwater.

5. BIODIVERSITY SLAMMED BY LIVESTOCK
A third of all mammal species are in danger of becoming extinct. A full 40% of the planet's mammals are victims of habitat loss and degradation. So reported the 2008 conference of the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), a group that includes more than 1,000 government agencies and NGOs, conservation groups, and 11,000 scientists in 160 countries. And it's going to get a lot worse before the century is over. The causes of habitat loss and degradation? Livestock is a big one. Conservation International has identified 35 global hotspots for biodiversity, defined by species richness and high levels of habitat loss. Of those, 23 are affected by livestock production. Of 825 terrestrial eco-regions identified by the Worldwide Fund for Nature, 306 are threatened by livestock.

WANT TO HELP?
Choose plant-based foods, and explain why to everyone you know.
Average Americans eat between 216 and 246 lbs of meat per year, far more than residents of any other country. In the U.S., around 60% of our grain goes to livestock, a very inefficient use of our agricultural lands. Feeding the grain to people directly could feed up to 10 times more people than feeding the meat to people. Or, another way of looking at it - we could stop converting natural lands to agricultural lands if we made more efficient use of the farms we have now. What can you do? Simply eating less meat can help. Even a couple of meatless days a week will reduce your ecological footprint. Going vegetarian or vegan is even better. Check out the recipes and new vegan cookbooks reviewed on this site.

Coming up in 2 later posts:

Top 5 Health Reasons to Bypass Animal Products
Top 5 Humane Reasons to Choose a Plant-based Diet

Keywords: livestock Livestock and Climate Change Jeff Anhang Robert Goodland climate change water shortage water pollution land usage biodiversity impact of livestock impacts of livestock bad effects of livestock livestock and land degradation

8 vital reasons to buy local food

2011-10-19T09:28:00.000-04:00

The last of our Carolina okra in the warm October sun. Photo: Sally Kneidel

Check out these 8 reasons to buy locally-grown food. Buying local helps not only the environment, but also our health and the welfare of farm laborers.

1. Local produce tastes better and is better for you; it's more likely to be picked at its peak, when it's ripe. Ripe fruits and vegetables have more flavor and higher nutritional value. Their nutritional value decreases every day post-harvest.

2. Buying local supports farming families in your own community, and keeps the money circulating in your own community. Buying from local farms in the off-season, when their selection and their customer-base may be reduced, is especially important in keeping these farms afloat financially.

3. Paying attention to what's available seasonally adds variety and interest to your diet, while at the same time supporting local farms. For my family, eating seasonal foods makes us feel more in touch with the changing seasons outside. Autumn means collards and broccoli, the last of the okra...and pumpkins!

4. Buying local reduces your carbon footprint. Food scientist Richard Pirog calculated that the average produce travels 1,500 miles in 3 days to reach his state. Farther than that if you live on the East Coast. Shipping food across the country uses 17 times as much fossil fuels and emits 5 to 17 times as much carbon dioxide as distributing food within a local system.

5. Food from small farms is much more likely to be raised without chemicals, protecting our health and wildlife habitat. Chemical fertilizers used in agribiz are made from fossil fuels. Farm machinery such as harvesters and combines use fossil fuels. As we all know, fossil fuels are the main driver of climate change.

6. Buying local supports the rural way of life. Hundreds of thousands of small farms have gone out of business in the last decade. Corporations have taken over food production, and rural lands are being sold to developers to accommodate urban sprawl.

7. Although the number of small family farms is decreasing due to consolidation into large industrial farms, the number of organic or sustainable farms operated by young entrepreneurs is increasing. The number of farmers markets in the U.S. has quadrupled in the last 7 years, to a total of 7,175 in 2011. In just the last year, the number of farmers markets has grown by 17%! By buying local, we can help this new wave of small farmers fight back against industrial agriculture.

8. When you buy local, you are choosing not to support industrialized farms that exploit immigrant and minority laborers. On many such farms, illegal immigrants are threatened with deportation when they complain about injuries. For more information on abuses to farm laborers, see any of these articles:

Injustice on our Plates: Immigrant Women in the U.S. Food Industry
Food Industry Abuses Workers as a Matter of Course
Labor in the Food System
The Cruelest Cuts
Blood Sweat and Fear
Throwaway workers

Keywords: local food agribusiness fossil fuels global warming seasonal food family farms chemical fertilizers healthy diet farmers markets sustainable food sustainable farms immigrants labor rights organic top 10 reasons

Crowd overflows hearing for Duke Energy rate hike: more coal and nuclear at stake

2011-10-12T15:29:00.003-04:00

Citizens wait to speak at Duke Energy rate-hike hearing in Charlotte

Last night, Duke Energy held a public hearing on its proposed 17% rate hike. The room was packed with irate citizens, but many were turned away for lack of space. Most who did speak passionately opposed the rate hike, citing the health and environmental effects of coal pollution, or the economic hardship of such a big rate increase. The speaking continued for more than 4 hours.

The Charlotte Observer published an article at the top of page 1A on the hearing's events, "Crowd jams hearing on Duke rate hike." The Business Journal also published an account of the hearing.

The hearing was preceded by street theater and a press conference with local organizers protesting Duke's persistent reliance on dangerous and expensive energy sources - coal and nuclear. Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network, Carolinas Clean Air Coalition, and NC WARN were among organizations with Charlotte chapters that were active in preparing for the hearing.

Ken and I were among the speakers. Below in blue flont is the short speech I made to the Utilities Commission members at the hearing (who will decide whether to approve the rate hike), to Duke attorneys and employees, and to the roomful of concerned citizens and activists. I talked about the long range effects of climate change (due to coal) and the unfairness of Duke's overcharging ratepayers in order to lure fearful investors. Investors should be afraid of high-risk and expensive nuclear and coal plants.

Some of my remarks were quoted in the Charlotte Observer and in the Business Journal today (October 12).

What I said at the hearing:

"I am a biologist, Ph.D., and author of 11 books on science topics. I’m going to comment on the global effect of adding more coal plants, and on the risk to investors, which is being passed on to ratepayers.

"First of all, I personally would not mind paying any rate hike if the money were going toward developing clean and renewable energy, or energy efficiency.

"I do object to any rate hike that goes toward building new coal plants, nuclear plants, and natural-gas plants.

"As a biologist, I care deeply about all life on the planet, human life and wildlife. We are at an unprecedented turning point on the planet, for people and for wild things. Coal is one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gases. If our generation doesn’t act right now, much of the biosphere as we know it will be destroyed by the effects of climate change. More than 80% of biologists believe we will experience mass extinctions of wildlife this century. So our descendants will live on a planet with maybe half of the wildlife species that we knew as children. As far as human life: you’re all aware, I’m sure, of how climate change will affect agriculture worldwide, creating floods and droughts that will cause widespread famine. Close to half of all humans live near coastlines that will be permanently flooded.

"This climate emergency means we need to adopt drastic energy-efficiency programs and safe, renewable energy sources. But instead, Duke is building more fossil fuel and nuclear plants, at huge risk and expense.

"Why? I don’t know why. It doesn’t make sense for the planet or financially. Investors know it too, which is why we’re being asked to pay more. Investors don’t like risk. They must be lured by a higher rate of return to invest in such risky energies. Financial risks to investors in coal and nuclear include probable EPA regulations regarding mercury, coal-ash waste, air toxins, a possible carbon tax, the cost of scrubbers, and Fukishima related nuclear-regulations.

"Investors SHOULD be worried that Duke’s dangerous power plants will face expensive regulations to make them less dangerous. It’s not fair to make consumers pay more so Duke can use our money to attract investors to these dangerous energy sources.

"Energy efficiency is by far the cheapest energy source. Wind and solar are both plummeting in price, while the costs of coal and nuclear plants and fuels keep going up. Once wind and solar resources are built, they have no fuel costs at all. Most importantly, energy-efficiency and renewable energy would preserve the climate and water on which all species, including the human species, depend."

Sally Kneidel

Most speakers opposed the rate hike and Duke's reliance on coal and nuclear

Keywords: Duke Energy rate hike hearing Charlotte North Carolina Greenpeace Rainforest Action Network NC Warn Carolina Clean Air Coalition coal global warming climate change asthma air pollution Sally Kneidel

My review of vegan cookbook Blissful Bites: Food bytes from an inspired chef

2011-10-06T15:04:00.006-04:00

Blissful Bites is a very impressive new vegan cookbook. The author, Christy Morgan, could easily be a professor of vegan or macrobiotic cooking at a culinary university - her book seems that comprehensive. As it turns out, she does in fact teach classes on her own.

Great resource for new or expert cooks
This is an excellent book for novices or for cooks expanding their skills. The first pages cover "pantry basics," or how to stock the kitchen. Christy recommends various kitchen tools, from specific knives and cutting boards to steamer baskets and sushi mats. The book includes lists and descriptions of her favorite spices, vinegars, condiments, flours, grains, natural sweeteners, oils, cooking techniques, etc. I'm sure I'll use it as a reference book for cooking materials.

I like...
I especially like that this cookbook is vegan, for health reasons and because the livestock sector contributes about half of all greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. I like that she has a variety of recipe categories: breakfasts, appetizers and soups, salads, vegetable sides, whole grains, proteins, desserts. The recipes I've tried have all been delicious, and relatively easy. I've especially enjoyed the "Lentil-coconut Curry," the "Fiesta Quinoa Salad," and "Orange-kissed Almond Macaroons" (fantastic!!).

Macrobiotic influence: local and seasonal
Christy doesn't say that her recipes are macrobiotic, but she does acknowledge a macrobiotic influence: "Along my path to bliss, I studied macrobiotics as part of my holistic nutrition training." I do see macrobiotic elements in her recipes. For example, the recipes are grouped seasonally, to help the reader make use of local and seasonal foods. (Great for reducing our carbon footprint, thank you Christy!) She also avoids refined sweeteners and honey, using alternatives such as maple syrup and agave nectar.

Sweet / sour aspects
Some macrobiotic cooks seek sweet and sour tastes, and I notice that Christy uses vinegar and/or sweeteners more than I usually do. For example, her "Sweet Potato Puree" calls for 2 T of vinegar. "Kale Salad with Curry-coconut Sauce" lists 1 T of maple or brown-rice syrup. The "Marinated Portabella Steaks" and "Lemon-kissed Brussels and Butternut Squash" include both vinegar and maple syrup. In addition, she sometimes includes either a "sweet" spice (nutmeg, cinnamon) or a sweet fruit (cherries, pineapple) in an otherwise savory dish. I'm not a big fan of vinegar, or of sweets in savory dishes. I changed my mind about preparing a few of the recipes after noticing vinegar or something sweetish in a grain, vegetable, or protein dish - such as nutmeg in her polenta fries. I do applaud her for breaking away from the usual, and wish my palate were more adventurous. For those of you who like sweet and sour flavorings, you might really love this approach.

My challenge as a cook....
Whole grains are strongly emphasized in macrobiotic cooking, and Christy has 26 recipes for "Whole Grains and Carbs," almost all of which look very inventive. I especially enjoyed the "Millet Mashed Potatoes." For more dinnertime staples, she also has 24 "Vegetable Sides" and 24 "Compassionate Proteins." My particular challenge as a family cook is coming up with plant-based protein dishes every day for supper. We eat a lot of beans at our house. One reason I liked The Happy Herbivore cookbook so much is that Lindsay Nixon provided so many recipes that could be used as vegan entrees. I'd like to see more recipes with significant sources of protein in Blissful Bites.

Hearty recommendation
Overall, it's easy for me to recommend this vegan cookbook by a principled, professional, and very creative chef. If you're looking for imaginative and original vegan recipes, you'll find this book chock full of them. In addition to its bounty of information, the book is loaded with full-color photos. It's a great book for a holiday gift, and I would especially recommend it for those seeking new experiences in vegan dining.

Keywords: Blissful Bites Christy Morgan The Happy Herbivore Lindsay Nixon vegan cookbook vegetarian cookbook carbon footprint macrobiotic

GOOD NEWS! Proof that no-fishing-zones work!

2011-10-06T14:51:00.002-04:00

We all know the oceans are in trouble. Since "large-scale fishing" began in 1952, the abundance of large oceanic fish has decreased globally by 90%. Too many boats with too much capacity are chasing too few fish. Bottom trawlers drag nets across sea beds and coral reefs, cutting down everything in their path. The heavy-duty fishing lines in use by the "long-line industry" could encircle the globe 550 times. Fishing vessels, and airplanes that track schools of fish illegally, are equipped with so much detection equipment, fish have no chance of escaping. Check out my review of the fact-filled documentary "End of the Line: Where have all the fish gone?" for more on that score. The whole story of the exploitation of our oceans is pretty scary.

But in a sea of bad news, I heard some good news last week. For one thing, I met the inspiring director of Greenpeace, and heard a little about Greenpeace's campaign to save our oceans. Read on for details. The second thing I want to tell you is an important new report from a no-fishing-zone in Mexico.

But first things first.

Kumi Naidoo, Intl Exec Dir of Greenpeace. Photo used with permission. © Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert / Greenpeace

Greenpeace's dynamic director - you gotta see this guy speak
Kumi Naidoo is Greenpeace's International Executive Director. He was in my hometown last week (Charlotte) to help us fight the merger of the coal-burning Duke Energy with Progress Energy, a merger that would make Duke the biggest and most powerful utility in the U.S.

But Kumi talked about a lot of things - including oceans. He said that Greenpeace is trying to get 40% of our total ocean area declared fishing sanctuaries, or no-fishing-zones. I love it. It's a huge goal, but who knows. With Kumi at the helm, nothing would surprise me. This man is fearless, tried-and-true. And Greenpeace has a long history of effective ocean activism. Consider supporting their campaigns by visiting their website.

Now, the second thing I wanted to mention - a very hopeful scientific report I saw last week, which was coincidentally related to Kumi's comments about fish sanctuaries.

Good news!
Mexico's Gulf of California has a national marine park that's been closed to fishing since 1995. A 1999 survey of the 71-square-kilometer park found no big fish, no top predators such as giant grouper or snappers. These big fish are the most common targets for fishers.

But there's been a turn-around. A recent survey showed that the fishing ban has had a dramatic effect! In the years since the park has been protected, the total mass of fish in the park has quintupled. The number of top predators has also soared. These big fish are indicators of a healthy ecosystem. Both of these trends are the opposite of those for fish in unprotected waters of the Gulf.

The park is Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park, located close to where the Gulf of California meets the Pacific Ocean. This study of Cabo Pulmo is a model for over-harvested oceanic areas - which could include most of the ocean perhaps. It's a strong argument for the creation of more fish sanctuaries, and counters the skeptics who've said that no-fishing-zones could have no effect.

"People who object to marine protected areas, especially to strong protection like here, often say there is no proof that they work," says Elliott Norse of the Marine Conservation Institute in Bellevue, Washington. "Well here is the proof."

Although protection of the park has overall been a huge success, sharks remain rare in the park, because of heavy over-harvesting for the fin trade as well as slow reproduction rates.

This study was published in the August 12 PLoS ONE (an online science journal) by Octavio Aburto-Oropeza and his colleagues of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California.

Want more?
If you want more detail about the destructive capacity of modern fishing, check out my review of the fact-filled documentary "End of the Line: Where have all the fish gone?". This film and the original book version by Charles Clover are both on Amazon. Another good book about the over-harvesting of our oceans is The Empty Ocean by Richard Ellis.

To learn about solutions and actions you can take, see the Greenpeace website.

Keywords: Greenpeace fish sanctuaries no fishing zones Kumi Naidoo End of the Line Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park Octavio Aburto-Oropeza Elliot Norse Scripps shark fins

Urban gardening in offbeat settings. Review of DVD "Truck Farm"

2011-09-29T08:02:00.000-04:00

"I was trying to find a way not to lose my lonely mind....I decided what I needed was more vegetables...." sings a plaintive male voice, as filmmaker Ian Cheney wanders through bleak urban scenery.

From this somber opening scene, the film "Truck Farm" takes a sharp upbeat turn. What follows is a joyful and info-packed movie about urban gardening....in some very unusual places. I thoroughly enjoyed this odd documentary with its wacky mode of delivery and intriguing cast of characters.

Filmmaker Ian Cheney

'Greenrooter' lays it down

The first of those characters is Cheney himself, who grows an organic "farm" in the back of his old pick-up truck in NYC. He creates his garden bed with the expert assistance of "Greenrooter" Victoria Foraker. The two of them explain the various layers laid down between the truck bed and the soil - to keep roots from penetrating the truck, to retain and drain water, and to prevent erosion. The top layers are light-weight soil and garden soil. After planting, Cheney installs a time-lapse camera to capture the lush growth of his truck garden. His customers later in the film include well-known nutrition scientist Marion Nestle and chef Daniel Barber, who both praise the truck's pristine vegetables.

Up on the roof...

I really liked the next entrepreneur profiled in the film, roof-top farmer Ben Flanner - he quit his E-Trade job to take a financial risk on his roof garden. Flanner said he'd been advised by friends to seek more stable employment, but he hoped the roof-top enterprise would be his stability, and planned to take on another roof.

Window farm

Water, windows, and wow!

The film features a garden on a small barge, as well - "The Water Pod." Four people live on the boat for 6 months at a time, while traveling to 5 locations in NYC. The boat provides all the boaters' food, shelter, water, and showering.Says "Living Systems Director" of the Water Pod, Carissa Carman, "People see it as an avant-garde approach to an oasis. Taking it to a whole new level."

Also interviewed is Britta Riley of "The Windowfarm Project." She introduces viewers to an economical system of pipes, pumps, and 25 plants spanning a vast picture window, a system that can be adapted to any sunny window.

In the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, Cheney explores a community farm that occupies a former asphalt playing field. Now the farm generates produce that costs less than a store would charge, and pays a salary to the neighborhood teenagers who tend it.

Local will be crucial at the 'end of oil'

The film is a feel-good experience - the projects are all producing wholesome food for motivated city-dwellers who care about their health. The movie is especially valuable in creating models for under-served urban populations who lack access to farmers markets and other affordable organic-produce outlets. But the film has relevance far beyond the present day and beyond unequal distribution due to retailers locating in prosperous neighborhoods. Here's the bigger picture. When our civilization runs out of oil in approximately 40 years, local food will be a must for everyone. VERY local. We won't have the fuel to truck produce across the country, or even across town. We won't have fuel to manufacture vehicles, or to construct grocery stores, for that matter. We'll have to get creative about how to grow our own food then, especially in urban and suburban settings. I'm glad someone is experimenting with different methods now.

I loved this creative and inspirational film. Truck Farm, with its songs and silliness, is a piece of the solution - a piece that will loom larger as the end of oil approaches.

I recommend it for classes, families, or general entertainment. The DVD is available from Amazon and from the website.

Keywords: gardening window garden urban garden Water Pod documentary Ian Cheney Ben Flanner Victoria Foraker Red Hook community farm Truck Farm

Review of new vegetarian cookbook "Veggiyana: the Dharma of Cooking"

2011-09-21T11:59:00.001-04:00

I was asked to review an unusual new cookbook, Veggiyana: The Dharma of Cooking, just released this month. The book by Sandra Garson is a blend of recipes from around the globe and short narratives about the author's food experiences or perspectives. It would be a great gift for someone interested in international cuisine, Zen Buddhism, or the origins of vegetarian staples, such as rice, pasta, and tofu.

I like the idea of such an eclectic mix of recipes. Some are simple enough, others more complex. I especially enjoyed Monique's Marinated Mushrooms (from Provence), Piro Aloo: Spicy Potatoes (from Kathmandu), and Volteados: Guatemalan-Style Black Beans. These three were very tasty and fairly easy; they also used commonly-found ingredients. Some recipes in the book have ingredients that could be hard to find, such as pomegranate arils, a daikon, Chinese dried tofu. An adventurous cook might be excited by this, but I'm more of an expedient cook, not very willing to search.

Vegan? Low-fat?

If you're vegan, take note that a fair proportion of the recipes in Veggiyana include dairy products, and several require eggs. I imagine plant-based milks and egg-substitutes could be used instead. As for fat, the author makes no claim that the dishes in the book are low-fat, and quite a few do call for several tablespoons of oil, butter, or ghee.

What is Dharma?

I enjoyed reading the passages in the book about the author's travels in Asia, particularly her efforts to improve the diet of malnourished children in a Nepali boarding school and the diet of Buddhist nuns in a Kathmandu abbey. The author is a student of Zen Buddhism and thus the book has a Buddhist flavor, with several one-line quotes from Buddhist teachers about the connection between a healthy body and a healthy mind. But for me, it stops short of actually delivering much Buddhist philosophy beyond the short quotes and the author's good works in the Nepali school and abbey. At least, that's the case with the "abridged advance" version for reviewers that I was sent. At first glance, I assumed that a book with "Dharma" in the title would include lots of guidance (that I need!) on pursuing enlightenment or at least serenity. Something along the lines of "present moment, wonderful moment." I was hoping for tips on how to keep my mind in the present while chopping vegetables, rather than engaging in my usual mind-wandering. My dear friend Therese Fitzgerald, an ordained Zen priest who co-founded the Buddhist church "Dharma Friends," defines Dharma as "the body of teachings of awakening." I don't see much about awakening in my abridged copy of Veggiyana. I do, however, see some promise of guidance in the Table of Contents for the complete book - the version you would get if you bought the book. I see "Perfecting Perception: Chocolate as Dharma Practice" and "Generosity: Learning through Food" - both are one-page essays that sound like insights into right living or healthy thinking.

A classic Zen cookbook compared

As I read through Veggiyana, struggling to describe it concisely and accurately, I keep thinking of my favorite Zen cookbook, The Tassajara Bread Book by Edward Espe Brown. Ed was the head cook at a Zen monastery in California. This book was first published in the 1970's, but is still offered on amazon.com - a testament to its timelessness. My copy is torn and stained, but I continue to use it because the slim volume cuts right to the chase - no frills, no embellishment. Although there's very little in the book about Ed or Buddhism, it somehow oozes a sense of living and eating simply, savoring the present moment. By its very simplicity, it models simple living. Veggiyana is different, for me, in that regard. Which is better? Ed's book might be better to hang onto for years, might be more utilitarian for cooks. Sandra Garson's book might be better as a gift, perhaps more entertaining for leisurely perusal.

A unique book

I appreciate Garson's efforts to convey her experience of Nepal and the value of wholesome food in living a wholesome life. I like her celebration of the rich variety in foods around the world. I do recommend this book, especially for those who already have a number of cookbooks. With its mixture of narratives and foreign recipes, this cookbook is unlike any others I've seen.

Veggiyana: The Dharma of Cooking will be available from Amazon in paperback on September 27, just in time for some early holiday shopping.

Keywords: Veggiyana The Dharma of Cooking Sandra Garson book review vegetarian cookbook Asian cookbook Nepal cookbook vegetarian recipes Asian recipes Nepal recipes international recipes Zen Buddhism Zen Buddhist book Tassajara Bread Book Therese Fitzgerald Dharma Friends Edward Espe Brown

Review of documentary "PLANEAT: Nothing changes the planet as much as the way we eat"

2011-09-06T16:14:00.008-04:00

PLANEAT logo

Carnivores, take heed! The film "PLANEAT" might convince even the most passionate meat-enthusiasts to lay off the stuff. This DVD makes a strong case that our love affair with meat and dairy is ravaging both our planet and our bodies. The filmmakers used extensive interviews with highly credible health and environmental experts (interspersed with cool vegan-cooking scenes) to illuminate the damages inflicted by the livestock sector and our own misguided food choices. Having co-authored a book on the same subject myself, I appreciated the filmmakers' skill in cramming a lot of convincing info into a very watchable film."

Breeding sow on a small N.C. farm. Photo: Sally Kneidel

The film's strength
The strength of the movie, for me, is the breadth of its coverage in addressing different angles of the meat-consumption issue. My husband Ken teaches biology/ecology and is always on the lookout for new tools to use in class to make the point that the livestock industry has a huge environmental and climate impact. The United States is the world's worst offender - we eat much more meat per capita than any other country. And as PLANEAT will tell you, eliminating animal products from your diet will prevent more greenhouse gas emissions than switching to the most fuel-efficient car on the market.

Dairy cow on a milking machine. Photo: Sally Kneidel

Great teaching tool
This film will be a useful teaching tool for progressive educators, to replace John Robbins' excellent 1991 film "Diet for a New America" - which is aging (although still accurate). PLANEAT is obviously current and features a number of young, pierced, tattooed chefs in the cooking segments. The two films overlap, in that both feature the research of Dr. Colin Campbell, a researcher from Cornell who conducted a landmark study relating disease frequencies to the consumption of animal products. In this study, menus of meat and dairy were implicated big-time as culprits in not only vascular and heart disease, but also numerous cancers. The research is reported in the 1990 publication "Diet, Lifestyle, and Mortality in China: a study of the characteristics of 65 Chinese counties" by Colin Campbell, Richard Peto from Oxford University, and two Chinese scientists. The work is also summarized in the 2005 book The China Study by Colin Campbell and his son Thomas Campbell.

"The China Study" by Thomas and Colin Campbell

Singer on ethical issues
PLANEAT includes interviews with Peter Singer, famed author and ethicist at Princeton University. In the film, Singer gives voice to moral concerns regarding animal abuses on factory farms. He also points out ethical concerns in our contributing to rising sea-levels that will drown farmers in developing nations - sea-levels that are rising as a result of livestock-related greenhouse gases.

I applaud PLANEAT not only for its broad scope, but particularly for its very detailed review of health effects. I learned a few things I didn't know, even after years of reading and reporting in my own books and blogs.

Shed of Tyson breeder chickens. Photo: Sally Kneidel

Coulda, shoulda included...
For me, though, the scariest down-side to meat-eating is its destructive effects on the rapidly declining welfare of our green planet. PLANEAT did address some environmental repercussions of livestock, but could have done so more stringently. For example, the film omitted the most significant eco-research I know of: "Livestock and Climate Change" by Richard Goodland and Jeff Anhang, environmental specialists with the World Bank Group. After a meticulous analysis, Anhang and Goodland reported that the livestock sector is responsible for 51% of greenhouse gas emissions! In other words, our eating of animal products is the primary cause of global warming! Surely their meticulous and widely-cited analysis is worth a mention.

"Livestock and Climate Change" gained notice in WorldWatch magazine

The film also didn't address depletion of marine fishes by overharvesting - a topic certainly pertinent to a film on the consumption of animal products. I would've liked to see a word, too, about the massive amount of water required to raise food for livestock, a growing concern as global water shortages escalate.

All filmmakers are limited by viewing time, and the thorough coverage of disease and reversal of disease by meatless diets perhaps merited these omissions - that's all a matter of personal perspective.

I recommend the film
Overall, I highly recommend PLANEAT as an important educational tool for teachers at any level, for parents and families, for environmental clubs or medical organizations, and for the enlightenment of any individual who cares about health, longevity, and solutions for our ailing planet.

Sow in farrowing crate on N.C. factory farm. Photo: Sally Kneidel

How to see PLANEAT
PLANEAT will be released for home, educational, community, and theatrical use in October 2011 from Bullfrog Films. For more details about that, please contact Stephanie at stephanie@bullfrogfilms.com or (610) 779-8226. Meanwhile, you can watch the film right now on the PLANEAT website.

Raising small numbers of pastured animals still generates GG, but less water pollution than factory farms. Photo: Sally Kneidel

Some of my previous posts about animal products' links to illness and environmental damage:
"New studies: cancer linked to milk consumption"

"New studies: Fast food "kids meals" loaded with calories and fat"

"Livestock account for 51% of annual worldwide greenhouse gas emissions"

"New study: meat impacts climate more than buying local"

"Less meat....smaller footprint"

"Is local food the greenest choice? New study says no"

"Earth Day: 3 things you can do"

Some of my previous reviews of food documentaries:
"Review of new food film 'What's on YOUR plate?' "

"Review of the documentary 'End of the Line: where have all the fish gone?' "

"Review of 'The Cove', an A+ documentary about the slaughter of Japan's dolphins

Keywords: PLANEAT, vegan documentary, Colin Campbell, Peter Singer, The China Study, vegan health, greenhouse gases and livestock, global warming and livestock, Sally Kneidel, review, documentary

Alpha-males highly stressed, reports new primate study from Kenya

2011-08-21T14:57:00.001-04:00

Chacma Baboon, Kruger National Park. Photo: Sally Kneidel

It's not easy being the alpha-male of a baboon troop. Sure, alpha-males have more access to fertile females and more reproductive success. But the cost is high in terms of stress, reports a study published July 15 in Science.

Laurence Gesquiere and her colleagues from Princeton University observed 125 adult male baboons living in 5 baboon communities in Kenya's Amboseli National Park, from 2003 to 2008. The scientists measured hormone concentrations by analyzing the hormone content of each baboon's feces, monthly.

Baboons live in social groups where the the top-ranking males have primary access to females in estrus. Adult baboons have long,dangerous canine teeth, and males fight ferociously for power. Gesquire's study reveals that the levels of stress-hormones in the highest-ranking males are similar to the levels in the lowest-ranking males, who are struggling just to survive.

The stressful challenges of alpha-males include having to fight off rival males and guard fertile females from other males' attentions. The stressors for the lowest-ranking males are not getting enough food and constant harassment from higher-ranking males.

Males that are just one rung lower than alphas in the power ranking have significantly less stress than either the lowest or the highest. But, these second-tier males have less access to females - generally only stolen advances when the alpha is busy elsewhere. And they risk his fury if discovered.

Infant baboon draws interest, Cape Point National Park, South Africa. Photo: Sally Kneidel

To read about my own observations of baboons in Africa, and more about baboon social structure, see link below:

Baboons are Africa's most widespread primate. Females rule!

Some of my previous posts about primate conservation, many based on my own observations in Southeast Asia, South America, and Africa:

Orangutans dwindle as Borneo, Sumatra converted to palm-oil plantations

Laws flaunted: flourishing pet trade threatens orangutans' survival

Monkeys and parrots pouring from the jungle (the Amazon)

Trade a major threat to primate survival

U.S. imports 20,000 primates per year

The great apes are losing ground

Orangutans are lefties; chimps and gorillas right-handed

We are family: new evidence of our close relationship to chimps

Wildlife trade rivals drug trade in profits

Keywords: baboons alpha male primates stress Laurence Gesquiere

Happy Herbivore: Best, most versatile cookbook since Moosewood

2011-08-19T11:55:00.001-04:00

"Mock Tuna Salad" from The Happy Herbivore website

"Let's cook something out of Happy Herbivore when Jack's family comes," my husband Ken suggested. "It's so nice to finally have a book of easy vegan recipes."

Ken didn't know I'd been asked to review the The Happy Herbivore by Lindsay Nixon, or was even interested in his opinion. But I was glad to hear it, and I totally share his enthusiasm for the book. This is the book we've been waiting for since the classic original Moosewood Cookbook - and even better, because The Happy Herbivore is low-fat and vegan, not just vegetarian.

We've been eating meatless and mostly vegan at our house for 13 years. We've boiled our rotation down to about 15 meals; we keep these recipes in a tattered folder on top the fridge. Occasionally our daughter Sadie, the creative cook, has warmed us to recipes with new ingredients - quinoa, red lentils, nutritional yeast. She and I co-authored the book Veggie Revolution a few years ago, which is in part a vegetarian recipe book, but is more an expose of local factory farms and an alternate look at small, humane, and green farms. Sadie's one of the best cooks I know, and when she saw my copy of Happy Herbivore, she was determined to get one herself. She's subsequently written a great review of the book on our blog.

Features of Nixon's book that won us over, that make The Happy Herbivore easy to use:

1. Beautiful layout, with delectable color photos of most dishes.

2. Nutritional info given on each recipe page: calories, calories from fat, total fat, protein, cholesterol, dietary fiber, total carbs, sugar.

3. Easy browsing due to 7 symbols on each recipe: no cooking required, kid-friendly, gluten-free, fat-free, soy-free, and omni-friendly (favorites of meat-eaters).

4. Inclusion of recipes for sauces, condiments, and spices needed for other recipes - to eliminate searching for hard-to-find vegan ingredients. This is a tremendous asset.

5. Thorough coverage of food types, with 12 categories in the table of contents, including: Breakfast and Brunch; Muffins and Breads; Soups, Dals and Chilis; Pasta and Casseroles; Burgers, Wraps, Tacos, and More; Quick One-Pot Dinners; Tofu and Vegan Meats; Desserts; and so on.

6. 175 recipes! And every single one looks good!

The section that intrigues me most is Tofu and Vegan Meats. Check out Nixon's "Mock Tuna Salad" recipe on her website. Ken and I spend a lot of money on "fake meats". Now we can make our own! Sadie's already made the "Chicken-Style Seitan" and gave it an A+. Ken already made "Breakfast Sausage Patties" (excellent) and we'll make the "TVP Beef Crumbles" later this week. TVP is cheap. Crumbles are not. Yay! I like saving money.

Last night we made Nixon's "Broccoli Pesto Pasta." We grow basil and make pesto pizzas all the time, which are probably my favorite entree ever. But I have to say the Broccoli Pesto Pizza is a close rival. And low-fat! Unlike the pizza. We got in a little debate after the broccoli pasta dish about who would get to eat the leftover for lunch.

For our visitors I mentioned in the opening sentence, we wound up making "Enchilada Casserole." Also Nixon's "Enchilada Sauce" and "Quick Queso Sauce," which are in her "Spreads, Gravies, and Sauces" section and part of the recipe. The casserole and sauces were exceptionally yummy, and we're still eating the leftovers. As our guests stood up to leave, Danela said "I loved that casserole - the cheese was so good!" Ken told her, "There was no cheese, that taste was nutritional yeast." There was a momentary silence of bafflement; it was a fun opportunity to educate some non-vegans! Who needs cheese? Who needs to contribute to exploitive and polluting mega-dairies? Nutritional yeast - much more wholesome.

I look forward to enjoying new and scrumptious meals and feeling guilt-free about every bite with the The Happy Herbivore.

Keywords: vegan Happy Herbivore Lindsay Nixon vegan cookbook vegetarian cookbook fat-free cookbook low-fat cookbook great cookbook vegan recipes vegetarian recipes meatless recipes

The Happy Herbivore delivers creative, easy, low-fat vegan recipes

2011-08-08T19:06:00.010-04:00

I was in the middle of cooking my fourth dish from The Happy Herbivore: Over 175 Delicious Fat-Free and Low-Fat Vegan Recipes before I noticed that the entire cookbook is a) fat-free or low-fat and b) vegan. Call me unobservant, but it's really because the recipes are so delicious that I just didn't notice the absence of fat or animal products. Ok, and maybe I didn't read carefully.

While the The Happy Herbivore thoroughly covers every category from breakfast to dessert, its inventive array of homemade meat substitutes is what first caught my eye. As a thrifty - er, budget-challenged - vegetarian, I subsist on beans, beans and more beans. Healthy, yes; exciting, no. I just can't afford fancy veggie dogs, burgers, and other packaged veggie foods. So author Lindsay Nixon had me instantly salivating with promises of "Tuna" Salad, homemade Seitan Pot Roast, and Spicy Sausage.

And I was not disappointed. First I whipped up a batch of Mexican Chorizo in about five minutes and devoured it rapturously ontop of homemade sopes. Encouraged, I tried my hand at making my own Chicken-Style Seitan. The recipe promises "a dead ringer for country-fried or baked chicken," and it did not let me down. Best of all, it only took about two minutes of prep time, and the recipe also produced delicious gravy! I also like the recommendations for seasoning blends like No-Chicken Broth Powder and Poultry Seasoning Mix. I'll be using these even in my own recipes.

While the book certainly does offer a bountiful assortment quintessential veg-centered staples, such as Veggie Croquettes and Smoky Black Bean Enchiladas, those fast and easy meat substitutes are what really make it unique. With hearty Soul Burgers, rich Cheater Pad Thai, and hilarious Torkey, The Happy Herbivore will satisfy both vegans and omnivores alike. The flavorful and protein-rich recipes will make you forget meat was ever an option. And you just may fall in love with beans all over again.

by Sadie Kneidel

World population grows by 1 billion in only 12 years

2011-08-01T14:09:00.000-04:00

The 7 billionth person on Earth will be born in India on October 31 of this year, according to scientists working with data from the UN.

It's only been 12 years since we passed 6 billion, in 1999. In contrast, the world population growth from 1 billion to 2 billion took 120 years.

What's next?

Our human population is expected to hit 9.3 billion in 2050. Some scientists project human population growth to begin leveling off between 9 and 10 billion. Others predict continued geometric growth well beyond 10 billion.

Caption: world population growth between the years 1800 to 2100

Growth is due to reduced death rates

The growth is due to reduced death rates rather than increased birth rates. The decreased death rate is attributed to the distribution of effective vaccines and antibiotics, as well as improvements in public health conditions. These recent medical advances have improved life expectancy most dramatically in developing countries, where most of the population growth is happening.

As the poorest populations expand, scientists say unrest will grow

By 2050, the population of India will surpass that of China. Nine of the most populous countries at that time will be developing nations where poverty is widespread. Issues of unequal distribution of world resources will loom larger; borders of industrialized and wealthy countries will grow increasingly porous.

U.S. will be only developed country among the most populous

In 2050, the U.S. will be the only industrialized nation among the 10 most populous countries. Our over-consumption of the world's resources will be even more out of proportion to the rest of the world than it is now.

Oil has fueled this growth

Although medical advancements have played a role in reducing death rates, it's been the abundance of oil that's allowed populations to grow so large. With cheap oil it's been possible to power the machinery to build large cities and support them. Take it away and you can't sustain New York, Tokyo, Delhi, Mexico City, etc. All cities, even those of moderate size, will suffer dramatically when we run out of oil, which many scientists predict within 50 years (see http://www.worldometers.info/).

Keywords: population growth 7 billion oil end of oil

Child marriage legal & still practiced in Saudi Arabia

2011-07-21T15:44:00.001-04:00

12-year-old Saudi bride (photo from Al Nafjan article)

Some of this post is drawn from "Child Marriage: It's Still Legal in Saudi Arabia" by Eman Al Nafjan, of Rijadh. Al Nafjan is the author of the Saudiwoman's Weblog, a blog on Saudi society, culture, women and human rights issues. Her article appeared in the email newsletter, Arts and Opinion, last week.

When I finished writing this post, finished reading the articles I've linked to and looking at pictures of child brides on Google Image, I straggled into my kitchen and just slumped against the wall, weeping with sorrow and anger. I came back to my computer after a few minutes and looked at one more site that made me feel some hope - Million Women Rise. Readers, please leave comments about other sites and organizations that are working to empower women or to protect young girls (and young boys) from abuse - I need to hear it! Sally Kneidel

Saudi girls can be married off at any age

Saudi activists have been pressuring the Ministry of Justice to outlaw child marriages and to prosecute parents who "allow their children to be raped under the pretense of marriage." In April of 2009, the Ministry issued a statement that it was working on legal changes to protect young girls from this abuse. But according to last week's Arts and Opinion newsletter, the only legal change so far is a blank on the marriage certificate for the age of the bride. Any age is acceptable.

Saudi child bride

Young brides can suffer permanent physical damage

A Saudi social worker interviewed by the capital's newspaper, Al Riyadh, said she knows of 3,000 cases of brides 13-yrs-old or younger married to men the age of the bride's father or grandfather. Why do parents turn their daughters over to pedophiles, knowing that rape of a young girl can inflict permanent and even fatal physical damage, as well as psychological trauma? Intercourse with an immature girl can and often does cause a fistula - a tearing of the tissues that separate the bladder and rectum from the vagina. Without surgery to repair it, a fistula leads to life-long leaking of urine and feces from the vagina, which causes infections, can cause kidney failure and death. (Rape, especially violent rape, of adult women can also cause fistulas. As can prolonged childbirth, or any birth for an underage mother.)

So why do parents give their young daughters to much older men? One reason is to get the dowry paid to the parents by the groom. Another reason is cultural...

Having an unwed daughter is perceived as culturally risky

"Girls are seen as very risky in Saudi Arabia because they can later shame the family name by sleeping with someone,” Al Nafjan explains. “So families often marry off their girls at a young age so they can’t shame the family. It’s particularly common in cases when you have people from the lower economic status who get divorced,” Al Nafjan says. “The father usually wants to keep the boys, because culturally they are not seen as risky, and doesn’t want to give the daughters to the mother out of spite, so he just marries them off to the first person who’ll pay. In all the cases that have gotten the attention of local newspapers it was because either the mother or the aunt made an issue of it."

Daughter sold for $22,600

Nafjan describes the marriage of a 65-year-old man with hepatitis B to a healthy 11-year-old girl. She reports another case involving a 12-year-old girl who was sold by her father into marriage with an 80-year-old cousin for the equivalent of $22,600. The girl had to be taken to the hospital after the wedding night. Saudi women's rights activists are outraged at such cases but powerless to do much about it, if the parents are in favor. A wedding officiator may object as well, but apparently has no legal grounds to refuse to perform the wedding.

10-year-old who escaped forced-marriage named "Woman of the Year"

I came across this book several times in researching this post. I haven't read it but it looks intriguing. Amazon has more information about it.

Internationally acclaimed book and author

For more information about child marriage, see Al Nafjan's article as well as these links to other articles:

Al Nafjan's article

Yemini Child Bride, 12, Dies in Labor. CBS News

Yemen: "I'd Rather Die than Go Back to Him"

I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced

Saudi Justice Ministry: Ban Child Marriage (post on Million Women Rise)

My previous posts on child marriage:

Review of gripping polygamy memoir: "Escape" by Carolyn Jessup

Child brides, poverty, population growth

Keywords: child marriage child bride child brides fistula Saudi Arabia Yemen dowry forced marriage arranged marriage

Review of gripping polygamy memoir: "Escape" by Carolyn Jessop

2011-07-15T07:59:00.000-04:00

"I have a corner in my state that's worse than the Taliban" said Utah's attorney general Mark Shurtleff.

Child brides

That corner of Utah (and adjoining Arizona) is the subject of this engrossing and shocking book by Carolyn Jessop, a brave young mother of eight who managed to escape the oppressive and totalitarian cult headed by Warren Jeffs. You've probably heard of Jeffs, who made the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List in 2006 for alleged sexual conduct with minors, incest, accomplice to rape, arranging illegal marriages between his adult male followers and female children, and other sordid activities.

Warren Jeffs and one of his 12-year-old brides

Married to a stranger 32 years older

But the book is not about Jeffs, he's just part of the horrifying backdrop. The story is Carolyn's memoir, moving through her childhood within the cult, where parents were encouraged to routinely beat their children, and her vivid descriptions of her arranged marriage at age 18 to a 50-year-old stranger.

Vicious competition for husband's favor

I thought I knew a little bit about polygamous marriages from watching the tame and amiable reality show "Sister Wives" on the TLC channel. The world of the cult that Carolyn grew up in, the FLDS, is another ballgame entirely. I was stunned by Carolyn's retelling of her married life to a power-hungry bully with growing numbers of wives and dozens of children, a life ruled by constant fear of physical and emotional abuse of her children and herself. Wives were forced to compete for the husband's favor, or watch their children suffer. The husband's favorite wives were free to beat, torment, starve, and humiliate the children of the less favored wives. His preferred sexual partner could expect at least some protection for her own children, so competition among the wives was fierce. Wives who displeased the husband were treated no better than a dying chicken in a hen house: shunned, verbally and physically attacked, even left on the side of the road. Teenage boys who might compete with old men for prospective brides were also left on the side of the road outside the community, with no resources whatsoever.

Twilight Zone for real

The scenario makes no sense unless it's seen in the bigger picture - almost all the people in Carolyn's world grew up in the cult and had virtually no exposure to the outside world or media, and little education. Even the police in the town were part of the cult, like a Twilight Zone nightmare. Women's cars had no license plates to keep them from leaving town. Most of the women were faithful to the cult: brainwashed to believe that their eternal salvation was directly dependent upon their obedience to their husband's wishes. The ego-maniacal men were told that they would be gods in the afterlife, each with his own planet to rule over as king.

It's a story of human weakness, cruelty, greed for power, and gullibility that challenges belief. And yet Carolyn leaves no doubt that every word is true.

Her dawning realization...

The best thing about the book is Carolyn's detailed narration of her gradual awakening to reality and her growing determination to protect her children. We move with her through the events that convinced her she was living in an increasingly dangerous world of lies, delusion, and deadly oppression.

Escape!

And then the night of the escape! She waited patiently for the confluence of circumstances that would maximize her chances of success - the time finally arrived in the middle of the night. Her husband out of town, Carolyn stuffed all of her baffled, brainwashed children into the van with no license plate and careened out of town. Carolyn was the first woman ever to escape the FLDS with all of her children, to survive the subsequent legal assaults of her high-ranking husband, and to win custody of all her children.

I love this woman! What a role model for taking control, where none was offered. For throwing herself bravely into uncharted territory. For winning, and for writing to inspire the rest of us with her stunning tale of victory over the lowest of the low - men who live to abuse and degrade those weaker than themselves.

Yay for Carolyn Jessop! If you want some riveting reading, grab her book.

I just saw on Amazon that she has a second book, Triumph: Life After the Cult, published in May 2011. I'll be reading that one as soon as I can get my hands on it.

Links to some of my previous reviews of books and documentaries

"Burning in the Sun": I love this unique eco-documentary
Review of "The Cove": An A+ documentary about Japan's dolphin slaughter
Review of the documentary "End of the Line: Where Have All the Fish Gone?"
Review of new food film: "What's on YOUR Plate?"
Review of Jonathan Safran Foer's book: "Eating Animals"
Review of the new documentary "Dirt: The Movie"
Review of the documentary "Kilowatt Ours" by Jeff Barrie

Posts about child brides in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia

Child brides, poverty, population growth by Sally Kneidel
Child marriage: it's still legal in Saudi Arabia by Eman Al Nafjan

Early orangutan researcher Galdikas announces new "cruise expedition"

2011-07-05T11:42:00.003-04:00

Birute Galdikas with young orangutan. Photo: Irwin Fedriansyah

John Bordsen, travel writer for the Charlotte Observer, published on July 3 a brief interview with Birute Galdikas about her work with the orangutans of Borneo. Decades ago, Galdikas was one of three women sent by famed anthropologist Louis Leakey to research the world's great apes: Jane Goodall pioneered the study of wild chimpanzees and Dian Fossey pursued wild gorillas, both projects in Africa. As a young woman, Galdikas took off to Borneo (tropical island in Southeast Asia) to study the natural behavior of orangutans in their native forests. For a summary of the research of all three woman, see Sy Montgomery's excellent book Walking with the Great Apes.\ Another great read, about a North American journalist's search for Birute Galdikas on Borneo, is A Dark Place in the Jungle by Linda Spalding.

I visited Indonesian wildlife markets; illegal sale of baby orangutans rampant

Fossey was killed on site in Africa (by poachers?), but Goodall and Galdikas have maintained a lifelong commitment to chimps and orangutans, respectively. At some point during her career, Galdikas' forest research morphed into rescuing orphaned orangutans, as the forests of their native islands have been plundered by timber interests and the palm-oil industry. Mother orangutans are often killed when they're in the way of commercial development, in fact are often killed to obtain their offspring. A baby orangutan can bring tens of thousands of dollars in the blackmarket pet trade. I learned that, first hand, while posing as a tourist in the illegal wildlife markets of Jakarta last summer. I was offered a baby orangutan in the Jakarta market of Pramuka, although more often orangutan sales occur in backwoods and sequestered locations to avoid any risk of prosecution. For more about the specifics of my interactions with traders, see my post: Laws flaunted: flourishing pet trade threatens orangutans's survival

I traveled through Borneo and Sumatra last summer investigating...

the conservation efforts for orangutans, whose numbers are dwindling as their habitat disappears. I was astonished at how much of the tropical forests of these lush islands is already gone. So sad, because these Southeast Asian islands have been among the most bio-diverse sites in the world. More posts, and pix, from my travels in orangutan habitat:
My search for wild orangutans on Borneo and Sumatra
Hunting may threaten orangutans even more than habitat loss

Galdikas' 10-day expedition for tourists next year

Anyway, early next year, Galdikas will lead a 10-day "Indonesian Interlude" cruise expedition to two of her research stations in Borneo (see Orangutan.Travel.or Fronteirs.Elegant Journeys to learn more about the trips).

Protecting apes and other wildlife

Trapping, shooting, eating, and selling wildlife are long-held traditions in forest cultures. Solutions must involve enforcement of local laws protecting forests and wildlife, and enforcement of penalties. That's something that's not happening right now in developing countries. But it must if orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, tigers, and thousands of other species are to survive this century. Many organizations are busy, on site, trying to make it happen. In Southeast Asia, TRAFFIC and Greenpeace are working hard to turn things around.

What can you do?

Support some of the NGOs who are making the most progress in protecting orangutans from illegal hunting and trade and who are fighting to protect Southeast Asia's remaining forests from destruction. And working to rehabilitate orphaned orangutans.

Some of my previous posts about deforestation:

Orangutans dwindle as Borneo, Sumatra converted to palm-oil plantations August 3, 2010
Wild tigers are in trouble October 4, 2010
Plush toilet paper flushes old forests. September 26, 2009

Keywords: orangutan orphans orangutans poaching Borneo Sumatra Galdikas 10 day expedition Indonesian Interlude Camp Leakey deforestation palm-oil industry

Hundreds of Sculpted Ivory Products Seized (Cameroon)

2011-06-28T11:41:00.002-04:00

Wild elephant drinking at a man-made watering hole in Africa. Drought can make wildlife more vulnerable to poaching. Photo: Sally Kneidel

Article below reprinted from the Cameroon Tribune, June 27, 2011

Douala (Wouri) - Two wildlife traffickers were arrested in Akwa, Douala in the Littoral Region, following a sting operation carried out by the Littoral Regional Delegation of Forestry and Wildlife.

They were arrested in possession of two ivory tusks and over a hundred of sculpted ivory products. They were about to sell the illegal ivory products when they were arrested. The government of Cameroon has put in place procedures and regulations to protect natural resources from leaving the country that is why according to Mrs Fosi Mary, former technical advi ser of Environment and the Protection of Nature, "Countries have a sovereign right over their biological resources and no one can collect any resource from a country without the prior consent of the country of origin, so the government of Cameroon, within the framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity and CITES and other conventions in the field of environment is trying to protect resources from leaving the countries without authorization We receive applications from people who want to move resources from the country and we provide authorizations and certificates of origin of the resources concerned which is shown at the ports of entry”.

To curb this phenomenon, the Central African subregion has seen the emergence of projects involved in wildlife law enforcement with project such as the wildlife enforcement program launched in Cameroon in 2003 by the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife in collaboration with LAGA – an international non governmental organization specialized in wildlife law enforcement coming into action. The success of this project has seen its replication in countries such as Congo Braz with the PALF project, in the Central African Republic with the RALF project and in Gabon with the AALF project. All of these projects work on the same basis - specializing in wildlife law enforcement.

Traffickers know very well that they need a license for their activities but they simply go ahead illegally, for want of larger profits. This is done in discriminately, regardless of whether the species are in class A, B or C.

They trade in all kinds of species in cluding totally protected wildlife species. Numerous wildlife species have gone extinct in the African continent some include the Barbary lion that once roamed large areas in North Africa from Morocco to Egypt.

Law enforcement it seems is the only viable alternative for the moment against the illegal trade in protected species. While we may hold work shops and seminars to reflect on the mitigation and the halting of the rate of extermination of our wildlife spe cies, the species in earnest are dying out each day. It is estimated that about 6 lions are lost per year in the Waza national park and it is believed that less than 20 lions are left in the park. From the arithmetic, this means that we may be bidding farewell to lions in the next 3 or 4 years having been killed to extinction.

Keywords: elephants sculpted ivory seized seizure poaching Cameroon illegal wildlife trade blackmarket trade in wildlife illegal trade

My organic war on a fleas: Dumped Terminix, embraced light traps

2011-06-22T13:51:00.011-04:00

Cat flea. Photo: dpd.cdc.gov

Shot Grady dead

Our 100-year old house is cursed, say the neighbors. A previous owner of the house shot and killed his next-door-neighbor from the back porch. Seems his neighbor Martha (who was also his sister) cut through his backyard one-too-many times. It irked him to see her scampering up his hill every morning on her way to town, brazenly ignoring his "Keep Out" requests. So one morning, while arguing with Martha's husband Grady about the trespassing, he yanked out his gun and shot Grady dead.

Not sure what year that was, but it was a long time ago. The house sat idle for decades, deteriorating slowly. By the time we bought it last year, it was in desperate straits. We debated whether to rehab it or tear it down. But the broad front porch and hidden closets won us over.

Feral black cats mean trouble

The flea problem started after we were well into the renovation. First clue was a gigantic raccoon living in the attic. The holes in the roof had to be closed up, so the raccoon was evicted, its dung piles left behind. Then we realized feral black cats were living in the crawl space. The contractor chased the cats out, closed off their access. A week later, their fleas all migrated into the living area of the house looking for new warm-blooded hosts.

Exterminator spraying baseboards

Bad move: I called Terminix

The contractor told us no one could go in the house, the fleas were so bad. I was living out of town, so I picked the cheapest exterminator I could find by calling around: Terminix. A "technician" came out and sprayed the crawl space and all the baseboards in the house with a chemical brew of Permethrin and (S)-Methoprene (as they told me later).

Scary "effects" of the chemicals
A week after that, the fleas were back in full force. Terminix came back, did it all again. A few days later, I arrived in town to spend a few nights in the house, sleeping on the floor. Five minutes after I lay down in my sleeping bag, my throat began to burn. I got up to make sure all the windows were wide open, moved as far away from the baseboards as I could in a room that had been mopped, then went to sleep. The next day I developed a cough, which progressed into a rip-roaring cough that's kept everyone in the house awake every night. It's been 3 weeks since then; the cough has still not gone away. The hacking got bad enough to scare me - started thinking I had pneumonia or TB or lung cancer. Went to the doctor who ruled those out with a chest x-ray, said it could be from the inhalation of chemicals, no way to tell. The "Material Safety Data Sheet" that Terminix sent me when I asked for chemical information says, "Inhalation: remove victim to fresh air. If not breathing give artificial respiration, preferably mouth-to-mouth. Call a physician if effects occur." Effects? Well, whatever. I guess my cough is an "effect."

Fleas return; Terminix says "Too bad"
Okay, so a few days later the fleas began showing up again. I called Terminix who said tough luck; our only option was to sign up for the "Annual Plan" (monthly sprays from the technicians). That was easy to turn down.

Just out of curiosity, I called an exterminator with a "nice" sounding name, one the contractor recommended: "Home Team Pest Defense." They refused to tell me what chemicals they would use. Said the technicians would divulge the chemical names when they arrived to spray. Coughing, I hung up.

We kicked the chemicals, went organic

Diatomaceous earth
After deciding to avoid more toxic spray, our first move was to buy a box of "food grade" diatomaceous earth from Deep Roots Market. Diatomaceous earth clogs the breathing spiracles of insects, killing them. It's a fine silica powder made of the cell walls of diatoms - a type of algae. We sprinkled the d.e. over the floor of the entire house and left it in place for 10 days. No one entered the house during that time, to avoid feeding any of the fleas (which need a blood meal to reproduce). By leaving the d.e. in place for 10 days, we also killed any hatchlings of eggs laid before the adults succumbed.

That plan worked well. But not quite well enough. A few days after vacuuming up the diatomaceous earth, fleas once again appeared - in the bathroom, then a few in the room next to the bathroom. Every day, 25 fleas or so were showing up in the bathtub (all killed by pouring shampoo on them).

By watching them, we figured out they had to be coming from a hole between the tub and the wall. A passage to the crawl space? Don't know. We caulked every crack and hole in the area of the tub, and the flow trickled to around 5 fleas per day.

Needed more organic tools to get remaining fleas
Our daughter and her boyfriend needed to move into the house pronto, so covering the floors with diatomaceous earth was no longer an option. What to do?

We searched the internet, made lots of phone calls, came up with a plan.

Vacuuming is essential
Almost every source recommended daily vacuuming, then sealing the vacuum bags in a plastic bag and throwing them away immediately. My daughter read that 94% of fleas present at any one time are sucked up in a single vacuuming. Some said that a vacuum heavy enough to vibrate the floor does better - shaking the fleas and eggs loose.

Permaculture forum is a good source of info
This permaculture forum is one of the most useful sites I found.

Three-pronged strategy from the forum's administrator:

"A good solution: flea traps, daily vacuuming, DE in places the vacuum cannot reach (and where you aren't going to kick up the dust) plus a daily flea combing for your pets. As time passes and the flea traps and the combing is not turning up any fleas, you can cut it all back to once or twice a week."

So we redistributed diatomaceous earth in places the vacuum could not reach.

Diatomaceous earth in bowl

Light traps are a powerful tool against fleas
And then the light traps. Ken and I had used light traps to fight a flea infestation when our kids were babies, and they worked great. Fleas are attracted to the heat of an incandescent bulb, and when the bulb is suspended over a pan or plate of soapy water, or something sticky like honey, they fall in and they either drown or get stuck. We used soapy water. Worked like a charm. It's recommended to keep the traps going (at least every night) until no fleas have been caught for a week. Below, pics of homemade light traps for fleas. The first one is our current trap.

Our homemade light trap. Photo: Sadie Kneidel

Photo courtesy of richsoil.com
Photo courtesy of richsoil.com

Photo courtesy of Garden Grapevine.com

Photo courtesy of indestructables.com

Photo courtesy of indestructables.com. In this pic, part of a fan casing covers the trap to keep kids and pets out, with just a night light on top.

Another excellent online resource:

The site Beyond Pesticides said if you steam-mop, "the warmth and humidity of the steam may also stimulate remaining flea eggs to hatch a day or two after the cleaning, so some fleas may reappear. The few fleas that hatch after the steam cleaning should be the last of the flea population, and can be caught with a vacuum." It goes on to say, "If only a few fleas are caught [by the light traps], the infestation is very small and can probably be controlled by the traps alone, and the traps should be left in place until no additional fleas have been caught for a week. If 20 or more fleas are caught in a week, there is probably a more serious infestation, and it is time to find the source."

One last tool: jars of alcohol
With our original infestation years ago, Ken and I each carried a jar of alcohol and walked across every square yard of the house every day, slowly. And every time a flea jumped on us, we plucked it off and dropped it in the alcohol. This is better than squashing them, which could squirt out live eggs onto the floor. We kept the jars on top the fridge where the kids couldn't reach them.

Oh yeah - one more! A cayenne charcoal bomb
My daughter talked to some friends who made a cayenne bomb and said it killed all their fleas. So Sadie (my daughter) set off such a bomb in our crawl space yesterday.She said she got hookah charcoal from a local hookah store. She lit the charcoal with a lighter, per instructions from the store, then put a spoonful of cayenne pepper on top of it. Closed it up in the crawl space. We'll see if it helps. I was unable to find out anything about this from an internet search.

So, although the fleas have been a drag, I don't think the house is cursed! We're about to squash the blood-sucking fleas, I think.

Just to keep the vibes good, we're thinking of having some kind of house-blessing ceremony. The fleas will not be invited.

If you have tips to share, about fleas or house blessings or exterminators, please post comments.

Keywords: Terminix pesticides Home Team Pest Defense fleas organic toxic reaction light traps heat traps fleas flea treatments flea spraying lung irritants diatomaceous earth fleas vacuuming Deep Roots

My review of "Burning in the Sun" - I loved this unique eco-documentary

2011-05-20T12:26:00.003-04:00

"Burning in the Sun" featuring Daniel Dumbele. Note the film-festival awards across the top.

My husband loped into the living room while I was watching the DVD, "Burning in the Sun". He had hoped to turn on a baseball game, but he stopped, watching a scene on the DVD. After a minute, he sat down.

"What's this?," he asked me.

"It's a documentary I was asked to review," I told him. "It's the best film I've seen about solar since Jeff Barrie and 'Kilowatt Ours'. About this young guy in Mali who makes solar panels by hand and distributes them to villages that have no electricity. It's really good."

Ken stayed and watched the whole thing with me.

Charismatic Daniel yearns to help his country
"Burning in the Sun" is the most memorable environmental documentary I've seen in a while. But it's also a compelling personal story that would be interesting even if the star, charming Daniel Dumbele, were selling shoes instead of PV panels. It's a plug for non-polluting, affordable solar power, but it's also about parental influence, about youth struggling for meaningful livelihood, about West African rural culture - all of which are fascinating to me.

Can't help but love this lad: equal parts European and West African
Daniel was raised in Mali by his European mother after his West African father died. Growing up, Daniel helped his mother install 350 wells throughout inpoverished rural Mali, saving lives by providing clean and safe drinking water. Said Daniel, "For me, it's nice and normal to be trying to help my people." At the age of 26, Daniel decided to start his own project: he learned how to make solar PV panels for $200 instead of the usual $1000, by piecing together broken PV cells discarded by American corporations. He uses all local materials to make the panels, except for the broken PV cells he carefully trims and fits together like puzzle pieces.

Daniel hoists a panel he made to a rooftop in Mali

As the DVD unfolds, Daniel sets out to distribute the completed panels, with more requests for them than he can fill. He focuses first on the village of Banko, holding a workshop for local people to teach them how to install the panels and set up the wiring. He's assisted in the beginning by a solar physicist and a female solar engineer, as he masters the circuitry for getting energy from the panel to the lightbulbs - which turns out to be quite simple. Click here to see a film trailer.

Daniel's panels profoundly affect students' exam results
After Daniel's efforts, the school in Banko is illuminated for the first time, and the students (girls and boys) flock into the brightly lit room in the evenings to do their homework. The film tells us that the year before getting lights, only 20% of the Banko children passed their national exams. The year after, 97% passed!

Micro-loans make panels affordable
Daniel explains that he plans to sell the panels in the city, where customers will have to pay him cash. Then he will be able to offer "micro-credit" or "micro-loans" to the rural villagers, most of whom are farmers, allowing them a year to pay him back for their panels. Or even allowing them to barter for the panels.

Daniel finds a way to help the world while supporting himself - a feat that still eludes me
The documentary caught Daniel at precisely that point in this life where he's trying to figure out how to help his people in his own way, while at the same time making a living. As a mother of two twenty-somethings myself, I was moved by Daniel's search for livelihood. I also know from my own struggles that it's not easy to make a living by serving a cause. I still haven't figured out how!

Afriq-Power attracts big clients
Daniel is making it work. In 2006, his company "Afriq-Power" opened a storefront in Bamako, Mali's capital city. His clients now include USAID, Geekcorps, and the US Embassy. Daniel's company electrifies health centers and schools, and installs solar-powered pumps in rural Mali. Daniel recently won a $30,000 contract to build 400 panels to power radios in Malian villages.

Ken's students were intriqued by the DVD
As I watched the captivating story of Daniel's journey, my husband Ken was sucked into it too, and forgot all about the baseball game he'd intended to watch. Ken was so enraptured with the DVD, he watched both versions (83 minutes and 22 minutes), and then took the film to work to show his classes. The next evening he told me that it had sparked class discussions about the association between the education of girls and reduction of birth rates, about the concept of microloans, about the diversity of races at work on the project and the inclusion of both genders as solar "experts". Most of all, after studying global poverty in the abstract, his students really enjoyed the personal nature of "Burning in the Sun." Me too!

I strongly endorse this film
I recommend this inspirational and informative documentary to anyone - for personal viewing at home, to fuel family discussions, to illustrate multiple issues to students - poverty in developing nations, grass-roots solutions to our environmental crises, communities working together learn new technologies. "Burning in the Sun" is perhaps the most fully-fleshed out documentary I've seen yet - a very human story about the monumental problems that threaten our planet.

For more information and a way to contribute, see the website for the film.

Keywords: Burning in the Sun Afriq-Power solar panels PV Mali Daniel Dumbele documentary

Orangutans on Borneo are observed using tools to catch fish

2011-05-10T09:23:00.000-04:00

Mother and baby orangutan at a refuge on Borneo. Photo: Sally Kneidel

Field researcher Anne Russon of York University in Toronto monitored orangutan behavior from 2004 to 2007 on the Indonesian island of Borneo. She observed orangutans scavenging fish that had washed up along shores. She also saw them grabbing live catfish out of small ponds. The orangutans immediately ate the fish.

In 2007, Russon stocked a small pond with catfish and videotaped orangutan visits to this pond. She reported that several of the red apes learned on their own to jab at catfish with sticks, provoking the fish to flop out of the ponds within reach. The orangutans then ate them.

Using sticks to frighten fish out of ponds qualifies as "tool use," an ability that was once thought to be unique to humans. Other primates and crows have also been observed using tools to obtain food, and sometimes making tools. Chimps have been filmed making spears to stab and remove small primates from treeholes and then eat them. (The spears are made by sharpening sticks with their teeth.) Chimps also use sticks to remove termites from holes to eat.

If any of you readers can tell me other observations of meat-eating or tool-use in orangutans, I'd like to know.

Russon reported her observations of orangutans catching fish at the 'American Association of Physical Anthropologists' meeting in Minneapolis on April 14, 2011.

For further reading on primate conservation and behavior, and my observations of wild orangutans on Borneo and Sumatra, check out some of my earlier primate posts:

Some of my earlier posts about primates:
Orangutans are lefties; chimps and gorillas are right handed April 14, 2011
Trade a major threat to primate survival March 21, 2011
We are family: new evidence of our close link to chimps Feb 16, 2011
Is males' attraction to trucks and balls genetically based? Jan 14, 2011
Hunting may threaten orangutans even more than habitat loss Dec 6, 2010
Wildlife trade rivals drug trade in profits September 20, 2010
Laws flaunted: flourishing pet trade threatens orangutans' survival August 23, 2010
My search for a wild orangutan in Borneo and Sumatra August 16, 2010
Orangutans dwindle as Borneo, Sumatra converted to palm-oil plantations August 3, 2010
The great apes are losing ground March, 2010
The U.S. imports 20,000 primates per year. February, 2010
Baboons are Africa's most widespread primate. Females rule! December 30, 2009
Mama monkeys give in to tantrums....when others are watching. April 23, 2009
Angry chimp reveals a "uniquely human" ability. March 21, 2009
Monkeys and parrots pouring from the jungle. September, 2008
Chimps' short-term memory is better than humans' April 2, 2008
Chimps share human trait of altruism August 3, 2007

Some of my previous posts about tool use in wildlife:
Animals making tools...what else are they capable of? May 28, 2009
Wild monkeys use tools...and choose the right one Feb 20, 2009
We're not so unique: Research shows birds have human qualities. Oct 18, 2007

Dolphins learn tool use from their moms. April 27, 2007

Keywords: orangutan orangutans Borneo Indonesia tool use Anne Russon York University Toronto orangutans catching fish orangutans eating fish apes eating fish

We took a stand against Duke Energy's nukes and coal

2011-05-07T15:48:00.002-04:00

A demonstrator outside Duke Energy. Photo: Sally Kneidel

Dozens of protesters demonstrated outside Duke Energy headquarters in Charlotte on Thursday (5/5/11), prior to a meeting of shareholders. The demonstration included speakers, picketers with signs, and street theater - the actors portrayed utility customers whose money winds up in the hands of legislators. The demonstrators protested the use of coal from mountaintop removal and the construction of two new nuclear units in Cherokee County, S.C.

The most eloquent speaker I heard was Mickey McCoy (above), a Kentucky native who grew up in a town devastated by mountaintop removal. Jim Rogers said Duke tries to avoid buying coal extracted by mountaintop removal, but only when they can find other coal sources that are equally cheap (unlikely since mountaintop removal is the cheapest method). Photo: Sally Kneidel

A banner held by protesters outside Duke Energy on Thursday. Photo: Sally Kneidel

At the shareholders meeting indoors, 20-30 people lined up microphones in the aisles of the auditorium to pose questions to Duke Energy CEO and President, Jim Rogers. I was one of those people - my purpose was to point out to Rogers and the shareholders the risk involved in building new nuclear units in South Carolina, on a river whose flow is inadequate to provide consistent cooling of the units.

My comments to CEO Jim Rogers at the meeting:
"I'm concerned about the consumption of water by the proposed nuclear units on the Broad River. Duke Energy and its shareholders face serious financial and public relations risks from Duke’s use of so much water.

"Already, NC’s electric-production sector has one of the largest rates of water withdrawals in the nation, over 9 billion gallons every day – about 80% of our state’s total water withdrawals.

"I understand that some of the water withdrawn by nuclear power plants is returned to the lakes it’s drawn from. But much of the water withdrawn to cool the reactors is 'consumed' or lost by evaporation. The proposed units on the Broad River will have a consumptive loss of 35-40 million gallons per day.

"Right now, most people are unaware of how nuclear plants impact our state's water - including loss of aquatic habitat, releases of radioactivity, and the huge evaporative losses. As you [Jim Rogers] said yourself, 'water is the new oil' – because of growing water shortages due to population growth and climate change.

"Soon the people of NC will find these losses of water and habitat unacceptable. Duke will be taking a huge risk to squander even more water at new nuclear plants. Likewise, with 70% of biologists predicting mass extinctions this century, the loss of aquatic wildlife due to dams and thermal pollution will become increasingly objectionable to the public.

"The increasing water shortage also creates a high financial risk for Duke. Because of coming droughts and periods when water is too warm to cool the plants,the proposed plants are likely to be idle at times or operate at reduced power - a public annoyance and a loss of revenue. As the Broad River diminishes over the years, the useful lifespan of the $11 billion units is also likely to be cut short. So the ratepayers [not the shareholders] will wind up paying for nonfunctional nuclear plants.

"Do you, Mr. Rogers, believe the Broad River will have enough water to support these plants?

"In other states Duke is investing more aggressively in energy efficiency, wind, and solar, which require no water. Why doesn’t Duke invest more in efficiency, wind, and solar here in its home state, thereby minimizing the risks to Duke and to all North Carolinians of our dwindling water supplies?"

Rogers' response
Jim Rogers answered my question about the Broad River by saying "That's a good question." He went on to say that Duke is studying the issue and they plan to create a reservoir (by damming the Broad River). Which was no answer, really. Every nuclear plant has a reservoir of some kind. The question about solar, wind, and efficiency was posed by several people. He said wind turbines take up too much room. The real answer to the efficiency question is that Duke makes more money when customers consume more energy, because then they pay more money to Duke. Duke had strong 2010 earnings, and this past week had first-quarter growth that moved its stock to the highest price in 3 years.

Street theater outside Duke Energy. Seated "rate payers" hand over money to the "legislator" dressed in black. Photo: Sally Kneidel

Keywords: Duke Energy nuclear coal mountaintop removal water shortage demonstration Mickey McCoy Jim Rogers

April tornadoes caused by climate change, population growth, and pavement

2011-05-05T14:14:00.003-04:00

Photo: noaa.gov

April's 297 devastating tornadoes were unparalleled in the U.S. Of the four biggest tornado clusters ever recorded here, two occurred this past April. What caused so many deadly and tragic tornadoes in a single month?

Meterorologists say chance is partly to blame. One little thing can set off a tornado, or not.

We do understand a lot about factors that cause tornadoes, though. They need warm, most air interacting with cooler, faster air. A thunderstorm coupled with something to create rotation, such as wind shear, can create a tornado. Are those conditions occuring together more often these days?

Changing climate is partly a factor, say meteorologists. Jet stream forces in April were among the strongest ever recorded, contributing to wetter, stormier weather than usual in the middle of the country. (I wrote a post recently about how warming Arctic air has sent the circumpolar jet stream shooting off southward, leading to the massive snow falls the U.S. experienced this winter.)

The stormier April was also caused in part by warm air from the U.S (warmer than usual due to climate change) colliding with cooler Canadian air - conditions that can spawn tornadoes.

Population growth and pavement contribute to number of tornadoes

More people are living now in "Tornado Alley" - the nation's midsection and the South - so more tornadoes are observed and recorded.

Some of the states hit hardest by tornadoes this year were also among our fasted growing states - such as Texas and North Carolina. The South has grown 14.3% in the past decade, compared to 9.7% for the nation as a whole. According to Kirk Johnson of the NYT, much of that growth occurred in areas of flood plain, where water used to spread out and be absorbed. But now that the areas are developed and paved, water runs off quickly, heated by the pavement, and is much more likely to cause floods of warm water. The evaporation of warm water can lead to storms, and collisions of air masses of different temperatures and densities. Ingredients for tornadoes.

Climatologists have long predicted that climate change will lead to stronger storms as we head into the future. Apparently that will include not only hurricanes, droughts, blizzards, and floods, but also tornadoes.

Keywords: tornado, tornadoes, climate change, population growth, pavement, April tornadoes

Like chocolate? Like berries? Like oatmeal? Put 'em all together....

2011-04-28T12:27:00.000-04:00

Are you an oatmeal fan? I am. I even eat it for supper when we're too busy to cook.

I came across these yummy oatmeal recipes that really change it up, from 'Dark Cocoa Raspberry Oatmeal' to 'Chocolate Strawberry Oatmeal Smoothies'.

Take a look at the other 11 oatmeal recipes at this website.

Keywords: oatmeal recipes

Older female elephants assess danger best

2011-04-23T11:14:00.000-04:00

African elephants feeding, Kruger National Park. Photo: Sally Kneidel

Male lions are deadly predators. A single male, alone, can bring down an elephant calf. Females can't do it alone - more than one female lion is needed to attack any elephant successfully. So, from an elephant's perspective,it pays to be able to tell who's on the prowl - a male or female lion, and how many.

Male lion fresh off a kill (note blood on lower lip), South Africa. Photo: Sally Kneidel

Karen McComb and her team from the University of Sussex in Brighton, England, played lion calls to 39 elephant families in Kenya's Amboseli National Park. They compared the elephants' reactions to the lion roars. All the matriarchs reacted to the sound of three lions roaring with more agitation and avoidance than the sound of one lion. But the older matriarchs showed an additional awareness - they could tell not only the number of lions, but the gender of the lions, and respond to the different threats accordingly. McComb's research will be published in an upcoming Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Females over 60 are best judges of predatory threat
The researchers concluded that an older, more experienced leader would be likely to make a more accurate assessment of the relative danger from nearby lions(s). A young and aggressive leader can be an able defender, even though lacking the accumulated social and ecological knowledge of an elder. A combination of a young aggressive leader and an older experienced matriarch may be the ideal combo to head up a pride of lions.

Sadly, poachers often target bigger and older elephants. This practice poses a more serious threat to the elephants than would the poaching of younger individuals. The repercussions of poaching older elephants has broad implications, far beyond predatory threats. Elder elephants also model appropriate social behavior to younger adults and adolescents. The loss of elders can lead to out-of-control behavior in young rogue males, which have been documented behaving destructively and overly-aggressively. Their asocial behavior has included the rape of rhinoceros species.

For more information on conservation of African and Asian elelphants, and how you can get involved in protecting elephants from poaching, see the following websites:
TRAFFIC: the wildlife trade monitoring network
IFAW.ORG on African Elephants
International Elephant Foundation
Elephant Conservation
WWF - Elephants

Some of my previous posts about the illegal trade in wildlife
Africa's big mammal populations drop 59% in 40 years! 1/13/11
308 rhinos killed in South Africa this year for their horns 12/16/10
The tiger in the suitcase: an isolated incident? 9/28/2010
Wildlife trade rivals drug trade in profits 9/20/2010
Laws flaunted: flourishing pet trade threatens orangutans' survival 8/23/2010
My search for a wild orangutan in Borneo and Sumatra 8/16/2020
Orangutans dwindle as Borneo, Sumatra converted to palm plantations 8/03/2010

With a chain-saw, he cut off the rhino's valuable horn 8/15/2009

Some of my previous posts about lions and leopards in Africa
Lions decline 90 to 95% in last 50 years. 3/3/2011
We were lucky to see lions on a kill. But are lions disappearing from Africa? 7/30/2009
Leopard adventure: male and female clash over prey. 8/4/2009

Keywords: lions older female elephants predators poaching Karen McComb

Orangutans are lefties, chimps and gorillas right-handed

2011-04-14T10:02:00.001-04:00

Photo showing an orangutan engaged in the TUBE task. Photo used with permission of the researcher William Hopkins.

Mmm, love that peanut butter
Apes are right-handed or left-handed, just like us. Not a big surprise, since they're our closest evolutionary relatives. A research team led by William Hopkins of Agnes Scott College recently tested 777 captive apes - orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos. Each ape was given a PVC tube 15 cm in length and 2.5 cm in diameter, with peanut butter smeared in both ends. The peanut butter was too far inside to reach with their mouths. The apes had to hold the tube with one hand and reach inside with a finger of the other hand. The researchers recorded which hand the apes used to reach inside for the peanut butter. Each ape was tested on 2 to 4 occasions, in solitude if possible.

Only the orangs were left-handed
Orangutans turned out to be the only southpaws. The majority of gorillas and chimps are right-handed, as are 90% of humans. Bonobos showed no significant handedness at the population level. Hopkins believes that handedness at the population level in apes may be a result of ecological adaptations associated with posture and locomotion (personal communication with Hopkins). He plans further research to try to understand why orangutans are left-handed, while other apes and humans are right-handed in general. It may be somehow related to the fact that orangutans are the most arboreal of the apes.

Hopkins' research will soon be published: Journal of Human Evolution 60 (2011) 605-611.

Orangutans at a sanctuary on Borneo, drinking milk. Note that they're holding hands! Photo: Sally Kneidel

Handedness in crows too
Apes are not the only nonhumans to display handedness. In 2007 I wrote this post about research by Gavin Hunt of the University of Auckland, who documented handedness and tool-making in New Caledonia crows.

Post by Sally Kneidel, PhD

For further reading on primate conservation and behavior, and my observations of wild orangutans on Borneo and Sumatra, check out some of my earlier primate posts:

Some of my earlier primate posts:
Trade a major threat to primate survival. March 21, 2011
We are family: new evidence of our close link to chimps Feb 16, 2011
Is males' attraction to trucks and balls genetically based? Jan 14, 2011
Hunting may threaten orangutans even more than habitat loss Dec 6, 2010
Wildlife trade rivals drug trade in profits September 20, 2010
Laws flaunted: flourishing pet trade threatens orangutans' survival August 23, 2010
My search for a wild orangutan in Borneo and Sumatra August 16, 2010
Orangutans dwindle as Borneo, Sumatra converted to palm-oil plantations August 3, 2010
The great apes are losing ground March, 2010
The U.S. imports 20,000 primates per year. February, 2010
Baboons are Africa's most widespread primate. Females rule! December 30, 2009
Mama monkeys give in to tantrums....when others are watching. April 23, 2009
Angry chimp reveals a "uniquely human" ability. March 21, 2009
Monkeys and parrots pouring from the jungle. September, 2008
Chimps' short-term memory is better than humans' April 2, 2008
Chimps share human trait of altruism August 3, 2007

Keywords: orangutans chimps gorillas apes handedness William Hopkins

The Meaning behind "Earth Hour"

2011-04-06T10:24:00.000-04:00

During the last Saturday of March each year between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. people and businesses around the world pledge their support to reducing environmental impact by turning off their lights. This year, that date was March 26, and approximately 134 countries did their part by pulling the "off" switch, which plunged some of the world's most iconic structures into temporary darkness. The Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia disappeared from the night sky. The Eiffel Tower in France completely winked out. The Burj Kalifa in Dubai, the tallest tower in the world, seemed to suddenly vanish into thin air. All of this reminded people that the impetus for environmental change is everywhere, but that only through collaboration can the planet be saved.

Earth Hour began four years ago in Sydney, Australia, where 2.2 million people and more than 2,000 businesses shut off their lights for an hour to demonstrate their commitment to environmental change. Since then, the message of Earth Hour has gone global. Unlike many other demonstrations for change, Earth Hour is also a celebration. Many participants in Earth Hour throw parties, showing that doing something to help the planet does not have to be all work and no play. As only non-essential lights are turned off, such as building lights and room lights, public safety is not a concern as long as participants stay aware of their surroundings.

This year's Earth Hour was a success with some of the world's largest cities taking part, including New York, Hong Kong, Toronto, and Moscow. Yet, it was the 2010 Earth Hour that remains the event's most successful year. In 2010, approximately 4,616 cities, towns, and municipalities took part in Earth Hour, and about 1,551 iconic landmarks went dark as well.

Yet, despite all of Earth Hour's accomplishments, there have been critics. These critics typically claim that the hour-long absence of lights does not make a difference in terms of energy consumption and its effects on the environment, and this claim is undeniably true. In the grand scheme of things, turning off lights for one hour every year does not make much of an impact. However, this annual event is not about turning off lights to save power. Instead, it is a symbol of environmental change rather than an act of environmental change. It allows communities and businesses to come together for an easy and visually stunning representation of what it means to use less in order to give more back to nature.

By-line:
This is a guest post by Mariana Ashley, a freelance writer who particularly enjoys writing about online colleges. She loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to mariana.ashley031 @gmail.com.

Keywords: Earth Hour

Failure is a part of success

2011-03-31T12:04:00.004-04:00

In this video Michael Goodwin proposes that without failure, success loses its meaning. I've certainly heard this message for years from my father, who is a high school biology teacher. Over the 25 years he's spent at his school, I've heard him rant countless times about pressure from parents and even school administrators to award As and Bs to all his students - even those who haven't earned them - so they'll have good-looking transcripts for college. The result of this, he points out, is that those grades become meaningless. And what's more, the grading system is no longer a motivation for students to succeed. Why offer grades at all if they're all the same? Furthermore, I'd argue that this issue starts long before the classroom. When I'm playing with my housemates' two-year-old, I frequently feel compelled to intervene before she does something silly. "You can't fit your dolls into that box! It's too small." "You can't wear that shoe! It's too big for you." But I try to restrain myself from offering these comments. She learns much faster from trying - and failing - to do these things than she does if I tell her what to do. Yesterday I watched her trying to make a tower out of a set of nesting plastic cups. She didn't understand that she had to stack the cups according to size in order to make a tower. But I said nothing and watched her try and try. She gradually observed that if she put a small cup first, the larger cups just covered it up. After several minutes of trying she rearranged the cups and successfully built a tower!

When I tell her what to do, in order to prevent failure, she usually gets upset and loses interest in the activity. But when I let her figure it out on her own, she feels accomplished and proud. Working through failure increases learning at all stages of life and is necessary to really learn from success.

by Sara Kate Kneidel

Trade a major threat to primate survival

2011-03-21T13:14:00.005-04:00

Baby spider monkey for sale in Peru. Photo: Sally Kneidel, PhD

Tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of primates are traded every year, and the number's been growing linearly for 15 years When I read that news in a recent study by Vincent Nijman of Oxford Brookes University, I was not surprised. Having worked and traveled in Africa, the Amazon, and S.e. Asia, I've seen for myself that legal and illegal trade in primates is rampant. I've communicated with Nijman several times over primate issues; he seems to be one of the most knowledgeable academics alive on the subject of primate trade in S.e. Asia (and maybe elsewhere as well).

Nijman's article ("Primate conservation: measuring and mitigating trade in primates") is the overview article to a new issue of the open-access journal Endangered Species Research. This particular issue is the result of a recent conference and is devoted entirely to primate conservation. In Nijman's introduction, he and co-authors write that the international trade in primates -- for research, pets, meat, etc.-- is one of the biggest threats to primate conservation. Habitat loss and hunting are the main threats to primate survival in the wild, but trade is a leading threat for some species, such as the slow loris and Barbary macaque.

Slow loris for sale in Indonesia. Photo: Sally Kneidel

During the 1990s, numbers of wild-caught and captive-bred primates traded were roughly equal, but afterward captive breeding increased substantially. By 2005, around 71,000 live primates were traded internationally, 53,000 of them reported as captive-bred. However, some of the captive-breds may have been laundered wild-caught specimens.

Since 1995, China and Mauritius have supplied more than half of all primates traded internationally (31% and 18% respectively). And guess who is the largest importer of live primates? I'll give you a hint - a country with thriving medical research and a poorly regulated pet trade. Yep, the US imports the most live primates (26%), with Japan (14%) and China (13%) close behind.

Saddlebacked tamarins for sale in Peru (I'm looking down on the cage). Photo: Sally Kneidel, PhD

Although I knew about the trade in live primates, I was shocked to read in Nijman's paper that more than a million dead primates are traded every year. The trade in dead primates and primate parts includes almost 20,000 exported as hunting trophies over the past 30 years.

The dead also include more than 100 primate species used in traditional medicines (based on cultural superstitions).The journal mentioned above contains a paper by Starr et al. documenting the threat posed to two slow loris species in Cambodia from such trade.

Slow loris for sale in Java. Photo: Sally Kneidel

However, the major trade in primates is in those traded domestically for food. A paper by Wright and Priston in this same special issue examines what drives such trade in southwestern Cameroon and concludes that many more primates are sold there for wild meat than are captured for local consumption.

Long-tailed macaque for sale in Indonesia. Photo: Sally Kneidel

Examples of illegally traded primates include long-tailed macaques from mainland S.e. Asia (Cambodia, Laos, Viet Nam) into China, to supply the booming biomedical trade. A paper in this special issue by Maldonado and co-workers documents the illicit trade of over 4,000 night monkeys (Aotus spp.) each year from Peru and Brazil into Colombia to supply a biomedical research facility.

Baby long-tailed macaque for sale in Jakarta. Photo: Sally Kneidel

“The above figures are from an analysis of legal trade reported to CITES [the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora], but the true figures are likely to be higher, because of under-reporting and illegal trade,” says Nijman.

As Nijman et al. note, in 2006, trade was listed as a threat to only one of the world’s most threatened primates species, but four years later, trade for meat, medicines and pets is implicated in the decline of nine of these species.

White-handed gibbons in Sumatra. Photo: Sally Kneidel

Other papers in the special issue include one by Chris Shepherd of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia on the illegal primate trade in Indonesia. He also contributed as a co-author to an article on gibbons in zoos and rescue centers in Indonesia. Chris is an impressively diligent and persistent wildlife-trade researcher and writer for TRAFFIC in S.e. Asia. He was a big help to me in preparing for my own travels there.

“The illegal primate trade in Asia is decimating populations of some of the region’s most charismatic species: tackling such trade should be regarded as an urgent priority for wildlife enforcement agencies in the region,” said Shepherd.

Other topics covered include effective implementation of CITES; the use of forensics in trade; problems, pitfalls, and successes of rehabilitating and reintroducing confiscated primates; and educational and livelihood strategies to mitigate trade.

Sources:

"Trade threat to primates" on the website of "TRAFFIC: The wildlife trade monitoring network." The article "Trade threat to primates" was written I believe by Richard Thomas of TRAFFIC. Many of the comments from my blog post above were direct quotes from Thomas's summary. (Thank you Richard! And thanks for using the spider-monkey picture I donated to TRAFFIC for your summary!)

To access and/or download the full contents of the Endangered Species Research issue on primates (discussed above), click here.

Some of my previous posts about primates, primate trade, and primate conservation:
We are family: new evidence of our close link to chimps Feb 16, 2011
Is males' attraction to trucks and balls genetically based? Jan 14, 2011
Hunting may threaten orangutans even more than habitat loss Dec 6, 2010

Wildlife trade rivals drug trade in profits September 20, 2010
Laws flaunted: flourishing pet trade threatens orangutans' survival August 23, 2010
My search for a wild orangutan in Borneo and Sumatra August 16, 2010
Orangutans dwindle as Borneo, Sumatra converted to palm-oil plantations August 3, 2010

The great apes are losing ground. March, 2010
The U.S. imports 20,000 primates per year. February, 2010
Baboons are Africa's most widespread primate. Females rule! December 30, 2009
Mama monkeys give in to tantrums....when others are watching. April 23, 2009
Angry chimp reveals a "uniquely human" ability. March 21, 2009

Monkeys and parrots pouring from the jungle. September, 2008
Chimps' short-term memory is better than humans' April 2, 2008
Chimps share human trait of altruism August 3, 2007

Keywords: primate trade primate survival primate conservation bushmeat pet trade traditional medicine trophies trophy hunting Sumatra slow loris Southeast Asia Jakarta long-tailed macaque tamarins spider monkeys

Radiation found in Japan's food exceeds safety levels

2011-03-20T10:30:00.002-04:00

Tests performed Saturday food supply found radiation in spinach from farms six 60-75 miles south of Japan's stricken reactors. Radioactive iodine in the spinach exceeded government safety levels three to seven times, reported food-safety officials. High levels of radioactive iodine are linked to thyroid cancer.

Milk at a dairy 20 miles from the leaking reactors was found on Wednesday to contain small amounts of iodine-131 and cesium-137.

The milk and spinach are from an agriculturally rich area, so the radioactive contamination could affect the food supply for large areas of Japan. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said that more tests are being done on other foods, and if more contamination is found, food shipments from the area will be halted. He also insisted that the contaminated foods "pose no immediate health risks".

More than 7,600 people were killed by the earthquake-spawned tsunami that knocked out the nuclear reactors. More than 11,000 people are still missing.

To read more about the food contamination, click here

Keywords: Fukushima Japan nuclear reactors tsunami earthquake

Radioactive isotope from Japanese reactors detected in Sacramento

2011-03-19T17:19:00.000-04:00

The EPA reported Friday afternoon that a small amount of radiation from Japan's damaged nuclear reactors has been detected in Sacramento. Experts have been expecting small amounts of radioactive isotopes to blow over the ocean to California beginning as early as Friday. The isotope picked up by monitors Friday is xenon-133. According to the EPA, the isotope is present in Sacramento at such low levels that it presents no danger to human health.

To read more about the Sacramento story in the LA Times, click here.

Photos of Japan's crisis from LA Times

Keywords: Japan earthquake tsunami Sacramento xenon-133 radiation spread

Lions decline 90-95% in last 50 years

2011-03-03T19:49:00.001-05:00

South African lion taking a break from his kill, a Cape buffalo. Photo: Sally Kneidel

Lions extinct in 10-15 years? That's the prediction of National Geographic explorers-in-residence Dereck and Beverly Joubert. The couple have studied and filmed Africa's big cats for more than 25 years. They say that wild lions have declined from 400,000 in 1960 to around 20,000 today.

"The Last Lions"

Based in Botswana, the Jouberts have a new documentary and a companion book, both called "The Last Lions" (see link below). This latest film follows a solitary female lion in the Okavango Delta of Botswana as she tries to feed and protect her three cubs after her mate dies. Female lions usually live and hunt in a group, with a single male as protector against intruding males. A solitary female alone is at a serious disadvantage. Females do virtually all the hunting for a group, and they usually hunt cooperatively.

Males are freeloaders

Males that are part of a pride seldom hunt, but share in the females' kills. The conspicuous black mane helps protect a male's neck during fights with rivals, but makes it difficult for him to creep toward pray unnoticed. Mortality is much higher in males than in females.

Threats to lions

Africa's lions are threatened primarily by habitat loss, as human populations expand. They're also frequently poisoned or trapped by rural dwellers who blame lions for livestock losses.

I was surprised at how few lions I saw

I've been to South Africa a couple of times in the last 5 years looking for wildlife. Although I spent virtually all my time in Kruger National Park and other wildlife reserves, I saw very few lions. In eight weeks of searching, I had only three lion sightings: one solitary male, two males on a kill together, and one pride of females with their young. One wildlife guide I talked with told me that, in his youth 40 years earlier, he had shot lions every single day - to protect his family's livestock, he said. This was in the same place where I saw only one lion over a period of 3 weeks.

Link to Jouberts on NPR

The Jouberts were interviewed on March 2 by Terry Gross, host of NPR's "Fresh Air". Click here to read NPR's summary of the interview, or to listen to the entire interview.

A couple of my previous posts about Africa's big cats:

We were lucky to see lions on a kill

Leopard adventure: male and female clash over prey

Keywords: lion extinction lion conservation Dereck Joubert Beverly Joubert The Last Lions NPR

Duke Energy fuels the extreme weather that drives up our bills

2011-02-22T12:28:00.002-05:00

Coal emissions are a big contributor to climate change

Printed in the Charlotte Observer on Feb. 21, 2011

This letter to the editor was written in response to "Scientists connect global warming to extreme rain" (Feb.17) and "Duke earnings up 23% in 2010" (Feb. 18)

"Thursday the Observer reported that 'telltale fingerprints' in scientific data confirm that manmade climate change is fueling extreme weather events such as massive snowstorms and rainstorms. Friday we learned that Duke Energy's 2010 earnings were up 23 percent, in large part because of extreme weather.

"Now, Duke Energy wants to raise rates to pay for new coal-fired power plants. Burning coal is a huge cause of the climate crisis. Climate change is not a "victimless crime." Extreme weather hurts people. But it's great for Duke Energy.

"Let's call on Duke Energy to stop fueling the extreme weather that's driving up our electric bills and Duke's profits. Duke should shut down some coal plants and promote drastic conservation and energy efficiency."
Keywords: Duke Energy coal emissions climate change energy efficiency Duke Energy drives up energy bills Duke Energy drives up coal emissions Duke Energy fuels climate change Duke Energy fuels extreme weather coal fuels extreme weather coal fuels climate change

We are family: new evidence of our close link to chimps

2011-02-16T13:03:00.002-05:00

Photo: wikimedia commons

People are good at detecting human personalities accurately, even from expressionless mug shots. A study last year showed that we can reliably tell who is extroverted, emotionally stable, agreeable or imaginative - just from their blank and expressionless faces.

We can read chimps too

A new study shows that we can also predict personality traits accurately from expressionless photos of chimps! In the new study from Bangor University of Wales, 139 college students looked at pairs of chimpanzee mug shots. In the photos, the chimps looked straight ahead or at a slight angle with no teeth showing and no shadowing over the eyes which could make them look threatening. Sixty to 70% of the students accurately identified which chimps were dominant and which were not. Accuracy was better with male chimps than females.

The researchers, led by Robert Ward, say they don't know exactly what characterizes the face of a dominant chimp or an extroverted person. Ward suspects that chimps can detect the difference too. He plans to test that next.

Study underscores our genetic similarity to chimps

What's the significance of these studies? The researchers conclude that the ability to detect important personality traits from facial structure (not expressions) evolved 7 million years ago in a common ancestor of both chimps and humans. The fact that humans can read chimp facial expressions suggests that this ability is "part of an evolved system."

Chimps are our closest relatives, sharing 98% of the our DNA. It's not too surprising that we should able to read their faces in the same way we read human faces.

Wouldn't it be nice...

I'm always glad when I see a study like this. I have this fantasy that once we realize how smart and how like us chimpanzees and other great apes are, the tide will turn on protecting our ape relatives from impending extinction.

For more information about what you can do to protect wild apes, see these links to primate conservation NGOs:

Jane Goodall Institute
Orangutan Outreach
Sumatran Orangutan Society
Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International
Orangutan Land Trust
International Primate Protection League
TRAFFIC:the wildlife trade monitoring network

Some of my previous posts about primates and primate conservation:

Is males' attraction to trucks and balls genetically based? Jan 14, 2011
Hunting may threaten orangutans even more than habitat loss Dec 6, 2010

Monkeys and parrots pouring from the jungle. September, 2008
Chimps' short-term memory is better than humans' April 2, 2008
Chimps share human trait of altruism August 3, 2007

Keywords: chimpanzees chimps Robert Ward University of Bangor

New study: Women's tears contain pheromones that turn men off

2011-02-15T12:57:00.000-05:00

Female tears affect men's desire. Photo: wikimedia commons

An old friend told me once that she intentionally cries in conversations with her husband when she's not getting her way. She might want to consider a different tactic. New evidence suggests that a pheromone in women's tears turns men off rather decidedly.

Two researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have just published a study in the journal Science which demonstrates that the tears of human females turn men off.

Tears contain pheromones, apparently
The researchers, Shani Gelstein and Noam Sobel, have apparently shown that human female tears contain a pheromone that reduces men's sexual arousal. A pheromone is a chemical produced by the body that communicates with others of the same species. For example, female dogs in heat have a scent that attracts males. Males of many species have a scent in their urine, or in glandular secretions, that advertises the boundaries of their territories and keeps competitors out. Pheromones are very common among other mammals but have seldom (if ever) been identified in humans.

It's interesting that, in this experiment, the subjects could not consciously smell the pheromone. But they apparently smelled it subconsciously, because it affected their behavior.

Women's tears dampened men's sexual response
I thought the experiment was ingenious. The researchers collected a jar of tears from women as they watched sad film clips and tears trickled down their faces. A pad containing either tears or a salt solution that had been trickled down the same faces was then attached to each male subject's upper lip. Neither substance had a perceptible odor. The men were then shown female faces; 17 of the 24 men found the female faces less alluring after whiffing tears than after whiffing salt solution.

Another 50 men showed less physiological sexual arousal after whiffing tears than after whiffing salt solution. Low sexual arousal was indicated by slow breathing rates and low levels of testosterone in their saliva.

In a final experiment, men watched a sad movie while sniffing women's tears or sniffing a salt solution. The men sniffing tears showed a much reduced blood flow to areas of the brain that had earlier reacted strongly to an R-rated erotic movie.

The researchers don't know what the chemical nature of the pheromone might be. More research is need to figure that out.

How would the pheromones in women's tears affect other women?
I never have really felt that it was to my advantage to cry in front of a man. It might catch attention, might inspire guilt or pity, but I'm not sure it's ever really worked to my advantage. I'm curious to see the experiment repeated on female subjects. How do females respond to whiffing the tears of other females? I imagine the response would be increased blood flow to the parts of the brain involved in care-taking, nurturing, and heart-felt sympathy.

What do you think?

Keywords: Shani Gelstein, Noam Sobel, pheromones in tears, women's tears, tears reduce sexual response

Massive snowfalls due to Arctic warming, breakdown of polar vortex

2011-02-04T12:51:00.005-05:00

Photo by Sally Kneidel

Why are massive snowfalls and cold air walloping the U.S. for the second year in a row?

I listened to the climate reporter for the NY Times, Justin Gillis, on NPR yesterday. He said our current weather is due to a breakdown in the "polar vortex." Gillis mentioned that the U.S. had warmer winters up through 1995 - thought to be due to global climate change. Now record-setting blizzards are dumping massive amounts of snow over large areas of the U.S. And that too is thought to be due to global climate change. Does that make sense? It does.

This morning I read the newsletter of Thomas Homer-Dixon, a climate scientist in the U.K. He explained what the polar vortex is, how the melting of Arctic ice has changed it, and how that change is responsible for our brutal winter.

Even areas of the South have had multiple snowfalls this year. Photo: Sally Kneidel

What is the "polar vortex"?

Dr. Homer-Dixon explains it this way. Usually in early winter, a basin of low-pressure air forms over the Arctic Ocean's cold sea ice. Jet streams travel west to east along this basin's southern edge, creating a huge circular flow - the polar vortex - that travels counterclockwise around the Arctic. This flow acts as a fence, separating the Arctic's cold air from warmer air farther south.

A warmer Arctic apparently causes colder continents

According to Homer-Dixon and other climate scientists, heat was released last winter (in Dec and Feb) by newly exposed water in the Arctic - water that used to be ice. That heat created bulges of high-pressure air over the Arctic which pressed against the polar vortex, destabilizing it. The jet streams that comprise the polar vortex broke into disconnected segments, some of which traveled north to south, pulling bitterly cold air into North America, Europe and eastern China.

Photo by Sally Kneidel

That change in wind directions is called the "Warm Arctic - Cold Continents" climate pattern.

Scientists can't say for sure yet whether the same thing is responsible for this year's brutal winter. But they do know that jet-stream maps for the Northern Hemisphere in late November 2010 showed the jet streams broken into "bits, pieces, loops, and circles with many north-to-south flows over North America and Eurasia."

Writes Dr. Homer-Dixon, "People who think this winter's brutish weather proves climate change isn't real might want to think again."

Keywords: climate change polar vortex Arctic ice Thomas Homer-Dixon record snow harsh winter

Africa's big mammal populations drop 59% in 40 years!

2011-01-31T10:43:00.003-05:00

African elephants in Kruger National Park. Photo: Sally Kneidel

Just saw a distressing news item. In an interview published 1/27/11, scientist Ian Craigie says populations of big mammals in Africa have decreased 59% in 40 years. And those figures are only from protected areas such as national parks. If unprotected areas were included in the study, the percent would probably be much higher. Craigie is a zoologist (University of Cambridge) and former employee of South Africa National Parks.

Craigie says the primary causes of the decline are agriculture, hunting and the bushmeat trade. But all are due to human actions and Africa's population explosion. Africa's human population has increased 5-fold since WWII. The additional human population has moved into cultivated areas that were previously wildlife habitat, leading to widespread habitat destruction.

I might add (my words, not Craigie's) that deforestation for agriculture and timber has increased access to previously secluded or inaccessible wildlife. Modern weaponry has also increased the ease of killing large numbers of animals for commercial trade as bushmeat or traditional medicine.

White rhino in an African national park. Photo: Sally Kneidel

Craigie says that Southern Africa is better off than West Africa or East Africa because the parks in Southern Africa have better funding and the human population is less dense.

West Africa has the most serious wildlife problem of the three regions because of the strong tradition of hunting for bushmeat, the countries are poorer, and the human population density is high.

What's the solution? Increase funding for programs to help communities develop livelihoods that depend on protecting wildlife (such as ecotourism) rather than over-harvesting and destroying their greatest resource (wildlife) and their greatest potential for income. These are my words, not Craigie's. Americans alone spend 12 billion dollars per year on ecotourism in Africa.

Keywords: Africa wildlife big mammals elephants rhinos poaching hunting bushmeat population growth deforestation habitat loss 59% loss in 40 years Ian Craigie

New study: Hope for polar bears

2011-01-26T11:09:00.004-05:00

Polar bear. Photo credit: wikimedia commons

Two-thirds of the world's polar bears could disappear within 50 years due to greenhouse-gas emissions, said a 2007 report by the U.S. Geological Survey. The bears need Arctic sea ice in order to hunt the seals and other offshore prey that sustain them. But our warming climate is rapidly melting the vital sea ice. Between 1979 and 2010, Arctic sea ice cover decreased by an average of 11.5% per decade. Due to loss of ice, many bears are starving to death already. The polar bear, Ursus maritimus, is now officially listed as "threatened."

Polar bear hunting along the edge of sea ice. Photo credit: wikimedia commons

A team of scientists stationed in Alaska may have some tentative good news, though. They just published a new assessment of polar bears' future in the Dec 16 (2010) edition of the journal Nature. Steven Amstrup, senior scientist with "Polar Bears International," and his team reported five possible scenarios for greenhouse-gas emissions and ice melting this century. The researchers concluded that Arctic sea ice may not necessarily reach a catastrophic "tipping point" that would lead to an inevitable disintegration of all the ice. The future of the bears' ice depends on how much we can limit greenhouse-gas emissions in the years to come and how much we can stabilize the climate. One factor in the bears' favor is that thinner ice (as it diminishes) becomes more responsive to the cold water below it and can more easily regrow in winter.

Amstrup's team used climate modeling to predict "sea ice habitability" for the bears over the coming decades, an index that includes the amount of ice over the shallow waters (continental shelves) where seals and other prey hang out, the number of months per year those waters are covered with ice, and the distance between that ice and the more northerly pack ice where polar bears also hunt (there's a limit to how far polar bears can swim from one ice mass to another).

Polar bear swimming from one pack of ice to another. Photo credit: wikimedia commons

Says Amstrup, “There’s a widely held perception that nothing can be done to help polar bears and the arctic ecosystem. Our findings show this isn’t true. Our findings offer a message of hope but they also underscore the urgent need for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. ”

For more information about Amstrup's study and a 2-minute video message from the bear researcher, go to this page on "Polar Bears International." Or check it out on youtube, called "Hope for Polar Bears" by Steven Amstrup.

Keywords: polar bears Steven Amstrup Polar Bears International bear conservation climate change greenhouse gas emissions global warming Arctic sea ice

Our books on this topic:Veggie Revolution: Smart Choices for a Healthy Body and a Healthy Planet. 2005. Sally and Sadie Kneidel. Fulcrum Books.

Going Green: A Wise Consumer's Guide to a Shrinking Planet. 2008. Sally and Sadie Kneidel. Fulcrum Books.

Some of my previous posts about how you can reduce greenhouse gas emissions:
Livestock produce 51% of annual worldwide gas emissions

New study: meat impacts climate more than buying local

Less meat....smaller footprint

Is local food the greenest choice? New study says no

Earth Day: 3 things you can do

South Carolina dog knows more than 1000 words, says NY Times

2011-01-24T14:25:00.001-05:00

Border collie. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

A retired psychology professor has taught his dog 1022 nouns as well as several verbs, reports the New York Times. Dr. John Pilley set out to beat the record of a German border collie that had learned to recognize 200 objects. Pilley, who taught at Wofford College for 30 years, read about the German dog in the journal Science in 2004. He bought his own border collie, Chaser, as a puppy in the same year. They've been working together four to five hours a day ever since.

Border collies are among the smartest of dogs. They're working dogs, bred to herd sheep, and have a strong instinct to work and to learn commands from humans. Pilley says Chaser seems to love the lessons and always wants more.

Chaser's lessons

To teach Chaser the name of an object, Pilley shows it to Chaser, says the name of it up to 40 times, then hides it and asks Chaser to find it, while repeating the name over and over. For the first few years, Pilley taught Chaser 1 or 2 new names a day, and continued to reinforce any names she had forgotten.

Within 3 years of starting the lessons, Chaser had learned the names for 800 cloth animals, 116 balls, 26 Frisbees and a collection of plastic objects. When the dog had learned 1000 names, Pilley decided to begin exploring other aspects of language than just nouns. He has demonstrated now that she also has the capacity to understand verbs. (This isn't surprising, given that a sheep herder's commands to his border collie are often verbs directing the dog's actions.) Chaser quickly learned to either paw, nose, or take an object in response to Pilley's commands, demonstrating that she understands that verbs have meaning.

Chaser has also learned categories. For example, she knows that "Fetch a Frisbee" means any of her 26 Frisbees, or "Fetch a ball" means any of the balls.

She can also identify a new object by exclusion - selecting it from among objects that she already knows.

Visual cues ruled out

Pilley has confirmed Chaser's vocabulary in settings where she can hear him but can't see him. This rules out the use of visual clues, such as facial expressions or subtle gestures, that could tell Chaser when she has the correct object. Border collies have been bred to be especially observant of gestures because they are part of the communication between a herder and his or her dog.

Pilley's findings to date are reported in the current issue of the journal Behavioural Processes. The retired professor says he's continuing to work on grammar with Chaser, and developing ways to improve communication between people and dogs.

Juliane Kaminski, part of the research team that worked with the German dog (Rico), says that demonstrating syntax would be interesting. Syntax would include recognizing that changing the order of words can change the meaning of the sentence.& (As in "Bite cat" versus "Cat bites.")

Chimps and gorillas use American Sign Language

There's been a lot of research on teaching language to other animals. Chimps and gorillas lack the vocal anatomy to talk, but they can use their hands to make signs. I worked with Dr. Roger Fouts at the University of Oklahoma teaching American Sign Language to a small colony of chimpanzees. The chimps lived on a small island at the Primate Institute. Fouts was a pioneer in this field, along with his mentors, the Gardners, at the University of Nevada. The Gardners were the first to teach a chimpanzee (Washoe) to communicate with ASL. Dr. Penny Patterson was the first to teach a gorilla (Koko) to use ASL.

Alex the African Grey Parrot impressed language scientists

Parrots have also demonstrated abilities to learn and understand human language. Alex the African Grey Parrot was the most of parrot pupils. Dr. Irene Pepperberg taught Alex to name colors, shapes, to count small numbers, and to speak around 150 words that he could put into categories. Of course parrots can vocalize, although most birds that speak human words have no idea of the meaning of what they're saying.

Dogs and touch screens?

Dogs are different in that they have neither the vocal anatomy to speak, or hands to allow signing. So at least for now, Chaser is limited to recognizing names of objects and responding to requests or commands. I don't know of any experiments where dogs can be taught to "speak" by, for example, selecting words by touching symbols on a touch screen. It could be done. But has it been done? I don't know.

Keywords: Chaser dogs Roger Fouts parrots language border collie John Pilley Wofford Sue Savage-Rumbaugh

Banding hurts penguins, says new study in journal Nature

2011-01-21T16:28:00.005-05:00

Text and photo by Sally Kneidel, PhD

Attaching bands to birds is a longstanding method of studying bird populations. The bands allow researchers to collect data on birds' movements and longevity.

But scientists have been debating for 30 years whether bands on penguins may hurt the birds. On aquatic or marine birds, such as penguins, bands are generally attached to the front base of a flipper rather than to a leg.

Note metal band on this African (Jackass) Penguin, on front of left flipper. Photo: Sally Kneidel, southern tip of Africa [click on photo to enlarge it]

Zookeepers noticed as early as the 1970s that flipper-bands can injure molting penguins. It's now suspected that bands also create drag when penguins are swimming, which could interfere with prey capture.

A new study published Jan 12, 2011 in the journal Nature provides strong evidence that bands do hurt penguins' survival and reproduction. Yvon Le Maho of the University of Strasbourg in France and his colleagues banded 50 King Penguins from Possession Island in the southern Indian Ocean. These 50 birds had already been implanted with "minute" and subcutaneous electronic tags. Over the course of a 10-year study, Moho and colleagues found that the banded penguins produced 40% fewer chicks and had a 16% lower survival rate compared to 50 nonbanded penguins

Subcutaneous tags, while safer, are a relatively new technology and not yet widely used in ecological studies. "Still today you will find that most US studies on Adélie penguins use flipper banding," says Le Maho. But his new publication may encourage the increased use of subcutaneous tags instead.

Climate change studies at stake

There's a wider issue at stake than the birds' welfare: studies on penguins are often used to gauge the effects of climate change on ecosystems. If a study suggests that a slight warming of ocean waters reduces penguin survival, how much of the difference could actually be due to banding effects?

For the birds and for the sake of our climate data, subcutaneous tags that create no drag should replace flipper-banding in future studies with penguins.

Keywords: penguins, bird banding, flipper banding, climate change, subcutaneous tags

Is males' attraction to trucks and balls genetically based?

2011-01-14T13:41:00.000-05:00

Young chimps. Photo: Delphine Bruyere

My husband and I raised one girl and one boy, close together in age. We tried hard to avoid gender-stereotyping our young kids in any way. They had the same toys, many of them gender neutral, for some time.

Our son clung to the baseball fence, drooling
As it happened, our yard backed up to a school athletic field. From late winter on, we daily heard the THWOCK of bats hitting balls during baseball practice. Our son was barely able to walk when he began toddling out to the playing field alone, to watch the students play baseball. He'd hang on the baseball fence with his tiny fingers for hours, mesmerized and drooling. Soon he was into trucks - at the age of 2, he memorized the name of 33 different kinds of trucks from the truck library books he clamored for. Our daughter's interests were varied, but she showed no inkling of his fascination with balls and trucks. We couldn't understand it. He wasn't in preschool, and my husband and I cared nothing for vehicles of any kind (although Ken is a baseball fan).

We share 98% of our DNA with chimps
So last week I was intrigued to see a paper in the online journal Current Biology about gender-stereotyped roles in young chimps. Since chimps are our closest relatives, sharing 98% of our DNA, any observations about chimp behavior could have implications for the origins of our own behavior.

Young female chimps "play mothering" more than young males

Author Sonya Kahlenberg, a biological anthropologist at Bates College in Maine, observed chimps in Kibale National Park in Uganda over 14 years. She and co-author Richard Wrangham, a biological anthropologist at Harvard, noted that 67% of young females carried sticks while only 31% of young males did. Sticks are used sometimes as weapons or as tools, to probe holes for food or water. But the young chimps also cradled long thick sticks as if a stick were a baby, carrying it around for no particular reason. They sometimes carried the stick as long as 4 hours, and took it with them to their nests for sleep. The authors felt that the stick-carrying was "play-mothering." The males who did it stopped as they got older. The females stopped when they gave birth to real babies, whereas use of sticks for other purposes continued after motherhood.

In her recent article, Kahlenberg cited previous research in which captive young male monkeys preferred wheeled toys, while female monkeys, like human girls, showed greater variability in preferences. The male monkeys also showed more rough-and-tumble play than females. The authors of this study (published in PubMed) hypothesized that these differences are hormonally influenced.

Some have speculated that boys, including some male primates, prefer toys like balls and trucks because these toys are associated with more freedom of movement than, for example, playing with dolls.

Evolutionary advantage for human males to prefer movement?
Could it be true that very young male humans are drawn to balls and trucks because playing with them involves more movement? It's not clear at all to me that male attraction to movement would be more advantageous evolutionarily than female attraction to movement. Even while carrying infants, our female prehistoric ancestors still were compelled to move around gathering plants for food, I would think. And keeping up with mobile children certainly involves movement. But if males were the defenders of early human tribes, and if they went on long hunts for food, then perhaps males could have evolved a hormone-based propensity to be more active.

I don't know, it's an interesting question. Culture has so much to do with it. A few decades ago, girls rarely if ever participated in team sports at school (at least in the U.S.). Today they do, when given the opportunity.

One more reason to protect wild apes
I'd love to see more field observations of gender-based behavioral differences in young primates. That's one more reason we need to protect chimpanzees and other primates from the illegal poaching that threatens all populations of wild apes.

For more information about what you can do to protect wild apes, see these links to primate conservation NGOs:
Jane Goodall Institute
Orangutan Outreach
Sumatran Orangutan Society
Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International
Orangutan Land Trust
International Primate Protection League
TRAFFIC:the wildlife trade monitoring network

Some of my previous posts about primates and primate conservation:
Hunting may threaten orangutans even more than habitat loss Dec 6, 2010

Monkeys and parrots pouring from the jungle. September, 2008
Chimps' short-term memory is better than humans' April 2, 2008
Chimps share human trait of altruism August 3, 2007

Keywords: chimpanzees chimp behavior animal behavior gender stereotypes chimps and dolls chimps and sticks Sonya Kahlenberg Kibale National Park Richard Wrangham

New study: a wandering mind creates unhappiness

2011-01-06T13:48:00.006-05:00

A serene Buddha in Ubud, Bali. Photo: Sally Kneidel

My long-time friend Therese Fitzgerald is an ordained Zen priest who works as a spiritual mentor and meditation teacher. She's also director of Dharma Friends; her husband Arnold Kotler is publisher of Koa Books. Through my friendship with Therese and other Zen friends, I've learned the value of staying in the present moment. Sitting zazen, or counting breaths in meditation, is an exercise in keeping one's attention in the moment. Zen author Natalie Goldberg writes about our "monkey mind" that wanders and must be pulled continuously back to the present to find serenity.

Buddha in Bali. Photo: Sally Kneidel

12-step programs too

Staying in the present is a major tenet in 12-step programs too, with slogans like "Keep your head where your feet are." Good advice, but it doesn't come naturally to the human mind, at least not my mind.

New study confirms it, except for sex

Anyway I was intrigued to see this topic explored in a recently published scientific study. The study was conducted by 2 researchers at Harvard who sampled the mood of 2250 volunteers over several days by contacting them at random times via their iPhones. They found that people's minds wander at least 30% of the time during all activities except sex.

The researchers also found that the volunteers' moods were considerably worse when their minds were wandering to unpleasant or neutral topics, rather than focusing on the activity at hand.

This part surprised me

I was surprised that the researchers found that subjects' minds wandered more often to pleasant than to unpleasant topics. (More about that below.)

But even ruminating on pleasant topics did not improve the volunteers' moods over paying attention to their current actions. In other words, a wandering mind does not improve our mood and often makes it worse.

Other studies show that we remember negative events more readily

Everything in this study makes intuitive sense to me except one thing: when volunteers' minds were wandering, they usually reported pleasant thoughts. I find it hard to believe that's an accurate portrayal of the human mind in general. Humans are programmed evolutionarily to problem-solve. Research by neurologists has shown that negative experiences (anger, fear, pain, etc.) create more prominent memories than pleasant or neutral experiences, because recalling negative experiences has more survival value. It seems to follow that if we're lost in reveries, the reveries are likely to be related to problems and problem-solving.

A zafu to sit on during Zen meditation.

Strategies for staying in the present

But still, even if that part of the experiment is flawed, the upshot is the same. A wandering mind does not contribute to serenity and is likely to undermine our moods. So. I feel renewed interest in trying to keep my own "monkey-mind" from wandering. Meditation helps; so does repeating a simple phrase (12-steppers often use the Serenity Prayer or the Lord's Prayer). Also, just paying attention to my sensations of touch and hearing, etc., while I perform tasks such as washing the dishes can help me stay in the present.

Keywords: Zen Buddhism wandering mind staying in the present serenity Therese Fitzgerald Dharma Friends Koa Books meditation 12-step programs Matthew Killingsworth Daniel Gilbert Harvard

New study: Females choose cocaine; males prefer food

2010-12-31T15:26:00.001-05:00

Cocaine. Photo: DEA

Are recreational drugs more enjoyable for women than for men? A recent study on that topic caught caught my eye this morning.

Women are more sensitive to cocaine

"Human studies of cocaine dependence indicate that women enter drug treatment faster than men and report shorter cocaine-free periods," said scientist Kerry Kerstetter of the University of California, Santa Barbara. These and other observations indicate that human females are more sensitive to cocaine, have a greater cocaine craving and are more likely to relapse than men.

White lab rat. Photo: DEA

Female rats choose cocaine over food

To explore this question in more depth, Kerstetter turned to lab rats. She trained rats to press a lever to get food and a different lever to get cocaine, then gave hungry rats a choice between the two levers. The hungry female rats chose the cocaine lever about half the time. But hungry male rats showed a definite preference for the food lever. The gender difference was statistically significant. "It appears that females are more likely than males to sacrifice food for low doses of cocaine," Kerstetter said.

Kerstettler then more than doubled the volume of cocaine delivered by pressing the cocaine lever. In this situation, both sexes chose cocaine more often. But female rats still preferred the drug more than the males did. Females chose cocaine over food 75 to 80% of the time, compared with less than 50% of the time for the males.

Female hormones may be responsible

No one knows the reason for these gender differences yet. But Kerstettler believes that female hormones play a role. Female rats that had their ovaries removed after puberty behaved more like males, choosing food more frequently. Kerstettler and her colleagues believe female hormones may set up or regulate the response to cocaine in the brain.

Gender differences can guide treatment plans

On a practical note, Kerstettler and other neuroscientists believe that understanding gender differences can help individualize the treatment of cocaine addiction.

Sources

Laura Sanders. "Cocaine trumps food for female rats." Science News. Dec 3, 2010.

"Sweets or cocaine? Male rats prefer sweets; female rats favor cocaine." Science Daily.

Key words: cocaine females choose cocaine drug addiction Kerry Kerstettler gender differences sex differences drug treatment

10 Tips for Coping with Holiday Stress and Depression

2010-12-20T20:03:00.003-05:00

Depressed. Photo: public domain

Confrontive dad arrives for the holidays
A friend told me yesterday about his parents arriving at his home for the holidays. His wife was taking a shower when the parents arrived. His father said, "Where's your wife? She should be downstairs to greet us. I think that shows a lack of respect." My friend, stressed by the arrival of his parents with their usual expectations, as well as the presence of his sister's family and a passel of kids, responded defensively. "Well, Pop," he said, "this is my house. If you don't like the way we do things here, you can just leave."

So the family holiday was off to a roaring start. My friend felt bad about his response to his dad, but really, dad started it by arriving with expectations, and by stating them in such a critical manner.

Christmas is marketed as a time of cheer, presents, and family togetherness, but whether you're with your family or not, Christmas is actually a time of stress for most of us, and a depressing time for some.

What causes the stress and depression? According to the Mayo Clinic, these three holiday triggers can lead to a meltdown. Being aware of these triggers in advance can help you take care of yourself.

Recognize Holiday Triggers

Relationships. Relationships can cause turmoil, conflict or stress at any time, but tensions are often heightened during the holidays. Family misunderstandings and conflicts can intensify — especially if you're thrust together for several days. On the other hand, facing the holidays without a loved one can be tough and leave you feeling lonely and sad.
Finances. With the added expenses of gifts, travel, food and entertainment, the holidays can put a strain on your budget — and your peace of mind. Not to mention that overspending now can mean financial worries for months to come.
Physical demands. Even die-hard holiday enthusiasts may find that the extra shopping and socializing can leave them wiped out. Being exhausted increases your stress, creating a vicious cycle. Exercise and sleep — good antidotes for stress and fatigue — may take a back seat to chores and errands. To top it off, burning the wick at both ends makes you more susceptible to colds and other unwelcome guests.

What to do?
So what can you do if find yourself stressed out, behaving badly, exhausted, depressed? The Mayo Clinic offers the following 10 guidelines for healthy self-caring.

10 Tips to Prevent Holiday Stress and Depression

Acknowledge your feelings. If someone close to you has recently died or you can't be with loved ones, realize that it's normal to feel sadness and grief. It's OK to take time to cry or express your feelings. You can't force yourself to be happy just because it's the holiday season.
Reach out. If you feel lonely or isolated, seek out community, religious or other social events. They can offer support and companionship. Volunteering your time to help others also is a good way to lift your spirits and broaden your friendships.
Be realistic. The holidays don't have to be perfect or just like last year. As families change and grow, traditions and rituals often change as well. Choose a few to hold on to, and be open to creating new ones. For example, if your adult children can't come to your house, find new ways to celebrate together, such as sharing pictures, emails or videos.
Set aside differences. Try to accept family members and friends as they are, even if they don't live up to all your expectations. Set aside grievances until a more appropriate time for discussion. And be understanding if others get upset or distressed when something goes awry. Chances are they're feeling the effects of holiday stress and depression too.
Stick to a budget. Before you go gift and food shopping, decide how much money you can afford to spend. Then stick to your budget. Don't try to buy happiness with an avalanche of gifts. Try these alternatives: Donate to a charity in someone's name, give homemade gifts or start a family gift exchange.
Plan ahead. Set aside specific days for shopping, baking, visiting friends and other activities. Plan your menus and then make your shopping list. That'll help prevent last-minute scrambling to buy forgotten ingredients. And make sure to line up help for party prep and cleanup.
Learn to say no. Saying yes when you should say no can leave you feeling resentful and overwhelmed. Friends and colleagues will understand if you can't participate in every project or activity. If it's not possible to say no when your boss asks you to work overtime, try to remove something else from your agenda to make up for the lost time.
Don't abandon healthy habits. Don't let the holidays become a free-for-all. Overindulgence only adds to your stress and guilt. Have a healthy snack before holiday parties so that you don't go overboard on sweets, cheese or drinks. Continue to get plenty of sleep and physical activity.
Take a breather. Make some time for yourself. Spending just 15 minutes alone, without distractions, may refresh you enough to handle everything you need to do. Take a walk at night and stargaze. Listen to soothing music. Find something that reduces stress by clearing your mind, slowing your breathing and restoring inner calm.
Seek professional help if you need it. Despite your best efforts, you may find yourself feeling persistently sad or anxious, plagued by physical complaints, unable to sleep, irritable and hopeless, and unable to face routine chores. If these feelings last for a while, talk to your doctor or a mental health professional.

Where did my friend and his quarrelsome dad go wrong?
As I read the lists above, I was wondering which "Trigger" and which "Tips to Prevent Holiday Stress..." relate to the interaction between my friend and his dad.

The relevant trigger was the first one, "Relationships." That was easy.

The relevant "Tips to Prevent Holiday Stress..." was #4, "Set Aside Differences". It says "Try to accept family members... even if they don't live up to all your expectations." Dad started the harsh exchange by saying the wife should greet them upon arrival, regardless of her need to take a shower. I imagine this particular Dad may often state expectations, and may often state disappointment or even resentment when they're not met. Perhaps he could give it a rest on holidays.

It's understandable that Son would be annoyed by such a statement, that his wife's absence is disrespectful. She'd probably been working all day getting ready for the guests. But, Son could react in other ways. He could say nothing and leave the room; go call a friend to vent. Or he could say "Dad, that hurts my feelings. Laurie's been working really hard to get ready for you." Or "I'm sorry you feel that way." Silence and a short walk around the yard might be the best choice. That leaves Dad no opportunity to give another punch.

Knowing that family conflict is likely over the holidays might help Son choose an option other than suggesting that his dad leave.

Keep expectations low, acceptance high
Keeping all the above triggers and tips in mind might help each of us to "keep expectations low, acceptance high" this holiday season. I also need to set limits on the outflow of money, and take extra steps to make sure I don't get emotionally and physically depleted. Just another week or two and it'll all be over!

Key words: holiday stress Christmas stress Christmas depression tips for coping with holiday stress and depression mayo clinic

308 rhinos killed in South Africa this year for their horns

2010-12-16T20:12:00.000-05:00

Photo: Sally Kneidel

The website "Bush warriors: stop poaching and bushmeat" reported today that four more rhinos have been killed illegally in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa, the area that includes Kruger National Park. Rhino horns are used for traditional Chinese medicines, despite the fact that rhino horns have been analyzed thoroughly and have no true medicinal properties. Their monetary value is based entirely on Chinese myth and folklore. A single horn is worth tens of thousands of dollars on the black market. Most of the horns poached in South Africa are smuggled into China and Vietnam.

The increase in poaching of rhinos and elephants in South Africa has been linked to a flood of Chinese weapons into the area. According to the Bush warriors website, the South African government has stepped up patrols to apprehend poachers, but the courts are a weak link. Although 147 people were arrested for rhino-related crimes in 2010, the courts repeatedly fail to impose serious penalties as a deterrent, instead granting affordable bail amounts as punishment.

A mother rhino's stumps after dehorning. Photo: Sally Kneidel

Today's post on Bush warriors describes and has links to articles about collusion by "insiders" that is fueling South Africa's growing rhino crisis. To read the informative post on the Bush warriors site, click here.

See also one of my previous posts about rhino poaching in South Africa, following my investigations there in 2009 and 2007.

And check out TRAFFIC: the wildlife trade monitoring network, a great source of information about poaching and the illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife parts, worldwide.

Key words: rhino poaching South Africa China Chinese weapons Vietnam Bush warriors Chinese traditional medicine blackmarket wildlife poaching poachers TRAFFIC

Christmas tree debate: Is fake or real more sustainable?

2010-12-13T10:38:00.003-05:00

Readers, a woman who works for the Nature Conservancy asked me to post this article debating fake vs. real Christmas trees, by the Conservancy's Frank Lowenstein. It's also posted on the Nature Conservancy website. The debate is worth thinking about this time of year, although the solution is murky, for me. Following is Frank's article (in black) followed by my own assessment (in purple).

Frank Lowenstein of the Nature Conservancy

"My home sits in the Berkshire Hills, with a distant view of the second highest peak in Massachusetts– Mt. Everett. Surrounding my house is a swath of farmland, which includes a Christmas tree farm owned by the Chapin family, who arrived in my town in about 1830.

Photo credit: liljulier/flickr via a Creative Commons license

In its heyday in the 1990s, the Chapin Christmas Tree Farm was packed with people from the day after Thanksgiving until Christmas eve. Families would arrive on our small dirt road from a 2-hour radius (south to Manhattan, west to Albany, east to Hartford). Children and parents would pile out of cars to prowl the several acres of trees in search of The One that was just right. Eventually each family would find the tree that best fit their image of Christmas (and their living room), and my neighbor or his grandson would pull out a saw and the transaction was completed.

This scene—one of family togetherness, people asserting their own unique taste, and support of local agriculture– is today rarer than it should be. More than twice as many families in the United States use fake trees as real ones. Beyond the losses to family interactions and local economies, this situation is bad for our climate.

Fake trees are usually made from a kind of plastic called polyvinyl chloride (PVC) which is derived from petroleum. Electricity is used to melt the plastic, and approximately 85% of the fake trees sold in the US are shipped here from China. Most of China’s electricity comes from burning coal—the dirtiest source of electricity. Once the fake trees are made, they still have to be shipped across the ocean—usually in a diesel-fuel powered ship. More emissions still. (Fake trees also sometimes release lead when they get old, which isn’t a climate impact, but still is not a great thing to have happening in your living room.)

Real trees of course do sometimes require shipping. Today on US Route 7, I saw a truck with Quebec license plates headed south—loaded with about 250 bound-up real trees.

But real trees also grow in the ground for several years before they are cut, absorbing carbon out of the atmosphere every year. The vast majority of real trees today come from Christmas tree farms—about 12,000 of which exist in the United States. On these farms each tree cut is typically replaced by a new tree or two or three, which continue removing carbon from the air.

And once Christmas is over you can use your real tree in many ways—the boughs can be cut and used as a protective covering over delicate shrubs, the tree can be chipped and composted, and there’s the ever popular New Year’s Eve bonfire (if you live in an appropriate place for bonfires). Real trees can also be used to help trap sand on beaches, preventing erosion, or sunk in ponds to provide habitat for fish and other wildlife.

For best climate impact, find a local tree farm to buy from. The National Christmas Tree Association allows you to search by zip code. Or this site offers a listing by state and county. And perhaps an organic Christmas tree is best of all. Twenty-two states now have organic Christmas tree farms."
Frank Lowenstein

Are any Christmas trees a good idea??

I agree that fake trees aren't "green"

I'm glad to see Frank point out the downside of fake trees - that 85% are made in China and that most of those factories are fueled by coal, a major source of greenhouse gases. In addition, the trees are shipped with diesel fuel. They're not recyclable - but they are reusable, and can be given away when you're tired of them. We had a fake tree for several years (the same one). When we no longer wanted it, we gave it away easily by posting it on freecycle.org. We had several callers who wanted it and got rid of it the first day, to a grateful family.

But real ones aren't sustainable either

I'm not sure I agree with Frank's recommendation for live trees over fake. It's true that immature trees remove more carbon from the air (for photosynthesis) than they emit (via respiration). And yes, they can be shredded and used as mulch. If you buy locally, you're avoiding the fossil fuels used in transport.

But any tree plantation is a biodiversity desert, whether it's loblolly pines for the pulp and timber industry of the southeastern U.S., or palm trees for the palm-oil industry in Southeast Asia. Pulitzer Prize winning ecologist E.O. Wilson compared the biodiversity of a tree plantation to a that of a Walmart parking lot.

Palm-oil plantations from the air, Borneo. Photo: Sally Kneidel

Tree plantations displace wildlife habitat

Most tree plantations are chemically managed with herbicides, fungicides, and pesticides - so there is no semblance of a natural food chain in a tree plantation. As such, they're no more useful to wildlife than pavement is. And at a time when almost all wildlife populations are shrinking due to habitat loss, AND we're facing mass extinctions.....eliminating wildlife habitat for a tree plantation is not a beneficial venture. The Appalachian mountains near my home are dotted with Christmas tree farms, and it makes me sick to look at them. Not to mention the ruined habitat I saw on Borneo and Sumatra this past summer. Flying over Indonesia or floating down its rivers, I saw palm plantation after palm plantation - where tropical rain forest used to be. One of the most frustrating sights I've ever seen.

I don't have any easy answers about Christmas trees. The best choice is to acquire a potted plant you can use year after year. Or just skip the Christmas tree. I wish, as a culture, we could do that en masse. Then children wouldn't feel deprived. Given the massive habitat loss affecting our planet today, Christmas trees are not a habit we can afford to continue.
Sally Kneidel, PhD

Some of my previous posts about tree plantations:
Orangutans dwindle as Borneo, Sumatra converted to palm-oil plantations. Aug 3, 2010

My search for a wild orangutan on Borneo and Sumatra. Aug 16, 2010

Why use toilet paper? No need to flush our forests. Oct 11, 2010

Plush toilet paper flushes old forests. Sept 26, 2009

A trampled state fights back. May 18, 2007.

One African family struggles to survive. March 17, 2007.

The wildlife trade, forestry, and the value of activism. May 27. 2006

Key words: fake Christmas trees real Christmas trees fake vs real Nature Conservancy biodiversity desert carbon sink fossil fuel climate change

Hunting may threaten orangutans even more than habitat loss

2010-12-06T10:26:00.004-05:00

Wild adult male orangutan on Sumatra. Photo: Sally Kneidel

[See bottom of this page for list of my previous posts about orangutans.]

Most people are surprised to learn that unlawful traffic in wildlife and wildlife parts is the third biggest criminal activity in the world, after drugs and arms. The illegal hunting of great apes is so pervasive that it may threaten their survival even more than habitat loss does. Habitat loss is rampant these days, due to human population growth....so I wouldn't have believed that hunting could be an even bigger threat until reading a recent paper by Vincent Nijman (and 5 other scientists). Nijman is a scientist at Oxford Brookes University, a consultant to TRAFFIC, and has published numerous research papers on orangutan conservation. He and the other authors of this particular paper collected convincing data that suggest orangutan populations have been reduced more by hunting than anything else.

Wild male orangutan resting, Sumatra. Photo: Sally Kneidel

I crisscrossed Indonesia and Malaysia looking for orangutans

I was on the islands Borneo and Sumatra a few months ago, searching high and low for wild orangutans. That was my main reason for going to Southeast Asia. I had researched sites carefully in advance and I chose my destinations accordingly; consequently, I was lucky enough to see a number of wild orangutans in undisturbed forests. But as Dr. Nijman writes, "Bornean orangutans currently occur at low densities and seeing a wild one is a rare event." In contrast, historic collectors like Alfred Russel Wallace in the 1800s saw many orangutans daily and "were able to shoot continuously over weeks or even months." Clearly, orangutans are much rarer today than they were in the past. That's true not only of orangutans, but also for the other great apes.

Chimpanzees and gorillas are hunted for meat

I saw on the "Planet Green" network on November 24 a one-hour documentary about an investigation into the hunting of chimpanzees and gorillas for bushmeat in Cameroon. The investigator, Steve Galster, said these two apes are popular meat because they're so big and fleshy relative to other remaining wildlife. The primary reasons they're shot or trapped is to eat them, to sell their meat to neighbors, or to transport the meat by train or car to city markets. But when baby animals are captured after shooting the mother, the babies can be shipped abroad to be sold as pets. So killing a mother ape is doubly profitable.

Gorilla carried out of the forest. Photo courtesy of United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization

A pet chimp brings social status

I was impressed with the diligence of the filmmakers for this Planet Green show, which featured an undercover sleuth (a local woman) equipped with a tiny concealed camera visiting a local man who was trying to sell a baby chimp. The chimp was eventually confiscated and sent to a sanctuary. Even at the sanctuary, though, young chimps are vulnerable to theft in order to sell them. The demand for them is huge.

Baby chimp, Wikimedia Commons

Having a baby chimp is a social asset, the narrator said - something to show off no matter where you live. I can imagine that. There aren't many things in life more interesting than a living baby ape. In this Planet Green documentary, the poachers and smugglers who were caught on film all wound up going free, through "negotiations" (bribery) or police who failed to show up in court, or officials who took pity on impoverished poachers and their children.

Strong evidence that hunting has hurt orangutans more than habitat loss

The research of Vincent Nijman (and 5 colleagues) into the hunting of orangutans on Borneo was published in the online journal PLoS ONE in August, 2010. The researchers used "encounter rates" to measure the density of orangutans over the last 150 years in a variety of different habitats on Borneo. Their data came from hunting accounts, museum collections, and field studies. By the researchers' calculations, the number of Bornean orangutans has declined about 6-fold since the mid-1800s. The convincing aspect of their data is this: If large-scale deforestation and forest degradation caused the decline, then we would expect to see a sudden decline after the 1960s and 1970s, "coincident with major intensification of [deforestation] during this period." However, encounter rates declined steadily for at least 120 years before major deforestation began. Furthermore, say Nijman et al., although orangutan numbers do generally decrease following habitat disturbance, they manage to survive in high densities in some areas that have been heavily disturbed or even clear-cut and planted with monoculture plantations. Nijman et al. also noted that local orangutan extinctions or historical declines have occurred in the same areas where we know orangutans have been heavily hunted.

Mother and infant orangutan in forest on Borneo. Photo: Sally Kneidel

Orangutans now extinct in upland Borneo, where hunting was heavy historically

Mother and infant orangutan on Borneo. Photo: Sally KneidelFor example, orangutans have long been extinct in upland areas of Borneo where poor soil prevents farming - areas that were historically populated by nomadic humans forced to rely on hunting. In contrast, freshwater and peat swamp environments were mostly not inhabited by people until the 19th century, but were densely populated by orangutans. The PLoS ONE paper sites many other examples of hunting-related distribution patterns of orangutans. In eastern Sabah (a state in Borneo), roving bands of head-hunters provided a refuge for orangutans and other wildlife, because other humans were afraid to enter the area. That refuge ended when head-hunting was banned.

Nijman et al. conclude that hunting has been underestimated as a key causal factor of orantugan density and distribution, and that orangutan population declines have been more severe than previously estimated based on habitat loss only.

Why do people still hunt orangutans?

The red apes, among our closest relatives, are still hunted for food or traditional medicines, as agricultural pests, for trophies, and more recently, for the pet trade. When I was in Southeast Asia in June and July, I visited the wildlife markets of Jakarta, where vendors openly flaunt wildlife-protection laws that are seldom enforced. There I was offered pet orangutans, along with many other supposedly protected primates, protected birds, and even a baby jaguar. Many told me they were carrying on a family business that had been handed down by their fathers. For more about my time in the Jakarta markets, see this post.

Trapping, shooting, eating, and selling wildlife are long-held traditions in forest cultures. Solutions must involve enforcement of local laws protecting forests and wildlife, and enforcement of penalties. That's something that's not happening right now in developing countries. But it must if orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, tigers, and thousands of other species are to survive this century. Many organizations are busy, on site, trying to make it happen. In Southeast Asia, TRAFFIC and Greenpeace are working hard to turn things around.

What can you do?

Support some of the NGOs who are making the most progress in protecting orangutans from illegal hunting and trade and who are fighting to protect Southeast Asia's remaining forests from destruction.

These are some of the best:

Greenpeace International
TRAFFIC: the wildlife trade monitoring network
ProFauna (an Indonesian NGO that helped me in Jakarta by providing a local guide to go with me to the markets)
World Wildlife
ForestEthics
Rainforest Action Network
Earth Pulp and Paper

My previous posts on conservation in Southeast Asia:

Orangutans dwindle as Borneo, Sumatra converted to palm-oil plantations August 3, 2010

My search for a wild orangutan in Borneo and Sumatra August 16, 2010

Laws flaunted: flourishing pet trade threatens orangutans' survival August 23, 2010

Wildlife trade rivals drug trade in profits September 20, 2010
Tiger in a suitcase - an isolated incident? September 26, 2010
Why use toilet paper? No need to flush our forests October 11, 2010

Some of my previous posts on wildlife smuggling around the world:

Monkeys and parrots pouring from the jungle. September, 2008
The U.S. imports 20,000 primates per year. February, 2010
The great apes are losing ground. March, 2010

Some of my previous posts about deforestation:

Orangutans dwindle as Borneo, Sumatra converted to palm-oil plantations August 3, 2010
Wild tigers are in trouble October 4, 2010
Plush toilet paper flushes old forests. September 26, 2009

Keywords: orangutans hunting habitat loss bushmeat Planet Green gorillas chimpanzees Southeast Asia Africa TRAFFIC Greenpeace ProFauna wildlife trade wildlife smuggling

"The Yoga of Eating" by Charles Eisenstein: A Book Review

2010-12-01T20:15:00.005-05:00

Readers, the following is a guest post submitted to me by freelance writer Robin Merrill

Greetings fellow revolutionaries! It is my pleasure to tell you about a book I’ve just discovered – The Yoga of Eating. At first I found, as you might find, this to be a bizarre title. I thought of yoga as a meditation for the body, a way of stretching and exercising for holistic health. I didn’t understand how one was supposed to stretch while eating.

How is yoga related to eating?

So, I did what all good readers do: I looked it up. If we define yoga as training our consciousness for a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility, then it starts to make sense. And that’s what this book has done for me, more than most any book I’ve ever read: it makes sense. Perfect, conscionable, rational, peaceful sense. And you’re hearing from a woman who has read approximately a trillion diet books.

I’ve listened to every expert there is and tried every variety of diet, including raw vegan. I’ve watched the television programs, listened to the podcasts, visited the websites, and scoured the books for the words that would lead me back to the vitality I enjoyed when I was younger.

The best expert is your own body

But I never listened to me. I never asked the best expert there is on my body: my body. She is the expert, according to Charles Eisenstein. If I will just listen to her, I will know when I am thirsty. She will tell me when I am hungry. And if I give her a chance, she will tell me when I am not hungry. She will tell me when to sleep, and when I need to go for a walk. She will tell me to trust her.

According to Eisenstein, current western culture pushes us toward a powerful and dangerous mistrust of the body. We are told that our bodies are our enemies, that they are breaking down, that our bodies need to be controlled and managed by medicines and treadmills. But this isn’t true. Now that I’ve started listening to my body, I’ve found that she’s pretty smart.

The weight your body wants to be

This is not a diet book, but if an overweight person employs the principles from this book, I don’t see how it’s possible that they would not begin a journey toward a healthy and balanced weight. Not necessarily high school cheerleader weight – not necessarily doctor’s office chart weight – not necessarily supermodel weight, but a healthy and balanced weight, which is the weight your body really wants to be.

Food has karma

Eisenstein’s book looks at topics such as the karma of food, how every bite we take affects the universe. He discusses sugar vs. artificial sweeteners, vitamin supplements, and the karma of processing our foods. (Processed people consume processed foods. This is a balance we’ve either created or fallen into by accident. If we want to consume fewer processed foods, we need be less processed ourselves ... I write this as my cell phone vibrates for my attention.)

The book also features a beautiful, poetic, and inspiring chapter on the yoga of cooking. Cooking can be a form of worship, instead of a chore?

We should listen to our cravings

He talks about distinguishing appetites from cravings, and how both have their value. If we listen to our cravings, we might be able to discern what it is we really need. We are doing ourselves a disservice by squashing our cravings, by insisting that they are evil, when they are only trying to speak the truth.

It took me weeks to read this book, as I had to keep searching for a highlighter or pencil. It will be one of the books that spends the rest of my life on my headboard. I plan to read it over and over. I believe it is a necessary book. I am not a person who finds it easy to love herself. I am a person who finds it easy to judge herself harshly and punish herself. Eisenstein writes, “self-rejection increases the need for external nurturance all the more.” By punishing myself all these years, I’ve only increased my need for comfort food.

I heartily recommend this book to anyone who eats, and I especially recommend it to anyone who has struggled with eating, struggled against nourishment in pursuit of some cultural ideal. This book has changed my life and has allowed me to, at the age of thirty-three, get to know myself. Turns out I’m not so bad after all. Neither is food. Food is just food.

Robin Merrill is a freelance writer who can usually be found writing about jobs in criminal justice.

Key words: Robin Merrill Yoga of Eating Charles Eisenstein healthy eating diet weight loss

1% of deaths worldwide due to secondhand smoke - including my dad

2010-11-26T16:58:00.006-05:00

My kind and beloved mom. I miss her every day. Photo: Sally Kneidel

My mother was a chain smoker; she died of pancreatic cancer, which is linked to smoking.

My dad didn't smoke at all, but he died of lung cancer.

Secondhand smokes kills 603,000 per year

So I wasn't too surprised to see in today's paper that secondhand smoke kills 603,000 people per year. That's in addition to the 5.1 million killed annually from smoking itself.

165,000 children die yearly of smoke-related illnesses

The study I saw in the newspaper was conducted by the World Health Organization. Armando Peruga of WHO said the organization was particularly concerned about the 165,000 children who die of smoke-related respiratory infections, mostly in Southeast Asia and Africa. I found that interesting, having recently returned from a stay in Southeast Asia.

In Southeast Asia it's customary for men to smoke, part of the masculine subculture

I noticed in Malaysia and Indonesia that most men smoke, while no women do. When I asked about it in Indonesia, a local told me that it's taboo for women to smoke, but it's a "custom" for men and especially all nature guides to smoke, particularly while leading treks. I found that odd. I also found it annoying to be engulfed in cigarette smoke while trying to stand absolutely still to photograph skittish wildlife. I noticed that Southeast Asian men seem to have no awareness that their smoke may be bothersome to others nearby. Smoking takes place anywhere and everywhere, and I never saw anyone react negatively to it except myself.

Most of these cigarette brands originated in the United States. Here, they're for sale behind the counter in Gentingmas, a small food shop in Sandakan, Malaysia, on the island of Borneo. Photo: Sally Kneidel

North Carolina is the home of corporate tobacco

Of course, almost all of the cigarettes the Asian men smoked were brands that originated in America, which was embarrassing. Local stores sold Marlboros, Pall Malls, Kents, Winstons, Salems. I live less than 100 miles from the town of Winston-Salem, NC, home of R.J. Reynolds, one of the world's largest cigarette corporations.

Children of smoking parents have not only an increased risk of death, but many related illnesses

Peruga of WHO went on to say that children whose parents smoke have a higher risk of sudden infant death syndrome, ear infections, pneumonia, bronchitis and asthma. Their lungs may also grow more slowly than kids whose parents don't smoke.

Women impacted most by secondhand smoke

The WHO study, published last Friday in the medical journal Lancet, reported that secondhand smoke has its biggest impact on women, killing about 281,000 yearly. In many parts of the world, women are at least 50 percent more likely to be exposed to secondhand smoke than men. That makes sense given what I observed in Indonesia and Malaysia. The men are doing the smoking, while the women and children are breathing it. And the social custom seems to be to pretend that the smoke is not a problem.

She told me cigarettes were her best friend

I remember going out to eat with my parents one Sunday when I was a kid; my brothers weren't there. I complained in the car about the cigarette smoke and I complained again at the table. My dad told me to nip it, he said my biting my fingernails was more annoying than the smoke so I had no room to talk. I know he was just trying to protect my mom, to let her enjoy her cigarettes in peace. She always did say that cigarettes were her best friend. After an aneurysm ruptured in her head and left her severely brain damaged (2 years before the pancreatic cancer killed her), she still kept trying to smoke. She'd sit upright in her bed and go through all the motions of smoking, putting her empty fingers to her lips, drawing in deeply and blowing out the imaginary smoke. She didn't realize the cigarette was missing. Poor mama, she did that right up to the end. A true North Carolinian - born, bred, and dead in the land of tobacco. She may have loved her cigs, but I can't say they loved her back.

Me and two dear Malaysian friends, Ria and Nola. They work in the Gentingmas shop on Borneo, where I did a lot of food shopping. The shop sells Marlboros and Winstons like most Asian shops. But Ria and Nola don't smoke and neither do I. Photo: Ken Kneidel

Cited:
"Secondhand smoke kills more than 600,000 a year. New study shows global impact of secondhand smoke; children account for more than one-quarter of deaths each year." CBS News. London, November 25, 2010.

Maria Cheng. "600,000 deaths a year blamed on secondhand smoke" Associated Press. Reprinted in Charlotte Observer, November 26, 2010.

One of my recent posts about the tobacco industry's marketing to minors:
New studies show fast foods "kids meals" loaded with calories and fat

Key words: 600,000 deaths secondhand smoke cigarettes WHO cancer lung cancer respiratory disease

9 Foods that are good for the brain - including chocolate!

2010-11-23T20:02:00.000-05:00

Foods good for the brain include the pictured items: tomatoes, green tea, walnuts, broccoli, and coffee. Photo: Sally Kneidel

Readers, this is a guest post from writer Cindy Cullen. Find more info about Cindy plus her email address at the end of this post. From Cindy:

Mental health is just as important as physical wellbeing; and while aging takes a toll on our bodies; and minds, we can make choices to keep ourselves in prime condition. Using our minds on challenging tasks can help keep them alert and active. To augment and enhance this process, we can choose foods that are known to boost brain health at any age. Below are some of the tastiest and most effective "brain foods"!

Nuts:

It’s uncanny that the walnut nut is shaped so much like the human brain, because it actually does pack a pretty punch in terms of brain power. With its high level of essential fats, protein, B6 and E vitamins, walnuts help in keeping your brain sharp and alert. Other nuts like almonds, hazel nuts and cashews are also good sources of complex carbohydrate energy, if they’re not salted or fried.

Seeds:

If you’re looking for a protein-rich brain snack, get your hands on some flaxseed – it’s high in DHA, an omega 3 fatty acid that is essential for the good health of your brain and nervous system. You could also choose to munch on sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds because they’re rich in Vitamin E, magnesium, zinc, antioxidants, protein, and the good kind of fat.

Berries:

If you love berries, then your brain is in good hands – go for the brightly colored ones because they’re rich in antioxidants, especially blueberries, blackberries and acai berries. Blueberry extract has been proven to improve short term memory loss and blackberries are rich sources of Vitamin C. Acai berries, while hard to procure, are one of the best sources of antioxidants and are also rich in the essential fatty acids that boost brain health.

Coffee:

Your mornings just got that extra boost – a cup of coffee is a great energizer, not just of the body, but also of the mind. It’s rich in antioxidants, amino acids (the building blocks of protein), vitamins and minerals and has been proven to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other mental illnesses. Just go easy on the sugar and restrict yourself to a few cups a day to avoid weight gain and mood swings.

Chocolate:

Now before you go rushing out to buy that sugar-filled bar of chocolate, let me tell you that it’s the cacao in chocolate that’s beneficial to brain health. It has high levels of antioxidants which help protect your brain from free-radical damage. So if you must indulge your sweet tooth, go in for dark chocolate with the least amount of sugar and the most amount of cacao, or better yet, choose a cacao-based drink that’s free of sugar.

Avocado:

Not all fats are bad, as the avocado demonstrates – it’s rich in protein and loaded with healthy fat. An avocado every week is enough to keep your brain healthy for the rest of your life.

Tomatoes:

These brightly colored, squishy fruits (or vegetable?) are not just delicious, they’re also chock-full of lycopene, a substance that is rich in antioxidants and negates the effects of free radicals on your brain. To get the most out of tomatoes, cook them or eat them as sauces, in addition to including them raw in salads. Or drink them as juices.

Green Tea:

If you’re looking for a hot or warm drink that’s soothing and which protects your brain, look no further than green tea. It’s rich in antioxidants and it’s a great way to refresh your body and mind.

Broccoli:

Now there’s a dreaded vegetable; however, before you banish the broccoli from your plate, think of the benefits it has to offer you – vitamins B5, B6, B2, and C, betacarotene, iron, calcium and folate. It’s literally a whole meal by itself, so include it in your salad or eat it half-cooked as a vegetable dish.

So go ahead, give your brain a boost with these foods; when your brain is healthy, your overall wellbeing improves by miles.

This guest post is contributed by Cindy Cullen; she writes on the topic of culinary art colleges. She welcomes your comments by email at cindycullen84@gmail.com. You can also, of course, post comments on this website.

Key words: brain health brain food antioxidants omega 3 fatty acids lycopene tomatoes coffee green tea walnuts broccoli berries avocado chocolate

Veggie Revolution

5 new facts you can use: Why do colds & flu strike in winter?

New food book slams it home: "Healthy Eating, Healthy World"

Licorice hailed as "Medicinal plant of the year"

Brain may sabotage effort to diet

8 Egregious Animal Abuses by the Meat Industry

Top 7 Health Reasons to Bypass Animal Products

Top 5 ways livestock are wrecking the planet

8 vital reasons to buy local food

Crowd overflows hearing for Duke Energy rate hike: more coal and nuclear at stake

My review of vegan cookbook Blissful Bites: Food bytes from an inspired chef

GOOD NEWS! Proof that no-fishing-zones work!

Urban gardening in offbeat settings. Review of DVD "Truck Farm"

Review of new vegetarian cookbook "Veggiyana: the Dharma of Cooking"

Review of documentary "PLANEAT: Nothing changes the planet as much as the way we eat"

Alpha-males highly stressed, reports new primate study from Kenya

Happy Herbivore: Best, most versatile cookbook since Moosewood

The Happy Herbivore delivers creative, easy, low-fat vegan recipes

World population grows by 1 billion in only 12 years

What's next?

Caption: world population growth between the years 1800 to 2100

Growth is due to reduced death rates

As the poorest populations expand, scientists say unrest will grow

U.S. will be only developed country among the most populous

Oil has fueled this growth

Child marriage legal & still practiced in Saudi Arabia

Saudi girls can be married off at any age

Young brides can suffer permanent physical damage

Having an unwed daughter is perceived as culturally risky

Daughter sold for $22,600

10-year-old who escaped forced-marriage named "Woman of the Year"

For more information about child marriage, see Al Nafjan's article as well as these links to other articles:

My previous posts on child marriage:

Review of gripping polygamy memoir: "Escape" by Carolyn Jessop

Child brides

Married to a stranger 32 years older

Vicious competition for husband's favor

Twilight Zone for real

Her dawning realization...

Escape!

Links to some of my previous reviews of books and documentaries

Posts about child brides in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia

Further reading on Warren Jeffs and the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints)

Early orangutan researcher Galdikas announces new "cruise expedition"

I visited Indonesian wildlife markets; illegal sale of baby orangutans rampant

I traveled through Borneo and Sumatra last summer investigating...

Galdikas' 10-day expedition for tourists next year

Protecting apes and other wildlife

What can you do?

These are some of the best:

Some of my previous posts on conservation in Southeast Asia:

Some of my previous posts on wildlife smuggling around the world:

Some of my previous posts about deforestation:

Hundreds of Sculpted Ivory Products Seized (Cameroon)

My organic war on a fleas: Dumped Terminix, embraced light traps

My review of "Burning in the Sun" - I loved this unique eco-documentary

Orangutans on Borneo are observed using tools to catch fish

We took a stand against Duke Energy's nukes and coal

April tornadoes caused by climate change, population growth, and pavement

Like chocolate? Like berries? Like oatmeal? Put 'em all together....

Older female elephants assess danger best

Orangutans are lefties, chimps and gorillas right-handed

The Meaning behind "Earth Hour"

Failure is a part of success

Trade a major threat to primate survival

Radiation found in Japan's food exceeds safety levels

Radioactive isotope from Japanese reactors detected in Sacramento

Lions decline 90-95% in last 50 years

"The Last Lions"

Males are freeloaders

Threats to lions

I was surprised at how few lions I saw

Link to Jouberts on NPR

A couple of my previous posts about Africa's big cats:

Duke Energy fuels the extreme weather that drives up our bills

We are family: new evidence of our close link to chimps

We can read chimps too

Study underscores our genetic similarity to chimps

Wouldn't it be nice...

For more information about what you can do to protect wild apes, see these links to primate conservation NGOs: