Indian Wildlife Club Forum

If future generations could vote on how foundations invest their money today, would they choose the current allocation?

Only 5 percent of U.S. foundation spending goes to the environment, and a paltry 2.9 percent goes to science and technology. Of the top 50 foundation grantees in 2004, only three were environmental organizations.

Even those foundations that do work on ecosystems spend much of their resources on small-scale land conservation. Government priorities are also skewed to the here and now. As the Oct. 30, 2006, New York Times reports, U.S. federal spending on energy research has fallen to $3 billion – less than half of its level in 1980 – while spending on medical research has quadrupled to $28 billion over the same period.

Human-caused climate change, sharply declining conventional energy sources, and population growth are threatening the very platform of human life. Yet fully two-thirds of U.S. foundation spending goes to current human health and well-being, and seven of the 10 largest U.S. foundations concentrate on human health or the arts, according to the Foundation Center’s latest statistics (from 2004). The world’s second largest foundation (Stichting Ingka, the IKEA fortune) focuses on interior design.

 A management problem that keeps foundations preoccupied with the present is their lack of coordination with other organizations. With family control of many foundation boards and disparate and idiosyncratic board agendas, coordination for achieving bigger aims is structurally difficult.

Source:http://www.ssireview.org

No species can survive on this planet without respecting the three basic laws of ecology.

 (1) The law of biodiversity—that the strength of an eco-system is dependent upon the diversity of species within it.

(2) The law of interdependence—that these species must be interdependent to support a strong eco-system and

(3) the law of finite resources—that there is a limit to growth. Growing human numbers utilized vast amounts of resources and steal carrying capacity from other species resulting in the collapse of diversity.

The greatest fear is not something in the future but something happening now. We are in the midst of a mass extinction event and thus in danger of radically altering the entire biosphere.

Captain Paul Watson, Founder and President of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, USA in http://www.emagazine.com

"Yes this sounds like what the world was like during my childhood and what Manali and its environs were like when I had first visited it in the 1960s.

The present sad state of things here is the result of the huge amount of spraying done on the almost monoculture of apples in the ’Valley of the Gods’. Kangra would have been badly damaged had it not been for the fact that fruit farming is not very reliable on account of the strong hail storms that occur there as a result of the interface between the hot lowlands of the Punjab and the almost sudden verticle rise of the Dhaula Dhar range.

 I would however like to know how many large Ficus trees are there and what is the state of the water in the very many rivulets flowing down from the mountains into the Rana Pratap Sagar. Such concentrations of birdlife should be, and most certainly can be, existing along with human communities. That they do exist in locations should not lull us into a feeling of welbeing.

Do post this on your portal on my behalf."

Comment by Lavkumar Khachar on the article " Chintpurni, Dharamshala, Pragpur……(Himachal Pradesh)

Taking a cue from global companies, our own CII ( Confederation of Indian Industries) is writing to 100 large companies in India to measure, manage and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Around the world, The Carbon Disclosure Project secretariat has requested disclosure on risks and opportunities presented by climate change from 500 largest companies.  

This disclosure is made part of investor relevant information for investors.

CAUGHT IN THE HEADLIGHTS Broadcast Premiere on Montana Public Television

Caught in the Headlights, 53 minutes, 2006
<http://www.highplainsfilms.org/fp_caught.html>


CAUGHT IN THE HEADLIGHTS, which documents the conflict between wildlife and automobile culture will have its broadcast premiere, June 7 at 7 pm on Montana Public Television <http://www.montanapbs.org/>. Repeat broadcasts at 4:30 pm on June 9 and 8:30 am on June 10.

In the United States where over four million miles of roads cross the landscape, an animal is killed on the road every 11.5 seconds - with one million vertebrate animals falling victim to automobile collisions annually.

Through the voices of six individuals who are intimately familiar with vehicle-wildlife conflicts, CAUGHT IN THE HEADLIGHTS is a quirky, informative exploration of automobile culture. Two Department of Transportation employees combine humor and sensitivity while taking the viewer on a tour along Montana’s state highways.

A Wildlife rehabilitator since childhood turned raptor educator, painter, and welder, shares her work and perspective of the hardships that birds face in a world where car collisions are the leading cause of injury and death for raptors.

Raising a child as a single father may be hard; try combining that with an hour long commute to work through prime deer and elk habitat. One auto-body painter tells stories of close calls with wildlife on the road while warning of societal stubbornness.

A road ecologist from the Netherlands studies opportunities for creatures to cross roads safely while providing his own social commentary on the past, present and future of our transportation infrastructure.

Another man seeks apology and ceremony by turning roadkill into bronze sculptures.   His bold artwork challenges us to examine our dependency on the automobile through death preserved on the walls of a Seattle-area gallery.

CAUGHT IN THE HEADLIGHTS weaves together these diverse voices united in their reverence for the long ignored casualties of the highway.

More Information:
High Plains Films
P.O. Box 8796
Missoula, Montana 59807
(406) 728-0753
<yak@highplainsfilms.org>

Both orangutans and chimpanzees share about 96 % of their DNA with humans.

 In a recent study, orangutans have been named as the world’s most intelligent animal.

Once widespread throughout the forests of Asia, they are now confined to just two islands, Sumatra and Borneo.

The study has opened up the question-would it be possible to compare different species of primates for intelligence?

(From a report in Sunday Times London)

Encouraged by the number of butterflies visiting the JNU campus, the Jawaharlal Nehru University is all set to develop a Butterfly Park within its premises to attract more species.

More than 50 species of butterflies can be seen fluttering around the University in the Spring season. Rare species like Red Pierrot, Common Jay and Peacock Pansy are often spotted.

Source: The Indian Express, 11 April, 2007

The Centrally Empowered Committee (CEC) has made many significant interventions where forests lands are concerned.  It has gone against the wishes of the Ministry of Environment and Forests(MoEF) many times, and rejected proposals that would endanger India’s already dwindling forest cover. 
The term of CEC is unlikely to be renewed, sources say.

The proposed environment tribunal bill  being set up is expected to be peopled with " yes men", to ensure that Environment Impact Studies go through speedily.  To ensure that the concerns of environment and of people are addressed, activists may turn to public Interest Litigation more than ever. 

source" The Hindu", 23 March, 2007

CSE invites you to a two-day media briefing workshop to understand the condition of India’s rivers, examine existing river cleaning programmes, learn from them, and discuss strategies that could bring our rivers back to life. The Yamuna river will be taken as a representative case. The workshop will bring together river pollution experts, civil society representatives and government officials to debate and demystify key issues.

Date: June 14-15, 2007
Venue: India Habitat Centre, New Delhi

Eligibility criteria:
- The workshop is only open to journalists and media professionals
- Seats are limited. We have the resources to support the travel and accommodation of a few candidates on a first-come, first-served basis. Therefore, please apply immediately

To apply, e-mail/fax your resume to:
Shachi Chaturvedi <shachi@cseindia.org>
Fax:  011-29955879

Last date for applying: June 1, 2007

For more information >>
http://www.cseindia.org/programme/media/yamuna_workshop.htm

"Four or five years ago you couldn’t give environmental and conservation programmes away, but in the past 18 months, the increase in concern about global warming has changed that, and international broadcasters are increasingly asking what we’ve got coming down the line," says Ian Jones, president of distributor National Geographic Television International (NGTI).

Looking ahead, National Geographic US will make its Earth Report - a signature year-end programme that premiered at the end of 2006 - an annual event. Essentially, it is an audit on sustainability and quality of life indicators across the planet, specifically looking at the impact of human activity on the Earth in the previous year. For 2007 there will be an extended web component and the National Geographic magazine will initiate a major push, as will all of the National Geographic channels. In addition, National Geographic is working on a major society-wide global warming project, and it is also preppinga sequal to the series Strange Days on Planet Earth, with many episodes set to have a definite green tinge.

However, based on projects in development now, the lion’s share of programming in 2008 will focus on what people are doing, and what we can all do to reverse the effects of global warming. Broadcasters are shying away from doomsday warnings, and are instead using terms like ’empowering,’ ’inspiring,’ ’aspirational,’ and ’proactive’ to describe the programming they’re after.

New programming throughout the coming year will also likely look at the economic repercussions of going green, from the impact of energy and fuel conservation on our own wallets to big decisions that politicians face, like enforcing clean industry and promoting train transport above air travel.

Source: http://www.wildfilmnews.org