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Hard Times for Horses
Robert Finn, New York Times
… “This is definitely a very bad time to be a horse,” Ms. Kanciper said, confirming the negative development — driven by panicky, cash-strapped owners and an unforgiving economy — that has uprooted Maple and an as-yet-unknown number of his species. Reports of a surge in abandoned or neglected horses; of overcrowded rescue, auction and retirement facilities; and of unwanted equines being fattened in feedlots before being shipped to slaughter in Mexico and in Canada have prompted the Unwanted Horse Coalition, an offshoot of the American Horse Council, to undertake a national survey on the problem.
According to Dr. Tom Lenz, a veterinarian who is the chairman of the coalition, although the elimination of domestic slaughterhouses has reduced the total number of horses killed, 100,000 to 150,000 are still exported for slaughter each year. “So we know they’re unwanted,” he said. “America needs a wake-up call about this issue. The general population has this love affair with the horse without realizing the costs and complications of owning horses in this economy.”
(26 February 2009)
Sport failing to take role in environmental protection
AFP
The world of sport is failing to do its part to protect the environment, using huge quantities of oil for travel as well as water resources to make sporting goods, participants at a global forum said Thursday.
“When we talk about sport and the environment, we should look at travel by sportsmen and women, at the infrastructure, and at the manufacturer of sports equipment,” Nathalie Durand, a representative of France’s Sports and Sustainable Development Observatory, told the first Global Sports Forum.
… Durand said one example of sport harming the environment was the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France, which “produced 570,000 tonnes of Co2 when only 46,000 tonnes were necessary for the tournament.”
(26 February 2009)
Mr. Whipple Left It Out: Soft Is Rough on Forests
Leslie Kaufman, New York Times
Americans like their toilet tissue soft: exotic confections that are silken, thick and hot-air-fluffed.
… But fluffiness comes at a price: millions of trees harvested in North America and in Latin American countries, including some percentage of trees from rare old-growth forests in Canada. Although toilet tissue can be made at similar cost from recycled material, it is the fiber taken from standing trees that help give it that plush feel, and most large manufacturers rely on them.
Customers “demand soft and comfortable,” said James Malone, a spokesman for Georgia Pacific, the maker of Quilted Northern. “Recycled fiber cannot do it.”
The country’s soft-tissue habit — call it the Charmin effect — has not escaped the notice of environmentalists, who are increasingly making toilet tissue manufacturers the targets of campaigns.
(25 February 2009)
Cardoso, Gaviria, Zedillo Urge Obama to Decriminalize Marijuana
Joshua Goodman, Bloomberg
Former presidents of Brazil, Mexico and Colombia said the U.S.-led war on drugs has failed and urged President Barack Obama to consider new policies, including decriminalizing marijuana, and to treat drug use as a public health problem.
The recommendations by former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, along with Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico and Cesar Gaviria of Colombia, were made in a report today by the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy.
Among the group’s proposals ahead of a special United Nations ministerial meeting in Vienna to evaluate global drug policy is a call to decriminalize the possession of cannabis for personal use.
“We need to break the taboo that’s blocking an honest debate,” Cardoso said at a press conference in Rio de Janeiro to present the report.
(11 February 2009)
The U.S. may be coming to a point where it cannot afford to enforce drug laws (law enforcement, courts and prisons are expensive).
Related: Ex presidente Ernesto Zedillo pide legalizar marihuana -BA
