GAIA

How NOT to save elephants and rhinos -- part 3

Again, an African government --  in the name of "protecting" elephants and rhinos from ivory poaching -- has announced it will destroy tons of captured and collected elephant tusks and rhino horns.

As I have stated twice before over the years, this is utter stupidity and ensures the continuance of illegal and devastating ivory poaching and wealth of the criminal networks and their Lords who continue to be rich, rich, rich.

Its simply Economics 101: supply and demand.

Elephant tusk ivory has been used for millennia for fine miniature figurines and even huge, delicate carvings of great beauty,  and these are  still in high demand in the Far East and South East Asia.

Rhino horn powder is also a traditional Chinese medicine.  With over 1 .3 billion Chinese in China, and millions more around the world, there is a huge market and demand.

The Kenyan wildlife authorities planned mass destruction of its collected ivory is to co-inside with the April 28-30 summit in Kenya on the protection of elephants.

Some 106 tons of elephant and rhino ivory is to be destroyed in a giant pyre that will last for weeks if not months until all is reduced to ashes!

Yes, ivory trading was made illegal and banned worldwide in 1989 but this has not been effective. (Any supposed pre-1989 'stock' is still allowed to be sold.)

Africa's elephant population is some 500,000 --  1/3 of what it was in the early 1970s.

The organization, Save the Elephant, has stated that 100,000 elephants were killed between 2010 and 2012 alone.

However, Kenya's about-to-be-destroyed ivory is not only from captured poaching but also from animals that died naturally or had to be culled in some area or were endangering human life.

So there are many 'sources' in this upcoming bondfire and it will all be a total waste and ludicrous display of 'principle'.

A much better solution, as I have previously argued, is to make ivory legal, under local government or UN control.

Using such 'supplies' to fill market demand will instantly undermine if not fully wipe out the poaching networks and their lucrative, illegal trade.

Simultaneously, Kenya and other governments in Africa who are always strapped for cash, or the UN, could use the profits for environmental protection projects: to ensure the survival of  elephants and rhinos and even other endangered wildlife.

Unfortunately, such a proposal was made to the UN in 2012 by Tanzania  - which had stored 101 tons, but it was rejected.

Q: What is 106 tons of ivory worth in today's market?

Well, ivory in China  sold for $750 US per kilogram in 2010 and was going for $2,100 US in 2014. A TRIPLE increase!!!

As 1 kilogram is equal to 1/1000 of a ton, the Kenyan collection is worth, at least $2,100,000 US.
today.


In conclusion, the mindset of individuals, organizations and the UN who all wish  to protect and save elephants and rhinos needs to change.  They need to learn the the last two of the Rs (which we are all supposed to follow to save the environment from human wastage). 

They are trying to do the first = REDUCE, but have ignored the more practical steps of  environment  protection: REUSE and RECYCLE.

Yes, educate the public of the harm ivory 'hunting' does to animal populations and continue efforts to stop poachers = REDUCE.

But also follow up with a world-wide, legal market for ivory already collected and stored = REUSE and RECYCLE.





Sources:
 1. Globe and Mail, April 5, 2016 A1 and A9 "From tusk to gone: burning an ivory tower".
 2.  https://awionline.org/awi-quarterly/2013-winter/elephant-slaughter-escalates-illegal-ivory-  market-thrives
 3.  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/10/legal-loopholes-fuel-ivory-smuggling-in-hong-kong/

 4.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jul/03/price-ivory-china-triples-elephant

YOUR MONEY

Stock Markets – open capitalism or a rigged game?

If you are a small investor, picking your own stocks and bonds is probably your wisest choice.

If you rely on any, world-wide, Stock Exchange Index fund or on a diversified Mutual Fund with ‘expert’ analysts and managers, you should know the deck is stacked against you.

I have regularly bemoaned the fact sovereignty funds, derivative funds, banks and a few super rich control too much of the world’s stocks and bonds, that they in fact “control’ the world’s markets and distort Capitalism 101. In good times they can ratchet up valuations and reap billions of dollars of profit from even pennies of value changes, and if they get into trouble, all hell will follow.

David Rosenberg in his February 2, 2016 column for the Globe and Mail, “The story behind the equity-oil link”, reveals that just 7 oil- pumping countries control some US $4 trillion in market assets.

These sovereignty funds, of course, include the petrodollar states of the Arabian Peninsula as well as Kazakhstan and, surprisingly, Norway – which turns out to be the “largest sovereign wealth fund in the world”.

So, as Rosenberg points out, when the price of oil falls, these countries must withdraw money from their worldwide stock market holdings to cover their finances at home or risk huge deficits and internal social and political chaos.

Mr. Rosenberg could also have mentioned Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy and a major oil producer, which is now asking for US $3.5 billion in low cost loans from the World Bank and others as it faces a currency crisis and possibly political collapse (G&M, Feb. 2, 2016 B1).

So, world stock markets, as Rosenberg stresses, no longer reflect the realities of daily economic activity of corporations, small business and  farming of most countries.

Put simply, a few super-powerful players control the stock markets, their ‘paper value’ rises and sudden falls.

GAIA

Global Warming - has its time passed?

Is the mantra of Global Warming or Climate Change (and overuse use of these shorthand labels) waning?   Have scientists and reporters altered their mindsets?

I ask this because of 2 recent articles which avoid the above labels or find more commonplace explanations: namely, cyclical variations in normal climate .

In its Jan. 18, 2016, p. 11, "Your getting warmer" Bad News item, Maclean's magazine notes the temperature at the North Pole in late December was above zero Celsius which is  20* C above normal.  Canadian meteorologists linked this thaw to the excessive stormy weather affecting Britain and the almost spring-like conditions across North America this Christmas.  While the words Climate Change or Global Warming were not used, there is little doubt it was intended when the article's focus was on future repercusions "due to the warming climate's effect", but the loaded labels -- surprisingly -- were avoided.

At the same time,  a major drought across Africa and especially Ethiopia is causing major concern at the UN and immediate  food aid shipments are being arranged to feed 4,000,000 people . Surprisingly, Global Warming is never mentioned, just the "super cycle El Nino" which alone is blamed by USAID administrator Gayle Smith. (G&M, Feb. 1, 2016, A9).

 As anyone who has  read  this  bog recently should remember,  the super wet and torrential storms that whacked Britain and Northern Europe have universally been attributed to the super El Nino, which from its home off Peru affects temperature and rainfall around most of the world: less so in most years but far more forcefully in others --  with past recorded super cycles  in 1982-83 and 1997-98.

Put simply,  the North Pole's recent warming is an El Nino effect and the area will, as always, revert to 'normal' temperatures and thick ice.

And areas in Africa and elsewhere whose once productive soil is currently suffering from prolonged drought, parched earth and food shortages will eventually revert  as did the lands of the Bible.

 inally,  if, as geologists claim, we are are scheduled  to return to another Ice Age lasting centuries and millenia, as it has been over 10,000 years since the end of the last era when ice covered Canada, Nothern USA, Euopre and parts of Asia, lets enjoy civilization and dry land while it lasts.

GAIA

Nature’s Godzilla rises again

Now that the recent international climate change conference is over -- with its 'promises' to reduce greenhouse gases and carbon in the atmosphere so Global Warming temperatures will rise by just 2^o C by 2030 –  the buzz in the media has returned to reality.

El Niño is reality and in 'super cycle' mode this winter.  It will alter the weather throughout the planet and it has nothing to do with greenhouse gases and the Human Ant.  

The Pacific Ocean area off the coast of Peru regularly undergoes substantial water warming around Christmas and this alters the strength and even direction of the planet's major wind patterns.  

 El Niño will cause traumatic changes to the world's weather that are far greater than any Human Ant  greenhouse gas emissions. 

 According the video clip on the CBC 6 p.m. TV newscast on New Years Eve, this year's El Niño will be a "Godzilla" just like the ones in 1997 and 1982.

It has been blamed for the massive flooding in England and Scotland, numerous American tornadoes and. massive rain and flooding in Midwestern USA: Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky.

On the positive side, trees are now -- in late December-early January --  again in bloom in Washington, DC and elsewhere.

But, extended droughts are predicted for already water parched Africa and elsewhere.

As for Canada, the temperature changes this December compared to December averages is as follows (from Globe and Mail, Dec. 23, 2015, A8-9).

ZONE		December 2015 Celsius	December average Celsius	CHANGE Celsius	HOTTER  vs COLDER
East Coast	Halifax	2.4	-0.8	+3.2	HOTTER
	St. John’s NF	-0.3	-1.5	+1.2	HOTTER
Central	Quebec City	0.5	-8.5	+9.0	HOTTER
	Montreal	2.6	-5.8	+8.4	HOTTER
	Ottawa	2.3	-5.6	+7.9	HOTTER
	Toronto	5.5	-0.5	+6.0	HOTTER
Prairies	Winnipeg	-4.9	-13.1	+8.2	HOTTER
	Saskatoon	-6.1	-12.4	+6.3	HOTTER
	Edmonton	-5.6	-8.8	+3.2	HOTTER
	Calgary	-2.7	-6.8	+4.1	HOTTER
West Coast	Vancouver	6.7	3.6	+3.1	HOTTER
Far North	Whitehorse	- 10.5	-12.5	+2.5	HOTTER
	Yellowknife	-14.4	-21.8	+7.4	HOTTER

When most of Canada has a December temperature SPIKE of 3^o C and up to an Everest peak of 8+^o C, you have a major climate transformation in action.

Put simply, Mother Nature or Gaia is in 'heat' mode irrespective of the Human Ant -- whose scientists mistakenly believe rising global temperatures are man-made.