Our World and Everything in It

I just got through watching Jack Hanna’s Animal Kingdom like I pretty much do every Saturday morning, 7:00 am, channel 7.  Yes I’m a baby boomer but learning about and watching animals is a passion that has no age limit. I found out about Hanna’s program from my 84-year-old mother who wakes up to it every Saturday also.

His program is a great humane education learning tool for children, and endorsed by the National Education Association. Every age group could use a dose of this type of reality.  Unlike other programs, this one connects the dots for people. He flat out tells the audience that mankind is the cause and that we can turn it around. I’ve watched other morning news programs showcase endangered species without specifically pinpointing why they are disappearing. If I have the time, I quickly email them for missing the opportunity to really hit home. Everyone ooo’s and ahhh’s over the critters, but there is rarely any statement made to the audience that mankind either directly or indirectly is the reason for their demise.  Have you ever read why many of these beautiful animals are endangered? Poaching, cutting down their habitat, and changes in weather patterns are the leading causes. Species like the gorilla are being poached out of existence for their hands. That’s right, the whole animal is killed to cut off their hands. Just like the whole elephant is killed to cut off its tusks. And yes our neighbor to the North, Canada, has just begun its annual baby seal-clubbing event.

If you want to help, e-mail or call your MI congressional representatives to support Carl Levin’s Senate Resolution 33 condemning Canada’s seal hunt.

After this past election, if you still think your voice doesn’t make a difference, then I have to ask where have you been? Hopefully with a new congress, we can get back on track as a nation to being a model for conservation and cleaning up our act. Unfortunately many people still think what I’m saying can’t be so. That although the U.S. represents .05 % of the world’s population, we produce 25% of its pollution. And although we probably have the biggest proliferation of animal rights and conservation organizations, (of which I probably belong to half, my latest being the NRDC), our pleas have fallen on deaf ears with the administration of the past 6 years. More on that scorecard tomorrow, because I think it’s important to know where we were, how we’ve back-tracked, and how much we need to catch up before we truly understand the precarious position into which we’ve plunged ourselves and all living things so quickly. You have been wondering that haven’t you? How the environment seemingly got so bad so fast?

Meanwhile, are there any other young bloggers out there that watch Jack Hanna on Saturdays? If you have something you’ve viewed about anything in particular that is endangered let us know what you watched. I try to take in everything I can, but even my mother comes up with documentaries I’ve missed. Trouble is, at 84 she can’t ever seem to remember what station, or what time, or what program she saw it on. And my recall is slowly catching up to hers that’s why this is posted right after watching Hanna’s Animal Adventures.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 25th, 2006 at 6:20 am and is filed under Africa, Animals and Extinction, Arctic Council, Artists for the Environment, Bush Administration, Bushmeat Trade, CO2 Emissions, Dolphins, Environmental Spin, Environmentalism, Federal Government, Global Warming, Global Warming Policy, Global Warming Reports, Illegal Use of Animals, Marine Life, Mercury, Morality, Nature, Ocean Pollution, Polar Ice Melt, Pollution, Protecting Wetlands, Protesting Pollution, Science, Stress, The Denial Machine, Weather, Wildlife. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.