Video of the Day: Don’t You Just Hate it When Someone Else’s Rubbish Ruins Your Lunch Break!?

 

 

 A few facts about litter and pollution:

• Litter that is dumped in certain areas can stunt plant growth.
•  Every year, millions of fish, birds and animals are killed from consuming or getting tangled up in litter with the biggest culprits being plastic bags and plastic six pack rings.
• Litter carries germs that are quickly and easily spread to humans through rodents.
• Plastic bags take hundreds of years to break down.
• Cigarette butts account for over 50 percent of littered items.
• Broken glass cuts the feet of a multitude of animals such as foxes, raccoons, coyotes, badgers, squirrels, cats and dogs.
• Deer love sweets and bread and will often feed on littered leftovers however, much of this food can become contaminated and cause food poisoning.
• Chewing gum is a dangerous piece of litter that can kill animals that attempt to eat it
• Nearly nine billion tons of debris end up in the oceans around the world every year.
• Every cigarette butt takes at least 12 years to finally break down while it pollutes waterways and soil with lead, arsenic and cadmium.
• More than two million cigarettes are littered in the United States every day.
• Over 28 percent of ocean debris is cigarette butts.
• Littered cigarette butts in America could build a seven feet wide highway of butts across the country.
• 81 percent of litterers admit that higher fines and stricter laws would stop them from littering.

 

Yamuna River, India (photo via Mother Nature Network)

 

What is the Bushmeat Trade?

The bushmeat trade is the illegal, over-hunting of wildlife for meat and income.

Already in West and Central Africa this trade has resulted in declines and local extinctions of many wildlife species and the economic, cultural and ecosystem services they provide. In addition, a number of human health threats have emerged from the trade in bushmeat including linkages to  HIV/AIDS, ebola and the threat of anthrax.

Bushmeat trade is not regulated or managed by any authority. Economic benefits from the trade go mainly to hunters and traders. If current trends continue, future generations of citizens in Africa will not have the opportunity to access benefits from wildlife. Using wildlife to meet protein and income demands cannot be supported in the long term.

The immediate threat of loss of economic opportunity, cultural and ecological services, and other values to a wider community must be addressed today.

(Taken From: www. bushmeatnetwork.org)

Here are some images from the Bushmeat Trade for you to get an idea of what we are talking about:

Smoked Gorilla Meat

Poachers kill 65 elephants, 30 rhinos in Zimbabwe

Due to recent shift on the African political landscape,  International crime syndicates take advantage of the situation and are threatening the survival of rare African wildlife species. A recent press release by AFP confirms this report.

Some images from gruesome aftermath:

The Issue

There is a war taking place on our planet for which there are no headlines, no demonstrations, no voice. It is a war against some of the most endangered species on earth, and it takes place in some of the most beautiful and majestic biospheres of Africa that are yet to be fully explored . Unseen and untouched by the Western world, it is the perfect place to hide the atrocious acts that are being committed.