Dr. Anthony Giordano, Ph.D.  – expert in wildlife ecology and management

Dr. Anthony Giordano, Founder and Executive Director of Society for the Preservation of Endangered Carnivores & their International Ecological Study (S.P.E.C.I.E.S.) – is an international conservation biologist and ecologist with a strong background in research, wildlife management, international project management, nonprofit program design, and education. Dr. Giordano also serves as Vice President for Latin America for Wild Felid Research & Management Association, CFO of Latin America & Caribbean Section of the Society for Conservation Biology, Conservation Committee (Council) Member for the American Society of Mammalogists, and Member: Cat Specialist Group, Small Carnivore Specialist Group, Peccary Specialist Group for the IUCN Species Survival Commission.

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University of California, Merced, Political Science major, Recruitment Officer for Democrats at UC Merced

I am determined to make a career in public service. I care deeply about society and progressive issues, particularly environmental concerns.  I am always looking to engage when you need someone who is energetic, organized, passionate, educated, and disciplined to assist you on your political project or campaign.

The post Tristan Jones – pending Director appeared first on A-Team for Wildlife.

Author, Singer/songwriter, youth and wildlife advocate

Kerryn Vaughan is passionate about youth, wildlife and conservation, and working toward solutions that will encourage a flourishing ecosystem to assist the longevity of this amazing planet.  She has a solid background in disability, autism and behaviour, and working with disengaged youth.  As a song writer, a number of my songs raise awareness of animal rights issues. These songs are showcased on many internet sites worldwide.  Her most recent book is “Magnificent Kids, 23 Superheroes Who Are Changing the World”.

The post Kerryn Vaughan – pending Director appeared first on A-Team for Wildlife.

Attorney at Law – Experienced litigator, legislative & policy advocate and mediator, Hawaii & California

Emily Gardner is a Honolulu-based attorney who represents people, non-governmental, governmental, and private entities in matters involving ocean, environmental, land-use, wildlife and animal law.  In addition to her law degree, Emily holds a Master in Law from the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in environmental law and ocean policy, and, a Master of Science in zoology.  For several years she performed applied aquaculture research at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology and has worked with and for several non-governmental organizations on wildlife conservation issues.  She has published numerous articles on wildlife conservation, particularly involving marine species and illegal wildlife trade under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and the impacts of climate change on protected species.  She has served as the Marine Protected Species Coordinator for the State of Hawaii and as a consultant to the International Institute of Sustainable Development.  She feels strongly about supporting young people in developing careers in science and conservation and is particularly happy to be supporting the work of the inspiring and impressive A-Team for Wildlife members.

Emily Gardner introduces A-Team for Wildlife during guest appearance on Think Tech Hawaii’s show discussing climate change on Seymour’s World.

See the entire interview here.

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B.S. in Zoology, Carnivore specialist, working with tigers, great apes, and birds of prey

The post Matt Tebb – pending Director of Wildlife appeared first on A-Team for Wildlife.

Dr. Vint Virga, D.V.M  -practitioner and leader in veterinary behavioral medicine.

Dr. Vint Virga – is a distinguished practitioner and leader in veterinary behavioral medicine.  He consults nationally to zoos and wildlife parks, private corporations, and professional organizations on the care and well-being of animals.  Dr. Virga has appeared as a featured guest on ABC World News, PBS Wild TV, and National Geographic Explorer.  His most recent book titled, “The Soul of All Living Creatures” is a Nautilus Book Award winner.

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“Trophy hunters destroy the most valuable and beautiful element of their prize: its life.  Their reward is a carcass on the brink of decay – a trophy to  their foolishness.” - KJ

Stop the War on Nature

by Ken Jones

“But man is but a part of Nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.” ~ Rachel Carson

Our modern civilization is waging a War on Nature. The Web of LIfe on our little planet is so interwoven, so intricate in detail, as to stagger the mind. Yet before we have come to understand it or even name a fraction of its inhabitants, we are fouling it and punching big holes in our web of life.  Nature often appears to be so “other” than ourselves that we seem to need to repeatedly remind ourselves that we can not exist separate from nature. The topics of environmental concern are many, and the people and organizations who are working on them are too numerous to count.  However, with few exceptions, they are not unified. They sometimes work at cross-purposes.  Instead of cooperating, most of them are competing for financial resources and donations. Numerous and varied environmental messages overwhelm and confuse the public. As a result, the political and public support of environmentalists waxes and wanes in the public arena. Over time support among the public barely builds and, in the end, has been insufficient to adequately protect our planet. Should you doubt this, simply review the facts and see how major issues have worsened over time. Basically, what we have been doing is not working.  We are on the path to a failed, broken civilization and an impoverished planet within 50 years – so say the scientists who study these things.

I suspect that, instead of more of the same, a new approach is needed. Perhaps a new vision, a new way of thinking about this, can help to bring these desperate cousins of the same cause – the cause for nature – together. Instead of the different factions of life-supporting efforts, like “clean air”, “animal welfare”, and “environmental issues”  being separate and outside of our concepts of social issues we should recontextualize them all as expressions of the same thing – a social justice value supporting nature. As an organizing principle it may be very helpful that our effort to stop The War on Nature is modeled more often on strategies that have worked for other social causes. I suggest that a branding of the cause is needed. One that, while reducing the problem to its simplest terms, is, at the same time, inclusive enough to serve the wide-ranging scope of environmental problems.  To have the clout that is needed to change society, we must find a way to bring all under one umbrella to promote the cause. Simplify the message. To speak with one voice on the core issues. Show unity.  Only then may we be able to build the influence to insure a healthy future for our planet and ourselves.

During our recent national election, I noticed that all kinds of human rights and social issues were in the media and on politicians’ lists of talking points. However, the only nature-based issue I saw mentioned was Climate Change. There are many dire environmental concerns but most are not considered on par with what we currently consider to be our social issues. This has to change. But how?

This War on Nature is a social justice issue. It affects public health and public safety. It is largely a product of affluence, greed, and indifference to others. It forces a higher price on the poor – people with less access to financial or natural resources. Perhaps the War on Nature should be countered by a movement more akin to the other social justice issues of recent decades such as civil rights, women’s equality, gay rights and marriage equality? Some of the many facets of this conflict already have recognized social justice movements associated with them, such as climate change.  It is recognized that poor people in lesser-developed countries suffer disproportionately due to climate change, and so “climate justice” is sought .  Any and all activities that damage our natural life-support systems of this earth, including habitat, air, water, soil, and biodiversity threaten the health, welfare and success of the planet’s human citizens.  Any such threat endangers people, poor people even more so, and is therefore socially unjust.

The root causes of degrading people are the same as the root causes of degrading the environment.  To objectify and dismiss the rights of a minority is caused by fear, ignorance, and self-interest, just as it is when we objectify and ignore the rights of other living beings.  Diversity in people, as biodiversity is in nature, is nature’s way. This huge global crisis for the earth is born of a crisis of the human heart. Our human differences help to keep us strong and resilient, just like biodiversity in an ecosystem provides strength and resilience. It is to valued and appreciated. These values lie at the core of why human rights activists and environmental activists are in fact the same.  By working more closely together, perhaps we can assure the fundamental changes to our society that a successful future demands.

The time is now because our insults to nature have reached the tipping point made plain by a changing climate. Now is the time because, as climate change has already made clear, waiting any longer is simply too costly and too dangerous.  The other elements of our War on Nature, although for now are less visible in our daily lives, are just as serious. The consequences of pollution (including climate change), habitat destruction, mass extinctions, ocean degradation, deforestation, poor animal welfare, food production and waste, and overpopulation: of each of these major areas of attack upon nature are now severe and unsustainable. Cumulatively, they spell certain disaster for humankind in the near future. Now is the time to turn society to a new direction.  We must turn away from excessive consumption, waste, and degradation, and towards sustainability and justice.

We need the leadership of social entrepreneurs to organize more public engagement in political actions for nature. We need more sleepy consumers to become advocates for nature, and we need more advocates to become activists. Contrary to human inclination, this has to happen fast – within a single generation, because time is running out. It is appropriate that we work with, and borrow from, our brothers and sisters in the human rights movements. Since the era of Big Oil is coming to an end, and an entirely new infrastructure for energy production has to be created, society is facing major changes.  It will have to be an era of accelerated social evolution.  Change that not only develops new systems of clean energy,  but also completely stops our War on Nature. This can only be achieved by joining together in bigger numbers than ever before, organizing around a pro-nature unifying vision that recognizes that sustainability and supporting diversity are core tenants of social justice. It just may be that utilization of proven social justice technologies and strategies, and a joining of ranks, will allow us to develop sufficient public engagement to produce the numbers of nature advocates and activists needed to finally stop the War on Nature.

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What Conservationists say:

 

 

 

 

 About the author: Ken Jones is Founder and CEO of the conservation nonprofit for young people called, A-Team For Wildlife.  He also hosts and produces a conservation podcast, “Jungle Deep”.  In past years he has won recognition and awards for his volunteerism in support of Earth Day. Jones also founded and served as Director of the Tropical Rainforest Museum, during which time he brought wildlife education to California schools in nearly 1,000 assemblies.  

www.A-TeamForWildlife.org

The post STOP the WAR on NATURE appeared first on A-Team for Wildlife.

“Branding Concerns for the Earth”

What do you call it? The state of natural affairs today, and our vision for our future?

Long before the advent of the World Wide Web of the internet, there was a different internet, a different World Wide Web. It is known as the Web of Life. The Web of Life is huge, diverse, extremely interdependent, and important. It is important to us because we depend upon it for our very lives. We call what we take from the Web of Life, “Natural Resources”. These natural resources include the air we breath, the materials with which we build our homes and cities, and all of our food. Natural resources produce our clothing, transportation, our conveniences and our entertainment. In less than two hundred years humankind has moved from the Agrarian Age into the Industrial Age, through to the Space & Technology Age and into the Information Age. Human world population has grown in that time from 1 billion to over 7 billion people. Standards of living for many has skyrocketed – all consuming more and more natural resources.

The problem of consumption is huge and complicated. We have come through a period of environmental movements and campaigns to try to address the wrongs. Establishing the world’s first National Parks, pesticide pollution awareness and the banning of DDT, Earth Day born of Oil Spills, the Clean Air Act to fight smog, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act. Greenpeace and Sea Shepard fight illegal fishing and whaling. More than half of the world’s rain forests have been consumed, much of it illegally. World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, and many, many others try to save biodiversity “Hotspots” and severely endangered species in dealing with what is now being called, the 6th Mass Extinction. Pick your issue and you will find hundreds of organizations working to better the situation. There are also hundreds of issues, all important, all connected to the others, all parts of the web.

A generation of conservation spokespeople are nearly gone from the public forum due to retirement and death: Rachael Carson, Marlin Perkins, Steve Irwin, Jacques Cousteau, Jane Goodall, Sir David Attenborough, and many more. They have been the outspoken advocates of nature to the general public, delivering the message of caring for the earth, but falling short of turning around civilization’s march towards the cliff.

Finally, it has caught up to us. The first dramatic, catastrophic, in-your-face evidence has been climate change, with its costly storm damage, visibly shrinking glaciers and ice caps, and ever more extreme weather patterns of droughts, fires, floods, and hurricanes, endangering human lives. Mass extinctions of animal and plant life are now underway- the flip side of the same coin. These accelerating species extinctions represent the tearing of holes in the Web of Life – resulting in great losses to us in natural resources, food and medicine. Our acidifying oceans are nearly empty of fish and full of trash. Our lands and streams are daily polluted with oil spills, and the bosom of the earth itself is being pumped full of toxic chemicals, endangering fresh ground water and causing earthquakes in the name of fracking for gas.

We have been using up too much of the earth, and spoiling the rest.

Nature has had enough and is demanding we change our ways. It’s not the earth that is in danger, but life on earth that certainly is. We have finally done enough damage in so many ways, that the consequences are about to become inescapable for humankind. Finally, after decades of talking about it, we are going to have to deliberately, promptly, and fundamentally change our societies to embrace sustainability. New clean energy sources, new foods, new ways of developing and harvesting resources, and new, smarter and kinder ways of sharing this planet with all living things are required, if we are to survive.

This will surely mean leaving behind our dirty fuels, our polluting ways, and our wasteful habits. Our shameful treatment of animals in factory farms, entertainment, hunting, and eating meat may come to an end, as we care more about animal welfare. Greed will have to be confronted, along with rampant income inequality. Perhaps we will learn to love our new roles, instead of clear-cutting destroyers of natural forests, as loving gardeners of Eden. This is the first time in human history that we will be remaking civilization by our own intelligent design. Rather than slowly evolving through a series of accidents, inventions, and developments, humankind will have to create a clear vision and make a thoughtful leap to a different track- a track to truly sustainable development. This is an exciting time!

A new vision of what it means to be a member of human civilization on this earth has to be promoted. But right now that picture is badly muddled with so many details, so many facets- concerns about hydrology, geology, zoology, botany, ecology, animal rights, indigenous people’s rights, and on and on.

During the recent political election I came across a list of the concerns from voters. One of the biggest questions in politics is always, “What are the priorities of the voters today?” All of the issues had pretty good branding. They could be represented in two or three words. Words that were positive – or at least not negative. In some cases the words represent a picture, a visual image of the goal, like, “marriage equality”, “racial equality”, “climate justice”, “reproductive rights”, “affordable education”, and so on. While “climate change” often made the list, it lacks something in the way of a positive image of the future. Wildlife preservation and sustainable use of resources were missing from the lists I read. We have a branding problem.

We require a brief positive vision of the future to create good branding on this issue. While personally I have come up with a couple of slogans I like, such as “Save endangered species, because without nature, nothing survives”, and “Animals Need More Friends”, I haven’t yet found the right combination of words that provides the branding handle we need to compete in the evening news with those other concerns. So what do you think? Can you help us develop a brand for repairing, protecting, and nurturing the First World Wide Web?

The post Protecting the First World Wide Web appeared first on A-Team for Wildlife.

by Ken Jones

What do you call it? The state of natural affairs today, and our vision for our future?

Long before the advent of the World Wide Web of the internet, there was a different internet, a different World Wide Web. It is known as the Web of Life. The Web of Life is huge, diverse, extremely interdependent, and important. It is important to us because we depend upon it for our very lives. We call what we take from the Web of Life, “Natural Resources”. These natural resources include the air we breath, the materials with which we build our homes and cities, and all of our food. Natural resources produce our clothing, transportation, our conveniences and our entertainment. In less than two hundred years humankind has moved from the Agrarian Age into the Industrial Age, through to the Space & Technology Age and into the Information Age. Human world population has grown in that time from 1 billion to over 7 billion people. Standards of living for many has skyrocketed – all consuming more and more natural resources.

The problem of consumption is huge and complicated. We have come through a period of environmental movements and campaigns to try to address the wrongs. Establishing the world’s first National Parks, pesticide pollution awareness and the banning of DDT, Earth Day born of Oil Spills, the Clean Air Act to fight smog, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act. Greenpeace and Sea Shepard fight illegal fishing and whaling. More than half of the world’s rain forests have been consumed, much of it illegally. World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, and many, many others try to save biodiversity “Hotspots” and severely endangered species in dealing with what is now being called, the 6th Mass Extinction. Pick your issue and you will find hundreds of organizations working to better the situation. There are also hundreds of issues, all important, all connected to the others, all parts of the web.

A generation of conservation spokespeople are nearly gone from the public forum due to retirement and death: Rachael Carson, Marlin Perkins, Steve Irwin, Jacques Cousteau, Jane Goodall, Sir David Attenborough, and many more. They have been the outspoken advocates of nature to the general public, delivering the message of caring for the earth, but falling short of turning around civilization’s march towards the cliff.

Finally, it has caught up to us. The first dramatic, catastrophic, in-your-face evidence has been climate change, with its costly storm damage, visibly shrinking glaciers and ice caps, and ever more extreme weather patterns of droughts, fires, floods, and hurricanes, endangering human lives. Mass extinctions of animal and plant life are now underway- the flip side of the same coin. These accelerating species extinctions represent the tearing of holes in the Web of Life – resulting in great losses to us in natural resources, food and medicine. Our acidifying oceans are nearly empty of fish and full of trash. Our lands and streams are daily polluted with oil spills, and the bosom of the earth itself is being pumped full of toxic chemicals, endangering fresh ground water and causing earthquakes in the name of fracking for gas.

We have been using up too much of the earth, and spoiling the rest.

Nature has had enough and is demanding we change our ways. It’s not the earth that is in danger, but life on earth that certainly is. We have finally done enough damage in so many ways, that the consequences are about to become inescapable for humankind. Finally, after decades of talking about it, we are going to have to deliberately, promptly, and fundamentally change our societies to embrace sustainability. New clean energy sources, new foods, new ways of developing and harvesting resources, and new, smarter and kinder ways of sharing this planet with all living things are required, if we are to survive.

This will surely mean leaving behind our dirty fuels, our polluting ways, and our wasteful habits. Our shameful treatment of animals in factory farms, entertainment, hunting, and eating meat may come to an end, as we care more about animal welfare. Greed will have to be confronted, along with rampant income inequality. Perhaps we will learn to love our new roles, instead of clear-cutting destroyers of natural forests, as loving gardeners of Eden. This is the first time in human history that we will be remaking civilization by our own intelligent design. Rather than slowly evolving through a series of accidents, inventions, and developments, humankind will have to create a clear vision and make a thoughtful leap to a different track- a track to truly sustainable development. This is an exciting time!

A new vision of what it means to be a member of human civilization on this earth has to be promoted. But right now that picture is badly muddled with so many details, so many facets- concerns about hydrology, geology, zoology, botany, ecology, animal rights, indigenous people’s rights, and on and on.

During the recent political election I came across a list of the concerns from voters. One of the biggest questions in politics is always, “What are the priorities of the voters today?” All of the issues had pretty good branding. They could be represented in two or three words. Words that were positive – or at least not negative. In some cases the words represent a picture, a visual image of the goal, like, “marriage equality”, “racial equality”, “climate justice”, “reproductive rights”, “affordable education”, and so on. While “climate change” often made the list, it lacks something in the way of a positive image of the future. Wildlife preservation and sustainable use of resources were missing from the lists I read. We have a branding problem.

We require a brief positive vision of the future to create good branding on this issue. While personally I have come up with a couple of slogans I like, such as “Save endangered species, because without nature, nothing survives”, and “Animals Need More Friends”, I haven’t yet found the right combination of words that provides the branding handle we need to compete in the evening news with those other concerns. So what do you think? Can you help us develop a brand for repairing, protecting, and nurturing the First World Wide Web?

The post Protecting the First World Wide Web appeared first on A-Team for Wildlife.

International A-Team Member Maddie Cranston’s Blog

Read Maddie’s blog at her site here: http://www.coolclicksplanet.com/cool-clicks-blog

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