THIS JUST IN: Japanese Kill Off Humpback Hunt

By Honey Gillard

In recent news, the Japanese government has agreed NOT to follow through on their controversial plans to hunt humpback whales during this year's annual Antarctic whaling expedition.

Every year the Japanese whaling fleet sales to the offshore oceans of Antarctica to kill an intended 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales - a goal always striking a controversial view in the media, but this year in addition to the 985 already planned kills they planned on killing up to 50 humpback whales. As you could expect, this did not go down easily to the animal right protestors, as well as many of the general public - atleast those with a heart anyways.

"Japan has decided not to catch humpback whales for one year or two," Japanese Politician Nobutaka Machimura told reporters.

This was to be the first major hunt of humpback whales in over 40 years. Commercial hunts of humpbacks have been banned worldwide since 1966, as the World Conservation Union considers the species to be facing a high but not immanent risk of extinction in the wild. Japanese whalers had argued that the hunting ban wasn't relevant to them as their hunt was for the sake of science.

WWF claims that Japan's so-called "scientific whaling" is nothing more than commercial whaling in disguise - the whale meat actually ends up in supermarket shelves in Japan, even though few people eat it anymore. In the opinion of the environmental organization, Japan's scientific whaling programme is unnecessary and unscientific, making a point that there are many non-lethal research techniques available that provide nearly all relevant data on whale populations.

Critics say that the program is nothing more than a shield intended to keep the Japanese whaling industry alive until it can overturn a the 1986 ban of commercial whaling.

Karli Thomas, leader of Greenpeace's current expedition heading to the southern Pacific said:
"This is good news, indeed, but it must be the first step towards ending all whaling in the Southern Ocean, not just one species for one season."

Though this may be good news to not only our ears but the humpbacks who
s lives have just been saved, there is still much more action that needs to come about as the fleet still intends to kill 958 whales between now and april. All won't be at peace till that figure is 0 and till then we will keep fighting.

For more information on whaling and how you can help visit: Greenpeace.org

Xoxo
Honey

Source: WWF
BBC News

TO DO: 10 Things You Can Do To Help Take The 'Warming' Out Of Global Warming

Want to do something good for your planet and future? Want to help stop the global warming of our planet. Thanks to ninemsn.com.au, we can provide you with 10 easy things that you can do to help and how much caron dioxide you can save by putting them into action.

We can all help take the warming out of global warming.

1. Drive less: Walk, bike, carpool or take public transport more often. You’ll save 1.5kg of carbon dioxide for every 5km you don’t drive!

2. Change a light: Replacing six regular light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs will save 400kg of carbon dioxide a year.

3. Recycle more: You can save 1000kg of carbon dioxide per year by recycling just half of your household waste.

4. Check your tyres: Keeping your tyres inflated properly can improve your car’s fuel efficiency. Every litre of petrol saved keeps 2.5kg of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere!

5. Use less hot water: It takes a lot of energy to heat water — use less hot water by installing an energy efficient triple A rated showerhead (3 tonnes of carbon dioxide saved per year) and washing your clothes in cold or warm water (225kg saved per year).

6. Avoid products with alot of packaging: You can save 545kg of carbon dioxide if you cut down your garbage by 10%.

7. Move your thermostat down 2 degrees in winter and up 2 degrees in summer.You could save about 900kg of carbon dioxide a year with this simple adjustment.

8. Plant a tree: A single tree will absorb one tonne of carbon dioxide over its lifetime.

9. Turn off electrical devices: Simply turning off your television, DVD player, stereo and computer when you’re not using them will save you thousands of kilograms of carbon dioxide a year.

10. Be part of the solution: Learn more and get active at http://www.climatecrisis.net/

So start today, don’t leave somethign as important as this for tomorrow.

Sources : ninemsn.com.au

To Do: Help End World Hunger

“What if just knowing what a word meant could help feed hungry people around the world? Well, at FreeRice it does . . . the totals have grown exponentially.”
- The Washington Post

According to the United Nations about 25,000 people die each day from hunger or hunger-related causes, most of which are children. Imagine if you could help lessen that number? Maybe even wipe it out... Well the United Nations World Food Program in collaboration with Free Rice has came up with a way - and it 100% free and actually benefits you!

FreeRice is a website constructed for 2 sole purposes:
1. To enlighten the minds of all by providing free vocabulary.
2. Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.


I guess you're now wondering how this little site works? Well, FreeRice has a database of thousands and thousands of words and you, as a player, have to choose the word that bests fits it’s definition. For every correct answer you donate 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program, who in turn donates the rice to poverty stricken nations, which helps hungry human beings to function and be productive.


A donation of rice might seem quite trivial to you but to someone watching their loved one die in their arms from hunger, the rice you donate is more precious than anything in the world.

FreeRice is open to all - from people just learning English to the Einsteins out there - and each and all can contribute just as much and get just as much out of it. The site introduces you and your brain to the game by giving you words at different levels of difficulty and then, based on how you do, assigns you an approximate starting level. When you get 3 consecutive correct answers you advance to a harder level, and alternatively when you get a wrong answer you move to an easier level. Sounds kinda fun and challenging huh? And lets not forget your doing your bit of charity for the better of this world and helping 'make this world a better place'.

In December alone 6,948,988,060 grains of rice were donated through the website..!! That's a whole lotta rice... Isn't it great to know that somewhere in the world there is a hungry person eating rice that you helped to provide. :)

Have fun gamers,
Load up that rice.
Xoxo
Honey

Welcome To.. A Better Place

Welcome all and thankyou for your interest, with a little bit of faith from you webbers out there i have a dream to use this blog to help raise awareness of all things out there and help make this world 'a better place'. Even if just a little bit... every bit counts. Every contribution. Every reader. Every donation. Every grain of rice.
So once again thankyou and i hope you find this blog inspiring and helpful.

XOXO
Honey