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Even your basic needs are dependent on fossil fuels.

the human population has grown by more than five times

Americans consume 300 – 600 times as much as people in very poor nations, in some cases.

many of whom aspire to live “better” lives, to consume like wealthy people.

reach unanimous agreement on the wording of each sentence in the 20-page summary for policymakers. "Most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperature since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic [human-caused]

The phrase "very likely" translates to a 90 percent probability

In 2001 the panel concluded humans were "likely," or with 66 percent probability

t Earth's oceans are now beginning to cool.

The Earth heats up after a Solar Grand Maximum, lagging a bit after the peak. With a Solar Grand Minimum now on its way, a "global cooling" is on the horizon--a natural oscillation occurring in much longer solar cycles.

Researchers said they are more than 90 percent certain that global warming is caused by humans

tremendous amounts of fossil fuels.

storing carbon for thousands, possibly millions of years.

When your car burns them, that carbon is instantly released as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

cleared of existing trees and plants that were actively storing carbon.

they stopped storing carbon and released all the carbon they had accumulated over tens or even hundreds of years.

use of enormous fossil fuel-powered machines in the production,

produce methane, a major greenhouse gas.

beef, lamb or goat meat,

that animal agriculture is responsible for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions,

Is Human-Caused Warming Dangerous?

short answer is “yes

Are animal experiments useful? Animal experiments only benefit human beings if their results are valid and can be applied to human beings. Not all scientists are convinced that these tests are valid and useful.

Animal experiments are widely used to develop new medicines and to test the safety of other products.

In November 2008 the European Union put forward proposals to revise the directive for the protection of animals used in scientific experiments

The proposals have three aims: to considerably improve the welfare of animals used in scientific procedures

to ensure fair competition for industry to boost research activities in the European Union

The main changes proposed are:

to make it compulsory to carry out ethical reviews and require that experiments where animals are used be subject to authorisation to widen the scope of the directive to include specific invertebrate species and foetuses in their last trimester of development and also larvae and other animals used in basic research, education and training to set minimum housing and care requirements to require that only animals of second or older generations be used, subject to transitional periods, to avoid taking animals from the wild and exhausting wild populations to state that alternatives to testing on animals must be used when available and that the number of animals used in projects be reduced to a minimum to require member states to improve the breeding, accommodation and care measures and methods used in procedures so as to eliminate or reduce to a minimum any possible pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm caused to animals

Our Changing Planet

climate change research by 13 government agencies.

"The concern is that we human beings are modifying that greenhouse effect by adding to the atmosphere gases that increase the natural abundance of these so-called gases. . . .

burning fossil fuel (coal and oil and natural gas), which releases carbon dioxide

Over time, pressure and heat from the earth compacted the material into layers of sedimentary rock.

Coal is a fossil fuel

1000 B . C .,

Industrial Revolution its use began to soar.

was found to be both plentiful and cheap,

where it was believed the pollutants would disperse without harm." 16

All fossil fuels release carbon whenever they are burned, but coal has a much higher carbon content than either oil or gas.

What is rarely reported is that worldwide, sharks kill an average of 10 people every year. It's usually when people venture into a shark's habitat and not the other way around. By contrast, humans kill around 100 million sharks every year - a number that has ballooned in recent years because of the enormous demand for shark fins to make shark fin soup.

Shark fin soup is a delicacy reserved for the wealthy on special occasions and it has been part of Chinese culture for centuries. For years, only rich Chinese mostly in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore consumed it, so the impact on the overall shark population was negligible

Over the last decade, the exploding middle class in China has changed the fate of the shark.

If you feel this way, you’re not alone, but it might surprise you to know that although there are more than 350 distinct species of sharks, only a few even bother with humans. The giant Whale Shark doesn’t even have teeth.

As of late 2009, the world’s population of sharks had already diminished by 50 to 75%.

A North Atlantic population survey reports as much as an 89% decrease.

show that for the 181 species of sharks for which they have adequate data, over 64% of those populations are noted as “threatened” or “vulnerable”. Of those, over 21% are categorized as “endangered” or worse. At least one species is already listed as “extinct in the wild.”

Sharks are pulled onto fishing boats where their fins are cut off and their bodies are thrown back into the ocean as waste. A large percentage of these animals are still alive and suffocate. Even though less than 5% of the shark is fin, the rest is usually thrown away because of the economics of it. Shark meat must be properly refrigerated and takes up a lot of space on a boat. Fins, however, can be cut off, bundled, and hung to dry in large nets. It is the fin that produces the largest profit by far and can be sold for hundreds of dollars per pound.