Half of the World's animals - GONE?!

Scientists have devised a way to accurately monitor the number of living animals on the planet right now. This new tool has been dubbed the "Living Planet Index," or LPI. It reflects the state of all 45,000 known vertebrates by analyzing 10,000 different populations, covering 3,000 species in total. The number of wild animals on Earth has halved in the past 40 years, according to this new analysis. These creatures across land, rivers and the seas are being annihilated as humans hunt them to extreme degrees, and pollute or destroy their habitats. The Zoological Society of London's director of science Ken Norris as said, "If half the animals died in London zoo next week it would be front page news, but that is happening in the great outdoors. This damage is not inevitable but a consequence of the way we choose to live." Nature was essential for human well-being. We have lost one half of the animal population and knowing this is driven by human consumption, is clearing a call to arms and humans must act, according to Mike Barratt, director of science and policy at WWF. More of earth needs to be protected from development and deforestation, while food and evergy has to be produced in a sustainable manner.

There is a lot more to this article in the later 3/4, but this is a good section that I'd like to share my thoughts on. I'm not trying to sound like one of those people that just complain about how humans are destroying nature and how we have to do something about it right this instant. That's not going to happen with how humans are, at least not on a large scale. Governments are not going to dedicate any amount of money or time to preventing ecological problems, unless it's to one-up an opposing country, or that country has no pressing matters and is fairly well off in a political and economical sense. They're too focused on war and being the best, and trying to deal with human ethics, rather than the basic "Hey, why don't we all just stop killing our planet first, then deal with trying to kill each other with nuclear weapons." While I am in no way trying to say that we should just ignore this problem, people need to realize that they can't wait for a law that says you can't throw away [insert miscellaneous item here] and then follow the rules. Humans have to take this into their own hands, spread the word and hope that their acquaintances, friends and family have the heart, and/or time to help the cause. It has to start small, and off the radar. Kind of like a revolution.

WWW in trouble?

The British inventor of the World Wide Web warned on Saturday that the freedom of the internet is under threat by governments and corporations interested in controlling the web. Tim Berners-Lee, a computer scientist who invented the web 25 years ago, called for a bill of rights that would guarantee the independence of the internet and ensure the all user's privacy. Berners-Lee said at the London "Web We Want" festival on the future of the internet: "If a company can control your access to the internet, if they can control which websites they go to, then they have tremendous control over your life." He poses a question to his audience: If a government can block you going to, for example, the opposition's political pages, then they can give you a blinkered view of reality to keep themselves in power. Governments and big companies have become aware of the temptation that controlling the internet has. Berners-Lee has called for an "internet version of the Magna Carta," in reference to basic rights and freedoms being guaranteed. 

I am so glad that the creator of the WWW has spoken to this issue. A lot of people joke constantly about how the NSA is monitoring everything we say, and comments towards them like they were reading it themselves, but the fact that the USA government actually tried to put that system in place is wrong on so many levels. The internet should not be controlled in anyway shape or form, but as Berner-Lee put it himself "some things are of course just illegal, child pornography, fraud, telling someone how to rob a bank, that's illegal before the web and it's illegal after the web." These things will always be wrong, and can be removed/punished justly. That said, in no way shape or form should anybody have any control over the internet.

A "small" rant

A 37 year old man was hung in Iran for heresy. I can't even explain how frustrated I am by this. Mohsen Amir-Aslani was found guilty of heresy and insulting prophet Jonah. According to his family he was arrested 9 years ago after having psychotherapy and also recited and gave his own interpretation of Qur'an. Authorities found his activities guilty of heresy. He was executed last week by hanging after his actions were described as 'new innovations in the religion and spreading corruption on the earth." Not only that, but he faced accusations of having sex outside marriage.

I am so upset with this, it's nearly unfathomable. A man was executed based off of his religious views. A lot of countries in the Middle East need to wake up. Religious views. Beliefs about something that nobody can even come close to proving, and they kill a man. They are impending on human rights because they don't believe in the same things. It's not like they can leave either, even if they wanted to. This is equivalent to me killing a man because he doesn't like peanut butter. Actually no, that doesn't compare equally, the man could just vomit after eating peanut butter if he dislikes it that much. That has a way to be proven and none of this does. I understand the speaking out against "prophet Jonah," but that should be a basic human right, to speak out against something they disbelieve. This would be a whole different story if this man had actually done something disorderly in honor of his beliefs, but no. This man just had some religious views and they hung him. It also makes me mad that we can't stop this without being unethical. So what are we supposed to do? Let people be killed for following basic human rights, or be unethical and try to do something about it? And can we?