I had the honor of meeting Michael first back in 2001 in New York City for a series of shows he gave at the Garden. Two days later, our world was rocked by the events of September 11th. I spoke with him on and off proceeding that time both during, and following the aftermath of 9/11 and my involvemet. I firmly believe that certain people never die. The concept of death is illusionary when it comes to artists. What they create during their life instantly becomes immortalized, and time becomes nothing more than a concept. Michael was one of those rare authentic human beings who gave a remarkable gift of connection through his work. I will remember the humanitarian, the big kid, the kind simple man who loved and cared for our animals, and someone so intent (almost to a fault) on making a difference in this world. To say he left an indelible image would be an immense understatement. His art will continue to inspire and transcend through generations to come, and that ever present message of unity and love will resonate forever. We miss you Michael, and thank you.
Think Grey Gardens meets Kennedy Compound. I’m off to spend a week up in Hull, Massachusetts to visit family and friends. Looking forward to an early birthday gathering at the house Sunday afternoon, and a Thursday lecture series with mom called “The Tall Ships” with author and photographer Thad Koza by Josephine’s B&B. His most recent book is Tall Ships: The Fleet for the 21st Century. Will be with Boston Harbor’s old man ocean, and maybe even see some of our whale friends since they love it there so much. Back June 6th.
I have never been able to think of the day as one of mourning; I have never quite been able to feel that half-masted flags were appropriate on Decoration Day. I have rather felt that the flag should be at the peak, because those whose dying we commemorate rejoiced in seeing it where their valor placed it. We honor them in a joyous, thankful, triumphant commemoration of what they did. - Benjamin Harrison
Memorial Day is a day I always take incredibly seriously. If it weren’t for our men and women in service past, present, and future, I would not be able to do what I do today. To them, I say thank you. With many friends in the armed forces, my friend James living in Hull, Massachusetts who I will see in a few days, and everyone else, I tip my hat to you. On behalf of all of us, we appreciate and acknowledge all of you.
Alan Boss: I think we’re on the verge of finding out just how many Earth-like planets there are in the universe.
That’s astronomer Alan Boss. He’s hoping to get more answers about Earth-like planets from NASA’s Kepler Mission, launched in March of 2009. Boss said Kepler is like a big digital camera attached to a telescope in space.
Alan Boss: It will be staring at 100,000 stars in the field of the constellations Cygnus and Lyra for roughly three and a half years looking for the periodic dimmings of those stars that are caused by Earth-like planets.
Boss said the universe could be crowded with rocky planets like Earth — some possibly with water, and even life.
Alan Boss: There are already indications that such Earth-like planets are going to be quite common — that is, Earth-like planets probably occur around essentially every solar-type star, or very close to that.
Boss bases his hunch on the fact that for nearby sun-like stars, about a third have turned up what are called ‘super-Earths,’ planets five to ten times more massive than Earth.
Alan Boss: We’re probably going to find hordes and hordes of more normal, terrestrial Earth-like planets.
As we look up to the night sky, said Bass, nearly every star we see might have an Earth-like world, a hundred billion in our galaxy alone. His new book is called The Crowded Universe: The Search for Living Planets.
Above is an archived interview of a debate between my friend and mentor Captain Paul Watson, and an anchor for the Mike Duffy Show on Canadian TV. The interview took place in 2006, and concerns the annual Canadian baby harp seal slaughter. A must watch.
The grand purpose of The HSUS, as established by our founders, was to see that the United States had a powerful organization that could take on cruelty on a national scale and strike at the practice at its roots. As communications, transportation and the economy have gone global, it’s required that The HSUS increase its scale to meet modern day challenges. During the last 20 years we’ve made aggressive efforts to expand our scope to cover Canada, Europe, and other parts of the world. Today we saw a dramatic demonstration of our global capabilities as we struck perhaps the biggest blow against Canada’s barbaric seal hunt—the world’s largest slaughter of marine mammals.
When I took the post of president and CEO, I asked Rebecca Aldworth, our Canadian wildlife director, and our entire organization to mobilize to fight this hunt and to do so on multiple fronts—with a seafood boycott here in the United States, with an awareness campaign and documenting of the hunt in Canada, and with efforts around the world to close markets for seal skins.
This morning, the European Parliament took its final step to ban the import of seal pelts in the 27 nations of this geopolitical entity. I’ve asked Rebecca to give you some of her heartfelt thoughts about this achievement, which our members and our key backers made possible by supporting this campaign over the last five years and giving us the tools we required to trump the government of Canada.
I’m writing this from Strasbourg, France, where history has just been made for seals.
Today, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of a strong ban on trade in seal products, closing one of the largest markets for the global sealing industry. Because the European Union took this compassionate action, millions of seals will be spared a horrible fate.
As I watched the vote, images of so many suffering and dying seals in Canada flashed through my mind … the baby seals we could not save from this greedy industry, the pups we had to watch die an unbearable death. There is nothing we can do to change what happened, but from this point forward, we know so many baby seals will live in peace.
This is a phenomenal moment for our movement. Thousands of animal protection groups and hundreds of millions of people all over the world have been united for decades in the struggle to stop Canada’s cruel commercial seal slaughter. Today, the EU brought us a major step closer to that goal.
The Canadian government estimates the loss of the EU market will cost the Canadian sealing industry $6.6 million annually. Given last year the seal hunt brought in less than $7 million, the implications are enormous.
Now, with the sealing industry weakened, we have to fight harder than ever to achieve our ultimate goal: Canadian legislation that will end the commercial seal slaughter for good. Never has the ProtectSeals seafood boycott and our political work in Canada been more important. Never have we been closer to achieving a final end to the commercial seal slaughter.
But for today, we should all celebrate. United, we can achieve anything. The seals could not ask for better allies, and The HSUS could not ask for stronger supporters. On behalf of the countless seals that will be spared because of your efforts to achieve this ban, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Dear Jamie,
There’s been a huge victory for seals today! Thanks to the tireless efforts of members and supporters, PETA has scored a major victory for baby seals who have their heads bashed in or are shot for their skins in Canada’s annual massacre on ice.
Following PETA Europe’s campaign, in which more than 100,000 compassionate members and supporters urged their Members of European Parliament (MEP) to vote for a ban in the E.U. on seal fur products from Canada, the MEPs have voted in favor of seals, recognizing that these “hunts” can never be humane. The ban sends a resounding message to the Canadian government that this bloody massacre must stop once and for all and that the world will not stand by as baby seals are bludgeoned to death in front of their wailing mothers for a product that no one needs.
The world is demanding an end to the slaughter. But the massacre is not over, and seals still need your help.
All eyes are on Canada as it prepares to host the 2010 Winter Olympics. Now is the time to demand that the Canadian government hear the worldwide call to stop this bloody massacre of seals.
Made between 1948 and 1960, Walt Disney’s “True Life Adventures” won three Oscars for best documentary feature, and several other titles won in the since-discontinued category of tworeel short features. Now the studio has returned to this admirable tradition with “earth,” opening today, on Earth Day. It’s a film that younger audiences in particular will enjoy.
To be sure, Disney didn’t produce the movie. It is a feature-length compilation from the splendid BBC and Discovery Channel series “Planet Earth,” using the big screen to make full use of its high-def images. The feature’s original narrator, Patrick Stewart, has been replaced by James Earl Jones.
What we see is astonishing. Polar bear cubs tumble their way to the sea. Birds of paradise make displays of ethereal beauty. Storks fly above the Himalayas. Elephants trek exhausted across a bone-dry desert. Humpback whales swim 3,000 miles to their summer feeding grounds offAntarctica. A predator cat outruns a springbok. Ducklings leap from their nest to fly and plummet to the ground — a learning experience.
The most poignant sequence shows a polar bear, lost at sea and searching for ice floes in a time of global warming, finally crawling ashore, exhausted and starving. Desperate for food, he hopelessly attacks a herd of walruses, fails and slumps dying to the earth; nearbywalruses are indifferent.
In the tradition of such favorites of my childhood as Disney’s “The Living Desert” and “The Vanishing Prairie,” the narration provides these animals with identities. It opens with a mother polar bear and her two cubs. The desperate polar bear is identified as their father, although I will bet a shiny new dime that the authors of the narration have absolutely no evidence of the bear’s paternal history. I’m not complaining; in a film like this, that goes with the territory.
“Earth” is filled with unexpected facts. Did you know the fir trees beginning at the northern tree line circle the globe with an almost unbroken forest, harbor almost no birds and mammals because they are not edible, and supply more of the planet’s oxygen than the rain forests? Or that baby whales have to be taught to breathe?
This “earth” is beautiful and worthwhile. At its pre-opening press screening, co-sponsored by the Lincoln Park Zoo, we were supplied not with free popcorn but tiny evergreens to take home and plant.
Note: As part of its “Buy a Ticket, Plant a Tree” program, Disney will donate one tree for each ticket purchased to “Earth” during the film’s opening five-day weekend (today through Sunday). Thanks to strong advance sales, more than 500,000 trees have been pledged so far.
Editors Thoughts On Earth
The moral of the film? We share our planet with others. Other lives, other families, other survivors just like us. The only difference lies within their enviornment, and what they struggle with to live and of course, survive. If you were a fan of the series “Planet Earth”, this film will bring back some of it’s most breathtaking visuals and introduce you to a few families living each day, again, just as we do, facing the harsh battles of reality, and refusing to do nothing than keep moving forward. A tour de force of the circle of life.
We who fight for nature, for wilderness, for life and for justice for nature are modern day knights charged with the task of defending this wondrous and unique planet.
The definition of a medieval “knight” was the same as the Japanese “samurai.” Both words mean “to serve”.
Today we need knights dedicated to serving this planet, serving our forests, our wetlands, our deserts, our rivers, our mountains, our oceans and our fellow Earthlings of all species.
Modern ecological knights are men and women who serve the cause of defending the natural world.
Medieval knights held to a code of Chivalry and the Eco-knights of today also hold to a Code of Ecological Chivalry.
I have taken the liberty of defining the modern day Code for Ecological Chivalry using the ancient Medieval Code as a guide.
Thou shalt trust in thy mother the Earth, and shalt observe all her laws.
Thou shalt defend and honour thy mother the Earth and her children with thy life.
Thou shalt respect the Law of Diversity recognizing that the strength of an eco-system is dependent upon diversity of species within it. Strength lies in Diversity.
Thou shalt respect the Law of Interdependence, recognizing that all species are interdependent and thus are equal.
Thou shalt respect the Law of Finite Resources, recognizing that there is a limit to growth and a limit to carrying capacity.
Thou shalt reject the anthropocentric beliefs and attitudes and view the world from a biocentric perspective.
Thou shalt recognize that water is the sacred blood of the Earth and must not be wasted nor defiled with filth.
Thou shalt recognize that soil is the sacred flesh of the Earth and must not be wasted nor defiled with filth.
Thou shalt recognize that the air is the sacred breath of the Earth and must not be wasted nor defiled with filth.
Thou shalt recognize that the Oceans are the foundation of all life on Earth and must not be abused nor defiled with filth. If the Oceans die than we all die.
Thou shalt recognize that all sentient beings are equal and all must be respected and shall not be abused, tormented, exploited or slain for our pleasure, amusement, or material satisfaction.
Thou shalt recognize that thy body is a sacred vessel and must not be abused nor defiled with filth.
Thou shalt volunteer thy services to defend thy mother the Earth and all her children.
Thou shalt remain faithful to thy pledged word.
Thou shalt not suffer fools. The enemies of the Earth do not command respect.
Thou shalt not bring a child into this world unless you pledge to love, nurture and educate the child as thy first priority.
Thou shalt not debase love nor friendship and shall demonstrate respect and equality to all fellow ecological knights, both men and women.
Thou must respect life and thou must avoid causing injury, pain and fatality unless for reasons of immediate self defence and survival.
Be not afraid of death and live one’s life with courage and honour.
Protect and defend the innocent, the weak and the persecuted.
Never betray a friend or a comrade no matter what the consequences.
Be true to thy heart and dreams and never submit to the dictates of others.
Be loyal to any authority that you have pledged your respect and loyalty to, and do not betray the confidence of that authority.
Thou shalt not pity thyself, complain, spread malicious gossip, or engage in trivial and petty social conflicts…..
Thou shalt be everywhere and always the champion of the Earth, the Oceans, the Forests, the Rivers, the Wetlands and the Soil.
I had the honor of meeting Michael first back in 2001 in New York City for a series of shows he gave at the Garden. Two days later, our world was rocked by the events of September 11th. I spoke with him on and off proceeding that time both during, and following the aftermath of 9/11 and my involvemet. I firmly believe that certain people never die. The concept of death is illusionary when it comes to artists. What they create during their life instantly becomes immortalized, and time becomes nothing more than a concept. Michael was one of those rare authentic human beings who gave a remarkable gift of connection through his work. I will remember the humanitarian, the big kid, the kind simple man who loved and cared for our animals, and someone so intent (almost to a fault) on making a difference in this world. To say he left an indelible image would be an immense understatement. His art will continue to inspire and transcend through generations to come, and that ever present message of unity and love will resonate forever. We miss you Michael, and thank you.
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