Peta protesters aimed to highlight treatment of sows in pig farms
Naked and heavily pregnant animal rights activists have caged themselves outside Jamie Oliver’s Islington restaurant to protest against the chef’s endorsement of British Pork.
The two campaigners from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) say they targeted Oliver’s Fifteen Restaurant last week to highlight the condition of sows in UK battery farms, who are kept in ‘farrowing crates’ for a month after the birth of piglets.
However Oliver’s spokesman argued that the chef was a “big supporter” of animal welfare. In a recent Channel 4 programme, Jamie Saves Our Bacon,
Jamie Oliver: "British is best"
the chef showed conditions in European pig farms and urged people to buy British pork, saying conditions for pig rearing are more humane in the UK.
But the protesters insist: “The answer to saving pigs is not to buy British pork, it’s to go vegetarian.”
It may come as a surprise that, as someone who has been vegetarian for more than 12 years due to concerns about intensive farming, I don’t agree with Peta.
When a giant balsa tree toppled in the world’s biggest greenhouse, folk at Cornwall’s Eden Project were at a loss for what to do with it.
British pro-surfer Mark Harris takes the Eden board for a ride
Then some bright spark had an idea to turn it into a surfboard with revolutionary green credentials, just in time for summer.
Conventional surfboards are mostly made from oil-derived products, giving them a high quota of not-so-nice petroleum chemicals.
However the Eden surfboard is made largely from sustainable and environmentally-friendly materials, including a linseed oil resin coating and foam core which is one quarter plant-derived material.
The result is a board in which more than 50% of the materials used are from renewable sources. It got a big thumbs up after being tested by pro-surfers at Newquay’s Fistral Beach last week, who showed that being more sustainable needn’t compromise performance.
“Why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?” This is the question Pete Postlethwaite asks as the star of new eco-film The Age of Stupid.
Set in the year 2055 when the world has been devastated by climate change, Postlethwaite plays ‘The Archivist’, the only man left on Earth living above the raging sea in a high-security tower which houses every species of animal, cryogenically frozen, two by two.
As Sydney’s Opera House burns and London’s O2 Arena is submerged by floods, Postlethwaite looks back at documentary footage from the year 2008 and ponders the events which led to this terrible, globally-warmed fate.
These days it’s not enough to achieve an eco-friendly life – some clever beans are managing to limit their environmental impact in death as well.
Eastenders star Wendy Richard, who recently lost her battle against breast cancer, is one of the latest to go to a ‘green grave’ in a bamboo coffin.
Wendy Richard's wicker casket
The alter ego of Albert Square’s beloved battleaxe, Pauline Fowler, is amongst a growing number of people choosing to be laid to rest without leaking harmful chemicals into the earth.
Flamboyant jazz musician George Melly, who died in 2007, had a cardboard coffin personalised with drawings and photographs.
And prolific pulp romance novelist Barbara Cartland was buried in a cardboard coffin in 2000 (and I’m betting it was pink).
Ever since suffragette Emily Davison threw herself in front of King George V’s horse at the Epsom Derby of 1913, direct action protests have become a way of expressing discontent when all other democratic avenues have been exhausted. Of course, Davison is an extreme example. But all over the world, campaigners for various causes are still breaking the rules to make a point.
Stansted flights were stopped for four hours after protestors stormed the runway
Take this week for example. First there was Tuesday’s stand-off at Stansted Airport with over 50 campaigners from anti-aviation network Plane Stupid storming the runway, constructing a makeshift barrier out of fence panels and chaining themselves to it with handcuffs and bicycle locks (some things never go out of style). Flights were cancelled, passengers were pissed off and, somewhere up in the Earth’s atmosphere, the world was saved from several hundred tonnes of climate change emissions.
Then on Thursday it was revealed that a mystery saboteur had single-handedly managed to break into Kingsnorth power station and crash a giant 500MW turbine before casually making his way out again – leaving a calling card of an old bedsheet festooned with the words “no new coal” artfully written in Gaffa tape, and reducing UK carbon emissions by 2%.
Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, yesterday declared his country’s killer cholera epidemic under control – even as neighbouring South Africa designated one of its northern regions a disaster area due to the number of people crossing the border to seek treatment.
Nearly 800 people have died and more than 15,000 have been affected in Zimbabwe and surrounding countries since the outbreak of cholera in August, according to treatment centre statistics.
But the Red Cross believes the actual number of victims is likely to be much higher, as most people do not have access to medical care due to a lack of transport.
‘Wake Up, Freak Out – Then Get A Grip’ explains the global warming issue in language even my Nan can understand. And if that doesn’t interest you, there’s a polar bear playing the violin.
Although, as the film notes, “This really isn’t about the polar bears anymore”.
Seems plans for a third runway at Heathrow really are struggling to get off the ground. Earlier today the Government revealed they are delaying their decision until January because of a split in the cabinet over the issue.
According to The Telegraph, 52 Labour MPs are among the 141 members who have signed an early day motion that opposes Heathrow expansion.
Greenpeace protesting against Heathrow expansion earlier this year
The Tories and Lib Dems have already come out strongly against the plans, with David Cameron suggesting a high-speed rail link from London to the north of England should be built instead.
Business leaders insist the expansion is vital for the growth of Britain’s economy, with airport owner BAA claiming existing runways are currently operating at over 99% of their capacity.
However it seems Ministers are having difficulty justifying a move that will see the number of flights leaving the UK increase by nearly 40% at a time when Brown has vowed to tackle climate change by reducing harmful carbon emissions by 80% by 2050.
The Government can put out a million ads encouraging us to turn off unnecessary lights and not leave the TV on standby, but all the energy efficient lightbulbs in the world are not going to make a difference if they do not first set an example to show the UK – and the rest of the world – that they are serious about taking on climate change.
Or perhaps it’s more a case of “do as I say, not as I do”?
There is an online petition against the expansion here.
A marmoset performs a behavioural task to assess sensori-motor control
It’s an argument which has raged for decades. My recent visit to a pharmaceutical animal lab didn’t help solve the debate on an issue so tangled in complex ethical dilemmas, but it did offer an insight into the lives of people involved in this line of work. I’m talking specifically about those responsible for the welfare of the animals – ensuring they are clean, comfortable, fed and watered – as they undergo scientific experiments lasting anything from a few months to a few years.
To the untrained eye, the rabbits, mice and guinea pigs huddled in their spotless stainless steel cages all looked perfectly normal – but then, contrary to my earlier suspicions, a genetically modified mouse does not have three eyes. The same can’t be said for the marmosets, who shook uncontrollably as they attempted to climb their cage with wobbly, uncertain movements. Others crouched in a corner, staring vacantly. A few months earlier they had each undergone precision surgery to destroy a small part of their brains, stimulating the onset of Parkinson’s Disease.
Venice, a city threatened by rising sea levels, has suffered its worst flooding in 22 years.
Water burst the banks of the famed canals amid heavy rain, leaving some parts of the historic city neck-deep in water and waves lapping at the cafe tables in St Mark’s Square.
What with all those gondolas lying about Venetians are probably better equipped than most to deal with the after-effects of flooding.
Still, it makes you wonder what other great places might be submerged faster than you can say “soggy pizza” if sea levels continue to rise at their current rate (up to 88cm by 2100 according to the UN).
