Halloween - Spoooky for Australian Children

WOOHOO! - It's Halloween again. Let's see what spine-chilling, scary and weird spook lurks in the closet this season.

It has been found that educated and mature parents, capable of long-term thinking/planning produce healthier and smarter kids "Children with highly educated parents, and from families with two working parents, display higher cognitive ability and appear to have fewer behaviour problems." Depressed and immature parents are probably not ideal carers.

The 'One minute a day-dad' is probably steering his attention towards electronic interactivity, just as the mother/carers are not investing in interaction with the child.

Not learning to focus in a social setting could lead to 'Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder' (ADHD). “Drugging unruly children is a method of social control “ in Australia and the U.S. especially. Being under six years old for 'the pharmacological solution' seems no barrier. Later, cognition can be chemically enhanced and psychotropic medication usage becomes prevalent for young adults.

“ Drinking as a means of self-medication” is usually adopted in the parental milieu and might be advanced into "binge drinking" or a “Culture of Extreme Drinking” and self-abuse.

The 'home' environment is a dangerous place: No, not spooky bats, but family dogs maul helpless children to death (here, here, here & etc) or transfer their diseases (image). Nothing is done. Alone in deep water (pools) is also a high risk environment(2 yo, 15 mo, 2 yo). Just mower injuries are considerable.The media is awash daily of violent crimes committed by the 'hand of the carer' against helpless infants, toddlers and children. In 2003 "almost 3,500 children under the age of 15 die from maltreatment (physical abuse and neglect) every year in the industrialized world." (UNICEF 2003, pdf) Nothing much seems to change.

Scaffolding society does not seem to lend much support either, in fact the human balance sheet is sliding into that of a 'developing' country: Australia "continues to accept mediocrity for our young people" at a time when we top the rankings of some global prosperity indices....I'm disappointed in the way Australia has become smug about being top of the pops in wealth and sport, but for the most important element for the future of the country, our children, we're way behind the eight ball," says Professor Stanley.

• Dying very early: "Australia ranks 20th out of 27 nations for infant mortality.""The infant mortality rate for Indigenous Australians is more than double the non-Indigenous rate - we rank in the bottom third of the OECD nations for infant mortality."
• Violence: "There are too many "deaths from injuries and non-accidental deaths...These are children who are killed - neglected so much that they die."
• Children getting children: "Teenage pregnancy rates are much higher than the OECD average, and rates for Indigenous young Australians are the highest in the OECD"
• Lack of sustainable public mobility: Youth road deaths are 12 times higher than Portugal. Chuck mum's SUV. "We need to get kids walking to school, so they can get both exercise and get to know other children.”

• Choking on Pollution: "Australia's asthma mortality rates are one of the highest in the world" pdf
  
• Mental health: - Australia ranks "13th out of 23 OECD countries on childhood mental health".
• Food/Socialising: Australia ranks "21st out of 27 for children eating meals with their parents."
• Communicating: "We have half the rate of parents just hanging out and just talking to their children than Hungary does for example - Hungary is the best in the OECD," Professor Stanley

Adults being addicted to CO2 pumping private mobility reduce the quality of urban air. "There are almost three times more asthma-related deaths in Australia than in Europe" Having the highest asthma rates in the world (pdf), kids are choking. Foetuses are shrinking and harmed, children have reduced cognitive abilities from their externalities. Scientists are urging the government to reduce emissions, to not take that 'sky dome' covering the Earth from very harmful rays away. UV rays increase skin cancers and will sizzle the DNA.

A crowded, hot, water-less and polluted world, without all the other species will be very unhealthy.
The environmental heritage left behind is far from inter generational equity according to this report:
All will have to deal with bio-accumulation:

• Groundwater and surface water contamination,
• PCBs, Radioactive waste and uranium mining, mining activities generally
• new emergent chemicals/toxins
• Urban air quality
• Untreated sewage

In Manly businesses are eager that all immerse themselves in plastic gadgets and costumes, which will soon end up in the tip, or worse the ocean. Trick or treat for advanced children ends up nasty and violent and only keeps the authorities busy.

The best green 'party' (celebration) people could offer the little ones would be to face up to their actions, access their values and act responsibly towards themselves, their offspring, the other species and the remaining biomes and give the Earth a chance. Quality interaction and doing things from scraps can be a lot of fun .
See also: "Manly- It's kinda spooky 2007"
Images: All public art works by young people o.s. Known here as 'graffiti', as it often just is the initials of the scribbler in Manly.
Links

• The Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth -ARACY Report Card on the Wellbeing of Young Australians,
• Never better - or getting worse?The health and well being of young Australians, Australia 21, Richard Eckersley, pdf, 369KB
• John Pilger, Under cover of racist myth, a new land grab in Australia, Claims of child abuse are proving a fertile pretext to menace the Aboriginal communities lying in the way of uranium mining. The Guardian, 241008
  
• A conversation with Professor Fiona Stanley, (Professor in the school of paediatrics and child health at the University of Western Australia, and UNICEF’s Australian Ambassador for Early Childhood Development. NHMRC, 0708, podcast
• Garnaut, Climate Change Review
  
• Intergenerational Justice, 2008, Stanford, Philosophy
• Top ten World's worst pollution problems 2008, Green Cross & Blacksmith Institute
• Australia’s health 2008, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Canberra, pdf
  
• Costume suggestion for 2008 : Plastic choked mermaid at Manly Beach
  

Whale Calf Rescue, Sydney, Pt. II

An abundance of vessels and a new abundance of whales in the "least concern" category set the scene in this inter-species competition. The infant 'Moby Dick' seeks protection in the sheltered bay of the Sydney Basin.

Speculation has it, that it was "abandoned". As the bay of Pittwater is synonymous with yacht racing the Humpback calf turns into a 5 tonne 'problem'. Coaxed out into the deep Pacific, it would have been unclear whether the 5 m mammal was the responsibility of Zoo vets, NSW Parks and Wildlife Service, international agencies or even marine experts. The lone infant returned for the sheltered bay, seeking out what is most plentiful there, namely boats. Voices say that it would "have to be put down", "destroyed" or "euthanized".

Options of feeding it krill outside of captivity are dismissed, despite the 1997 baby whale rescue in the U.S."...The whale was hand-reared back to health before being released into the wild 14 months later. Our veterinarians and our animal care teams immediately went to work to try and save the animal" Such a rescue of a fellow mammal infant would only take a fraction of the budget of dog food or imported seafoods.

Human caused stressors to whales:

• In the anthropocene, megafauna (Megaptera novaeangliae) have been radically depleted due to commercial exploitation. Just recently were they allowed a little bounce back. The bounce comes to a halt with vessel strikes or collisions. Whales are slow to respond to approaching boats, especially those trying to smash race records."A collision with a ship’s propellers can sheer off a whale’s tail, slice them apart, or cause huge contusions." Speed in the marine environment is as deadly as it is on roads. Speed restrictions would reduce the likelihood and severity of vessel collisions. A set-aside Area to be Avoided (ATBA) in the prime migration season would reduce the risks of being separated, severely injured or killed on the annual trek.
• Noise : The roaring of the industrialised marine commerce or 'sport' is interfering with whale communication. The noise can cut off vocal, behavioral and physiological responses between a whale and its offspring. To get entangled in our debris is a further hindrance.
• Human-caused climate change deprives whales of food. Krill populations decline in rising temperatures, which " will require migratory whales like this Humpback whale to swim further for less food."
• Mining the oceans with invasive, noisy and polluting practices "Oil and gas exploration expose whales to noise pollution, oil spills, chemical pollution, vessel collisions and entanglement with or ingestion of marine debris."

Share the habitat!

• Effectively protect these highly migratory marine mammals in their habitat.
• Impose (seasonal) speed restrictions in areas frequented by whales and other protected fauna.
• Create a protected crucial habitat as an Area to be Avoided (ATBA).
• Divert some of the attention and budget bestowed on pets to unique marine mammal protection.
• Reconsider mining and dredging Megaprojects on the coastline
  

Previous:
Humpback whale calf lost in Sydney's buzz, Pt I
Desalination, a Megaproject or Water Conservation and Whales

Links:
-Melville, Herman, 1819-1891. Moby-Dick
- "Vessel Collisions with Whales: The Probability of Lethal Injury Based on Vessel Speed," (PDF) by Ms. Vanderlaan and Dr. Taggart,MARINE MAMMAL SCIENCE, 23(1): 144–156 (January 2007), C# 2006 by the Society for Marine Mammalogy, DOI: 10.1111/j.1748-7692.2006.00098.x
- IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature
Images:
1. Humpback whale, Brehm, Alfred, Brehms Thierleben, via Zeno
2."The Large Fish eating the Little ones", Bruegel d. Ä., Pieter, via Zeno

Updates 210808
- Now the military has been approached about towing it out to sea again. Imagine the smelly giant carcass in the middle of a yachting bay! abc 210808
- One person was attempting to feed the whale, but authorities stepped in.
- Event hungry people are moving in on the starving whale, keeping authorities busy to enforce the required exclusion zone, Manly Daily 210808
- Image:" The baby whale with wounds on its back thought to be from swimming under the yachts" SMH Blog 210808
- Meetings are on: tow out 'with the sharks' again or euthanise. Feeding option, a 'can't do'. SMH 210808
- A carcass in the Pitwater Bay would be smelly, an obstacle for yachts and would attract sharks.
- The death penalty has been pronounced by the the National Park and Wildlife Service: ".. the calf would be killed by lethal injection overnight or in the morning... Aboriginal "whale whisperer" Bunna Lawrie, who spent time with the whale this afternoon, patting the calf and singing to it..He heard me singing and came over. I looked at him and he was full of life. He had a few scratches and cuts on him and I was a bit worried about his eyes...All we have to do is get it out to sea, nurse it out there and guard and wait for pod of whales. Let the whales figure out if they can accept it. A mother may think it can feed two." SMH 210808

Update 220808:
- Euthanasia for the lost whale calf. A cost-effective and widely used chemical club on Australian wildlife. New experts will seek the truth in the entrails of the mammal and the remaining bones will serve “research” (sounds familiar!). So much for the human wildlife interface. via SMH 220808

MORE Starving Whales:
- Another starving humpback whale is in the overfished Baltic sea. It " is getting critical ... the whale is having trouble nourishing itself." Greenpeace " is now prepared to intervene to stop the whale from beaching itself." Spiegel 200808

Update 110908:
An application has been lodged for a licence to explore for gas in a 6,000 kilometre zone between Sydney's and Port Stephens, north of Newcastle. Seismic tests could interfere with whale migration. In Alaska the whale watching industry it taking mining operators to court. Gas exploration on the coastline has the potential to devastate the beaches and ruin the whale habitat. abc 110908

Update 180908
- "The International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw) says undersea noise blocks animals' communication and disrupts feeding. Levels of noise in the world's oceans are causing serious problems for whales, dolphins and other marine mammals. Humanity is literally drowning out marine mammals" BBC 150908

Update 111008
- Speed limits for large commercial ships travelling coastal waters populated by whales migrating have been applied by the U.S. government.Ships must now go below 10 knots in specified coastal regions. 091008 The NEW YORK TIMES

Update 171008
Autopsy results: The male calf "was suffering from acute pneumonia, serious body and pancreas emaciation, acute intestinal erosion and ulcers in the stomach and there were a number of infected shark bites as well" abc 171008 But why did he get so ill in the ocean?

Update 211008
"NOAA officials today issued a regulation that will implement new measures to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales. The regulation will, for the first time, require large ships to reduce speeds to ten knots in areas where the whales feed and reproduce, as well as along migratory routes in between. The goal of the regulation is to reduce the risk of ship collision with the whales." But it would also lessen the possibility of separating the mother and calf in busy traffic! More on ship strike noaa news 211008

Update 061208
More on disruptive noise in the oceans for marine mammals:
"Ocean Noise: Turn it Down", pdf
Noise from vessels, increased seismic surveys for oil and gas, off-shore construction and recreation, and a new generation of military sonars can interfere with whales. "The United Nations Environment Programme's Convention on Migratory Species conference in Rome, are urging governments and industry to adopt quieter engines for ships, tighter rules on the use of seismic surveys, and new, less intrusive sonar technologies by navies...Ship noise in the Pacific Ocean has doubled every decade over the past 40 years and the global shipping fleet is expected to double in size by 2025, after doubling between 1965 and 2003.There is now evidence linking loud underwater noises with some major strandings of marine mammals.
By 2050 the chemistry of seawater could increase in acidity by 0.3 pH units... this change in ocean acidity would allow sounds to travel up to 70 percent farther underwater." Environmental News Service 031208

Can Manly afford not to share North Head with Penguins?

Manly is fortunate to still have a population of the endangered Little Penguins. The 30 cm tall flightless seabird only weighs between 1000 and 1200 g . They are very social and like to live in some foreshore shelters, when they are not in the ocean/harbour hunting for fish and squid.

Humans are deciding at the moment whether they should have a right to a home or even a life. Habitat destruction/robbery, polluted water quality and unleashed dogs are the main threats to the existence of these little Fairy Penguins.

Some humans have already built a big building on top of a penguin colony in the National Park. That is not enough, they now would like to make it bigger and bring many more people to the place. They are willing to spend $21 million to turn the nice bush-land into an “eyesore”. There will be more cars, bright lights, noises and dogs – all of which the little fellows get scared of.

Other people think, that they should build the big buildings and roads where there is already infrastructure. They also would like their hunting ground, the water, protected and made into a Marine Reserve. That would mean, no more dirty runoff, noisy stinking boats, throwing fish corpses and plastic debris around, or even turning little penguins into bait. It is a tough struggle to give these unique creatures a right to exist.

Elsewhere the government has realised how these Penguins contribute to the economy and attract many visitors. They decided to invest many million dollars and buy them a big home: foreshore and ocean where they can live happily for a long time. No noisy, yucky building sites or dogs on the loose will threaten them in their new home there.

In such a place they can do what they naturally like doing, stay with their mates (cohorts), walk together in a ‘synchronized parade’, hunt for food and spend most of their time and life in that little in-group. Only disturbance, mostly from humans and dogs, makes them give up their normal social life.
Previous:
North Head Developments, before and after
Penguins or dogs
Leave some of Manly as Penguin Habitat
Links:
Penguin Images
Poisonous plankton blooms killing Fairy Penguins
Video animation: The plight of the Little Penguin, Animation Oz, Act now!
Images: 1. Street art Manly, 2. Sign on gutter, urging not to pour pollutants down the drain, then to the ocean, then to the fish, then in to penguins or humans.

Bits - Australia, Biodiversity & Human Rights

Australia as champion in eradicating life of Earth
Life on Earth is being eradicated by human action. Winners in this 'hall of shame' are: Australia, Brazil, China and Mexico.
“ People, either directly or indirectly, are the main reason for most species’ decline. Habitat destruction and degradation continues to be the main cause of species’ decline, along with the all too familiar threats of introduced invasive species, unsustainable harvesting, over-hunting, pollution and disease. Climate change is increasingly recognized as a serious threat, which can magnify these dangers... Our lives are inextricably linked with biodiversity and ultimately its protection is essential for our very survival."
via Science Daily
2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species report
IUCN

Australia opposes human rights declaration
Indigenous people's rights to self-determination and human rights are guarded by the United Nations. “ Indigenous peoples say their lands and territories are being threatened by such things as mineral extraction, logging, environmental contamination, privatisation and development projects, classification of lands as protected areas or game reserves and use of genetically modified seeds and technology....Indigenous advocates note that most of the world's remaining natural resources - minerals, freshwater, potential energy sources - are found within Indigenous peoples' territories.“ (abc)Images: Weedy Sea Dragon, Manly sculpture and one of the dead ones at Manly Beach 2007

Unique wildlife - can Sydney afford it?

In most sub-urban space people are unwilling to share with native wildlife, especially because of habitat destruction. Their individualised transport modes fragment animal habitat even more and make it deadly for all. Just like many human beings are killed and maimed on these motorised mobility arteries, so are the local Australian animals.
In only one of Sydney's suburbs on the North Shore (map) a study has found the following:
"One possum per day is dying on a single 40-kilometre stretch of road”.

The researcher collected
600 dead possums,
dozens of local birds and
10 dead bandicoots in a 2 year period.

Elsewhere, in Tasmania 1,700 Tasmanian Devils get killed on the roads every year.

People living in the remaining iconic Australian bush report the following on their walks:
“In six months I’ve counted
eight dead wallabies,
today’s possum,
plus several pigeons,
a kookaburra,
a noisy mynah...,
a couple of young magpies,
a galah,
plus countless lizards and snakes.

They’re just what I’ve seen walking one or two days a week, on a road without much traffic. “

In local National Parks I have seen irresponsible cars racing, deliberately knocking down wallabies. Many of these killing incidents are not accidents, bad and neglectful infrastructural planning is a cause, but willful racing, or even 'possum busting' seems to be a national sport.

Reported acts of individuals eradicating wildlife in their habitats:

• Shooting at dolphins in the Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary
• The brutal massacre of kangaroos in Murramarang National Park
• The “...indiscriminate shooting of native animals and vandalism in reserves north-east of Bombala.”
• Updates: Severed heads of five kangaroos found on beach, handy bait?
• Torture, killing kangaroos
• Running over collaborative Echidnas in migration
• Shooting a Koala at Breeza, 'shotgun pellets were found throughout its body'
• Suspected poisoning of four possums in a beach suburb of Mackay
• A body of koala was found in a garbage bin in Brisbane, another koala with her joey had sticks and rocks thrown at it by teenagers.
  

Check out Australia's big contribution to species extinction on this map.
Images: Ringtail sculpture & Eora 'graffiti', rock-painting.

Manly Sustainability Fair Video

via dotAtelier

Manly Sustainability Fair

The Manly Sustainability Fair seemed to hand over half of the stalls to the promotion of cars and other motorised vehicles. The Mayor held a passionate speech and a consultant foreshadowed the outcomes of the presently human caused actions. Bush-regeneration workers explained their wonderful work they do all over in local reserves.
There was a (Manly Council?) questionnaire which ran along the lines of 'Do you recycle etc.', leaving out all the burning issues. ("On average, each person in Australia and the US now emits more than five tonnes of carbon a year..." SMH )
Some ideas for the next dead-tree questionnaire could be:

• Have you quadrupled yourself?
• How many cars/hummers/motorised bikes are in your household?
• What is the ecological footprint of your McMansion/ dwelling? (AC)
• Do you rely on unsustainable fossil fuel for "HVAC" (Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning ) and transport?
• How many dogs/cats/exotics do you keep?
• How much wildlife/ flora is wiped out of a habitat because of your actions?
• Do you really want to leave a depleted hot planet to the next generation?
• How will you exlain to your multiple kids that your nation did not participate in preventing collapse of the ecological and economic system?
• How will you explain the word 'climate vandals' to them?
• Do you really think you will get away with it all?

Watch over Manly

Manly CBD has now 21 new closed-circuit television cameras in strategic positions. This additional surveillance has the stated aim to prevent personal violence. Mnly is concerned that the sparsity of the technological eyes might not guarantee safety and the enforcement of the existing law. An area-wide coverage, at least 1 per 50 people (as in London) could ensure a civil society. Only ubiquitous coverage would have a chance of executing the law in 2006. There would be no more:

Reckless speeding, illegal parking or emptying stinking bombs out
Petrol spewing auto-mobiles on car-free zones
Smoking on beaches and smoke-free zones
Emptying of dogs on the beaches, promenade and national parks
Mauling of protected wildlife (penguins, bandicoots, possums etc)
Illegal (spear) fishing in the marine reserve
Butchering of nice old trees
Dumping of (fast-food) garbage all over the beach
Jet-skies and other motorised petrol crafts endangering swimmers and divers
Open fires at Shelley Beach and the National Park
Hummers with protruding metal spikes
Chucking toxic substances down the common drains
Wasting water (illegally) washing cars, cement etc.

All you residents and visitors can participate in the emergent participatory panopticum. Grab the tools of transparency: cameraphone, wearable digital video recorder etc and take part in the 'sousveillance' from below. Moblog or vlog it. Become a witness and ensure that local government does enforce the law and guarantee the absence of violence. Send your witness accounts to Manly council to keep it a 'clean, safe and unique natural environment'.

Stop killing Lorikeets

Rainbow Lorikeets are brightly coloured parrots that travel in flocks emitting piercing calls in mid-air. Travelling from one pollen source (native trees & shrubs) to another in swift motions. Because of their beauty people are seeking to get close to this protected species. As mentioned before here and here, this form of luring them with inappropriate sugar-based substances cripples them, breeds diseases and shortens their life-span.

Large numbers die from poor hygiene + artificial diets:

necrotizing enteritis
(Artificial unsanitary conditions of containers where many birds aggregate, like in a poultry factory, food and faecies of many are mixed, immunity is lowered)

Psittacine beak and feather disease is an AIDS-like condition, beaks and feathers are deformed, a long agony to death.

If you would like to admire these fantastic birds, leave them some habitat,
or even better make some:

Plant flowering banksias, bottlebrushes, grevillias etc. in your garden or on your balcony.

STOP killing these birds!!

Unfortunately the responsible authorities are not able to effectively protect the native flora and fauna. Mere recommendations and appeals from tooth-less tigers and ignorant 'kindness' could see this species disappear.

Feeding flying canetoads and starving native birds

All over Manly people feed birds. Most try to attract the beautiful native birds to their balconies with sugar water or other inappropriate or dangerous offerings. Some even actively feed known flying pests, such as Indian Mynas with dog food, bread and bought seed mixes. In public places, people feed fast food to gulls and pigeons. These areas are caked in avian faeces. People eat in them, sit there or park right in it.

A search on 'attracting birds' offers all the commodities that make the pet industry thrive, but leads to malnutrition, sickness and finally death to the endemic birds. Mice and rats are also attracted.
Where is the pleasure in creating dependent relationships? Is there no knowledge in the act of 'giving', that starves the bird of necessary nutrients and social behaviour?

It takes a lot to allow the 'bush' to co-exist in which birds can thrive even close to human habitats. Earnest devotion, care and resources are required to bird-scape a yard/garden. This is no longer cheap thrill, but a setting aside of one's urban footprint to further the existence of native flora and fauna. It means not having that BBQ-temple, the 4th car space or the white fluffy thing etc.