Usa/La Nasa usa le scimmie per andare su Marte

New York, 2 nov. (Apcom) – Prima venivano usati i topi. Gli scienziati però avevano bisogno di animali più simili all’uomo e sono passati alle scimmie. Nel lungo viaggio verso Marte gli astronauti saranno esposti a radiazioni. La Nasa ha pensato: meglio testarne prima gli effetti su altri esseri viventi, il più possibile vicini all’uomo. Sono cominciati così degli esperimenti controversi in un laboratorio di Long Island. Le cavie sono 28 scimmiette amazzoniche. Gli animalisti sono infuriati.

 

“Ce n’era bisogno”, dice Jack Bergman, un farmacologo dell’università di Harvard. “Questi astronauti affrontano rischi enormi. E’ importante sapere quali sono le conseguenze di un viaggio nello spazio profondo”. Le scimmie saranno colpite con piccole dosi di radiazioni. Soprattutto sarà studiata la reazione del loro sistema nervoso centrale e come cambierà il loro comportamento nel tempo. L’esperimento non è letale. Ma è certo che gli animali si riprenderanno solo dopo lunghe cure.

 

Le associazioni animaliste, a cominciare da People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta), sono scioccate da questa iniziativa. “Gli esperimenti radioattivi della Nasa su questi primati sensibili e intelligenti”, commenta Justin Goodman, responsabile delle ricerche di Peta, “segnano l’inizio di un altro sfortunato capitolo nella lunga storia di abusi di questa agenzia”, riferendosi alle decine di scimpanzé uccisi dalla Nasa negli anni ‘50 per testare caschi e missili.

 

Fonte : Tendenze on-line

Going Meatless One Day a Week

Some thughts on going meatless one day a week – starting hopefully with our President, our elected officials, and of course, ourselves.

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I hope that President Obama, the members of Congress, and the rest of us will
all consider going meatless one day of the week. Pie-in-the-sky thinking?
Maybe, but I hope not. We only have one earth and we should try to do whatever
it takes to save it.

Heather Moore has written yet another very worthwhile article on Care2
called “Are Meatless Mondays Going Global? I think the best way I can condense
her article is by asking some thought-provoking questions for which- in my
opinion, she has very good answers.

1. Did you know that going vegetarian for at least once a week is becoming
the “green” thing to do in some countries? Israel began promoting Vegetarian
Monday in their upscale restaurants. Paul McCartney is spreading the message
in Britain and Australia and just recently the city of Ghent, Belgium urged its
citizens to eat vegetarian on Thursdays. Way to go!

2. Did you know that not surprisingly- we in the US are lagging behind in
adopting this concept? However, kudos to Johns Hopkins School of Public Health
which is sponsoring Meatless Mondays to help Americans eat healthier. This
will also help the environment and animals as well. The less meat we eat – the
less green house methane gas expulsed into the air. Also fewer animals will
need to suffer as a result of our intensive CAFO farming and slaughtering methods.
We can also help to halt water pollution as well.

3. Did you know that if meat-eating patterns don’t change -the world wide per
capita meat consumption is expected to rise by 14 per cent in 2030. And when
you factor in population growth- the rise equates to an increase of about 53
percent in global net consumption. Not at all what we need to lesson the continued
threat of global warming from the significant amounts of methane production by
the animals.

4. Did you know that ‘”The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook” states
that “refusing meat” is the “single most effective thing you can do to reduce your
carbon footprint?” But I have to interject here – how many of us truly care? How
many people even bother to read enlightening posts such as the one by Heather
Moore and others of her ilk? I don’t think even President Obama has given this
much thought either. How to get to him? What about his cabinet? What about
Congress? I think they pretty much are daily meat eaters with the one exception
that I know – my own congressman- Dennis Kucinich who is a vegan. Does
anyone know of any other exceptions? If our leaders don’t feel the need to curb
global warming by eating less meat – what kind of example are they showing to us
their constituents? Ms. Moore suggests we don’t wait for any politician to
designate a vegetarian day and that we should pick one ourselves. She even thinks
that once we mastered one day a week – we may “graduate” to two and so on.
What an optimistic thinker! God bless her.

5. Did you know that Care2 has a site where you can sign ”our vegetarian for a
month” petition? You’d be surprise – sometimes just such a signing may start
you on a course of hopefully no return to the over-eating meat habit. And Heather
even steers us to a place for recipes and product suggestions: www.VegCooking.com.

And lastly, I have to reply to a comment which asked – How is this a new concept?
The writer says “that the Catholic Church has suported meatless days as long as
I have been alive. They are certainly global and have lots of followers. I believe
1.3 billion Catholics was the last count.”

Well, whoever wrote that comment must have been born after 1966 when the Pope
at that time took away the obligation of 52 MEATLESS FRIDAYS each year for
Catholics. What an impact that would have made if that Pope had not lifted the
meatless Friday ban. Goes to show you Popes don’t always make wise decisions.

The 7 meatless Fridays during Lent we now observe are hardly comparable to the
impact of the the 52 meatles Fridays of the past. If we had been observing meatless
Fridays -can you imagine how many animal lives would have been spared? Can
you imagine how much less methane green gas would have been expelled into the
air since then?

Since I’m a vegan, I don’t have to pick a day – but if I did – I would choose Friday
again as remembering the day Jesus died on the cross.

I have been concerned about animal suffering ever since
I received my first puppy Peaches in 1975. She made me take a good look at the animal kingdom and I was shocked to see how badly we treat so many animals. At 77, I’ve been a vegan for the past 30 years and I thank God every day that I am. I am most disturbed at how little the Catholic Church and Christian churches generally give to concern re animal suffering in their ministry. I wrote to 350 bishops in 2001 and only 10-13 responded. I feel that the very least they can do is to instruct that the priests give one sermon a year on compassion to animals. I am still waiting for that sermon. I also belong to Catholic Concern for Animals – founded in England in 1929. (They are on the internet) I recently sent a sample copy of their bi-monthly publication called the ARK to the 8 Catholic bishops of Ohio. Only ONE kindly responded. Somehow we have to reach the Christian teaching magisterium. There is next to nothing re animal concerns and compassion for them. They basically believe that animals are the lesser of God’s creation and that gives us the right to do anything we want to them. Way wrong. We need to change their mindsets. The animals are God’s first and He expects us to treat them compassionately.

Fonte : OpEdNews