"The Obama administration is setting aside 187,000 square miles in Alaska as a "critical habitat" for polar bears, an action that could add restrictions to future offshore drilling for oil and gas."
"Tom Strickland, assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks at the Interior Department, said the designation would help polar bears stave off extinction, recognizing that the greatest threat is the melting of Arctic sea ice caused by climate change."
Here is a movie by Sophie Keller and Oli Barry showing what might happen if there were only two polar bears left in the world...
Please pardon Mama gnome while she whoops and hollers like a mad gnome.
"Wooohoooo! Woot! Woot! Woot! Woot! Take that Plastic Bag Monster!"
The bane of Mama gnome's existence is this wretched creature, Plastic Bag Monster.
It lives and grows in size in its evil lair, Great Pacific Garbage Patch, fed by its minions of trash monsters including plastic bottles, plastic caps, styrofoam monsters, disposable plastic cutleries, take out containers and by its most prolific minion...plastic bags...
"In Los Angeles County alone, 6 billion plastic bags are used each year, an average of 1,600 bags per household a year. Government figures show that only about 5% are recycled."
It was killed by heavy advertising and lobbying by Plastic Bag Monster's creator: the plastic bag manufacturing industry.
So on that cold September day, Plastic Bag Monster laughed its evil laugh.
But today on this cold November day, Mama gnome laughs back at Plastic Bag Monster's face and she says, "Take that Plastic Bag Monster!"
Please bring your reusable bags everywhere: groceries, bookstores, department stores, farmer's markets...everywhere...so you'll always have one to use instead of taking a plastic bag.
Please bring your own reusable containers to restaurants for your left-overs instead of using take out styrofoam container monsters.
Please help Mama gnome defeat the Plastic Bag Monster and go green.
"...consider habitat loss and poaching for trade to be primary causes of a significant decline in Tiger range and numbers."
"Despite strong international action to eliminate it, illegal trade persists...Although all countries have banned use and manufacture of tiger bone, illegal production persists in several Asian countries, especially in China, Malaysia, and Vietnam."
"In China there are several operations engaged in intensive breeding ("farming" of tigers), with the captive population reportedly reaching 5,000. They are pressuring the government to allow them to produce tiger products, and several are already engaged in illegal production of Tiger bone wine."
"Tiger farming perpetuates and threatens to re-ignite consumer demand."
Educate family, friends, children about the plight of the tigers.
Don't buy fur, be it tiger fur, fox fur, or any other animal because it perpetuates the problem.
Don't buy tiger medicine. Don't use tiger medicine.
Report businesses or people who trade in tiger parts, products. It's illegal and Mama gnome would like to add..."downright #$#^#." That's why.
Don't buy tiger wine.
And Mama gnome would like to add, "Why in the world would you want to drink wine fermented from the bones of this animal? Or any other animal actually...Drink morning elixir instead, so vital for life."
Part of the problem that is killing tigers is habitat destruction, so be aware of products you buy, paper products which contribute to the destruction of their habitat.
Mama gnome lives in an old gnome house shaded by ancient Sumac trees...surrounded by plants and trees that thrive because of Daddy gnome's green thumbs.
Once in a while the old mother gnome ventures out of her burrow...past the brambles...past the jagged dusty cliffs and...
she looks up...
(c)Jenaelha Friendly Gnome's Blog
(c) Jenaelha Friendly Gnome's Blog
(c) Jenaelha Friendly Gnome's Blog
(c) Jenaelha Friendly Gnome's Blog
Once in a while, if you're feeling out of sorts...lost..or down...just look up...and go green.
Mama gnome went to Gnomeco to buy ecofriendly toilet paper.
But when she rounded the corner, Mama gnome almost dropped her pointy hat.
She saw the usual pallet where they stored super green toilet paper was now stacked with firewood!
Was it not enough to take away the good toilet paper, but they had to replace it with more cut down trees for future burning and releasing of more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere?
Did Gnomeco intend for Mama gnome to... as young gnomelet would put it... "freak out" in the middle of the household stuff aisle?
Mama gnome stood and stared at the pallet of firewood.
She rubbed her eyes and blinked a few times but the firewood remained.
She trudged around the next few aisles as fast as her gnome legs could trudge...but saw no sign of the super ecofriendly toilet paper.
Mama gnome made a mental note to head to Trader Gnome's to buy green toilet paper since Gnomeco declared super green toilet paper... toilet paper ingrata.
If you wonder why Mama gnome was upset with Gnomeco it's because not all toilet paper are created equal.
The most bought toilet paper and readily available toilet paper are made from virgin fiber which means from chopped down trees.
The least bought toilet paper and hard to find toilet paper are made from recycled paper, and the best toilet paper would be made from recycled paper with high postconsumer paper waste content.
This quiet unassuming toilet paper saves trees because it's made from recycled paper instead of virgin tree fiber.
According to this post, American humans use "about 50 pounds of tissue products per person every year. This is 50% more than the consumption rate in Western Europe and Japan."
"The pulp and paper industry may contribute to more global and local environmental problems than any other industry in the world. Paper manufacturers reach deep into species-rich forests for virgin timber, razing trees, polluting waterways and destroying precious wildlife habitat. Pulp and paper mills that use virgin timber are major generators of hazardous air pollutants, including dioxins and other cancer-causing chemicals. And the industry is the third largest industrial emitter of global warming pollution."
"The virgin timber-based pulp and paper industry is the third greatest industrial emitter of global warming pollution. Its carbon dioxide emissions are projected to double by 2020."
350 parts per million is what many scientists, climate experts, and progressive national governments are now saying is the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere.Accelerating arctic warming and other early climate impacts have led scientists to conclude that we are already above the safe zone at our current 392ppm, and that unless we are able to rapidly return to below 350 ppm this century, we risk reaching tipping points and irreversible impacts such as the melting of the Greenland ice sheet and major methane releases from increased permafrost melt.
Please help reduce our carbon emissions.
On 10-10-10...walk, use reusable bags, plant trees, plant vegetables, turn off unnecessary lights and appliances, eat vegetables...make everyday meaningful and Go Green...
Of its three species, two are listed as endangered and vulnerable because of threats from hunters and habitat destruction, climate change, and farming.
If you guessed the Mystery Animal of the Day is the ZEBRA... Mama gnome wants to invite you to the International Coastal Cleanup Day on Saturday, September 25, 2010.
Please visit Ocean Conservancy to see where you can participate or you can start your own cleanup project and register it at their website.
Zebras are found in Africa. Their habitats vary from Africa's mountains, grasslands and savannas, woodlands, coastal hill, and thorny scrublands.
Zebras "are very adaptable grazers." Their diet include: short or long grasses, shrubs, bark and leaves.
The Grevy's zebra is the largest species of zebra. It has large ears and narrower stripes. It is listed endangered by IUCN. The Grevy's zebras are threatened by: hunters who profit from the zebras' skins, habitat destruction and by climate change causing severe drought and the disappearance of their watering holes.
Increased farming land and fencing threaten all zebras, limiting or restricting their access to watering holes.
Here is a picture of a mountain zebra resting in the sun in Louisville Zoo:
Mama gnome would like to don her striped camouflage, hide behind tall grasses and stun poachers and hunters who hunt down these beautiful animals with wild braying, neighing and whinnying.
Please help save our Mystery Animal of the Day, the endangered zebras, and go green. (c) 2010, Jenaelha, Friendly gnome's blog
Please visit Ocean Conservancy and sign up wherever you are in the world and participate in International Coastal Cleanup Day on September 25, Saturday. And it doesn't have to be at the beach. You can help cleanup a park, a river, a waterway. Anywhere you can make a difference.
If there is no cleanup action close to you, you can start your own and register it with Ocean Conservancy through this site.
Mama gnome and the gnome family will be heading out to help clean up and take tally of how many of Plastic Bag Monster minions are lurking in the sand.
Please help defeat Plastic Bag Monster everyday, walk with Mama gnome...and go green.
Merry Old Santa Claus art by Thomas Nast
image by Robert A. Rohde, Global Warming Art
photo by Schliebe, Scott, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
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