Andrew Rowan, DPhil, Author at WellBeing International

Antarctic Glacier | Photo credit: Bernhard Staehli

Oct 04, 2021 Climate Change, Food Systems, and Health Impact at the United Nations

Posted at 12:03h In Articles, Environment Well-being, Letter from the President, Sustainability/Biodiversity, Well-being, WellBeing News - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

Three significant gatherings address various aspects of climate change, and global limits started in September and proceeded through early November. In September (21 to 27), the United Nations (UN) held its 76th annual meeting (also known as the General Assembly) in New York. During this...

Pink-backed pelicans | Photo credit: Gus Akerhielm

Oct 04, 2021 Counting Birds and Other Wild Animals

Posted at 12:00h In Animal Well-being, Animals, Articles, Sustainability/Biodiversity, WellBeing News - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

Estimating the total number of wild animals in a particular location or country has always been challenging. Still, better data on wild animal numbers are needed to recognize changes, identify the causes, and what might be done to address such changes. The Living Planet Report...

Oct 04, 2021 Dasgupta Review Revisited

Posted at 11:59h In Articles, Sustainability/Biodiversity, Well-being, WellBeing News - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

In May, WellBeing News published an article alerting readers to the Dasgupta Review (Review) publication addressing the economics of biodiversity. We suggested that the Review could become a classic along with Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring but have just come across a significant critique of the...

Invertebrate Animal Sentience Free Webinar Series

Sep 16, 2021 Webinar Series: Invertebrate Animal Sentience

Posted at 10:27h In Animal Sentience, Articles, Education, Tales of WellBeing - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

The term sentience – referring to the ability to feel pleasures and pains – was used by philosophers in the 17th century to distinguish the capacity to feel from an ability to think or reason. This distinction was directly expressed in Jeremy Bentham’s famous phrase...

Aug 17, 2021 Cat Management Successes

Posted at 12:16h In Animal Well-being, Articles, Companion Animals, WellBeing News - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil and John Hadidian, PhD

Over the past five to ten years, the academic literature on cat management (specifically outdoor cat management) projects have been enriched by dozens of papers looking at public attitudes to cats and different cat management options and detailing the effects of some cat management projects...

Octopus vulgaris | Photo credit: TheSp4N1SH

Aug 17, 2021 Animal Sentience, Public Awareness, and Public Policy

Posted at 11:52h In Animal Sentience, Animal Well-being, Animals, Articles, Ethics, Regulation, Law, Letter from the President, Public Awareness/Attitudes, WellBeing News - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

Over the past fifty years, public concern for animals (and “animal sentience”) has prompted significant changes in public policy in many countries worldwide. It is not yet clear what has driven this concern. There had been a similar increase in public concern for animals in...

Domesticated fox | Photo credit: Dgwildlife

Jul 21, 2021 Urban Fox Evolution

Posted at 14:49h In Animal Well-being, Articles, Tales of WellBeing, Wild Animals - By John Hadidian, PhD and Andrew Rowan, DPhil

There are many examples of animal evolution in which wild creatures adapt to take advantage of urban or industrial environments. A recent paper describes some details of urban fox evolution. As with many such findings, the story began with a researcher, Kevin Parsons, asking some...

Boys with a river buffalo in Asia. | Photo credit: Poring Studio

Jun 28, 2021 Children Witnessing Violence Against Animals

Posted at 13:53h In Animal Well-being, Animals, Articles, Human Well-being, Letter from the President, WellBeing News - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

At the 87th Session of the UN Committee of the Rights of the Child held at the end of May 2021, Tunisia’s programs to address child protection were examined. The printed report of the session, issued on June 7, 2021, was fifty-five paragraphs long and...

Glacier Lagoon in Greenland | Photo credit: Stereo Lights

May 28, 2021 The Human Footprint from the Last Ice Age to the Present

Posted at 10:25h In Articles, Environment Well-being, Sustainability/Biodiversity, WellBeing News - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

Around 20-25,000 years ago, the earth was in the grip of an Ice Age. The sea level was around 400 foot lower than it is today, global rainfall was lower and approximately a quarter of the earth’s surface was covered in ice. The earth then...

May 28, 2021 Cosmetic Testing on Animals: EU Takes a Step Back

Posted at 10:23h In Animal Well-being, Animals, Articles, Laboratory Animals, Letter from the President, Well-being, WellBeing News - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

The European Union (EU) was the first major economic and political union to address cosmetics testing on animals. This legislative initiative took decades to come into effect. The path started in 1993 when the first EU Directive addressing the issue was passed. However, the Directive...

Andrew Rowan, DPhil Archive