Increasingly, the world recognizes human population growth, excess consumption, overuse of natural resources, and degradation of the natural environment as threats to planetary sustainability. Linear vs. Circular Economy The current global linear economic framework, characterized by resource extraction, product manufacture, and consumption, followed by product disposal, is...
As the world processes the outcomes of COP28 in the Persian Gulf, there is no shortage of claims and counter-claims regarding the success or failure of COP28. The tremendous interest in the matter was demonstrated by the 100,000 individuals who registered to attend COP28 (compared...
Introduction The twenty-eighth session of the Conference of Parties (COP28) on climate change opened in Dubai on Thursday, 30 November, and is scheduled to last until Tuesday, 12 December. Early speakers included King Charles III and President Narendra Modi, who addressed a gathering that included more...
In 1964, Animal Machines by Ruth Harrison was published in the UK. The book described how farmed animals were kept closely confined in new industrial animal farming systems (commonly described as “factory farming”). The book launched an uproar in British society, prompting the government to...
In 1989, T Berry Brazelton, American pediatrician and author of numerous popular infant development and child-care books, was a plenary speaker at an international human-animal bond conference in Monaco. His talk included comments on an infant's attraction to and affinity with animals. He noted that...
(Extract from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, G. Byron 1818, verse 178) Lord Byron's narrative poem, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, contains the line in the above title. The line captures the essence of the Rewilding concept. Rewilding is not about privileging Nature over humans but restoring Nature to vigorous...
In 1962, Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, co-winner of the 1960 Nobel Prize in Medicine, wrote, “One can think of the middle of the twentieth century as the end of one of the most important social revolutions in history, the virtual elimination of the infectious diseases...
Fifty years ago (Feb 10, 1973), Science News published a short article, “Setting sail into a plastic sea.” The story noted that scientists on an oceanographic voyage in the North Pacific “recorded 53 manmade objects in 8.2 hours of viewing” even though “they were 600...
The first World Happiness Report (WHR) appeared in 2012. In 2013, the UN General Assembly declared March 20th the International Day of Happiness (Resolution 66/281). In 2013 and every subsequent year except 2014, the World Happiness Report, written by an expanding group of experts, was...
On March 2, 2022, the United Nations Environment Assembly (the world's environment parliament) passed a landmark resolution calling on the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) to produce a report on the Nexus between animal welfare, the environment, and sustainable development. This Resolution offers enormous potential...
