Public Awareness/Attitudes Archives

Wild Bear Cubs | Credit: Hanna Glafke, iStock

Jul 24, 2024 The 1964 Wilderness Act: Transforming U.S. and Global Conservation

Posted at 13:43h In Articles, Environment Well-being, Ethics, Regulation, Law, Public Awareness/Attitudes, Tales of WellBeing, Wild Animals - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

The Wilderness Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 3, 1964. The USA system of wilderness areas now includes over 800 areas covering more than 110 million acres. Currently, all but six states—Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, and Rhode Island—have...

Artificial Coral Reef | Credit: Placebo, iStock

Jul 08, 2024 Nature Restoration and Rewilding

Posted at 10:35h In Climate Change, Ethics, Regulation, Law, Land Management, Letter from the President, Public Awareness/Attitudes, Sustainability/Biodiversity - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

On Monday, June 17, 2024, 20 out of the 27 countries in the European Union (EU) voted to adopt the world's first Nature Restoration Law. The law passed with a slim majority, as Leonore Gewessler, the Austrian Minister for Climate Action, decided at the last...

Baby elephant | Credit: Right Cameraman, AdobeStock

Jun 18, 2024 Communicating Animals: A Doctor Dolittle Story

Posted at 15:46h In Articles, Public Awareness/Attitudes, Tales of WellBeing, Wild Animals - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

In 1980, Robert Seyfarth, Dorothy Cheney and Peter Marler published a paper in Science reporting that a vervet monkey troop in Amboseli National Park in Kenya used three different alarm calls to signify danger respectively from eagles, leopards and snakes. According to Snowdon, this paper...

European Roller | Credit: Film Studio Aves, iStock

Jun 18, 2024 A Roller Bird Gathers No Moss

Posted at 15:40h In Articles, Public Awareness/Attitudes, Tales of WellBeing, Wild Animals - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

How animals migrate reliably from one place to another yearly has been an enduring puzzle. Donald Griffin, the discoverer of bat echolocation, also investigated bird migration to determine how birds could navigate the ocean. He and his colleagues tracked migrating flocks using a repurposed military...

Walk in the park | Photo credit: ronstik, iStock

Jun 10, 2024 Nature and Health, A Walk in the Park

Posted at 13:31h In Articles, Human Well-being, Public Awareness/Attitudes, WellBeing News - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

The Covid pandemic had a widespread social impact in addition to its effects on public health. For example, in the Washington, DC area, home buyers were focused on homes in the city pre-COVID, and the Washington suburban real estate market was in the doldrums. However,...

Lists and reports from World Animal Protection and American League Defense Fund

Jun 10, 2024 Do Lists Improve Animal Protection?

Posted at 13:31h In Animal Well-being, Animals, Articles, Public Awareness/Attitudes, WellBeing News - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

It has been suggested that humans should be categorized as the species Homo classification rather than Homo sapiens because we are so attracted to making lists and developing categories to simplify and organize the world around us. For example, journalists recognize that the audience will...

Humpback Whale | Credit: Lightleak Films, AdobeStock

May 20, 2024 Animals, Biodiversity, and Climate Change

Posted at 10:55h In Articles, Climate Change, Land Management, Public Awareness/Attitudes, Sustainability/Biodiversity, Tales of WellBeing, Well-being, Wild Animals - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

On December 19, 2022, representatives from 188 countries adopted a new agreement on biodiversity, now known as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). The 2022 GBF aims to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by adopting four overarching global goals and 23 targets, including conserving 30%...

Kerasote's dogs, from left to right Burley, Pukka, Goo, A.J

May 20, 2024 Dog Longevity: The True Value of a Dog Year!

Posted at 10:41h In Animal Well-being, Articles, Companion Animals, Public Awareness/Attitudes - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

Ted Kerasote is an outdoorsman and author who has written three charming and insightful books about the human-dog relationship – Merle's Door (2007), Pukka, The Pup after Merle (2010), and Pukka's Promise (2013). Pukka's Promise relates the story of Kerasote's search for a dog that...

Book covers of The Light Eaters by Zoe Schlanger & Planta Sapiens by Paco Calvo with Natalie Lawrence

May 20, 2024 Branching Out: Examining Plant Cognition and Sentience

Posted at 10:09h In Book Review, Environment Well-being, Public Awareness/Attitudes, Tales of WellBeing - By Steven Hansch and Leslie Barcus

The Light Eaters by Zoe Schlanger & Planta Sapiens by Paco Calvo with Natalie LawrenceRecently, two important books were published -- a year apart – and centered on the same topic: reviewing the accumulating scientific evidence that plants can and should be perceived as sentient...

Cows and chickens | Photo credit: Pedro, AdobeStock

May 08, 2024 Bird Flu Spreading to Farmed Mammals in the US

Posted at 17:10h In Animal Well-being, Articles, Farm Animals, Human Well-being, Letter from the President, Public Awareness/Attitudes - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil and Hope Ferdowsian, M.D., M.P.H.

WellBeing International has published four articles on the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Virus (HPAIV) in the past fourteen months. Science has published seven news stories on bird flu this year. The most recent story (May 1, 2024) was titled “Scientists Call New Measures to Control...

Public Awareness/Attitudes Archive