Letters from the President

Circular Economy | credit: Igor Starodubtsev, Shutterstock

Jan 09, 2024 A Circular Economy and “Feel Better”

Posted at 10:18h In Education, Land Management, Letter from the President, Public Awareness/Attitudes, Resources, Sustainability/Biodiversity, Well-being - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil and Kathleen Rowan CEO, WellBeing International

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 EconomyThe current global linear economic framework, characterized by resource extraction, product manufacture, and consumption, followed by product disposal, is...

COP 28 in Dubai, UAE | Photo credit: ZAPRODUCTION, Shutterstock

Dec 26, 2023 COP28: Moving Forward

Posted at 10:34h In Climate Change, Letter from the President, Well-being - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil and Kathleen Rowan CEO, WellBeing International

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...

Dec 05, 2023 COP28, Climate Change, and Global Stocktake

Posted at 13:24h In Articles, Climate Change, Environment Well-being, Letter from the President, Sustainability/Biodiversity - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil and Kathleen Rowan CEO, WellBeing International

IntroductionThe 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...

Free range chickens | Photo credit: Sonja Filitz, Shutterstock

Nov 19, 2023 New Thinking and Policies on Animal Welfare

Posted at 11:52h In Animal Well-being, Articles, Farm Animals, Letter from the President - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

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...

Bullfight in Bogota, Columbia | Photo credit: Gary Yim

Sep 14, 2023 UN Support for Children, Animals, and Healthy Development

Posted at 08:19h In Animal Sentience, Animals, Letter from the President, Public Awareness/Attitudes, Well-being - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

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...

Dundreggan Tree | Photo credit: Andrew Rowan

Aug 02, 2023 “To Love not Man the Less, but Nature More”

Posted at 10:57h In Land Management, Letter from the President, Sustainability/Biodiversity, Well-being - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

(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...

Roosting Flying Foxes | Photo credit: Ken Griffiths, Shutterstock

Jun 05, 2023 A Swift Kick in the Pandemics: Identifying Spillover Dynamics

Posted at 11:48h In Human Well-being, Letter from the President, Wild Animals - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

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...

Garbage Patch | Credit: Pro-Vector, AdobeStock

May 02, 2023 Plastic Waste and the World’s Seas

Posted at 15:45h In Letter from the President, Oceans, Public Awareness/Attitudes, Sustainability/Biodiversity, Well-being - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil and Kathleen Rowan CEO, WellBeing International

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...

Women walking in the woods | Credit: RichLegg, iStock

Mar 29, 2023 World Happiness Report 2023

Posted at 15:45h In Letter from the President, Public Awareness/Attitudes - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

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...

Mar 01, 2023 The Anniversary of the UNEA Nexus Resolution

Posted at 15:28h In Animals, Articles, Letter from the President, Public Awareness/Attitudes, Well-being - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil and Kathleen Rowan CEO, WellBeing International

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...