Practices Search Results
February 2012. We read in the news about a tragedy. From New England to Peru, an unprecedented number of dolphins are beaching themselves: 124 have died on Cape Cod and 200 in Chiclayo, Peru. Experts have weighed in with the possible reasons for these strandings: this year's unusual warm weather, movement of prey, decompression, and disease. We wish those scientists well who are trying to find an answer to this ongoing tragedy.
The rhino is being hunted into extinction and could disappear forever unless we act now. Statistics show 440 rhinos were brutally killed last year in South Africa by poachers seeking their horns, and more than 100 have already been killed this year. Fueling this devastation is a spike in demand for rhino horns, used for bogus cancer cures, hangover remedies, and good luck charms in China and Vietnam.
The World Bank and several United Nations agencies have reported that world hunger is gaining ground once again. Experts point to many causes for this, including droughts, high food costs, climate change, and the precarious state of global agriculture.
On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, Malala Yousafzai, a 14-year-old schoolgirl in Pakistan, was shot in the head by Taliban militants in the Swat Valley, who claimed she had become a "symbol of Western culture in the area." She is, in truth, an activist for girls' education in Pakistan. At age 11 she began writing a blog about life under Taliban rule, chronicling the suffering when they closed girls' schools.
There have been widespread protests throughout Pakistan against the shooting, which took place on a school bus. Two others girls were also injured. Malala remains in critical condition; she has been moved to the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology critical care unit in Rawalpindi
Global warming, notes this article by Jon Queally on CommonDreams.org, is making the world hot and dry and also cold and wet. It snowed last week in Jerusalem. China is enduring its coldest winter in nearly 30 years. Brazil is in the grip of a heat spell. There have been bush fires in Australia and floods in Pakistan and the United Kingdom. "Such events are increasing in intensity as well as frequency," said Omar Baddour of the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva. 
A new study in the journal Science reports that some of the largest and oldest trees of the world are dying. There are many causes and among them are the selfish and short-sighted habits of human beings. 
The December holidays mean that millions of people all over the world will head out to malls, department stores, and shops to purchase gifts. In the United States, the shopping frenzy started on "Black Friday," the day after Thanksgiving, followed by "Small Business Saturday" for those choosing to buy only from independent businesses, and "Cyber Monday" for shopping online.