China’s Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Affairs has marked the practice of raising dogs for meat as forbidden in a new draft policy. The ministry further explained its policy, saying dogs were a “special companion animal.” Animal rights activists have long decried the eating of dogs in China, and this new stance from the government is a step towards banning the practice.

That signals a major shift, recognising that most people in China don’t eat dogs and cats and want an end to the theft of their companion animals for a meat trade that only a small percentage of the population indulge in,”

Wendy Higgins, Humane Society International

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Due to the coronavirus outbreak, China’s National People’s Congress has banned the consumption of all wild animal meat. Shenzhen, a city in the populous province Guangdong, has put forward additional regulations banning the eating of dogs and cats. On May 1st, the law will take effect, and restaurants that serve pet meat will receive a fine of 20,000 to 200,000 yuan (2,800 – 28,000 USD).

Sources

• Shenzhen could be first city in China to ban eating of dogs and cats – The Guardian
• Shenzhen becomes first Chinese city to ban eating cats and dogs – BBC

As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, in recent months we have seen a massive reduction in energy usage. We’re seeing the greatest decrease is fossil fuel usage since fossil fuels became widely used in the mid 20th century. Coal demand is expected to fall more than it did after WW2. Energy demand is expected to drop by an unprecedented 6% this year, this is around the equivalent of the entire energy demand of India.

While fossil fuel demand decreases, renewable energy is expected to grow this year. The pandemic has shown how poor the fossil fuel industry functions. The cost of storage and the cost of the supply chain to move fossil fuel is extremely expensive, and without the demand for fossil fuels, the industry is collapsing.

Birol and the IEA are confident that the growth in renewables should signal a shift from fossil fuel companies toward generating clean energy.

Green Energy Surges as Demand for Fossil Fuel Collapses — and It Could Be Here to Stay -The Mind Unleashed

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Some experts have pointed out that if the 2008 recession is anything to go off of we may likely see a large spike in energy usage after the pandemic is over. Others have talked about the importance of using this pandemic as an opportunity to make the transition to renewable energy and not go back to our old ways.

We want to see emissions drop because of a stronger and bigger renewable industry, lower fuel bills and the creation of hundreds of thousands of new green jobs. And that’s what must be at the heart of our recovery from this crisis. 

Johnathan Bartley, co-leader of the Green Party

Sources:

• Green Energy Surges as Demand for Fossil Fuel Collapses — and It Could Be Here to Stay -The Mind Unleashed
• Climate crisis: Coronavirus causing collapse in demand for fossil fuels while renewables make major gains, according to major global report -Independent

Age and preexisting health conditions are the two of the biggest factors that determine how susceptible you are to COVID-19. Auto-immune diseases reduce immunity. Diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and high blood pressure are all preexisting conditions that make you more susceptible to COVID-19.

Unfortunately, in today’s environment, more and more young people are susceptible to these diseases than ever before. This can be credited to a number of factors, one of which is a large increase in endocrine-disrupting chemicals.

A huge body of research into a family of chemicals that alter hormone action, called endocrine-disrupting chemicals, has increasingly established them as significant contributors to the risk of these very diseases: diabetes, obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, reduced immunity, and more.

Confronting the Chemicals That Are Worsening COVID-19 – Organic Consumers Association

Related: Holistic Guide to Healing the Endocrine System and Balancing Our Hormones

A report was released in 2012 by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Environmental program showed that endocrine-disrupting chemicals are a global health threat. Studies have been published over the last 20 years linking these chemicals to the same health problems that exacerbate COVID-19. BPA’s, PFOA’s, and many different pesticides are among some of the chemicals that are pointed out in this research.

This will not be our last pandemic. Due to the environmental implications of our lifestyle, the Earth will continue to release viruses as a biological defense. So how do we take better care of ourselves for the next pandemic, and for the future? An article by Organic Consumers talks about the importance of the FDA and the EPA regulating chemicals and better establishing what is safe and what isn’t. Additionally, they point out the importance of producing materials that are safe in the next generation of materials produced for consumers.

First, regulatory agencies like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency need to use modern science to establish what is safe and what is not.  

Second, we need the next generation of materials used in consumer products to be inherently safer than what we have today, because many of those products contain, and emit, endocrine-disrupting chemicals. 

Confronting the Chemicals That Are Worsening COVID-19 – Organic Consumers Association

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On an individual level, the best thing you can do to protect yourself is to have a healthy gut through a healthy diet and lifestyle.

Source:

• Confronting the Chemicals That Are Worsening COVID-19 -Organic Consumers

Youtube’s chief executive Susan Wojcicki said in an interview that Youtube would be banning all content regarding coronavirus that contradicts The World Health Organization. Wojcicki says the goal is to get rid of “Misinformation on the platform”, by removing anything they deem “medically unsubstantiated”.

“Anything that would go against World Health Organization recommendations would be a violation of our policy.”

Chief Executive Susan Wojcicki

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Unfortunately, what they deem medically unsubstantiated is entirely up to their discretion and not up for debate. It seems, as pointed out by Collective Evolution, that the information they deem medically unsubstantiated is information that negatively targets the establishment.

It seems that any type of information that threatens political/government, corporate and other elitist agendas is heavily targeted.

YouTube Is Banning Coronavirus Content That Contradicts The World Health Organization -Collective Evolution

Related: Google and Amazon are now in the oil business

The censoring of information by supposed “fact-checkers” could easily be seen as a blatant violation of our right to free speech. Fact-checkers continually flag information as false, or “fake news” without giving counter-evidence that proves this information to be false.

Sources:

• YouTube Is Banning Coronavirus Content That Contradicts The World Health Organization– Collective Evolution
• Coronavirus: YouTube bans ‘medically unsubstantiated’ content -BBC

Deforestation can contribute to pandemics more than you may realize. When we wipe out forest space, forcing animals to live in smaller more densely populated environments, humans are more likely to come into contact with the infectious microbes these animals can carry. Animals themselves are also more likely to exchange infectious microbes, creating novel viruses, when they live in close quarters.

Yet despite years of global outcry, deforestation still runs rampant. An average of 28 million hectares of forest have been cut down annually since 2016, and there is no sign of a slowdown.

Stopping Deforestation Can Prevent Pandemics

Some of the most infectious viruses of the past two decades like Ebola, SARS, and SARS-CoV-2, have come from animals in dense tropical forests. Not only does deforestation increase the risks for novel viruses like this but it increases the spread of other viruses that originated in rain forests. A study released in 2019 showed that raising deforestation by 10% would result in a 3.3% rise in malaria cases or 7.4 million people around the world.

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To decrease deforestation we as a society should eat less meat, eat less processed foods, and waste less food, lessening the demand for pastures and crops for biofuels and palm oils. Additionally, slowing population growth can slow deforestation. Providing women in developing countries with better education and access to contraceptives can slow population growth.

As we implement these solutions, we can also find new outbreaks earlier. Epidemiologists want to tiptoe into wild habitats and test mammals known to carry coronaviruses—bats, rodents, badgers, civets, pangolins and monkeys—to map how the germs are moving. 

Stopping Deforestation Can Prevent Pandemics

A federal judge in Montana has vacated oil and gas leases on 145,000 acres of land issued by the Trump administration. Judge Brian Morris found that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) failed to consider the environmental implications of the 287 leases they sold to energy companies in December 2017 and March 2018.

BLM provided no catalogue here and little analysis to show the combined environmental impacts…if BLM ever hopes to determine the true impact of its projects on climate change, it can do so only by looking at projects in combination with each other, not simply in the context of state and nation-wide emissions.”

Judge Brian Morris

The Bureau of Land Management lease process requires the organization to conduct an environmental review before placing lands up for sale. In the case of these leases, Judge Morris found the environmental review process lacking, as it failed to consider the effects of drilling on local water supplies and climate change.

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With all due respect, we disagree with the Court’s conclusion, and the B.L.M. stands by its analysis in following the letter of the law to issue oil and gas leases in Montana. Regardless of the ultimate outcome of this dispute and despite the attempts of radical, special interest groups, the Department and the B.L.M. will continue to work toward ensuring America’s energy independence while preserving a healthy environment.”

Derrick Henry, Bureau of Land Management

The Trump administration is currently under fire for its systematic dismantling of many of the environmental protections put in place by the previous administration. Montana, in particular, has been a hotspot for legal cases between environmental groups and big oil and gas. This decision comes after a key government permit for the Keystone XL pipeline was revoked in April of this year.

The Trump administration’s lust for energy dominance at the expense of people and the environment has, fortunately, hit another brick wall. This is another major win for our climate, while protecting almost 150,000 acres of public lands from industry exploitation.”

Kyle Tisdel, attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center

Judge Morris has a record of environmentally friendly decisions. In addition to being the judge who recently revoked the Keystone XL permit, he also halted construction of the pipeline in 2018. In each case, he has ruled that further environmental study is necessary.

Sources:

• U.S. judge halts oil leases due to lack of federal study of water impacts – Reuters
• In A Setback For Trump, Judge Blocks Keystone XL Pipeline Construction – NPR

A Spanish municipal official has apologized for spraying a local beach with bleach in an effort to combat COVID-19. Government officials in Zahara de los Atunes in southern Spain sent tractors to spray beach at local beaches. The country has been under lockdown since the middle of March, and this week marks the first time children under the age of 14 will be able to go outside (albeit only for an hour).

Related: Sunlight and Alcohol Showed Effective at Killing Coronavirus, Alcohol More Effective Than Bleach

The decision to spray the beach has come under fire from environmental groups in the country. In addition to the ecosystem disruption caused by the bleach, the use of tractors could crush eggs from birds using the beach as a nesting ground. In a twitter post, Greenpeace Spain said,

Fumigating beaches with bleach in the middle of bird-breeding season or during the development of the invertebrate network that will support coastal fishing … is not one of [Donald] Trump’s ideas. It is happening in Zahara de los Atunes,”

Translated from Greenpeace Spain

Related: Coronavirus Cleaning Leads to Increased Calls to Poison Centers

Sources:

• Spanish official apologizes for spraying beach with bleach – The Guardian