Little Voices – Big Victories

April 8, 2014 in Our Planet

Jenny Cottle
                             
This past week the International Court of Justice, the court of the UN, ruled that Japan’s whaling in the Southern Ocean was not scientific and must be stopped immediately.

This is wonderful news, brought about by the ceaseless actions of Sea Shepherd, other environmental groups,  and –  in no small way –  all of us who spoke out against this pointless annual slaughter;  whether it was by signing petitions, attending protests, supporting groups who actively opposed the cull or simply voicing your disapproval to someone else to help educate them.   All our little voices resonated and we found we were not a lonely little voice, but a roar which was heard all the way to the UN.

The fantastic news about Japanese whaling was not all the good news this past week brought about by our little voices combining and speaking out:

  • Last week Japan’s biggest online retailer announced they will stop all online sales of whale and dolphin meat by the end of this month.  Interestingly, there is a large amount of whale meat stockpiled due to the lack of demand, and this stockpile has doubled in the last 10 years.

Bear

Google and Amazon had earlier stopped advertising sales of whale meat – Yahoo is still holding out, but perhaps you could add your voice here –

e-activist.com/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=104&ea.campaign.id=19546&ea.tracking.id=website

  • Indigenous Mayans of the Campeche region of Mexico have won a 2 year battle to ban the use of GM soybeans in their region.  In a major victory against biotech giant Monsanto, the combination of a legal battle supported by many little voices around the world, it was declared that the planting of GM soybeans was in direct violation of the right to a healthy environment.
  • The Dutch Parliament, listening to thousands of little voices, has banned the use of glyphosate (Roundup) for non-commercial purposes.  Glyphosate has been increasingly linked with many serious health problems including infertility, birth defects, damage to the nervous system, Parkinson’s disease and several forms of cancer.  In addition to health risks for humans, the usage of chemical pesticides can also lead to loss of biodiversity and difficulties with purifying drinking water.

Try this for an alternative non toxic weedkiller at home –

althealthworks.com/762/natural-alternatives-to-roundup-are-quite-easy-to-make/

Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall

  • In the Hainan province of China, illegally planted crops of CG corn and cotton were destroyed by the Chinese Government.  China is currently getting tougher on GM Crops, with public opinion in the country being firmly against the biotech industry.  Again little voices, together are being heard in high places.
  • In Vietnam a bear bile ‘farmer’ surrendered his bear voluntarily to Animals Asia as he no longer wanted to be part of a trade which abused bears and caused them suffering.  Many little voices joined together to make a voice loud enough for this farmer to hear.

I leave the last word to an incredible woman who celebrated her 80th birthday last week – “You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”  Jane Goodall.