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Anti-Poaching - Rhino Anti-poaching - Save the Rhino

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Find out more about Anti Poaching and Rhino Conservation by visiting the Save the Rhino website. Visit us today and support us now.

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Basketball is among the most popular and fastest growing sports in the world; according to the International Basketball Federation, over 450 million people play basketball across the globe. Anyone who plays basketball on a regular basis can expect to experience a wide range of benefits. Basketball is excellent for training several body systems and improving your ability to make decisions in dynamic environments.

Burn Calories

Basketball requires you to perform a diverse set of athletic techniques including running, jumping and quick lateral movements. Playing an hour of basketball provides a significant amount of aerobic exercise and can burn a great deal of calories. When you play one hour of competitive basketball, you can expect to burn around 600 calories if you are a 165-pound person and up to 900 calories if you weight 250 pounds. The exact number of calories burned will vary based on your weight, physical health and the amount of effort and energy that you expend during play.

Motor Coordination

To be a good basketball player you must learn to perform many skills with the ball. Practicing skills like free throw shooting and jump shooting is particularly helpful for training your hand-eye coordination. Rebounding missed shots is another skill that requires a great degree of full-body coordination.To be a successful rebounder you must coordinate the timing of your jump to reach the ball as it caroms from the hoop and do so before other players do. Rebounding also trains hand-eye coordination, as you must safely secure the ball with your hands before others tip it away. The third basic basketball skill, dribbling, requires a finer degree of coordination. When you are first learning basketball, dribbling trains your hand-eye coordination; once you master the skill, you'll no longer look at the ball while dribbling and the skill will become a pure motor coordination task.

Strength Training

Basketball provides an excellent full-body workout and can help you develop useful, lean muscle. People who don't play basketball may not realize that it is a physically intensive contact sport. Defense and rebounding are two aspects of the game that are highly reliant on effective body positioning and the ability to maintain that position when your opponent exerts bodily force upon you. Playing good defensive basketball can develop your deltoids, traps, neck, lower back and core muscles. Since basketball requires a lot of running and jumping, it is also excellent for developing and toning leg and groin muscles. The finer movements that you perform in basketball, such as dribbling and shooting, are good for strengthening your arms, wrist flexors and hand muscles.

Mental Development

Basketball requires a wide range of physical skills, but it is also a fast-paced mental game. Research on the mental aspects of basketball has revealed that players must develop a great deal of attentional control to quickly and accurately process what's happening on the court and make effective decisions with the ball and on defense. Attentional control refers to your ability to direct your focus in a desired direction; in basketball, you must train yourself to constantly observe your teammates and opponents and evaluate what course of action to take in response to their actions. Research conducted by Dr. Daniel Gopher of the International Ergonomics Association suggests that the attentional control skills that you learn while playing basketball can even help you make quick decisions on the job and in other real-life situations.

About the Author

Dan Howard is a sports and fitness aficionado who holds a master's degree in psychology. Howard's postgraduate research on the brain and learning has appeared in several academic books and peer-reviewed psychology journals.

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What Are the Positive Effects of Being a Basketball Player?

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Basketball is among the most popular and fastest growing sports in the world; according to the International Basketball Federation, over 450 million people play basketball across the globe. Anyone who plays basketball on a regular basis can expect to experience a wide range of benefits.

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I've played soccer regularly for 15 years.

I keep playing because there're many benefits. I prefer playing soccer to any other activity.

If you're unsure whether soccer is worth playing, consider these 8 benefits:

8 Reasons to Play Soccer

1. Simple

Soccer requires one ball and a space to play. The space doesn't have to be large. Grass and cleats aren't required.

I've played soccer everywhere you can imagine. I've played on the beach, in the parking lot outside my apartment, and in my parent's basement.

Being able to play anywhere means you can have fun, show off, and improve your skill anytime.

2. Something For Everyone

Anyone that can kick a ball can play soccer. It's a blast for beginners and experts alike.

Beginners love soccer because it's quick to pick up and play. There is inherent joy in kicking a ball around (even if you're not very good).

Soccer can also be complex. If you want to play competitively, you must hone many skills, learn strategies, and become fit. Experts and beginners can always improve, and with each improvement players enjoy playing more and more.

3. Work Ethic

You need good work ethic to become successful at soccer. You must train hard to develop skills and fitness.

Coaches and teammates push players to develop better work ethic, and when players work hard and succeed they build confidence (which translates to all aspects of life).

4. Leadership

Leaders often form on a soccer pitch.

Players learn that their teammates need someone to guide them in the right direction.

Through trial and error, players learn how to lead effectively.

5. Sportsmanship

Through good examples by coaches and teammates, players learn what it takes to play a sport with class.

Bad sportsmanship is punished, and most players discover the value of great sportsmanship.

6. Perseverance

At first, players get frustrated when they fail. They eventually realize that through perseverance, their ability as a player will improve.

Players may have to overcome injuries, cold streaks, bad coaches, and more. All these things teach perseverance.

7. Fitness

Players become fit and create positive fitness habits that can last a lifetime. They learn what it takes to be in shape and work hard to improve their fitness.

Soccer players tend to become lean and muscular. They develop endurance from constant running, and muscles from work-outs.

Players tend to think more about nutrition and drug use. They want to play to their full potential so they avoid drugs and unhealthy food.

When players are playing they are not watching TV, playing video games, or texting. They are getting a full work-out that teaches them healthy habits.

8. Social

Soccer players become friends with their teammates.

Teammates share a common bond that promotes a sense of unity and fosters friendships.

Some teammates even become lifelong friends.

Plus More

As you play soccer, you will discover other benefits. Soccer is brilliant in many ways, and you can only discover it's beauty by playing.

It has the power to transform lives. Even if players don't play professionally, they learn habits that will help them succeed in life.

Start playing the world's most popular sport. You won't regret it.

Ready to start playing? Learn how to play soccer.

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Soccer Benefits - 8 Reasons to Play Soccer - The Complete Soccer Guide

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I've played soccer regularly for 15 years. I keep playing because there're many benefits. I prefer playing soccer to any other activity. If you're unsure whether soccer is worth playing, consider these 8 benefits: 8 Reasons to Play Soccer 1. Simple Soccer requires one ball and a space to play.

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Has your general physician been repetitively telling you to do exercise and lose weight? You must have visited a gym too where you have spent hours running on the treadmill and hopping on the elliptical machine and, at last, returned home with body ache and tiredness.

This is what happens to us when we do something we do not love. Moreover, gym is not the only place which gives you good health and a toned body.

Seems unbelievable, right?

What we keep ignoring when we enter into adulthood and develop the likelihood of suffering from health conditions is that there are more potent and cost-effective fitness plans in store for us such as sports. And, when it comes to natural fitness, no sport holds so much potential as football.

Have you ever wondered what makes the popular football players, such as Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and David Beckham, so fit and so popular? It is not only the artistic beauty of their managing the white ball on the field, but also their perseverance of practicing the game regularly which makes their physique so attractive.

Football requires continuous running, faster footwork and physical agility which provide amazing benefits for both the mental and physical health.

Therefore, bring out your sport shoe and grab the white ball because it is going to change your outlook on body fitness and well-being.

Do you want to know what are the physical benefits of playing soccer?
Keep reading...
Find out below 9 amazing health benefits of playing soccer.

1. Improve your Cardiovascular Functions Playfully

In the modern competitive world, we are gradually becoming inclined towards consuming junk and oily food. As a result, our cardiovascular health is greatly affected and there is an increased number of medical emergencies reported due to cardiovascular disorders such as brain stroke, heart attack, irregular heart rhythm, hyperglycemia etc.

But, why race miles on a boring treadmill when you can cover 5 to 7 miles of running within a span of 90 minutes?

Playing soccer requires you to breathe fast which leads your heart to pump blood faster and circulate it all across the body muscles. Better circulation of blood also prevents the accumulation of any plaque inside the major cardiovascular arteries. Improving the functionality of your heart is one of the key advantages of playing football which stabilizes your heart rate and protects you from getting chronic cardiovascular diseases like diabetes.

So, next time, when you are busy in twisting your body to meet the requirements of a soccer game, your heart functionality would keep getting healthier with no scope for bothersome health problems such as systolic blood pressure.

2. Increase Your Bone Density

Our bones start losing their strength as we grow older. Moreover, when the bone damage is severe, we might get diseases such as osteoporosis and osteomalacia. But soccer offers you a golden chance to strengthen your bone density so that you do not have to depend on any vitamin D supplements.

But, how is improvement in bone density considered as one of the physical benefits of playing soccer?

Our bone, like any other body organs, is continuously remodeling itself. When human bones receive external stress, it concentrates more on the process of deposition or growth and slows down the breakdown process.

Soccer involves running and abrupt jumping which signal the bone to stop the breakdown process and, as a result, this mechanical load or stress on the bones significantly increases the cortex density.

So, choose to play soccer to keep your bones strong rather than visiting your orthopedic frequently.

3. Reduce Your Body Fat Naturally

When you choose to play soccer on a regular basis, you get one of the best advantages of playing football - toned physique.

Soccer playfully engages you to run, twist your body and jump and such rapid body movement sheds the body fat faster than any machine in the gym. Soccer is also considered as a type of aerobic exercise because it requires walking, running, sprinting and faster recovery time from its players. Such faster activities increase their physical stamina and helps them to concentrate only on the game.

While you are focused on getting the ball across the net, your body continually sheds weight and gives you the body shape of your dreams. Therefore, you do not need to go for jogging early in the morning or push your way through the gym. Just play soccer daily and get a body that your friends would envy!

4. Get Toned Muscles with Increased Strength

Do you admire the sports athletes for their attractive physique? Do you crave for such a toned body?
Don't worry. Just keep playing football.
Playing soccer concentrates on both your bone and muscles. Lack of exercise can affect the health and external appearance of your muscles as many intermittent tissues of fat accumulate over there. But soccer helps you to burn calories and melt fat faster so that your muscle tissues are tightened and strengthened over time.

Many researchers agree on the fact that no other sport enhances the performance of athletes so remarkably as soccer. It continually works on the muscular tissues of the thigh, abdomen and chest and increases the agility of your body.

Soccer targets both the upper body muscles and the lower body muscles with activities such as holding off opponents, throw-ins, running, jumping and shielding the ball.

Explosive speed and greater endurance are some of the most commendable physical benefits of playing soccer which you would develop unconsciously while playing football.

5. Lead a Stress-free Life

One problem that many of us encounter, when we try our physical abilities at any gym, is that it builds up tension in our minds till we complete performing an exercise session.

But soccer, on the other hand, helps you to feel free from any troubling thought as it is only the moving ball which catches your attention. As a result, you concentrate more on the game and aim for specific destinations.

Anxiety causes us to slow down and reflect on the problematic aspects. Moreover, it is also responsible for the fluctuations in our bodily functions and hormonal balance. One of the best advantages of playing football is that it starts making impact on our inner health and provides us with a relaxed mind which helps us in carrying out the daily activities.

On the other hand, soccer releases endorphin in the human brain which is responsible for maintaining the stability of your mood. Thus, playing soccer not only helps you to reduce the anxiety level but also makes you more focused and determined.

6. Have Better Coordination Skills

If you have to carry out an important task under pressurizing situation, finding coordination is the key. And, when you learn to manage your coordination effectively, the bodily functions are stabilized which improves your nervous system.

Soccer is one of the few sports which greatly improves your concentration level and enhances your judgmental power on the field. Soccer, as a game, is entirely built on the coordination principles and you need to have accuracy of thoughts to get success while playing the game.

Soccer teaches you to switch between various important activities with varying speed, such as turning, dribbling, passing the ball and sprinting, and, as you graduate towards mastering the game, your accuracy of thinking is greatly improved.

So, keep playing soccer and achieve greater coordination between your body and mind!

7. Improve Your Cerebral Functions

There are very few exercises which engage your brain. But when you play soccer, you have to constantly keep thinking to decide your next move. Soccer requires great deal of planning from the players as they constantly face opponents who are trying to score for themselves.

Such alertness of the brain would result in your cognitive growth. Football is a game of constant switches and shifts; anyone can change the pace of the game at anytime. As a result, your brain start performing multitasking and assumes five to six possible changes at the same time which contributes to the growth of the brain. You are required to monitor the present situation and conceive the future scenario which enriches your assessment power and improves your thinking.

The culmination of both the past and the present is the beauty of the soccer game which you can appreciate as well as utilize to nurture your cognitive power.

8. Have Greater Flexibility of Body and Mind

Soccer is a game of swift movements and faster pace. When you shield the ball or pass it to others, you need to move fast towards a specific direction to take the advantage of the right situation. You would be required to make lateral or vertical movements by constantly running forward and backward. The rapidity of movements involved in playing soccer enhances your physical agility to a great extent.

Increased flexibility and greater speed are two of the most desired health benefits of playing soccer. The muscular tissues of the abdomen, legs and chest become more stretchable which aids you to shift constantly across the football field. Moreover, when you have a good and nimble body, you bear lesser chances of getting injuries too.

9. Increase Your Endurance and Stamina

Endurance is a quality which helps you to go through the hardships of life with a determined mind and confronts any challenges in the path with courage. Football requires highly intensive activities which would prepare you for the obstacles that you are likely to face in life and take tactical move for achieving success.

The rolling football would make you run for longer periods and strategize the whole game in mind. As a result, it would result in the increase of both of your mental and physical stamina. Moreover, a football player has to understand the game techniques of the opponents and play accordingly under varying weather conditions which strengthens the endurance level and boosts up the immunity system.

In the entire span of 90 minutes, a footballer burns as much as 600 calories which is equivalent to running for 8 miles at a stretch!

Soccer is a brilliant game which not only provides benefits for having great health, but also teaches life skills. One of the major advantages of playing football is the confidence that you develop in tackling the ball. This aspect of soccer bears importance because it helps you in managing the other significant events of life as well.

Even though football is not a prohibitive sport, consult a physician first if you have long-term health conditions such as fractured or artificial leg, asthma, cardiovascular problems and high blood pressure.

Get the ball rolling as fast as you can and enjoy amazing fitness and health benefits of playing soccer!
Now It's Your Turn
According to you, what are the health benefits of playing football?

Or maybe you have a question about something.

Either way, leave a quick comment below.

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9 Health Benefits of Playing Football/Soccer - [Infographic]

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Has your general physician been repetitively telling you to do exercise and lose weight? You must have visited a gym too where you have spent hours running on the treadmill and hopping on the elliptical machine and, at last, returned home with body ache and tiredness.

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Should fast food workers' wages be nearly doubled to $15 an hour? This has been driving a debate that has picked up steam since November 2012, when the first group of fast food workers staged a walkout in New York. Since then, dozens of similar protests have occurred in cities across the U.S. (You can see the how it all unfolded illustrated on a map.)

Activists have called for an end to "starvation" wages and suggest that large employers such as McDonald's and Wendy's can afford to pay more, while employers say that the workers are unskilled and these jobs are meant only to be short-term entry-level gigs, not full-time jobs.

"The restaurant industry is a launching pad," Andrew Moesel, a spokesman for the New York State Restaurant Association, told MSNBC. "Yes, there are some low wage jobs, entry level jobs for young people and others, but it actually creates an opportunity for people to go on and live the American dream."

But is this predominantly true? And who exactly is working in that fast food industry, flipping our burgers, brewing lattes and mopping up after the dinner rush?

AOL Jobs examined data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, along with a recent analysis by the left-leaning Center of Economic Policy Research. The overall picture is of a workforce that is older and better educated (and paid less) than you might suspect. The fast food industry is among the fastest growing low-wage sectors in the U.S., right alongside retail, but the industry actually has seen real wages fall. And the median age of a fast food worker is 28.

Check out the infographic below. And then tell us why you think so many adults are working in fast food, and is a raise to $15 an hour a smart move?
Related Stories
Read Full Story

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Surprising Stats About Fast Food Workers [Infographic]

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Should fast food workers' wages be nearly doubled to $15 an hour? This has been driving a debate that has picked up steam since November 2012, when the first group of fast food workers staged a walkout in New York. Since then, dozens of similar protests have occurred in cities across the U.S.

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Funding Your Education in the USA Infographic

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With our fun infographic, you can learn about the various funding options and challenges international students face.

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Since 1977, one year after the Supreme Court reaffirmed the constitutionality of the death penalty, more than 1,480 people have been executed, primarily by means of lethal injection. Most death penalty cases involve the execution of murderers although capital punishment can also be applied for treason, espionage, and other crimes.

Proponents of the death penalty say it is an important tool for preserving law and order, deters crime, and costs less than life imprisonment. They argue that retribution or "an eye for an eye" honors the victim, helps console grieving families, and ensures that the perpetrators of heinous crimes never have an opportunity to cause future tragedy.

Opponents of capital punishment say it has no deterrent effect on crime, wrongly gives governments the power to take human life, and perpetuates social injustices by disproportionately targeting people of color (racist) and people who cannot afford good attorneys (classist). They say lifetime jail sentences are a more severe and less expensive punishment than death.

PROS & CONS BY CATEGORY

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Death Penalty - Pros & Cons - ProCon.org

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Since 1977, one year after the Supreme Court reaffirmed the constitutionality of the death penalty, more than 1,480 people have been executed, primarily by means of lethal injection. Most death penalty cases involve the execution of murderers although capital punishment can also be applied for treason, espionage, and other crimes.

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Soccer is a pleasurable team sport that provides an all-round fitness and can be used as treatment for lifestyle-related diseases. Men worry less when playing soccer than when running. Women's soccer creates we-stories and helps women stay active.

The above statements are taken from some of the results from an extensive soccer research project involving more than 50 researchers from seven countries. The researchers studied physiological, psychological and sociological aspects of recreational soccer and compared it with running. Led by Professors Peter Krustrup and Jens Bangsbo from the Department of Exercise and Sports Sciences, University of Copenhagen, the 3-year project covered several intervention studies involving both men, women and children, who were divided into soccer, running and control groups.

The results from the studies are so remarkable that the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports are publishing a special edition issue entitled "Football for Health" containing 14 scientific articles from the soccer project on April 6, 2010.
Soccer for Health
The researchers studied the physical effects of soccer training for untrained subjects aged 9 to 77 years. The conclusion was clear. Soccer provides broad-spectred health and fitness effects that are at least as pronounced as for running, and in some cases even better.

Study leader Peter Krustrup concludes "Soccer is a very popular team sport that contains positive motivational and social factors that may facilitate compliance and contribute to the maintenance of a physically active lifestyle. The studies presented have demonstrated that soccer training for two-three hours per week causes significant cardiovascular, metabolic and musculoskeletal adaptations, independent on gender, age or lack of experience with soccer."

Professor Jens Bangsbo continues: "The effects can be maintained for a long period even with a reduced frequency of training to one to two times one hour a week. Recreational soccer, therefore, appears to be an effective type of training leading to performance improvements and significant beneficial effects to health, including a reduction in the risk of cardiovascular diseases, falls and fractures. In a number of aspects, soccer training appears to be superior to running training. Soccer training can also be used to treat hypertension and it was clearly superior to a standard treatment strategy of physician-guided traditional recommendations."

The two researchers foresee a great perspective in using soccer as a health promoting activity: "The studies have convincingly shown that soccer training is effective to enhance fitness and the health profile for the general population. Future studies are needed to understand what is causing the beneficial effects of football, how well football can be used to improve heart health in early childhood and how other patient groups such as those with type II diabetes or cancer can benefit from playing soccer."
Soccer creates we-stories and helps women stay active
One of the many aspects of the study was to examine the level of social capital for women gained from running and soccer. Even though both the soccer players and the runners trained in groups, there were significant differences in the way they interacted and what they considered the most important aspects of the sport they were engaging in. The runners were more focused on themselves as individuals, whereas the soccer players developed "we"-stories as they began to see themselves as a team. From the beginning, most of the women, both soccer players and runners, thought running would be an easier form of exercise to stick to after the intervention programme was over. That turned out not to be the case:

"The most important finding was the difference in social interaction and creation of we-stories between the groups, which may impact the possibilities of long-term compliance. A year after the study, many of the soccer players continue to play soccer, some have even joined an organised soccer club. Not many from the running group have continued their training. This can very well be due to the fact that the runners focussed on their health and on getting in shape, whereas the soccer players were more committed to the activity itself, including the fun and not letting down team mates," says Associate Professor Laila Ottesen.
Men worry less when playing soccer than when running
Another study examined the exertion experienced during training for untrained adults and their experience of "worries" and "flow." This study, based on 6 groups of untrained men and women, showed that all groups experienced an overall high level of flow during the intervention, which underlines that the participants felt motivated, happy and involved to the point where they forgot time and fatigue. There was no difference in the level of worry for the female soccer players and runners, but the running men seemed to worry quite a lot more than their soccer playing counterparts.

- "The men that played soccer elicited lower levels of worry than during running, 2.8 vs 4.0 on a 0-6 scale, and although they are training at the same average heart rate they do not feel the exertion as strongly as during running" says Associate Professor Anne-Marie Elbe and adds: "Further research is needed to examine why men and women experience playing soccer differently but it could be that the men just have had more experience with football in earlier years than the women."
Documentation for FIFA, Michelle Obama and others
F-MARC, the research unit of FIFA, is a central partner in the project and the research provides scientific documentation for initiatives such as FIFA's newly launched "The 11 for Health" campaign that uses soccer as an educational health tool for children in order to raise awareness and improve health in African and South American communities. Also Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" project aiming at eliminating obesity in American children through diet and sports have recently promoted soccer as a favourable activity. The research results are also used in Europe, where the research group is directly involved in implementing the results through projects focusing on adults and children, such as "The Open Soccer Club project," "The Soccer at Work project" and the "Intensity in Pupil School Sport project." Sports Confederations, Football Associations, Ministries of Culture and Health and researchers from Universities, Hospitals and Centres for Working Environment are cooperating about the implementation and scientific evaluation of those projects.

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fitness; sports medicine; accident and trauma; teen health; gender difference; racial issues; child development; mental health

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Soccer improves health, fitness and social abilities

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Soccer is a pleasurable sport that provides an all-round fitness and can be used as treatment for lifestyle-related diseases. Men worry less when playing soccer than when running. Women's soccer creates we-stories and helps women stay active. The above statements are taken from the results from an extensive soccer research project involving more than 50 researchers from seven countries.

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Whether you are out shooting hoops by yourself, playing a game of pick-up basketball or on an elite competitive team, basketball is a great way to get fit and stay in shape. In fact, even President Barack Obama plays the game on a daily basis as part of his fitness regimen. Below, we've listed a few reasons why playing the game of basketball could help you stay healthy and fit along with links to a few basketball essentials you may need.

Here are the Top 10 from Health Fitness Revolution and author of the book ReSYNC Your Life Samir Becic:

Burns calories: Running, jumping and quick lateral movements done in basketball provide a significant amount of aerobic exercise and can burn a great deal of calories. For each hour of competitive basketball, a 165-pound person can expect to burn around 600 calories, while a 250-pound person can burn up to 900 calories.

Great for cardiovascular health: Basketball can help you develop cardiovascular endurance, depending on how many times play stops. Keep moving and you'll keep your heart rate up. Building endurance can help keep your heart healthy, reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke later in life.

Develops concentration and self-discipline: Like every other sport, basketball has rules to follow, and breaking them can result in penalties not just for you, but for your team. Practicing self-discipline helps one become more competitive yet fair and clean in their game and focused in succeeding.

Builds bone strength: Jumping and other physical demands of basketball help develop and improve bone health. The stronger your bones, the less likely they are to break. Weight-bearing physical activity causes new bone tissue to form, making bones stronger. Bones and muscles both become stronger when muscles push and tug against bones during physical activity.

Better motor skills and coordination: Free-throw shooting and jump-shooting are particularly helpful for training hand-eye coordination. Rebounding missed shots is another skill that requires a great degree of full-body coordination. The third basic basketball skill, dribbling, requires a finer degree of coordination. When first learning basketball, dribbling trains the hand-eye coordination; once that skilled is mastered, a player will no longer look at the ball while dribbling and the skill will become a pure motor coordination task.

Strength training: Basketball provides an excellent full-body workout and can help develop useful, lean muscle. In this physically intensive contact sport, basketball players are highly reliant on effective body positioning and the ability to maintain that position when an opponent is pushing against him. Playing good defensive basketball can develop your deltoids, traps, neck, lower back and core muscles. Strong legs aid in shooting and running, while the finer movements such as dribbling and shooting are good for strengthening your arms, wrist flexors and hand muscles.

Improves spatial awareness: Spatial awareness is knowing where your body is in space and time. Ever wonder why a cat always lands on its feet? Body awareness. It helps keep you in balance.

Mental development: Basketball requires a wide range of physical skills, but it is also a fast-paced mental game. Research on the mental aspects of basketball has revealed that players must develop a great deal of attention to quickly and accurately process what's happening on the court and make effective decisions with the ball and on defense. During a fast-paced game, you must train yourself to constantly observe your teammates and opponents and evaluate what course of action to take in response to their actions. This can translate to helping you make quick decisions on the job and in other real-life situations.

Reduces stress and boosts the immune system: Decreasing your stress will help you focus and have more energy to complete tasks. Playing basketball and other sports helps reduce stress and gives players the opportunity to socialize. People who are social are less likely to have depression, and also tend to have a stronger immune system.

Enhances confidence: Basketball truly improves anyone's confidence. Making good shots and being a part of a good team can increase your self-esteem and help gain more confidence. A confident person has more faith in his or her skills and can face life with a better disposition.

Health Fitness Revolution by Samir Becic Foundation is a 501(c)3 organization, to make the world a healthier, fitter place, please donate!

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Whether you are out shooting hoops by yourself, playing a game of pick-up basketball or on an elite competitive team, basketball is a great way to get fit and stay in shape. In fact, even President Barack Obama plays the game on a daily basis as part of his fitness regimen.

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The experts agree'if you want to stick to your fitness plan, you need to find something you love to do. For more and more people, that plan involves teammates, some wide-open space and a black and white ball. According to Sean Hayes, the official kinesiologist for the Canadian National Australian Rules Football team and the owner of Tuf Personal Fitness in Vancouver, B.C., soccer is a fantastic cross-training opportunity that has some mental benefits, too.

Improve your cardio

If logging miles on the treadmill bores you to tears, hit the soccer field instead to work on your cardio. Hayes explains that soccer players can travel a distance of eight to 12 kilometres each game. 'The aerobic fitness demands of soccer increase the ability of the heart to pump blood to the muscles and helps clear the build-up of plaque inside the arteries, which is a sign of cardiovascular disease,' he says. The benefits? You'll enjoy a slower resting heart rate, a decrease in systolic blood pressure and a healthier working heart, Hayes says. Added bonus'you won't get winded running up a couple flights of stairs.

Increase muscle tone and bone strength

Check out the gams on professional soccer players'not too shabby. And the rest of their bodies are pretty sculpted, too. 'The very nature of soccer as a game of constant movement keeps the muscles engaged over long periods of time, which is great for overall muscle tone,' says Hayes. Another benefit might not be as easy to admire in the mirror, but is just as important. 'As [people] get older, bone density becomes more of an issue. The repeated weight-bearing loads on the body during a soccer match are an excellent way to increase the strength of our skeletal frame.'

Increase endurance

As soccer increases your cardio capacity, it also improves your endurance. 'An increase in aerobic capacity allows soccer players to run farther for a longer period of time,' explains Hayes. Because soccer requires you to execute a variety of motions, it's more beneficial than just parking yourself on the cross-trainer at the gym. 'Soccer involves running, walking, sprinting and jumping. These movements require a great deal of endurance for an athlete to be able to play a full 90 minutes.'

Improve coordination

Whether you want to be able to beat your kids at Wii Golf or just stop bumping into things, soccer can help. 'Hand-eye coordination is improved when players either kick the ball or receive a pass from someone,' says Hayes. 'Body coordination is improved because of complex movements like dribbling, turning and passing, which are performed at varying rates of speed and direction.' And better coordination means better results on the field. 'A soccer player's ability to react to her external environment is a valuable tool in the game.'

Teamwork

While you may think of your fitness goal as the one thing in your life that's all about you, consider the idea that you can share that goal with others and take the lessons you learn on the field into the rest of your life. 'The ability to work with others to reach a common goal is powerful when related to everyday life,' explains Hayes. 'For soccer players, personal goals are sometimes pushed aside by team goals, which can teach people to think in broader terms when relating these situations to work and home.' That means you never have to feel selfish for taking that time out for yourself again.

Getting involved

It you'd like to strap on some cleats and try soccer out for yourself, Hayes suggests contacting a local soccer association for information on leagues in your area.
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The experts agree'if you want to stick to your fitness plan, you need to find something you love to do. For more and more people, that plan involves teammates, some wide-open space and a black and white ball.

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Story Highlights

"Save taxpayers money" also named as a top reason for support

"Wrong to take a life" cited as top reason to oppose death penalty

Fewer Americans mention "deterrence" as reason to oppose

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans who favor the death penalty most often cite "an eye for an eye" as the reason they hold their position, with 35% mentioning it. "Save taxpayers money" and "they deserve it" tie as the second-most-popular reasons Americans volunteer in this open-ended measure, at 14% each.

A solid majority of Americans (63%) still favor using the death penalty in murder convictions, generally consistent with the level of support found over the last decade.

This is the fourth time Gallup has probed Americans to state, in their own words, why they hold the position they do on the death penalty.

Americans who say they support the death penalty have given a variety of responses over the years, but the biblical phrase "an eye for an eye," or retaliation, consistently has been named as the No. 1 reason why the death penalty should be applied. However, this reason's pre-eminence has waned since Gallup first asked this question in 1991, when half of Americans who favor the death penalty mentioned it.

The No. 2 response to this question has fluctuated over the years. Originally in 1991, the idea of the death penalty as a way to stop someone from repeating a crime was second at 19%. That concept has seemingly lost favor over the years, and this year, only 7% say deterrence is their top reason for supporting the death penalty. Instead, "save taxpayers money" and simply, "they deserve it," have emerged as the second-most-popular responses to why the death penalty should be used in murder convictions.

Several practical reasons including the belief that the prisoners "cannot be rehabilitated," that "life sentences don't always mean life in prison," and that the death penalty "relieves prison overcrowding" are mentioned less frequently, by between 2% and 3% of death penalty proponents.
Those Opposed to Death Penalty Cite "Wrong to Take a Life" as Top Reason
While a majority of Americans tilt in favor of the death penalty, the one in three Americans who oppose it also have a diversity of views as to why the ultimate penalty should not be used. "Wrong to take a life" has been the top reason for opposing it since 1991, by comfortable margins.

In two of the three times Gallup has asked this question, "persons may be wrongly convicted" has been the No. 2 justification Americans give for opposing the death penalty, along with reasons grounded in religious beliefs, including that "punishment should be left to God." Yet "wrong to take a life" is still the most popular open-ended response by a more than 2-to-1 margin.

As with the reasons for favoring the death penalty, subjective attitudes often outrank practical concerns in terms of why people oppose the death penalty. Some of the practical reasons offered for death penalty opposition include the "possibility of rehabilitation," the cost of keeping a prisoner on death row, and unfair application of the death penalty.
Bottom Line
Americans' top reasons for supporting the death penalty, including most prominently that it is necessary to take "an eye for an eye" when a murder is committed, demonstrate that Americans are less concerned with using the tool as a deterrent for future crimes and more so with using it as a means of punishment.

For those who oppose the death penalty, moral and religious reasons such as it is "wrong to take a life" are most popular. Considering the numerous accounts of death-row inmates being found innocent through the use of DNA evidence, it may be surprising that wrongful conviction is only tied for second as a reason cited by death penalty opponents. Practical reasons like the cost of keeping a prisoner on death row -- for decades, potentially -- does not factor as much into why Americans oppose the death penalty. Additionally, few opponents cite cruelty as a reason for their beliefs, despite recent news stories of botched executions in which lethal injections did not work as planned.

Throughout the 23 years Gallup has asked Americans why they hold their views on the death penalty, the responses have been generally consistent, with a few changes at the margins. For those studying the death penalty, these beliefs suggest many Americans have not only made up their minds about it, but they also have coalesced around defined reasons for holding those beliefs.
Survey Methods
Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Oct. 12-15, 2014, with a random sample of 1,017 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. For results based on the total sample of 634 who favor the death penalty, the margin of sampling error is ±5 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. For results based on the total sample of 335 who oppose the death penalty, the margin of sampling error is ±7 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 50% cellphone respondents and 50% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods.
View survey methodology, complete question responses, and trends.
Learn more about how the Gallup Poll Social Series works.

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Americans: "Eye for an Eye" Top Reason for Death Penalty

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Story Highlights "Save taxpayers money" also named as a top reason for support "Wrong to take a life" cited as top reason to oppose death penalty Fewer Americans mention "deterrence" as reason to oppose WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans who favor the death penalty most often cite "an eye for an eye" as the reason they hold their position, with 35% mentioning it.

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Fast footwork, agility and endurance are just a few of the essentials for playing men's soccer/ football. And the full list of benefits gained from playing this sport are numerous. While it is most popular in European and Latin American countries (it's even the national sport of Brazil), Americans are beginning to take part in the excitement both at the recreational and competitive levels. The best part about this sport is that you can play with any number of players, in any open space!

Samir Becic, 4 times Number 1 Fitness Trainer in the world and HFR's Top 10 Health Benefits of Men's Soccer:

Increases Aerobic Capacity: Running -at any intensity- for 90 minutes requires a high level of stamina. Therefore, soccer players often have a tremendous amount of aerobic capacity- being able to go from walking to sprinting and have a fast recovery to do it again, and again, and again.

Improves Cardiovascular Health: The average player runs 5 to 7 miles in a full game. The constant walking, jogging and running helps keep the players' heart rates up, providing excellent cardiovascular exercise. This constant movement helps players strengthen their hearts, resist plaque build-up in the coronary arteries, reduce their blood pressure and burn excess calories.

Lowers Body Fat and Improves Muscle Tone: Soccer is a great sport for burning fat because it works the muscles and your heart in different ways. Soccer builds more muscle mass and burns more fat by recruiting both slow-twitch and fast-twitch muscle fibers. As a general workout, soccer playing burns more calories than typical workouts because players are forced to switch between using the aerobic and anaerobic energy pathways.

Builds Muscle Strength: lower body strength is required for kicking, jumping, tackling, twisting and turning and also forms the foundation for explosive speed. Upper body strength is required for shielding the ball, holding off opponents, throw-ins and also contributes to overall power and explosiveness. Regular soccer playing builds strength by using the whole body.

Increases Bone Strength: In general, bone density decreases as people get older. The repeated weight-bearing loads on the body during a soccer match are an excellent way to increase the strength of our skeletal frame. Maintaining fitness through soccer throughout a lifetime is a great way to keep bones strong.

Teaches Coordination: due to shifts between walking, running and sprinting, coordination is key to soccer. Body coordination is improved through the complex movements like dribbling, turning and passing, which are performed at varying rates of speed and direction. Hand-eye coordination is improved when players either kick the ball or receive a pass from someone. The better the coordination, the better advantage in a match.

Promotes Teamwork and Sharing: While fitness goals are generally very personal, we can all benefit from sharing common goals with others who push us towards them. The lessons that players learn on the field translate to the rest of their lives and the camaraderie teammates share in unparalleled. The ability to work with others to reach a common goal is powerful when related to everyday life- in other words, join a team!

Increases Cognitive Brain Function: Soccer helpsincrease skills in concentration, persistence and self-discipline because it is a fast-paced game that requires quick decisions on the field. Even when the tempo appears to slow down, players are constantly looking for territorial advantages, trying to position themselves to receive a pass or to defend an area the opponent may attack.

Increase Confidence and Self-esteem, and Helps to Reduce Anxiety: Building physical strength and endurance helps build confidence in a player both on and off the field. Confidence and self-esteem not only impact sports performance, but also performance in school, career, family life and friendships. Also, as with all forms of exercise, the feel-good endorphins released into the body after a match are major stress and anxiety reducers. Several studies point to exercise as being a highly effective treatment for depression and anxiety.

Anyone can Play, Anywhere: Soccer is not an expensive or prohibitive sport. All that is needed is space and a ball. It is a relatively simple sport to catch onto and is played mostly outdoors, which we already mentioned as being healthy here.

Health Fitness Revolution by Samir Becic Foundation is a 501(c)3 organization, to make the world a healthier, fitter place, please donate!

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Top 10 Health Benefits of Soccer/ Football for Men

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Fast footwork, agility and endurance are just a few of the essentials for playing men's soccer/ football. And the full list of benefits gained from playing this sport are numerous. While it is most popular in European and Latin American countries (it's even the national sport of Brazil), Americans are beginning to take part in the excitement both at the recreational and competitive levels.

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Do you love basketball? Have you often heard your father say you will grow taller and stronger if you pursue this sport? Well, your father may have just been right! But apart from just growing taller and stronger, this sport also offers you a plethora of other health benefits!

Would you like to know more? Keep reading this post!

Basketball - A Brief

Basketball is a much-loved sport all across the world. It is popular because it can be played as a competitive sport or a casual game on the local court. It is also a great way to work out as it involves using your entire body (1). It is a fast-paced game that involves a good deal of jumping and running which is a fantastic way to exercise. If you want a sport that helps you stay fit and healthy, basketball is the perfect choice as it comes with more than a few health benefits.

Following are the health benefits of basketball.

1. Promotes Cardiovascular Health

Basketball is great for your heart health! Because you keep moving, your heart rate increases. It also helps in building endurance, which is important when you want to make sure that your heart is healthy. It will help lower the risk of stroke and heart disease later in your life (2).

2. Burns Calories

Do you want to shed a few extra kilos? Play basketball! All the quick lateral movements, running and jumping, gives you an aerobic workout that in turn can help you burn a lot of calories. For every hour of basketball, a person who weighs 165 pounds can expect to burn about 600 calories while a person who weighs 250 pounds can expect to burn approximately 900 calories.

[ Read: Tips And Benefits Of Running ]

3. Builds Bone Strength

The physical demands of this awesome sport help in improving and building bone strength. Any physical activity that involves weight-bearing allows the formation of new bone tissue, and this in turn makes the bones stronger. Both the muscles and bones in your body become stronger with basketball as it is a physical activity that involves the tugging and pushing of muscles against bone.

4. Boosts The Immune System

When you play basketball or any other sport, it helps in reducing stress (3). When stress is decreased, you will have more energy and focus to complete tasks. It also makes you more social, which in turns helps in preventing depression. When stress is lowered, your immune system gets a boost as well.

5. Provides Strength Training

By playing basketball, you get an excellent full-body workout. This helps in the development of lean muscle. It can help develop your lower back, neck, deltoids, traps and core muscles. It also makes your legs stronger, and the movements like shooting and dribbling help strengthen your arms, hand muscles and wrist flexors.

6. Boosts Mental Development

Basketball may be a fast-paced game that requires a lot of physical skills, but it is also a mind game that requires you to think on your toes (4). It requires you to have a lot of focus so that you can accurately and quickly process the action on the court and make decisions that are effective with the ball. It also requires you to train yourself so that you can observe your opponents and teammates constantly and make quick decisions based on their actions.

[ Read: Health Benefits Of Using An Exercise Cycle ]

7. Develops Better Coordination And Motor Skills

Basketball requires excellent hand-eye coordination as well as full-body coordination (5). When you play this sport, it gives you the training to help develop these skills. Dribbling gives you training for hand-eye coordination while rebounding shots that are missed gives you the training to develop full-body coordination.

8. Develops Self-Discipline And Concentration

As with other sports, there are rules that need to be followed when you play basketball. When you break these rules, it can lead to penalties for you as well as your team. It helps you develop self-discipline that is important as it encourages you to be more competitive and fair at the same time. It also keeps your mind focused and alert.

9. Improves Awareness Of Space And Body

Basketball is a game that requires spatial awareness. You need to know where you are positioned to make that perfect shot or play defense effectively. When you have an awareness of the space and body, you will know exactly where you need to be when your teammate or opponent makes a shot or passes the ball. When your spatial awareness is improved, it also helps in keeping you in balance.

[ Read: Benefits Of Swimming For A Healthy Body ]

10. Boosts Confidence

One of the best benefits of playing basketball is that it truly boosts one's confidence (6). Being a good player and being a member of a great team can do wonders to increase your self-esteem and help you gain more confidence. When your confidence is boosted, your faith in your skills is also increased. Being confident allows you to face life with an improved disposition and has a positive effect on every aspect of your life.

The fast-paced action involved in basketball makes it one of the most exciting games to play and watch in the world. The fact that it provides numerous benefits is an excellent bonus. It is no wonder that the President of the US has made it a part of his regular workout regimen to keep himself physically and mentally fit. It is a great game for both adults and children. If you are looking to play a sport that gives you multiple benefits, both physically and mentally, this is the one for you.

Tips

Always warm up and stretch your joints and muscles before you hit the court. Make it a point to stretch and cool down after a game as well.

Basketball is a physically demanding game. It is important to have plenty of fluids on hand so that you can rehydrate your body at regular intervals.

Because of the physical demands, it is important that you keep yourself flexible and strong.

With the many benefits of basketball, it is the perfect reason for you to pick up a ball and start shooting some hoops. It can be played alone or with friends - no matter what you choose, you get a great workout. By making this sport a part of your fitness routine, you ensure that you stay physically and mentally fit and active for many years.

How has this post helped you? Do tell us by commenting in the box below.

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10 Amazing Health Benefits Of Playing Basketball

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Do you love basketball? Have you often heard your father say you will grow taller and stronger if you pursue this sport? Well, your father may have just been right! But apart from just growing taller and stronger, this sport also offers you a plethora of other health benefits!

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But it's also helpful to have some type of tool that you can take with you that will help you calm down during times of intense anxiety. One such tool is a spinner ring, also known as a meditation ring or worry ring.

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Poaching in Africa has hit the headlines many times already this year. Recently, wildlife officials in South Africa released the devastating statistic that 558 rhinos have been killed in 2014 so far, making it likely that the number of deaths this year will exceed the 1004 recorded for 2013. And it is not only rhinos; elephants have also been hit hard with an estimated 20,000 killed in 2013. All over Africa, from Mozambique to Chad, wildlife authorities are reporting massive increases in poaching for the ivory trade. So why is poaching at an all-time high and what can be done about it?

Poaching levels this high have not been experienced since the 1970s and 80s when elephants and rhinos were poached almost to extinction. This occurred because the demand for ivory in Asian countries, where ivory is used to treat ailments varying from hangovers to cancer as well as in carvings, soared at the beginning of the 1970s. International campaigns began, security was increased and wildlife sanctuaries set up. Finally, in 1989, CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) banned international trade in ivory. In a symbolic gesture, Kenya burned its ivory stockpile, worth an estimated $3 million. Following this, elephant and rhino numbers increased dramatically in what was one of the most impressive conservation success stories to date.

But since 2007 poaching has been on the rise. This is again thought to be due to increasing demand for ivory in Asia, particularly in China and Thailand. Lawlessness, weak governance and corruption in many African countries also provides ideal conditions for the illegal killing of elephants and rhinos where arms are readily available and poverty means that locals and underpaid wildlife officials, police and military personnel are easily threatened, recruited or bribed.

Wildlife authorities can no longer keep up with the level of poaching. In comparison to the 1970s and 80s, poaching units are now much more sophisticated, organized and well equipped. The use of helicopters, night-vision equipment, tranquilizers and silencers allows poachers to target animals at night and avoid law enforcement. The situation is now reaching drastic levels and conservation organizations have warned that time is running out for both rhinos and elephants. Steps need to be taken, and taken fast, if we are to save these charismatic species.

So what can be done to stop the poachers? There are lots of ideas out there.

1. Legalization

One option is to legalize the trade of horns and tusks. Supporters of this course of action argue that this would take the trade out of the hands of criminals and that, by flooding the market, the price of ivory would drop along with the incentive to kill them. However, this has not yet been properly evaluated and there are fears that illegal traders would still undercut official operators. Since the current ivory ban is not being enforced effectively, legal trade is unlikely to be either. Legalising trade might also increase demand for ivory.

2. Improved security

More work is needed to improve security, particularly at borders between countries and at key locations in the ivory trade chain. To be effective, this needs to take a multi-country and multi-organization approach to ensure security all along the common ivory routes (most ivory leaves via East African seaports). Namibia are utilizing their armed forces to sure up their borders. More support and training are needed in addition to improved law enforcement to enhance anti-poaching tracking and intelligence operations.

3. De-horning and Tusking

A common suggestion is to remove horns and tusks from animals, the idea being, for example, that a rhino without a horn will not be poached. There have been some successes with this method but it doesn't always work. Many hornless or tuskless animals are still killed, either to access the "stump" of ivory left behind or out of vengeance. Animals need their horns or tusks for social and feeding behavior and they also grow back with time. The process of removing them is risky for the animals as well as costly and logistically difficult. Save the Rhino recommend that dehorning is used as a last resort alongside other anti-poaching measures.

4. Destroying ivory stocks

Following Kenya's example back in the 80s, China recently destroyed its ivory stocks for the first time, sending a message to to the world that trade in ivory will not be tolerated. But there is little evidence of whether this is anything more than a gesture or if it actually has any impact on poaching.

5. Education

Education and public awareness both in Africa and in Asia, where the demand for ivory originates, is essential but this may be too slow a process to save the world's elephants and rhinos.

6. Technology

At a rhino reserve in Kenya, innovative drone technology is being tested to help rangers in the fight against poaching. These drones, which also operate after dark using night vision and thermal imaging, can be operated via laptop and act as an extra pair of eyes, helping to locate poachers within the reserve. More research is needed but initial trials have been positive.

7. Modified Horns and tusks

Another innovative idea is to modify horns and tusks in some way to deter poachers. At one reserve in South Africa, rhino horns are injected with a mixture of pink dye and poison. The dye can be detected by airport scanners and when ground into a powder, and the poison is not fatal but enough to make the consumer very ill. There are however mixed opinions on this approach. It is feared that although poachers may be deterred in areas where the scheme is highly publicized, it is impractical for animals free-ranging in very large areas; it may just displace poaching to another area. And logistically it would be impossible to apply this technique to a large number of animals.

Each possible solution has its own pros and cons. Some are not possible logistically on a large scale but may be useful in smaller areas. Overall, a combination of these ideas is probably the best way to target poaching.

This all paints a very gloomy picture but unfortunately there are few success stories to relate. CITES, however, remains optimistic, stating that some elephant populations remain stable and that for the first time, more ivory seizures are occurring in Africa rather than Asia, indicating better policing in East Africa and perhaps even a slight lowering of demand in Asia. In July 2014, the United Nations praised Kenya's role in taking down an international crime syndicate found to be smuggling ivory to China. Elephants and rhinos have been brought back from the brink once before; let's hope it can be done again. But for now, the war rages on and these species remain at the edge of extinction.

- By Rose Argall Rose Argall is a reseearch and development Intern at Frontier, an international non-profit volunteering NGO. Frontier has over 300 dedicated conservation and community development projects as well as plenty of inspiring gap year ideas to help make your time out meaningful. For more information on all the opportunities available please visit www.frontier.ac.uk. Check out Frontier's blog 'Into the Wild' where you can read more articles like this! Happy reading!
Get more from us on social media with Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. See more from volunteers on YouTube, Flickr and Instagram #FrontierVolunteer.

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Africa's Poaching Crisis: How Do We Stop It?

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Poaching in Africa has hit the headlines many times already this year. Recently, wildlife officials in South Africa released the devastating statistic that 558 rhinos have been killed in 2014 so far, making it likely that the number of deaths this year will exceed the 1004 recorded for 2013.

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Nikki Alvarez, Communication Designer

Nikki is part illustrator, part designer, part writer, and spends her days at Hero promoting the ways positive reinforcement and inspiring customers are changing the face of education.

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Nikki Alvarez, Communication Designer Nikki is part illustrator, part designer, part writer, and spends her days at Hero promoting the ways positive reinforcement and inspiring customers are changing the face of education.

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Bullying: What You Need to Know | StopBullying.gov

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Rank Prevention Bullying: What You Need to Know on Reddit

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There are many simple things you can do to help save planet Earth! With the support of your friends and family, team together and use the list below to create your own team of Earth Heroes!

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How Can Kids Help The Environment " Footprints Vancouver

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There are many simple things you can do to help save planet Earth! With the support of your friends and family, team together and use the list below to create your own team of Earth Heroes!

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Advertisement

The United Nations suggests that climate change is not just the defining issue of our time, but we are also at a defining moment in history. Weather patterns are changing and will threaten food production, and sea levels are rising and could cause catastrophic flooding across the globe. Countries must make drastic actions to avoid a future with irreversible damage to major ecosystems and planetary climate.

But what about individuals? What can we do to pitch in and help save the Earth? There are plenty of things you can do every day to help reduce greenhouse gases and your carbon footprint to make a less harmful impact on the environment. Taking care of the Earth is not just a responsibility, it's a necessity. In that spirit, HowStuffWorks has come up with 10 things you can do now to help save the planet.

1. Conserve Water

The little things can make a big difference. Every time you turn off the water while you're brushing your teeth, you're doing something good. Got a leaky faucet? You might be dripping as much as 90 gallons (340 liters) of water down the drain every day [source: EPA]. So fix it! It's easy and cheap. And stop drinking bottled water. Switch to filtered tap water. You'll save a ton of cash and help reduce a ton of plastic waste in the process.

2. Be Car-conscious

If you can, stay off the road two days a week or more. You'll reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 1,590 pounds (721 kilograms) per year [source: EPA]. It's easier than you think. You can combine your errands - hit the school, grocery store and dog daycare in one trip. And talk to your boss about teleworking. It's a boon for you and your company. But being car conscious also means maintaining your car on a regular basis. You can improve your gas mileage by 0.6 percent to 3 percent by keeping your tires inflated to the proper pressure, and be sure to make necessary repairs if your car fails emission [source: EPA].

3. Walk, Bike or Take Public Transit

Walking and biking are obvious ways to reduce greenhouse gases. Plus you'll get some good cardio and burn some calories while you do it. If you live in an area that's not walkable, take advantage of your local mass transit if you can. Or carpool. Even one car off on the road makes a difference.

4. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

You can help reduce pollution just by putting that soda can in the recycling bin. It really does make a difference. Paper, too. Case in point: If an office building of 7,000 workers recycled all of its office paper waste for a year, it would be the equivalent of taking almost 400 cars off the road [source: EPA]. But you can also take reusable bags to the grocery, and avoid using disposable plates, spoons, glass, cups and napkins. They create huge amounts of waste. And buy products that are made of recycled materials. It all makes a difference.

5. Give Composting a Try

In 2015, (the last year figures were available) Americans generated 262.4 million tons (238 metric tons) of trash. Only 23.4 million tons (21.2 metric tons) of that was composted. Some was recycled and some was combusted for energy, but almost half of it - 137.7 million tons (124.9 metric tons) - ended up in the landfill. Imagine if you could divert more of that to your own compost? It would help reduce the amount of solid waste you produce, and what eventually winds up in your local landfill. Plus, compost makes a great natural fertilizer.

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10 Things You Can Do to Help Save the Earth

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Advertisement The United Nations suggests that climate change is not just the defining issue of our time, but we are also at a defining moment in history. Weather patterns are changing and will threaten food production, and sea levels are rising and could cause catastrophic flooding across the globe.

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Find shocking environmental facts and statistics on everything from child labor and slavery to toxic waste and climate change. We give you "environmental awareness facts" on the current state of the world and how it is affected by our choice of products.

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United Nations Statistics Division - Environment Statistics

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Statistics on Water and Waste are based on official statistics supplied by national statistical offices and/or ministries of environment (or equivalent institutions) in response to the biennial UNSD/UNEP Questionnaire on Environment Statistics, complemented with comparable statistics from OECD and Eurostat, and water resources data from FAO Aquastat.

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Every so often it is good to remind ourselves why we are working so hard to protect the environment and all its creatures. While many of these statistics are depressing, the good news is that we are currently working towards a solution for each one of these and making some pretty sizable progress.

Did You Know...

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Photo via: sirmikester

A large study has found that up to one half of all plants and animals species on dry land could face extinction by the year 2050 due to global warming. According to the World Resources Institute, 100 species die each day due to tropical deforestation.

A plant called the rosy periwinkle, which grows in the "rainforests" of Madagascar, has been used to make a drug that can cure some kinds of cancer. Imagine all the other miracles we may have already lost out on.

Billions of plastic bags are made each year. Of these bags, one hundred billion are thrown away according to Worldwatch Institute, with less than 1 percent finding their way into a recycle bin. The end result of this is around 1 billion birds and mammals dying each year by the ingestion of plastic.

Americans dump 16 tons of sewage into their waters, every minute.

If the number of cars keeps increasing at its present rate, there will be over one billion on the road by 2025. There is currently around 700 million cars on the road today producing 900 million tons of carbon dioxide each year. This equals approximately 15 percent of our total output. Sadly, one half of these trips in the U.S. are within 3 miles and could easily be walked in less than an hour.

A single quart of motor oil dumped on the ground or in the trash, can contaminate up to two million gallons of fresh water.

The United States makes up less than 5 percent of the population on earth, yet we easily consume over 30 percent of its resources. While us humans would appear to be doing well, spreading our population like wild fire across the globe, the diminishing resources and other life forms on the planet tell a different story. "We are in the midst of a mass extinction, an event not seen since the disappearance of the dinosaurs, 65 million years ago," says Worldwatch Institute.

110 million Americans live amongst such high levels of air pollution, the federal government considers it to be harmful to their health.

A one years worth subscription to the New York Times weighs well over 500 pounds. The good and bad news however, is that more and more newspapers are being forced into extinction, many of them becoming online news sources. While newspapers have been a tradition and they will be one day missed, the great part about online news is that is can be up to the minute on breaking news stories.

Using recycled paper for one days worth of the New York Times Sunday Edition would save approximately 75,000 trees.

Discover more gut-wrenching facts about the destruction of the environment on page 2.

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20 Gut-Wrenching Statistics About the Destruction of the Planet and those Living Upon It

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Every so often it is good to remind ourselves why we are working so hard to protect the environment and all its creatures. While many of these statistics are depressing, the good news is that we are currently working towards a

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2. Interview with the United Nations.

The United Nations decides if the person fits the definition of a refugee and whether to refer the person to the United States or to another country for resettlement. Only the most vulnerable are referred, accounting for less than than 1 percent of refugees worldwide. Some people spend years waiting in refugee camps.

5. Interview with State Department contractors.

The refugee's name is run through law enforcement and intelligence databases for terrorist or criminal history. Some go through a higher-level clearance before they can continue. A third background check was introduced in 2008 for Iraqis but has since been expanded to all refugees ages 14 to 65.

The refugee's fingerprints are screened against F.B.I. and Homeland Security databases, which contain watch list information and past immigration encounters, including if the refugee previously applied for a visa at a United States embassy. Fingerprints are also checked against those collected by the Defense Department during operations in Iraq.

Syrian applicants must undergo these two additional steps. Each is reviewed by a United States Citizenship and Immigration Services refugee specialist. Cases with "national security indicators" are given to the Homeland Security Department's fraud detection unit.

Most of the interviews with Syrians have been done in Jordan and Turkey.

Because of the long amount of time between the initial screening and departure, officials conduct a final check before the refugee leaves for the United States.

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Refugees Entering the U.S. Already Face a Rigorous Vetting Process

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2. Interview with the United Nations. The United Nations decides if the person fits the definition of a refugee and whether to refer the person to the United States or to another country for resettlement. Only the most vulnerable are referred, accounting for less than than 1 percent of refugees worldwide.

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‎Refugees undergo more rigorous screening than anyone else we allow into the United States. Here's what the screening process looks like for them:

The Full Text of the Graphic:

The Screening Process for Refugee Entry Into the United States

Recurrent vetting: Throughout this process, pending applications continue to be checked against terrorist databases, to ensure new, relevant terrorism information has not come to light. If a match is found, that case is paused for further review. Applicants who continue to have no flags continue the process. If there is doubt about whether an applicant poses a security risk, they will not be admitted.

1. Many refugee applicants identify themselves to the U.N. Refugee Agency, UNHCR. UNHCR, then:

​​Collects identifying documents

Performs initial assessment

Collects biodata: name, address, birthday, place of birth, etc.

Collects biometrics: iris scans (for Syrians, and other refugee populations in the Middle East)

Interviews applicants to confirm refugee status and the need for resettlement
Initial information checked again

Only applicants who are strong candidates for resettlement move forward (less than 1% of global refugee population).

2. Applicants are received by a federally-funded Resettlement Support Center (RSC):​​

Collects identifying documents

Creates an applicant file

Compiles information to conduct biographic security checks

3. Biographic security checks start with enhanced interagency security checks

Refugees are subject to the highest level of security checks of any category of traveler to the United States.

​​ U.S. security agencies screen the candidate, including:

The screening looks for indicators, like:

Information that the individual is a security risk

Connections to known bad actors

Outstanding warrants/immigration or criminal violations

DHS conducts an enhanced review of Syrian cases, which may be referred to USCIS Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate for review. Research that is used by the interviewing officer informs lines of question related to the applicant's eligibility and credibility.

4. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)/USCIS interview:

Interviews are conducted by USCIS Officers specially trained for interviews ​​

Fingerprints are collected and submitted (biometric check)

Re-interviews can be conducted if fingerprint results or new information raises questions. If new biographic information is identified by USCIS at an interview, additional security checks on the information are conducted. USCIS may place a case on hold to do additional research or investigation. Otherwise, the process continues.

5. Biometric security checks:

Applicant's fingerprints are taken by U.S. government employees

Fingerprints are screened against the FBI's biometric database.

Fingerprints are screened against the DHS biometric database, containing watch-list information and previous immigration encounters in the U.S. and overseas.

Fingerprints are screened against the U.S. Department of Defense biometric database, which includes fingerprint records captured in Iraq and other locations.

If not already halted, this is the end point for cases with security concerns. Otherwise, the process continues.

6. Cultural orientation and assignment to domestic resettlement locations:

7. Travel:

​​International Organization for Migration books travel

Prior to entry in the United States, applicants are subject to:

This is the end point for some applicants. Applicants who have no flags continue the process.

8. U.S. Arrival:

​​ All refugees are required to apply for a green card within a year of their arrival to the United States, which triggers:

Refugees are woven into the rich fabric of American society!

‎Amy Pope is Deputy Assistant to the President for Homeland Security

Correction: A previous version of the graphic and blog post stated in step 2 that the name of the RSC was the Refugee Support Center. This has been corrected to the proper name, the Resettlement Support Center.

Learn more:

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Infographic: The Screening Process for Refugee Entry into the United States

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‎Refugees undergo more rigorous screening than anyone else we allow into the United States. Here's what the screening process looks like for them: Recurrent vetting: Throughout this process, pending applications continue to be checked against terrorist databases, to ensure new, relevant terrorism information has not come to light.

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We've put together this infographic that compares the United States' education spend and performance versus eleven countries. The U.S. is the clear leader in total annual spending, but ranks 9th in Science performance and 10th in Math.

During the most recent State of the Union Address, President Obama put out the call to "prepare 100,000 new teachers in the fields of science and technology and engineering and math." While the need is there to improve student performance in these subjects, the question remains: Are Americans ready to rise to the occasion?

Interested in making a difference in education? You can pursue the following degrees from The USC Rossier School of Education:

Master in the Arts of Teaching
Master in the Arts of Teaching - TESOL
Doctor of Education in Organizational Change and Leadership

How much does annual spending per child impact educational outcomes? What role will teachers play in improving math and science scores? How are you making a change in education? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!

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In celebration of Valentine's Day, we asked Scott and Jo Ann East, to weigh in on their experience as MAT@USC students. As a married couple, they had the unique experience of learning and growing together in the program...
Engaging students by taking advantage of new technology can have a powerful impact on how well they understand and retain information. Innovations online and new computer hardware will soon transform the classroom by giving kids new ways to learn...

According to a December 2010 report published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the economic value of effective teachers is worth as much as $100 Trillion in U.S. GDP...

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U.S. Education Spending & Student Performance vs. The World Infographic | MAT@USC | USC Rossier Online

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We've put together this infographic that compares the United States' education spend and performance versus eleven countries. The U.S. is the clear leader in total annual spending, but ranks 9th in Science performance and 10th in Math.

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But the main challenges in education differ across countries and continents. The industrialized world faces the impacts of demographic change, such as a shortage of skilled labor and ageing societies. Emerging countries need to respond to increasing demand in education. And in some parts of the world, it is still not a given that every child has the right to go to school-and, hence, a big share of the population cannot read and write.

Despite these differences, there are common challenges. For example, the "inheritance of educational status" is a global problem: people's education achievement largely depends on their socioeconomic background and the educational status of their parents. Although some countries provide more equal opportunities than others, it remains a challenge everywhere to improve the chances of those children lost to inadequate education.

But education budgets are limited, especially in times of economic downturn. Thus, it is worth comparing countries that have decreased and augmented their education budgets during the crisis-and evaluating the consequences of these decisions. If, on the one hand, investments in education are vital and, on the other hand, budget constraints restrict the available resources, investments should be as effective as possible. The question then is: where does it make sense to invest most in education?

Researchers generally agree that investing in early education has the highest returns. As the Nobel laureate James Heckman has shown, early investments enhance equal opportunities and higher achievement at the same time. How can this be applied to education financing structures in different countries? And given the fact that early childhood education is often very costly for parents while school education is usually free, what should be the financial contribution that families make to the education of their children?

An alternative view of investments in education is that they should be higher where the problems are greatest: that would mean greater effort to tackle inadequate education and more money for programs for children who are lagging behind. Research shows that inadequate education is a problem for the whole of society-even the elites-and that everyone benefits from minimizing the number of low-educated people. Is it possible to invest in more quality in education? What form of qualification will produce the best teachers and pedagogues? And what mechanisms should be used to allocate resources?

Education remains one of the most important duties of any government: it is a public responsibility to provide access to high quality education for everyone. Therefore, public investments need to ensure a good educational infrastructure for lifelong learning. But can private organizations, companies and nonprofit organizations provide additional supply. Could they become substitutes or should they instead function as supplements to public institutions?

Intelligent financing concepts for education should be based on needs and specific background rather than distributing untargeted subsidies. New concepts of resource distribution require greater transparency. But what should this transparency look like? Will external accountability enhance quality or should there be more focus on capacity-building and self-assessment to improve the education system? How can financing mechanisms provide effective and sufficient investments in education even in times of crisis?

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Education is a fundamental right for everyone and key to the future of any country. Education has its price everywhere-but the only thing more expensive than investing in education is not investing in education. Inadequate education produces high costs for society in terms of public spending, crime, health, and economic growth.

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Education is a fundamental driver of personal, national and global development. Since the beginning of the century, recognition of this has driven many countries to pursue the Millennium ...

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Do you believe that fast food workers deserve $15 an hour?

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Debate.org is a dynamic social community where you can voice your opinion on today's hottest issues.

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Do Fast Food Workers Deserve To Be Paid More Than a Paramedic? - 'We Do More'

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One fast food worker claimed they deserved to make more than some paramedics because "we do too much."

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Poaching and global wildlife crimes are some of the top reasons many species join the endangered list every year. Elephants, tigers, and rhinos are among the most critically endangered species that have been targeted by powerful animal poaching rings across the world.

In 2013 alone, over 790 rhinos were poached in South Africa, nearly 62 percent of African elephants were killed in the past 12 years, and the diminishing Asian Tiger population is hovering in the balance.

According to the WWF, illegal wildlife trade is "the fifth most profitable illicit trade in the world, estimated at up to $10 billion annually," ranking behind drug and weapons trafficking.

Chances are you feel pretty helpless against those statistics. It's easy to sympathize with these animals, but it can feel like these crimes are a world away from your own life. If you don't live in Africa or Asia, they may as well be. But that does not mean you don't have the power to help stop these horrible crimes!

In recent years, the world's governments have ramped up their efforts to protect these illustrious animals as the result of growing public demand for stricter laws and measures. There are many things you can do from the comfort of your own home to help save animals in need across the world. If you are a more proactive person, there are options for you too!

If you're in need of a little inspiration to determine how you can help save these animals, check out this list, and pass it on to all your friends!

Petitions

1. Sign this petition to aid Anti-Poaching Efforts for Rhinos.

2. Petition the President of Kenya to declare poaching a National Disaster.

3. Get on board with Ivory for Elephant's petitions to enact wildlife protection policy change.

4. Sign the World Wildlife's Pledge to end wildlife crime. Pledge never to buy illegal animal products and advocate for the rights of animals around the world.

Donations

5. Back a Ranger. Donate through the WWF's Back a Ranger Project to benefit the men and women who put themselves on the front lines against animal poachers.

6. Join the African Wildlife Foundation 's three pronged plan to restore the natural habitats, educate local communities, and conserve wildlife.

7. Help stop wildlife crime by donating to the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

Volunteer

8. Host a fundraiser for the Environmental Investigation Agency.

9. Check out volunteer opportunities with Protrak Anti-Poaching Unit.

10. Volunteer with the International Anti-Poaching Foundation, learn anti-poaching techniques and aid efforts to protect wildlife.

The best, BEST thing you can do to help end poaching across the world is to educate yourself on the facts and to share what you've learned with everyone you know!
Image source: Merbabu / Wikipedia Commons

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10 Simple Ways YOU Can Help Stop Wildlife Poaching Today

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Poaching and global wildlife crimes are some of the top reasons many species join the endangered list every year. Elephants, tigers, and rhinos are among the most critically endangered species that have been targeted by powerful animal poaching rings across the world.

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For all their strength and cunning, animals like tigers, rhinos, elephants and gorillas are no match for a poacher's rifle

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The recent capture of a notorious poacher has given hope to officials in Chad battling to save the African elephant from extinction

The call came in to Gary Roberts last March at his home in Béré, a village of subsistence farmers deep in the sorghum and cotton fields of southern Chad. Reports were circulating, a local conservationist told him, that a mass killing of elephants had occurred some 100 miles away, near the Cameroon border: Could Roberts see what he could find out?

Roberts, 36, a Seventh-day Adventist missionary, experienced bush pilot and amateur conservationist who sometimes flies research missions for Chad's wildlife department, climbed into his single-engine, four-seat Cessna. He took off from the mission's dirt airstrip and headed north toward the border. Roberts cruised for three hours over a vast green carpet-low-lying brush, sorghum fields and stands of acacias, broken by an occasional dirt road or cattle trail. "I didn't have any coordinates, nobody knew exactly where it was," recalls the missionary-pilot, who grew up in Congo's remote North Kivu province, the son of another Adventist missionary, and has spent nearly his entire life in Central Africa. "So I'm flying at 500 feet, looking for anything unusual." As he passed over blackened scrub west of the town of Fianga, the result of a controlled burn to create arable land, Roberts noticed elephant tracks-hundreds of them-in the charred soil. He dipped his plane lower and followed the tracks to a clearing. It was then that he saw the first pile of bones.

Roberts counted the skeletons of between 15 and 20 elephants. The remains were fresh. "You could see the moisture in the ground from blood," he says. Hungry villagers had already swarmed over the corpses, stripping their meat. Even the animals' skin was gone, taken to fashion gris-gris, or totems, for animist ceremonies. A few hundred yards from the first site Roberts came upon a second heap of bones-then a third, and a fourth. "Twenty, thirty animals at a time had gone down. It was terrible," Roberts says. The pilot estimated that 120 elephants had been killed here; the government would later put the total at 86.

The sole survivor of the massacre, Roberts would learn, was a 9-week-old calf, captured by villagers, roped to a tree and taunted day and night by the village boys. Roberts tracked down the location, drove there and loaded the weakened and traumatized orphan into the back of a pickup truck. He then drove several hours to the landing strip where he had parked his Cessna. After an all-night vigil, he used a container of milk to lure the elephant onto his plane, flew to his mission and tried to nurse the calf back to health. "He saw his whole family murdered, then ran around looking for his mother, then was tortured and abused for a week," says Roberts, who even inserted a tube into the baby's stomach to force-feed him. "The emotional condition of an elephant like that-it just shuts down." The elephant, whom he named Max, died after ten days in Roberts' care

The Sahel, the vast, arid zone that lies between the Sahara and the Sudanese savanna, once supported a population of a million elephants. Nineteenth- and early 20th-century Western travelers wrote with amazement about the huge herds that roamed the bush, and the contests between the great animals and the Baggara Selem, Sudanese horsemen who pursued the herds with ten-foot-long spears. "Among the Selem, several are so dexterous that they can bring the elephant down with a single thrust of the lance," observed Jules Poncet, a French ivory hunter who joined the chase in the 1860s.

But sport turned into slaughter in the 1970s, fueled by a proliferation of assault rifles from the continent's post-colonial bush wars. A 1989 international ban on ivory tamped down the bloodshed, but China's growing wealth and insatiable hunger for ivory-carved into brush-holders, boxes, statuettes and other intricate pieces-has pushed the numbers back up. Six years ago, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, the United Nations body that regulates the international wildlife trade, declared China an "Approved Ivory Trading State"-allowing a one-time legal sale of ivory from four southern African countries, which at the time had large and healthy elephant populations. The sale to China of 62 tons of ivory from African stockpiles in 2008 reopened the door for a vast illicit market-by making the task of distinguishing legal from illegal ivory next to impossible. In Hong Kong, one of the ivory trade's main transit points, seized ivory rose from 3.2 tons in 2010 to 7.9 tons in the first ten months of 2013-the equivalent of 1,675 dead elephants. Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan and the Philippines have also become major purchasers of elephant tusks. In December 2012, Malaysian authorities seized 1,000 elephant tusks hidden in secret compartments in two shipments of mahogany from the West African nation of Togo. The 24-ton seizure, worth tens of millions of dollars, is believed to be the largest such haul in history.

Now the Sahel has again become a killing ground. A year before the Fianga massacre, in February 2012, Roberts had also been nearby when 100 raiders on horseback had galloped out of Chad into Cameroon's Bouba Ndjida National Park, mowing down between 300 and 600 elephants with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades. The killers stopped to pray to Allah between barrages of gunfire and played a cat-and-mouse game with the Cameroon army for two weeks before disappearing into the bush. Of the 50,000 elephants that roamed Chad 50 years ago, barely 2 percent are left. In the neighboring Central African Republic and Cameroon, the population may be even lower. Poverty, bribery and insecurity are all contributing factors in a region where a single large tusk can sell on the black market for $6,000-ten times the annual salary of a typical worker. Many conservationists say that if governments don't do more to protect the remaining herds, the last elephants could disappear within a generation.

"What is special about elephants is just how similar they are to us-socially and developmentally," says Caitlin O'Connell-Rodwell, a Stanford ecologist who has written four books based on her Namibian field research on elephants. "If you watch a family group reuniting, their behavior is exactly like ours-the little cousins darting off together, the elaborate greetings of adults. Elephants offer a way of looking into the mirror, for better or worse," she adds. "If we value human rights, we should also value animals that have the same level of sophistication that we do. We should keep those beings with us here on earth."

When Gary Roberts found this orphaned elephant next to its dead mother, he made an attempt to fly it to safety

Last June, the government of Chad declared a significant victory in its often-faltering attempts to save its most endangered species. The Mobile Brigade for Environmental Protection, directly under the control of President Idriss Déby Itno, captured the alleged mastermind of the March 2013 killings at Fianga and many other massacres. Hassan Idriss Gargaf, 38, was said to command a gang of gunmen who rampaged across the Sahel over the last few years, growing wealthy from the sale of ivory and leaving a trail of dead elephants in its wake. Chad's minister of the environment issued a press release calling Gargaf a "recidivist poacher," the "mastermind" of some of the biggest elephant slaughters in Chad's history and "a pivotal player in the international poaching network." "He was the worst of the worst," says Adoum Mahamat Brahim, a park ranger turned regional environmental chief who tracked Gargaf and his accomplices. The rise and fall of Gargaf sheds light on the combustible mix of corruption, desperation and globalization that is fueling the African poaching explosion. It also reflects the dedication of a handful of conservationists, rangers and other environmental crusaders who are determined to bring the killers down.

***

Hassan Idriss Gargaf's twisted trail begins at Zakouma National Park, founded in 1963 and today one of the Sahel's last refuges of the elephant. Comprising 1,200 square miles in remote eastern Chad, about 500 miles from Ndjamena, the park lies at the convergence zone where the sandy wastes of the Sahara give way to savanna and tropical rainforest. For five months a year, rainfall submerges most of the park. During the dry season, the residual rain collects in a handful of channels and hundreds of muddy pans, which sustain a vast population of birds and wildlife. "In the rainy season all this is just one big wetland," park manager Rian Labuschagne told me, as we flew in his Cessna last December over thick riverine bush and acacia-speckled savanna. The landscape was still vibrantly green a month after the last rain. Lotuses clogged milky channels, and ponds glinted silver in the sun. Herds of buffaloes galloped across a grassy plain. As we dipped low over the Salamat River, crocodiles wriggled from the sandy banks into the water. Banking right, Labuschagne circled over a group of 250 elephants, the largest assemblage I had ever seen. They fanned their ears and raised their trunks like snorkels-an instinctive response to danger.

Gargaf grew up on the park's northeastern border, in Am Timan, a provincial capital of 75,000 people. It is a sleepy place of herders, cultivators, a smattering of missionaries, and government officials. Beyond the town lies sparsely inhabited bush, where Gargaf-the son of subsistence farmers-roamed in his youth as a guide for hire, leading livestock across ancient cattle trails.

In February 2003, just across the Sudan border in Darfur, two rebel groups rose up against the Islamist government, accusing it of marginalizing the country's non-Arab population. Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir unleashed Arab horsemen, known as Janjaweed (a term formed from the Arabic for "man," "gun" and "horse"), in a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the rebels and their civilian supporters. The Janjaweed raped, tortured and killed thousands and displaced two million, including 200,000 now in displaced persons' centers and refugee camps in Chad. The Janjaweed financed their operations partly by poaching elephants in Zakouma, a one-week ride from Darfur. The AK-47-wielding horsemen-some direct descendants of the Baggara Selem-shot dead dozens of elephants every month in and around the park, sawing off the tusks and leaving corpses to rot on roads and in the bush.

Chad's government was preoccupied with a homegrown insurgency; the park manager at the time, a European company contracted by the European Union, was ineffective; corrupt park guards tipped off poachers about the whereabouts of elephants and patrols. In 2008, the head of anti-poaching at Zakouma was fired for selling weapons to the killers. In six years, the elephant population at Zakouma plunged from 4,000 to 450.

Gargaf had learned the migratory routes of elephants from his cattle drives, and when Sudanese poachers approached him with an offer to serve as their guide, he leapt at the opportunity. Gargaf had fathered seven children with two wives, and he might well have felt financial pressure from his family responsibilities. Eventually, Gargaf teamed up with another pastoralist from Am Timan, Yaya Hassap. In 2007, the pair allegedly led Sudanese poachers into Zakouma, where they shot dead two guards, killed 13 elephants and destroyed several vehicles. Eventually the two partners in crime began their own poaching network-purchasing weapons, organizing logistics and finding a regular buyer of tusks in Ndjamena, a merchant known as Mahmadou.

***

Adoum Mahamat Brahim, the gaunt, soft-spoken wildlife expert from Am Timan, had always dreamed of working at Zakouma. As a boy in the bush, he became fascinated by elephant behavior and began doing volunteer patrols on horseback around the park as a teenager. The park put him on staff in 1998, at age 22, the same year that two rangers were killed in an early battle with poachers. Brahim watched, horrified, as carnage swept the park, and as men he had befriended lost their lives in the escalating violence. (A total of 19 park rangers and four military officers have been killed at Zakouma since 1998.) Almost every day he would encounter the corpses of elephants on the main road-shot down by poachers when they emerged from the bush.

About Joshua Hammer

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The Race to Stop Africa's Elephant Poachers

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The call came in to Gary Roberts last March at his home in Béré, a village of subsistence farmers deep in the sorghum and cotton fields of southern Chad. Reports were circulating, a local conservationist told him, that a mass killing of elephants had occurred some 100 miles away, near the Cameroon border: Could Roberts see what he could find out?

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Every year, Save the Elephants adds to the protection program as the threats to elephants evolve [and fester]. Beginning with our specialty, GMS collaring and tracking, STE continues to improve on tracking technology which not only tells us how fast elephants move through certain areas, often proportional to the perceived level of threat, it can also give us exact positions of where families and vulnerable bulls are, allowing concentration of effort within the vast Mara and Samburu ecosystems. Coupled with this, our Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) program we can provide accurate data about hotspots and safe zones, and the on-going body count serves as an important pillar in influencing international policy.

Next we added in the community conservation element. In the arid north of Kenya, where tourism and pastoralism are the two activities with the highest economic potential, communities have long had to grapple with retrogressive cultural practices like cattle rustling which bear down heavily on the security for people and wildlife, reducing their prospects even further. Cattle bandits have morphed or been infiltrated by something just as sinister: poachers. Now STE works closely with the umbrella, the Northern Rangelands Trust, to bring communities together to create safer conservancies where their animals, and wildlife, can live in peace. The first step to securing their areas is the deployment of community rangers, and aerial surveillance which STE supports with generous funding from the Liz Clairborne Art Ortenberg Foundation and the Elephant Crisis Fund (ECF).

In 2013, we bolstered our Education Program, which has a focus on children, with a fresh component. Headed up by Jerenimo Lepirei, the Community Outreach program serves to get the conversation about the importance of wildlife going among the people who live with them. The program appears to be just what the Samburu needed, and has sparked interest from both likely and unlikely quarters. Embedded in the crowds of eager locals, Kenyan county government officials, and ex-poachers looking to transform into gamekeepers are among the meeting stakeholders.

The battle is by no means won, but through our ever-growing program, we hope to spot the poachers a mile off, or make entire gangs are sufficiently convinced to quit the practice of poaching altogether.

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Every year, Save the Elephants adds to the protection program as the threats to elephants evolve [and fester].

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Rare, 'one-in-a-million' footage of a critically endangered wild forest elephant fleeing from a technologically generated bee sound, has been captured by a wildlife camera trap in remote Liberia, western Africa.

As human-elephant conflict continues to rise across Africa, researchers are searching for new ways to keep a watchful eye on wild African elephants, even looking to space for guidance.

The illegal wildlife trade is one of the most high-value illicit trade sectors globally, threatening both human well-being and biodiversity.

Historically, elephants and humans have been integral players in the structuring of the African savanna landscape.

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Rare, 'one-in-a-million' footage of a critically endangered wild forest elephant fleeing from a technologically generated bee sound, has been captured by a wildlife camera trap in remote Liberia, western Africa. As human-elephant conflict continues to rise across Africa, researchers are searching for new ways to keep a watchful eye on wild African elephants, even looking to space for guidance.

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How Diversity Makes Us Smarter: An Excerpt from our Newest Ebook, Sustainability Works

Our newest discussion course, Sustainability Works: Rethinking Business As Usual, explores how businessess and organizations incorporate environmental and social responsibility to redefine their measurements of success, and asks readers how those lessons might be applied within their own organizations.

Today we're highlighting an excerpt from How Diversity Makes us Smarter, an article by Katherine W. Phillips that appears both in the Sustainability Works course book, as well as in our Sustainability Works discussion activity*. We've also included several questions for reflection below.
The first thing to acknowledge about diversity is that it can be difficult...It is reasonable to ask what good diversity does us. Diversity of expertise confers benefits that are obvious - you would not think of building a new car without engineers, designers and quality-control experts- but what about social diversity? What good comes from diversity of race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation? Research has shown that social diversity in a group can cause discomfort, rougher interactions, a lack of trust, greater perceived interpersonal conflict, lower communication, less cohesion, more concern about disrespect, and other problems. So what is the upside? The fact is that if you want to build teams or organizations capable of innovating, you need diversity. Diversity enhances creativity. It encourages the search for novel information and perspectives, leading to better decision making and problem solving. Diversity can improve the bottom line of companies and lead to unfettered discoveries and breakthrough innovations. Even simply being exposed to diversity can change the way you think... Diversity is not only about bringing different perspectives to the table. Simply adding social diversity to a group makes people believe that differences of perspective might exist among them and that belief makes people change their behavior. This is how diversity works: by promoting hard work and creativity; by encouraging the consideration of alternatives even before any interpersonal interaction takes place. The pain associated with diversity can be thought of as the pain of exercise. You have to push yourself to grow your muscles. The pain, as the old saw goes,produces the gain. In just the same way, we need diversity - in teams, organizations and society as a whole - if we are to change, grow and innovate. Questions for Reflection/Discussion Members of a homogeneous group rest somewhat assured that they will agree with one another; that they will understand one another's perspectives and beliefs; that they will be able to easily come to a consensus. But when members of a group notice that they are socially different from one another, they change their expectations. They anticipate differences of opinion and perspective. They assume they will need to work harder to come to a consensus. This logic helps to explain both the upside and the downside of social diversity: people work harder in diverse environments both cognitively and socially. They might not like it, but the hard work can lead to better outcomes... Want to dig deeper into these and other issues relating to organizational sustainability? Check out NWEI's Sustainability Works course book by clicking here. *Interested in learning more but aren't ready to commit to a full length NWEI discussion course? Consider starting with one of NWEI's discussion activities, which are designed to be used in meetings, brown bag lunches, and other settings where a shorter engagement tool is needed. Discussion activities provide short readings, designed to take 5 minutes or less to digest, with reflection and discussion questions included to spur conversation and insights. To request any of our discussion activities, fill out this quick form!

1. What motivates or inspires you to make your organization more sustainable?

2. How can organizational structure enable or hinder sustainable innovation in your organization?

3. What would you like to see your organization care more about or put more effort into? How are these things tied to your mission?

4. What are the benefits you've seen in working with socially diverse organizations?

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How Diversity Makes Us Smarter - Northwest Earth Institute

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How Diversity Makes Us Smarter: An Excerpt from our Newest Ebook, Sustainability Works Our newest discussion course, Sustainability Works: Rethinking Business As Usual, explores how businessess and organizations incorporate environmental and social responsibility to redefine their measurements of success, and asks readers how those lessons might be applied within their own organizations.

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To study the effects of ethnic and racial diversity, we conducted a series of experiments in which participants competed in groups to find accurate answers to problems. In a situation much like a classroom, we started by presenting each participant individually with information and a task: to calculate accurate prices for simulated stocks. First, we collected individual answers, and then (to see how committed participants were to their answers), we let them buy and sell those stocks to the others, using real money. Participants got to keep any profit they made.

When trading, participants could observe the behavior of their counterparts and decide what to make of it. Think of yourself in similar situations: Interacting with others can bring new ideas into view, but it can also cause you to adopt popular but wrong ones.

It depends how deeply you contemplate what you observe. So if you think that something is worth $100, but others are bidding $120 for it, you may defer to their judgment and up the ante (perhaps contributing to a price bubble) or you might dismiss them and stand your ground.

We assigned each participant to a group that was either homogeneous or diverse (meaning that it included at least one participant of another ethnicity or race). To ascertain that we were measuring the effects of diversity, not culture or history, we examined a variety of ethnic and racial groups. In Texas, we included the expected mix of whites, Latinos and African-Americans. In Singapore, we studied people who were Chinese, Indian and Malay. (The results were published with our co-authors, Evan P. Apfelbaum, Mark Bernard, Valerie L. Bartelt and Edward J. Zajac.)

The findings were striking. When participants were in diverse company, their answers were 58 percent more accurate. The prices they chose were much closer to the true values of the stocks. As they spent time interacting in diverse groups, their performance improved.

In homogeneous groups, whether in the United States or in Asia, the opposite happened. When surrounded by others of the same ethnicity or race, participants were more likely to copy others, in the wrong direction. Mistakes spread as participants seemingly put undue trust in others' answers, mindlessly imitating them. In the diverse groups, across ethnicities and locales, participants were more likely to distinguish between wrong and accurate answers. Diversity brought cognitive friction that enhanced deliberation.

For our study, we intentionally chose a situation that required analytical thinking, seemingly unaffected by ethnicity or race. We wanted to understand whether the benefits of diversity stem, as the common thinking has it, from some special perspectives or skills of minorities.

What we actually found is that these benefits can arise merely from the very presence of minorities. In the initial responses, which were made before participants interacted, there were no statistically significant differences between participants in the homogeneous or diverse groups. Minority members did not bring some special knowledge.

The differences emerged only when participants began interacting with one another. When surrounded by people "like ourselves," we are easily influenced, more likely to fall for wrong ideas. Diversity prompts better, critical thinking. It contributes to error detection. It keeps us from drifting toward miscalculation.

Our findings suggest that racial and ethnic diversity matter for learning, the core purpose of a university. Increasing diversity is not only a way to let the historically disadvantaged into college, but also to promote sharper thinking for everyone.

When it comes to diversity in the lecture halls themselves, universities can do much better. A commendable internal study by the University of Texas at Austin showed zero or just one African-American student in 90 percent of its typical undergraduate classrooms. Imagine how much students might be getting wrong, how much they are conforming to comfortable ideas and ultimately how much they could be underperforming because of this.

Ethnic diversity is like fresh air: It benefits everybody who experiences it. By disrupting conformity it produces a public good. To step back from the goal of diverse classrooms would deprive all students, regardless of their racial or ethnic background, of the opportunity to benefit from the improved cognitive performance that diversity promotes.

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To study the effects of ethnic and racial diversity, we conducted a series of experiments in which participants competed in groups to find accurate answers to problems. In a situation much like a classroom, we started by presenting each participant individually with information and a task: to calculate accurate prices for simulated stocks.

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The first thing to acknowledge about diversity is that it can be difficult. In the U.S., where the dialogue of inclusion is relatively advanced, even the mention of the word "diversity" can lead to anxiety and conflict. Supreme Court justices disagree on the virtues of diversity and the means for achieving it. Corporations spend billions of dollars to attract and manage diversity both internally and externally, yet they still face discrimination lawsuits, and the leadership ranks of the business world remain predominantly white and male.

It is reasonable to ask what good diversity does us. Diversity of expertise confers benefits that are obvious-you would not think of building a new car without engineers, designers and quality-control experts-but what about social diversity? What good comes from diversity of race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation? Research has shown that social diversity in a group can cause discomfort, rougher interactions, a lack of trust, greater perceived interpersonal conflict, lower communication, less cohesion, more concern about disrespect, and other problems. So what is the upside?

The fact is that if you want to build teams or organizations capable of innovating, you need diversity. Diversity enhances creativity. It encourages the search for novel information and perspectives, leading to better decision-making and problem-solving. Diversity can improve the bottom line of companies and lead to unfettered discoveries and breakthrough innovations. Even simply being exposed to diversity can change the way you think. This is not just wishful thinking: it is the conclusion I draw from decades of research from organizational scientists, psychologists, sociologists, economists and demographers.

Information and Innovation

The key to understanding the positive influence of diversity is the concept of informational diversity. When people are brought together to solve problems in groups, they bring different information, opinions and perspectives. This makes obvious sense when we talk about diversity of disciplinary backgrounds-think again of the interdisciplinary team building a car. The same logic applies to social diversity. People who are different from one another in race, gender and other dimensions bring unique information and experiences to bear on the task at hand. A male and a female engineer might have perspectives as different from each other as an engineer and a physicist-and that is a good thing.

Research on large, innovative organizations has shown repeatedly that this is the case. For example, business professors Cristian Dezsö of the University of Maryland and David Gaddis Ross of the University of Florida studied the effect of gender diversity on the top firms in Standard & Poor's Composite 1500 list, a group designed to reflect the overall U.S. equity market. First, they examined the size and gender composition of firms' top management teams from 1992 through 2006. Then they looked at the financial performance of the firms. In their words, they found that, on average, "female representation in top management leads to an increase of $42 million in firm value." They also measured the firms' "innovation intensity" through the ratio of research and development expenses to assets. They found that companies that prioritized innovation saw greater financial gains when women were part of the top leadership ranks.

Racial diversity can deliver the same kinds of benefits. In a study conducted in 2003, Orlando Richard, now at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and his colleagues surveyed executives at 177 national banks in the U.S., then put together a database comparing financial performance, racial diversity and the emphasis the bank presidents put on innovation. For innovation-focused banks, increases in racial diversity were clearly related to enhanced financial performance.

Evidence for the benefits of diversity can be found well beyond the U.S. In August 2012 a team of researchers at the Credit Suisse Research Institute issued a report in which they examined 2,360 companies globally from 2005 to 2011, looking for a relation between gender diversity on corporate management boards and financial performance. Sure enough, the researchers found that companies with one or more women on the board delivered higher average returns on equity, lower gearing (that is, net debt to equity) and better average growth.

How Diversity Provokes Thought

Large data-set studies have an obvious limitation: they can show only that diversity is correlated with better performance, not that it causes better performance. Research on racial diversity in small groups, however, makes it possible to draw some causal conclusions. Again, the findings are clear: for groups that value innovation and new ideas, diversity helps.

In 2006 Margaret Neale of Stanford University, Gregory Northcraft of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and I set out to examine the impact of racial diversity on small decision-making groups in an experiment where sharing information was a requirement for success. Our subjects were undergraduate students taking business courses at the University of Illinois. We put together three-person groups-some consisting of all white members, others with two white members and one nonwhite member-and had them perform a murder mystery exercise. We made sure that all group members shared a common set of information, but we also gave each member important clues that only he or she knew. To find out who committed the murder, the group members would have to share all the information they collectively possessed during discussion. The groups with racial diversity significantly outperformed the groups with no racial diversity. Being with similar others leads us to think we all hold the same information and share the same perspective. This perspective, which stopped the all-white groups from effectively processing the information, is what hinders creativity and innovation.

Other researchers have found similar results. In 2004 Anthony Lising Antonio, a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, collaborated with five colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles, and other institutions to examine the influence of racial and opinion composition in small group discussions. More than 350 students from three universities participated in the study. Group members were asked to discuss a prevailing social issue (either child labor practices or the death penalty) for 15 minutes. The researchers wrote dissenting opinions and had both Black and white members deliver them to their groups. When a Black person presented a dissenting perspective to a group of white people, the perspective was perceived as more novel and led to broader thinking and consideration of alternatives than when a white person introduced that same dissenting perspective. The lesson: when we hear dissent from someone who is different from us, it provokes more thought than when it comes from someone who looks like us.

This effect is not limited to race. For example, in 2013 professors of management Denise Lewin Loyd of the University of Illinois, Cynthia Wang of Northwestern University, Robert B. Lount, Jr., of the Ohio State University and I asked 186 people whether they identified as a Democrat or a Republican, then had them read a murder mystery and decide who they thought committed the crime. Next, we asked the subjects to prepare for a meeting with another group member by writing an essay communicating their perspective. More important, in all cases, we told the participants that their partner disagreed with their opinion but that they would need to come to an agreement with the other person. Everyone was told to prepare to convince their meeting partner to come around to their side; half of the subjects, however, were told to prepare to make their case to a member of the opposing political party, and half were told to make their case to a member of their own party.

The result: Democrats who were told that a fellow Democrat disagreed with them prepared less well for the discussion than Democrats who were told that a Republican disagreed with them. Republicans showed the same pattern. When disagreement comes from a socially different person, we are prompted to work harder. Diversity jolts us into cognitive action in ways that homogeneity simply does not.

For this reason, diversity appears to lead to higher-quality scientific research. In 2014 Richard Freeman, an economics professor at Harvard University and director of the Science and Engineering Workforce Project at the National Bureau of Economic Research, along with Wei Huang, then a Harvard economics Ph.D. candidate, examined the ethnic identity of the authors of 1.5 million scientific papers written between 1985 and 2008 using Thomson Reuters's Web of Science, a comprehensive database of published research. They found that papers written by diverse groups receive more citations and have higher impact factors than papers written by people from the same ethnic group. Moreover, they found that stronger papers are associated with greater numbers of not only references but also author addresses-geographical diversity is a reflection of more intellectual diversity.

The Power of Anticipation

Diversity is not only about bringing different perspectives to the table. Simply adding social diversity to a group makes people believe that differences of perspective might exist among them, and that belief makes people change their behavior.

Members of a homogeneous group rest somewhat assured that they will agree with one another, understand one another's perspectives and beliefs, and be able to easily come to a consensus. But when members of a group notice that they are socially different from one another, they change their expectations. They anticipate differences of opinion and perspective. They assume they will need to work harder to come to a consensus. This logic helps to explain both the upside and the downside of social diversity: people work harder in diverse environments both cognitively and socially. They might not like it, but the hard work can lead to better outcomes.

In a 2006 study of jury decision-making, social psychologist Samuel Sommers of Tufts University found that racially diverse groups exchanged a wider range of information during deliberation about a sexual assault case than all-white groups did. In collaboration with judges and jury administrators in a Michigan courtroom, Sommers conducted mock jury trials with a group of real selected jurors. Although the participants knew the mock jury was a court-sponsored experiment, they did not know that the true purpose of the research was to study the impact of racial diversity on jury decision-making.

Sommers composed the six-person juries with either all white jurors or four white and two Black jurors. As you might expect, the diverse juries were better at considering case facts, made fewer errors recalling relevant information and displayed a greater openness to discussing the role of race in the case. These improvements did not necessarily happen because the Black jurors brought new information to the group-they happened because white jurors changed their behavior in the presence of the Black jurors. In the presence of diversity, they were more diligent and open-minded.

Group Exercise

Consider the following scenario: You are writing up a section of a paper for presentation at an upcoming conference. You are anticipating some disagreement and potential difficulty communicating because your collaborator is American and you are Chinese. Because of one social distinction, you may focus on other differences between yourself and that person, such as their culture, upbringing and experiences-differences that you would not expect from another Chinese collaborator. How do you prepare for the meeting? In all likelihood, you will work harder on explaining your rationale and anticipating alternatives than you would have otherwise.

This is how diversity works: by promoting hard work and creativity; by encouraging the consideration of alternatives even before any interpersonal interaction takes place. The pain associated with diversity can be thought of as the pain of exercise. You have to push yourself to grow your muscles. The pain, as the old saw goes, produces the gain. In just the same way, we need diversity-in teams, organizations and society as a whole-if we are to change, grow and innovate.

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Being around people who are different from us makes us more creative, more diligent and harder-working

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Bullying Statistics - Anti-Bullying Help, Facts, and More.

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BullyingStatistics.org is part of the Teen Help family. Get info & facts on bullying. Prevent cyberbullying, workplace, school and child or teen bullying today.

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https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/cssrc/statistics-research