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We can recycle,reuse and reduce the resources that we use everyday.

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UNUSUAL / ENVIRONMENT - DESTRUCTION (PIC)

HOW PROCESSED FOOD CONTRIBUTES TO MASSIVE RAINFOREST DESTRUCTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE

When considering the various factors that are most responsible for widespread environmental pollution and ecosystem destruction in today's world, most people probably envision things like industrial manufacturing facilities spilling chemicals into nearby waterways, coal-fired power plants billowing plumes of black smoke into the blue sky, and thousands of miles of major highways occupied by millions of gas-guzzling, fume-emitting vehicles. It turns out, though, that agriculture, at least the industrialized type, is actually one of the biggest contributors to the destruction of the planet in the modern times.

All across the globe, large swaths of otherwise pristine rainforests and jungles are literally being clear-cut and turned into mega-plantations for growing major cash crops like soy, corn, canola, and wheat, all of which are used to formulate various ingredients and additives used throughout the processed food supply. In other words, there is big money to be made in growing such crops precisely because their derivatives are added to almost every type of processed food available - and in the eyes of the unscrupulous opportunist, rainforests and other natural habitats are merely inconvenient obstacles to be defeated, rather than natural treasures.

CASH CROP PLANTATIONS REPLACING NATIVE FORESTS THROUGHOUT THIRD WORLD

Many areas of South America, for instance, are experiencing great losses in rainforest acreage as corporate agriculture giants move in to replace them with soy and corn fields.
( http://www.greenpeace.org/).

Native forests throughout Asia are also being greatly damaged by the palm oil industry, which happens to produce one of the only relatively healthy cash crops being cultivated on a larger scale. ( http://environment.yale.edu/)

Whether it is the soybean oil and refined wheat flour added to processed cookies and crackers, or the corn syrup and soy lecithin added to processed chocolate bars and candies, the processed food industry as a whole is directly fueling demand for the very same crop plantations that are destroying the natural world at a devastatingly alarming pace. Even the fuel we put in our cars, a percentage of which comes in the form of "biofuel," is promoting rapid deforestation and the ruination of natural habitats worldwide.
"You may not consume large quantities of soy directly, but the animals you eat do," adds WWF Global about how conventional meat production also fuels environmental destruction. "80 percent of the world's soybean crop is fed to livestock, especially chickens. So if you eat meat, cheese or eggs, or drink milk, chances are you're indirectly consuming soybeans grown in biodiverse ecosystems that have been greatly reduced and fragmented to make space for soy plantations."

( http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/footprint/agriculture/soy/)
STANDARD AMERICAN DIET FUELING GLOBAL DEFORESTATION, HABITAT DESTRUCTION

Since the Standard American Diet (SAD) consists largely of processed, factory-farmed foods that are loaded with various derivatives of soy, corn, canola, cottonseed, and wheat, Americans as a whole are also contributing, albeit indirectly, to the devastating consequences of cash crop plantations. These consequences including things like soil erosion, water contamination, deforestation, and poverty.

( http://www.naturalnews.com/030390_GMO_soy_poverty.html)

Avoiding conventional meat and dairy products, and instead choosing local and organic alternatives, is one way to help fight deforestation. Steering clear of foods that contain ingredients derived from conventional soy, corn, cotton, canola, and wheat is another way to "vote with your wallet" against environmental mismanagement and destruction.
http://myscienceacademy.org/2012/11/18/how-processed-food-contributes-to-massive-rainforest-destruction-and-environmental-damage/

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HOW PROCESSED FOOD CONTRIBUTES TO MASSIVE RAINFOREST DESTRUCTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE

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UNUSUAL / ENVIRONMENT - DESTRUCTION (PIC)HOW PROCESSED FOOD CONTRIBUTES TO MASSIVE RAINFOREST DESTRUCTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE When considering the various factors that are most responsible for widespread environmental pollution and ecosystem destruction in today's world, most people probably envision things like industrial manufacturing facilities spilling chemicals into nearby waterways, coal-fired power plants billowing plumes of black...

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How fast are we destroying our natural Environments:

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How fast are we destroying our natural Environments:

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Humans are damaging the Earth faster than it can recover.

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Caring about the environment is very important because if we just let the trees and plants die then we will not have food to eat and could starve and also other animals could become extinct in the process.

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We are overusing some of our natural resources and and those resources cannot be brought back. These are some of our natural resources: Water,air,coal, oil,      natural gas,phosphorus, iron,and all types of minerals.

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We Humans have done lots of changes to our Earth. We have chopped down hundreds of trees in one area and used that same area to set up homes,businesses,and other things. Also,we are overusing the fossil fuels we have and we are starting to run out of them.

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Boyan Slat is a 24 year old person who also helping the Earth and is working on a project to clean up our Earth's Oceans and leave them garbage free. Below is a quote that was spoken by him:

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Garbage pollution is not a good thing. Humans have been polluting the earth with garbage for years and it is creating land fills of garbage and most of the garbage is going into the Ocean and making Ocean dwellers sick.

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This has become a very big issue because poachers are going everywhere and hunting down the animals which has a very big and negative effect on biodiversity because they are taking one species out of the environment and the animals who get eaten by that same species are not being eaten anymore and then they grow in population and they eat all the prey they usually hunt down and a time comes when all this backfires on us Humans and also plants and trees could die too.

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It means the variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem.

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Picture:

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We have been destroying our natural environments. Environments that can save lives by using the plants for medicine. We can even consume the fruits trees grow and also trees help us breathe fresh air.

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An up-close animal encounter is often high on the list of must-dos for visitors to Thailand. They're in good company - the likes of Beyonce and Rihanna have been snapped getting friendly with everything from elephants to snakes, tigers and loris primates. But not everything is as it seems with Thailand's wildlife industry, and there is a darker side to animal experiences, of which most tourists are blissfully unaware.

At Expique, we are not experts on this matter so we currently keep things simple by not offering any animal related experiences, and through this post we hope it will help you evaluate the options if you were looking at an animal related experience.

Animal Attractions in Thailand

Elephants Rides and Elephant Camps

Everyone wants to ride an elephant - but should we? The ancient Thai capitals of Ayutthaya and Sukhothai are famous for offering elephant rides, and it's something that can be done in plenty of other destinations in Thailand. Though officially banned, you can even still occasionally experience the depressing sight of a baby elephant being trudged through the streets of Bangkok (particularly on the outskirts) of a night for the entertainment of tourists, who are charged for the opportunity to feed or take a photograph with the animal. It remains even more common to see other animals, such as snakes and endangered primates like the slow loris, paraded around bars and other entertainment venues for tourists to pose with. Rihanna, Beyonce and Jay Z are among the celebrities to have attracted criticism for setting a bad example with their poses with protected animals in Thailand.

Animal rights campaigners argue that elephant riding is irresponsible, and constitutes animals rights abuse, on at least two counts: firstly, unlike say a horse, the spine of an elephant is not strong enough to take the weight of a human, let alone two humans plus a raised seat, as is common on elephant rides in Ayutthaya and elsewhere. And secondly, riding elephants along a city's concrete pavements is far from the natural jungle environment where these creatures belong - and on which their feet were designed by nature to walk. What's more, the abusive 'phajaan' taming process, involved in forcing elephants to allow humans to ride on their back, includes beating, stabbing and separation from the mother (this award-winning photo of 'phajaan' captures it perfectly - but be warned it's a harrowing shot). If you need another reason not to partake in an elephant ride, just take a look at the short chains they are tied to when not being ridden, or the torturous bull hooks so-called mahouts use to stab them into submission and 'good behaviour' during your ride.

At the height of animal rights abuses for tourist entertainment in Thailand, high-end beach resort Nikki Beach Phuket made global headlines in March when it brought in a baby elephant as an entertainment showpiece at a party. Drunken tourists were allowed to ride the elephant, which was also used to serve champagne and 'dance' with revellers.

Here are two excellent posts that explain more about why you should not ride elephants and provide alternative options.

Tiger Temple and parks

Animal rights abuses in Thailand's tourism industry are common. Among the most notorious locations is the Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi province, where tourists pay to do the seemingly impossible - taking a selfie with an adult tiger. While the attraction's management of Buddhist monks spin the line that the tigers are as tame as they are due to having been raised around humans - and indeed have always claimed that the Tiger Temple's admission fees would be used to fund the construction of a 'Tiger Island' where the animals could roam at liberty in an environment akin to their natural habitat - this is widely doubted, including by Thai and international wildlife organisations, and it is believed that drugging, physical abuse, and the unnatural separation of a tiger from its mother at the age of two weeks, is used to produce the kind of temperament that means tigers lay docile as they pose for photographs.

Reflecting the fact that tigers are wild animals with whom it is simply not nature's intention for us to snuggle up for a photo, last October saw an Australian mauled by a 15-month old tiger at the Tiger Kingdom attraction in Phuket. More recently, the head abbot at Kanchanaburi's Tiger Temple ended up in ICU after being mauled by a 7-8 year old male Bengali tiger. He required multiple stitches and sustained deep scratches and a fractured arm; however, despite the widespread media coverage of the tiger attack, the monk later claimed that this wasn't the cause of his injuries at all, and that he had in fact fallen down a flight of stairs.

There are frequent reports of animals disappearing from the temple, thought to have been sold on to wildlife smugglers seeking to export them to neighbouring countries. The temple has been the subject of a long-running saga of investigation by Thai authorities, and Thailand's Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Park Conservation (DNP) has on numerous occasions said it would seize the tigers - which are endangered animals whose possession is illegal, and for which the temple does not hold the correct licences or other paperwork. In April of this year, the DNP vowed to seize all of the temple's 140+ tigers following the Songkran Thai new year festival - but later backed down once more, stating that the tigers would be allowed to remain at the temple provided the attraction ceased charging tourists for admission and photo opportunities, and otherwise operating as a business, and additionally stopped further tiger breeding.

Tigers aside, the DNP's initial resolve for the seizure was sparked by a tense stand-off when officials attempted to rescue six Asiatic black bears, presumed trafficked since the temple does not hold documents proving its ownership of them. More than 100 monks, novice child monks, and foreign volunteers blockaded the temple's exit, preventing DNP officials from leaving with the bears. The bears ultimately had to be removed by crane because of the monks' resistance. This episode in turn followed the rescue of four abused Malayan sun bears at Wat Hong Noi temple in Prachuap Kiri Khan province, after the tragic death of two more in a pitiful state, having been kept in a locked room with no food or sunlight.

Edwin Wiek, founder of the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand, which has long campaigned for the removal of the temple's tigers, previously told the Bangkok Post that he believed "a lot of the people [at the temple] are very , I think they really love the animals, but they're doing it absolutely the wrong way."

For further reading, see this Matador article on 7 reasons you should think twice before visiting the Tiger Temple.

Dolphins

It's not all about photo ops with tigers and elephants. The prospect of a new dolphinarium opening in Phuket has attracted criticism from both local and international animal rights advocates, who describe it as a step backwards for animal rights developments in Thailand. Dolphinariums already exist elsewhere in Thailand, at Bangkok's Safari World and Oasis Sea World in Chantaburi province.

Approval to open the new centre appears to have been granted by officials in Phuket, following required modifications being carried out. But owners of the planned, and rather ironically-named, Nemo dolphinarium do not yet have the permits required to import the creatures - a trade regulated by the CITES convention on endangered species, to which Thailand is a signatory.

The executive committee for the Phuket and Southern Thailand branch of the SKAL travel professionals organisation has denounced the opening of the Nemo dolphinarium and its planned 'dolphin show', insisting that important educational messages about the conservation of dolphins will inevitably be a lower priority than entertainment, and that the cruel methods used to hunt dolphins in countries like Japan and Russia - from which wild dolphins would likely be sourced in order to stock the attraction - did not meet CITES standards. To find out more about the campaign againts the Phuket Dolphinarium you can follow the "Phuket Says No To Dolphin Shows" Facebook page.

How to experience Thailand's wildlife responsibly

More ethical options do exist in Thailand, and the key is to thoroughly research anywhere that you plan to visit with the aim of encountering animals. Animal welfare campaigners - and we at Expique - urge tourists to keep in mind that in the majority of cases, it is simply not natural for humans to get up close and personal with wild animals, particularly the likes of tigers. If an attraction is offering you an opportunity to do so, then it's likely that it really is too good to be true - meaning there could well be a darker underbelly that you're not being told about.

Diana Edelman, travel blogger, animal rights and responsible tourism advocate, co- founder of the Responsible Travel & Tourism Collective, and responsible elephant tourism expert working in this field for more than three years, says that while Thailand is making progress with animal welfare, the continuing demand for activities like elephant rides and tiger selfies continues to fuel abuse:

"If you want rewarding experiences with animals in Thailand, it is extremely important to do your homework. Many operators have seen the popularity of responsible and non-exploitive animal experiences, and have tapped into using phrases to sell their tours as animal-friendly and cruelty-free, even when they are anything but.

"If you wants to visit a sanctuary, look to see if the animals are being exploited for humans. If a place says they are a sanctuary, then they should not offer elephant rides or shows or paintings. A visitor should just be able to see them in their natural habitat, being with other elephants. It is also important to look for signs of abuse. If a camp uses bull hooks or other instruments to intimidate or inflict pain on the animal to get it to listen, it is an abusive existence for the animal.

"Any responsible programme can answer questions about how the animals are treated, where the money goes, and if the programme is sustainable or not. The biggest key is learning about the issues before you travel to Thailand, and then seeing which places truly offer experiences that are both rewarding for you, and not causing harm to the animal. This goes for every animal attraction in Thailand - not just those involving elephants. If you get a bad feeling, or see an animal which looks like it has injuries, then skip that place and let the operator know why you are doing so."

There are of course several places that allow you to see animals in an environment that really do have their best interestest in mind. OneGreenWorld has five more alternatives to cruel animal attractions, while AngloItalian has a round-up of a number of wildlife-centric alternatives to the Tiger Temple.
Have you visited, or would you visit, any of the attractions featured in this post? Do you have suggestions for other responsibly managed attractions tourists should visit? Let us know in the comments! Tiger photo by xiquinhosilva; baby elephant photo by EJ Sabandal; elephant ride photo by Fah Rojvithee; Nikki Beach photo via Twitter.

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Do you really want to visit an animal attraction in Thailand?

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An up-close animal encounter is often high on the list of must-dos for visitors to Thailand. They're in good company - the likes of Beyonce and Rihanna have been snapped getting friendly with everything from elephants to snakes, tigers and loris primates.

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Having animals in the cities can be a very dangerous thing due to things like the food chain,animal extinction and population because if a species moves into a human city and starts a new type of life and adapts and stays there,the predator it always runs away from might not be able to hunt them down because the predator is in the jungle where Humans cannot harm it and the prey moves into a city where Humans consider it harmless. The predator might not or might risk running into a city to get its prey and might be killed by the humans or in an accident or the humans and prey could be killed. Anyway, if the predator stayed in the jungle there would be no food and its species could die and become extinct while the prey grew in numbers because no one was eating it.

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Humans may think that lots of light may be a good thing because they can see and it looks nice and beautiful and all those other things but they are wrong because light pollution can have a huge negative impact on the environment it is in such as getting blind and animals can get killed in accidents involving too much light and also baby turtles who come out of their eggs and follow the moonlight all the way to the water become confused when they are near a city and go to the city and often die because there are to much lights to follow and see which type of light they are supposed to go to.

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Noise pollution,also known as environmental noise,is the propagation of noise with harmful impact on the activity of human or animal life. The source of outdoor noise worldwide is mainly caused by machines,transport or transportation systems.

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People are using hundreds and thousands of scraps of plastic every day and then they are throwing away the plastic as waste and then all that plastic is dumped in our Oceans and causes pollution.

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Our water is becoming polluted with all these types of weird chemicals and toxic's and the people who are drinking it are getting sick.

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Global warming is a very dangerous thing. Over the past years temperatures have risen because of burning fossil fuels and sending them in the air. Almost 20 percent of the glaciers in places like the Arctic have melted.

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Air pollution is very bad. The fossil fuels we burn go up in the air and pollute it. This can cause bad things such as lung cancer and asthma and all other bad things.