PATRICE GREANVILLE—In terms of sheer labor inputs, and engineering difficulties, the Carretera Austral is in a class comparable to the “near miraculous” projects recently seen in China. We wonder indeed how long it would take the Chinese to build this highway across impossible fjords, glaciers, ocean expanses, and all. With their advanced machinery, proven skills, and legendary tenacity, who knows, maybe they would get it done in less time than anyone in the West would expect. Ironically, the “Carretera Austral” Project was pushed against all naysayers by Augusto Pinochet (the road was originally called Carretera Austral Gen. Augusto Pinochet), and may eventually serve to whitewash the dictator’s innumerable crimes. Cynics claim Pinochet saw the project as a gigantic, bottomless pork barrel opportunity for his family and hangers-on. In any case, the ecological price of “developing” this fragile and precious environment is unquestionably bound to be high, perhaps prohibitive, even if the region is only kept as mostly a tourist reserve. The German documentary featured on this page suggests as much: the red tide (“marea roja”) that killed hundreds and possibly thousands of whales, a mind-boggling number for an animal whose numbers remain fragile in the global oceanic ecosystem, is a tragic reminder that the human footprint should not be extended thoughtlessly.
ANIMAL MARTYRDOM
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Joaquin Phoenix Documentary Details Slaughterhouse Cow Rescue And Impact Of Animal Agriculture
14 minutes readEMILY BAKER—‘It came as a great release in knowing they were rescued from this factory of death, that they’d be rescued from imminent slaughter. ‘And yet it felt a little bit unresolved because I wanted to see them completely liberated. I wanted to see them as free as possible’, he added in the film. A year on, he revisited the cows with his sisters. He said ‘it was incredible to see them’ in their natural behavior.
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FRED DOMMER—Giving us a respite from the tons of propaganda dross they usually peddle as legitimate information, CBS Sunday included this morning a little story about an injured goose whose companion would not abandon him, after the humans had “captured” him. (In this case, fortunately for all, it was professional wildlife rehabilitators at The New England Wildlife Center who assisted the injured animal, baptised Arnold by the rehabbers, while his mate was called Amelia). If you have a friend who is a “sport” hunter, do show him this story. Maybe this Fall he won’t be joining the millions who go into the wild with shotguns and other implements of death to kill geese as if they were simply living targets.
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Team Lioness: Women rangers protecting Africa’s wildlife | IFAW
39 minutes read“It’s very bad when the same people that you are working with [in the community], telling them the importance of wild animals, and you find them killing those wild animals,” says Ruth Sikeita, one of the rangers on the scene.
Papatiti says that while bushmeat poaching incidents have increased over time, the killing of elephants for ivory has declined. He estimates that between three to five elephants were poached on community lands annually from when the OCWR was established in 2010 until IFAW began to support the unit in 2018, when only one elephant was lost. No more elephants have been killed on the Group Ranch since.
“I attribute the success to dedication from rangers and how we built a very good relationship with the community, which is our source of intel,” explains Papatiti.
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Freedom Trails Take Their Toll in Animal and Human Suffering
28 minutes readPATRICE GREANVILLE—These developments pleased (but scarcely surprised) the oil and auto industries. Hardly a disinterested observer, the auto industry, in particular, led by General Motors, had long pressed the American government for the dismantlement of most forms of public transportation. The switch eventually doomed numerous rail and bus systems across the nation; by the late ’40s the car and its inseparable sidekick, the highway, had won. From that point on, the yearly advance of the asphalt ribbons became a fact of life in the young, car-addicted republic.