INTRODUCTION

This post can be considered as my response to the tragedy involving Cecil the lion. Before getting into the main body of it I am once again going to share details (as I did in my previous post) of The Art of Autism’s calendar for 2016, currently being sold for $12. Full details can be seen on their own post on the subject, but I offer you this picture as extra inducement…

ON APPRECIATING NATURE

We are now in the main part of the post, which as well as what I am writing on my account will feature some photographic highlights relating to nature from the last few months, a variety of important links, and leading from here into the rest of the post my first essay in the craft of infographic creation…

CECIL THE LION

Cecil, a 13 year-old lion who jointly controlled his pride with another lion called Jericho, was shot by a wealthy American who had paid $50,000 to have him lured out of the reserve in which he lived. Walter Palmer, the shooter, has a long and bloody history of such activities, including at least one felony conviction involving poaching. Cecil was a huge tourist attraction, and even from the purely monetary angle (not a viewpoint with which I identify) his death has cost far than the $50,000 that was paid to bring it about. Before moving on from this introduction I have a bunch of Cecil related links to share with you:

• A public response from World Animal Protection
• Two links to the petition site:
  1)The original petition
  2)The current state of play
• Sumofus calling on airlines to refuse to carry the “trophies” of such activities
• Take Part have produced this splendid article by way of response
• Patheos have offered this interesting view
• Finally, mashable have produced their own petition relating to this issue

There seems little doubt that Mr Palmer’s activities, and those activities that were paid for with his blood money were in breach of Zimbabwean law, and as a staunch internationalist I would say that the American government has a duty to ensure that Mr Palmer gets appropriately punished, either by putting him on the next plane to Zimbabwe to be punished in the country where he committed the crime or by arranging for him to be tried, convicted and punished in America.

I would also like to see a blanket ban on “trophy hunting”, enforced with stringent penalties for those who breach it. Also, I have concentrated on the American, rather than the two Zimbabweans involved in the atrocity because it is the American who bears full responsibility – without his money the two Zimbabweans would have had no motive for their nefarious contact – Mr Palmer is guilty on his own account and has made criminals of the other two involved.

SOME PICTORIAL HIGHLIGHTS

This subsection is devoted the only kind of shooting I am interested in performing – that done with my trusty Nikon Coolpix P530. Yes I have recently acquired a set of five obsidian arrowheads – but that was purchased as on object of interest, not with any intention of using them as weapons!

Every single photo in this subsection was bagged within walking distance of my “compact” town centre flat – if you truly appreciate nature you do not have go very far to find glorious sights, and nothing need be harmed.

A FEW NATURE RELATED LINKS

These two links are both to petitions that anyone who takes an interest i nature should sign and share:

1)This from 38Degrees is an emergeny petition about bees

2)Take Part are running this petition against unsafe drilling in the Arctic Ocean.

A FINAL REMINDER

To finish the main section of this blog I have another infographic, which gives the same message as the one I opened the section with – the fundamental message of this post…

GENERAL LINKS

Just a handful of links today:

• Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK on the “power of capital well used”.
• An update on the change.org petition launched by the Sweets Way Campaign.
• Two from Vox Political:
  1)A splendid attack on the despicable Jeremy Hunt.
  2)A scathing indictment of Tory plans that would amount to legalising bribery and corruption.
• Finally, to end the post, a link to a new find that came by way of Fargaregardsanna, Harsh Reality, who are offering the opportunity to share a blog post, which I shall by accepting!