Last night London was thoroughly glum. As I sat in an hour-long traffic jam just 5 minutes from home, I surveyed the block-long queue of commuters huddling against the rain, one man crouched down holding his head in despair as yet another already-full bus passed them by. Home and warmth still several unhappy hours away.

Is there anything that could make Londoners more miserable than a tube strike during the February freeze? Well actually, I think there is: if the unions really wanted to achieve maximum impact, personally I’d have held off another week. Why not punt for Valentine’s Day? There’d be no faster way of resolving negotiations than grinding the city to a halt on one of the most popular commercial events of the year.

The roguish cynic in me indulged in this thought: picture thousands of lovebirds with romance on their minds – separated, wretchedly stranded in different corners of the city, hindered from delivering their £50 bouquets of imported roses, stuffing their faces over a mediocre set menu, or reaching that all-important rendez-vous under ‘The Kiss’ at Kings Cross on time.

I may be newly single for the first time in several years, but I am adamant I will not be joining the mass of uninspired internet daters searching for their 97% match at the top of The Shard. Newly liberated = newly empowered. So this year I will not be hoping for freshly cut flowers or a smattering of gaudy greeting cards. Instead I’m taking matters into my own hands and have opted for an ‘experience’. My new playmate – 14 years my junior – and I will be heading to Somerset. Unbeknownst to the rest of my friends this will not be a weekend of country walks, pub dinners, open fires and big breakfasts. Oh no. There will be masks, lingerie, and plenty of sex (and yes, hopefully still a big breakfast) as we join a throng of bacchanalian revellers all seeking the same Valentine experience: not love, simply pleasure.

But putting my inner cynic aside for just a moment, there are ways for even the most loved-up Londoners to avoid buying into the consumerist crap that ends up littering our bins a week on. Return that lingerie (it’s a myth, girls don’t like red underwear) and try one of these simple pleasures instead:

• Morning glory: get up and watch the dawn – when was the last time you saw the sun rise?
• Write each other a poem: when the creative juices start flowing, so will everything else!
• Go on a bargain hunt: head to your nearest market with a budget and a time limit – half an hour to find the perfect love token for a fiver. Guaranteed to get the heart racing.
• Make it last longer: Camellias are widely referred to as the ‘rose of winter’ because they only blossom at this time of year, they are also a symbol of promise and love. Walk to the garden centre, then go home and get your hands dirty.

Have fun getting it on Hustlers!

The post The Authentic Valentine Experience – not love, only pleasure appeared first on EcoHustler.

China Whale Sharks from WildLifeRisk on Vimeo.

The world’s largest slaughtering facility for whale sharks — an internationally-protected endangered species — has been discovered,near Wenzhou, in China’s southeastern Zhejiang Province. The factory, which operates openly, is reportedly slaughtering over 600 whale sharks annually to produce shark oil for health supplements.

Revelations about shark-processing at the factory, located in Pu Qi township, near Wenzhou, follow a four-year investigation by the Hong Kong-based marine conservation NGO, WildLifeRisk.

In a joint-statement released today, Alex Hofford and Paul Hilton of WildLifeRisk said: “We went to Pu Qi three times in the last three years, and on each occasion the scale of the slaughter was truly staggering.

“How these harmless creatures, these gentle giants of the deep, can be slaughtered on such an industrial scale is beyond belief. It’s even more incredible that this carnage is all for the sake of non-essential lifestyle props such as lipsticks, face creams, health supplements and shark fin soup. We are calling on China’s regulatory authorities to enforce the international agreements on this illegal activity now, before these animals are brought closer to extinction.”

According to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), to which China is a signatory, the international sale of products from an endangered species is illegal and the trade is unsustainable.

However, the WildLifeRisk investigation found that countless basking sharks and great white sharks – two of three species currently afforded the highest protection under CITES– are also being industrially processed at the Pu Qi factory.

The products derived from these protected species are being exported to the United States, Canada and Italy, in contravention of the internationally-binding CITES agreement.

Undercover footage and audio recordings obtained by WildLifeRisk reveal that the whale sharks ending up at the factory are being caught off the coast of China in the South China Sea as they traverse the region on their migratory journeys. These extensive journeys across the world’s oceans, take in such famous whale shark-spotting sites as the Ningaloo Reef off Australia’s northwest coast, and waters off  Indonesia, the Philippines and Mexico.

WildLifeRisk believes a compelling argument exists for the better protection of whale sharks in their natural habitats, maintaining that these endangered creatures are worth far more, in economic terms, alive rather than dead. According to the Pew Environment Group:

“In regions where whale sharks are known to aggregate, ecotourism has proven to be an extremely lucrative alternative to fishing. It has been estimated that whale shark tourism, mainly through recreational diving, is worth about US$47.5 million worldwide.”

The WildLifeRisk statement pointed out that if whale sharks are to avoid being hunted to extinction, consumers must be persuaded to reject whale shark products, or any other kind of shark-related products. It said that the trade in endangered shark and manta ray products is both environmentally unsustainable and morally unethical.

“If we hope to save species such as the whale shark from extinction, we must hold individuals accountable for their violation of international protection laws and demand transparency so that consumers can make informed decisions about the products they buy.”

Full report available here

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London’s famous Tate Britain art gallery was recently rebranded as the ‘BP Walk Through British Art’. But not everyone is happy with the world’s biggest corporate criminal and polluter using art sponsorship to greenwash its image. Yesterday, a group of actor-vists known as the Reclaim Shakespeare Company expressed that opposition in a very dramatic way…

Find out more, and watch a film of the full performance here:

http://bp-or-not-bp.org/news/shakespe…

Follow on Twitter: @ReclaimOurBard
Like on Facebook: www.facebook.com/reclaimshakespearecompa­ny

Get involved with the campaign to kick Big Oil out of our arts and culture: www.artnotoil.org.uk

The post BP Ejected from Tate Britain by Thespians Channeling the Great Bard appeared first on EcoHustler.

Have you ever felt like we’re living through a nightmare of consumption? That you wish you could un-hook yourself and reconnect with a life that is somehow more real and vivid? Then perhaps you’re ready to heed Earth’s Wake Up Call.

Today we live in a time when there is little to no understanding of how the goods we consume and take for granted came into being. Without this we lack the knowledge to understand the true costs of our consumption, and the power to take action. As a result we have become disconnected from Earth – the origin of our health, wealth and all of the ‘things’ we depend on.

Wake Up Call takes us on a fast-paced, animated glimpse of the true costs behind some of our most prized possessions – our electronic gadgets. Joining the dots between the stages of extraction, production, consumption and disposal, it reveals that, although our gadgets appear sleek and shiny, their appearance is misleading.

From the mining that causes huge ecological and social destruction, to the mountains of e-waste shipped around the planet and dumped, the lifecycles of our technology are strewn with unacceptable devastation and toxicity.

It is time to Wake Up to this nightmarish destruction, broadly driven by our obsessive pursuit of economic growth at all costs. Things do not have to be this way, but it will take a critical mass of people willing to stand up and say ‘NO! We will not participate in these systems of violence against Earth and our fellow humans’ to make a change.

Wake Up Call invites us to do just that. To forge new paths into the future and join those who are already taking this stand. We must reconnect with Earth, reduce our consumption, revalue what really makes us happy, and become part of the movement for an ecologically sane, and socially just economy that delivers fair technologies.

Wake Up Call expands on the story examined in “Short Circuit”, released by The Gaia Foundation in April 2013. It is a call to consciousness. Please watch, share, reflect and take action.

More information here

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You don’t need to be a scientist to be able to tell the world is in trouble: climate change, species extinctions and wealth inequality are symptoms of civilisation malfunctioning. This is only depressing if we don’t do anything about it. If we get motivated and work with our friends and family to put it right it is a great, transformative adventure. We get to re-dream a better world and bring it into being.

Conscious “post consumers” are realising the joy of enough and rejecting the propaganda that we need to keep buying things for ourselves or others to be happy or successful. Those of us awake to whats happening on our planet will opt out of giving or receiving consumer products this christmas choosing instead to make something, write a poem or simply exchange a hug or some bodily fluids.

There is something else we can give with a tasty revolutionary ripple.  There is a purchasable present that not only by-passes corporations but actually takes power away from them. It also responds to climate change, keeps giving over time and connects you with the sustainable future we are all working towards. Enter – Abundance’s new micro, clean energy, investment gift.

This gift does good in multiple ways by:

1. earning the receiver a decent rate of interest
2. taking money away from banks who most likely invest it unethically (e.g. arms companies and big oil)
3. putting money into renewable energy projects (supporting alternative energy companies, bringing energy bills down and responding to climate change)

If you can’t face heading into a mall and giving mother nature another slap to the face – here is a positive present that spreads some love in the world.

Every present like this given connects a new punter to the distributed renewable energy grid. It is another citizen invested in their energy generation – making money while the wind blows and the sun shines. This gift may only earn them a few pounds in the first year but if they start using their account and putting in their savings over the months and years this could end up being a significant contribution to their financial health whilst helping to clean up the atmosphere for the rest of us.

Lets spread the love.

The post All I want For Christmas… appeared first on EcoHustler.

Neurons To Nirvana: Understanding Psychedelic Medicines Official Film Trailer from MANGU.TV on Vimeo.

Understanding Psychedelic Medicines

NEURONS TO NIRVANA: A feature documentary about the resurgence of psychedelics as medicine. Through interviews with the world’s foremost researchers, writers, psychologists and pioneers in psychedelic psychotherapy, the film explores the history of five powerful psychedelic substances (LSD, Psilocybin, MDMA, Ayahuasca and Cannabis) and their previously established medicinal potential.

More info: www.neuronstonirvana.com

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