Humane Society Institute for Science and Policy
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Climate Change, Food Systems, and Health Impact at the United Nations
No full textThree significant gatherings address various aspects of climate change, and global limits started in September and proceeded through early November. In September (21 to 27), the United Nations (UN) held its 76th annual meeting (also known as the General Assembly) in New York. During this meeting, the Food Systems Summit (FSS) was organized as a side meeting to the General Assembly on September 23. The 26th annual climate change conference (COP26) will be held from October 31 through November 12 in Glasgow, and the World Health Organization (WHO) will hold its 4th conference on climate change and human health during this meeting (November 6)
Cat Management Successes
No full textThere are a number of communities that can report some success in managing outdoor cats even though there are no reports on such projects in the published academic literature. This report discusses successful projects managing outdoor cats on San Nicolas island, California, Alachua County, Florida, Portland, Oregon and Maui island in Hawaii
The Wolf Pendulum in the United States
No full textHumans have had a very contentious history with wolves and attitudes have varied from hatred to strong protection. It is unclear why the wolf generates such strong emotions. Since the wolf was protected under the Endangered Species Act in the early 1970s, wolf protection has been on the upswing. But, in the last decade, antipathy to wolves has again begun dominant as the wolf population in the lower 48 states reached 7,000. In the last few years, attitudes to wolves have trended negative and state authorities have instituted policies to hunt wolves and reduce the wolf populations
Replacing Laboratory Animals in Safety Testing
No full textIn 1993, the NIH Revitalization Act included language, supported by corporations and animal advocates, that authorized a new program to develop and validate toxicity tests that would replace and reduce the use of laboratory animals. Seven years later, that 1993 Act led to the passage of the 2000 ICCVAM Authorization Act. This act established the Interagency Coordinating Committee for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM) to facilitate the development and implementation of alternative methods that would replace or reduce the use of animals in safety testing and risk assessment. ICCVAM started slowly, but twenty-one years after its formal launch, it is now delivering significant progress in replacing animal tests
Well-being Centers and Global Happiness
No full textSeveral well-being and happiness research centers and policy units have been established in the last decade at major universities. For example, Harvard’s School of Public Health established the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness in 2016, while Oxford University launched its Wellbeing Research Centre in 2019. In Europe, the Danish Happiness Research Institute was founded in 2013 as an independent think tank. In the Netherlands, Erasmus University houses the Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Institute and the World Database of Happiness. Erasmus University established the first chair in Social Conditions for Human Happiness in 2000. We should also call attention to the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. While it does not have “happiness” or well-being” in its title, its director, Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, is a founding editor of the World Happiness Report and has played an important role in developing global well-being thinking
Animal sentience: history, science, and politics
No full textThis target article has three parts. The first briefly reviews the thinking about nonhuman animals’ sentience in the Western canon: what we might know about their capacity for feeling, leading up to Bentham’s famous question “can they suffer?” The second part sketches the modern development of animal welfare science and the role that animal-sentience considerations have played therein. The third part describes the launching, by Compassion in World Farming, of efforts to incorporate animal sentience language into public policy and regulations concerning human treatment of animals
Rhino Decline Shock
No full textThe Kruger National Park in South Africa is home to the largest population of wild rhinos in the world. But a 2019 census documenting a dramatic decline in the Kruger rhino population in just ten years has shocked rhino conservation organizations. The park last conducted a census of its rhino population in 2010 when it estimated that there were over 10,000 rhinos in the park (mostly the southern white rhino but also including a few hundred southern black rhino). But the latest census estimates there are now only 3,500 white rhinos and 270 black rhinos in the park – a 70% decline in just ten years
Forests and Livelihoods in Asia: Sustaining People and Planet
No full textSundarbans, the world’s largest contiguous mangrove forest at the head of the Bay of Bengal, is home to many endangered wildlife species, including being home for around 100 Bengal tigers and to over 9 million people. Local communities are dependent on Bangladesh\u27s mangrove forests for their livelihoods
Study Finds Therapy Dogs Have No Effect on Anxiety in Teens
No full textThe use of therapy dogs has increased and the number of scientific papers examining the impact of therapy dogs on human health has also increased from 19 in 1990 to 698 in 2020. However, why canine therapy works remains something of a mystery. In a recent paper, researchers from Tufts University looked at two mechanisms that might underlie any benefits of canine therapy – social support and the physical contact provided by the dogs. The researchers were confident that teen anxiety would drop in the presence of the dogs but wanted to explore possible mechanisms for such a drop. However, the researchers found that the therapy dogs had no impact whatsoever on teen anxiety among the study participants. The dogs had no effect on self-reported anxiety scores, no effect on heart rate and skin response and no effect on the error rate in the task set for the subjects
The Economics of Biodiversity The Dasgupta Review Full Report
No full textIn 2019, Her Majesty’s Treasury (UK) commissioned Sir Partha Dasgupta, an economist and Professor Emeritus at Cambridge University to produce an independent, global review on the Economics of Biodiversity. Sir Partha was assisted by a multi-disciplinary Advisory Panel that included representatives of public policy, science, economics and business. The Review argues that countries should de-emphasize GDP as an index of progress and instead should focus on a national Wealth measure that includes an accounting for Natural Capital. After World War II, when the world was very different from what it is now, Sir Partha argues the economic questions being faced could be studied most productively by excluding Natural Capital and focusing on Produced Capital (e.g. infrastructure) and Human Capital. But today, as economists have begun to devise methods to value and to track Natural Capital, it is becoming apparent that while Produced and Human Capital may be increasing, Natural Capital is declining. The Review analyzes what we know about Natural capital and begins to address how Natural Capital might be incorporated into a valid assessment of national wealth and long-term sustainability