Rowan's blog

Saving the Asian Elephants

The highlight of our Thailand trip was staying at the Elephant Nature Park, approx one hour north of Chiang Mai.

Asian Elephants are currently on the move towards extinction. There are only 3,000 Asian elephants in total left in Thailand. The wild Asian elephants are protected by law, but the life and treatment of domesticated (working elephants) in Asia is not protected in any way. These magnificent beings are often treated very poorly.

The Elephant Nature Park was founded by award winning conservationist Sangduen ‘Lek’ Chailert. She began rescuing injured and mistreated Asian elephants in 1992, and in 2003 (with the support of a Texan millionaire) was able to establish a permanent home for them in a beautiful lush valley.

There are now over 30 rescued elephants at the park. They are free to choose a family, form small herds and live amongst people who love and respect them. They are not expected to work or perform. Instead they are able to wander the park, feeding at their leisure, bathing in the river and playing together in the mud pit. Each elephant has a distinct character, which becomes more evident as they come to regard the park as their home and leave their past behind.

Visitors to the park help feed and bathe the elephants. If you stay overnight as we did, you may get to walk around the park in the morning, meet many of the elephants and hear about their working lives. Most of their stories are unfortunately heartbreaking.

I was in awe of all the elephants; their wise eyes, huge heavily grounded bodies, their gentle natures and their ability to forgive humans for the pain and suffering we, as a race, have put them through.

Personally, I fell in love with Mae Khum Kaew (also spelled Mae Kham Gaeo). She was radiant and gentle. Even her skin was soft!

You can read her story here. Read all the elephant’s stories via the links on this page. 

Creating the Elephant Nature Park was a huge achievement by Lek. Unfortunately there is much more work to be done to save and improve the lives of Asian Elephants. Lek Chailert is working on a variety of additional projects:

• Lek is in the process of setting up more properties for rescued elephants including 2,000 acres of land in Surin.
• She set up Jumbo Express, an outreach program that endeavors to improve the lives of domesticated elephants as well as offer free medical assistance and education to their mahouts and people they work for.
• Lek speaks out about the cruel practice of the 'Phajaan' or training crush, the horrific, violent traditional method of ‘breaking in’ an elephant to be ridden and worked. This practice is still used widely in Asia. Lek is campaigning against this, in favour of training methods that use positive reinforcement. For those of you reading this and thinking ‘Monty Roberts for elephants’, I agree there are strong similarities between Monty and Lek’s missions. With Lek's blessing, I emailed Monty’s office introducing Lek to him and inviting him to contribute his support to her excellent work.

What you can do to help:

1. Visit or volunteer at the Elephant Nature Park (you can go on a day or overnight trip from Chiang Mai or you can volunteer at the park for a week or two).
2. Volunteer as part of the Surin Project.
3. Foster an elephant (this makes an excellent gift). 
4. Make a donation to support the activities of the Elephant Nature Foundation.
5. Shop at the online Ele store (more great, socially responsible gifts).
6. Help raise awareness and funds (there are lots of ideas to get you started here)!
7. Join the Elephant Nature Foundation. 
8. If you’re in the USA, join the Serengeti Foundation which supports ENF. 
9. If you are in the UK and want to help, contact ENF UK.
10. Join the ENF Facebook Group.
11. I recommended the organisation set up Flickr Groups for: Elephant Nature Park, Surin Project, Elephants that need saving. Will update with links if/when available. ***UPDATE: ENP Flickr Group is now live.***
12. Read the recent media articles about Elephant Nature Park and please talk about the plight of the Asian Elephant. This National Geographic video featuring Lek is an excellent resource to share. The more awareness and people involved, the better!
13. Join 'Elephants in Crisis' (EIC), and ElephantVoices, two other organisations doing excellent work.
14. Discuss the plight of elephants, potential solutions, pilot projects etc in the 'Professionals Protecting Elephants LinkedIn Group'.

Note: If you are in Asia

• Please do not support elephant street begging, elephant painting or elephant shows.
• If you feel you must go trekking on the back of an elephant, please take a long hard look at the elephant’s health and enthusiasm for its work before you pay for the trek. If you really think about it, you may prefer the idea of walking beside a free elephant to riding on a working one!

Some of my photos from the Elephant Nature Park can be viewed in my 'Thailand' set on Flickr, starting here.

Email, Social Media Merged To Create Marketing Channel

"StrongMail Systems Monday unveiled a strategy and a set of tools intended to link email marketing with social media campaigns on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, and Digg, among others. Its "framework" turns static email programs viral.

"StrongMail developed the tools in response to requests by retail customers. The survey conducted by StrongMail reveals that email marketing linked to social media has become an important initiative, with 66% of marketers planning to integrate the two channels in 2009, and 48% who have already formulated a strategy for achieving this initiative.

"Of those marketers planning to increase budgets in 2009, 83% will increase amounts in email marketing, followed by 62% in social media."

Interesting. Makes sense for retail. I guess the other email tool providers will be playing catch up!

Read the full article on mediapost.com

Teachers learning that shift happens

Geri, a friend of mine from school in the UK now teaches at a US school. She sent me a YouTube video called "Did you know?". (A styalised version of it is now also avail) It's about how fast the world is changing, especially with regards to technology. The presentation is being shown to teachers to help them work out how to prepare their pupils for the future.

Things have changed since our school days! More info here.

Moving services

We're preparing to move house. Last week I discovered Australia Post's free Moving Services.

I signed up online, entered all our utility service details, dates we wanted them disconnected at our current abode and connected at our new house, then clicked submit. Less than 2 hours later I had a phone call from a very helpful girl at the service call centre. She gave me great advice about utility services in my new area and recorded all my preferences for automatic set up on the correct dates.

The next day I received a text message with our new home telephone number (which will be connected the day we move in).

I thought disconnecting / reconnecting would be a pain in the arse. What a pleasant surprise!

New Year New Life?

Get it on ebay. Yes, really. Check it out.

Are you helping? Really?

I've felt good about being a UNICEF Global Parent for years. Until I saw before and after photos of the lake at Darfur. Darfur is one of the areas my donations have been going to.

The before and after images were in the movie 'An Inconvenient Truth'. The photos show glaciers, mountains and lakes. Glaciers have retreated, the snowline on mountains is higher, lakes have dried up.

The before shot of Darfur shows a huge full lake (that UNICEF could derive water from) and the after shot shows a pocket hankerchief sized area of water in one corner of the original lake (where can UNICEF get water from now?)

The average Australian emits approx 15 tonnes of Carbon Dioxide into the atmoshere each year, so at the same time I thought I was helping, I was contributing to the drought in Darfur.

I'm now 'Carbon Neutral'. It's very easy. Find out how you can become Carbon Neutral too (I listed what to do in my post below).

Sorry if I'm going on about this but I think it's really important.

By the way, UNICEF has a wide range of blank cards, Christmas cards, gift wrap, toys and pressies for sale. The cards work out cheaper than most cards from other shops and profits go to great causes. Check out their online shop or go to their little store at Level 7, 171 Clarence St (next to Comm bank near Cnr of King). The store is only open from 9-5 weekdays.

Google reader

Google reader is free (and very good).

Because it's web based you can check your feeds from anywhere by signing in (no download). Note: you'll need a Gmail account.

Check it out: http://www.google.com/reader

Going green

I saw Al Gore's "The Inconvenient Truth" last night. Simply terrifying.

The most basic point is that human emissions have caused the amount of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) in our atmosphere to go off the radar (far beyond the natural variation seen between ice ages). This causes global warming.

We are just starting to see the impacts; droughts, floods, tornadoes, an array of natural disasters. At the rate that we're producing emissions, they will get much worse (terrifyingly so) unless we make immediate changes.

Today I've been online, researching how to make myself greener. I recycle, I don't own a car, I don't use much water, but it's time to do more. If you feel the same way, here are some suggestions:

1. The basics.

From ClimateCrisis.net:

"You do have the power to make a difference. Small changes to your daily routine can add up to big changes in helping to stop global warming."

• Reduce your impact AT HOME
• Reduce your impact WHILE ON THE MOVE
• Help bring about change LOCALLY, NATIONALLY AND INTERNATIONALLY (US, but still relevant)
• Download these 10 SIMPLE TIPS to take with you!

You can apply before 30 Sept to get a free residential 'Climate Change Action Kit' (available if you live in NSW or ACT.) Get it here.

2. Switch to Green Power.

From: Green Power:

"When you buy Green Power your electricity company purchases energy from renewable sources and feeds it into the National Grid Network. This increases the amount of renewable electricity in the grid, reducing the need for electricity derived from the burning of fossil fuels."

You don't need to change your energy provider to buy Green Power.

More info, plus the full list of Green Power providers is available here (just select your state).

If you're with Energy Australia you can switch to "PureEnergy", no 2 on this page, by calling 13 15 35. PureEnergy is a Green Power accredited product. It is a bit more expensive but it won't cost the earth (te he).

3. Buy Carbon Credits to become Carbon Neutral.

It's very important to follow steps 1 (the basics) and 2 (buy Green Power) above. Buying Carbon Credits allows you to offset the emissions you can't help causing.

Buying Carbon Credits does not fully resolve the problems you're causing by producing emissions. A study conducted by Duke Uni in Dec 05 concluded that storing carbon to combat global warming may cause other environmental problems (but it's much better than doing nothing).

From: CarbonPlanet

"Carbon credits certify the removal of carbon dioxide from the air. Each carbon credit is associated with the removal of a single tonne of carbon dioxide from the Earth's atmosphere."

There seem to be four companies / organisations in Australia that currently sell Carbon Credits: CarbonPlanet, Greenfleet, Climate Friendly and Easy Being Green.

An example of CarbonPlanet packages:

• Carbon Credit Subscriptions — Offset your emissions on an ongoing basis. Set and forget!
• Carbon Credit Packages — Offset specific events or activities on a one-off basis. Offset your car for a year, or specific flights. It's up to you. If you are unsure of what to buy, you can buy a starter pack which provides two carbon credits and more information.
• Offset Your Lifetime Emissions — You can offset your whole life in one purchase! Choose between the whole of your life so far, or your entire life.

Find out more, go to the faq index page, read the philospohy faq and buy Carbon Credits from CarbonPlanet. And why not bookmark the CarbonPlanet blog to keep abreast future developments.

For more info, check out the Sydney Morning Herald article, Wikipedia entries for Carbon Credits or Emissions Trading.

An interesting point from Emissions Trading:

"Critics argue that emissions trading does little to solve pollution problems overall, as groups that do not pollute sell their conservation to the highest bidder. Overall reductions would need to come from a reduction of permits available in the system. Likely this would occur over time through central regulation, though some environmental groups acted more immediately by buying credits and refusing to use or sell them. Nevertheless, the transfer of wealth from polluters to non-polluters provides incentives for polluting firms to change, especially if the market price for pollution credits is very high."

So buying carbon credits also reduces the amount of credits in the market, making it more expensive for companies that pollute. This will help force them to comply.

Here's a link to the 50 top climate change sites.

If you have any other ideas or suggestions on what to do, please add them as comments below. Thanks!

The Greenie

Kazaa, Skype, then The Venice Project

Niklas and Janus have yet another entrepreneurial vision: The Venice Project (online TV and video distribution).

As I said before I won (not much) money on Makybe Diva (when she won her third consecutive Melbourne Cup), if something happens twice in life I recon it can happen a third time.

I'll be watching this one.

On yer bike, petrol

Wish today’s petrol prices were making rather than costing you money? Springwise recons, “Now’s the time to launch your own urban bicycle rental service.”

See four examples of city bike schemes from around Europe.