Hi All,

What if we had all the solutions to fix things on this planet already?  What if we had all the food we’d ever need?  What if we had all the technology to clean up the mess humans leave behind?  What if we had enough of everything..housing, money, resources, water, food, renewable energy and so on?  What if we could live in peace and harmony and health with everyone and everything on this earth?

I know that we have enough of everything already now to fix it all.  So, why aren’t humans doing what they can to do so?  The lack of willingness?
We all make choices every day.  Who do you associate with?  Who do you support with your time and your attention and your money?  You get more of what you give your time to.  Give your money to a company or an individual who is out of integrity and you get more of it, since they grow from your contribution.  If you want things to be different, do something different.  Research who you support with your spending.  Find out who the people are you might be working for.  Integrity takes work but it’s also the only way to truly change things for the better.  It’s about learning  and changing our habits for the better as we learn.  Everyone’s decisions contribute to either a better world or a worse one.

The choice is yours!

Yours,

Lahni

Hi all!

It’s been quite the week with news from all corners of the planet, mostly not so nice news about how my fellow animals are being treated by human kind.  I don’t know about you but I take offence to that.  I care so much about this earth and ALL its creatures and I have many friends amongst animals and humans, so don’t get me wrong,  I love them all.   But…and there is a big ‘but’…I almost feel like I need to apologise for how my fellow beings are being treated by humans.

From the recent homeless dog kill laws in Romania and Bulgaria, soon to be the same in Bosnia and other places (I take special offence to that one, since I am a dog on the road right now), to pigs being slaughtered while still awake in Europe and the live export of cows and sheep from Australia to the Middle East and Africa where they won’t be treated too well when they arrive, to families paying for the right to shoot and kill grazing elephants in Africa.

Oh and I have to give a special mention to the US Navy who is proposing to kill and injure 33 Million plus whales, dolphins and other sea creatures with sonar during their war game exercises in the already stressed North Pacific.  As if Fukushima radiation, millions of tons of garbage and dolphin murder in Taiji, and the Japan whale killing season, which is about to begin, weren’t already enough.

On top of all that the newest cruelty of cruelties is happening in Peru, where fishermen catch dolphins, then skin them and then use their skins to fish for sharks who in turn get their fins cut off to be sold to the Chinese for shark fin soup.  Depressed yet?  I am.  I am also outraged and sad and mad all at the same time.  And yet, I still love humans because there are a lot of good ones out there, who are trying very hard to do something about all of this.

But then there are those going about their business as usual, ignoring all this.  We don’t want to know all that, you say?  We’re fine, our lives are good and peaceful.  Well, it won’t go away from not knowing.  You can only start caring when you start learning about these things.  I don’t like being the bearer of bad news but this needs to be said.  Enough with the cruelty!  Animals may need each other for food  but we don’t kill with cruelty in mind.  We may kill to survive.  Some humans enjoy killing way too much for my taste for whatever ill-conceived reasons.  There is more news on the subject but enough for now, since I don’t want to send anyone over the edge.

The question beckons though….how much more can animals take and how much more are humans willing to dish out before it will be too late for some species already on the brink?  If you care and want to take the time to do something about it here’s a list of things to do:

1. Go hug your dog! Or cat, if you must. 🙂 Just kidding, I like cats.

2. Hug someone else’s dog if you don’t have one!

3. No dogs anywhere near?  Hug a tree, walk barefoot in the grass…connect with your earth, feel her and her pain.  She will still give you energy even if she is in pain just like your mother did when you were a kid.

4.Choose cruelty free food.

5.Consume less.

6.Reuse and recycle.

7.Join a cause or donate your time and/or money to an animal rights advocate groups, environmental groups, anti-whaling groups etc., sign a petition or two.

8.Teach your kids to treat each other and animals well. And Kids! Be nice to your siblings, friends and pets!

10. Buy my story for your kids. They will not only enjoy my story but also learn how to care for animals, humans and the environment.

11. Sign up to this blog and share it on Facebook, twitter etc.

Yours

Lahni

Hi All

Recently there have been a lot of discussions about Climate Change, whether it is changing, warming or cooling and of course— who is responsible?  The different corners blame each other for various reasons.  Industrial pollution is to blame, carbon dioxide is to blame, too many people are to blame…

Well!  Humans are responsible in some way or another and there is no doubt about that.   More likely humans are causing Climate Change in all ways listed above. I wonder sometimes what the point is to fight about who did what, since it’s clearly happening and I mean all of it.  In some parts of the planet it’s getting colder and the ice is getting thicker and in other parts it’s the opposite,it’s getting hotter and it’s melting faster than ever.  The sun is getting stronger with more flares and cosmic radiation hitting the earth… some say it’s just a cycle.  The oceans are warming up and currents are shifting and changing.  Islands are disappearing at an alarming rate and storms are bigger and more fierce than ever. 7 billion humans are contributing to it and are at the effect of our climate changing and so are all of the animals.

Floods in Europe, storms in the USA and Asia, droughts and fires in Australia and so on.  It’s happening whether people believe in it or not.  The best thing for all of us, humans and animals would be to just acknowledge that and then do whatever we can about it.

Everyone can help.  They can use less, consume less, throw away less and become a steward of this earth rather than a user of it.   She’s all we have!   Instead people are burning fossil fuels and consuming like there’s no tomorrow.  Forests are being cut down at alarming rates and the ocean, our biggest producer of the oxygen we need to breathe, is being over fished, polluted with garbage and poisoned with chemicals and radiation.  The point is that all of these things together, not one particular action, are causing climate change!

A special note goes to my friends in Australia, around Sydney where lots of people have lost their houses and lots of animals their lives in the current fires; fires that started because of humans and their activity and sometimes inactivity.  It’s also an indication of how bad things already are with climate change.  It’s only October and already extremely hot in Australia.  They’ve also had the hottest winter on record with very little to no rain.  It’s going to be a tough summer for some.  My heart goes out to you Down Under.
Climate Change is here and getting worse!

Yours

Lahni

Hi All

Every day now, somewhere on the news, in papers, on TV or on the radio someone is talking about the mining boom in Queensland, Australia.  Queensland has the most amazing, the biggest, the most beautiful barrier reef in the world.  The Great Barrier Reef has the most diverse life forms of any reef in the world and is also one of the oldest reefs in the world.  It is a Unesco World Heritage Site!!   Yet, the Queensland government, together with the new Australian Federal Government would like to ignore this fact!  They also want to ignore the fact that the GBR attracts millions of visitors every year and makes the Queensland tourism industry a mighty dollar.

So, here’s what’s going on:  The new “Environment” Minister has backtracked on making the Coral Sea a protected marine park.  Tony Abbott, Australia’s PM called it ‘putting a halt on marine park declarations’.

A major player in the mining sector has started building a massive coal harbour in Gladstone.  To allow really big ships into this new harbour, the reef has to be dredged.  Dredging is a practice that deepens the paths for ships through the reef so they don’t run aground.  This dredging does a lot of damage.  It scrapes everything and mean EVERYTHING off the ground.  All the sea creatures lose their habitat.  Lots of them die in the process.  Coral, which took thousands of years to grow is being destroyed for coal.  This mining boom will last a few years, maybe 10, maybe 20 but the reef will be dead for a very long time to come.

When is the Australian Government going to wake up to this fact?  It’s such short-term thinking.  It’s so sad and crazy to do this.  I visited the GBR on my journey on a research vessel, which was there to report on the state of the reef  (you can read about it in Eva’s book, ‘Lahni’s Mission’, about my trip here).  The news wasn’t good but there was still hope that things could be turned around.  I’m not so sure now.

This is a before and after Dredging photo:

Here’s what you can do:

Write an email to Mr.Jeff Seeney   DeputyPremier@ministerial.qld.gov.au

Also join the fight for the GBR here.

Yours,

Lahni

Hi All

This morning I woke up thinking about plastic, as you do sometimes.  And then I thought if I write about this again I’d be repeating myself and then again I thought this subject needs to be repeated again and again and again because a lot of people aren’t understanding how bad things out there really are.  As I said in one of my other posts already, I encountered as much plastic as anyone could in a lifetime on my recent journey around the Pacific.  The Great Pacific Garbage patch it’s called.  It’s nasty or ghastly as one of my little friend’s called it.  We met on a ship cruising through this massive “soup” of trash.  It was a sight like no other.

So how does this stuff end up in the ocean?  Well, ask yourself.  Have you ever thrown something on the ground not thinking about it?  Have you ever left a plastic bottle or a cup on a park bench after a lunch outside or did you grow up not ever being told by anyone to put your leftovers and wrappers and plastic and glass into a bin?  This plastic trash comes from humans, over-consuming uncaring, rich, poor, every walk of life humans.  It gets thrown overboard on ships, it gets flushed off streets and lawns when it rains.  It flies around as is the case with plastic bags and balloons.  It’s an unending cycle of consuming and throwing away.  Humans need to stop and start thinking about what they use and how they re-use and re-cycle and how they discard things that nature has no way of disposing with.

Today I heard another whale was found, a young male sperm whale with 100 plastic bags in his stomach.  Plastic bags look like jelly fish! Whales eat jelly fish!  It’s unavoidable when they open up their giant mouths that this stuff ends up in there and makes then sick and then kills them.  Every week a whale dies somewhere with plastic obstructing its bowel.  Too many animals are losing their lives for this stuff called Plastic.  So, say NO at the shop to that plastic bag that’s being offered! Bring your own fabric shopping bags or baskets with you.  Say NO to Plastic cups and plastic toys and so on… you know what I’m saying.  Be aware of your consumption!

Yours,

Lahni

Hi all

Today is the 13th day the Cove in Taiji, a sleepy little town on the south-eastern coast of Japan, is clear and blue. Let me explain in case you don’t already know this: Taiji is a place where dolphins die a lot. They get captured by boats, driven into the Cove and then slaughtered for their meat or if left alive sold to sea world and aquariums around the world. You can read about here:  http://dolphinproject.org  or connect with them on Facebook here:

https://www.facebook.com/ricobarrysdolphinproject?hc_location=stream

Anyway, the last 13 days when the boats have gone out early in the morning, they’ve come back without dolphins. Our prayers are working. I wish for the people of Taiji to start an eco tourism business instead of murdering these beautiful creatures and if the dolphin drought continues, maybe this will happen one day.

I am happy today to hear about my dolphin friends being safe and staying away from the waters around Taiji.

Yours, Lahni

California Clean Up Day has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it.  It kind of makes me sad that we need such days on our beautiful planet but since it is so, at least some people care enough to have a clean up day.  I was in Sydney on my trip and helped cleaning up Bondi Beach on Clean Up Australia Day.  I also travelled through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, as they call it.  This garbage patch is the size of North America (someone told me) and is fed by all the plastic, glass, wrapping materials, metal, rope, fishing lines and nets ships throw overboard, as well as everything else that’s ends up on the streets, in parks, on playgrounds, picnic areas and out of houses everywhere close to shore or a river that carries it down stream to the ocean.  It’s seriously awful to look at, let alone swim or live in. All my ocean friends have to put up with it. It’s not just the physical stuff, like plastic bits and nets but it’s also the chemicals coming out these bits as they break down. Then there are animals in the ocean who eat this stuff, they even feed it to their young. 1 Million seabirds die every year from ingesting plastic, and that’s just the ones they find on shore.

So, knowing that now, here’s how you can help.  Keep your plastic consumption to a minimum, use glass and recycle it.  Don’t throw your wrappers on the street, or cigarette buds (for the older “kids”).  Bin them!   Take your garbage home and dispose of it responsibly.  Think of the next person or animals who will use this area.  The world has enough plastic in the ocean to cover every bit of land on earth.  Imagine how much that is.  Let’s try and leave a better place for everyone.  Help with the Clean Up if you are in a specified area of California tomorrow.  But no matter where you are in the world you can always bend down and pick up some trash that’s on your path and put it in a bin.  Every little bit helps.

Yours,

Lahni

Hi all

just a heads up about Eva‘s book about my journey.  It is now available to buy as an ebook on here.  If you’d like to purchase it, please go to the ‘Buy the ebook‘ option in the sidebar menu and click on it.  Then  you will get an email with download information and a link.  Happy reading!  After you read it, let us know what you think.  Leave a comment or a review in the comment section. 

More soon

Yours,

Lahni

Hi all

Today my heart aches for my whale friends in Taiji.  A couple of days ago a  pod of pilot whales was driven into the cove.  Then  yesterday the unthinkable happened.  All the adult whales were killed for their meat while their young watched and heard their screams.  I know it’s awful but it needs to be said.  Someone needs to tell their story.   Everyone should know what’s going on.  The juveniles, as they are called, swam around in their families blood (can you imagine) until they were driven back out to sea to fend for themselves.  Now look at the situation as if it were your own.  You are hurdled into a small space with your family, where they separate the kids from the grown ups.  Then they kill all the adults  while their children watch and afterwards let the kids go out into the world to survive on their own.  Maybe this is too much news for a 10 year old but I think the children of this world who aren’t awake yet, need to wake up and  change things, otherwise there won’t be a future for many species, including humans.   I really feel for the whales and for the people who do this to them.  I offer a Hawaiian forgiveness prayer called Ho’oponopono to both the animals who suffered and the fishermen who inflicted the suffering.

I AM SORRY – PLEASE FORGIVE ME – THANK YOU – I LOVE YOU

As if that wasn’t enough bad news already!  This morning I heard about the very sticky, and sweet spill in Hawaii.  Molasses, the thick, sweet, black, sticky stuff made from sugar, all 1400 tons of it spilled in and around Sand Island into Honolulu Harbor.   Apparently everything is dead or dying.   You wouldn’t think Molasses could do so much damage but it changes the ph levels and it’s also very heavy and covered the entire bottom of the ocean where it spilled.  It’s an enormous environmental disaster; they say the biggest in recent Hawaiian History.  I was in Honolulu on my travels and I loved it there.  I am so sad this happened.  Which brings me to the next bit — something you can do about it with me.  Tomorrow we’re having a world prayer/meditation for the Pacific Ocean, Fukushima and Hawaii.  Why not incorporate the entire Pacific and everything in it and around it!

Here’s the link to the Facebook page for the event (Just copy and paste it).  Where ever you are in the world, just tune in and send your love at 12 noon.  This will create a wave of love around the world.

https://www.facebook.com/events/429628040488049/429975500453303/?notif_t=plan_mall_activity

P.S. The book about my journey LAHNI’S MISSION is almost ready and will be on sale here soon!

Yours,

Lahni

Hi all

I must say, you humans are a complicated bunch but hey it’s not all bad.  Some of you get things done.  Eva has just set me up with my own website and blog and in the coming days she’ll set up shop for the book she wrote about my journey.  Ok, that said, today I want to talk about Japan and all the goings on there,  since Japan was a stop on my travels and I care very much for the people and animals I met there.  There are a few things happening there that are of concern to me and my fellow beings.  One of them is the massive radiation leak from the crippled Fukushima Nuclear Power plant in the North of Japan which was severely damaged by an earthquake and resulting Tsunami in 2010.  2 years on and it’s still leaking like crazy, so much so that the North Pacific is being badly contaminated with radioactive material.  It’s becoming dangerous for people to eat fish and swim in the sea.  But what’s happening to all my animals friends who live in the Pacific?  I wonder!  I met turtles and whales and dolphins who all live in there.

I heard a few days ago that whales had washed up on a Japanese beach who had signs of radiation poisoning.  It’s alarming to say the least.   Here is a photo of the event and some links to look at.

http://nationalreport.net/breaking-fukushima-disaster-leaves-hundreds-whales-beached/

http://nationalreport.net/breaking-fukushima-crisis-escalates-tons-radioactive-waste-released-pacific-causes-ocean-boil/

The other story out of Japan is of course Taiji and the plight of my dolphin friends.  If you don’t know what’s happening there, here’s a short recap of events.  Since the 1960’s Japanese fishermen go out for 6 months of every from September 1st on, to drive whole pods of dolphins and sometimes small whales into a bay called the Cove in Taiji. There, the dolphins get assessed to see whether they are good performers and if so get separated to be taken and sold to theme parks around the world.  Places like SeaWorld buy dolphins for the entertainment of human children. It’s a  horrible idea, if you ask me.  Imagine someone came into your living room, kidnapped you and sold you to a circus to entertain people.  You would never see your freedom or your family again.  Then the rest of the dolphins get killed, for apparently no particular reason.  I heard they don’t even eat much of it.  It gets stock piled in warehouses…maybe for a rainy day.  For every dolphin who gets sold on, 17 other pod and family members die an awful death.   And the only reason for all of this is money.  Lots of it.   20 000 dolphins die in the cove every year.  Hundreds get sold.  You can help by never ever going to a theme park or aquarium that has whales or dolphins in their very small tanks.  If you want to you can watch a documentary called “The Cove”.  It’s not easy to watch, so if you are a young kid ask to watch it with your parents please.

If you put the two things I talked about together, you have to wonder about the effect the radiation is having on the dolphins who get captured and killed.  It can’t be good either way.  Not for the dolphins, the fishermen or the theme parks.

Here’s the link for the movie “The Cove” and if you want to know more about the subject go to http://www.seashepherd.org

There is also a new film called Blackfish which is all about the whale and dolphin captive industry.  You will see how they are captured and how they live in these theme parks and aquariums.  Here’s a link to the movie.  http://blackfishmovie.com

More soon.

Yours,  Lahni