Shenzhen is set to become the first city in mainland China to ban the eating of dogs and cats, if a draft regulation released by the municipal government in a wider push to restrict the consumption of wild animals is approved.
On Monday, China’s National People’s Congress issued an order to ban all consumption of wild animal meat and further restrict the wildlife trade nationwide. The measures are expected to be enshrined in the country’s wildlife protection law later this year.
The ban is a swift response to the Covid-19 outbreak, thought to have originated in wildlife sold at a market in Wuhan, Hubei province in early December.
However, the Shenzhen government’s potential ban on dog and cat meat is framed not as part of an effort to reduce disease transmission, but as an aspect of the special relationship between people and pets, which it has called the “consensus of all human civilization”.
“Shenzhen might just be able to do it, as it is a progressive city in many ways,” said Deborah Cao, a professor at Griffith University in Australia and an expert on animal protection in China. “I really hope so.”
Consumption of dog and cat meat is most common in Shenzhen’s home province of Guangdong, neighboring Guangxi, and parts of north-east China, though it is not universally practiced across the country and has become less acceptable over time. Taiwan outlawed the consumption of dog and cat meat in 2017.
“Dog eating has become increasingly controversial in China, with frequent violent clashes between dog thieves and angry dog owners,” said Wendy Higgins, director of international media at Humane Society International (HSI).
“There is a growing and vocal Chinese opposition to the dog and cat meat trade, and young people in China are far more likely to think of dogs as companions than cuisine,” she said.
The draft regulation is now in a public comment phase running until 5 March and no timeline has been given for the final determination.
SUHAUNA HUSSAIN reports for the Los Angeles Times FEB. 23, 2020
A vocal Bernie Sanders supporter. A Chicagoan with zero followers on Twitter. A dozen registered Republicans. These are some of the digital soldiers Michael R. Bloomberg’s presidential campaign has recruited in California to boost the former New York mayor’s online profile in preparation for the March 3 Democratic primary.
The Bloomberg 2020 operation is hiring more than 500 people at a rate of $2,500 a month to text friends and post on social media in support of the former New York mayor and billionaire media mogul. These “deputy field organizers,” as the campaign calls them, are focusing their efforts on California and its 415 delegates up for grabs. It has not been picky in choosing messengers.
A look inside the strategy — based on documents reviewed by The Times, interviews with five of these organizers and an examination of the operation’s social media output — shows that many have been using accounts created within the last month for their Twitter posts. At least two had openly posted in support of other candidates. And unlike the high-profile influencers the campaign recently hired to create viral memes, the vast majority of these organizers have modest personal audiences. On Twitter, many have fewer than 20 followers.
Rather than create their own content, organizers often use the exact text, images and links provided to them by the campaign. The result has been a stiff outpouring of tweets, Facebook and Instagram posts with little to no engagement and sometimes half-hearted text messages. Some organizers were so robotic in their tweeting, Twitter suspended their accounts Friday evening after The Times inquired about whether their behavior complied with the platform’s rules on spam and manipulation.
The Bloomberg campaign’s tactics have raised questions about whether posts by campaign employees constitute sponsored content, how social media platforms should regulate nontraditional political advertising, and whether hiring temps with no particular affinity for a candidate is an effective form of electioneering in the first place.
The goal of the deputy field organizer operation is to meet “voters everywhere on any platform that they consume their news,” Bloomberg spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said in a statement. “One of the most effective ways of reaching voters is by activating their friends and network to encourage them to support Mike for president.”
The effort — first reported by the Wall Street Journal — represents a few gallons in an ocean of spending: Since Bloomberg entered the presidential race three months ago, the campaign has expended more than $450 million to flood nearly every avenue imaginable — including radio, television and the internet — with ads.
Campaigning aimed at friends, family and acquaintances is usually done by volunteers excited about the candidate, said UCLA professor Tim Groeling, who studies political communications and new media. That Bloomberg can pay for people to try to convince their social circle is a sign of the strength of Bloomberg’s financial resources but also an indication he may lack the kind of organic support that inspires grass-roots volunteerism, Groeling said.
The Times reviewed social media posts from some of the nearly 400 California deputy field organizers whose names and phone numbers appeared in a spreadsheet used by the Bloomberg campaign to track their progress. (The Google spreadsheet was not password-protected. After a reporter asked the campaign to verify its authenticity, the document was deleted from its location.) Organizers interviewed requested anonymity because of a memo from supervisors Thursday morning asking that they not engage with the press.
“A President Is Born: Barbra Streisand sings Mike’s praises. Check out her tweet,” Romir Kapur, a deputy field organizer for the Bloomberg campaign, tweeted to his zero followers, drawing on stock text provided by the campaign. At least half a dozen other users posted identical tweets; all were suspended Friday.
“WHO’S EXCITED FOR THE DEBATE TONIGHT!?” another organizer posted on Instagram, asking her followers to sign up for debate updates from Bloomberg’s campaign. The post received one like and a comment: “I hope you’re at least getting paid for this lol.”
Four out of the five organizers interviewed said the promise of money was the primary factor in their decision to work for the Bloomberg campaign.
One, a recent college graduate living in Sacramento, describes himself as an ardent supporter of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the current front-runner for the Democratic nomination. But he hasn’t had a steady stream of income since October, and the Bloomberg gig seemed like easy money, he said.
The ambivalence shows up in his outreach efforts.
“Sam Donaldson just nailed it: Mike Bloomberg is the president we need to unite our country!” he texted one of his friends Monday through Outvote — the app organizers use to reach out to their personal networks. He drew on language provided to him by the campaign and logged the text as part of his Bloomberg organizer responsibilities.
But he quickly followed up with a personal addendum: “Please disregard, vote Bernie or Warren.”
Suhauna Hussain is a reporter at the Los Angeles Times. Before joining The Times in 2018, she wrote for the Tampa Bay Times, the Center for Public Integrity, the East Bay Express, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and independent student-run newspaper, the Daily Californian. Hussain was raised in L.A. and graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in political economy.
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TRENTON – A pair of bills sponsored by Senate Environment and Energy Committee Chair Senator Bob Smith, Senator Richard Codey and Senator Linda Greenstein, which would require an environmental sustainability plan for the Statehouse and promote energy efficiency improvements in school and government buildings, passed the Senate Environment and Energy Committee this week.
“If the state government and the Legislature want to promote sustainability for our buildings, we should start by making our existing buildings more sustainable. There is no better place to start than with the Statehouse,” said Senator Smith (D-Middlesex / Somerset). “As New Jersey’s population increases and its economy expands, so too will the state’s demand for energy. It is imperative we come up with sustainable solutions to ensure energy costs and usage decrease.”
“The goal of sustainable design, development, and practice is to join economic development with environmental health by protecting resources and systems in both the present and the future,” said Senator Codey (D-Essex / Morris). “Making the Statehouse more sustainable will allow us to walk the walk and talk the talk. We will lead by example and push others in the state to build more sustainable buildings.”
If we are to reduce our carbon footprint and be more sustainable on a statewide level, we need to invest in making our government buildings more energy efficient,” said Senator Greenstein (D-Mercer / Middlesex). “Going green will prove critical to reducing the exorbitant energy costs in the long term for state and local governments, as well as for school districts.”
The first bill, S331, would require the State Capitol Joint Management Commission to prepare, adopt, and implement an environmental sustainability plan for the Statehouse Capitol Complex. This would include energy savings, efficiency upgrades and water conservation techniques. It would also include the involvement of food services and the establishment of performance measures to be reported annually and made available on the Governor’s and the Legislature’s websites. The bill was released from committee by a vote of 3-0.
The second bill, S337, would authorize the New Jersey Infrastructure Bank to issue up to $20 million in bonds to finance cost-effective energy efficiency improvements in State, local, and school district buildings. The bill was released from committee by a vote of 3-0.
Aiming to boost adoption of clean energy alternatives and grow the market for fuel cells in New Jersey, the fully Assembly voted 79-0 on Monday unanimously advancing legislation (A741) that would establish a 15-member task force within the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) on the use of fuel cell technologies.
Fuel cells facilitate the combining of hydrogen and oxygen to make water, and convert the chemical energy into electricity. The cells can be used in all-purpose generators as well as integrated with stationary machinery, specialty vehicles like forklifts, portable floodlights, and motor vehicles giving them broad applications.
Sponsors of the bill, Assembly Democrats Gordon Johnson (D-Bergen), Herb Conaway (D-Burlington) and Andrew Zwicker (D-Somerset, Mercer, Middlesex, Hunterdon) released the following joint statement:
“As the applications of fuel cell technology continue to grow, we are looking at an ever-increasing capacity to shift away from fossil fuels and toward better, cleaner power sources. By creating a central task force comprised of cross-sector experts, this measure takes the first step in accelerating New Jersey’s implementation of fuel cell technologies.
“Engaging State departments, local government, industry and the public on the topic of fuel cells, the task force would be largely beneficial in helping develop policy recommendations and a course of regulatory action. If we plan to make New Jersey’s goal of 100 percent clean energy by 2050 a reality, keeping at pace with innovations and integrating clean energy technologies will be critical.”
The bill now goes to the Senate for further consideration.
After leaving the state last year to shut down a climate change proposal, Oregon senators were absent again on Monday.
Most of Oregon’s Senate Republicans skipped a floor session on Monday morning, denying Democrats a quorum to vote on legislation. Credit…Anna Reed/Statesman-Journal, via Associated Press
SEATTLE — Less than a year after Oregon’s Senate Republicans fled the state with passports in hand and hid out in Idaho cabins to avoid voting on a climate change bill, they have disappeared again.
With Democrats seeking to advance a new proposal to cap the state’s greenhouse gas emissions, most Republicans refused to attend a floor session on Monday morning, and a search by the Senate chamber’s sergeant-at-arms failed to find them.
That left the Senate with just 19 members on the floor — one short of a quorum needed to vote — and threatened to derail a range of bills in the final two weeks of the state’s legislative session.
Senate President Peter Courtney, a Democrat, called on senators to return to work, saying the climate bill had sufficient votes to pass in a chamber with a large Democratic majority.
“I implore my fellow senators to please return to this chamber,” Mr. Courtney said. After he announced that there were not enough members to continue work, some people in the gallery clapped; Mr. Courtney rebuked them, underscoring the rising tensions in a state struggling to figure out a path forward amid the threats of a changing climate.
The Senate’s Republican leader, Herman Baertschiger Jr., said in a statement that Democrats had refused to work with Republicans and had voted down all their proposed amendments. “Senator Courtney’s actions leave no other option for Senate Republicans but to boycott and deny quorum,” Mr. Baertschiger said.
The state’s Constitution requires two-thirds of senators to be present before voting can take place. Democrats hold 18 of the chamber’s 30 seats, meaning they need two Republicans to join them to reach a quorum.
While the cap-and-trade proposal has changed over time, the dispute mirrors what occurred last year, when a similar proposal led Republicans to leave the state to avoid potential roundup by state troopers sent by Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat. That showdown ended after Democratic leaders acknowledged that they did not have enough support to pass the measure.
Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon denounced a walkout by Republican lawmakers. Last year, she ordered state troopers to track down senators who used the same tactic. Credit…Andrew Selsky/Associated Press
At the time, Ms. Brown bemoaned the walkout as an indicator that the divisiveness of federal politics had spilled down to the state level. On Monday, she said the Republicans’ “boycott” was undemocratic, calling on them to show up to “make their voices heard rather than shut down state government.”
As solar prices fall and efficiency increases, countries like Finland are discovering the benefits of summertime solar.
The use of solar is increasing in Finland and other Nordic countries. Aitiopaikka, an apartment complex in Turku, sports 516 rooftop solar panels. Credit: Turku Student Village Foundation (TYS)
Paul Hockenos reports for Inside Climate News
ULU, Finland — For years after northern Finland’s largest printing plant blanketed its facility’s eight roofs with solar panels, the curious beat a path to the extraordinary spectacle.
There were skeptics who doubted that solar power would pay off in this northern city, just 100 miles shy of the Arctic Circle, a geography known not for its sunny climes but rather its dark, snow-bound, sub-zero winters.
“They wanted to see what we’d done, how it worked, whether it worked,” said Juha Röning, chief technician at the Kaleva Media printing plant. In 2015, the 1,604 solar photovoltaic (PV) units made Kaleva Media’s rooftop the most powerful photovoltaic solar plant in Finland, and indeed in all of Scandinavia’s north country.
Today, Kaleva Media’s rooftop PV park is no longer a curiosity—it’s not even the largest solar producer in the city of Oulu, much less all of Finland. Across Europe’s far north, municipalities, businesses and households are increasingly taking advantage of solar power as solar cells’ efficiency increases and costs fall.
While Germany was experiencing its mega solar boom in the 2000s, in Nordic countries like Sweden, Iceland, Norway, Denmark and Finland the sight of a suburban home with a PV panel was an oddity. Today, although still dwarfed by Germany’s solar force, tens of thousands of buildings, from Copenhagen to the Arctic Circle, brandish the cutting edge in solar tech.
“They wanted to see what we’d done, how it worked, whether it worked,” said Juha Röning, chief technician at the Kaleva Media printing plant. In 2015, the 1,604 solar photovoltaic (PV) units made Kaleva Media’s rooftop the most powerful photovoltaic solar plant in Finland, and indeed in all of Scandinavia’s north country.
Today, Kaleva Media’s rooftop PV park is no longer a curiosity—it’s not even the largest solar producer in the city of Oulu, much less all of Finland. Across Europe’s far north, municipalities, businesses and households are increasingly taking advantage of solar power as solar cells’ efficiency increases and costs fall.
While Germany was experiencing its mega solar boom in the 2000s, in Nordic countries like Sweden, Iceland, Norway, Denmark and Finland the sight of a suburban home with a PV panel was an oddity. Today, although still dwarfed by Germany’s solar force, tens of thousands of buildings, from Copenhagen to the Arctic Circle, brandish the cutting edge in solar tech.
“The technological developments in PV [cells] have driven the price way down,” said Henrik Borreby, the Nordic representative of BayWa r.e., a global renewable energy developer. “The general perception had been that the further north you go, the harder it was to make a business case, even impossible. That’s not so anymore,” he said, though he acknowledged that the further north one pushes—and the lower the domestic power price—the longer it takes to make the upfront investment in solar pay itself back.
Europe’s Nordic countries, roughly at the latitude of Alaska, are pushing the boundaries of solar power deployment.
They boast some of the world’s most progressive climate protection agendas, and much of the momentum behind the growth of renewables there stems from their national action plans, which are designed to meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of keeping global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius. Norway is still a major oil producer, but Finland’s new progressive government—led by the world’s youngest prime minister, 34-year-old Sanna Marin—has set ambitious decarbonization targets that would render the country of 5.5 million carbon neutral by 2035.
