Thank you for the support

The raising of funds is difficult these days as the economy worldwide is down.  For this reason, there is a need for partners in planning and executing a project like SolarWind.  And for one single social media network page to successfully do this is almost impossible. Especially for one page as small as the SolarWind page currently is. That is why I partnered with other pages and they kindly enough allowed helping raise funds from their pages as well.

This is why I would like to thank these pages that help with the effort.

The following pages are currently assisting with this effort:

Just Cats

Animal Facts

SharePhoto

Fabulous Picture Collection

SOA - Save Our Animals

ENKI

These pages might not be big pages, but they understand the importance of this project.

They will also be featuring on your supporter’s page for those groups and individuals that are committed to the project the same as I am. They see the need to do more for the environment, endangered animals and cancer awareness.

Another person that committed to supporting this project is an Australian Artist by the name of Michelle Webb. If you click on her name, you will also be taken to her Face Book page.

Like with one of my previous posts, the project is not a non-profit, but it is for non-profits. This is a personal project and I have set up an account that will only deal with this SolarWind Project and nothing else.

From the bottom of my heart, I would like to thank everybody for their support.

Ewan van Breda

Wild animals and the future

Future generations might only see wild animals in books and as stuffed props in museums in the future if we as humans carry on the way we are going today.
At least there are some people that think that the wild animals are worth saving for future generations. I take my hat off to those that started the conservation movements and dedicated their lives to saving these amazing creatures.

One of the people whom I learned a lot from as a child was the late Jacques Cousteau. His expeditions into the underwater world gave many insight into a world very few people have seen. 

He was a French naval officer, explorer, conservationist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and researcher who studied the sea and all forms of life in water. He co-developed the Aqua-Lung, pioneered marine conservation and was a member of the Académie française.

He made people see the ocean in a different way through education. Make people realize that the world around us consist of more than we can see. He also inspired many to follow his footsteps to learn more about the oceans and the fauna and flora of the seas. His made many documentaries and films about the ocean and it's inhabitants. Starting in 1956 up-to 1996. His final film was released in 1999, after dis death in 1997 titled Lake Baikal: Beneath the Mirror.

Through the example that he set for many years, some marine biologists now find compounds that might be to the advantage to the health of the human race. Medical breakthroughs have been made that help you and me today.

He also supported the balance of nature to be upheld. In November 1991, Cousteau gave an interview to the UNESCO Courier, in which he stated that he was in favor of human population control and population decrease. Widely quoted on the Internet are these two paragraphs from the interview: "What should we do to eliminate suffering and disease? It's a wonderful idea but perhaps not altogether a beneficial one in the long run. If we try to implement it we may jeopardize the future of our species...It's terrible to have to say this. World population must be stabilized and to do that we must eliminate 350,000 people per day. This is so horrible to contemplate that we shouldn't even say it. But the general situation in which we are involved is lamentable".

Jacques-Yves Cousteau died of a heart attack on 25 June 1997 in Paris, aged 87. He was buried in the family vault at Saint-André-de-Cubzac in France. An homage was paid to him by the city by the inauguration of a "rue du Commandant Cousteau", a street which runs out to his native house, where a commemorative plaque was affixed.

As long as we can learn from the example that he set, his legacy will live on and help to save the animals for future generations.

Air, Water and Soil

Human activities release a variety of substances into the biosphere, many of which negatively affect the environment. Pollutants discharged into the environment can accumulate in the air, water, or soil. Chemicals discharged into the air that have a direct impact on the environment are called primary pollutants. These primary pollutants sometimes react with other chemicals in the air to produce secondary pollutants.

A wide variety of chemicals and organisms are discharged into lakes, rivers and oceans daily. Left untreated, this sewage and industrial waste has a serious impact on the water quality, not only in the immediate area, but also downstream.
The eight classes of air pollutants are:

• oxides of carbon,
• sulfur,
• nitrogen,
• volatile organic compounds,
• suspended particulate matter,
• photo-chemical oxidants,
• radioactive substances and
• hazardous air pollutants.

Oxides of carbon include carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2).

All these pollutants have some effect on the environment that we live in. Most of them are Toxic to human and animal life on this planet.

Yes, these pollutants do occur naturally in the environment and are essential for our survival, but what make them toxic, is the concentration of the elements that make them toxic. Like the saying goes "too much of a good thing is not always good for you" This is the case when these elements gets concentrated, the benefit becomes a threat to the environment.

We need to look at a better way of disposing of the concentrated elements that we as humans release back into the environment. Researchers are working on solving this exact problem. The question is, will the solution come too late?

About the environment in Schools

Education is key for the future generations to enable them to progress forward in life. They learn mathematics, science, history ECT. at school, but there are very little education on the intricate workings of nature.

I know that the curriculum touch on some aspects of the natural workings within nature, but too little to have a lasting impression on the youth of today.

The interactions between the environment and the living organisms in nature are so much more than mere words on paper that the children learn. When there is a chance then field trips should be arranged to do more investigation by the children about these interactions and the effects when these interactions are interrupted.

The mere fact that there is a lack of environmental education at our schools results in the destruction of the environment and the animals that live in it. The interaction of humans with nature is that of destruction and a limited future for us all.

Examples of lack of education and research into the effects on nature: On an Island there were a plague of rats that were brought there by sailors unwittingly. The rats started to feast on the breeding sea bird population’s eggs and thus reducing the sea bird population drastically. The government of the Island decided to bring in outside help to deal with the rat plague. Without doing proper research, feral cats were brought onto the island to deal with the rat problem.

Because of the abundance of food in the form of rats, the feral cats bred to increase their numbers to deal with the abundance of food. A few hundred cats over time became a few hundred thousand cats. The rat population was decimated and the rat problem kind off solved. But now there was a new problem. Because the rats became scarce and the amount of cats was more than the food supply, the cats started looking for other food sources. As we all know, cats catch birds and the cycle of reduction in the sea bird colony increased.

A single problem was resolved but another problem was created by the lack of knowledge and research. Now millions of feral cats are being killed in attempts to resolve the second problem.

When education is done properly, this problem of the rats could have been resolved in a different way, possibly. Lives are being lost on a daily basis due to our interference in nature and the balance that exist. When are we going to put the education system in such a state that we learn before doing? It is only through education and awareness that the environment and all its inhabitants will be able to survive into the next couple of centuries. Teach our children to respect nature and all that live in it. Teach them that every action, like the introduction of the cats, have consequences, not only on one part of nature, but on the bigger picture.