Daniele Santi / TEDxCrocetta & David Wilkes / The Daily Mail – 2016-01-12 01:01:28
Special to Environmentalist Against War
Transforming the Human Spirit by Freeing the World of Nuclear Arms
Daniele Santi / TEDxCrocetta
(January 2, 2016) — Could nuclear weapons disarmament actually start from a social and even personal disarmament? Daniele Santi, who works for Senzatomica, Italy’s largest grassroots movement to abolish nuclear weapons, will share his experience as an activist and will explain how important and controversial nuclear weapon disarmament is still today and how every person can do something to solve this issue.
Daniele, who is working for Senzatomica, Italy’s largest grassroots movement to abolish nuclear weapons, will share his experience as an activist and will explain how important and controversial nuclear weapon disarmament is still today. He will show us how nuclear weapon disarmament starts from a social and even personal disarmament, and how much a single person can do to change the situation.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx
Daniele Santi is Secretary General of Senzatomica (http://senzatomica.it)
daniele.santi@sgi-italia.org
Koko Says: ‘Man Stupid. Protect Earth’
David Wilkes / The Daily Mail
LONDON (January 2, 2016) — Given by a gorilla in sign language, it is among the more unusual messages for the New Year. Koko was filmed delivering a 38-word bulletin about how ‘stupid’ mankind is harming the Earth.
In the 60-second video, the 44-year-old great ape, which has been learning sign language since she was one, said:
‘I am gorilla, I am flowers, animals. I am Nature.
Koko love man. Earth Koko love.
But man stupid . . . stupid! Koko sorry, Koko cry.
Time hurry. Fix Earth! Help Earth! Hurry!
Protect Earth. Nature watches you.
Thank you.’
The message was scripted by NOE Conservation, based in France, whose main focus is preserving biodiversity, and The Gorilla Foundation in Woodside, California, where Koko has lived since 1979, immersed in human company.
She is said to be able to understand 1,000 words of US sign language and 2,000 words of spoken English, but there has been controversy about whether her own use of signs is simple, reward-related mimicry or something more meaningful.
The video was made to help get NOE Conservation’s message across for the recent UN Climate Conference in Paris.
A spokesman for The Gorilla Foundation: ‘Because of her unique ability to communicate with humans in sign language, Koko is a natural ambassador for endangered species.
‘We presented her with a script drafted by NOE and allowed her to improvise during a series of brief daily video discussion sessions. The result was edited from a number of separate takes, for brevity and continuity.’ The spokesman said Koko had to learn ‘a few new signs’ for the video including ‘protect’ and ‘nature’.
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
