Why we should all be VEGETARIANS.

As you know, I am vegetarian. 
Italy has the highest rate of vegetarians in the EU: 10% of the population, 6 million people. 
In Germany the rate is 9%, 10% in Sweden, 4.5% in the Netherlands. 

In my opinion, we shoud all be vegetarians because of many reasons: 
- I think it's cruel and inhuman killing other animals to eat them, basically just on a whim and, furthermore, the way of killing the animals in the slaughterhouses is horrible.
- There are environmental reasons: over 15.000 liters of water are needed to produce a kilogramme of red meat and we all know that water is becoming more precious day by day; one third of the world's crops are used to feed the farm animals and, obviously, meat has a lower yield in terms of quantity compared to the vegetables. And we complain about World Hunger...
- There are also health reasons: it is shown that meat contains substances which are harmful and eating them increases the risk of suffering from health problems, diseases and tumors. 

What do you think about vegetarianism? Please, let me know by sending me an email to thenorthernlightsdiary@gmail.com! 

"We're not giving up. Let's save the Arctic!" Thank you!

Many thanks to those of you who sent me emails with their opinions on the "Arctic problem"! 
Here are some sentences that I think are very meaningful: 

"It's unbelievable how the great powers of the world close their eyes in front of all this [...]. In spite of everything, we're not giving up! Let's save the Arctic!" 
(Francesca, Italy) 

"We're destroying everything. The Arctic is one of our last chances (maybe the biggest one) to try to turn the tide. I think that if we lost this battle...we could have lost the war."
(Michel, Canada) 

"If we were able to save the Antarctic, more than 20 years ago, we can do it again and save the Arctic."
(Ebba, Sweden) 

Keep sending me emails with your opinions and suggestions to thenorthernlightsdiary@gmail.com!

DANIZA: another bear sacrificed in the name of ignorance.

Daniza didn't make it. 
She died because of the anesthesia that has been given to her during the attempt of capture by the authorities of the province of Trento (Italy). 
Her death is causing great controversy and outrage. 

On the 15th of August she attacked a mushrooms seeker (who reported minor injuries) who went too close to her two cubs. 
Since then, she had been monitored and had been seriously considered the opportunity of capturing her (in a first time, even of killing her). 
The national institutions showed their incompetence in this situation. 

But, who was Daniza? 
She was 19 years old and was part of a bears reintroduction program in the Italian Alps, whose only crime was trying to defend her cubs, as every mother would do. 

WWF and other animal welfare groups are now asking for explanations. Capturing her was not necessary, she wasn't a dangerous specimen. 
Now we wonder what will happen to her two cubs, at the gates of winter. It is hoped that, at least, the authorities will be able to take care of them and ensure that they survive. 

The return of the lynx in Italy.

1920 was the year of the official announcement of the extinction of the lynx in the Italian territory.
Unfortunately, during the same period in almost the whole Europe this beautiful feline was definitively disappearing, because of centuries of deforestation, reduction in the number of preys and direct persecution.

Between 1970 and 1986, 7 reintroduction programs were attempted in Italy, France, Switzerland and Germany. While in the other countries they had success, in Italy the results started to arrive late and only in 1971, after Switzerland had released about 30 lynx, there were the first reports of sightings in the western Alps, precisely in Aosta Valley and Ossola Valley.

From the 80s on the lynx (lynx lynx) has come back in the forests of northern Piedmont, Giulie Alps and Carniche Alps and is now going south, along the forests of the Apennines.

Today, the largest Italian population is in the Gran San Bernardo zone and the data collected by the forest rangers show that these wonderful animals have arrived to the Abruzzo National Park (with 2-3 confirmed pairs).
In spite of all, in Italy the lynx remains very vulnerable because of car accidents, poaching and the destruction of its habitat and of the ecological network in the Alpine valleys, which are too often crossed by highways or railways.

(Thanks to Lorenzo S. for helping me writing this post)

The Marsican Brown Bear.

The Marsican Brown Bear (Ursus Arctos Marsicanus) originally lived in the entire central and southern Italy. 
This subspecies of brown bear weighs almost 100-150 kilos and when in upright position it reaches a height of nearly 1,80 meters. 

During the centuries it was ruthlessly hunted because there was the belief that it preyed the cattle grazing. Instead, this solitary and shy plantigrade has strictly nocturnal habits and a vegetarian diet for more than 90% (berries, roots, fruits, tubers) and only occasionally it eats small mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians. 
Sometimes it eats carcasses of large herbivores that it finds in its territory (which is usually from 10 to 200 square kilometers, depending on the food available). 

Today, the poisonings, the traps and the hunt are severely forbidden but this bear is practically relegated only in the Abruzzo National Park with a population of about 40 specimens (in 1969 they were approximately 60). 

This is another proof of how the mankind adversely affects the environment that surrounds him, often without showing a modicum of respect to all the creatures with which he shares this world. 

(Thanks to Lorenzo S. for helping me writing this post)