It’s International Biodiversity Day! Let’s celebrate the richness of nature!

A couple of cartoons for the Forest Biodiversity Programme METSO. The project aims at halting the ongoing loss of forest species and biotopes.

The voluntary-based Metso conservation is a good tool for protecting and restoring forests. But it cannot alone save the forest habitats and species. We need also more protected areas, national parks and better environmental legislation. Intensive forestry has caused so much habitat loss for many forest species in Finland.

Biodiversity.fi: “Forestry measures have both decreased the area of important habitats such as natural-like old-growth forests and decreased the quality of more common forest habitats. Factors relating to forestry are the primary causes of threat to a total of 606 species, which corresponds to 74% of all threatened forest species.”

Here is a cartoon about a positive solution, habitat restoration:

Shell and other oil companies want to drill oil in the melting Arctic. It is a risky business for the nature and the climate.

BBC News 4 February 2013: Concerns raised over ‘useless’ Arctic oil spill plan

Cartoon for the Ramsar Convention, which organizes the World Wetlands Day 2 February 2013 with the theme “Wetlands and water management”.

Download the cartoon & other material for the World Wetlands Day 2013.

Ramsar WWD 2013 at Facebook

The cartoon and the other material are available also in French and in Spanish

The owner of the I Fucking Love Science facebook site (IFLS) asked me, if she could use my cartoon of Mr. Bill Gates and frogs producing illegal copies, at her site. I happily answered yes.

She then replied, that she’ll be posting the “Monsanto suing nature” cartoon now, and the Bill Gates cartoon tomorrow. She said she’ll credit them both as I asked.

What happened after that, was quite confusing.

I found, that the Monsanto cartoon was actually posted at another FB site called Genetic engineering techniques (GET).

and relinked right after that to the IFLS site.

After that the IFLS site posted also a link to the GET site, commenting that the cartoon has caused a considerable debate:

“We seemed to cause considerable stir with our discussions on GMO yesterday. Well, you know us. Nothing better than a good scientific debate.
Unfortunately, it seems that a lot of people don’t understand GM technology very well, or the issues surrounding it (and that goes for both sides). To counter that, this week we’ll be running a partnership with Genetic Engineering Techniques, an independent page that focuses on education. Hopefully we’ll be able to tackle the issue from all sides, and get some rational debate going on.
They’re also our featured science page of the week, so go and check them out!”

The GET site is only one week old. It was established on Sept. 13th 2012. It now has over 9000 followers.

The GET site has used my cartoon free and without permission, to market their new site, with the help of the very popular IFLS site. All the clicks of the cartoon linked at the huge IFLS site (or shared by people) go to this brand new GM technology site.

I feel ripped off. I do not normally even sell my cartoons for advertising.

Who is editing the GET site – Nobody knows! I would fucking like to know, who is editing and funding the GET site and where I can send an invoice. I also hope that the IFLS site will tell, how much we can trust an independent educational science website, which is not open and transparent and has not named its editors or sponsors!

Seppo Leinonen, cartoonist

I posted the message above to both FB-sites (without the images, or links). After few minutes my cartoon was removed, also link at IFLS site, and including all comments of course. I will post the message here in case someone likes to know what is happening.

I will update this page if some new information about the owner of the mysterious Genetic Engineering Techniques FB-site emerges.

If there is a shortage of clean water, it may not be a wise idea to to pee and poo into it.

More info about the sanitation and dry toilets at Dry Toilet 2012 Conference website.

The world spends six times more on fossil fuel subsidies than we do on renewable energy. It’s time to change that. Join 350.org campaign to stop fossil fuel subsidies now.

Plodding through muddy ditches and trudging regularly along forest trails may decrease one’s risk of developing allergies, as certain soil and plant bacteria can enhance the immune system when living on the skin, says the Finnish study.

Ilkka Hanski from the University of Helsinki and Tari Haahtela from the HUCH Skin and Allergy Hospital and their team studied how infrequent contact with nature rich in biodiversity affects the variety of beneficial bacteria thriving on the skin and humans’ sensitivity to allergens. The results indicate that diverse activities involving soil and plants decrease the risk of developing allergies.

“Young people living in an area with plenty of forests and farmland had more diverse bacteria on their skin than those living in a built-up environment and near waterways. Young people living in the countryside were also less sensitive to allergens,” Hanski concludes.

The news article from University of Helsinki:
Let’s play dirty – broad contact with nature may prevent allergies

Link to the original study:
Environmental biodiversity, human microbiota, and allergy are interrelated

Summertime is a great season for bird watching. Birdlife Finland organizes a Summer Bird Watch Weekend on 9-10th June. This public event encourages Finns to report, if they see some of the listed ten common bird species during the weekend. Birdlife also asks, if people have heard a cuckoo’s voice this year.