Pet Monologues

This post celebrates World Animal Day and Bless the Animals. Follow the links to learn more about PM’s initiative which started on October 4 07. We will be looking for marketing efforts that feature animals.

Here we feature a collaboration between Puma and Atmos NY, which consists of three pairs of Puma models inspired by three endangered
polar animals: the Harp Seal, Macaroni Penguin and Polar Bear. Each sneaker has its own unique design, but comes with the works of National Geographic photographer Mitsuaki Iwago featured on it, as well as a transparent outsole.






Each shoe in the collection captures the unique characteristics of a specific animal, and features Mr. Iwago’s photography on the removable insole. The name and habitat of each animal is on the reverse tongue and the outsole in both English and Japanese. The shoes were created in hopes of bringing attention to our impact on these endangered animals.

The second shoe in the Polar Pack is the PUMA x Atmos Polar Bear Clyde. Drawing direct inspiration from the polar bears of the Artic the shoe features an off white nubuck upper and fur collar, while the blue ice sole represents the Polar Bear’s natural habitat. The shoe comes with three sets of colored laces and have the Atmos “A” on the lace tips and heel. The Polar Bear is currently ranked as vulnerable and is considered to be facing a high risk of extinction in the wild.

PM will attempt to create a post a day leading up to World Animal Day 2008. Give us a hand!

Found exclusively at Atmos as June 2008. via highsnobiety

Came across this very disturbing story visiting the NPR site and then went to the photographer’s site for photos, which are even more disturbing. This is a story about a gorilla named Senkwekwe who was murdered,
executed actually.

Here is a portion of NPR writeup…Last July, Brent Stirton took a photograph that shocked the world when it was published in Newsweek — a picture of a dead 500-pound male gorilla named Senkwekwe, one of six endangered mountain gorillas who had been murdered, execution-style, in the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In the photo, Senkwekwe is strapped on his back, on a litter made of saplings. More than a dozen African men are carrying him — gently, respectfully — out of the jungle that was supposed to be his sanctuary.

When Stirton took that photo, one pressing question was still unanswered: Who would do such a thing, and why?

Stirton recently got a chance to investigate the answer. He was the first photojournalist allowed back into the part of Virunga where the mountain gorillas live — a section now controlled by a militia. Read the rest of this entry »

Happy endanger species day!

Hey, did you know today’s a holiday? That’s right: it’s Endangered Species Day, 5/16/08, a national celebration to spread awareness about all our planet’s wildlife, fish, and plants—including the beloved polar bear—that are threatened with extinction. It’s also a great day to take action to help save them.

One of the most important actions of all? Spreading the word. Read the rest of this entry »

The polar bear is finally getting a break and maybe global warming worries have made it possible: The government has declared it a threatened species in need of increased protection. But another round of legal battles surrounding the majestic animal may be just beginning.

The Interior Department put the bear under the protective umbrella of the Endangered Species Act on Wednesday, concluding what biologists have been saying for years—the bear is on the way to extinction because of the rapid disappearance of the Arctic sea ice upon which it depends.

Scientists predict sea ice melting will continue and even accelerate because of global warming.

“This in my judgment makes the polar bear a threatened species, one likely to become in danger of extinction in the foreseeable future,” said Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, punctuating his point with an array of slides, charts and maps showing the changing ice flows of the Arctic.

But Kempthorne also said that he did not view the increased protection of the bear afforded by the Endangered Species Act as a back door to regulate greenhouse gases coming from power plants, automobiles and industrial sources. Read the rest of this entry »

Congressional hearing tomorrow: Kempthorne hides, Center testifies.

The Bush administration’s refusal to list the polar bear as an endangered species took a bizarre turn last week when Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne refused to testify at tomorrow’s Senate hearing. Read the rest of this entry »

A few posts ago PM presented incredible polar bear photos. The images by themselves are remarkable. But the polar bear is more than the largest predator on this planet. They have become a global warming symbol. It’s an easy analogy. The bears live on ice. The ices is melting. Easy picture here. Here is another polar bear story, and another global warming hot-spot.

The bears may have more problems…

Today Salon.com. comes to the forefront highlighting yet another polar bear worry. Part of their story is in this post with a link to the full story…

If your idea of a good time is paying $25,000 to journey to the frozen north in Canada to shoot a polar bear—making you one of the more than 50 American “sportsmen” who do so every year—you’re not happy about the lawsuits and recriminations over whether the Bush administration should grant new protections to polar bears. After all, those darn regulations could interfere with your bringing home a furry white rug for your living room floor.

In the reams of press about the increasing deaths of polar bears, the role of trophy hunters and the Inuit who help them is often missing. In the Canadian territories where the polar bear lives, the government sets quotas for the number of bears that can be hunted each year. The Canadian Inuit, who are paid by hunters to help them stalk the bears, and American hunting associations have become vocal adversaries to environmentalists and Congress members who in recent months have battled the Department of Interior, with its Bush-Cheney oil connections, to safeguard the polar bear.

Today, there are between 20,000 and 25,000 polar bears worldwide, according to the World Conservation Union Species Survival Commission’s Polar Bear Specialist Group, which lists the species as “vulnerable.” Between 700 and 900 polar bears are shot every year, the majority of those taken in Canada, according to Andrew Derocher, a biologist at the University of Alberta, who chairs the Polar Bear Specialist Group. Of the approximately 600 polar bears shot in Canada, about 15 percent of those are killed by sports hunters, many of them American, who pay between $20,000 to $35,000 for the chance to do so. Read the rest of this entry »

Court rejects timber industry attack on threatened seabird.

WASHINGTON DC—On February 5 the courts thwarted the timber industry’s latest attack on the marbled murrelet. Read the rest of this entry »

A sequay from art to…endangered. What are the products below made of?

Fish skin! The jacket from salmon and found at the Textile Museum of Canada. The shoes by Puma are from the wolf fish. The bikini by Mio Destino from talapia.

The pros: waterproof, odorless (they are not fish sandwiches but cured hide), interesting patterns. The cons: not elastic like spandex, more like canvas. Yes, they are still animal products. But it does start one thinking about all the other materials available other than animal products.

Inspiration: Fishalicious

Center for Biological Diversity. Save endangered species.

Dear PM,

We’re in the fight of our lives to save the Endangered Species Act from an all-out attack by the Bush administration, and we need your help! Read the rest of this entry »

On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind–the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way. Woof! Meow! Squawk! Whinny! Talk!

When PM thinks of the environment we think about the relationship between humankind, animals, the environment. Humankind, we the people, exercise control over our environment like never before. As our control grows so do our choices. We can make things worse: or better. A good choice would be to spread the word about Blog Action Day. Another would be to share words of wisdom, a story, an image, or environmental resources in comments.