http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aruQKXFRYnI

Jane Goodall and Michael Aufhauser remember how they brought chimpanzees in need of rescue to Aufhauser’s Animal Sanctuary in Austria. In a rare, unscripted moment, we see Goodall retain the dignity and eloquence of her copious public videos while laughing and joking candidly; in turn, we see Aufhauser’s admiration and warmth towards Goodall. He says he “never would have dared” hold chimpanzees in his sanctuary if it were not for Goodall believing in him. Goodall says that because of him, the chimps were rescued and allowed to stay in a German-speaking country, a language and culture that they recognized.

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Rare Candid Moment of Goodall and Fellow Conservationist appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj7FS_sJ5R8

The people that Jane Goodall once inspired speak on how they came to work for her. As Goodall’s program, Roots and Shoots, spreads into China, her message of conservation and peace spreads and the number of her followers increases. Tori Zwisler, chair of the board of the Shanghai Roots and Shoots program, explains how meeting Goodall changed her path in life. Roots and Shoots staff member Greg Maclsaac explains how he promised Goodall would visit all the schools that began the Roots and Shoots programs and Goodall decided to honor that promise. Goodall speaks throughout the video about her program as well.

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‘I Changed the Direction of My Life When I Met Her’ appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdkXBGKBxjw

On January 13, 1942, Henry Ford patented a car made out of plastic that was 30% lighter than the average car of that day. This video shows footage of the plastic car.

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Henry Ford’s Plastic Car appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq5GeJlBbIs

On December 28, 1973, The Endangered Species Act was passed in the United States and signed into law by President Richard Nixon. The act was created to protect species from extinction as a consequence of economic growth and development. The Endangered Species Act continues to be debated. In this video, Congressman Jim Moran (D-VA) addresses why he believes the act needs continued support.

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Debating The Endangered Species Act appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdD42SBovfY

Chico Mendes was a Brazilian rubber tapper who became a trade union leader and environmentalist. He fought to preserve the Amazon Rainforest as well as for human rights. As part of the Rubber Tappers Union, Mendes asked the Brazilian government to set up reserves to make sure that the forest was being used without being damaged. The union also effectively stopped the destruction of the forest by blocking the way to rubber reserves. Mendes believed that the rubber tappers needed to diversify their work, focusing on products such as nuts, fruit and oil in addition to rubber. On December 22, 1988, Mendes was assassinated by a rancher. He was the 19th rural activist to be killed in Brazil that year. This video shows a brief interview with Mendes, as well as first-hand footage of rubber tappers successfully attempting to stop ranchers from cutting down trees.

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Chico Mendes & The Brazilian Rainforest appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pghz6gUDBPE

Three months after the death of wildlife expert Steve Irwin, known worldwide as “The Crocodile Hunter,” his wife Terri Raines, and daughter, Bindi Irwin, are interviewed on their lives following his tragic passing. They discuss what they most miss about him and how they are both helping each other process the grief. Bindi shares how seeing her father on television helps her feel like “he’s still there” and keeps his memory alive. She also optimistically says of the grief: “It’s really bumpy…it’s a hard time that we are going through but all bad things must come to an end.” Irwin passed away on September 4, 2006 after being pierced by a stingray in the chest.

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Wife & Daughter on Missing Steve Irwin & Preserving His Legacy appeared first on Witnify.

“I hope you will not have a building of any kind, not a summer cottage, a hotel, or anything else, to mar the wonderful grandeur…Leave it as it is. You can not improve on it.”

President of the United States from 1901 to 1909, Theodore Roosevelt is considered the “Father of Conservation,” a lifelong naturalist and avid explorer. In his 1903 speech–set amidst the backdrop of the Grand Canyon–Roosevelt urges the preservation of the canyon as he addresses his former soldiers from the Spanish-American War of 1898. In 1908, Roosevelt proclaimed a large portion of the Grand Canyon as a national monument along with several other terrains throughout the country. His speech was given in Arizona on May 6, 1903:

Mr. Governor, and you, my Fellow-Citizens:

I am glad to be in Arizona to-day. From Arizona many gallant men came into the regiment which I had the honor to command. Arizona sent men who won glory on fought fields, and men to whom came a glorious and an honorable death fighting for the flag of their country. As long as I live it will be to me an inspiration to have served with Bucky O Neill. I have met so many comrades whom I prize, for whom I feel respect and admiration and affection, that I shall not particularize among them except to say that there is none for whom I feel all of respect and admiration and affection more than for your Governor.

I have never been in Arizona before. It is one of the regions from which I expect most development through the wise action of the National Congress in passing the irrigation act. The first and biggest experiment now in view under that act is the one that we are trying in Arizona. I look forward to the effects of irrigation partly as applied by and through the government, still more as applied by individuals, and especially by associations of individuals, profiting by the example of the government, and possibly by help from it I look forward to the effects of irrigation as being of greater consequence to all this region of country in the next fifty years than any other material movement whatsoever.

In the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a natural wonder which, so far as I know, is in kind absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world. I want to ask you to do one thing in connection with it in your own interest and in the interest of the
country to keep this great wonder of nature as it now is. I was delighted to learn of the wisdom of the Santa Fe railroad people in deciding not to build their hotel on
the brink of the canyon. I hope you will not have a building of any kind, not a summer cottage, a hotel, or anything else, to mar the wonderful grandeur, the sublimity, the great loneliness and beauty of the canyon. Leave it as it is. You can not improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it. What you can do is to keep it for your children, your children’s children, and for all who come after you, as one of the great sights which every American if he can travel at all should see. We have gotten past the stage, my fellow-citizens, when we are to be pardoned if we treat any part of our country as some thing to be skinned for two or three years for the use of the present generation, whether it is the forest, the water, the scenery. Whatever it is, handle it so that your children’s children will get the benefit of it. If you deal with irrigation, apply it under circumstances that will make it of benefit, not to the speculator who hopes to get profit out of it for two or three years, but handle it so that it will be of use to the home-maker, to the man who comes to live here, and to have his children stay after him. Keep the forests in the same way. Preserve the forests by use; preserve them for the ranchman and the stockman, for the people of the Territory, for the people of the region round about. Preserve them for that use, but use them so that they will not be squandered, that they will not be wasted, so that they will be of benefit to the Arizona of 1953 as well as the Arizona of 1903.

To the Indians here I want to say a word of welcome. In my regiment I had a good many Indians. They were good enough to fight and to die, and they are good enough to have me treat them exactly as squarely as any white man. There are many problems in connection with them. We must save them from corruption and from brutality; and I regret to say that at times we must save them from unregulated Eastern philanthropy. All I ask is a square
deal for every man. Give him a fair chance. Do not let him wrong any one, and do not let him be wronged.

I believe in you. I am glad to see you. I wish you well with all my heart, and I know that your future will justify all the hopes we have.

Source: The Works of Theodore Roosevelt Roosevelt, Memorial Edition.

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[Text] Theodore Roosevelt’s Admiration for the Grand Canyon appeared first on Witnify.

Author: Robbie Faselt

“In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.” -John Muir

The Pacific Crest in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Source: Creative Commons.

The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) is one of the most well-known long-distance hiking trails in the world.

It spans 2,663 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border to the U.S.-Canada border and changes in elevation from just above sea level to over 13,000 feet. While it may not be quite as famous as the Appalachian Trail, it has become more recognizable recently mostly due to Cheryl Strayed’s 2012 memoir, “Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail,” which had reached the first position in the New York Times Best Sellers list and been selected for Oprah’s Book Club. The trail will gain more public attention soon when the film adaptation of Strayed’s memoir is released in December of 2014 starring Reese Witherspoon in the lead role.

Despite being part of the Triple Crown of Hiking along with the Appalachian Trail and the Continental Divide Trail, the PCT was officially completed just over 20 years ago in 1993. And even though the trail was completed relatively recently, the PCT has a long and interesting history that starts in the 1930s.

There are many theories as to who the first person was to propose a trail running from Mexico to Canada along the west coast of the United States, but the most believed theory is that a man named, Clinton C. Clarke, proposed the trail. Clarke wanted to link the many already-existing trails into one long-distance trail that would span across the U.S. south to north.

A trail sign on the Pacific Crest Trail. Source: Flickr.

Clarke wanted to connect the John Muir Trail, the Tahoe-Yosemite Trail, the Skyline Trail and the Cascade Crest Trail. In order to promote this proposed trail, Clarke founded the Pacific Crest Trail System Conference in 1932–including hiking and youth groups such as the YMCA, the Sierra Club and the Boy Scouts. Throughout the 1930s, people in these groups, especially the YMCA, scouted a route for the trail figuring out how they could combine the already-existing trails.

By the 1960s, hiking and spending time in the mountains became a lot more popular throughout the United States and as a result of this, President Lyndon B. Johnson wanted there to be a nationwide system of trails that would promote outdoor recreation. In 1968, the National Trails System Act was passed by the U.S. Congress and the Appalachian Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail became the U.S.’s first two national scenic trails.

A hiker heading north on the Pacific Crest Trail. Source: Flickr.

The act also called for a Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail Advisory Council to be formed that would be in charge of the upkeep of the PCT and deal with all sorts of people such as cattle ranchers that use the land that the trail goes through.

In 1992, the council was renamed the Pacific Crest Trail Association and made agreements with the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management. In 1993, the trail was declared complete. But with over 200 miles of the trail running through private lands, the trail is still at risk from urban encroachment, and as a result of this, the trail has seen many changes since it was officially declared complete.

Today, hikers come from throughout the country and the world to complete a thru-hike of the PCT.

A map showing the Pacific Crest Trail spanning from Mexico to Canada. Source: Creative Commons.

This means that they try to complete the whole 2,663 miles in a single trip. According to the Pacific Crest Trail Association, approximately 700-800 people try to complete a thru-hike of the PCT every year but only about 60% accomplish their goal. Thru-hikes usually take five or more months to complete but the fastest person to ever finish the PCT did it in 59 days traveling an average of 45 miles per day.

The first person to complete a PCT thru-hike was Eric Ryback who achieved the feat as an 18-year-old student. Ryback only re-supplied five times on the 2,663-mile trail meaning he traveled most of the time with an 80-pound backpack filled with 40 pounds of food. Even with that much sustenance, Ryback often ran out of food and was forced to forage.

Some people have even begun to hike the trail both northbound and southbound in the same trip hiking a total of 5,300 miles.

Scott Williamson was the first to complete this feat in 2004 on his fourth attempt. His trip lasted 197 days.

Many avid thru-hikers have clearly trekked through the PCT or sections of it. The famous Scottish-American naturalist, John Muir, sums it up perfectly when he explains why people hike and spend time in nature: “In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.”

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[Blog] The Pacific Crest Trail’s History & Rise to Prominence appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkbnFfldsOc

Vietnamese doctors and civilians discuss the ongoing impact of Agent Orange on the country 35 years after the end of the Vietnam War. Although the United States used the herbicide Agent Orange to kill the crops of communist insurgents, the chemical mixture has had devastating effects on the people who were exposed to it. Today, children continue to be born with birth defects, cancer, and other illnesses caused by it.

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The Weapon That Outlived the War appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCj9V0In1G8

Erin Brockovich explains how her persistence and motivation helped to rally support against the powerhouse utility plant P&G that was responsible for contaminating the water sources and making people deathly ill in Hinkley, California during the 1990′s. Brockovich explains how she would not back down against a large company that deceived and hurt hundreds of innocent families. The determined lawyer was later immortalized in the Academy Award nominated film “Erin Brockovich,” in which she was played by Julia Roberts.

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Erin Brockovich: ‘I Would Be Heard’ appeared first on Witnify.