Rula Khateeb

Project Manager- Youth Development and Voluntary Work Association - Palestine

Today's Date: Feb 3, 2007

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

i had a chance to visit a forest at Greece, while walking through i felt that nature is like a mother protecting its self and surrounding it self. i wished to stay there.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

yes

Now? No, we in Palestinian Territories have very limited space to move across

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

Cat, its so cute animal, keep playing like a little kid, we don’t have a zoo in Palestine to see other animals

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

the climate change

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

we have to be aware that nature is protecting us and we have to protect it to be protected

Phil Straw

Director/Avifauna Research & Services - Australia

Today's Date: 3/02/07

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Musk Ox in Greenland

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

no

Now? no

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

The Bar-tailed Godwit, it crosses the Pacific in a single flight and can fly 9.5 days without stopping

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Habitat loss, habitat loss

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Everyone can make a difference to the environment, do your bit to save for future generations

BIOCADENA

BIOCADENA (BIOCLUB AMIGOS DE LA NATURALEZA) in English is something like (NATURE'S FRIENDS BIOCLUB) - Perú

Today's Date: 2nd February 2007

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Well the group have diferents, one of them were with:
* bears
* king vulture
* Andean Condor
* Turkey vulture
* White-winged Guan
* Northern tamandua
* White-tailed Deer
* Peruvian Boa
* and more

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

beaches, rivers, lakes, and others

Now? the group have two the wetlands and Chaparri (a reserve where you can watch spectacled bear

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

Bear, by their way of be

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquake, drought, no water, and we have to help to the environment the be the same as the 50's or less.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

a piece of soil pollutioned or a glass of water pollutioned

Margaret Lawrence (Feathers in Hair)

n/a (unless you count religiousforums.org, where I am a 'super-moderator'.)

Today's Date: Feb. 1, 2007

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

On this plane of 'existence', interaction with the fox is probably the most important. At a certain point in my life, I was sitting in the back of a carpool to elementary school and glanced out the window just in time to see a fox running alongside the car. I had just enough time to marvel over its beauty and grace before it seemed to purposefully head under the wheels of the car. (Yes, that took a good many weeks for me to get over.) As time progressed, I began to realize that the fox had chosen to sacrifice itself in order for me to gain some of its wisdom and strength, especially since was at a point where I needed tips on survival. (In your line of work, I imagine that you're familiar with 'spirit animals' and their attributes, and the one I associate most with Fox is the ability to survive.)

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

I grew up in South Carolina, both in the rural north and the heavily populated capitol of Columbia. In the 'boondocks', it was pretty much limited to my own and my churches backyard. In Columbia, there was usually access to a forest behind the apartments we were living in at the time. I would spend hours simply exploring the area.

Now? Pretty much anywhere near running water. There's an old quarry that is in a town nearby, and they've built a rough walking trail around it.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

(Zookeeper would be one of the positions I would love to be able to be trained to do!) Of the beings seen at the zoo, it would probably be the tiger. My favorite animal would be the unicorn, or its Chinese counterpart, the kylin. Its attributes as a compassionate being who seeks to heal are ones I admire and associate with what I hope to aspire to.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

The pollution of the waters. I imagine global warming might be a more immediate threat, but both are dangerous in my mind.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Treat the earth as you would your mate, for She will help you raise your children.

Damon Gerard Corrie

Pan-Tribal Confederacy of Indigenous Tribal Nations

Today's Date: 2-February-2007

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Tortoises in Childhood - first pet & sacred animal tribally, it taught me patience, tranquility, diet for longevity (little meat), determination.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

I enjoyed all outdoor areas - natural - not man-made landscapes though.

Now? Same - except now I need the presence of my people around me as well to feel complete, where I grew up was in exile from my people.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

Tortoise, for all the reasons in answer to question 1.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Global warming caused by unbridled capitalism fueld by worship of the Almighty dollar - instead of the Creator of the universe.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Mankind was created to be the caretaker of this planet - not the destroyer of it; every living thing has an equal right to exist.

Charlie Toledo

Director/Suscol Intertribal Council

Today's Date:2/2/2007

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Lizard jumping at my head at night campfire. Also Humming bird circling me at auspicious moments all my life.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Just the desert backyard. Created a whole cosmology w/my siblings staring at Sandia Crest and expansive blue sky of Albq., New Mexico

Now? All the hills, rivers and ocean I visit and work at in Northern California

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

Elephant, due to many recurring dreams and eventual trip to Africa where an entourage of all gender, all ages elephants crossed our path and huge male bull trumpeted our journey into "camp". The elephant is matriarchal, tribal; they bury their dead and care for their young as a group. All these are some of the reasons why I love elephants.

But my most favorite animal or insect is the one that is closest to me at the moment whether it be squirrel clicking at me through bedroom window, hawk whistling at me as I walk beneath it's tree or circling me in ceremony at sunrise, or the ant that is waving to me from the edge of my car to tell me "pay attention to the little things."

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

To pay attention to the little things water, air awareness of all species of life all are one air, one water. Survival of our greedy and overpopulated species will be the biggest challenge of the near future. Clean Water, clean air w/out these things we cannot live.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Walk!

Glenn Robinson

Hominid -- Earth First!

Today’s Date: February 2, 2007

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

There was no single Natural interaction I can single out as life-changing. The Spring forests of upstate NY and mountains of Colorado's Front Range come to mind, though.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Now? These days I enjoy day trips/weekends in the Jemez mountains of New Mexico, but all Earth is my home and country.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

I'm rather partial to binturongs. Easy-going, spend their days high and safe in a tree, come out at night to forage.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Greatest environmental challenge? Countering the complete environmental collapse currently underway. A planetary infection of intelligent apes, destroying and polluting everything they touch.

Future challenges: Maintaining biodiversity, preventing future catastrophic infestations.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Don't breed!

Ararat Majeed Raheem

Head, Green Kurdistan Society, Kurdistan Region, Iraq

Today's Date: 1 February 2007

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

I am protecting env. for this every animal impacted me especially horses

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

boyn village

Now? mountains and villages life

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

[no answer given]

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

recycling

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

every man be regarded about env. because the earth in danger. my religion is zardashty not Islam my religion ordered me to protect the environment every where

joni aka Karen Kluger

Author

Today's Date: Jan. 31, 2007

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

Two. Eagles and dolphins.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Yes, the gardens the city provided for residents to grow vegetables.

Now? The coastal life oaks near my former home in Southern California. Love those trees. The woods in the Pacific Northwest that I enter only 250 feet from my home.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

Dogs. I'm inclined to agree with the saying that dogs are here to teach us how God loves us and cats are how we respond.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

Hands down...global warming. Plastic bags and prescription drugs whose particles end up in our rivers and streams as the water makes its way to the sea.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Read "Lessons Under the Oak Tree." We categorize the natural world as though it is separate from us. The things on the earth are there for us to use and abuse. Readers say the book changes the way the reader looks at the world, gently showing how intimately we are connected to nature in ways not taught in school. If we only knew how much we are interconnected with all that is on earth, we would think twice before destroying it.

Vincent Carlisle Espínola

Protocol and External Relations - University of Alcalá

Today's Date: January 31, 2007

1. What interaction with an animal and/or nature in your life has had the biggest impact on you?

My first visit to Iguassu Falls, before moving to Europe--walking next to the immense waterfalls was definitely a breathtaking experience. There, I was also able to walk through the tropical forest and encounter pumas, koatís, and other animals up-close.

2. Did you have a favorite place in the great outdoors during your childhood?

Yes, a wonderful hillside/valley full of coconut trees and pine tress, with a cascade cutting through the hills.

Now? No. It is difficult to find "great outdoors" in Europe. I enjoy any piece of land, even the smallest one, and don't expect "great" outdoors... in doing so, I enjoy being outdoors always, and if I do encounter something "great" in Europe, I'm even more pleased and in communion with nature.

3. As a former zookeeper, I would love to know what your favorite animal is, and why?

Macaws. Their brilliant-colored plumage and ability to speak on repetition, apart from the fact the I used to have a couple of macaws as pets when I was young.

4. What do you think is the greatest environmental challenge facing us now, and what do you think will be the greatest challenge in the future?

The greatest challenge nowadays is to make the government of the USA comply with the Kyoto Treaty. It is outrageous that the country that most pollution creates is precisely the one who was not signed, nor ratified, nor respects this environmental Treaty.

The greatest challenge (now and for the future) is to make people more conscious of the need to recycle. The populations of the so-called "advanced, first world" are those who most trash generate in the world (especially in the USA), and therefore it is essential to create collective consciousness that a) space is finite (and so are dump plots); b) a great percentage of our trash can be recycled; c) excessive trash and debris damage our ecosystem, and we can reduce this damage by recycling.

5. If you could give everyone one piece of advice regarding the environment and our natural resources, what would it be?

Try to reuse things as much as you can, since resources are finite. If you can't reuse them, then recycle!