Of course you’ve heard of the Ice Bucket Challenge – but did you know there’s been an interesting twist with a celebrity?
Watch the short video below (or read the transcript below)
Of course you’ve heard about the Ice Bucket Challenge – but would you like to hear about an interesting twist?
And see what British celebrities are doing to open up dialogue on Fracking in the UK.
First, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. It’s a great cause and it’s getting lots of publicity for a dreadful disease.
Loads of celebs have joined in, but in an interesting twist, Pamela Anderson refused the Ice Bucket Challenge. Why? Because the ALS Association fund and carry out animal testing.
She approves of raising awareness of the disease, but instead of doing the ice bucket challenge, she instead challenged the ALS Association to stop animal testing.
Anderson is opposed to animal testing on the basis of animal suffering. But she also points out that it’s NOT an effective research method, from a scientific point of view. During the last 10 years of ALS research, only 12 drugs have moved on to human testing, and only ONE of these has been approved for human use – and that one single drug apparently only has marginal benefits for ALS sufferers.
Anderson says that animal experiments typically have a very high failure rate, because even though animals feel pain and suffer like we do, their bodies often react completely differently to drugs and diseases. There are alternatives to animal testing —including in vitro methods, advanced computer-modeling techniques, and studies with human volunteers, among others.
She said: “Trying to cure human diseases by relying on outdated and ineffective animal experiments isn’t only cruel—it’s a grave disservice to people who desperately need cures.”
Good for you, Pamela!
Across the pond, celebrities are calling for a debate on fracking, the controversial and environmentally damaging gas extraction method which has just been approved for companies in the United Kingdom.
Fashion designer and environmentalist Vivienne Westwood, Paloma Faith and Duffy are among the celebs partnering up with a new website that allows them and other concerned citizens to ask questions about fracking. To promote the website, called MyFrackingQuestions.org. stars have posted photos of themselves with their own questions about fracking on social media.
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