Amphibians Going the Way of the Dinosaurs

If we don’t act soon, amphibians could disappear – forever. That may seem improbable given how many frogs, toads, salamander and newts there are on this planet, but experts say they’re in a swift decline and projected losses would constitute the biggest mass extinction since the disappearance of dinosaurs.

Amphibians are currently found on every continent except Antarctica, with some species able to survive partial freezing, 10 years without food, long droughts and temperatures of up to 104 degrees Fahrenheit – but that doesn’t make them immune to the problems that are facing them now.

From BBC News:

A third of all species of amphibian are threatened with extinction; nearly half are in decline, and they are the most threatened of all the vertebrate groups.

The usual suspects of habitat destruction, climate change, invasive species, environmental contaminants and overexploitation represent key interrelated factors.

Additionally, a disease called chytridiomycosis or “chytrid” (caused by the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) infects a wide range of amphibians globally and is capable of driving species to extinction.

Exacerbated by the other issues impacting amphibians, chytrid has emerged as one of the major threats to their survival. This disease can kill amphibians in otherwise pristine habitats or provide the final nail in the coffin for species already pushed to the brink of extinction.

Naturally, amphibians play an incredibly important role in the food chain, consuming massive amounts of invertibrates that we humans consider pests. Their skins also contain important pharmaceutical compounds like epibatidine, which is a painkiller 200 times more effective than morphine.

A new conservation organization called the Amphibian Survival Alliance has been launched in an effort to protect these creatures, but so far it’s seriously underfunded. Hopefully they’ll start seeing some donations roll in soon, because a world without amphibians would be really sad.

Link [BBC News]

Photo credit: R A Mittermeier/BBC News

Species Thought Extinct Was Just Wearing a Mask

A species thought to be extinct for centuries was just wearing a mask all this time. Scientists have long assumed that the Masked Booby was a close cousin of the Tasman Booby, which had presumably been pushed out of its natural habitat by humans.

But the two species are one and the same. Researchers cleared up the confusion through DNA and fossil research.

From The National Geographic, via Treehugger:

The double-naming came about, Steeves said, “because paleontologists and biologists in recent decades did not communicate.” The fossil experts unknowingly compared ancient bones of female Tasman boobies to those of male “masked boobies.” Unaware that Tasman booby females are markedly smaller than males, the paleontologists assumed they were looking at two species.

The Masked/Tasman Booby is a large seabird that breeds on islands in tropical oceans, except in the eastern Atlantic. Not only is it not extinct, it ranks as “least concern” on the IUCN ratings. Considering how many species we lose every day, getting one back (sort of) is just a drop in the bucket, but it’s a hopeful story nonetheless.

Link [Treehugger]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Flying Frog, Tiny Deer among 350 New Species Discovered in Himalayas

A flying frog and a tiny deer were among the incredible 350 new species discovered in the eastern Himalayas in the past decade, according to the WWF. And, though we may have just recently found out about them, these species are already threatened by human activities in the region.

From Yahoo News:

In a report released here, it said climate change, deforestation, overgrazing by domestic livestock and illegal poaching and wildlife trading threatened one of the biologically richest areas of the planet.

“In the last half-century, this area of South Asia has faced a wave of pressures as a result of population growth and the increasing demand for commodities,” said the report, “The Eastern Himalayas — Where Worlds Collide.”

“Only 25 percent of the original habitats in the region remain intact. For the unique species of the Eastern Himalayas, this means that today 163 are considered globally threatened,” it said.

The WWF said 353 new species were discovered in the region between 1998 and 2008, among them a red-footed tree frog known as a “flying frog” because its large webbed feet allow it to glide when falling.

The deer, called a miniature muntjac, stands just 25-30 inches tall. Another fascinating discovery was a limbless amphibian that resembles a giant earthworm and lives deep underground.

Unfortunately, it’s becoming all too common to discover new species and find that they are already seriously endangered. A tiny monkey called Mura’s saddleback tamarin that was discovered just last month is in danger of extinction due to the development of the Amazon rainforest.

It just goes to show that there are so many treasures on this earth that we’ve yet to uncover, and we need to do everything we can to preserve them.

Link [Yahoo News]
Photo credit: WWF

7 (More!) Environmental Problems That Are Worse Than We Thought

How have humans managed to royally screw up the world? Let us count the ways. We already covered mammal extinction, the ocean dead zones, collapsing fish stock, destruction of the rainforest, polar sea ice loss, rising CO2 levels and the fact that there’s way too many of us in the first place. But those certainly aren’t the only pressing environmental problems facing the earth – here are seven more. And yes, most of them are our own damn fault.

Chemical Contamination

(image via: China.org.cn)

Heavy metals. Radioactive waste. Pesticides. Hormones. Pharmaceuticals. Industrial chemicals. The list goes on and on.

These substances – many of them toxic and carcinogenic – are present in our water, our food, our air and our bodies. They come from factories, improperly discarded electronics, ships, hospitals, vehicles and even human waste. They’re causing disease and deformities, creating antibiotic-resistant superbugs and causing fish to spontaneously switch genders. They’re killing animals and forever altering the ecology of the earth.

All of these years of progress are catching up to us. When these substances first came into use, few people questioned whether they might have adverse effects on human health or the environment. But decades later, federal health officials acknowledge that environmental carcinogens account for 55 to 60 percent of all U.S. cancer cases annually.

Despite the fact that scientists are now speaking out about the dangers of accumulating these substances in our bodies over a lifetime, the industries responsible for the contamination have largely gotten off scot-free thanks in large part to extremely persistent lobbying of federal agencies like the EPA.

Air Pollution

(image via: Flickr user Simone Ramella)

In some places, air pollution makes its presence known, billowing from power plants and vehicles and hovering above cities in giant, hazy brown clouds. In others, it’s an unseen enemy, damaging the ozone layer and building up in our lungs with every breath we take.

Some of the major pollutants in the air that are caused by human activity include sulfur oxides from industrial processes, nitrogen oxides from high temperature combustion, carbon monoxide from car exhaust and burning fuel, particulate matter, organic volatile compounds, toxic metals, chlorofluorocarbons, ammonia and radioactive pollutants. Many of these pollutants contribute to global warming and threaten the health of trees, lakes, crops, and animals.

In cities where air pollution is particularly excessive, such as New Delhi, India, there is a low birth rate and high possibility of children developing asthma, pneumonia and other respiratory infections. According to the World Health Organization, 2.4 million people die annually from causes that can be directly attributed to air pollution. In the Los Angeles Basin and San Joaquin Valley of Southern California alone, 3800 people die prematurely each year from exposure to high air pollution levels.

A recent study found that even minor improvements in air quality can tack up to 5 months onto the average person’s life expectancy.

Habitat Loss

(image via: MongaBay)

As our population has expanded, we’ve spread into the countryside, cutting down forests and driving out wildlife at an alarming pace. We’ve built cities, suburbs, highways, power plants, and farms and in the process, we have destroyed over half of the world’s forests. Even now, they’re being removed at a rate of ten times higher than any possible level of regrowth.

As a result, thousands of species have become extinct or endangered. Habitat loss is a main threat to 85% of all species on the IUCN ‘Red List’.

In 1992, “some 1,700 of the world’s leading scientists, including the majority of the Nobel laureates in the sciences”, put forth this dire warning:

Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course. Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the environment and on critical resources. If not checked, many of our current practices put at serious risk the future that we wish for human society and the plant and animal kingdoms, and may so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know. Fundamental changes are urgent if we are to avoid the collision our present course will bring about…. WARNING we the undersigned, senior members of the world’s scientific community, hereby warn all humanity of what lies ahead. A great change in our stewardship of the earth and the life on it, is required, if vast human misery is to be avoided and our global home on this planet is not to be irretrievably mutilated.

Things have only gotten much, much worse since then.

One quarter of all mammals, one third of amphibians and one eighth or birds are considered threatened or endangered. Recent news stories have noted the dire effects of habitat loss on creatures like butterflies, frogs, songbirds, apes and a variety of plants.

As each species dies, the earth suffers a loss to its rich biodiversity, which is needed for continued ecosystem survival. The complex and delicate tapestry of life within a given ecosystem contributes to nutrients and water cycling, soil formation and retention, pollination of plants, resistance against invasive species, regulation of climate and pest and pollution control. When some links in the chain go missing, the entire ecosystem is drastically affected.

Water Crisis

(image via: Wikimedia Commons)

Water: it’s essential for all life forms, and when there’s not enough of it, the suffering is acute. Crops fail. People die, both of thirst and of the violence that breaks out when there’s not enough to go around. Water wars are already happening in places like India, where people have been killed just trying to secure enough water to survive. It’s a worldwide problem, but it’s worse in third world countries and it’s going to escalate further with climate change.

Less than 1% of the world’s fresh water is readily accessible for human consumption. It’s a commodity, and one that is increasingly overconsumed in rich countries while the rest of the world goes without. A large contributing factor is the disproportionate pollution of drinking water supplies in third world countries where cleanup is too expensive to attempt. But even here in America, we’re slowly learning the value of an element that we’ve long taken for granted as populations in the arid Southwest live the reality of severe drought.

Approximately one in eight people in the world lack access to safe water supplies and at any given time, and 4,500 children die as a result every single day. Half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from a water-related disease like malaria and dysentery.

The rapidly increasing human population will put an even bigger strain on water supplies, forcing us to stretch a finite resource between 40% – 50% more people.

Desertification

(image via: Walrus Magazine)

As we’ve expanded into areas of the world that can barely support a human population, we’ve stretched the land’s ability to provide for us to the breaking point. We have exhausted the soil through overcultivation and shortsighted agricultural methods. We have removed far too many trees, causing severe soil erosion and landslides. We have raised too many livestock animals and allowed them to overgraze on formerly green land that is now stripped and brown.

All of these things cause desertification, which, like many other environmental problems, is exacerbated by climate change. This destruction of the topsoil that we rely on to feed us causes staggering economic losses of more than $40 billion per year, and the starvation of millions of people.

Once arable land is converted to desert, conditions that intensify wildfires are created.  Dust from these dry lands are blown across the world – from Africa to as far away as the United States – causing health problems and boosting death rates. And once desertification occurs, the change is permanent on a human time scale – as far as we’re concerned, that land will never support the same vegetation that it did in the past.

Ocean Acidification

(image via: Inventor Spot)

All around the world, from the depths of the Pacific Ocean to the shallow waters of the Caribbean, something is happening to sea water that’s causing large-scale coral casualties and dramatically altering ocean ecology: acidification.

The world’s oceans absorb massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, making the water more acidic as the gas dissolves to create carbonic acid. The more CO2 is present in the atmosphere, the more acidic the oceans get. As a result, ocean chemistry is changing 100 times more rapidly than in the 650,000 years that preceded the modern industrial era.

So what exactly does that mean for sea life? Science Daily explains:

This increased acidity can hamper the ability of a wide variety of marine organisms ranging from coral to abalone to form calcium carbonate shells and skeletonal structures. Researchers believe that at crucial stages in the larval and juvenile stages in the lives of many marine invertebrates, ocean acidification inhibits calcification, and also appears to affect reproduction and growth in some organisms.

Scientists are still studying the impacts that acidification is having on ocean ecosystems, but some of the negative effects are already clear. Acidification has made some areas of the ocean unfriendly to many types of fish, but jellyfish still flourish – thus, the huge overpopulation of jellyfish in places like the Sea of Japan. It’s also eroding coral reefs at a disturbingly rapid pace.

“Ocean acidification is happening today and it’s happening on top of global warming, so we are in double trouble,” says Jelle Bijma, chair of the EuroCLIMATE programme Scientific Committee and a biogeochemist at the Alfred-Wegener-Institute Bremerhaven.

In February of 2009, more than 150 leading marine scientists from 26 countries called for immediate legislative action to reduce C02 emissions so that we could prevent this problem from getting even worse. Unfortunately, efforts to come to an international agreement about lowering greenhouse gas emissions – including the recent G8 summit in Rome – have thus far been unsuccessful.

Disposable Culture

(image via: Idiocracy/20th Century Fox)

The concept of a one-use item reportedly started back in 1892 when William Painter, founder of the Baltimore Bottle Seal Company, patented the disposable bottle cap. At the time, people thought the idea was strange: you take it off the bottle and throw it in the trash? Really? Surely there’s another use for it.

How times have changed. Now, entire store aisles are devoted to one-use items and even large goods like furniture, vehicles and electronics aren’t made to last. Just try to get your toaster fixed when it goes on the fritz and you’ll find that repair is more expensive and inconvenient than simply buying a new one. Manufacturers like it that way: it means we keep their assembly lines running and their pockets stuffed with cash. Why should they make products that will last a lifetime and beyond if they can give it a three-year lifespan and get paid for it again and again?

Of course, all of those broken and unwanted items are put to the curb never to be seen again, at least by their former owners. And the amount of stuff that we send to landfills every year is staggering. The average American discards seven and a half pounds of trash every day, for a collective total of over 255 million tons of household waste each and every year. Since 1980, total waste generation in the U.S. has more than doubled.

It’s not like this stuff ever goes away. We’re not dumping it into a black hole. We’re piling it up on land that could be used for a far better purpose, or merely throwing it into the ocean. At this rate, it wouldn’t be surprising if we covered the entire planet in trash within a century or two. For some reason, this doesn’t seem to bother most people – they’re content to let other people deal with it, like the poor communities that get saddled with all of our carcinogenic electronic waste, or our great-grandchildren.

And, despite the fact that 80% of what Americans throw away is recyclable, our actual recycling rate is only about 33%. Not that recycling is the answer to our problems. We’re producing way too much stuff to even be able to use all of it once it was turned into something else, and the process of recycling can be very energy-intensive.

The answer is in changing our mindset. We’ve been duped into selling the health of the planet for a moment’s convenience, convinced that doing things the old fashioned way is archaic and unnecessary. But what’s really unnecessary – and tragic – is our addiction to waste, and the consequences that are yet to come.

7 American Species Threatened by Global Warming

As the world continues to warm while nations battle it out over how to handle the problem, the fate of seven American species of plants and animals hangs in the balance. The Environmental Defense Fund has highlighted these ‘ambassador species’ which will likely not survive global warming, in the hopes that they will spur people to act.

There are, of course, thousands – perhaps millions – of species across the world threatened by global warming. There are many more species here in America that are threatened. But these seven species will probably disappear within our lifetime if we don’t do something about it.

Sugar maple – A warmer climate poses several threats to sugar maples. First, sugar maples require cold winters to convert the starch it has stored in the summer to sucrose that will promote new buds in the spring. Sugar maples are also vulnerable to climate-induced drought. And, warmer winters have left the trees more vulnerable to infestations.

Monarch butterfly – In the high altitude conifer forests of central Mexico where they spend the winter, wetter, colder conditions are predicted over next 50 years. Rain followed by freezing temperatures can be lethal to overwintering monarchs. The hotter, drier summer conditions predicted for eastern U.S. and Canada could shift suitable habitats northward, possibly extending migration distances. High temperatures or drought could affect food resources, reproductive success and adult survival. It’s unclear whether the range of the larval monarch’s host plant, milkweed, will shift with the butterfly’s range.

Leatherback sea turtle – Sea level rise from melting glaciers and warmer, expanding ocean water threatens to inundate beaches where leatherbacks and other sea turtles dig their nests. Stronger tropical storms fueled by warmer seas may destroy leatherbacks’ exposed nesting beaches and damage nests. Leatherbacks’ nesting grounds could be further disturbed as humans respond to greater storm threats with beach armoring and new sea walls.

American pika – Some may like it hot but not the pika. Even brief exposures (as little as a few hours) at temperatures above 78 degrees F can be fatal. Plus they rely on snowpack for insulation in the winter. In the southern portions of its range, some populations already occupy the highest altitudes, with no place to move upward to escape the heat.

Canada lynx – The lynx and its main prey, the snowshoe hare, are adapted to deep snow cover. Lynx hunting success (and therefore prey availability) has a great deal to do with snow conditions. Warm winter periods can affect snow texture, depth, and extent of snow cover. Climate change may also reduce the extent and composition of their primary habitat – boreal and alpine forests.

Tufted puffin – Tufted puffins feed on small fish that are sensitive to sea surface temperatures. Scientists have observed that when sea surface temperatures rise, puffins have poorer breeding success. A study on Triangle Island in British Columbia showed that puffin hatch dates, chick growth, and fledging success decreased with warmer sea surface temperatures.

Polar bear – Bears hunt seals, their primary food source, at the edge of Arctic sea ice. As sea ice disappears, bear mortality rises. There are documented instances of bears drowning, unable to make the long swim from one ice flow to the next. Polar bears also appear to be shrinking in size – researchers say the bears are a third smaller than they were 30 years ago as melting ice makes it harder for them to catch seals. Some are now even resorting to eating other bears to survive.

Learn more about each of these species, and how you can help, at the Environmental Defense Fund website.

Link [Environmental Defense Fund]

Indonesian Orangutan Habitat Wiped Out for Airport & Brothel

As if orangutans didn’t already have it hard enough in Indonesia, where their very existence is being threatened by palm oil production, now they’re losing land in a national park to commercial developments – including a brothel.

That’s right, this endangered species is being pushed out of one of the few remaining homes it has so that Indonesian men can contract STDs from strange women. Hurray for the onward march of human progress!

From Yahoo News (AFP):

Almost 600 of the long-haired apes have disappeared from Kutai National Park, East Kalimantan province, over the past seven years of unchecked construction, the Centre for Orangutan Protection (COP) said in a statement.

“The number of orangutans in the area, which was 600 individuals in 2004, has fallen to only 30 to 60 individuals at present,” Hardi Baktiantoro from the Centre for Orangutan Protection (COP) told AFP.

“The Kutai National Park has been changing into a city, complete with an airport, gas stations, marketplace… a bus terminal and prostitution complex,” COP habitat campaign manager Yon Thayrun said in a press release.

The root of the problem, according to Thayrun, is that officials are giving away land spaces to people to win their votes in the local administration elections. What it comes down to, as usual, are two of mankind’s biggest weaknesses: greed and the desire for power.

The more I hear about things like this, the more I believe that the world would be far better off without us.

Link [Yahoo News]
Photo credit: MoonBattery.com

The Mystery of Chile’s Dead Birds and Fish

Why are so many of Chile’s birds and fish dying? Scientists are trying to determine what may have caused the deaths of hundreds of penguins, millions of sardines and 2,000 baby flamingos in recent months. Some speculate that global warming may be to blame.

From the Miami Herald:

The events started to unfold in March, when the remains of about 1,200 penguins were found on a remote beach in southern Chile. Then came the sardines — tons of them — dead and washed up on a nearby stretch of coastline. The stench forced nearby schools to close, and the army was called in to shovel piles of rotting fish off the sand.

Farther north, thousands of rare Andean flamingos abandoned their nests on a salt lake in the Atacama Desert. The eggs failed to hatch and, over a period of three months, all 2,000 chicks died. The extent of the damage was discovered in April, during an inspection.

No one knows for sure what caused these three apparently unrelated ecological tragedies, although there are many theories. Global warming has been blamed, as have overfishing, pollution and bacterial disease. In the north, ecologists have accused mining companies of fatally altering the flamingos’ habitat by draining the area of subterranean water.

While some fishing authorities believe the sardines died due to a rise in water temperatures, local fishermen suspect that trawlermen hauled a huge quantity of sardines from the ocean, and then dumped the ones they couldn’t carry back to shore.

The flamingo deaths are even more disturbing, especially as the Andean is the rarest species of flamingo in the world. Some ecologists disagree with placing blame on mining companies, since the summer that just ended was unusually dry and hot, causing the lakes to shrink and become more saline.

It’s clear that Chile needs to take action to protect its rich diversity of wildlife, but there’s only so much the government can do if global warming is the cause. The entire world is responsible for turning this thing around.

Link [Miami Herald]

Photo credit: The Guardian

Noah’s Ark Full of Stuffed Exotic Animals Seized in Miami

A veritable Noah’s Ark filled with the stuffed carcasses of endangered species was found in Miami’s Port Everglades this week by U.S. Customs agents. The mega yacht belongs to Russian-American billionaire Tamir Sapir, who appears to have some sort of bizarre obsession with dead animals.

A snarling Bengal tiger head, snakeskin-covered cigar box, ivory carvings and stuffed heads of lions and bears were among the items Sapir was keeping aboard the yacht in violation of endangered species laws.

From MSNBC:

Even though Sapir was not smuggling the items, U.S. Customs agents seized the boat and fined the real-estate tycoon $150,000. The expensive trinkets were also taken away.

“Personally, I think these items are rather creepy items,” said U.S. District Attorney Alex Acosta. “And I would not want them in my house, but some people like them and are willing to buy them. The reason laws exist is because there is a market.”

The yacht was found on an Italian freighter at Port Everglades and was explained to be Sapir’s personal boat for trips to the Caribbean.

Poor Sapir. First he fell off the Forbes.com 500 Richest Americans list, and now he’s been robbed of his beloved collection of carefully preserved dead animals. Life must be really tough for this businessman with a net worth of over $1.4 billion.

Creepy is not quite the right word for this. Imagine boarding this yacht as a guest of Mr. Sapir’s, expecting, at most, a gaudy Saudi oil baron-style gold toilet, and instead walking into a floating taxidermy shop. It sounds like the set of a horror movie.

Link [MSNBC]
Photo credit: Flickr user GregPC

Extinction Sucks – What are You Gonna Do About it?

The first ever online wildlife TV series, “Extinction Sucks”, is now on free independent Web TV service Babelgum. It’s a series of half-hour episodes following the real life adventures of two best friends from Perth in Western Australia, Aleisha Caruso and Ashleigh Young, who will go to any lengths to bamboozle people into parting with their money to help endangered animal species around the world.

“Extinction Sucks” will suck you in and make you want to act on behalf of the animals around the world that are on the brink of extinction, too. The first episode is already up, and new ones debut every Friday, so be sure to check back!

Link [Extinction Sucks]

Oops! ‘Extinct’ Bird Sold and Eaten

It may sound like a belated April Fool’s Day joke, but it’s not: a bird that was thought to be extinct was found in the Philippines, and promptly eaten. A crew was filming a documentary about the mind blowingly-exciting topic of bird trapping when it captured footage of “some random bird” that was trapped and then sold at the market for 20 cents.  They didn’t think much of it until they screened a cut for the World Bird Club… and found out that it was a Worcester’s Buttonquail.

The good news is, there are probably more where that one came from – but it’s ironic and funny that the name of the bird trapping documentary is ‘Bye-bye Birdie’.

Link [Zaproot] via [Treehugger]

Bye Bye, Birdie: Many Bird Populations in Decline

Many bird populations are in trouble, with Hawaiian birds among the most threatened, according to a new report. Some species are on the brink of extinction, including many ocean birds. The “State of the Birds” report noted that among 800 species of birds in the United States, 67 are in decline or threatened and another 184 are “species of conservation concern” because they have small distribution.

From CNN:

Hawaiian birds, particularly, are in crisis, the report said. More than one-third of all U.S. bird species are in Hawaii. However, 71 species have gone extinct since the islands were colonized about 300 A.D., and 10 more species have not been seen in the past 40 years, contributing to fears they, too, have died out.

Grassland and arid-land birds are showing the most rapid declines over the last four decades, while forest birds are also declining, the report said.

“Just as they were when Rachel Carson published ‘Silent Spring’ nearly 50 years ago, birds today are a bellwether of the health of land, water and ecosystems,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Thursday in a statement on the report.

“From shorebirds in New England to warblers in Michigan to songbirds in Hawaii, we are seeing disturbing downward population trends that should set off environmental alarm bells. We must work together now to ensure we never hear the deafening silence in our forests, fields and backyards that Rachel Carson warned us about.”

The most frequent causes for the decline in bird populations cited in the report were agriculture, climate change, development and energy and invasive species. Sprawling urban development in cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix and intensified agricultural practices in grasslands have also had a significant negative impact on bird populations.

Some of the measures called for in the report to turn the problem around include increased monitoring of bird populations, stricter protection laws, sustainable fishing practices and increased education.

Large quantities of birds disappearing would spell very bad news for many species of animals and, eventually, us. Birds play such an important role in their respective ecosystems – if they die out, we risk exploding insect populations and other problems. We can’t afford to let this go on any longer.

Link [CNN]
Photo credit: Animal Pictures Archive

Obama Reverses Bush-Era Endangered Species Rule

President Obama has shelved a Bush-era rule that weakens protection of endangered species, he announced on Tuesday. The regulations allow agencies to decide for themselves whether projects like highways, dams and mines could harm animals and plants listed under the Endangered Species Act. The rule reduces the mandatory independent reviews that government scientists have been performing for 35 years, and prevents federal agencies from assessing whether the construction project contributes to global warming.

From MSNBC:

“We should be looking for ways to improve it, not weaken it,” Obama said of the Endangered Species Act. He spoke at an Interior Department ceremony to mark the department’s 160th anniversary.

At least for now, the two agencies will resume full scientific reviews of projects that might harm endangered wildlife and plants.

A conservation group that had sued to overturn the Bush-era rule welcomed the news.

“Obama has swiftly delivered on his campaign promise to reverse Bush’s anti-endangered species regulations,” Kieran Suckling, director of the Center for Biological Diversity, told msnbc.com. “He has restored independent, scientific oversight to the heart of the Endangered Species Act.”

Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum to put the regulation on hold until the Interior and Commerce departments complete a review of it. Democrats in Congress are attempting to reverse the rule via legislation. They wrote a provision into a spending bill that passed in January, drawing the predictable ire of Republicans.

Is anyone keeping track of how many of Bush’s environmental offenses Obama has overturned thus far, in less than 60 days in office? Quite impressive. He’s not wasting any time, which is a huge relief to everyone who cried foul when Bush enacted one anti-environment regulation after the other during his presidency. All signs point to Obama keeping the momentum going.  That dark cloud that has hovered over us for 8 years? It’s almost a thing of the past. What a relief.

Link [MSNBC]

Sarah Palin Files Suit to Avoid Protecting Whales in Alaska

What’s the biggest threat to beluga whales in Alaska’s Cook Inlet? Two words: Sarah Palin. Belugas already have a lot stacked against them. Cloudy water in the summer forces them to rely heavily on echolocation to get around, and they must venture into dangerously shallow waters to find food. Palin, who is already infamous for her total disregard for animal lives, is filing suit to prevent the federal government from protecting the whales.

Her argument? “Alaska is already doing enough for whales”.

From Salon:

Palin’s chief of staff published an Op-Ed in the Anchorage Daily News on Jan. 28 titled “Protection Requirements for Cook Inlet Belugas Are Silly.”

While there are five stocks of beluga whales in waters near Alaska, the ones in Cook Inlet are isolated and genetically distinct from their cousins. That population has declined dramatically since the 1980s, from over 1,000 to about 375 now. More than 300 whales perished in one four-year stretch (1994 to 1998) alone, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service. Marine mammal biologists and conservationists were hopeful that sharply limiting subsistence hunting of the whales by native Alaskans would see the whales bounce back. But despite only five whales being killed by hunting since 1999, when new regulations went into effect, the whales have not rebounded.

Even the Bush administration took note of the Cook Inlet belugas’ decline, after being pressured by environmental groups. In October 2008, the National Marine Fisheries Service announced the listing of the Cook Inlet population of beluga whales as a full-fledged endangered species. Yes, the Bush administration, infamous for its disdain for science when it came to protecting endangered critters, saw fit to offer protections to the belugas living in Cook Inlet. But not the Palin administration.

“It’s hard to imagine that anyone could be more anti-environmental than Bush, but Palin is Exhibit A,” says Brendan Cummings, oceans program director for the Center for Biological Diversity. “Here we had the most anti-environmental administration in U.S. history, and Palin still feels compelled to sue over one of the few environmentally positive things to come out of that administration.”

Marine mammal biologists don’t yet know what’s preventing the beluga whale population from making a comeback, but they do know that the health of the species could have implications for the rest of the ecosystem they inhabit.

Designating the beluga whales as endangered will also turn Cook Inlet into a ‘critical habitat’ for the whales, which is exactly why Palin’s administration is fighting the measure. They’re afraid that such protected status will hamper the “unfettered industrial activity” going on in the inlet – including the dumping of toxic waste by the oil industry. It could also affect plans to expand the port of Anchorage and build the Knik Arm Bridge – famously known as “the bridge to nowhere” – and curtail oil and natural gas drilling.

This is the same woman who advocates shooting wolves from helicopters and has an office full of dead animal trophies and a pile of caribou antlers sitting outside her house.  Her antipathy toward animals and the environment knows no bounds. So, none of this is too surprising. Luckily, advocates of protecting the whales are confident that the Obama administration will defend the beluga listing from Palin’s lawsuit.

Link [Salon.com]

Removing Cats to Save Birds Causes Bird-Killing Bunny Explosion

The decision to remove feral cats from Macquarie Island, located halfway between Australia and Antarctica, has proven to be a bit of a mistake. Researchers say the attempt to protect native seabirds was well intentioned, but had an unexpected consequence: allowing the rabbit population to explode which in turn destroyed much of the vegetation the birds depend on for cover.

Removing the feral cats from Macquarie Island has caused ecological devastation that will cost Australian authorities AU $24 million (US $16 million) to fix.

From MSNBC:

“Our study shows that between 2000 and 2007, there has been widespread ecosystem devastation and decades of conservation effort compromised,” Bergstrom said in a statement.

“The lessons for conservation agencies globally is that interventions should be comprehensive, and include risk assessments to explicitly consider and plan for indirect effects, or face substantial subsequent costs,” Bergstrom said.

Located about halfway between Australia and Antarctica, Macquarie was designated a World Heritage site in 1997 as the world’s only island composed entirely of oceanic crust. It is known for its wind-swept landscape, and about 3.5 million seabirds and 80,000 elephant seals migrate there each year to breed.

The cats, rabbits, rats, mice and other nonnative species currently inhabiting the island were likely introduced by passing ships over the last 100 years, and researchers have long been trying to get rid of them. In 1995, the Parks and Wildlife Service of Tasmania began trapping the cats to protect threatened species of native birds.

Efforts to eradicate non-native species have been successful on other islands, but only when a more all-encompassing tactic was used. Professor Mick Clout of the University of Auckland says the Parks Service should have removed both the rabbits and cats at the same time. A spokeswoman of the Parks Service said they were aware of the risk that the rabbit population would increase but thought it was worth it to avoid further damage by the cats.

This is what happens when you mess with ecology. Unfortunately, the next step the Parks and Wildlife Service plans to take is to use poisonous bait that targets pest animals on the island. This, too, seems like it could have unintended consequences. Of course, something must be done to protect the birds, though, so we can only hope that future efforts to save them are more successful without causing further damage to the island.

Link [MSNBC]
Photo credit: ABC News

U.S. Proposes Protection for 7 Penguin Species

The Bush administration is proposing to list six species of penguin as threatened and a seventh as an endangered species while three other penguin species in need of help are being ignored.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has denied protection for the emperor penguin, star of recent films Happy Feet and March of the Penguins, as well as the northern rockhopper and the macaroni penguin. The Bush administration stated – despite research to the contrary – that there is not enough evidence to list the emperor as threatened because of global warming now or in the future.

From MSNBC:

The penguins live far from the United States, in places like Antarctica, South Africa, Peru, Argentina and New Zealand, so the protections of U.S. endangered species law are limited, officials said. Listing the penguins under the act, however, will raise awareness about the species and could give the United States leverage in international negotiations to protect them from fishing, habitat loss, development and other threats.

Environmentalists praised the Bush administration’s proposal to list fully six penguin species, but criticized its decision not to protect the other three. The emperor penguin is the largest in the world and depends on sea ice for breeding and feeding.

The decision to protect the seven species chosen by the Bush administration is still under public comment, so a final determination will be made by the Obama administration.

One can only guess that the Bush administration is allowing the protection of these penguins because it won’t financially harm the business interests of their buddies. Call me cynical, but the only rhyme or reason to Bush and Co.’s decisions about endangered species this year seems to be based on that and that alone.

It’s great that these penguins are getting much-needed protection, but it’s hard to get excited when Bush is simultaneously impeding protection for so many other species. Is it January 20th yet?

Link [MSNBC]

Over 1,000 New Species Discovered in Mekong Basin in Past Decade

A cyanide-laced, bright pink millipede and a rat thought to have become extinct 11 million years ago are among the 1,068 new species have been discovered in Southeast Asia’s Greater Mekong region alone in the past decade, according to a new report released by the World Wildlife Fund.

The Mekong Basin is being called a “biological treasure trove” after the findings of new species that include 519 plants, 279 fish, 88 frogs, 88 spiders, 46 lizards, 22 snakes, 15 mammals, four birds, four turtles, two salamanders and a toad. That’s an average of two new species discovered every week.

From Yahoo News:

The WWF report, “First Contact in the Greater Mekong”, said that “between 1997 and 2007, at least 1,068 have been officially described by science as being newly discovered species.”

These included the world’s largest huntsman spider, with a leg span of 30 centimetres (11.8 inches), and the “startlingly” coloured “dragon millipede”, which produces the deadly compound cyanide.

Not all species were found hiding in remote jungles — the Laotian rock rat, which the study said was thought to be extinct about 11 million years ago, was first encountered by scientists in a local food market in 2005, it said.

One species of pitviper was first noted by scientists after it was found in the rafters of a restaurant at the headquarters of Thailand’s Khao Yai national park in 2001.

“This region is like what I read about as a child in the stories of Charles Darwin,” said Dr Thomas Ziegler, curator at the Cologne Zoo, who was involved in the research.

Isn’t it amazing how, despite the fact that we humans have taken over this earth like a plague and displaced so many creatures, that there are still so many we’ve never even seen? The diversity of the life on this planet is truly awe-inspiring. Unfortunately, though, scientists say many of these newly discovered species are at risk due to development. The WWF has called for a cross-border agreement between the countries in the Greater Mekong area to protect it, and we fervently hope that it becomes reality.

Link [Yahoo News]
Photo credit: WWF

Protected Gray Wolves Being Illegally Killed

Hunters in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Wisconsin and the Rockies are still shooting down gray wolves despite the animal’s protected status. More than three dozen have been illegally killed in the U.P. within the past five years, and officials in other north central and Rocky Mountain states report many more wolf shootings. About 10 percent of Rockies wolves are killed illegally every year. The gray wolf was given legal protection after being nearly driven to extinction in many areas.

From MSNBC:

Some residents of the sprawling, rural Upper Peninsula deeply resent the wolf’s presence. Among them are hunters who believe the wily predators are decimating the whitetail deer herd and farmers who have lost livestock to wolf raids.

“They’re born killers,” said Al Clemens, a hunter from Ironwood who has lobbied state legislators to establish wolf hunting and trapping seasons. “… People are just fed up.”

Yes, wolves eat deer, but not enough to put a serious dent in the total, Roell said.

“Wolves are an easy scapegoat,” he added.

The wolf isn’t universally despised in the region. The DNR says a 2005 survey indicated most residents were willing to peacefully coexist. In fact, tips from citizens have been instrumental in nabbing poachers.

Still, most cases go unsolved, and many illegal kills undoubtedly never come to official attention. “Yoopers,” as Upper Peninsula residents call themselves, even have a catch phrase for dispatching a wolf and hiding the evidence: “Shoot, shovel and shut up.”

Gray wolves had disappeared from Michigan’s Lower Peninsula by the early 20th century and were nearly gone from the Upper Peninsula by 1960, when a state bounty program was repealed. But numbers have grown again and the U.P. population is now estimated at about 520. Wisconsin has about 540, while Minnesota (where the wolves are listed as ‘threatened’, not endangered) has approximately 3,000. In the Rockies, the population is about 1,500.

Due to this rebound in numbers, the government removed the animals from the endangered species list, but outraged conservationists believed the wolves were still vulnerable and a federal judge restored the wolves to the list in September.

Hunters and farmers who break the law and are caught by investigators often use the excuse that they “thought it was a coyote”. But wolves are twice as large as coyotes and make entirely different sounds.

It’s one thing to humanely kill wolves that are habitually stealing and killing livestock and pets, but it’s another entirely to decimate the population. People don’t seem to understand the fact that wolves exist in this region for a reason – they’re an essential part of the ecosystem. In fact, gray wolves are the only natural predators of coyotes in most of these areas and without them, coyote populations will swell. That’s nature, folks.
Link [MSNBC]
Photo credit: PETA

Men Endangered? Pollution Causing Males to Become Feminized

Men really are the weaker sex, according to a new scientific study that shows that the male gender – both in humans and in wildlife – is in danger due to pollution. A variety of common chemicals is ‘feminizing males’ of every class of vertebrate animals from fish to mammals.

The study is backed by some of the world’s leading scientists, who say that evolution itself is being disrupted due to chemicals that have “gender-bending” effects.

From The Independent:

It also follows hard on the heels of new American research which shows that baby boys born to women exposed to widespread chemicals in pregnancy are born with smaller penises and feminised genitals.

“This research shows that the basic male tool kit is under threat,” says Gwynne Lyons, a former government adviser on the health effects of chemicals, who wrote the report.

Wildlife and people have been exposed to more than 100,000 new chemicals in recent years, and the European Commission has admitted that 99 per cent of them are not adequately regulated. There is not even proper safety information on 85 per cent of them.

Many have been identified as “endocrine disrupters” – or gender-benders – because they interfere with hormones. These include phthalates, used in food wrapping, cosmetics and baby powders among other applications; flame retardants in furniture and electrical goods; PCBs, a now banned group of substances still widespread in food and the environment; and many pesticides.

The report concludes,

“Males of species from each of the main classes of vertebrate animals (including bony fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals) have been affected by chemicals in the environment.

“Feminisation of the males of numerous vertebrate species is now a widespread occurrence. All vertebrates have similar sex hormone receptors, which have been conserved in evolution. Therefore, observations in one species may serve to highlight pollution issues of concern for other vertebrates, including humans.”

In addition to the other pollutants named, scientists say that large amounts of female hormones in the form of contraceptive pills have been passing unaltered through sewage treatment and may be a major cause of this phenomenon.

Some species are responding to this by becoming hermaphrodites – as in the case of the Australian cane toad and some polar bears – or changing from males to females, as in the case of cockroaches. Fish seem to be affected more than other species. An astounding 50% of male fish in British lowland rivers have been found to be developing eggs in their testes.

So, it’s official: women are taking over the world. It’s all a grand scheme played out by ball-busting feminists intent on destroying men. They’ve been secretly pouring estrogen into your drinking water for decades, cackling as penises all over the world shrink ever-smaller.

But seriously, this is a major red flag. The fact that we’ve allowed so many chemicals to enter our waterways for so long is absurd – isn’t it obvious that there would be consequences? Seems as if humanity is on its way out, and mostly of our own doing. It’s like Mother Nature is telling us we had our chance, and we effed up big time.

Link [The Independent]

Is Your Cell Phone Drenched in Blood?

Cell phones were once a luxury, something that people thought were sort of frivolous. But in today’s age of ever-advancing technology, we’ve come to consider them an absolute necessity. Now practically everyone owns one – and we replace them with new ones every 1-2 years. But at what cost? It turns out that a vital raw material used in many cell phones is often mined illegally, and by slave labor.

As we told you back in July, coltan – short for Columbite-tantalite – is refined to create a heat-resistant metal powder called tantalum that sells for $100 a pound, and illegal operations have cropped up in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo.  Rwandan rebel soldiers were sending prisoners – including children – down into the dangerous mines to do the dirty work. All so we can enjoy our electronics.

Now, we’re being warned that the coltan mining in Congo is threatening the endangered Mountain Gorilla.

From The Inquisitr:

As well the mining of Coltan is located in the area as the Kahuzi Biega National Park which is the home of the Mountain Gorilla and because of this mining the gorilla population has been decimated. Whether it be from starvation because the mining is removing their habitat or from being shot to feed the people doing the mine this need for Coltan has a growing effect on both the people and the animals of the Congo.

Watch this video on coltan mining to get a real sense of the problem. It really makes you think about whether these gadgets are really worth it, doesn’t it?

Learn more about the effects of coltan mining and what electronics companies have to say for themselves in our previous post, ‘African Minerals and Electronics: Technology Soaked in Blood’.

Link [The Inquisitr]
Photo credit: Pulitzer Center

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