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

Mexican Water Monster Nearing Extinction

We’re possibly about to lose one of the coolest, most unique creatures in existence on the planet. The Axolotl (pronounced ACK-suh-LAH-tuhl) salamander, also known as the Mexican Water Monster, is facing extinction. This roughly foot-long amphibian, which resembles some kind of alien fetus, is being threatened by pollution and nonnative species populating the same waters. Frankly, it’s sort of amazing that it lasted this long.

From MSNBC:

The axolotl, also known as the “water monster” and the “Mexican walking fish,” was a key part of Aztec legend and diet. Against all odds, it survived until now amid Mexico City’s urban sprawl in the polluted canals of Lake Xochimilco, now a Venice-style destination for revelers poled along by Mexican gondoliers, or trajineros, in brightly painted party boats.

But scientists are racing to save the foot-long salamander from extinction, a victim of the draining of its lake habitat and deteriorating water quality. In what may be the final blow, nonnative fish introduced into the canals are eating its lunch — and its babies.

Researchers say it could disappear within five years, and some are pushing for axolotl sanctuaries in canals cleared of invasive species. Others are considering repopulating Xochimilco with axolotls bred in captivity.

We can only hope that scientists and conservationists will be able to save this creature, named after Xolotl, the dog-headed Aztec god of death, lightning and monstrosities.  It would be such a shame to see it go.

Link [MSNBC]

Photo credit: National Geographic

Mexico Pays Fishermen to Save Porpoises

The endangered vaquita porpoise has an unlikely new group of friends: commercial fishermen who were previously accidentally trapping and killing the animals while trying to catch shrimp, mackerel and sharks.  The Mexican government is paying 800 fishermen in the northernmost area of the Gulf of Mexico to stop fishing with nets and, in some cases, stop fishing altogether.

From The New York Times:

Probably no more than 150 vaquitas survive, conservationists say. The population could fall to 100 in a couple of years. If that occurred, there would be too few sexually mature adults left for the species to recover.

“We have one or two years,” said Omar Vidal, the director of the World Wildlife Fund in Mexico and a biologist who has studied the vaquita for 25 years. “We’re on the brink.”

The Mexican government agrees. It has spent about $20 million over the last two years on conservation measures, primarily to persuade 800 of the 4,000 registered fishermen in the area to accept its offer to stop using nets or to cease fishing entirely, according to the environment minister, Juan Elvira Quesada. Next year, officials hope to spend an additional $13 million to continue the plan.

Many of the fishermen who accepted the offer say they’ll use the money to start new businesses, but for those who wish to keep fishing, there’s a new net available developed with help from the World Wildlife Fund that won’t trap the vaquita.

Now, that’s the way to work together to protect endangered animals.  Hopefully this last-ditch effort will work, because they’re running out of time. A cousin of the vaquita, the Chinese river dolphin, was declared extinct last year.

Link [The New York Times]
Photo credit: Cetacean Society International

Bush Administration Rushing to Ease Endangered Species Laws

In the final months of Bush’s rule as President of the United States, his administration is feverishly working to push through government-approved building projects that can only be carried out if endangered species laws are eased.  In fact, Interior Department officials are so eager to loosen the laws that protect these animals, they’re poring over 200,000 public comments in just 32 hours.

From Yahoo News:

The Fish and Wildlife Service has called a team of 15 people to Washington this week to pore through letters and online comments about a proposal to exclude greenhouse gases and the advice of federal biologists from decisions about whether dams, power plants and other federal projects could harm species. That would be the biggest change in endangered species rules since 1986.

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., whose own letter opposing the changes is among the thousands that will be processed, called the 32-hour deadline a “last-ditch attempt to undermine the long-standing integrity of the Endangered Species program.”

At that rate, according to a committee aide’s calculation, 6,250 comments would have to be reviewed every hour. That means that each member of the team would be reviewing at least seven comments each minute.

It usually takes months to review public comments on a proposed rule, and by law the government must respond before a rule becomes final.

It’s the Republicans taking the side of business over anything and everything else, as usual. Lobbyists are paying big money to push these projects though, and if the Bush administration does manage to make the regulation final before they leave office, it could take months or even years for the next president to undo. Obama has already said he would reverse the proposal, and McCain’s campaign has not commented.

Perhaps this is Bush’s way of saying, “Hey, look at me! I’m still a crappy President!” After all, we’ve practically forgotten that Bush is still in office in our excitement about seeing someone else taking his place. If you thought he was done screwing things up, think again.

Link [Yahoo News]

Whale Protection Increased Despite Sarah Palin’s Protests

Whales 1, Sarah Palin 0.  While the Republican vice presidential nominee has been railing against increased measures to protect Beluga whales that live in the Cook Inlet of Alaska, her objections failed to keep the federal government from putting the whales on the endangered species list.  Palin’s administration has opposed the Beluga listing because of its potential to restrict offshore oil and gas drilling.

From The New York Times:

The relatively small, whitish whales, sometimes visible from downtown Anchorage, declined by almost 50 percent in the late 1990s, and federal scientists say they have not rebounded despite a series of protections, including a halt to subsistence hunting by Alaska Natives. About 375 whales have been counted in Cook Inlet each of the last two years, according to scientists with the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The announcement, made on a predetermined schedule under the Endangered Species Act, drew further attention to Ms. Palin’s positions on environmental issues. The governor, the Republican nominee for vice president, has come under scrutiny for her ambiguous statements about climate change and her administration’s failed effort earlier this year to prevent another species, the polar bear, from being listed as threatened. The state is suing the federal government over the polar bear listing.

The fisheries agency says that the Beluga whale population has been threatened by general development, pollution and oil and gas exploration.  So, for now, these whales may be saved from the brink of extinction – no thanks to Sarah Palin, running mate to so-called ‘environmental advocate’ John McCain.

Link [The New York Times]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Under Pressure from Conservationists, eBay Set to Ban Sale of Ivory

Unscrupulous traders have found online auction site eBay to be a lucrative avenue of sales for ivory from endangered elephants. But finally, just before a set of reports by a conservation organization is set to be unveiled, eBay officials have agreed to ban the sale of all ivory on the site, including heirlooms.  The report details trading in items derived from endangered species on auction sites like eBay, including rare birds and reptiles, ivory-handled walking sticks and figurines carved from elephant tusks.

From The New York Times:

The report, to be released here on Tuesday by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, analyzes data gathered in a six-week survey that tracked more than 7,000 listings of wildlife or their feathers, teeth or pelts offered for sale on more than 185 Web sites in 11 countries. Nearly three-quarters of the items were elephant products, the report said.

The vast majority of the online trade in endangered animals, the report says, is done on eBay. Law enforcement officials and specialists in illegal wildlife trade said it was impossible to determine how much of the estimated $10 billion spent each year in the illicit trade happens online.

Nichola Sharpe, a spokeswoman for eBay, said Monday that the company had been talking about a ban with the federal Fish and Wildlife Service’s enforcement division and conservation groups like the World Wildlife Fund. Because of the complications of abiding by multiple and overlapping state, federal and international conservation laws, Ms. Sharpe said, eBay officials decided on the ban, effective Jan. 1.

eBay claims that despite the ban, illegal ivory trading will likely continue because sellers need only avoid calling their wares “ivory” or using the word “elephant” to avoid automatic filtering.  The Fish and Wildlife Service are investigating illicit sales, but budget decreases have decreased their staff of inspectors.

Who knew that it was so easy to get away with trading in illegal items on eBay? These people have been doing it right out in the open, and it’s markets like these that push many species into extinction.

Link [The New York Times]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Study: Half of All Mammals in Decline

Yet another disheartening sign of dramatic changes in ecosystems across the world: a new study reports that one in two mammal species on Earth are in decline, and at least one in four are at risk of extinction. The study by the International Union for Conservation of Nature shows that mammal populations are declining faster than scientists previously thought.  The data, compiled by 1,700 experts in 130 countries, might even be a bit rosier than actual reality: there are hundreds of mammal species that weren’t included in the study.

From MSNBC:

“The reality is that the number of threatened mammals could be as high as 36 percent,” Schipper said in a statement released by the IUCN at a gathering in Barcelona.

“Our results paint a bleak picture of the global status of mammals worldwide,” Schipper and his co-authors said in the study. “We estimate that one in four species is threatened with extinction and that the population of one in two is declining.”

“The situation is particularly serious for land mammals in Asia, through the combined effects of overharvesting and habitat loss,” the experts wrote in their study, “and for marine species, victims of our increasingly intensive use of the oceans.”

Habitat loss and degradation is mostly to blame.  The fastest population declines are being seen in countries where industrialization is occurring at a rapid pace, including Central and South America, West, East and Central Africa, Madagascar and in South and Southeast Asia.  Among the most critically endangered animals is the Iberian lynx, with an adult population estimated at no more than 143.

Because of our own spread across the earth, wiping out forests and other animal habitats, we could see hundreds of mammals go extinct within our lifetime.  Those naïve about the interconnectedness of nature might think, ‘oh well – animals go extinct. It happens. What difference does it make to us?’  It truly makes all the difference in the world – it’s the butterfly effect times a thousand. We rely on the diversity of nature in so many ways.  The mass extinction of mammals across the globe could be disastrous for humans, as well as the rest of the earth.

Skyscraper farms and population-dense urban areas with clean mass transit are looking smarter and smarter.  We’ve got to stop our destructive sprawl into the few remaining areas of untouched land.

Link [MSNBC]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Doomsday Tourism: See Natural Wonders Before They’re Gone Forever

As the world rapidly changes in response to global warming, people are beginning to realize a hard truth: we only have a limited amount of time left before many of these endangered destinations vanish altogether. Habitats are shrinking and changing; species are dying; the sea level is rising. That’s driving a large increase in what has been dubbed ‘doomsday tourism’ – a surge in travelers visiting the places most threatened by global warming.

From Forbes.com:

The Nature Conservancy’s list of endangered destinations includes the Sonoran & Chihuahuan desert borderlands, the Patagonian grasslands of Argentina and the Great Lakes in the U.S. and Canada. In these places the threats range from rapid population growth to invasive species to land use practices. Also on the list are the arid lands of Namibia, the Appalachians, and stretches of the West Indian Ocean coastline.

Travelers looking to explore these places have numerous options. The National Geographic Center for Sustainable Destinations, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that promotes thoughtful forms of tourism, has created innovative maps for visitors to Mexico’s Sonora desert and the Appalachians. The maps feature not only attractions like wildlife refuges and state parks, but also recommendations on local cultural events, food vendors and eco-friendly hotels and resorts.

Of course, hoards of people stomping around, disturbing wildlife and producing trash isn’t exactly beneficial to the endangered areas.  We’ve already messed up the world to a disgusting extent; it’s all too easy to imagine ‘doomsday tourism’ accelerating the destruction of such places. So, hopefully, as people travel to vulnerable areas, they’ll remember that limiting their footprint should be at the top of their priorities.

Link [Forbes]
Photo credit: Flickr user alex.ch

Orangutan Populations Decreasing at an Alarming Rate

A recent study has shown that orangutan populations in Indonesia, on the only two islands in the world where they still live in the wild, have declined sharply since 2004. The decline is mostly due to illegal logging and the expansion of palm oil plantations, which we wrote about back in April. If urgent action isn’t taken soon, the species may go extinct.

From Wired:

The survey found the orangutan population on Indonesia’s Sumatra island dropped almost 14 percent since 2004, Wich said. It also concluded that the populations on Borneo island, which is shared by Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia, have fallen by 10 percent. Researchers only surveyed areas of Borneo that are in Indonesia and Malaysia.

In their study, Wich and his 15 colleagues said the declines in Borneo were occurring at an “alarming rate” but that they were most concerned about Sumatra, where the numbers show the population is in “rapid decline.”

“Unless extraordinary efforts are made soon, it could become the first great ape species to go extinct,” researchers wrote.

Great job, humanity. We’re the presiding species on the planet – the only one capable of protecting all of the other species that we share it with – and we allow things like this to happen, all for our own greed and convenience. Of course, there are those that believe that as humans, we’re entitled to everything on earth, and can use it as we wish without caring what consequences our actions have. If it’s not a person, it’s property, right? Why don’t we take all of those people and put them in livestock pens, dairy cattle enclosures, circus cages or just dump them in the middle of a forest while it’s being cut down by loggers and let them fend for themselves. You know, help Karma along a little.

Link [Wired]
Photo credit: Flickr user exfordy

American Environmentalists Helping Iran Save the Asiatic Cheetah

America and Iran may not get along politically, but that isn’t stopping environmentalists in both countries from coming together with a common goal: saving the Asiatic cheetah, a beautiful animal on the brink of extinction. Fewer than 100 remain in the deserts of central Iran. Iran’s department of Environment has now teamed up with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to trap and track the cheetahs before they’re gone forever.

From Times Online:

In his recent tours of the Middle East, President Bush urged America’s allies to isolate Iran over its nuclear programme, saying that the safety of the world was at stake.

But the safety of the cheetahs appears to have trumped such concerns. Researchers say that the animals, also known as Iranian cheetahs, once roamed between the Arabian peninsula and India, thriving in the arid, rugged landscape.

After the Iranian Revolution of 1979 the cheetah and its principal prey, gazelles, were hunted, causing their numbers to dwindle dangerously low.

As worked up as Bush is over Iran, let’s hope his administration doesn’t hear about this – they’d just firebomb the cheetahs and use that as a catalyst to start a war.

Link [Times Online]
Photo credit: I.R.Iran DOE/CACP/WCS/UNDP-GEF

Climate Change Attacking All the Cutest Animals

Go look at your favorite storybook from when you were a child and find your favorite animals. Now, get ready, cause they’re next. Global warming seems to be targeting all the cutest creatures in the animal kingdom – first it was honeybees, then bats, penguins and polar bears… now koala bears are threatened! For the love of all that is holy, river otters better make it through this, because they are the cutest things EVER.

From Celsias:

According to MSNBC, Professor of Biology at Sydney University, Ian Hume, has found that CO2 pollution reduces the nutrients in eucalyptus leaves and raises their toxicity, thereby adversely affecting the koalas main source of food. Basically, not only are the koalas getting less nutrients from their food, they are also getting toxins that interfere with nutrient absorption when they feast on their regular diet of eucalyptus leaves. The results may be less available food as eucalyptus species die out from temperature changes, less nutritious feed, a lot of emaciated koala bears, less koala babies and a drastic reduction in their numbers over the next 5 decades.

Koalas already have it rough. Eucalyptus leaves are not particularly nutritious, so they have to eat a lot and sleep even more to save their energy. Eucalyptus trees, their main source of food, are also very susceptible to temperature changes. Koalas breed only once a year and have just one joey at a time. In recent decades, they have been displaced from their native habitats in Australia by suburban growth and agricultural developments.

Sad! Whatever your favorite animal is, join or start some kind of group to save it. I’m lookin’ at you, wallaby lovers.

Link [Celsias]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Paper Company Finds that Green Makes Good Business Sense

Grays Harbor Paper went under in 1992, and not just jobs were lost – as families made hard choices and were forced to move, some committed suicide. 600 people in the nearby rural cities of Hoquiam and Aberdeen lost their jobs. Things were bleak overall, and Bill Quigg had quite a task in front of him when he bought the company in 1993.

That’s why he decided to make a big change: the traditional paper industry wasn’t working in these small logging towns, partially because of the protected status of the endangered spotted owl, which calls the forests in this area of Washington state home. Where workers once cursed the owl for putting them out of work, Quigg saw a solution: using 100 percent recycled paper instead of cutting down trees. And, he didn’t stop there – the plant is now entirely powered by biomass fuel derived from logging waste.

Quigg isn’t doing it for the earth. It’s all about money. From Mother Jones:

“Politically I am on the right side of Genghis Khan,” says Quigg. “I’m not a lefty wacko.” Nevertheless, “We make the greenest products, and we make them with the greenest fuel,” he enthusiastically boasts. “Nobody else does that. We have the audacity to think we can change the market. If you buy local and smarter, you save a tremendous amount of fossil fuel.”

Regardless of Quigg’s motivations, Grays Harbor Paper stands to be an excellent model for green practices reviving depressed rural areas as well as green business practices in general. As other companies watch, perhaps down the line we’ll see more following the same path to being successful and eco-friendly at the same time. They’re not mutually exclusive, folks!

Link [Mother Jones]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Mmm, Roasted Plains Pronghorn Antelope! To Save a Species from Extinction, Serve it for Dinner

When you’re deciding what to cook for dinner, your first thought might not be Tennessee fainting goat, the Makah ozette potato or the Carolina Flying Squirrel. First of all, they’re endangered, which you’d think would mean we should not be eating them. Second, we’ve become accustomed to eating a somewhat narrow range of ‘acceptable’ foods even though choices for nutritious, edible meals abound far beyond what’s typically found in an American refrigerator.

Gary Paul Nabhan is compiling a list of endangered plants and animals that were once commonly eaten in America, but are now threatened or extinct in grocery stores and restaurants. From the New York Times:

Mr. Nabhan’s list, 1,080 items and growing, forms the basis of his new book, an engaging journey through the nooks and crannies of American culinary history titled “Renewing America’s Food Traditions: Saving and Savoring the Continent’s Most Endangered Foods” (Chelsea Green Publishing, $35).

The book tells the stories of 93 ingredients both obscure (Ny’pa, a type of salt grass) and beloved (the Black Sphinx date), along with recipes that range from the accessible (Centennial pecan pie) to the challenging (whole pit-roasted Plains pronghorn antelope).

To make the list, an animal or plant — whether American eels, pre-Civil War peanuts or Seneca hominy flint corn — has to be more than simply edible. It must meet a set of criteria that define it as a part of American culture, too. Mr. Nabhan’s book is part of a larger effort to bring foods back from the brink by engaging nursery owners, farmers, breeders and chefs to grow and use them.

The idea behind this is to increase the demand for such exotic foods, causing an increase in farmers’ desire to grow and raise them. He also wants to preserve America’s rich culinary history, which is fading away as we get used to eating the same things over and over again.

Interesting idea, but can you stomach the idea of eating something like squirrel? The only person I’ve ever known to eat squirrel is a woman who grew up very poor in an extremely backwoods part of north central Florida, and that squirrel was usually roadkill made into soup. Is your mouth watering yet?

Links [New York Times] & [Environmental Graffiti]

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons & Wikimedia Commons