DAILY QUICK READ - JUNE 30, 2016

Pragmatic or predatory?

South Africa is pushing a proposal for legal ivory trade that is likely to drive African elephant extinction. 

In a proposal to be submitted at the 17th Conference of the Parties (CoP17) of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) to be held in September-October in Johannesburg, South Africa, the three nations are pushing instead to establish a process for an international trade in ivory – demanding minimal regulation of trade with limited safeguards for the continent’s beleaguered elephants.

In contrast, and in an effort to afford elephants the highest protection under international law, the coalition of 29 African countries, a body that represents over 70% of the 37 African elephant range states, will be presenting a comprehensive suite of five proposals at CoP17.

Yet, despite the overwhelming evidence supporting a total ban with an Appendix I listing, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia will be submitting their counter-proposals for deliberation at CoP17 effectively calling on the CITES Standing Committee to permit unrestricted commercial exports of ivory.

“A divided message will spell doom for Africa’s elephants,” warns Patricia Awori the Secretariat of the AEC, who “longs for a time when all Africans unite to save its elephant heritage for future posterity.”

On the Other Hand

Hawaii has banned the sale of ivory and other products derived from a variety of endangered species.

Hawaii, still in the spotlight for historic gun control legislation, has taken a major step toward curbing the illegal trade of wildlife products.

Gov. David Ige last week quietly signed into law Senate Bill 2647, now Act 125, effectively banning the sale of ivory and other products from a variety of animal and marine species.

Inga Gibson, Hawaii senior state director for the Humane Society of the United States, told The Huffington Post that she and other supporters are thrilled with the outcome.

“We’re looking at one of the strongest anti-wildlife trafficking bills in the country,” Gibson said.  

It’s Just Weather - Right?

A large percentage of Americans have decided to ignore science.  Unfortunately science is not an act, it is a report.  And climate change is going to doom our planet.  So what if it is unprecedented?

Climate scientists this week expressed alarm after “unprecedented” data showed the Northern Hemisphere Jet Stream crossing the Equator.

In a column on Tuesday, environmental blogger Robert Scribbler noted that the Northern Hemisphere Jet Stream had merged with the Southern Hemisphere Jet Stream.

“It’s the very picture of weather weirding due to climate change. Something that would absolutely not happen in a normal world,” he wrote. “Something, that if it continues, basically threatens seasonal integrity.”

“Like many extreme events resulting from human-forced climate change — this co-mingling of upper level airs from one Hemisphere with another is pretty fracking strange,” Scribbler explained. “Historically, the Tropics — which produce the tallest and thickest air mass in the world — have served as a mostly impenetrable barrier to upper level winds moving from one Hemisphere to another. But as the Poles have warmed due to human-forced climate change, the Hemispherical Jet Streams have moved out of the Middle Latitudes more and more. ”

“That’s bad news for seasonality,” he continued. “You get this weather-destabilizing and extreme weather generating mixing of seasons that is all part of a very difficult to deal with ‘Death of Winter’ type scenario.”

University of Ottawa climate scientist Paul Beckwith called the new behavior “unprecedented.”

“Our climate system behaviour continues to behave in new and scary ways that we have never anticipated, or seen before,” Beckwith observed. “Welcome to climate chaos. We must declare a global climate emergency.”

Humans Are Getting Dumber

 It may be self-evident that as a species, humans aren’t doing very well.  Dumb, greedy and unwilling to change according to Stephen Hawking.

Stephen Hawking made a rare interview appearance on Larry King Now on Saturday to discuss science’s greatest discoveries, what still mystifies him about space and the state of the planet.

While the interview was less than 10 minutes long, King and Hawking covered a lot of ground. Hawking, director of research at the department of applied mathematics and theoretical physics at the University of Cambridge, joined King via video stream from the Starmus Festival, which celebrates the intersection of science and art, in the Canary Islands of Spain. This year’s festival was titled Tribute to Stephen Hawking.

Below are some highlights of the Q&A:

Q. King: Stephen, when we last spoke six years ago, you said that mankind was in danger of destroying ourselves by our greed and stupidity. Have things gotten better or worse since then?

A. Hawking: We certainly have not become less greedy or less stupid. Six years ago I was warning about pollution and overcrowding, they have gotten worse since then. The population has grown by half a billion since our last meeting with no end in sight. At this rate, it will be 11 billion by 2100. Air pollution has increased by 8 percent over the past five years.

Q. King: What’s the biggest problem facing humanity today?

A. Hawking: The increase in air pollution and increasing emissions of carbon dioxide. Will we be too late to avoid dangerous levels of global warming?

See the whole interview here.

Oh, and Larry King is still alive.  I was surprised.