DAILY QUICK READ - AUGUST 22, 2016

Insects Will Take Over the World

After we wipe out predators, then only insects will be left.  And, then they will wipe us out with diseases.  Mess with ecosystems and pay the price.

Every year, at least 30,000 people — and possibly 10 times that — are infected with the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, most in the Northeast and upper Midwest. Symptoms can include fatigue, joint pain, memory problems and even temporary paralysis. In a small minority of cases, the malaise can persist for many months.

Lyme disease is transmitted by bites from ticks that carry the Lyme-causing bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi. Ticks get it from the animals they feed on, primarily mice and chipmunks. And rodents thrive in the fragmented, disturbed landscapes that, thanks to human activity, now characterize large sections of the Northeast.

If humans have inadvertently increased the chances of contracting Lyme disease, the good news is that there’s a potential fix: allow large predators, particularly wolves and cougars, to return.

Coral Suffering

This is an amazing time lapse study of coral bleaching shows an actual organism under stress.  Often, I think we look at bleaching as a passive event.  It is violent. 

“When you actually show the coral going through these physical efforts, it is a much more vivid way of conveying the science to the public,” says Andréa Grottoli, a professor of earth sciences at Ohio State University, in a phone interview with The Christian Science Monitor. “It adds emotional content to something we know.”

The relationship between coral and algae is a prime example of symbiosis in the animal world. Coral polyps provide a perfect protective home for tiny zooxanthellae algae. In exchange, the photosynthetic algae provide nutrients and color to their (naturally colorless) coral landlords.

But if sea temperatures rise even a few degrees over the normal thermal maximum, corals will begin to expel algae from their bodies and turn white. The whole bleaching process can take as few as 10 days.

England Extinction

Scientist, environmentalist and conservationist say we are facing a crisis.  When will we accept that fact?

Hundreds of the country’s best-known animals - including types of woodpecker and butterfly - will have an uncertain future with some disappearing completely as their numbers decline rapidly, the State of Nature 2016 report will say.

Sir David Attenborough, writing in a foreword for the report, is expected to label the drastic changes a “crisis”. The report, which will be published on September 14 and includes research from experts across 53 wildlife organisations, will point to agricultural policy as one of the aggravating factors.

It comes after an initial report  into the state of the country’s wildlife was published three years ago. The new document is expected to provide an update as well as further information following an assessment into the status of 4,000 species.

Extinction Tourism

Let’s take massive shiploads of people to visit the soon to be destroyed homes of whole societies that we have devastated through our addiction to growth at any cost and the indiscriminate consumption of carbon energy.  I would be embarrassed to take part in such this disaster porn.

In a few days, one of the world’s largest cruise ships, the Crystal Serenity, will visit the tiny Inuit village of Ulukhaktok in northern Canada. Hundreds of passengers will be ferried to the little community, more than doubling its population of around 400. The Serenity will then raise anchor and head through the Northwest Passage to visit several more Inuit settlements before sailing to Greenland and finally New York.

It will be a massive undertaking, representing an almost tenfold increase in passenger numbers taken through the Arctic on a single vessel – and it has triggered considerable controversy among Arctic experts. Inuit leaders fear that visits by giant cruise ships could overwhelm fragile communities, while others warn that the Arctic ecosystem, already suffering the effects of global warming, could be seriously damaged.

 “This is extinction tourism,” said international law expert Professor Michael Byers, of the University of British Columbia. “Making this trip has only become possible because carbon emissions have so warmed the atmosphere that Arctic sea ice in summer is disappearing. The terrible irony is that this ship – which even has a helicopter for sightseeing and a huge staff-to-passenger ratio – has an enormous carbon footprint that is only going to make things even worse in the Arctic.”