DAILY QUICK READ - JULY 19, 2016

Technology to the Rescue

We reported the other day that some turtle species were making strong comebacks, but in Central and South America poachers take up to 90% of eggs before they hatch.  Here’s a high tech solution to the problem.

A conservation group has created 3D printed sea turtle eggs containing GPS trackers. The eggs are set to be deployed this fall in Central America during an arribada, or mass nesting event when 90 percent of eggs will be poached from certain beaches.

The 3D eggs created by Conservation group Paso Pacífico could easily pass for any of the millions of ping pong ball-size eggs laid and buried every year by endangered sea turtles on the beaches along the North and Central American coasts. The group plans to create a tracking map on the movement of eggs to help law enforcement officials and activists to crack down on the big players involved in poaching.

Kim Williams-Guillén, director of conservation science at Paso Pacífico says:

We want to sneak them into nests that are most vulnerable to poaching. It would be really easy for them to grab one of those eggs and not even notice it. We’re not planning on collecting data in real time, unless that’s something that they express real interest in. It’s certainly a possibility. Being able to determine the players with money who are really driving the trade and removing even a couple of them could have a huge effect.”

Ecosystems are Life

We reported on this a while ago, but the potential loss to Hawaii’s ecosystem due to the continuing depredation of the ‘ohi’a trees is tragic.

Hawai'i’s native forest birds are in danger of losing a keystone tree species in most of their remaining habitat as a virulent disease wipes out tens of thousands of acres of mature 'ohi'a trees.

The disease, known as rapid 'ohi'a death, is caused by the fungus Ceratocystis fimbriata. Ceratocystis is known as a tree-killer around the world, and different species of the fungus have affected oaks, coffee, cacao, and several other species. But the strain currently attacking the 'ohi'a tree is considerably more aggressive than those that have previously invaded Hawai'i.

The current infestation has so far affected 34,000 acres on Hawai'i Island—also known as the Big Island—and has killed over 100,000 'ohi'a trees. Scientists suspect many more trees are infected but haven’t yet died.

The 'ohi'a tree—also called the 'ohi'a lehua tree—has deep roots in Hawai'i’s history and culture, and plays a key role in its ecosystems. The tree and its lehua flower are precious to the Hawaiian people; even plucking the flower from the tree is taboo in accordance with Hawaiian folklore. Many consider it to be the most important tree in the state.

Africa

There is something about Africa that stirs the soul. 

Africa my Africa

Africa of proud warriors in ancestral savannahs

Africa of whom my grandmother sings

On the banks of the distant river

I have never known you

But your blood flows in my veins

Your beautiful black blood that irrigates the fields

The blood of your sweat

The sweat of your work

The work of your slavery

Africa, tell me Africa

Is this your back that is unbent

This back that never breaks under the weight of humilation

This back trembling with red scars

And saying no to the whip under the midday sun

But a grave voice answers me

Impetuous child that tree, young and strong

That tree over there

Splendidly alone amidst white and faded flowers

That is your Africa springing up anew

springing up patiently, obstinately

Whose fruit bit by bit acquires

The bitter taste of liberty.

“You've got no right to grow here.”

Lewis Carroll would have found this to be tragic, but the dormouse is facing extinction.

There’s a small, shy and nocturnal mouse in Britain that’s in big trouble. The dormouse was made popular by Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland;” You might remember the dormouse as a guest in the The Hatter’s mad-tea party who can’t stay awake. But in real life, if humans don’t wake up to the plight of dormice, then we might lose them forever. That’s why the Sussex Wildlife Trust in Henfield is issuing an urgent appeal to save the local dormice from extinction.

Even though the IUCN Red List classifies the species as Least Concern, the British dormouse population has drastically dropped over “the past hundred years and they are now vulnerable to extinction,” reports the West Sussex County Times.

The IUCN Red List recognizes that even though the mouse is widespread across Europe and Asia Minor, there’s a “cause for concern” in parts of the mouse’s range, more specifically: the U.K., Netherlands, Sweden, Germany and Denmark.

Habitat loss and fragmentation are driving the mouse’s decline, even though they were popular in the pet trade until most countries made it illegal to keep them as pets. In the wild, the dormouse thrives in woodlands and other heavily wooded areas. But forestry, urbanization and agriculture are destroying and fragmenting ideal dormouse habitat, according to the IUCN Red List.

DAILY QUICK READ - JULY 18, 2016 - EXTINCTION DAY.

Extinction I

Can we figure out how to create a network of protected areas to save species from extinction?

TWO South African scientists are part of an international panel set up to save species from possible extinction through climate change.

Stellenbosch University’s Guy Midgley‚ professor of global change biology‚ and conservation biologist Wendy Foden will lead the three-year project in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Stellenbosch is one of six leading universities collaborating with Conservation International to model the response to climate change of more than 100‚000 tropical species on three continents.

The research will help to identify regions and ecosystems that‚ if protected‚ preserve biodiversity.

"The goal is to build networks of protected areas that reduce extinctions due to climate change‚ at the same time delivering clean water‚ tourism opportunities and numerous other benefits to people‚" said Conservation International.

The panel of scientists overseeing the project includes renowned Kenyan paleoanthropologist‚ conservationist and politician Richard Leakey.

Extinction II

Stuff happens.  Maybe we can figure it out.

We are—depending on who you ask—either on the brink of or in the thralls of Earth’s sixth mass species extinction. What is not in doubt is that just one species deserves most of the blame: Homo sapiens—aka us.

Human activity is warming our climate and many species are failing to adapt; experts predict that as a result, by the end of the century as many as one in six species will be in danger of extinction.

Mammals are going extinct at rates faster than ever, as are other vertebrates. While invertebrates like coral are being hit even harder. Overall, rates of species extinction are accelerating to the point where they may soon rival those during the mass extinction event that killed almost all of the dinosaurs.

Extinction III
 

Zoos as a defense against extinction.  Who knew how important they could be?

The final submission comes from Steve Monfort, a veterinarian who is director of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va.

Zoos must focus on becoming effective conservation organizations while sustaining excellence in providing for the health and well-being of wildlife in human care. Next-generation zoos must invest large amounts of money in what’s known as “conservation infrastructure,” including much more space (on or off zoo property). These steps are essential for effectively managing genetic diversity over the long-term, and for positioning zoos as vital players on a conservation continuum that spans from intensively managed populations in human care to free-living animals in nature.

Today, zoos around the world invest more than $350 million per year in field conservation. But the majority of that money is provided by a minority of zoos.

Extinction IV

Who needs elephants?  What happens if the South African gambit fails?  Disaster and extinction.

A United Nations ban on the international trade in ivory will be under attack by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting in Johannesburg in October.

In a document submitted to CITES, the three countries say that if trade is not permitted, they will seek to nullify the ban on the principle that CITES failed to act on its mandate to investigate the matter.

Were they to succeed, according to Ross Harvey, a researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs specialising in wildlife trade, it would be a disaster for elephants.

In a peer-reviewed paper published in the latest edition of Politikon, he says that if selling stockpiled ivory into the world market is permitted but fails to reduce the price – and it is likely to fail – it will increase demand and hasten the extinction of elephants.

DAILY QUICK READ - JULY 17, 2016

What Right Do Humans Have?

When we were conferred with the right to kill any species that we felt like any time we wanted?  Our approach to the slaughter of top predators is truly disgusting.

According to the Center for Biological Diversity, which has published an interactive map of state-by-state data, Texas was the deadliest state in 2015, with 609 bobcats and 23 mountain lions killed. That was followed by Oregon, with 193 black bears, 27 bobcats and 91 mountain lions; Minnesota, with 220 wolves, two bobcats and one black bear; and California, with 121 black bears, 80 mountain lions and 15 bobcats.

Nationwide, Wildlife Services eradicated 731 bobcats, 480 black bears, 385 wolves and 284 mountain lions. It also killed 68,985 coyotes—almost 17,000 in Texas alone—and 3,109 foxes.

…the taking of predators is the most problematic part, according to Michael Robinson, conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity.

"There's been enormous advances in our understanding of the critical roles that predators play in maintaining the health and integrity of their ecosystems," he said. "Scientists are now finding very important connections between predators and the vegetation that their prey species rely on."

When wolf populations are culled, for example, elk have less fear of foraging on tree saplings that grow along streams. But when wolves return, elk tend to avoid those areas, "which allows the saplings to grow into fairly large trees that support migratory birds and beavers," Robinson said. "This blanket policy of destroying predators undermines the integrity and function of entire ecosystems. It defies science."

Interactive map of the killing fields here.

Sunny California

California is working to generate one third of the state’s power requirements from renewables by 2020.  So, July 12 was a very good day in the progress towards that goal.

The same clear, sunny weather that broiled much of California in near-triple-digit heat this week also helped the state’s solar power plants set a record, briefly generating enough electricity for more than 6 million homes.

Just after 1 p.m. Tuesday, large solar plants scattered across California produced a record 8,030 megawatts of electricity, according to the California Independent System Operator, the organization that runs most of the state’s power grid. That’s nearly twice as much solar power as California could generate just two years ago — and it doesn’t even count the electricity produced by hundreds of thousands of small rooftop solar arrays statewide.

Birds, Birds, Birds

An hour of birds in 60 seconds.  Awesome and a bit creepy.

Paul Parker is a videographer who sees the world in an unusual way … and fortunately is able to translate it for the rest of us via the magic of his camera and post-processing skills. Case in point, his 55-second video called An Hour of Birds All At Once.

According to Beckett Mufson at The Creator’s Project, Parker recorded an hour’s worth of birds flying and then compressed it into a timelapse. “While this is unsettling enough, particularly with the distorted remix of Donna Summer’s "I Feel Love" keeping up the soundtrack,” writes Mufson, “Parker cranks the creepy up to 11 by replicating the time-lapse with a brief delay, layering swarm upon swarm of birds until the sky is literally black with the small-brained predators.”

Video here.

Why Do Turtles Have Shells

Not for defense, but to help them dig and burrow.  Evolution is an amazing thing.

Travel back in time to 260 million years ago, just before the dawn of the dinosaur era. Journey to what is now South Africa, and make your way to a river bank. Then, wait. If you’re lucky, you might see a small, hand-sized creature poking its head out of the mud. It looks like a fat lizard, with bulging flanks and stocky legs. But if you managed to grab it and flip it over, you’d find that its flanks are bulging because its ribs are exceptionally wide, broad, and flat, reinforcing its undersides. It’s almost like the little creature has half a shell.

This is Eunotosaurus, and despite its lizard-like appearance, it’s actually one of the earliest known turtles.

It was discovered in 1892 and ignored for almost a century. But by studying the many fossils of this enigmatic reptile, Tyler Lyson from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science has devised a fascinating new idea about turtle origins. He thinks that their iconic shells evolved not for defense, but for digging. They anchored the powerful arm strokes needed to shift soil and sand. Before turtles became impregnable walking fortresses, they were professional burrowers.

Many turtle species have been decimated, but there are some success stories.

Green Sea Turtles Successful Comeback.

Blanding's Turtles in Illinois.

DAILY QUICK READ - JULY 16, 2016

Incredible Photos

Incredible wild life photos from The Guardian.  The tragedy is that most of the animals pictured will someday only exist in zoos and game preserves.  They won’t be wild animals any more, just exhibits.

Duck’s and Abstract Thinking

Lots of birds species are considered intelligent, but many are just considered colorful or, in some cases, dinner.  Ducks tend to fall into the dinner category.   Now we discover that they are capable of abstract reasoning. 

You better watch who you're calling "bird brain." A new study in the journal Science suggests that some birds are smarter than we realized.

The study, which was conducted by zoologists Antone Martinho III and Alex Kacelnik at Oxford University, found that newborn ducklings are capable of comprehending complex concepts such as "same" and "different" — abstractions that we typically think are beyond the capacity of most animals.

“The claim that abstract relational thinking is a unique ability of human beings can no longer be supported,” University of Iowa experimental psychologist Edward Wasserman wrote in an accompanying analysis. "Although animals may not be able to speak, studying their behavior may be a suitable substitute for assaying their thoughts, and this in turn may allow us to jettison the stale canard that thought without language is impossible."

The results suggest that ducklings are able to recognize not only shape and color but also sameness and difference — abstract concepts that require a complex understanding of the way things relate to one another. That the objects were in motion makes interpreting these relationships even more difficult.

Salt Lake City for Renewables

Utah is one of the most conservative and staunchly Republican states in the U.S.  So, how is it that the largest city in Utah is committed to 100% renewable power by 2032.  Apparently, climate change denial is concentrated at the top of the Republican Party, not where real people live. 

Mayor Jackie Biskupski and city council members signed a joint resolution Tuesday creating the Climate Positive 2040 commitment. The resolution acknowledges the scientific consensus that climate change is occurring and is driven by the burning of fossil fuels. City officials also stated in the resolution that changes in water systems and extreme-weather events are affecting Salt Lake City now and will be exacerbated in the future, according to North America Wind Power.

"This is the most ambitious step ever taken by Salt Lake City to address the threat of climate change," Biskupski said in a press release. "This commitment places the city among leading communities worldwide that acknowledge our responsibility to rapidly reduce emissions and forge a new path forward that protects our economies, societies and overall human well-being."

Saving Lobsters

Buddhists monks have been getting bad press lately.  The Tiger Temple raids disclosed both inhumane behavior and greed.   So, when a group of Canadian monks decided to save some lobsters from the dinner table it made a bit of a splash.

Venerable Dan, a spokesman for the monks who were involved in the mission, told the CBC that the purpose of the effort was to cultivate compassion for all living beings. Before taking them back out to sea, the monks held a ceremony where they prayed and chanted to the Buddha of compassion.

According to the CBC, local fishermen helped them find a location where the lobsters would be safe from being caught again.

"We respect everyone's dietary choice, so we're not doing this to convert everybody to be vegetarians or vegans," Venerable Dan said. "This whole purpose for us is to cultivate this compassion toward others. It doesn't have to be lobsters, it can be worms, flies, any animals, drive slower so we don't run over little critters on the street."

The effort was an incredibly thoughtful approach towards raising awareness about other beings and how precious their lives are to them, while showing just how easy it is to be compassionate.

DAILY QUICK READ - JULY 15, 2016

Climate Change

The processes that drive droughts and massive wet weather happen on a global scale.  As the Sahel became drier and less capable of sustaining crops and herds, the blame was laid on human behavior.  There was a global response and project to prevent such events.  Guess what, they won’t work because the droughts were caused by climate change not the behavior of farmers and goat herds.

Since the great Sahelian droughts of the 1970s and 1980s, we’ve become familiar with the idea that humans cause environmental degradation and destruction on a huge scale.

Local people, usually herders and pastoralists with too many animals, strip the vegetation, blow the soils away and temperatures climb as the merciless sun shines down on the newly reflective landscape. Often, hunger and conflict ensues. This is a powerful metaphor – a morality tale – for what humankind is doing to the earth, and the answers to this simple narrative can seem as equally simple: move people and their animals into settlements, fence-off land and plant trees.

The desertification story has had enormous influence.

…the great Sahelian droughts of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s did not happen because unintelligent local people were over-exploiting their land but because of global climate changes brought about by fluctuations in the composition of atmospheric greenhouse gases and particulates.

North Korea’s Involvement

From the Conservation Action Trust - North Korean diplomats in Mozambique and South Africa are accused of involvement in all forms of smuggling and illegal behavior, including abetting poaching of rhino horns in the Kruger National Park.

The fatal breach in South Africa’s defence against rhino poaching in the Kruger National Park is Mozambique – and corrupt diplomats are continually widening it.

According to a study just released by Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime, the country is incapable of disrupting the criminal syndicates that have turned it into a major trans-shipment point for rhino horn, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and dagga. The value of illegal drug trade in Mozambique, it claims, is probably greater than all foreign aid combined.

Global Initiative rhino investigator Julian Rademeyer found that the corruption permeating every level of the Mozambique state and the country’s leaky ports, airports and borders made it a smuggler’s paradise. Of great concern is what he describes as “dodgy diplomats”, particularly North Koreans, using this weakness to smuggle illicit products.

Once hailed as a post-civil war success story, Mozambique, he says, is a country in crisis, paralysed by rampant corruption, a weak judiciary, an ineffectual and criminally compromised police force, and powerful criminal syndicates with tentacles reaching into every level of the state.

The Global Initiative report highlights the increasing role and impunity of North Korean diplomats in criminal activities in the southern African region. An example was the arrest, in Maputo in May 2015, of a North Korean diplomat and a Taekwon-Do instructor after 4.5kg of rhino horn and $100,000 was found in their vehicle. Police detained them and impounded the vehicle.

Within hours of learning of the incident, the North Korean ambassador to South Africa, Yong Man-ho, was on a flight from Johannesburg to Maputo. The diplomats were released after paying $30,000 and the vehicle was returned to them.

WWF Plan to Save Sharks

Sharks are critical to the health of the Great Barrier Reef.  It’s a complex relationship, but sharks, like all apex predators are key contributor to healthy ecosystems.

“It’s a new approach to conservation,” WWF-Australia's Conservation Director Gilly Llewellyn said in a statement released Wednesday. “This is an opportunity for people to help stop a massive 1.2 km [0.7 mile] long net from sitting in Reef waters and indiscriminately killing almost everything that swims into it. These enormous nets kill tens of thousands of juvenile sharks each year.”

The license that the WWF is hoping to buy was, between 1993 and 2004, used to catch an average of 10,000 sharks per year. However, since then, the license — which its current owner has put up for purchase — has not been used even once.

“Someone could buy it tomorrow and go fishing with it in a couple of months' time and it could be catching sharks again,” Llewellyn told ABC News, in response to questions about how worthwhile the purchase would be.

Ecosystems Require Diversity

When humans take over the neighborhood things go to hell.   And, we will eventually pay the price.

In an ambitious study that represents the latest merger between big data approaches and the quest to conserve the planet, scientists have found that across a majority of the Earth’s land surface — including some of its most important types of terrain and its most populous regions — the abundance or overall number of animals and plants of different species has fallen below a “safe” level identified by biologists.

The reason is not exactly a surprise — from grasslands to tropical forests, humans are using more and more land for agriculture, to live on, to and build roads and infrastructure upon. When we take over, we clear the land or otherwise convert it for our purposes. This doesn’t always cause extinctions, but it does reduce the abundance of species and what researchers call the “intactness” of ecosystems — and when biodiversity levels fall too low, it can mean that larger ecosystems lose their resilience or even, at the extreme, cease to function.

The research is based on a “planetary boundaries” concept that “attempts to set some sort of safe limit to the amount of biodiversity we can lose, while biodiversity still supports important ecosystem functions,” said Newbold, the study’s lead author. And it is important to note that in the context of this analysis, safety actually means safe for humans, in significant part.

The concern is that species-anemic ecosystems will struggle or fail, and so become unable to provide us what we actually need in the form of stored carbon, filtered water, fertile soils and much else. Animals need these ecosystem “services,” to be sure, but so do humans.

DAILY QUICK READ - JULY 13, 2016

It’s the Speed of Things

The natural world is always changing.  That’s why we believe in evolution.  But, human caused climate change accelerates the process.  Not quick a global extinction event, but pretty close.  Stress, disease, lack of natural predators all feed this discrete disaster.

Much of New England has been slammed by a gypsy moth infestation that has denuded trees of leaves on some 150,000 acres in Massachusetts alone, forestry managers say.

The gypsy moth population exploded this spring across large swaths of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island after drought conditions impeded the spread of a fungus that usually keeps the number of gypsy moth caterpillars under control.

It was the second year in a row that a lack of springtime rain triggered an explosion of the voracious caterpillars, which can strip the leaves from trees with alarming efficiency.

Caterpillar defoliation can have cascading effects on local ecosystems… Removing the forest canopy can make it too hot for nesting birds, which abandon their nests, and it eliminates habitat for insects that feed many bird species.

Exposed nests are also subject to infiltration by cowbirds, which, like cuckoos, lay their eggs in the nests of other species. When cowbird hatchlings emerge, they force the other chicks from the nest.

Gypsy moth caterpillars also devour oak pollen that produces acorns, an important food source for turkeys, deer, bears, and other animals.

Acorn shortages can also eradicate large numbers of white-footed mice, which depend on the nuts to get through the winter. In springtime, the mice feed on gypsy moth caterpillars, helping to control their population.

Greed, Greed, Greed

Democratic Senators are trying to highlight the coordinated lies and the organizations hired to do the lying.  Fossil fuel companies and their enablers have been identified.  Will they every face prosecution?

Championed by Senators Whitehouse, Markey, Schatz, Boxer, Merkley, Warren, Sanders and Franken, the resolution condemns what they are calling the #WebOfDenial—"interconnected groups—funded by the Koch brothers, major fossil fuel companies like ExxonMobil and Peabody Coal, identity-scrubbing groups like Donors Trust and Donors Capital and their allies—developed and executed a massive campaign to deceive the public about climate change to halt climate action and protect their bottom lines."

As DeSmog Blog, ExxonSecrets, Climate Investigations Center and others have documented repeatedly over the past decade, the oil and coal industries and their friends have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on an immoral and potentially fraudulent campaign to deceive the public about the scientific consensus on manmade global warming and the need for urgent action to curtail fossil fuel pollution.

Just last week, DeSmog Blog published the latest round of Exxon's funding of climate denial groups still peddling doubt, bringing the total known funding from Exxon to nearly $34 million over two decades. Add to that the nearly $90 million pumped into the denial machine by the Koch Family Foundations, as well as the largesse emanating from the dark money ATM, Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund.

Plague Dogs

M&M are often considered a cure around my house.  Using them to vaccinate massive populations of prairie dogs in order to save ferrets, that is awesome.

The US government is set to unleash drones that fire vaccine-covered M&Ms in a bid to save the endangered black-footed ferret, a species that is facing a plague epidemic across America’s great plains.

The US Fish and Wildlife (FWS) has developed a plan to bombard ferret habitat in Montana with the vaccine, which will be administered via specially designed drones that will be able to shoot M&Ms in three directions simultaneously.

The vaccines will be targeted at the prairie dog population at the UL Bend National Wildlife Refuge in north-eastern Montana. Black footed ferrets – North America’s only native ferret – are completely dependent upon prairie dogs, which are a type of burrowing rodent, for their food and shelter.

Choking on Our Own Garbage

The oceans are full of garbage, yet supposedly advanced societies can’t figure out how to deal with the waste they create.

Over the past several weeks, Hong Kong residents have become increasingly angry about the unprecedented amount of trash landing on the city’s beaches.

While Hong Kong certainly generates plenty of its own garbage, activists and residents noticed that a majority of the trash landing on the city’s beaches had labels popular in mainland China, not Hong Kong.

Hong Kong’s Environmental Protection Department (EPD) believes the mainland is to blame, too. The amount of trash surfacing on the city’s beaches is six to ten times the ordinary amount at this time of year, the EPD said in a statement to Quartz. Floods and storms in mainland China are the reason.

Water from the storms flows into China’s municipal sewage system, out into streams, into the Pearl River, and eventually, out into the South China Sea. This water carries a huge amount of trash because China has a number of open dump sites that are not well maintained or regulated (more on this below).

Normally, that trash would just drift further out into the South China Sea. But winds blowing from the southwest towards the northeast caused the filthy water to flow towards Hong Kong in recent weeks…

195 to 1

Sadly, Donald Trump is not the only person running for the Republican presidential nomination who rejected the science of climate change.  Still he is unique in the world in his stupidity.

Donald Trump would be the only national leader in the world to dismiss the science of climate change should he become president, putting him out of step even with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea.

The potential isolation of the US on climate change has been laid bare by a new Sierra Club report which found universal acceptance of climate science among the leaders of the 195 countries recognized by the US state department.

Close US allies such as Britain, Israel, Canada and France all have heads of government who have voiced their understanding that the world is warming primarily due to human activities.

Even totalitarian or undemocratic leaders accept mainstream climate science, with Assad calling for nations to “respond more effectively” to the issue and Kim supporting a tree-planting initiative to mitigate greenhouse gases. The Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, has labelled climate change a “major global challenge”.

By contrast, Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has called global warming “bullshit” and a “hoax” that was “created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing noncompetitive”.

DAILY QUICK READ - JULY 12, 2016

Turn Out the Lights

So, last week we learned that half of the human race can no longer see the stars of the Milky Way.  Now we learn that someday soon the summer will devoid of the lights of the firefly.  We seem content to destroy all that is beautiful and wondrous about the natural world.

Blink and you’ll miss them this summer. Around the world, people are reporting that local firefly populations are shrinking or even disappearing.

The insect’s dilemma first came to the world’s attention at the 2010 International Firefly Symposium, where researchers from 13 nations presented evidence of firefly population declines and declared “an urgent need for conservation of their habitats.” Since then, additional conferences and several scientific papers have documented regional firefly disappearances, and at least two citizen-science projects are attempting to document the phenomenon, but the full scope of the problem remains to be uncovered, says firefly researcher Ben Pfeiffer, founder of Firefly.org, a website about the decline of the insects, also called lightning bugs.

The loss of fireflies, which are actually beetles, can have multiple effects on their ecosystems. For one thing, some firefly species—there are at least 170 in the U.S.—play a role in pollination. They’re not as essential as bees, but they help pollinate milkweed, goldenrod, wild sunflowers, and other species.

More important, however, firefly larvae are voracious predators that live in the ground and eat slugs, snails, worms, aphids, and other problem critters that would otherwise grow out of control. “I call them nature’s pest control,” Pfeiffer said. (On the other side of the dinner table, fireflies are also important food sources for species such as bats and spiders.)

Climate Changes Clouds

One effect of climate change is to shift the pattern of clouds both away from the mid-latitudes and higher above the earth.  The result of that climate change driven shift is more warming which drives even more extreme climate events.  It’s a loop folks and we need to stop it.

The distribution of clouds all across the Earth has shifted...

And moreover, it has shifted in such a way — by expanding subtropical dry zones, located between around 20 and 30 degrees latitude in both hemispheres, and by raising cloud tops — as to make global warming  worse.

“As global warming occurs, there’s the expectation that the storm track will shift closer to the pole and the dry areas of the subtropics will expand poleward,” said Joel Norris, a climate scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, and the study’s lead author. The work was conducted with scientists at Scripps, the University of California at Riverside, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Colorado State University.

Not just one but both of these changes to clouds are “positive feedbacks” to climate change — tending to make warming worse.

Moving cloud tracks toward the poles enhances warming because at higher latitudes, less solar radiation strikes the Earth — so white clouds are reflecting less of it away from the planet than they would if they were closer to the tropics and the Equator, Norris said. Meanwhile, he continued, higher cloud tops in effect thicken the total column of cloud, and that means more trapping of infrared or heat radiation that would otherwise exit to space.

Trump Could End the World (as we know it)

Is there anyone who doesn’t think Donald Trump would be a climate catastrophe?  Yesterday, we pointed out that U.K. prime ministerial hopeful Andrea Leadsom was close to the most egregious climate deniers in the U.S.  And, now she’s out of contention for the prime minister job.  Let’s see if it works on Trump.

To prevent climate change that floods large portions of coastal cities, dooms small island nations and turns whole regions into deserts, we need to accelerate the transformation of the world’s energy economy away from fossil fuels. Those who have crunched the numbers say this can still be achieved, but just barely. Hitting the brakes would send us over the cliff.

Over we go if Donald Trump wins the election and carries through on his campaign promises. The effects on the global climate will persist not only for the four or eight years of his presidency, but for generations.

Barack Obama’s fight against climate change centers on a plan to reduce the use of coal (the largest source of US greenhouse gas emissions). Trump has vowed to cancel this plan, somehow revive the US coal industry and support domestic production of oil and natural gas.

He hasn’t been overtly hostile to solar, another major source, but the plummeting price (and hence growing competitiveness) of solar are largely driven by low-cost panels from China. Trump’s promised trade wars could end the days of cheap solar here.

If the US – historically the world’s largest emitter, with high per capita emissions – refuses to act, and if it withdraws from the Paris agreement and reneges on its pledge to help developing countries deal with climate change (as Trump has also promised to do), the leaders of India and other developing countries will face great political pressure at home to follow the easy path of using more coal.

Yes, More About Dogs (and conservation)

Namibia has the largest population of cheetahs in Africa.  As every apex predator, the cheetah is under incredible pressure.  In Namibia there is a vast array of programs and organizations working to protect cheetahs, while also protecting farmers whose herds are victims of cheetah predation.  Of course, dogs can help.

Cheetahs, the fastest land animals on Earth, have been disappearing almost as fast as they can run.

But in the African country of Namibia, the cheetah population has grown from 2,500 to 4,000 since 1994. And dogs are helping to keep those numbers rising.

Instead of trapping or shooting cheetahs that wander onto their property and kill livestock, some farmers are relying on Anatolian Shepherds and their fierce barking to scare away the predators.

“You may see in history that this dog can be responsible for saving the cheetah from extinction,” Jack Hanna, director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo, told CBS News. “That is one heck of a story right there.”

You can help put more dogs to work in Namibia or contribute to other projects that are helping to protect and preserve cheetahs here.

CCF’s renowned Livestock Guarding Dog Program has been highly effective at reducing predation rates and thereby reducing the inclination by farmers to trap or shoot cheetahs. CCF breeds Anatolian shepherd and Kangal dogs, breeds that for millennia have guarded small livestock against wolves and bears in Turkey. The dogs are placed with Namibian farmers as puppies. They bond with the herd and us their imposing presence and loud bark to scare away potential predators.

Guard dogCCF has been placing dogs since 1994 and our research shows the dogs are highly effective, reducing livestock loss from all predators by over 80 and up to 100 percent. Farmers adopt CCF dogs and participate in education on how to train the dog. CCF does on site follow up visits to ensure the dogs have proper training and medical care, and are settling into their guardian role. Farmers have enthusiastically embraced the program, and there is now a two year waiting list for puppies. CCF had placed nearly 500 dogs by the end of 2013. CCF research shows that the people’s attitudes towards predators are changing as a result of this and other CCF programs.

Pure Blind Hate

Hatred of wolves is part of the DNA of many ranchers and politicians in the American West.  The Department of the interior walks a fine line supporting both wolves and ranchers.  And it is always the wolves that suffer in the end.

The investigation by the Department of Interior Office of the Inspector General, expected to be made public today, substantiates many of the allegations made by Catron County in a 2013 complaint – namely that the service protected “genetically valuable” wolves in the wild, even after they preyed on cattle, did not tell residents when wolves were near and did not fully compensate ranchers for cattle killed by wolves.

Ranchers in the area have long been against the reintroductions that began in 1998, since they are prone to losing livestock to wolf depredations. The report substantiates claims that ranchers were not fully compensated for their losses during the former coordinator’s tenure.

“Most said that they received compensation for only a small percentage of the cattle they lost,” the report said, adding that ranchers blame the difficulty of confirming that a missing or dead animal has been killed by a wolf as well as unresponsiveness and past interference in investigations by the field office.

To these ranchers and politicians no coexistence is possible, so when Federal officials tend to protect the wolves, they get slapped down.  While, it remains open season on wolves.

Wildlife officials are investigating the deaths of three Mexican gray wolves.

Authorities say one wolf was found in New Mexico and another two in Arizona but they’re not releasing details.

It’s another blow to the wolf reintroduction program run by the U-S Fish and Wildlife Service along with state agencies.

Over the years that program has been plagued by legal battles and illegal wolf killings.