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Humans drive extinction faster than species can evolve; diversity loss due to destroyed habitats & climate change
Threatened. L: the red squirrel will be lost within the next 20-30 years unless effective action is taken. This poor fella's just heard the news. R: the pine marten. One of England’s rarest, & cutest, mammals.
A pair of giraffes nuzzle as they stand in the bush near Koure, Niger. The IUCN lists west African giraffes as an endangered species.
A giraffe from Africa's most endangered giraffe subspecies. Their numbers have quadrupled to 200 since 1996, an unlikely boon experts credit to the impoverished government keen for revenue that has enacted laws to protect them, a conservation program that encourages people to support them, and a rare harmony with humans who have accepted their presence.
Climate change is robbing polar bears of their habitats, & is the greatest threat to their survival.
Polar bear products are used for furs, rugs and taxidermy. Melting sea ice in Arctic will kill thousands of bears in coming years; US says commercial trade must not be allowed to make the situation worse. read more »
Methane (greenhouse gas 25x potent as CO2) bubbles out 5x faster. Warmer air thaws Arctic soil, 50 bil tonnes may be released
Researchers believe the Arctic Ocean seabed is thawing in patches and releasing greenhouse gases. Methane, trapped in the permafrost, 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, is bubbling out of the frozen arctic faster than expected.
Researchers ignite a bubble of methane on Alaska’s Steward Peninsula.
Methane is leaking from the East Siberian Arctic Shelf into the atmosphere at an alarming rate. The amount leaking from this locale is comparable to all methane from rest of the world's oceans put together. Methane is a greenhouse gas more than 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
Left: Researcher ignites a pocket of methane. Right: methane bubbles trapped in lake ice in Siberia in early autumn.
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"Earth and Nature suffer grave ruin, destruction instead of construction, when Technology is in the hands of Greed." - LuCxeed
Earth and Nature suffer grave ruin, destruction instead of construction, when Technology is in the hands of Greed.
Giant iceberg, 965sqmi (2500sqkm, 400m thick) split fr Antarctica, holding "enough water to fill River Thames 100 times."
An giant iceberg has broken off from Antarctica, created when it was hit by another iceberg two weeks ago. The size of Luxemberg, it could disrupt ocean circulation patterns.
The 965 sq mile (2,500 sq km) block of ice broke off from the Mertz Glacier which ends in a floating tongue of ice that protrudes 100 miles (160 km) out into the Southern Ocean. The 'calving' - or splitting of the ice sheet - resulted a collision with another iceberg.
Glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, cloud forests are drying, and wildlife is scrambling to keep pace. It's becoming clear that humans have caused most of the past century's warming by releasing heat-trapping gases as we power our modern lives. Called greenhouse gases, their levels are higher now than in the last 650,000 years.
A large iceberg was spotted off an island about halfway between Antarctica and Australia, a rare sight in waters so far north. read more »
"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity." - Albert Einstein
It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.
Arctic: pollution on its way. Oil drilling in Chukchi Sea threatens clean air, water, ocean resources & sea life
Shall we protect Nature as it is,
reserve some land, ocean, resources
for coming generations, for our children’s children?
Shall we, or shall we not? In words, or in action?
(quote) Approval of oil drilling in Chukchi Sea fails to include recent science and violates laws that protect clean air, water, and ocean resources. Oceana, together with Arctic communities and other conservation groups filed a legal challenge in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to the Minerals Management Service’s (MMS) approval of Shell Offshore Inc.’s proposed exploration drilling in the Chukchi Sea. The groups argue that MMS and Shell have not complied with federal laws that require thorough analysis of potential impacts and protections for clean air, water, and marine life. read more »
2010 International Year of Biodiversity. Ongoing extinction at 1000 times natural rate: most species to disappear in <100 years
Green sea turtles, whose ancestors evolved on land and took to the sea to live about 150 million years ago, are one of the few species so ancient that they watched the dinosaurs evolve and become extinct.
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World's biodiversity crisis needs action, says UN. With species extinction running at about 1,000 times the "natural" or "background" rate, some biologists contend that we are in the middle of the Earth's sixth great extinction - the previous five stemming from natural events such as asteroid impacts.
The United Nations has launched the International Year of Biodiversity, warning that the ongoing loss of species around the world is affecting human well being. Eight years ago, governments pledged to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010, but the pledge will not be met. read more »
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