Environment News: BiodiversityEnvironment News: BiodiversityenPanda pioneers teach babies how to survive in the wildhttp://green-blog.org/news/biodiversity/panda-pioneers-teach-babies-how-to-survive-in-the-wild-r165/Panda

China has a dream that the giant pandas it breeds in captivity will one day frolic in the mountains with their wild cousins. This is the next challenge for the scientists who manage the country's biggest reserve for captive pandas. They have mastered the art of breeding the world's iconic and endangered animal; now it is time to send some of their babies out into the real world.

The centre's first experiment ended in tragedy, since the five-year-old panda that was released knew to survive on it's own, but couldn't protect itself from the other wild pandas and thus fallen to his death from a tree,after being pursued by wild pandas angered at an intruder in their territory.

Now two males and two females have been selected as the second attempt. Scientists running the program hope that wild pandas will be less likely to attack a female who strays into their territory. Everyone wishes the experiment has a happy end this time.

With only 1.590 pandas in the wild,it is crucial to improve their gene diversity to raise the animal's chances to avoid extinction.Reintroducing pandas pandas bred in China's reserves is one way to do that,and there are many candidates to choose from. The success of China's two main reserves in breeding, principally through artificial insemination, has resulted in a panda baby boom. The director of the reserve argues that the captive population has almost reached a level of sustainability to ensure that the panda can survive for another hundred years.

All this is a really good effort much appriciated by every person who loves animals and wants them to be saved from extinction. But doing all this is not enough. Pandas are only the example of so many species we let unprotected to reach the point of extinction until we realised we have to save them. Why should we always reach that point instead of thinking in advance which human activities cause a direct harm to the environment and it's wildlife and stop doing them?

Image credit: Philou.cn. Image licensed under a

Creative-Commons Attribution-Share Alike license.

165Wed, 02 Jan 2008 01:46:34 +0000
Japan whalers brutally slaughter a whale mother and her calfhttp://green-blog.org/news/biodiversity/japan-whalers-brutally-slaughter-a-whale-mother-and-her-calf-r206/Japan whalers brutally slaughter a whale mother and her calfSince Greenpeace left the Antarctic, due to low fuel, the Japanese whalers began their slaughter of whales. Australia who is strongly condemning the whale slaughter is still following the Japanese whalers. And yesterday they could release images and videos of the Japan whaling fleets slaughter of a whale mother and her calf (video after the jump).

Peter Garrett, Australian environment minister, said that "it is explicitly clear from these images that this is indiscriminate killing of whales, where you have a whale and its calf killed in this way. And to claim that this is in any way scientific is to continue the charade that has surrounded this issue from day one."

Mr Morimoto, japanese whalers ICR Director, said to the whalers defence that "it is necessary to conduct random sampling of the Antarctic minke population to obtain accurate statistical data."

I wonder how "random" a "sampling" of 900 minke whales and 50 fin whales really is?

Watch the video (Swedish voices):


- The Japanese people need to "re-examine the whaling issue"

- Japan launches its largest whaling expedition ever

206Fri, 08 Feb 2008 08:29:03 +0000
The never solved, never forgotten issue...http://green-blog.org/news/biodiversity/the-never-solved-never-forgotten-issue-r220/Japan whalers brutally slaughter a whale mother and her calfIt is a fact that more than 1000 whales and dolphins are killed every year by whalehunters, who make some endangered species head torwards extinction.

Mainly Japan, with support from Norway and Iceland, refuses to obey the rules of the moratorium set in 1986, from the Worldwide Whalehunting Commitee, which had as a goal to let the whale population increase, after it's dramatic drop between the years 1925-1975.

However, more than 20000 creatures ended up in the hands of Japanese whalehunters. Japan claims that whales are to be blamed for the decrease of the fish population (obviously humans cannot be blamed, since they can feed only with fish, unlike whales, who could may as well prefer rabbits or vegetables) .Plus, the moratorium said that whales could be hunted for scientific reasons, and that's exactly what Japan is supposed to be doing. But noone believes that last year's gigantic ''mission'' was for scientific research. The so-called scientists weighed the whales and then took their meat on the market to sell it.

But why can't other countries control Japan? Apparently because it's not only the governments' fault. As long as people want whale, dolphin or shark meat in their diet, hunters will still find ways to keep hunting. So the main aim should be to awake all those people, and persuade them not to eat whale's meat. And when their argument includes the phrase: "it's part of our tradition,we wont let it die out", the reply should be that: "tradition that harms in an uncontrolable way the earth and it's species supports the most cruel instincts humans could have, and therefore is not a tradition that deserves to keep going..."

220Mon, 18 Feb 2008 19:57:03 +0000
Victory for "threatened" polar bearshttp://green-blog.org/news/biodiversity/victory-for-threatened-polar-bears-r296/Polar bearToday the U.S. Department of Interior formally listed the polar bear as a "threatened" species.

Environmental organisations have called for the polar bears to be listed on the "endangered" species list hoping it could lead to actions to combat climate change.

Unfortunately interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne wouldn't want to label the polar bears as "endangered" but rather as a "threatened" species. That means they've successfully downplayed the threat to polar bears from climate change and won't need to take any serious actions to protect the polar bears from the constantly increasing levels of greenhouse gas emissions.

KierÃ¡n Suckling, Executive Director of the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a newsletter that the US "administration refused to designate and protect the polar bear's habitat as "critical habitat." The overwhelming threat to polar bears is the melting of Arctic sea ice. It is absolutely essential that this habitat is itself protected if we expect to save the bear."

Todays decision by the U.S. Department of Interior also contained a "special rule" that declared that greenhouse gas emissions "can't and shouldn't be limited by the Endangered Species Act."

The Center for Biological Diversity will not let "these atrocious policies stand" and is promising to "haul" the US administration back to court to ensure that the polar bears get listed as an "endangered" species.

"We've repeatedly beat the administration in court over the past three years and we'll do so again", said KierÃ¡n Suckling.

Image credit: Mape S. Image licensed under a Attribution license.

296Thu, 15 May 2008 11:51:20 +0000
Why did they use DDT?http://green-blog.org/news/biodiversity/why-did-they-use-ddt-r310/During a nighttime robbery, the horn of a 120-year-old stuffed rhinoceros was stolen, from the museum where it was displayed. Museum authorities warned that using this horn as a traditional medicine on the Asian black market could have lethal consequences because it was preserved by the use of the deadly arsenic and DDT.

But causing immidiate death should not be the only concern. The fact that DDT is still in use is really alarming, since it is a substance that causes accumulation. As an environmental term, accumulation is the gradual increase of pollutants in living organisms by direct adsorption or through food chains. The pollutants that cause accumulation cannot be metabolized or aborted by any means, so accumulation of the substance increases while going up a food chain.

DDT in particular, was used in Africa during the 60's, as a insecticide against the mosquito that causes malaria. It was later found that huge quantities of DDT existed in many african species. The most surprising part of the research was that DDT existed in penguins of Antarctica and in Eskimo's mother milk! It was decided to substitute DDT with other pesticides, but accumulation had already harmed wild animals. The egg-shells of wild birds become extremely vulnerable due to this substance, slowing down the pace of reproduction.

DDT is only an example. There are many other substances known to cause accumulation, but still used in every day life. The fact that it was once banned doesn't seem to pay off, since it is still used by museums. Moreover, we should really do something about it, even those who don't care about other species. For the simple reason that human usually feeds on species from many food chains, and thus receives those substances.

Forum Topic: Stuffed rhino loses horn to thieves

310Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:28:45 +0000
The Caribbean monk seal is now extinct due to human causeshttp://green-blog.org/news/biodiversity/the-caribbean-monk-seal-is-now-extinct-due-to-human-causes-r315/The Caribbean monk

Photo from "The Fisheries and Fisheries Industries of the United States", by George Brown Goode (1887).

The Caribbean monk seal has gone "the way of the dodo" and been officially listed as extinct by the US Government. The Caribbean monk seal is, so far, the only seal species to go extinct due to human causes.

"Humans left the Caribbean monk seal population unsustainable after overhunting them, Unfortunately, this led to their demise and labels the species as the only seal to go extinct from human causes."

The last time anyone sighted the Caribbean monk seal was in 1952, over 50 years ago, at Seranilla Bank, between Jamaica and the Yucatan Peninsula. In 1967 the USA listed the species as endangered due to human activities.

"Caribbean monk seals were first discovered during Columbusâ€™s second voyage in 1494, when eight seals were killed for meat," the fisheries service noted. "Following European colonization from the 1700s to 1900s, the seals were exploited intensively for their blubber, and to a lesser extent for food, scientific study and zoological collection. Blubber was processed into oil and used for lubrication, coating the bottom of boats, and as lamp and cooking oil. Seal skins were sought to make trunk linings, articles of clothing, straps and bags."

Unfortunately it seems that the Hawaiian and Mediterranean monk seals will go the same path as the Caribbean monk seal. Their biggest problems is "lack of food sources for young seals, entanglement in marine debris, predation by sharks, and loss of haul-out and pupping beaches due to erosion" and climate change (which is man-made).

"El Nino events, which cause storms similar to those expected to occur with increasing frequency as a result of climate change, drive marine debris closer to monk seal beaches and nearshore waters," it added. "Seal pups play with trash, which can lead to entanglement and eventual death. Increased numbers of Hawaiian monk seals have been found entangled in marine debris after El Nino events."

The Hawaiian seal population is expected to be around 1200 individuals. But that number is declining at a rate of 4%, every year. It is even worse for the Mediterranean monk seal that only has around 500 individuals.

315Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:57:27 +0000
Two polar bears are killed on Iceland just weeks after USA lists them as a "threatened" specieshttp://green-blog.org/news/biodiversity/two-polar-bears-are-killed-on-iceland-just-weeks-after-usa-lists-them-as-a-threatened-species-r322/Iceland has killed two polar bears since the U.S. Department of Interior formally listed the polar bear as a "threatened" species a few weeks ago.

The first polar bear, named BjÃ¶rn BjÃ¶rnesson, came to Iceland in the beginning of June this year. The polar bear was shot as soon as he was spotted for fears he would get into the nearest village. According to the hunters, killing the polar bear was the only solution as it would take to long to get the anaesthetic that was on the other side of the island.

The polar bear had probably travelled the 29 miles (47 kilometres) from Greenland on a flake of ice and swim the last miles to Iceland.

And just two days ago another polar bear was discovered on Iceland. People from the nearest village who discovered the polar bear said "he was very calm and seemed to be very tired" and "fell asleep after half an hour." This polar bear was named Ã“feig.

The local authorities had received a lot of criticism for their handling of the first polar bear, so this time they wanted deal with it properly. But their plans to put Ã“feig to sleep and transport him back to Greenland failed and they had to kill him, the second polar bear in less than two weeks.

Eyewitness said that Ã“feig tried to flee back to the sea when the veterinarian came. The authorities and the veterinarian then decided that the polar was to skinny and hungry and that killing it would be the most humane way.

It's very rare that polar bears come to Iceland. Last time a polar bear visited Iceland was 20 years ago. That polar bear was also killed.

But according to Tom Arnbom from WWF we will see more polar bears in wrong habitats. Tom Arnbom says the polar bears natural habitats are melting away because of climate change.

"The worst case scenario everyone was talking about would happen in 20-30 years, is happening right now," Tom Arnbom said, and added that "no one contemplated that the warming would increase faster the more ice melted away."

322Mon, 07 Jul 2008 01:24:24 +0000
The Northern white rhino is on the brink of extinctionhttp://green-blog.org/news/biodiversity/the-northern-white-rhino-is-on-the-brink-of-extinction-r332/White rhinoceros in Kruger Park

White rhinoceros in Kruger Park. Photo by Esculapio.

It wasn't long ago since the Caribbean monk seal was officially listed as extinct by the US Government. And now the IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, reports that the Northern white rhino (Ceratotherium simum cottoni) is "on the brink of extinction".

According to older reports the only remaining population of Northern white rhino is restricted in the wild to Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The population was 30 in April 2003 but was reduced due to poaching to only four confirmed animals by August 2006. Now in 2008 the IUCN haven't been able to find any Northern white rhinos at all.

Dr Martin Brooks, Chair of the IUCN SSC African Rhino Specialist Group says:

"Worryingly, recent fieldwork has so far failed to find any presence of these four remaining rhinos. Unless animals are found during the intensive surveys that are planned under the direction of the African Parks Foundation, the subspecies may be doomed to extinction."

Although the future seems very dark for the Northern white rhino the population of the African black rhino (Diceros bicornis) has had a small boost from 2005. The population has increased from 3730 in 2005 to 4180 in 2007. But the African black rhino still remains as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.

Dr Richard Emslie, Scientific Officer of the IUCN SSC African Rhino Specialist Group, says that:

"This is fantastic news for the African black rhino. However, these magnificent creatures are not out of the woods yet. They are still classed as Critically Endangered and face increasing threats of poaching and civil unrest. There is no room for complacency."

The report concludes that poaching still remains as the biggest threat for rhinos in both the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe.


332Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:48:41 +0000
Nearly 50% of the world's primates face extinction report sayshttp://green-blog.org/news/biodiversity/nearly-50-of-the-worlds-primates-face-extinction-report-says-r372/According to a newly released report by the IUCN Primate Specialist Group says that "almost 50 percent of the world's primates are in danger of extinction." The report points out that habitat destruction and hunting are the two main threats.

"We've raised concerns for years about primates being in peril, but now we have solid data to show the situation is far more severe than we imagined," said Russell A. Mittermeier, president of Conservation International (CI) and the longtime chairman of the IUCN Species Survival Commission's Primate Specialist Group. "Tropical forest destruction has always been the main cause, but now it appears that hunting is just as serious a threat in some areas, even where the habitat is still quite intact. In many places, primates are quite literally being eaten to extinction."

The new analysis reveals that:

  • Over 70% of Asian primates are threatened with extinction, and at least two dozen taxa are Critically Endangered.
  • Virtually all gibbons are threatened with extinction â€” and one of the rarest subspecies, the Yunnan white-handed gibbon, may already be extinct.
  • All great apes â€” all gorillas, all chimpanzees, all orangutans, all bonobos â€” are either Endangered or Critically Endangered.
  • Across all primate taxa, a full 48% are threatened â€” nearly half of all primates, in harm's way and likely to go extinct in our own lifetime.

And just in time for the release of this depressing report the Associated Press reports that President George Bush is "proposing changes that would allow federal agencies to decide for themselves whether subdivisions, dams, highways and other projects have the potential to harm endangered animals and plants."

372Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:00:03 +0000
Knowing Your Bioregion: A First Step to Stewardshiphttp://green-blog.org/news/biodiversity/knowing-your-bioregion-a-first-step-to-stewardship-r377/Lake Erie SunsetAsk me where I am from, and more than likely, I will say Lake Erie.Â Or the Great Lakes. I love Pennsylvania, for sure, but I feel I have more in common with someone from Toronto or Chicago than someone from Philadelphia (though I love that city and lived there many years of my youth).

I also love central Pennsylvania, being a Penn State girl.Â  But the hills and valleys feel somehow wrong to me.Â My eyes crave the flat land, as it reaches toward a low and long horizon.

And I truly feel starved for the horizon that is a Great Lake.Â For those of you who have never seen a Great Lake, it is no simple lake.Â It would look like the ocean to you.Â No land in sight. Rolling waves.

Lake Erie is one of the most treacherous places you can sail because of how shallow and large it is.Â  Quick changes in the weather can be life-threatening.

I also love knowing that this chair I am sitting in, this house sitting behind me, all of it used to be under water.Â The lake came up to here so many thousands of years ago.Â  It's shore was very close to my front street.Â Evidence of this lies in my soil.Â  Pieces of shell, fossils, certain rocks -- it all tells a deep and long story.

Every place is this unique.Â You just have to dig a bit.

And digging can lead to roots which can give you a sense of grounding that can be easily lost in this world that can seem precariously virtual, too fast, and too transient.

Getting to know your bioregion can lead to a feeling of ownership and then to good stewardship.Â  A worthy quest, indeed.

So here's a list of questions and suggestions and actions to get you going on this quest:

1.Â  Point north from where you are reading this.

2.Â  From which directions do storms come in each season?

3.Â  Name 3 native, edible plants and when they are able to be harvested.

4.Â  What native people originally lived in your area?

5.Â  Name 5 resident and 5 migratory birds.

6.Â  Can you recognize the calls of three resident birds?

7.Â  What are the earliest and latest times for the sunrise and the sunset over the course of the year?

8.Â  In which watershed do you reside?Â  What about your sub-watershed?

9.Â  How many days until the next full moon?Â  (Bonus points if you know what one of the names for this full moon is.)

10.Â  Name five trees in your neighborhood.Â  Which of them are native?

11.Â  What primary geological events or processes shaped the land upon which you live?

12.Â  Were the stars out last night?

13.Â  What are the names of your human neighbors?

14.Â  What immigrant populations are currently predominant in your area?

15.Â  What languages other than English might you hear at the local grocery store?

16.Â  When are strawberries and peaches available to you locally?

17.Â  When was the last time you bought a locally produced product other than food?

18.Â  Where does your electricity come from and how is it generated?

19.Â  When did you last pick a fresh pea or tomato from your own yard or a neighbor's yard?

20.Â  How far do you commute to work? If over ten miles, why don't you live closer to your job?

21.Â  How old is your neighborhood?

22.Â  When did you last use a form of public transportation?

23.Â  If you could only "vacation" within a thirty mile radius, what would you do with your time off?

24.Â  How many times have you moved in the last five years?Â  The last ten?

25.Â  When did you last attend a locally produced art/music/theatre/dance event?

26.Â  Name one local published author.Â  (Trust me, there are more.)

Let me know if you find out anything startling, interesting, mind-boggling.

And do something with this information:Â  absorb it and live it and share it.

377Sun, 24 Aug 2008 20:14:28 +0000
Emperor Penguins will face extinction within the next 100 yearshttp://green-blog.org/news/biodiversity/emperor-penguins-will-face-extinction-within-the-next-100-years-r508/

March of the Penguins

Creative Commons License Photo credit: pixie_bebe

If the ice continues to shrink (due to man-made climate change) at its current pace the Emperor Penguins will become extinct within 100 years, researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts warns.

"Emperor Penguins are one of only two open-sea Antarctic penguin species and depend on the sea ice for survival. After breeding, Emperor Penguins feed among the coastal pack ice where stretches of water are exposed. As a result of disappearing ice, the Emperor Penguins are being forced to retreat inward and could easily become displaced by other animals, losing out on nesting space.

After examining data from the Terre Adelie penguin colony, researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts found the Emperor Penguin population is facing a quasi-extinction, equal to a 95 percent or more population drop by the year 2100. The population is expected to decline from 6000 breeding pairs to only 400 pairs in the next 100 years if sea ice continues to shrink at the rate projected by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) models."

It seems that the penguins canâ€™t adapt to changing conditions and climate, by altering the timing of their breeding cycle for example. "Unlike some other Antarctic bird species that have altered their life cycles, penguins don't catch on so quickly," Stephanie Jenouvrier said. "They are long-lived organisms, so they adapt slowly. This is a problem because the climate is changing very fast."

508Thu, 29 Jan 2009 09:42:10 +0000
The annual seal hunt in Canada starts, over 280000 seals to be slaughteredhttp://green-blog.org/news/biodiversity/the-annual-seal-hunt-in-canada-starts-over-280000-seals-to-be-slaughtered-r554/">" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="550" height="338">

Canada Seal HuntThe annual seal massacre in Canada has started. This year the Canadian government has set a target of over 280000 baby seals to be clubbed to death and skinned to provide coats, hats, handbags and other accessories for the fashion market.

This seal hunt is the largest commercial hunt for marine mammals in the world and has been met with protests from around the world for years now. And this year is no different. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) says the hunt should be stopped because itâ€™s cruel, unsustainable and lacks proper monitoring from federal agencies. The European Union is currently being pushed to introduce a ban on commercial trading with seal skin in a few weeks. And just recently Russia decided to close down their seal hunt in the White Sea indefinitely.

â€œItâ€™s preposterous that the Canadian government insists on moving forward with this hunt.â€ said Sheryl Fink, a senior researcher with IFAW. â€œIn the midst of intense European and Canadian opposition, dwindling markets and low pelt prices, itâ€™s apparent the governmentâ€™s insistence on continuing this slaughter is based solely on politics not reason.â€

â€œThe world will be intensely watching this yearâ€™s hunt and I am confident that once again the evidence will speak for itself. The cruelty of Canadaâ€™s commercial seal hunt is undeniable.â€ added Fink.

Canadaâ€™s Department of Fisheries and Oceans have reported that the first two days of the seal hunt has resulted in over 17,200 harp seals killed. But as the team of observers from the IFAW notes, many of the killed seals never get counted in the official statistic.

â€œWe witnessed today a classic example of the cruelty associated with this hunt. An injured, bleeding seal escaped into the water before a sealer could get to it. The sealer tried to pull the seal out by the hind flippers but it slipped underwater anyway,â€ said Cheryl Jacobson, hunt observer with IFAW. â€œThis wounded seal will most likely die underwater and unbelievably, that kill wonâ€™t even be counted in the official catch number.â€

â€œIâ€™m confident we will gather enough footage to provide European policy makers with the cold hard facts about Canadaâ€™s commercial seal hunt â€“ that itâ€™s unacceptably cruel,â€ said Sheryl Fink, a senior researcher with IFAW. â€œSealers rush to club as many seals as possible in a short period of time, combine this with slippery ice conditions and we quickly see animal welfare fall to the wayside in the blind pursuit of profit,â€ added Fink.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare has released this video showing hunters killing seals in Canada's annual commercial seal hunt this year.

Take Action: End the Seal Hunt: Support the Harb Seal Bill!

554Thu, 07 Jul 2011 16:00:00 +0000
European Union bans the trade of seal productshttp://green-blog.org/news/biodiversity/european-union-bans-the-trade-of-seal-products-r579/Canada Seal HuntToday the European Parliament voted 550 to 49 in favour to ban the trade of all seal products (such as fur and omega-3) within the European Union. The new EU-wide legislation is meant to send a clear signal to Canada that their annual commercial slaughter of seals is "inherently inhumane."

"The legislation follows lobbying by animal welfare groups, which have long argued that the clubbing of seal pups by hunters is barbaric.

Canada kills about 300,000 seals annually off its east coast - the biggest such hunt in the world."

Stavros Dimas, European Commissioner for the Environment, welcomed the new ban and said that the new legislation "addresses EU citizens' concerns with regard to the cruel hunting methods of seals."

Caroline Lucas, MEP for the Greens in the UK, said that "today, nearly one million seals are slaughtered annually in commercial seal kills around the world", and that this new legislation will help end "one of the most vile examples of animal cruelty."

The new ban will come with exceptions for Inuit communities and other indigenous peoples from Canada and Greenland which will be allowed to continue their traditional hunts. But they are not allowed to participate in any large-scale trade of seal products within EU.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) applauded the new legislation and said it was a major victory in the organizations 40 year campaign to end Canadaâ€™s commercial seal hunt.

"The Parliament has hammered the final nail in the coffin of the sealing industryâ€™s market in the EU," said Lesley O'Donnell, Director of IFAW EU. "MEPs clearly heeded the tens of thousands of emails, postcards and messages sent by IFAW supporters from across Europe."

"From Mexico City to Milan and all the way to Moscow, the world is uniting in opposition to commercial seal hunts,â€ continued Oâ€™Donnell. â€œA complete collapse of Canadaâ€™s commercial seal hunt may now be inevitable."

Canada and Norway have warned that they will take the European Union and its 27 member nations to the World Trade Organization if they agreed on a ban on seal product imports.

It is feared that the new EU ban will overshadow any other topics during the EU-Canada summit in Prague this week. The summit is meant to launch negotiations for a new economic and free trade agreement between Europe and Canada as well as strengthening efforts to build a low-carbon global economy.

579Thu, 07 Jul 2011 16:00:00 +0000
Dolphin slaughter in Japan stirs up global wave of outragehttp://green-blog.org/news/biodiversity/dolphin-slaughter-in-japan-stirs-up-global-wave-of-outrage/

At least 250 dolphins have been tortured, many of them brutally killed, in Japan's Taiji Cove in the past seven days. Some of these mammals will be collected and shipped off to aquariums, but a large number will be harvested for their meat. Dolphin hunting is also known as drive hunting, and involves driving the animals together with boats and trapping them. It is increasingly seen as a cruel, inhumane, and entirely unnecessary practice. Now, animal rights groups and other activists worldwide are fighting back.

Several hundred bottlenose dolphins, porpoises, and pilot whales are hunted and slaughtered in Taiji Cove annually. Among those slain so far this year were infant dolphins (whom the fishermen view as too small to be worth much in meat), and a rare albino dolphin.

On Jan. 24, activists held a rally in downtown Tokyo, decrying this abuse and calling on officials to stop the sale of marine animals to aquariums and as meat. They declared that the practice is tarnishing Japan's reputation, especially as Tokyo prepares to host the 2020 summer Olympic Games.

"The government had argued that the practice of dolphin hunting is part of Japanese tradition and food culture," said Noriko Ikeda, a member of Action for Marine Mammals who organized the demonstration. "But the reality is that most Japanese people do not know about dolphin hunting, and it is extremely rare to find Japanese people who wish to eat dolphins. The real problem is that this hunt is driven by a demand for live dolphins from aquariums wishing to put on dolphin shows."

Satoshi Komiyama, who is the leader of Action for Marine Mammals, noted that their group is relatively new, having arisen from a grassroots movement, and is indicative of a new uprising against these cruel practices. He remarked, "There have always been discussions about the pros and cons of dolphin issues in Japan. But arguments and discussions do not save dolphins. Now, we think action is important. Many foreign groups come to Japan and are active in protecting dolphins. However, since they are not permanent residents of Japan, there are various limitations and difficulties in regard to their activities here." If enough people protest, he remarked, "we have the potential to start a larger movement [based] right here in Japan."

Animal rights and rescue organization In Defense of Animals added that not only is dolphin hunting a cruel sport, it is also unhealthy for people. "How the Japanese government can knowingly allow the human consumption of dolphin meat is beyond reason," stated the group. "It contains dangerous levels of mercury and other industrial pollutants."

According to Carl Safina, Stony Brook University professor and founder of conservation group Blue Ocean Institute, it's notable that Japan's own slaughter guidelines for livestock are superior to that of the U.S.'s torturous factory farming, in that Japan requires animals to be killed in the quickest, most painless way possible, or else lose consciousness before being killed. Efforts must also be made to minimize anxiety and depression in the livestock.

None of these guidelines, however, apply to whale and dolphin killing, and since 2010, a new, more vicious killing method has been employed, one which involves piercing the animals' spinal cords with metal rods. Essentially, this results in a more prolonged, painful death for these highly intelligent mammals. The reason for doing so is because it apparently shortens the "harvest time" and makes the job easier for the fishermen.

The uproar over the slaughter has extended beyond that of mere animal rights and environmental groups: It drew a firm rebuke from U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy, who on Jan. 17 tweeted, "I am deeply concerned by the inhumaneness of drive hunt dolphin killing. The U.S. government opposes drive hunt fisheries."

And according to a report by Whales.org, "The treatment of dolphins in [these] hunts sharply contradicts current animal welfare standards employed in most modern and technologically advanced societies. The systematic mistreatment of dolphins, allowed and sanctioned by a highly developed country such as Japan, is in striking contrast to the European Union, the United States, and even existing Japanese livestock legislation."

This article was first published in People's World by Blake Deppe.

998Sat, 01 Mar 2014 18:34:58 +0000
Watch: Indiscriminate logging in Latvia is fueled by Britain's marketshttp://green-blog.org/news/biodiversity/watch-indiscriminate-logging-in-latvia-is-fueled-by-britains-markets-r722/Al Jazeera English takes a closer look at the forests in Latvia which are being cut down at an unsustainable rate in one of their recent episodes of People & Power.

"The Baltic nation of Latvia is blessed with some of the most beautiful forests in the world, millions of square kilometres of pristine woodland that support a complex biodiversity of rare species of animals and plants. [...] As the UK aims to become one of the greenest countries in Europe, we expose its role in the deforestation of Latvia."

The clear cutting, which is a total loss not only for biological diversity but also for social and economic reasons, is the result of the current economic crisis in Latvia. It is being fueled by the demand from overseas markets, particularly the UK which has been Latvia's main export market for over 300 years. Al Jazeera shows how corporations and the Latvian government ignores EU habitat directives, laws and nature reserves to be able to satisfy the market demand for timber. They also question the validation of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certificate which is said to only label timber that is sustainable produced.

"Many of the products of the trade from furniture to wood pulp and paper are sold in the UK under a labelling scheme run by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), an international NGO that certifies timber is being sustainably produced. Is that really true?"

This episode shows not just the world's ecological unequal exchange but also how unattainable sustainability is in today's capitalistic system which is based on a never-ending growth rate.

722Mon, 14 Feb 2011 16:44:00 +0000
Brazilian rainforest activist murderedhttp://green-blog.org/news/biodiversity/brazilian-rainforest-activist-murdered-r739/The Guardian reports that the famous Amazon rainforest activist Jose Claudio Ribeiro da Silva has been killed in an ambush near his home in Brazil.

Six months after predicting his own murder, a leading rainforest defender has reportedly been gunned down in the Brazilian Amazon. Jose Claudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife, Maria do EspÃ­rito Santo, are said to have been killed in an ambush near their home in Nova Ipixuna, in ParÃ¡ state, about 37 miles from MarabÃ¡. According to a local newspaper, DiÃ¡rio do ParÃ¡, the couple had not had police protection despite getting frequent death threats because of their battle against illegal loggers and ranchers.

Da Silva said in a speech at TEDxAmazonia in November last year that he was afraid loggers would try to kill him:


Al Jazeera correspondent Gabriel Elizondo is, one of the few journalist, at the scene covering the murder of rainforest defender Da Silva. You can follow his reporting on Twitter under the hashtag #ZeClaudio. You can also watch his report below:

Watch the speech he gave at TEDxAmazonia last year:

Zé Cláudio Ribeiro lives in the Maraba, in Para, producing nuts in a sustainable way and resisting the construction boom in the Amazon, and the pressure to bring down these impressive trees. He has received several death threats.

739Mon, 25 Jul 2011 22:51:00 +0000
Scientists fine-tune extinction rate projectionshttp://green-blog.org/news/biodiversity/scientists-fine-tune-extinction-rate-projections-r740/The journal Nature recently reported that modern methods of measuring animal populations are too simple and often do not take into account the complexity of what influences species numbers. Professor Stephen Hubbell, from California, and Professor Fangliang He, from China, found that existing mathematical models for measurement were flawed: present figures overestimated rates by up to 160 percent, showing that calculations must be updated and made more accurate.

Nevertheless, Hubbell maintained although species extinction caused by habitat loss is not as dire a problem as initially believed, the global extinction crisis is still a real threat.

"We are not in quite as serious trouble right now as people had thought," Hubbell told Smithsonian Science on May 18. "But that is no reason for complacency. I don't want this research to be misconstrued as saying we don't have anything to worry about." He maintained, "Nothing is further from the truth."

While there were predictions in the early 1980s that as many as half the species on Earth would be lost by the year 2000, Hubbell explained, "Nothing like that has happened. However, the next mass extinction may be upon us or just around the corner. There have been five mass extinctions in the history of the Earth, and we could be entering the sixth mass extinction."

Probably the most authoritative global assessment of species status is the Red List of Threatened Species, which is published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Jean Christophe Vie, IUCN's species program deputy director, responded it was good that this was a clear effort to "get the science right," but had reservations about how people would interpret it. He acknowledged to BBC News that he was worried about how the report could be used by those who were reluctant to take environmental issues seriously.

"We have explicit details in our guidelines that to estimate extinction is not something we should do," said Vie. "For example, we know that species are not evenly distributed in ecosystems; habitat loss is not the only threat." He added that the actual concern was "the rate of decline in populations."

Addressing the issue, Hubbell cited a comparison: When a meteor struck the Earth some 65 million years ago, the Earth's tree life was incinerated, and it took about 10 million years to fully recover and redevelop into continuous, flourishing forests. Hubbell said that the extinctions humans cause might be equally catastrophic, though in different ways.

"We need much better data on the distribution of life on Earth," Hubbell said. "We need to rapidly increase our understanding of where species are on the planet. We need citizens to record their local biodiversity; there are not enough scientists to gather the information. We also need much deeper thought about how we can estimate the extinction rate properly to improve the science behind conservation planning."

"If you don't know what you have," Hubbell concludes, "it's hard
to conserve it

This article was first published in Peopleâ€™s World on May 23, 2011.

Author: Blake Deppe.

740Fri, 27 May 2011 05:07:01 +0000
Amazon loggers captured a young tribe girl and burned her alivehttp://green-blog.org/news/biodiversity/amazon-loggers-captured-a-young-tribe-girl-and-burned-her-alive-r806/

Loggers in Brazil have reportedly burned a young tribe girl alive in an effort to scare the local indigenous population from its land. The girl, who the Telegraph report was around the age of eight, came from one of Amazon's last uncontacted tribes. The gruesome murder is said to have happened in October or November last year.

Apparently the girl had wandered away from her Awá tribe village, which consists of around 60 members who all live in complete isolation with the modern world, when she was captured by illegal loggers. Luis Carlos Guajajaras, a local leader from a separate tribe, said to Brazilian news sources that the loggers had tied the girl to a tree and then burned her alive. According to Guajajaras this was meant to be a warning to other indigenous tribes who live in a protected reserve in the north-eastern state of Maranho.


News and evidence of this story are unfortunately few and limited. But this is understandable considering where the murder took place. But a third party, the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI) which is a Catholic group, have said that they have seen footage of the girl's charred remains.

Survival International, an organization which works for indigenous people's rights around the world, reports that large areas of the Awá tribe's territories have been destroyed by illegal logging. Members from the Awá tribe have been attacked by loggers before.

"The Awá rely on their forest to survive, but vast numbers of loggers are illegally invading their land, which now suffers one of the highest deforestation rates in the Amazon. More than 30% of one of the Awá's territories has already been destroyed. "The Awá have recently suffered a series of brutal attacks, and loggers have warned that the Indians will be killed if they go into their forest."

FUNAI, a Brazilian government agency that is responsible for mapping out and protecting lands traditionally inhabited by indigenous people, have said that they are seeking more information about the reported murder. But I would expect it'll be hard to find any substantial evidence in the Amazon forest two or even three months later.

But this is not an isolated case. CIMI reports that around 450 indigenous people have been killed by loggers between 2003 and 2010, and these are numbers that are acknowledged by FIMI. For example, last year the famous Amazon rainforest activist Jose Claudio Ribeiro da Silva was killed in an ambush near his home in Brazil. But it's not just in Brazil that loggers are attacking people. In 2008, peaceful activists who were protecting an old-growth forest in Tasmania, Australia, was violently attacked by timber workers.

806Thu, 17 May 2012 14:10:00 +0000
South Korea announces plans to resume whalinghttp://green-blog.org/news/biodiversity/south-korea-announces-plans-to-resume-whaling-r846/South Korea has said that they plan on hunting endangered whales that are protected by a global moratorium. Just like Japan, the South Koreans are trying to justify this by claiming that the whaling is done for scientific reasons.

In 1982 the International Whaling Commission (IWC), an international body set up in 1946 with the mission to regulate the whaling industry, adopted a global moratorium on commercial whaling. But due to a loophole in the treaty it is possible for countries such as Japan, and now also South Korea, to engage in so-called â€œscientific whalingâ€ â€“ and this even though the whale meat will later on be sold in markets for consumption. While Japan hunts hundreds of whales in international waters the South Koreans only plan on hunting mink whales in their own waters.

It was during the annual IWC meeting in Panama that delegates from South Korea announced their whaling plans. "We've submitted a proposal to the IWC's Scientific Committee to resume scientific whaling in our waters and will await the committee's assessment," a Korean official said.

According to Kang Joon-Suk, South Koreaâ€™s head envoy at the summit, the mink whale population has recovered since the global moratorium on commercial whaling went into effect in the 1980â€™s. Whale meat in South Korea, he noted, "dates back to historical times" and the moratorium has been painful for people who have traditionally been hunting whales.

"Legal whaling has been strictly banned and subject to strong punishments, though the 26 years have been painful and frustrating for the people who have been traditionally taking whales for food," he told the conference.

Criticism against South Koreaâ€™s whaling plans did not wait.

New Zealand's commissioner, Gerard van Bohemen, called the plans "unnecessaryâ€ and â€œrecklessâ€. Julia Gillard, Australia's Prime Minister, said that she was â€œdisappointedâ€ and that her country remains firmly opposed to whaling:

"I am very disappointed by this announcement by South Korea. We are completely opposed to whaling, thereâ€™s no excuse for scientific whaling, and I have instructed our Ambassador in Korea to raise this matter today at the highest levels of the Korean Government. Our Ambassador will speak to counterparts in South Korea at the highest levels of the South Korean Government and indicate Australiaâ€™s opposition to this decisionâ€, Gillard said during a press conference.

â€œThe resumption of whaling by Korea after a quarter of a century would be a huge step back for the IWC,â€ said Wendy Elliott, head of WWFâ€™s delegation to IWC. â€œKorea already sells meat from whales caught in fishing gear, and we believe this move is a thinly veiled attempt by Korea to conduct commercial whaling under the guise of scientific research, similar to hunts conducted by Japan in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary.â€

John Frizell from Greenpeace called the South Korean delegates justifications for resuming whaling â€œcomplete bogusâ€:

â€œTheir claim that the minke whale population in the north Pacific has recovered and needs to be hunted is completely bogus. Blaming whales for declining fish populations is like blaming woodpeckers for deforestation. Whales do not cause declines in fishing stocks â€“ overfishing and mismanagement by humans do.

It has been proven time and time again that we don't need to kill whales to study them. Only those interested in commercialising whaling are interested in lethal research, and this proposal by South Korea clearly has the fingerprints of Japanâ€™s dying whaling industries on it.â€

It is worth noting that Iceland and Norway are both ignoring the moratorium. Russia and a number of other countries also oppose the moratorium. Denmark, for example, allows the slaughter of hundreds of protected pilot whales every year.

846Mon, 09 Jul 2012 08:46:00 +0000
US to cut funding for experiments on chimps, hundreds of chimps to be moved from labs to sanctuaryhttp://green-blog.org/news/biodiversity/us-to-cut-funding-for-experiments-on-chimps-hundreds-of-chimps-to-be-moved-from-labs-to-sanctuary-r909/

Unlike the European Union, which in 2010 banned having chimps put in science laboratories, the U.S. remains one of the only nations that still conducts invasive scientific experimentation on the animals. More than 900 are still used as little more than test subjects. But on June 26, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced it would cut funding for the majority of these experiments, and retire at least 310 of the 360 federally-owned chimpanzees currently in labs, moving them to a sanctuary.

Experiments on chimps have been conducted in the U.S. for more than 90 years, despite consistent pressure on the government and corporations by animal rights/animal welfare groups. Indeed, corporations too are responsible for the abuse of chimps - ones that are not part of the 310 that will be saved. Last year, PETA purchased stock in one such corporation, called BIOQUAL, in order to urge it to phase out chimp experiments - and that is what the company has begun doing.

BIOQUAL is a medical research company that includes cancer virus studies and antibody research. What their home page fails to say is that they have, for years, injected chimpanzees with diseases and viruses in order to observe their reactions, and the effects on their bodies. While such testing will soon end at this company, it will continue elsewhere.

The NIH's victory, however, is an important one. Around the same time as this was announced, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a proposal to categorize all chimps in labs as being "endangered," which would prohibit their use in any further experiments; this would apply nationwide, and not leave corporations exempt. Such a rule would also mean that chimps could no longer be used in Hollywood films.

Whether it be a matter of science or film, the need for using chimps is rapidly waning, and with it, all excuses. Most movies now use CG (computer-generated) primates when needed (see Rise of the Planet of the Apes), and in a report on the scientific validity of such experiments, the Institute of Medicine determined that lab testing of chimps was no longer necessary. And while such testing will soon be eradicated at this company, it will continue elsewhere.

It is telling that out of all the chimps currently being "used for science" in the U.S., 80 percent of them are "warehoused" because the need to use them in experiments is not there. "Warehoused" is a rather soft way of saying "imprisoned," which is what the animals truly are: they are caged alone and deprived of freedom, whereupon they become depressed and often lose their sanity.

In New Jersey, Princeton University's Developmental Neuromechanics and Communication Lab is also guilty of using chimps, and as recently as April this year, a massive protest took place in Princeton.

One of the demonstrators, Irene Simmons, a U.S. Navy retiree and software programmer, said that after a whistleblower released images of the chimps being subjected to horrendous conditions in the laboratory, "I couldn't bare to drive through the area, sit outside, and enjoy myself, knowing that animals were being tortured." The daughter of Holocaust survivors, Simmons likened the animal testing to the atrocities committed by Nazis. "I see a lot of people walk by [our protests] with dogs, but they don't respond to us because they think chimpanzees are below dogs."

"Princeton should be ashamed," she concluded. "They're saying it's okay to experiment on animals because humans are the most important species. The same principles that set foot in the 1930s are persisting."

This article was first published in People's World by Blake Deppe.

909Thu, 18 Jul 2013 11:09:10 +0000
Photo: is this the first polar bear to die because of climate change?http://green-blog.org/news/biodiversity/photo-is-this-the-first-polar-bear-to-die-because-of-climate-change-r914/

Is the polar bear, pictured above, one of the first documented cases of a polar bear dying because of the devastating effects of man-made climate change? Dr Ian Stirling, renowned polar bear expert, thinks so.

A new climate report released yesterday shows that the Arctic lost record amounts of sea ice last year. And this is forcing animals to travel further away from their natural territories in search of food. Especially hard-hit are polar bears who feed almost exclusively on seals which they can only hunt on sea ice. "From his lying position in death the bear appears to simply have starved and died where he dropped," Stirling said. "He had no external suggestion of any remaining fat, having been reduced to little more than skin and bone."

The polar bear had in previous years been found and examined in the southern part of Svalbard by scientists from the Norwegian Polar Institute. Back then he appeared healthy. But in July, the same polar bear had managed to travel 250 km to the northern parts of Svalbard - an unusual far journey away from its normal hunting grounds. Stirling believes that the lack of ice forced this polar bear to travel this far away in an unsuccessful attempt to search for food.

"The sea ice break up around Svalbard in 2013 was both fast and very early," Prond Robertson, at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute said. And previous years had been just as bad. "Warm water entered the western fjords in 2005-06 and since then has not shifted," Robertson said.

914Wed, 07 Aug 2013 06:35:01 +0000
UN orders Japan to end whale hunthttp://green-blog.org/news/biodiversity/un-orders-japan-to-end-whale-hunt/

The UN's International Court of Justice has ordered Japan to halt its yearly whale hunt, a cruel practice that gives no consideration to the welfare of the animals. Japan is one of several countries that persisted in this practice after whaling was banned worldwide in 1986, in this case using "scientific research" as an excuse. But there is nothing scientific about whale killing, and the UN has called them out on it.

Currently, Japan's whaling program is killing about 1,000 whales a year under the guise of "scientific purposes." It was Australia that took the matter to the International Court this year, claiming the supposed research was little more than a ruse to circumvent the UN's whaling ban. The presiding judge, Peter Tomka, agreed that Japan's assertion that its whale hunt has a scientific basis is, by and large, false.

"The evidence does not establish that the program's design and implementation are reasonable in relation to achieving its stated objectives," Tomka remarked. He noted that it failed to justify the brutality of the killings, and that a moratorium on whaling would remain in place for Japan unless and until it could somehow produce a program with an actual basis in scientific research.

Japanese Foreign Ministry official Koji Tsuruoka said Japan will abide by the order. "While Japan is disappointed, it will abide by the judgment of the court as a state that places great importance on the international legal order," he said. However, he added that Japan "regrets and is deeply disappointed by the decision."

Among those who don't share that sentiment are animal rights activists and countries like Australia, who maintain that whale killing is immoral and unethical. Patrick Ramage, director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare's whale program, said the court decision is reason to rejoice, and could have an effect on other countries that ignored the UN's moratorium, like Norway and Iceland - two countries that still engage in commercial whaling outright.

"The ruling certainly has implications ultimately for whaling by Iceland and Norway as well," said Ramage. "I think it will increase pressure on those two countries to re-examine their own whaling practices and the various reasons and pretexts given for that whaling activity."

Jeff Hansen, managing director of Sea Shepherd Australia, said, "The International Court has just acknowledged that what Japan is doing is illegal. Our hope is that Japan can be a nation that loves whales and sees the huge benefit from eco-tourism that Australia does, which was also a nation that used to hunt whales."

Greenpeace writer Tom Ganderton stated, "The news confirms what we've been saying all along: this lethal whaling program is not necessary, and is harmful to the health of our oceans. It's high time this industry was consigned to the history books. The Japanese government claims that whaling is a long-standing part of Japanese culture that the international community should not interfere with. But the Australian government was quick to challenge this idea, as Greenpeace has consistently done in the past. They pointed out that whaling only began there in the 1930s."

Moreover, said Ganderton, "The whale meat industry is dying in Japan. Statistics commissioned by Greenpeace Japan found that up to 80 percent of respondents disagreed with whaling. What's more, thousands of tons of whale meat today remain in frozen storage in Japan because demand is so low.

"We need an end to commercial whaling so we can turn the focus onto some of the big conservation challenges facing the world's remaining whale populations, like climate change and destructive fishing. We won't stop until this dying industry is ended for good."

This article was first published in People's World by Blake Deppe.

1009Sat, 05 Apr 2014 15:49:43 +0000
Canada expands outrageous grizzly trophy hunthttp://green-blog.org/news/biodiversity/canada-expands-outrageous-grizzly-trophy-hunt-r1014/

British Columbia's controversial annual spring grizzly bear hunt began on Apr. 1, with an estimated 1,800 hunting authorizations being issued - one of the highest numbers in recent years. Grizzlies, which are considered "threatened" by the U.S. Endangered Species Act, do not have the population numbers that black bears do, and activists including conservation groups, animal rights supporters, and First Nation tribe members have serious qualms about the hunting of these bears for pure sport.

This year's grizzly hunt lasts until the end of May, and is followed by an autumn hunt that takes place Oct. 1 through mid-November. On average, about 300 of these bears are killed by hunters per year, but that number might increase from an uptick in hunting authorizations. The Canadian province where the activity will take place is home to about a quarter of the remaining North American grizzly population.

Robert Johnson and Jason Moody, two brothers from the Heiltsuk First Nation, recalled commonly seeing a grizzly bear while working as field technicians in a coastal estuary, flanked by what was known as the Great Bear Rainforest. The young male bear, whom they nicknamed "Cheeky," would follow them around from a distance, often poking his head out at them and sticking out his tongue. The brothers were also there on the day that Cheeky was shot to death by a big-game trophy hunter. The bear's killer, Clayton Stoner, skinned Cheeky and took his hide. He chopped off Cheeky's head and paws.

Though the brothers arrived too late to stop the hunt, they did find Cheeky's mangled remains, which had been left there to rot. "I was devastated," said Moody. "I had hoped to save his life." He and his brother, he said, had developed quite a bond with the bear, who had a playful curiosity and friendliness. Johnson remarked that during their time there, "We started talking with Cheeky, telling him what we were doing there. We got to know him quite well, to the point we could go in our boat and get off and walk around in the area without having to worry about him."

Stoner kept the bear as a trophy, even balancing the animal's severed head on his knee and posing for a photo. Brothers Johnson and Moody, meanwhile, returned to their research camp near the estuary and wept for the loss of their friend.

This is merely a single example of what is increasingly being viewed across Canada as a moral atrocity, and British Columbia is now seriously debating the continuation of grizzly trophy hunts. Thirteen years ago in April, a moratorium on the hunt was enacted, but quickly overturned within months.

On Feb. 15, protesters gathered at the B.C. legislature buildings in the provincial capital of Victoria, demanding a permanent province wide ban on grizzly bear trophy hunting. And they posed their argument not merely in moral terms, but in economic terms as well, noting that over 11,000 tourists came to Canada to visit the bears in 2012, and contributed $9.54 million to the GDP. Trophy hunting, on the other hand, only generated $0.7 million that year.

Chelsea Turner, daughter of British Columbian wildlife filmmakers Jeff and Sue Turner, spoke at the demonstration, remarking, "I realized that when we go out on location to film this spring, it will be the same time the spring trophy hunt begins. It's just appalling to me. It breaks my heart to think that one day we're working with these bears and shooting them with our cameras, and the next day trophy hunters can show up and shoot them with their high-powered rifles. This is completely the wrong direction that we're moving in."

Biologist Paul Paquet of the Raincoast Conservation Foundation said grizzlies could be too few in numbers to risk a trophy hunt at this time. "The real numbers could be somewhere as low as 6,000 or as high as 18,000," he said. "We just don't know." But the real question he said, is, "is this ethical, to be hunting bears? That's really what's at issue. This is a trophy hunt, as opposed to a hunt for food."

And according to First Nation members, these big game hunters are not doing anything particularly brave, difficult, or admirable. The bears in the area are accustomed to seeing people, due to tourism, and thus do not fear guns - until it's too late. Doug Neasloss of the Kitasoo/Xai'xais Nation suggested it isn't so much a hunt as it is senseless slaughter. When asked whether a grizzly is hard to catch, Neasloss replied, "No. My grandmother could shoot a grizzly."

This article was first published in People's World by Blake Deppe.

1014Tue, 22 Apr 2014 20:45:10 +0000
Gray wolf gets endangered species protection in Californiahttp://green-blog.org/news/biodiversity/gray-wolf-gets-endangered-species-protection-in-california/








This article was originally published in People's World by Blake Deppe.

1032Mon, 09 Jun 2014 11:34:06 +0000
Earth is heading towards another mass extinction, humans to blamehttp://green-blog.org/news/biodiversity/earth-is-heading-towards-another-mass-extinction/

A new study warns that we are on the brink of another mass extinction, with species of animals and plants becoming extinct up to 1000 times faster than they did before humans populated Earth. “We are on the verge of the sixth extinction,” said Stuart Pimm, the study’s lead author and biologist of Duke University to AP. “Whether we avoid it or not will depend on our actions.”

Great extinctions that have wiped out the majority of life has struck Earth at least five times before. The dinosaurs who walked the earth about 66 million years ago was wiped away in such a mass extinction. But while previous mass extinctions have been the result of asteroids or methane spewing microbes, this next great extinction will largely be the result of human activities.

The study notes how man-made climate change will cause a sudden rise in temperatures and acidification in our oceans making traditional habitats unlivable for countless of species - a phenomenon which can already be observed today.

The biggest cause for the mass extinction is habitat loss, the study says. Species are losing their home as more and more places are being built, developed and altered by humans. Other factors include overfishing and invasive species taking over new areas previously populated by native species.

That mass extinctions are occurring today is nothing new to scientists, but this study calculates not just the number of species being wiped away, it also shows the actual rate of extinction before and after humans. In 1995, scientists calculated that before humans populated the Earth, one out of 1 million species went extinct every year. Now, after new data and research, the rate is between 100 to 1000 species. But the trend can be reversed, Pimm notes. We need to find out where vulnerable species are located and preserve their habitats – before it’s too late.

Read the study: The biodiversity of species and their rates of extinction, distribution, and protection

1033Tue, 10 Jun 2014 12:46:02 +0000