Category Archives: Human Impact

Birth Control Enters Mainstream Concern

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populationGR:  Good.  This is long overdue.  Reducing the human population by encouraging birth control will take generations.  In the short term (like in the next five years), we must drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and we must gain control over land use practices.

By Niina Heikkinen and ClimateWire:  “This week, a group of researchers promoted a different kind of global approach to addressing climate change: voluntary family planning.

“Though their proposal may raise eyebrows, researchers at the Population Reference Bureau and Worldwatch Institute say what they are advocating will both empower women and preserve the environment. They recently formed a joint working group of health, climate and population experts from around the world. They are drafting a report on how family planning could be incorporated into governments’ environmental policy.”

Source: www.scientificamerican.com

 

Big Coal Dumps on Wildlife in a Biological Motherlode

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GR:  Just like my dogs’ manic pursuit of squirrels.

The following by Richard Conniff.

“When most people think about a biological hotspot, a motherlode of species, the Amazon may come to mind, along with certain regions in West Africa and Southeast Asia. Hardly anybody thinks about the Appalachians. But more species of salamanders and freshwater mussels live in the streams and forests of this region, stretching from upstate New York to northern Alabama, than anywhere else in the world. Those temperate, deciduous forests are more diverse than anywhere else in the world, too, apart from those in central China.

“Unfortunately, seams of coal also run through the Appalachian Mountains, often buried deep within the range. To extract it, coal companies have been literally blowing the tops off of these mountains in a practice called mountaintop removal coal mining. Not only does this method change the landscape and leave swaths of barren rock in place of forested mountainsides, but the mining companies also take the millions of tons of dynamited rock and dump them in the valleys next to the decapitated mountains. These valleys usually have streams in them, and those streams are where the salamanders, mussels, and other freshwater species of the region live. As you might imagine, these animals don’t love having chunks of mountain dumped on their habitat.

“A new study…”

Source: strangebehaviors.wordpress.com

U.S. mulls adding turtles to endangered species list

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GR:  Turtles are resistant to toxic wastes, but they are helpless against water diversions, hunters, and pet collectors.  In my home state, wildlife biologists have registered concerns for survival of all ten native species and the five introduced species (https://garryrogers.com/2013/11/08/arizona-turtle).

Source: www.reuters.com – The U.S. government has proposed adding four types of freshwater turtles to an international endangered species list, in part to better monitor exports of the species, whose meat is considered a delicacy in Asia.

Thanks to John Nielsen for spotting this story.

Lockheed Aims for Commercial, Compact Fusion Reactor Within Ten Years

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Technology Saves the Earth?

oil on beachGR:  I once thought abundant, non-polluting energy could be the solution to all our problems. Having looked closely at the ways that we humans use and change our environment, I am no longer sure there is a solution. I proposed Immediacy, the philosophy of consequences. However, the proposal explicitly recognizes that humans aren’t smart enough to adopt such an ethos.

The Center for Biological Diversity is handing out condoms. There is no money for “no-breeding-checks” (Vardarac in the comments on this article). Is it nonsense to hope we might ever achieve wise landuse and control over our desire for reproduction? I’m beginning to suspect that new technological innovations will only add to our ability to destroy Earth’s biosphere.

Thanks to Robert Scribbler for this article and to his readers for their comments.

robertscribbler's avatarrobertscribbler

Ever since major industrialized nations learned how to fuse atoms in megabombs able to blast scores of square miles to smithereens, the quest has been on to harness the vast potential energy store that is nuclear fusion as a viable means to peacefully fuel modern civilization.

Unlike fission, which involves the splitting of atomic nuclei, fusion both produces more energy while generating no radio-active waste. The fuels — hydrogen and helium — are abundant and non-radioactive. Because conventional fusion reactors involve containment fields that force these non-radioactive elements together, they do not operate under dangerous conditions similar to nuclear fission reactors. The fusion reaction bi-products are also common, non-polluting elements together with a heat source used for mechanical work.

Fusion reactors aren’t vulnerable to the same kinds of terrible melt-downs seen at Fukushima and Chernobyl. And the energy density of the fusion reaction itself is extraordinary, producing a potential for…

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Butterfly Indicators of Ecosystem Change

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Butterfly Canaries in the Earth Ecosystem Coalmine

Two-tailed Swallowtail

Two-tailed Swallowtail

Guest post by Leslie Olsen

Predicting the effects of climate change and other human impacts on Earth ecosystems is a critical goal for policy makers, scientists, and environmentalists. Some effects, such as weather extremes and biodiversity decline are becoming clear to everyone. One group of species, the butterflies, is especially sensitive to environmental change, and scientists are using the group to gauge the effects of the changes on other species.

Like canaries in a coalmine, butterflies can serve as valuable indicators of significant changes. Butterflies are easy to see. Moreover, their metabolism and short life span make their numbers an especially sensitive gauge of environmental changes. When a butterfly population falls, other species may follow. Fluctuations in temperature patterns, temperature extremes, droughts, floods, and severe storms affect butterfly populations throughout North America. Studies on the impact of climate changes on insects and butterflies are particularly rare, but recent data and observations are spurring research.

Changes in butterfly emergence, range, life cycle, feeding habits and diversity can indicate harmful environmental changes are occurring. For example, butterfly life cycle stages are tied to the availability of certain plants; even subtle changes in plant species abundance is reflected in butterfly health, color, and number. The animals and birds dependent on butterfly populations are directly affected.

Monarch (Danaus Plexippus)

Monarch (Danaus Plexippus)

A familiar butterfly, the Monarch, migrates almost three thousand miles every year and has suddenly declined because of pesticides (first two references below) and forest thinning in its winter home territory in Mexico.

Another butterfly, the Poweshiek skipperling, once plentiful across the Canadian prairies had declined to fewer than 200 individuals, most of them in Manitoba (Toronto Star).
Last year, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service announced the extinction of two butterfly species, the Zestos skipper and the Rockland grass skipper.

Researchers from the University of British Columbia, the Université de Sherbrooke and the University of Ottawa, in a study of more than 200 species of butterflies and weather data from 130 years “found butterflies possess widespread temperature sensitivity, with flight season occurring an average of 2.4 days earlier per degree Celsius of temperature increase” (UBC. 2013).

Heather Kharouba, lead author noted that butterflies “provide an early warning signal for how other wildlife may respond to climate change” (UBC). The impact of warmer temperatures causes butterflies “to emerge and start their active flight season earlier in the year, and if they emerge too early, they could encounter frost and die. Or they might emerge before the food plants they rely on appear and starve” (Ibid).

As more researchers begin studying butterflies, the links to other species and whole ecosystems will become clearer and will help guide nature conservation plans and policies.  Thus, our floating jewels not only add grace and beauty to our lands, they are on the front line of our battle to save Earth’s wildlife and ecosystems.

Butterfly References

The Second American Revolution Is Brewing in Oregon

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Materialism Dominating World Governments

GR:  The materialism that is dominating world governments is destroying the health of Earth ecosystems.  I believe this is because Human limitations make it impossible for members of our species to see beyond our fears and appetites. A close inspection of all the political candidates for whom I can vote in the next election shows that they will all continue the same blind materialism.  Of personal concern to me, none of them is interested in protecting natural landscapes and wildlife.  Others are reaching the same conclusion.  Why vote we ask when no group we can elect will improve our government.  Even those who are not yet concerned about wild plants and animals are feeling the loss of the natural world, and they are realizing that the quality of their and their children’s lives is fading. It is gratifying and evokes a glimmer of hope to learn about responses such as the one described in this post.

The following is from truth-out.org.

In Oregon, the capture of local government by the timber industry results in the destruction of the natural world and the poisoning of the populace, but a Josephine County ballot initiative would ban tree spraying by corporations and government entities.

Source: www.truth-out.org

Roads Benefit People But Can Have Massive Environmental Costs

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“Road-killed tapir in Peninsular Malaysia (photo © WWF-Malaysia/Lau Ching Fong).  Located in the wrong places, roads can open a Pandora’s Box of problems,” says William F. Laurance.

“In a recent Opinion in National Geographic News (14 October 2014), U.S. Ambassador Kenneth M. Quinn makes a compelling case that roads can have major benefits for rural people—improving access to modern farming technologies, education, and healthcare, and even limiting the influence of extremist groups that prey on isolated communities.

“However, Ambassador Quinn tells only half of the story. Yes, many roads or road improvements can yield major economic and social benefits. But other roads become environmental disasters—opening a Pandora’s Box of problems such as illegal logging, poaching, wildfires, and land speculation.”

Source: newswatch.nationalgeographic.com

GR:  Roads open areas to invasive species; they raise wildlife-disturbing noise levels, and they block wildlife movements.  In some areas, roads lead to ecosystem disruption by encouraging tourism, recreational travel, and hunting.  According to RoadFree.org, keeping wild areas free of roads is a remarkably cost-efficient way of preventing deforestation and protecting biodiversity.  Read more about road impacts.

Australia aims to end extinction of native wildlife by 2020

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Australia’s Environment Minister Greg Hunt has pledged to end the extinction of native mammal species by 2020, with a focus on culprits such as feral cats.

Source: phys.org

GR:  Invasive species, including feral species, are the second greatest short-term reasons for extinction.  Even if we removed them all, extinctions would still occur.  Habitat loss to human development is the greatest short-term reason.  Development in the form of construction and resource harvest (agriculture, grazing, logging, and mining) is steadily eliminating the natural habitats required by native wildlife.

It makes sense to begin repairing our conservation efforts by controlling short-term reasons for extinction.  However, we must also control the long-term human impacts (climate change, toxic wastes, and more) if we seriously intend to stop extinction.

Ending wildlife extinctions in just six years will be difficult.  Growth and development have taken control of the Australian government, and these twin powers are not concerned with biodiversity.  Here’s a current illustration of the problem.

Still on Track for the Collapse of Modern Civilization

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More than just the likely collapse of human civilization, our power dash toward a warmer world has already wiped out more than half our wildlife. Most will die if we keep it up.

xraymike79's avatarCollapse of Industrial Civilization

BeFunky_null_u1.jpg

Two recent pieces of scientific evidence really hammer home the predicament of modern industrial civilization, and they have to do with the fact that our globalized, just-in-time economic model is hopelessly wed to carbon-based energy. Once one understands this, then there can be no delusions about why we are on such a catastrophic trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions. As was explained in a previous post, GDP is fundamentally and directly linked to CO2 emissions. Below, two graphs(click to go to source) illustrate this fact:

C02 emissions since 1850 (red); exponential growth (blue); cuts to hit climate target (dashed).

Graphic_PE_CoalUseIncreased

It’s not really about evil fossil fuel companies, although they do certainly exert enormous political clout and do conspire to protect their business model by doing such things as spreading doubt on climate change science, but as with all corporations, externalizing social and environmental costs is endemic to the profit system and the coercive forces of competition in capitalist markets.

Firstly, there is the graph submitted by…

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