World Scientists Warning to Humanity

Posted on July 10, 2018 by GarryRogers

Scientists Warn of Global Dangers

Tomorrow is World Population Day. A good day to take note of the warnings coming from the world’s scientists.

“Humanity is on a collision course with Nature.

A damaged Nature will survive. We may not.

We must change course to avert an ecological disaster.”

Twenty-five years ago, 1700 scientists published a warning and recommendations for controlling environmental pollution and population growth. Except for global efforts to curtail ozone emissions, the warning had no effect. Last fall, more than 20,000 scientists issued a new warning urging efforts to change our disastrous path toward global ecosystem devastation. If you agree that action is needed, please sign up to show support. Scientists, other individuals, businesses, and organizations sign here: http://www.scientistswarning.org/please-sign.

You can read the article here: http://scientistswarning.forestry.oregonstate.edu. You can also download the PDF file here: Warning_article_with_supp_11-13-17.

World’s Last Remaining Tigers Live Under Severe Threat of Extinction

Posted on July 23, 2017 by GarryRogers

GR: Our grandchildren will probably see the last of the wild apes, elephants, giraffes, lions, and tigers. We humans are eliminating Earth’s wild animals. Though some of us might feel remorse, most of us are more concerned with our daily routine: struggling to acquire wealth, satisfying desires, interacting with family and friends, and shopping at Amazon and Walmart (our leaders are like the rest of us except they wouldn’t be caught dead in Walmart). Last week there was a teacup storm over the raw truth of climate change. The true disaster is the careless and relentless destruction of nature in which human-caused climate change joins farming, fishing, hunting, dumping, and urbanization as an instrument of nature’s destruction. Can anything stop the human juggernaut’s inexorable destruction of nature? It appears that, like an avalanche, it will continue until all human potential is gone. Sad.

“The world’s last remaining tigers are living under severe threat of extinction, having lost 93 percent of their historical range and suffered a population crash of 95 percent during the past century.

“The major threat to their continued existence on Earth is poaching to meet the high demand in Asia for their parts and derivatives.

“This demand is exacerbated by the legal trade in lion bone, so it was with dismay that the Environmental Investigation Agency witnessed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) 17th Conference of the Parties last year decide to allow South Africa to export up to 800 lion skeletons a year—as long as the lions were sourced from captive breeding facilities in South Africa.

“Ahead of next week’s 29th meeting of the CITES Animals Committee, in Geneva, Switzerland, the Environmental Investigation Agency has produced the detailed briefing The Lion’s Share: South Africa’s trade exacerbates demand for tiger parts and derivatives outlining the threat.” –Environmental Investigation Agency (Continue: World’s Last Remaining Tigers Live Under Severe Threat of Extinction.)

How This Tanzanian Musician Made Ivory a National Campaign Issue

Posted on July 1, 2017 by GarryRogers

GR: Individual activists are important spark plugs for nature conservation and wildlife protection. Here’s a great example.

Shubert Mwarabu promotes the grassroots campaign to save Tanzania’s elephants at a festival in Iringa, in the southern highlands. PHOTOGRAPH BY MOHAMED MVUMBAGU, FEMINA HIP

“Until Shubert Mwarabu saw a photograph of an elephant with its face hacked and bloodied, poaching was an abstraction. He didn’t know anything about ivory trafficking, or even what ivory was used for. That was in 2011, and the Tanzanian musician was 25.

“The photo had a powerful impact on him, and from then on, he says, he threw himself into the fight to save Tanzania’s elephants.Mwarabu, who previously had organized clubs in primary schools for advocating against child abuse, now started school conservation clubs. He composed songs about protecting elephants. His first, called “Let’s Talk About Poaching,” or “Tupige Vita Ujangili” in KiSwahili, was played on Tanzania’s national radio station.

“His efforts have been noticed in Tanzania and beyond. The California-based nonprofit Generation Awakening, which works to support young environmental activists, appointed him their first country ambassador.

“In October 2013, Mwarabu launched a one-man campaign, naming it Me Against Poaching, to show that change can come from a single person.

“Now he’s leading the first organized citizen campaign to lobby the Tanzanian government to halt the ivory trafficking that has made this East African country ground zero in the slaughter of Africa’s elephants. Okoa Tembo wa Tanzania, “Save Tanzania’s Elephants,” succeeded in making conservation an election issue in the hotly contested presidential race, Mwarabu says.” –Maraya Cornell (How This Tanzanian Musician Made Ivory a National Campaign Issue)

WATCH on the original post: A video aired in 2013 shows investigative journalist Aidan Hartley attempting to gain access to a maximum-security warehouse in Tanzania that holds perhaps the world’s largest cache of raw ivory. Maintaining this stockpile is expensive. Moreover it can’t legally be sold. So why not follow Kenya’s example and burn it!

Famous Rare White Wolf Killed in Yellowstone, $10K Reward Offered

Posted on May 16, 2017 by GarryRogers

GR: Killing for a thrill must be like pedophilia. It satisfies an inner urge so despicable that self-delusion creates and supports justifications that seem ludicrous to observers. Thus, we often hear that killing wildlife is a necessary form of protection. Perhaps a poacher/cruelty registry would help park rangers and others keep track of offenders.

“The Center for Biological Diversity is contributing $5,000 toward a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for illegally shooting and killing a famous wolf in Yellowstone National Park.

“The 12-year-old wolf—one of only three known white wolves in Yellowstone—was the alpha female of the canyon pack.

“The Center for Biological Diversity’s pledge, along with the $5,000 offered by the National Park Service, $5,000 from the Wolves of the Rockies and the Go Fund Me campaign launched by the Heart of the Wild Yellowstone with the goal of raising an additional $15,000, comes as National Park Service officials are seeking leads in their criminal investigation of the incident. The wolf, mortally wounded from a gunshot, was found by hikers on April 11 in Yellowstone National Park near Gardiner, Montana.

“We sure hope they catch the despicable killer of this wolf,” said Andrea Santarsiere, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Shooting this wolf in Yellowstone National Park, an area that should be a safe haven for wildlife, is not only illegal but repulsive.” –Center for Biological diversity (Continue reading: Famous Rare White Wolf Killed in Yellowstone, $10K Reward Offered.)

Ring-Tailed Lemur Populations Have Crashed by 95 Percent

Posted on January 14, 2017 by GarryRogers

GR: Sad times if you care for wildlife. The researchers explain that Ring-Tailed Lemurs declined to this point with no outcry because no one was watching. Around the world at this crucial time for wildlife, there are too few scientists monitoring populations. “The two most prolific Lemur researchers, Alison Jolly and Robert Sussman, have died and we are the only descendants with active research in Madagascar,” said researcher Tara A. Clarke of the organization Lemur Love.

Credit: Eric Kilby Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

“Madagascar’s beloved ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) have all but disappeared from many of the island nation’s forests. According to two worrying new studies, the species’ population has fallen to between 2,000 and 2,400 animals—a shocking 95 percent decrease since the year 2000.

“To put that number in context, there are now fewer ring-tailed lemurs living in the wild than there are living in zoos around the world.

“Factors driving the decline include rapid habitat loss, hunting, and the illegal pet trade, according to a paper published last month in the journal Primate Conservation and a second paper published today in Folia Primatologica.

“The situation is so bad that many ring-tailed lemur sub-populations now contain fewer than 30 individuals. In addition, the animals have completely disappeared from at least 15 sites they once called home.

“The now-empty forests are “very sad, quiet and dusty,” says Marni LaFleur, lead author of the second paper and a co-director of the conservation organization Lemur Love. “There was a thick layer of crunchy leaf litter on the ground, and dust on top. Some trees were heavy with ripe and rotten fruits. Without birds or mammals to consume them, the untouched fruits just rot in and around the trees. Normal aspects of a forest, which as a biologist I have a fairly keen eye for—footprints, scat, bite marks, sleeping spots, calls—are absent.” —John R. Platt

(Continue reading: Ring-Tailed Lemur Populations Have Crashed by 95 Percent – Scientific American Blog Network.)

2016: Another fatal year for elephants

Posted on December 22, 2016 by GarryRogers

GR: With great sorrow, we watch as poachers eliminate elephants from the Earth.

HAMBURG, Germany, Dec. 22, 2016 — Elephants continued to be slaughtered for their ivory this year. More than 18 tons of illegal ivory, plus 949 elephant tusks and more than 3,000 pieces were reportedly seized in 2016, with at least 15 large seizures in excess of 500 kilograms. Most large shipments were intercepted in Vietnam, although huge amounts were also found in Malaysia, Uganda, Tanzania, Sudan, Spain, Austria and Germany.

“It is a sad fact that practically no day goes by without dozens of elephants being killed by poachers and every single week this year enforcers discovered illegal ivory somewhere in the world,” said Rikkert Reijnen, Director of the Wildlife Trade Program for International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). “And this is just the tip of the iceberg as only a small fraction of the illegal ivory on the market is being intercepted.” –International Fund for Animals (Continue Reading: 2016: Another fatal year for elephants)

The extinction crisis is far worse than you think

Posted on December 19, 2016 by GarryRogers

GR: This CNN Photo/Video/Data essay has high-quality images and interviews. Recommended.

“Frogs, coral, elephants — all are on the brink. Three quarters of species could disappear. Why is this happening? CNN explores an unprecedented global crisis.” –CNN (Continue: The extinction crisis is far worse than you think)

Petition · Remove Ivory from the traditional Wedding Anniversary gifts list before its TOO LATE

Posted on December 3, 2016 by GarryRogers

GR: Wildlife is dying out as our farms, forestry, cities, and industries remove and poison habitats. Ivory lovers and the poachers who represent them favor a more direct approach to extinction.

“Thank you so much for taking the time to read this short and simple petition, which has a very achievable and easy goal, which I will come onto shortly.

“As you will already know, this petition centres around the conservation of our magnificent gentle giants with whom we share this planet. The noble and majestic Elephant. A beautiful and intelligent creature which may very possibly be extinct in our lifetimes. This means our children may never know a real live Elephant.

“This is not hundreds of years in the future, this is now.

“The insatiable demand for ivory is causing a dramatic decline in the number of African elephants. Poachers are hunting the animal faster than it can reproduce, with deaths affecting more than half of elephant families in the Samburu National Reserve in Kenya, a new study finds. In 2011, the worst African elephant poaching year on record since 1998, poachers killed an estimated 40,000 elephants, or about 8 percent of the elephant population in Africa. This is unsustainable.” Please sign: Petition · Remove Ivory from the traditional Wedding Anniversary gifts list before its TOO LATE. · Change.org

Deforestation spikes in Brazilian Amazon

Posted on December 1, 2016 by GarryRogers

GR: Growing global inequity is fueling resentment and despair. As inequity and the human population grow, resources decline, poverty spreads, and criminal destruction and harvest of wild plants and animals may increase.

“In the Amazon, Illegal land clearing hits highest levels since 2008 as environmental policies come under attack.”

People burn parts of the Amazon to make way for farms or ranches.

“Illegal deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has spiked since 2015, bringing the rate to its highest level in 8 years. The finding has raised fears that the country could lose a decade’s worth of progress in forest protection.

“In an analysis of satellite data released on 29 November, Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) in São José dos Campos estimates that 7,989 square kilometres of land — nearly the size of Puerto Rico — was cleared between August 2015 and July 2016. The total was 29% above the previous year and 75% above the 2012 level, when deforestation hit a historic low of 4,571 square kilometres (see ‘Going up’).

“The current trends illustrate a growing sense of impunity as well as betrayal among landowners who have yet to benefit from the sustainable-development agenda, says Daniel Nepstad, a tropical ecologist who heads the Earth Innovation Institute, an environmental organization in San Francisco, California. “There’s been a lot of talk about improving the lives and the bottom lines of farmers and ranchers if they stop clearing the forest,” Nepstad says, “and they are still waiting.” –Jeff Tollefson (Continue reading: Deforestation spikes in Brazilian Amazon : Nature News & Comment)

Mass Wildlife Poisoning in Limpopo National Park

Posted on October 28, 2016 by GarryRogers

GR: Lion bones? Are ignorant people of Asia the most deadly threat to lions and rhinos? Do they also crave Panda and Snow Leopard body parts? What about American Mountain Lions? Ranchers of the western U. S. love to kill Mountain Lions. Let’s hope they don’t start selling the bones to Asians.

Lion remains left at the scene of a wildlife poisoning in Limpopo National Park, Oct. 10, 2016 (Photo by Rae Kokes)

“CAPE TOWN, South Africa, October 22, 2016 (ENS) – The ongoing Asian demand for lion bones has led to a wildlife poisoning in the Limpopo National Park, just over the Mozambican border from South Africa’s Kruger National Park.

“A mere two kilometers from the Machampane tourist camp, a research team from the Limpopo Transfrontier Predator Project came across the carcasses of two nyala, a warthog and an impala laced with what they describe as a black granular poison.

“Lying nearby were the bodies of two lions, 51 vultures, three fish eagles, a yellow-billed kite and a giant eagle owl. There was evidence of a leopard but its body was not found.” –– Mass Wildlife Poisoning in Limpopo National Park | ENS