Tag Archives: Human Impact

Status and trends of damages to open space.

Deforestation in Mexico butterfly reserve more than triples

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In this Jan. 4, 2015 file photo, a kaleidoscope of Monarch butterflies hang from a tree branch, in the Piedra Herrada sanctuary, near Valle de Bravo, Mexico. Illegal logging has almost tripled in the monarch butterfly’s wintering grounds in …more.

“Illegal logging more than tripled in the monarch butterfly’s wintering grounds In central Mexico, reversing several years of steady improvements, investigators announced Tuesday.

“Almost all of the loss occurred in just one rural hamlet in the state of Michoacan. Loggers cut down 47 acres (19 hectares) of trees in San Felipe de los Alzati since last year’s gathering of butterflies. A total of 52 acres (21 hectares) of forest in the reserve were lost overall, including losses due to drought or pests.”

That’s the highest figure since 2009, well above the 20 acres (8 hectares) lost in 2014, according to the announcement by the World Wildlife fund and the Institute of Biology of Mexico’s National Autonomous University. The 2014 loss was about 12 acres (5 hectares) due to logging and 8 acres (3 hectares) to drought.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: phys.org

Eco-Sabotage is Planetary Self-Defense | Deep Green Resistance Blog

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Max Wilbert and other members of Deep Green Resistance Seattle participated in a May “ShellNO” protest against Shell’s arctic drilling rig. Their display of signs reading “Sabotage the Machine” and “Eco-Sabotage is Planetary Self-Defense” attracted a lot of attention. Elliot Stoller conducted a short video interview in which Wilbert explains his concern about ineffective tactics and strategies in the face of dramatic threats to biodiversity, climate, and social justice.

Wilbert discusses DGR’s radical evaluation of systems of power and what might actually work to alter their destructive course: targeting critical communication, electrical, and oil infrastructures, and addresses some common questions about what that means for the safety of activists who undertake such work, and what sort of life humans can live without the comforts and elegancies of industrial civilization.  Sourced through Scoop.it from: deepgreenresistance.blogspot.com

GR:  In this video (http://bit.ly/1MA5av2) Wilbert describes eco-sabotage as necessary self-defense for nature.  This radical perspective is gaining momentum as it becomes apparent that Earth ecosystems are deteriorating due to excessive corporate resource extraction and government mismanagement of natural resources.  Worth watching.

Arizona Game & Fish Department – Small Game

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Get ready! Dove hunting like the good ol’ days!

Other great news for dove hunters

-15 bird daily bag limit
-10 white-winged daily bag limit (early season only)
-45 bird possession limit (respectively)
-All day shooting hours
-Expanded open hunting areas
-New simplified licenses, including $5 youth license

Roosting sites often make for good shooting. Doves will typically pick densely vegetated areas for roosts. Mesquite bosques, tamarisk (salt cedar) thickets, and citrus groves are typical roosting sites. Doves establish flight patterns and follow them.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: azgfdportal.az.gov

GR:  These pesky birds keep doing well, but shotgun management can solve the problem.  And remember the kids can kill for free.

How Much Will Antarctica and Greenland Ice Raise Seas?

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Scientists have figured out the worst that could happen if the mammoth chuck of continental ice at the bottom of the world—the West Antarctic Ice Sheet—continues melting. By 2100, ice sheet melt would raise sea levels by 7.9 inches, enough to pose a risk to low-lying nations, according to a study published today in The Cryosphere.
By 2200, ice sheet melt would raise sea levels by 1.6 feet.

The melted water from Antarctica and Greenland, glaciers, and the thermal expansion of the ocean due to higher temperatures are expected to raise sea levels by 3.3 feet in 2100, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. That would be sufficient to submerge 17 percent of Bangladesh.  Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.scientificamerican.com

GR:  Adding all that freshwater to the oceans will have enormous impacts that are quite horrible in comparison to simple coastal flooding.  Read about the possible outcomes HERE.

U.S. Forest Service approves massive expansion of summer recreational facilities at Breckenridge ski area

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By Bob Berwyn

FRISCO — The U.S. Forest Service is on track to approve a huge expansion of summer activities at Breckenridge Ski Area that will accommodate up to 150,000 additional visitors during the summer season.

The agency this week released a final environmental study for the new installations and programs, along with a draft decision letter from White River National Forest Supervisor Scott Fitzwilliams, who said he thinks the new facilities — including zip lines, canopy tours and challenge courses — will enhance public appreciation of national forest lands and the outdoors.

The proposal was controversial in Breckenridge, as some residents expressed concerns about drawing more visitors to the already crowded town. Other locals support the plan as a way of increasing tourism revenues and drumming up more business for local restaurants and shops.  Sourced through Scoop.it from: summitcountyvoice.com

GR:  At all costs, people first!  Sad that a national land-management agency would not see the need to preserve nature now that more than half of all animals on Earth age gone primarily because of habitat loss.

Wildlife groups say 41 tigers have died in India in seven months

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Conservationists say India is not doing enough to protect tigers.  Six months after India boasted that its tiger population was growing fast, conservationists on Wednesday said 41 big…    Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.theguardian.com

GR:  The prospects for wild tigers in India are not good.  The human population is the only one that is growing.  India was once the nation that was most concerned with curbing human population growth.  But during the period from 1960 to today, the country’s population grew from 400 million to over one billion.  What happened?  Were the programs ineffective, or did they not receive enough support?

Will Yellowstone be safer if this bear is killed?

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With over half of all animals on Earth gone now, it’s time to carefully consider every act that will reduce them further. The time when casual killing of animals for human convenience had no impact on the vast numbers of wild creatures out there is long past.

Hothouse Mass Casualties Strike Egypt, Heatwave Hospitalizes Thousands in Japan

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#Global Warming–#Weather Extremes

Back in May, official temperatures soared to 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) as humidity levels spiked in Cairo, Egypt. The early high heat and humidity sparked anxiety among residents worrying over the coming summer. Public complaints about official temperatures being lower than actual measures were widespread among a populace vulnerable to heat exposure in a notoriously hot region of the world suffering the ongoing impacts of human-forced warming. The below video captures some of the sentiment of a few months ago, when concern that record global temperatures in the range of 1 degree Celsius above 1880s averages might result in harm to Egypt’s populace was widespread and growing.”   Sourced through Scoop.it from: robertscribbler.com GR:  This summer’s deaths are sad harbingers of escalating weather extremes as the planet warms and ocean evaporation increases.  Urban heat islands intensify the extremes.  This bad for humans, pets, and factory-farmed animals, but for now, wild animals outside cities will not suffer as much.  Of course, other human impacts are killing wild animals and plants.  Increased transpiration during heat waves will hurry our innocent fellow creatures along the road to extinction.

Has the Amazon rainforest been saved, or should I still worry?

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Deforestation

Lucy Siegle:  “Peak deforestation angst didn’t actually coincide with peak deforestation. While the wearing of “Save the Rainforest” T-shirts was de rigueur in the late 80s, the worst destruction came in 2004, a year when we (as in humankind) chopped down 27,000km2 of Amazon rainforest. By that point there wasn’t much left to play with: the Brazilian Amazon region (the largest continuous tropical rainforest in the world) had shrunk from four million kilometres (close to half the size of continental Europe) to just 18% of that size.

“Brazil is still home to 40% of global rainforest, despite so much of it being destroyed to supply a range of products from toothpaste and face creams (tallow from cattle) to leather for football boots. It was in the 80s that agronomists first recognised that agricultural markets were behind runaway deforestation. In 2009, the Greenpeace report Slaughter of the Amazon showed the international leather and beef trades as the primary drivers of deforestation in the region.”  Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.theguardian.com

Deforestation and Human Population

GR:  Deforestation continues.  As long as the human population grows, the destruction of natural vegetation is inevitable.  This article describes some of the steps that can mitigate the impacts.  A glance at the Groene Woud photo will tell you that the mitigation is no substitute for native vegetation. I’ve even seen arguments that the replacement of native vegetation with human-built environments isn’t such a disaster, because cities themselves provide habitat for wild animals.  That’s true, but the habitat is not the one that fits the adaptations of most of the species of a region. Native plants and plant communities support native animals that, in turn, thin, pollinate, and connect native plants.  From experience, I can report that the vegetation of cities, roadsides, and power transmission corridors are composed primarily of nonnative species.  Replacing natural plant communities with urban plant communities reduces biodiversity and productivity.