Green Options

One of the world’s most critically endangered whales, the western gray whale, is being pushed out of its annual feeding area by loud industrial activity from oil and gas exploration by Exxon, BP, and Rosneft, says a panel of top scientists.

“Western gray whale cows with their calves feed near the shore, but the industrial noise resulting from oil and gas development activities is pushing them out of the area.” - Doug Norlen, Pacific Environment

Results recently published in the journal Global Change Biology show a population drop of 60% in worldwide caribou and reindeer numbers over the last three decades.

The dramatic decline in population is likely due to climate change and increased industrial development in boreal forests around the world.

According to a new study, climate change could drastically alter 88% of the waters where dolphins, whales and porpoises are found. While some species may stand to benefit from the changes, the research concluded that one fifth of cetacean species could be lost forever.

The cetaceans most at risk are colder water species and species with restricted ranges in shallower waters. All in all, as many as half of cetacean species should experience a shrinking of their habitat as the oceans warm.

In an exciting effort to protect its natural heritage, the National Environment Protection Agency of Afghanistan has released the country’s first list of protected species, which includes 20 mammals, 7 birds, 4 plants, an amphibian and an insect.

The protections come at a crucial time for many of the species, since a previous Presidential Decree which outlawed hunting of endangered animals expired last March. Among the animals now protected from pelt-traders and poachers are snow leopards, wolves and brown bears.

In southeast Utah rests a peaceful town located on the banks of a peaceful river. Here the Green River flows between two canyons, Gray and Labyrinth, allowing for farming and ranching in an arid desert. Driving through Green River, Utah doesn’t take but a few moments, including a stop to purchase some mouth-watering melons, for which Green River is famous. But Green River now has a new claim to fame.

Transition Power Development LLC (TPD) has proposed construction of a 2 unit nuclear power plant known as the Blue Castle Project situated just outside of the peaceful town. In order to maintain the 2 unit nuclear power plant, massive amounts of water would be required. The Kane County Water Conservancy District (KCWCD) has filed a water-rights application in order to facilitate the project. The application requests 29,600 acre-feet of water, which would be diverted from the Green River, a part of the Colorado River drainage.

25% of all the world’s large-scale terrestrial migrations have already ceased due to habitat loss and human-caused changes to the landscape, and it may not be long before all migrations disappear entirely.

That according to a new study, which warns that with continued population growth, development and habitat encroachment, storied epics like those of wildebeest parading across the Serengeti or herds of bison rumbling across North American plains shall become tall tales of the past.

Last year one of the most critically endangered birds in the world, the Northern Bald Ibis, nested in Spain for the 1st time in 500 years. Terrific news has now arrived that a pair is nesting again in the same location this year.

The current worldwide population of wild Northern Bald Ibises is thought to be around 510 in total, with around 500 of these individuals living in Morocco. In the last century the population of Northern Bald Ibises has declined by approximately 98% because of hunting, habitat loss, and pesticides. Its once great range is now small.

What’s most encouraging about the ibises in Spain’s Natural Park of Brena is that they were born in captivity, and are the first pair to successfully nest in the wild– an indication that captive breeding programs might work for this species. An estimated 1,000 ibises are currently living in captivity.

The disease referred to as “a contagious cancer”, Devil Facial Tumor Disease, is decimating the population of Tasmanian Devils, leading experts to predict the extinction of the species in as little as 20 years.

Tasmanian devils have now been put on the Tasmanian endangered species list due to the decimation of the population by up to 70% in recent years.

A jaguar recently swam onto an island located in the Panama Canal. It then triggered a hidden camera that took its picture. This is the first time a jaguar has been photographed in the 86 year history of 3,707 acre Barro Colorado Island– one of the most well-researched tropical ecosystems in the world.

The hidden camera had been set up as part of an annual effort to inventory mammals that live on Barro Colorado Island. According to the researchers who set up the cameras, the finding is exciting given that jaguars are already considered rare throughout the entire country of Panama (see photo below).

So just how far did the jaguar have to swim?

By Lester R. Brown, Earth Policy Institute

In 1543, Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus published “On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres,” in which he challenged the view that the sun revolved around the earth, arguing instead that the earth revolved around the sun. With his new model of the solar system, he began a wide-ranging debate among scientists, theologians, and others. His alternative to the earlier Ptolemaic model, which had the earth at the center of the universe, led to a revolution in thinking, to a new worldview.

Today we need a similar shift in our worldview, in how we think about the relationship between the earth and the economy. The issue now is not which celestial sphere revolves around the other but whether the environment is part of the economy or the economy is part of the environment. Economists see the environment as a subset of the economy. Ecologists, on the other hand, see the economy as a subset of the environment.

Like Ptolemy’s view of the solar system, the economists’ view is confusing efforts to understand our modern world. It has created an economy that is out of sync with the ecosystem on which it depends.

Among Cairn terriers, the best-known celebrity is “Toto” from the Wizard of Oz. Now she might have some competition, as a Cairn terrier named Ridley is gaining fame for helping to save his namesake, the critically endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle.

Ridley helps find the nests of the sea turtles in Texas along Padre Island National Seashore– the longest barrier island in the world. It’s necessary to find the nests quickly so that they can be protected from coyotes or raccoons, or even the high tide. Sometimes human volunteers can’t find the nests after following turtle tracks, so it’s Ridley and his nose to the rescue!