Posts Tagged ‘endangered species’

Herbs for Health: What’s the Cost to the Environment?

herbs.jpgEditor’s note: As part of his editorial internship with Green Options Media this Spring, I asked San Francisco State senior Oscar Cardenas to create a blog series that we could publish at the end of the semester. Oscar choose medicinal herbs and the environment for his broad topic — this post is the first of two on the subject. We’ve really enjoyed working with Oscar this Spring, and wish him well. The second post will be up next Monday.

If you’re a college student looking for an internship this Summer, we’re looking for web publishing and marketing interns.

A 2007 study of health practice trends cited in an issue of Alternative Therapies estimated that nearly 1 of 5 Americans reported using herbals for treatment of health conditions or for health promotion (Gardiner et al., “Factors Associated with Herbal Therapy Use by Adults in the United States,” 22-29). This translates to a multi-billion dollar industry that will probably only grow as public education and the cost of medicines continue to rise. This trend, which spells good news for herbal therapy retailers and users, does not come without its share of potentially negative environmental consequences.

Wildlife Works

land_r1_c11.jpgDid you know joining a conservation revolution is as easy as purchasing a Wildlife Works product?

Wildlife Works’ has a visionary company mission to create brilliant sustainable solutions for wildlife conservation enabled by the power of the global purchaser, a term they coined Consumer Powered Conservation.

Why am I in awe of WW? Because their promise to every customer is to use the proceeds of the sales to save endangered and threatened wildlife around the globe. Their […]

Feds Waive Environmental Rules for New Border Fence

Ecosystem will be severely fragmented by fence

U.S. - Mexico border, fence, wildlife habitat

The Bush administration has announced it will wave more than thirty federal laws to finish building a wall along the Mexican border by the end of this year. The Washington Post calls the move the most sweeping use of the administration’s waiver authority during the wall’s construction. The waivers allow the Bush administration to bypass mandatory reviews on how the wall will affect ecological areas in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. House Homeland Security Committee chair Bennie Thompson called the waiver “an extreme abuse of authority.”

Environmental groups have filed petitions challenging the waivers before the Supreme Court siting several potential ecological hazards that would be created by the fence. Biologists are especially concerned about a handful of extremely rare jaguars that prowl up from Mexico over mountain trails in some of the wildest country in the southwest.

Score One for the Frogs

The critically endangered Carrikeri Harlequin frog. (Photo courtesy of the Conservation Leadership Programme.)Scientists on a Conservation Leadership Programme expedition have recently discovered a critically endangered frog species that hasn’t been seen in nature for 14 years. The Carrikeri Harlequin frog was found in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Mountains of Colombia.

Photo courtesy of the Conservation Leadership Programme.

Heat Waves, Drought and, Great, Now Giant Snakes

The possible range of Burmese pythons across the U.S. by 2100. (Map courtesy of the USGS.)You know those stories you hear regularly from South Florida about giant escaped pythons wolfing down pet poodles? Well, a changing climate in the U.S. means you might have to keep Fifi safe from roaming invasive snakes even if you live as far north as Norman, Oklahoma.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) this week released new climate maps showing that Burmese pythons, an invasive species of snake now comfortably at home in the Everglades, could extend their range to as much as a third of the continental U.S. by 2100 as the climate warms. 

Save the Giant Worm

A giant Palouse earthworm (top), compared to the smaller southern worm. (Photo by Yaniria Sanchez-de Leon, University of Idaho)The Center for Biological Diversity went to court today seeking to overturn the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision not to grant the giant Palouse earthworm Endangered Species status. The worm, native to Washington and Idaho, can […]

Decide on Bears First, then Oil, Congressional panel says

polarbear.jpg The U.S. government must decide first if polar bears are threatened by climate change before it opens part of their icy habitat to oil drilling, the head of a congressional environment panel said on Thursday.

“Rushing to allow drilling in polar bear habitat before protecting the bear would be the epitome of this administration’s backward energy policy, a policy of drill first and ask questions […]

Conch Smuggling Nets Record-High Fine

A Queen conch shell (photo by Wikimedia Commons user brian0918)A company in Vancouver, British Columbia, was assessed a record-high fine of $78,566.94 after pleading guilty to two counts of trafficking in meat from the endangered Queen conch.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons user brian0918)

Halloween

Oh yeah, and we got Endangered Species chocolate for trick-or-treaters this year!

Green Family Values: Games That Teach About Endangered Animals

"Be a force of nature" is the motto of Xeko, a trading card game created by the Matter Group in collaboration with Conservation International. This eco-game asks children (and adults) to take on the critical mission of creating the strongest ecosystems in the threatened hotspots of our planet. By playing Xeko, children learn about the complexities of ecosystems while trying to save them.

Xeko doesn’t just talk the eco-talk, though:

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The Call of the Wild on Your Cell Phone

Want a ringtone that'll turn some heads? Download the howl of a Mexican Wolf or the call of a Blue-throated Macaw.

The New Mexico-based Center for Biological Diversity has turned a library of endangered species sounds into free, downloadable ringtones. The institute wants to utilize mobile media, which has already had an influence on other political and social campaigns. They're hoping that the rare and endangered species

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