Sunday, November 06, 2016 5:00:51 AM
World on track to lose two-thirds of wild animals by 2020, major report warns
wonderful video .. thanks, F6, and echo your thanks to Homebrew!..
Living Planet Index shows vertebrate populations are set to decline by 67% on 1970 levels unless urgent action is taken to reduce humanity’s impact
A victim of poachers in Kenya: elephants are among the species most impacted by
humans, the WWF report found. Photograph: imageBROKER/REX/Shutterstock
Damian Carrington
@dpcarrington
Thursday 27 October 2016 10.53 AEDT
Last modified on Saturday 29 October 2016 00.17 AEDT
The number of wild animals living on Earth is set to fall by two-thirds by 2020, according to a new report .. http://www.livingplanetindex.org/home/index , part of a mass extinction that is destroying the natural world upon which humanity depends.
The analysis, the most comprehensive to date, indicates that animal populations plummeted by 58% between 1970 and 2012, with losses on track to reach 67% by 2020. Researchers from WWF and the Zoological Society of London compiled the report from scientific data and found that the destruction of wild habitats, hunting and pollution were to blame.
The creatures being lost range from mountains to forests to rivers and the seas and include well-known endangered species such as elephants and gorillas and lesser known creatures such as vultures and salamanders.
The collapse of wildlife is, with climate change, the most striking sign of the Anthropocene, a proposed new geological era .. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/29/declare-anthropocene-epoch-experts-urge-geological-congress-human-impact-earth .. in which humans dominate the planet. “We are no longer a small world on a big planet. We are now a big world on a small planet, where we have reached a saturation point,” said Prof Johan Rockström, executive director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre, in a foreword for the report.
Marco Lambertini, director general of WWF, said: “The richness and diversity of life on Earth is fundamental to the complex life systems that underpin it. Life supports life itself and we are part of the same equation. Lose biodiversity and the natural world and the life support systems, as we know them today, will collapse.”
He said humanity was completely dependent on nature for clean air and water, food and materials, as well as inspiration and happiness.
The report analysed the changing abundance of more than 14,000 monitored populations of the 3,700 vertebrate species for which good data is available. This produced a measure akin to a stock market index that indicates the state of the world’s 64,000 animal species and is used by scientists .. http://science.sciencemag.org/content/346/6206/241.full .. to measure the progress of conservation efforts.
The biggest cause of tumbling animal numbers is the destruction of wild areas for farming and logging: the majority of the Earth’s land area has now been impacted by humans, with just 15% protected for nature. Poaching and exploitation for food is another major factor, due to unsustainable fishing and hunting: more than 300 mammal species are being eaten into extinction .. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/19/worlds-mammals-being-eaten-into-extinction-report-warns , according to recent research.
World's wildlife being pushed to the edge by humans - in pictures
View gallery > https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2016/oct/27/worlds-wildlife-being-pushed-to-the-edge-by-humans-in-pictures
Pollution is also a significant problem with, for example, killer whales and dolphins in European seas being seriously harmed by long-lived industrial pollutants .. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jan/14/uks-last-resident-killer-whales-doomed-to-extinction . Vultures in south-east Asia have been decimated over the last 20 years .. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/sep/06/diclofenac-india-cattle-vultures , dying after eating the carcasses of cattle dosed with an anti-inflammatory drug. Amphibians have suffered one of the greatest declines of all animals due to a fungal disease .. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/nov/16/amphibians-terrifying-extinction-threat .. thought to be spread around the world by the trade in frogs and newts.
Rivers and lakes are the hardest hit habitats, with animals populations down by 81% since 1970, due to excessive water extraction, pollution and dams. All the pressures are magnified by global warming, which shifts the ranges in which animals are able to live, said WWF’s director of science, Mike Barrett.
Some researchers have reservations about the report’s approach, which summarises many different studies into a headline number. “It is broadly right, but the whole is less than the sum of the parts,” said Prof Stuart Pimm, at Duke University in the US, adding that looking at particular groups, such as birds, is more precise.
The report warns that losses of wildlife will impact on people and could even provoke conflicts: “Increased human pressure threatens the natural resources that humanity depends upon, increasing the risk of water and food insecurity and competition over natural resources.”
Agriculture and overuse greater threats to wildlife than climate change – study
Read more > https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/10/agriculture-and-overuse-greater-threats-to-wildlife-than-climate-change-study
However, some species are starting to recover, suggesting swift action could tackle the crisis. Tiger numbers .. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/11/number-of-tigers-in-the-wild-rises-for-first-time-in-over-100-years .. are thought to be increasing and the giant panda has recently been removed .. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-37272718 .. from the list of endangered species.
In Europe, protection of the habitat of the Eurasian lynx and controls on hunting have seen its population rise fivefold since the 1960s. A recent global wildlife summit also introduced new protection for pangolins .. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/28/pangolins-thrown-a-lifeline-at-global-wildlife-summit-with-total-trade-ban , the world’s most trafficked mammals, and rosewoods .. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/29/wildlife-summit-cracks-down-on-illegal-rosewood-trade , the most trafficked wild product of all.
But stemming the overall losses of animals and habitats requires systemic change in how society consumes resources, said Barrett. People can choose to eat less meat, which is often fed on grain grown on deforested land, and businesses should ensure their supply chains, such as for timber, are sustainable, he said.
“You’d like to think that was a no-brainer in that if a business is consuming the raw materials for its products in a way that is not sustainable, then inevitably it will eventually put itself out of business,” Barrett said. Politicians must also ensure all their policies - not just environmental ones - are sustainable, he added.
“The report is certainly a pretty shocking snapshot of where we are,” said Barrett. “My hope though is that we don’t throw our hands up in despair - there is no time for despair, we have to crack on and act. I do remain convinced we can find our sustainable course through the Anthropocene, but the will has to be there to do it.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/27/world-on-track-to-lose-two-thirds-of-wild-animals-by-2020-major-report-warns
---
Data app pushes Chinese factories to cut pollution
by Laurie Goering | @lauriegoering | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Friday, 17 April 2015 14:33 GMT
IMAGE: .. young girl on a balcony reading .. in background human created
pollution .. forlorn yet hopeful .. sorry i can't reproduce it here ..
Mobile phone app lets users check if a factory or power plant near their home is violating pollution standards
By Laurie Goering
OXFORD, England, April 17 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - When environmentalist Ma Jun set out to tackle pollution from Chinese industries, it seemed a near-impossible task.
Taking polluting factories to court was difficult. Factory owners were powerful, and the incentives were stronger to cut environmental corners than comply with regulations.
But China's government, worried about public anger over worsening pollution, had begun collecting real-time emissions data from factories and when Ma asked for water pollution data be made public, officials agreed, giving him fodder for an app.
"I was very surprised when the government said yes," he said at the Skoll World Forum on Entrepreneurship, where he was awarded a $1.25 million prize.
"This is a clear sign of the political will of the central government to solve the environmental problem," he said.
.. more with links .. http://news.trust.org//item/20150417143442-nd34a
---
Drought-hit Palau could dry up totally this month
April 4, 2016
The tiny Pacific island of Palau has a population of about 18,000 people
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-04-drought-hit-palau-totally-month.html#jCp
---
Besieged by the rising tides of climate change, Kiribati buys land in Fiji
Nation finalises purchase of land on Vanua Levu, 2,000km away, but it may be just the first of many seeking refuge
Kiribati - abandoned house
On Kiribati, an abandoned house that is affected by seawater
during high tides. Photograph: David Gray/Reuters
Laurence Caramel
Tuesday 1 July 2014 10.00 AEST
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jul/01/kiribati-climate-change-fiji-vanua-levu
---
Indonesia forest fires: has this Sumatran village got the solution?
The small village of Dosan has not recorded a single fire since 2012, despite being surrounded by palm oil plantations
Farmer Pak Dahlan walks through an oil palm plantation in Dosan, Sumatra. The village has made a concerted effort to tackle the forest fires which ravage the region every year.
Photograph: Laura Villadiego
Laura Villadiego in Riau, Indonesia
Wednesday 14 September 2016 17.43 AEST
Last modified on Tuesday 20 September 2016 02.51 AEST
Fires have returned once again to the forests and peatlands of Riau province on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The annual environmental disaster devastates millions of hectares (pdf) in the archipelago and has been linked to the clearing of forest and peatland for oil palm and paper pulp plantations.
Last year south-east Asia experienced one of the worst forest fire outbreaks in the region’s history. A thick, acrid smoke covered large areas of Indonesia and neighbouring countries, and more than 500,000 cases of acute respiratory tract infections were reported between July and October 2015.
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/sep/14/indonesia-forest-fires-palm-oil-sumatra-climate-change-peat-companies-unep
---
Tesla's Elon Musk Unveils a Factory He Hopes Will Change the World
by Kirsten Korosec @kirstenkorosecJuly 30, 2016, 2:03 PM EST
http://fortune.com/2016/07/30/tesla-gigafactory-elon-event/
See also:
Entire nation of Kiribati to be relocated over rising sea level threat
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=81380064
West Antarctica Glaciers: Past the Point of No Return
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=102380749
Pictured: Haunting face crying a river of tears as glacier melts into the sea
03rd September 2009
Tears of Mother Nature: The image of a crying face looming from an icy cliff wall
was taken at the Svalbard archipelago in Norway
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=41221897
Yep, bottom line is our Western eco-footprints are unsustainable over long term.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=54672885
.. in case you missed it .. The Making of a Climate Refugee
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=114207225
Climate Change, Migration, and Security in South Asia
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=102210428
Obama formally joins US into climate pact
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=124951151
wonderful video .. thanks, F6, and echo your thanks to Homebrew!..
Living Planet Index shows vertebrate populations are set to decline by 67% on 1970 levels unless urgent action is taken to reduce humanity’s impact
A victim of poachers in Kenya: elephants are among the species most impacted by
humans, the WWF report found. Photograph: imageBROKER/REX/Shutterstock
Damian Carrington
@dpcarrington
Thursday 27 October 2016 10.53 AEDT
Last modified on Saturday 29 October 2016 00.17 AEDT
The number of wild animals living on Earth is set to fall by two-thirds by 2020, according to a new report .. http://www.livingplanetindex.org/home/index , part of a mass extinction that is destroying the natural world upon which humanity depends.
The analysis, the most comprehensive to date, indicates that animal populations plummeted by 58% between 1970 and 2012, with losses on track to reach 67% by 2020. Researchers from WWF and the Zoological Society of London compiled the report from scientific data and found that the destruction of wild habitats, hunting and pollution were to blame.
The creatures being lost range from mountains to forests to rivers and the seas and include well-known endangered species such as elephants and gorillas and lesser known creatures such as vultures and salamanders.
The collapse of wildlife is, with climate change, the most striking sign of the Anthropocene, a proposed new geological era .. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/29/declare-anthropocene-epoch-experts-urge-geological-congress-human-impact-earth .. in which humans dominate the planet. “We are no longer a small world on a big planet. We are now a big world on a small planet, where we have reached a saturation point,” said Prof Johan Rockström, executive director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre, in a foreword for the report.
Marco Lambertini, director general of WWF, said: “The richness and diversity of life on Earth is fundamental to the complex life systems that underpin it. Life supports life itself and we are part of the same equation. Lose biodiversity and the natural world and the life support systems, as we know them today, will collapse.”
He said humanity was completely dependent on nature for clean air and water, food and materials, as well as inspiration and happiness.
The report analysed the changing abundance of more than 14,000 monitored populations of the 3,700 vertebrate species for which good data is available. This produced a measure akin to a stock market index that indicates the state of the world’s 64,000 animal species and is used by scientists .. http://science.sciencemag.org/content/346/6206/241.full .. to measure the progress of conservation efforts.
The biggest cause of tumbling animal numbers is the destruction of wild areas for farming and logging: the majority of the Earth’s land area has now been impacted by humans, with just 15% protected for nature. Poaching and exploitation for food is another major factor, due to unsustainable fishing and hunting: more than 300 mammal species are being eaten into extinction .. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/19/worlds-mammals-being-eaten-into-extinction-report-warns , according to recent research.
World's wildlife being pushed to the edge by humans - in pictures
View gallery > https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2016/oct/27/worlds-wildlife-being-pushed-to-the-edge-by-humans-in-pictures
Pollution is also a significant problem with, for example, killer whales and dolphins in European seas being seriously harmed by long-lived industrial pollutants .. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jan/14/uks-last-resident-killer-whales-doomed-to-extinction . Vultures in south-east Asia have been decimated over the last 20 years .. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/sep/06/diclofenac-india-cattle-vultures , dying after eating the carcasses of cattle dosed with an anti-inflammatory drug. Amphibians have suffered one of the greatest declines of all animals due to a fungal disease .. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/nov/16/amphibians-terrifying-extinction-threat .. thought to be spread around the world by the trade in frogs and newts.
Rivers and lakes are the hardest hit habitats, with animals populations down by 81% since 1970, due to excessive water extraction, pollution and dams. All the pressures are magnified by global warming, which shifts the ranges in which animals are able to live, said WWF’s director of science, Mike Barrett.
Some researchers have reservations about the report’s approach, which summarises many different studies into a headline number. “It is broadly right, but the whole is less than the sum of the parts,” said Prof Stuart Pimm, at Duke University in the US, adding that looking at particular groups, such as birds, is more precise.
The report warns that losses of wildlife will impact on people and could even provoke conflicts: “Increased human pressure threatens the natural resources that humanity depends upon, increasing the risk of water and food insecurity and competition over natural resources.”
Agriculture and overuse greater threats to wildlife than climate change – study
Read more > https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/10/agriculture-and-overuse-greater-threats-to-wildlife-than-climate-change-study
However, some species are starting to recover, suggesting swift action could tackle the crisis. Tiger numbers .. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/11/number-of-tigers-in-the-wild-rises-for-first-time-in-over-100-years .. are thought to be increasing and the giant panda has recently been removed .. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-37272718 .. from the list of endangered species.
In Europe, protection of the habitat of the Eurasian lynx and controls on hunting have seen its population rise fivefold since the 1960s. A recent global wildlife summit also introduced new protection for pangolins .. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/28/pangolins-thrown-a-lifeline-at-global-wildlife-summit-with-total-trade-ban , the world’s most trafficked mammals, and rosewoods .. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/29/wildlife-summit-cracks-down-on-illegal-rosewood-trade , the most trafficked wild product of all.
But stemming the overall losses of animals and habitats requires systemic change in how society consumes resources, said Barrett. People can choose to eat less meat, which is often fed on grain grown on deforested land, and businesses should ensure their supply chains, such as for timber, are sustainable, he said.
“You’d like to think that was a no-brainer in that if a business is consuming the raw materials for its products in a way that is not sustainable, then inevitably it will eventually put itself out of business,” Barrett said. Politicians must also ensure all their policies - not just environmental ones - are sustainable, he added.
“The report is certainly a pretty shocking snapshot of where we are,” said Barrett. “My hope though is that we don’t throw our hands up in despair - there is no time for despair, we have to crack on and act. I do remain convinced we can find our sustainable course through the Anthropocene, but the will has to be there to do it.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/27/world-on-track-to-lose-two-thirds-of-wild-animals-by-2020-major-report-warns
---
Data app pushes Chinese factories to cut pollution
by Laurie Goering | @lauriegoering | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Friday, 17 April 2015 14:33 GMT
IMAGE: .. young girl on a balcony reading .. in background human created
pollution .. forlorn yet hopeful .. sorry i can't reproduce it here ..
Mobile phone app lets users check if a factory or power plant near their home is violating pollution standards
By Laurie Goering
OXFORD, England, April 17 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - When environmentalist Ma Jun set out to tackle pollution from Chinese industries, it seemed a near-impossible task.
Taking polluting factories to court was difficult. Factory owners were powerful, and the incentives were stronger to cut environmental corners than comply with regulations.
But China's government, worried about public anger over worsening pollution, had begun collecting real-time emissions data from factories and when Ma asked for water pollution data be made public, officials agreed, giving him fodder for an app.
"I was very surprised when the government said yes," he said at the Skoll World Forum on Entrepreneurship, where he was awarded a $1.25 million prize.
"This is a clear sign of the political will of the central government to solve the environmental problem," he said.
.. more with links .. http://news.trust.org//item/20150417143442-nd34a
---
Drought-hit Palau could dry up totally this month
April 4, 2016
The tiny Pacific island of Palau has a population of about 18,000 people
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-04-drought-hit-palau-totally-month.html#jCp
---
Besieged by the rising tides of climate change, Kiribati buys land in Fiji
Nation finalises purchase of land on Vanua Levu, 2,000km away, but it may be just the first of many seeking refuge
Kiribati - abandoned house
On Kiribati, an abandoned house that is affected by seawater
during high tides. Photograph: David Gray/Reuters
Laurence Caramel
Tuesday 1 July 2014 10.00 AEST
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jul/01/kiribati-climate-change-fiji-vanua-levu
---
Indonesia forest fires: has this Sumatran village got the solution?
The small village of Dosan has not recorded a single fire since 2012, despite being surrounded by palm oil plantations
Farmer Pak Dahlan walks through an oil palm plantation in Dosan, Sumatra. The village has made a concerted effort to tackle the forest fires which ravage the region every year.
Photograph: Laura Villadiego
Laura Villadiego in Riau, Indonesia
Wednesday 14 September 2016 17.43 AEST
Last modified on Tuesday 20 September 2016 02.51 AEST
Fires have returned once again to the forests and peatlands of Riau province on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The annual environmental disaster devastates millions of hectares (pdf) in the archipelago and has been linked to the clearing of forest and peatland for oil palm and paper pulp plantations.
Last year south-east Asia experienced one of the worst forest fire outbreaks in the region’s history. A thick, acrid smoke covered large areas of Indonesia and neighbouring countries, and more than 500,000 cases of acute respiratory tract infections were reported between July and October 2015.
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/sep/14/indonesia-forest-fires-palm-oil-sumatra-climate-change-peat-companies-unep
---
Tesla's Elon Musk Unveils a Factory He Hopes Will Change the World
by Kirsten Korosec @kirstenkorosecJuly 30, 2016, 2:03 PM EST
http://fortune.com/2016/07/30/tesla-gigafactory-elon-event/
See also:
Entire nation of Kiribati to be relocated over rising sea level threat
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=81380064
West Antarctica Glaciers: Past the Point of No Return
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=102380749
Pictured: Haunting face crying a river of tears as glacier melts into the sea
03rd September 2009
Tears of Mother Nature: The image of a crying face looming from an icy cliff wall
was taken at the Svalbard archipelago in Norway
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=41221897
Yep, bottom line is our Western eco-footprints are unsustainable over long term.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=54672885
.. in case you missed it .. The Making of a Climate Refugee
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=114207225
Climate Change, Migration, and Security in South Asia
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=102210428
Obama formally joins US into climate pact
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=124951151
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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