These species survived the last ice age but couldn’t survive people Screw Myers and Briggs. I’ve got a new personality test for you. Read the following statement and choose the response that most accurately depicts how it makes you feel: Statement: Ten thousand years ago, 22 species of birds, reptiles, and mammals on the Bahamian island of Abaco miraculously survived the rising seas and shifting climate at the end of the last ice age. Responses: A) Damn right! Now, based on the Psych 101 class that I took in college, here are your results: If you answered A, then you’re a psychopath; if you answered B, then you’re not helping; and if you answered C, then congratulations! In a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, University of Florida researchers report that out of 100 species analyzed from fossils found in a flooded cave on Great Abaco Island, 17 bird species went extinct around the end of the last ice age, while 22 bird, reptile, and mammal species survived, only to succumb to humans a few thousand years later.
Oxford Junior Dictionary’s replacement of ‘natural’ words with 21st-century terms sparks outcry The Guardian, January 16, 2015 Oxford Junior Dictionary’s replacement of ‘natural’ words with 21st-century terms sparks outcry By Allison Flood Margaret Atwood and Andrew Motion among authors protesting at dropping definitions of words like ‘acorn’ and ‘buttercup’ in favour of ‘broadband’ and ‘cut and paste’ “A” should be for acorn, “B” for buttercup and “C” for conker, not attachment, blog and chatroom, according to a group of authors including Margaret Atwoodand Andrew Motion who are “profoundly alarmed” about the loss of a slew of words associated with the natural world from the Oxford Junior Dictionary, and their replacement with words “associated with the increasingly interior, solitary childhoods of today”. The likes of almond, blackberry and crocus first made way for analogue, block graph and celebrity in the Oxford Junior Dictionary in 2007, with protests at the time around the loss of a host of religious words such as bishop, saint and sin. This article originally appeared here.
Rapport Planète Vivante 2014 Le Rapport Planète Vivante est l'analyse scientifique la plus importante au monde concernant la santé de notre planète et l'impact de l'activité humaine. Étant conscient que nous n'avons qu'une seule planète, le WWF croit au fait que l'humanité peut faire de meilleurs choix qui peuvent se traduire par de réels gains pour l'écologie, la société et l'économie actuelle, et ce, sur le long terme. Autrement dit, en moins de deux générations, la taille des populations des espèces de vertébrés a fondu de moitié. Or, les différentes formes du vivant sont à la fois la matrice des écosystèmes permettant la vie sur Terre, mais aussi le baromètre de ce que nous faisons subir à notre planète, notre unique demeure. Ces indicateurs révèlent la demande excessive de l’humanité en ressources planétaires et montrent que nous dilapidons les cadeaux offerts par la nature comme si nous avions plus d’une Terre à notre disposition.
En 40 ans, la moitié des animaux sauvages a disparu à cause de l'homme, selon le WWF Publié tous les deux ans, le Living Planet Report du WWF livre des chiffres effarants. Ainsi, la population de vertébrés sauvages aurait baissé de 52% entre 1970 et 2010. Plus de 10.000 espèces ont été étudiées pour obtenir ce triste chiffre. Avez-vous déjà partagé cet article? Partager sur Facebook Partager sur Twitter C'est un nouveau signal d'alarme que vient de tirer le WWF. Une tendance lourde dont l'homme serait le principal responsable et qui ne donnerait "aucun signe de ralentissement", affirme le rapport repris par l'AFP. Plus de 10 000 espèces suivies de près Pour établir ses conclusions, le rapport Planète Vivante s’est basé sur trois domaines. Mais "les tendances claires que nous voyons ne sont pas compliquées : 39% de la faune sauvage terrestre a disparu, tout comme 39% de la faune sauvage marine et 76% de la faune sauvage d’eau douce. Un déclin d'origine humaine Pour le WWF, l'homme et ses activités sont à l'origine de ce net déclin. Agir avant qu'il ne soit trop tard
Study: World's Largest Monarch Population Could Disappear in 20 Years For Immediate Release, March 21, 2016 Study: World's Largest Monarch Population Could Disappear in 20 Years 84 Percent Decline Driven by Loss of Milkweed Due to Genetically Engineered Crops WASHINGTON— The eastern migratory population of the monarch butterfly — which includes 99 percent of the world’s monarchs — is at high risk of extinction within two decades unless the population rebounds dramatically, according to a new study published today by Nature Scientific Reports. The study from the U.S. “This new study confirms that GE crops are the driving cause of monarchs’ precipitous decline, as we have warned for years. “We need to protect monarchs under the Endangered Species Act and increase protections for their summer breeding habitat, or the next generation of children may never see a monarch butterfly,” said Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity.
Global Ecosystem Collapse | Earth Blog Old-Growth Forests Necessary to Avert Ecosystem CollapseThe global environment is collapsing as human industrial growth overruns ecosystem habitats that make life possible. Either we choose now to embrace personal and societal changes necessary for global ecological sustainability, first and foremost stopping the destruction of ecosystems, or we face collapse and the end of being. The meaning of life is radical freedom, sustained ecology, freethinking, truth and justice, and loving all life like kin – so the biosphere, humanity, and all life continue to naturally evolve forever. The global ecological system is collapsing and dying. Humanity wantonly destroys natural ecosystems and climatic patterns that provide all life’s environmental habitats. Our one shared, overpopulated, ecologically diminished, abjectly unfair biosphere is careening toward scarcity, war, disease, and social, economic and ecosystem collapse. Truth is the answer.
Dead elephants, plagues, and rats: Why the sixth extinction is bad for you and everyone you know Hey, remember the dinosaurs? Yeah, neither. All it took was one massive asteroid, and all the dinos were wiped off the face of the planet. Well, there’s a new asteroid in town: us. New research published in the journal Science lays out the scope of the destruction we’ve wrought — and suggests that it’s going to come back to bite us. Similar to previous extinction events, the large, cute animals (like elephants and polar bears) are disappearing the fastest: since 1500, more than 320 land-based vertebrates have gone extinct. “Where human density is high, you get high rates of defaunation, high incidence of rodents, and thus high levels of pathogens, which increases the risks of disease transmission,” lead author Rodolfo Dirzo says. The sixth extinction also means bad news for those critters that we’re less likely to fawn over, but we’ll probably still miss them when they’re gone. So if you’re not kind of person that’s into animals, so be it.
Forest Protection Blog: ECOLOGY SCIENCE: Terrestrial Ecosystem Loss and Biosphere Collapse Introduction to Planetary Boundaries From Malthus (1798), through Aldo Leopold's land ethic (1949), to The Limits to Growth (Meadows et al. 1972), the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005), and finally current planetary boundary and global change science (Rockström et al. 2009a, 2009b) runs a strand of concern about human growth's impacts upon Earth's biophysical systems – terrestrial ecosystems in particular – and about requirements for global ecological sustainability, while avoiding biosphere collapse. Our biosphere is composed of Earth's thin mantle of life present at, and just above and below, the Earth's surface. Accelerating human pressures on the Earth System are exceeding numerous local, regional, and global thresholds, with abrupt and possibly irreversible impacts upon the planet's life-support functions (UNEP 2012). Figure 1: Rockström et al. 2009 Setting boundaries requires normative decisions on risk and uncertainty. Earth has gone through many changes.
La moitié des vertébrés a disparu en quarante ans La pression exercée par l’humanité sur les écosystèmes est telle qu’il nous faut chaque année l’équivalent de 1,6 planète Terre pour satisfaire nos besoins, selon le WWF. LE MONDE | • Mis à jour le | Par Audrey Garric Partout, les écosystèmes sont menacés, et rien ne semble pouvoir enrayer la tendance. L’étude, réalisée tous les deux ans en partenariat avec la société savante Zoological Society of London et l’ONG Global Footprint Network, se fonde sur deux indicateurs principaux, tous deux au rouge. Milieux d’eau douce les plus affectés Clairement, la tendance est à la régression. Lire aussi : Le gorille oriental, le plus grand primate du monde, en « danger critique d’extinction » Les causes de ces reculs sont connues : ils sont imputables, en premier lieu, à la perte et à la dégradation de l’habitat, sous l’effet de l’agriculture, de l’exploitation forestière, de l’urbanisation ou de l’extraction minière. « Dépassement écologique » de plus en plus précoce
In “The Sixth Extinction,” Elizabeth Kolbert reports from the frontlines of a dying world The New Yorker writer and acclaimed author Elizabeth Kolbert has a penchant for depressing topics. Her 2006 book, Field Notes from a Catastrophe, helped push climate change into the mainstream (with bonus points for not mincing words in the title). Now that climate change is safely keeping most of us up at night, Kolbert turned her pen to another big bummer: the sixth extinction. We’re currently losing species at a rate of 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than unassisted nature wiping out the occasional newt. Kolbert dropped by the Grist office to chat mass extinctions, climate inaction, and whether there’s any hope (short answer: no. long answer: probably not). Q. A. But people trying to looking into the future with things like modeling — which may or may not be correct, but we won’t necessarily be around to see it — tend to project that the climate is going to become a major driver of extinctions over this century, for all the obvious reasons. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A.
5 Massive Animal Die-Offs That Are Probably Our Fault We’re all familiar with the canary in the coal mine metaphor. Years ago, miners would take a canary to work with them, knowing that if the bird stopped singing (or keeled over dead) danger was imminent. So what does it mean when thousands of animals drop dead while in their natural habitat? Over the past few years, scientists have been alarmed at the acceleration of massive animal die-offs that have occurred around the globe. 1. Photo Credit: Rossco via Flickr While North America freezes, Australia is in the midst of a heat wave of epic proportions (climate change, anyone?). 2. Photo Credit: Wolfpix via Flickr It’s no longer news that the global bee population is dwindling at an alarming rate. 3. Photo Credit: minwoo via Flickr Contrary to popular belief, oysters are more than just a delicious coastal appetizer. 4. Photo Credit: Thinkstock Not even a year after the devastating BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, local officials and Big Oil publicists insisted that all was well. 5.
Le déclin des grands carnivores bouleverse les écosystèmes Le Monde.fr | • Mis à jour le | Par Pierre Le Hir Ce sont les seigneurs du règne animal. Les maîtres de la jungle et de la savane, des forêts et des océans. Le lion, le tigre, le guépard, le lynx, le loup, l'ours ou la loutre de mer, ces grands carnivores au sommet de la chaîne alimentaire. Tous, ou presque, sont en déclin, alors même que leur présence se révèle cruciale pour l'équilibre des milieux naturels. « Globalement, nous sommes en train de perdre nos grands carnivores, constate le premier auteur de l'étude, William Ripple, professeur au département des écosystèmes forestiers et de la société de l'Université de l'Oregon. Le recensement de la population des trente et un plus grands mammifères (d'un poids adulte d'au moins 15 kilos) appartenant à l'ordre des carnivores – même si certains sont en réalité omnivores, comme le loup à crinière, l'ours brun ou la hyène rayée, voire surtout herbivores, dans le cas du panda géant – a de quoi inquiéter.
11 Animals We May Allow To Go Extinct Because They're Not Cute And Fuzzy In 2012, nearly $1 billion was donated in the name of environmental preservation to just three charities: The Conservation Fund, the World Wildlife Fund and The Nature Conservancy. Where does this money go? Most, according to National Geographic, goes toward protecting a handful of our favorite animals -- apes, elephants, big cats, black rhinos and giant pandas hold the top five spots. Some argue, for example, that giant pandas are a colossal waste of our time. Although there are mathematical models that could be used to determine return on investment in any particular species, at the end of the day "what we decide to save really is very arbitrary -- it's much more often done for emotional or psychological or national reasons," The Nature Conservatory's M. Here's a quick snapshot of some less popular endangered species that may not be around much longer if we don't start paying attention. Golden Poison Dart Frog Meet one of the most poisonous creatures on earth. Short-Tailed Albatross St.
PLOS Research Predicts Climate Change 'Winners' and 'Losers' | Linda Marsa There's a growing consensus among scientists that the earth is in the midst of its sixth mass extinction. They have in hand voluminous data demonstrating the changing conditions putting 20,000 species of animals and plants around the globe at high risk for disappearing from the wild. From the fossil record we know that such a rapid loss of so many species has previously occurred only five times in the past 540 million years. The last mass extinction, around 65 million years ago, removed dinosaurs from the face of the earth. Predictions about the impact of man-made climate change on these 20,000 vulnerable species are based on a set of measurable changes to the earth's atmosphere, soil, polar ice sheets, and oceans, and a calculation of how these ongoing changes will affect the survival of each bird, plant, mammal, amphibian, or other organism living in a particular habitat -- based on all that we know about these species. Loading Slideshow