biodiversity
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Interior Secretary Kempthorne gets award for record refusal to protect endangered species
The Center for Biological Diversity yesterday presented Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne with its first ever "Rubber Dodo" award, in honor of going a record one year and 90 days without listing a new species as endangered or threatened.The previous record holder was Ronald Reagan's notorious Interior Secretary James Watt, who went a comparatively wimpy 376 days without listing a new species. Meanwhile, the Fish and Wildlife Service has classified 279 species as "candidates" for listing, because they're in danger of extinction, but haven't yet been given protection by Secretary Kempthorne.
"That waiting list could turn into a 'too-late' list without government action, as species in dire need of protection go extinct," the Center said in an email to its supporters.
According to the Center's Kieran Suckling, some of the endangered species waiting for Dirk to stay the hand of permanent annihilation are the elfin wood warbler of Puerto Rico, the Pacific fisher (a wolverine-like animal that prowls the sylvan coasts of the Northwest), and the red knot, an extraordinary bird whose tale of decline is one of the saddest and weirdest.
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Scientists uncover underwater community on Atlantic seamount
Scientists encountered what may be a new species of seed shrimp, a translucent crustacean that swims at a depth of 50 to 200 meters. On a seamount in the Northern Atlantic, remote-operated vehicles shed light on what one researcher referred to as an underwater "continent."
Clutching to the rocky cliffs was a menagerie of corals and sponges, as well as brittle stars and starfish, sea cucumbers, and worms. Some of the creatures are quite rare, not found anywhere else in the world -- all the more reason to be mindful of the brilliant life thriving below the surface.
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Who knew things grew in NYC?
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (Brooklyn), I got lunch with one of our Gristmill readers, Marielle Anzelone, who works as a botanist for the city of New York. We talked for well over an hour. I learned more about plants, invasive species, urban ecology, and biodiversity than I could possibly […]
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Hansen gives a talk in Iowa about climate change impacts
Hansen writes faster than I can blog. He has posted a "talk given at Des Moines last Sunday, with description of Declaration of Stewardship slightly edited for clarity." He talks about the "three major consequences of global warming, if we go down the business-as-usual path, with fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions continuing to increase":
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Good News, Sad News
Six species discovered in Congo, four endangered gorillas shot A research expedition to a remote forest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo found six new animal species — a bat, a rat, two shrews, and two frogs — and may have found new plant species as well. The trip, which ran from January to […]
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Fairness tradeoff?
Sven Wunder, a researcher with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), notes the following trade-off [PDF] for the kind of environmental charity where people are paid not to pollute. His conclusion: we are better off paying the moderately bad guys than the really bad guys or the good guys. I'm going to post this without further comment, because either you see hidden assumptions and problems with this, or you don't:
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New study links biodiversity loss to economic inequality
It's increasingly well documented that income inequality matters for a variety of reasons: among them, it has negative effects on public health and social capital. So it was interesting to read a recent study from researchers at McGill University in Quebec. They found that income inequality is also linked to biodiversity loss.
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