tagged w/ Habitat Destruction
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There are only an estimated 400 Sumatran Tigers left in the wild, loss of habitat is a major factor in the decline of this species. Rainforest is being actively cleared by pulpwood plantations, putting added pressure onto endangered species in Indonesia.There are only an estimated 400 Sumatran Tigers left in the wild, loss of habitat is a... more
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BigCat
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On a small, floating piece of ice in the Beaufort Sea, several hundred miles north of Alaska, a group of scientists are documenting what some dub an "Arctic meltdown."
According to climate scientists, the warming of the region is shrinking the polar ice cap at an alarming rate, reducing the permafrost layer and wreaking havoc on polar bears, arctic foxes and other indigenous wildlife in the region.
What is bad for the animals, though, has been good for commerce.
The recession of the sea ice and the reduction in permafrost -- combined with advances in technology -- have allowed access to oil, mineral and natural gas deposits that were previously trapped in the ice.
The abundance of these valuable resources and the opportunity to exploit them has created a gold rush-like scramble in the high north, with fierce competition to determine which countries have the right to access the riches of the Arctic.
This competition has brought in its wake a host of naval and military activities that the Arctic hasn't seen since the end of the Cold War.
Now, one of the coldest places on Earth is heating up as nuclear submarines, Aegis-class frigates, strategic bombers and a new generation of icebreakers are resuming operations there.
Just how much oil and natural gas is under the Arctic ice?
The Arctic is home to approximately 90 billion barrels of undiscovered but recoverable oil, according to a 2008 study by the U.S. Geological Survey. And preliminary estimates are that one-third of the world's natural gas may be harbored in the Arctic ice.
But that's not all that's up for grabs. The Arctic also contains rich mineral deposits. Canada, which was not historically a diamond-producing nation, is now the third-largest diamond producer in the world.
If the global warming trend continues as many scientists project it to, it is likely that more and more resources will be discovered as the ice melts further.
Who are the countries competing for resources?
The United States, Canada, Russia, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden and Finland all stake a claim to a portion of the Arctic. These countries make up the Arctic Council, a diplomatic forum designed to mediate disputes on Arctic issues
Lawson Brigham, a professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and an Arctic expert, says "cooperation in the Arctic has never been higher."
But like the oil trapped on the Arctic sea floor, much of the activity of the Arctic Council is happening below the surface.
In secret diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks, Danish Foreign Minister Per Stieg Moeller was quoted as saying to the United States, "If you stay out, the rest of us will have more to carve up the Arctic."
At the root of Moeller's statement is a dispute over control of territories that is pitting friend against foe and against friend. Canada and the U.S., strategic allies in NATO and Afghanistan, are in a diplomatic dispute over the Northwest Passage. Canada and Russia have recently signed development agreements together.
In the same way a compass goes awry approaching the North Pole, traditional strategic alliances are impacted at the top of the world.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/07/15/larsen.arctic.ice.wars/index.html
More at the linkOn a small, floating piece of ice in the Beaufort Sea, several hundred miles north of... more
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Planting 160 trees on our property 15 years ago was a labor of love, but sometimes love is just not enough. Trees are valuable assets and need health care and maintenance from professionals. This article provides some tips on working with an arborist.
http://greenlandlady.com/site/business/when-and-why-to-call-an-arborist/Planting 160 trees on our property 15 years ago was a labor of love, but sometimes... more
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Convince just 100 key companies to go sustainable, and WWF’s Jason Clay says global markets will shift to protect the planet our consumption has already outgrown. Hear how his extraordinary roundtables are getting big brand rivals to agree on green practices first — before their products duke it out on store shelves.Convince just 100 key companies to go sustainable, and WWF’s Jason Clay says... more
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For the last few weeks, BP has been offering signing bonuses and lucrative pay to prominent scientists from public universities around the Gulf Coast to aid its defense against spill litigation.
BP PLC attempted to hire the entire marine sciences department at one Alabama university, according to scientists involved in discussions with the company's lawyers. The university declined because of confidentiality restrictions that the company sought on any research.For the last few weeks, BP has been offering signing bonuses and lucrative pay to... more
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opit
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2 years ago
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Divers Going To Keys To Document Fla. Ecosystem(Last weekend)
All four News stories are here: ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YslbUqZ9WJA
KEY LARGO, Fla. --
Hundreds of divers will be heading to the Florida Keys Saturday morning to document how the area could be affected by the recent oil spill off Louisiana's coast.
With the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico threatening to make its way to the Florida coastline, scientists want to make sure the state's natural history is protected.
Officials said they're certain the oil is heading to Florida, so hundreds of volunteer divers are doing what they can now and looking for all the helping hands they can get before the slick spill saturates the natural ecosystems.
"It would smother it," said William Djubin, of the Ocean Rehab Initiative. "It would suffocate it. It would kill it."
Florida's natural ecosystems are in danger of becoming extinct as the oil in the Gulf looms near the state's coast line.
"Do I think that all of the reefs in Florida, all the mangroves, all the sea life and all the sea grass could be completely wiped out in the state of Florida? That very well could be a reality," Djubin said.
Djubin said he will go to the Florida Keys with hundreds of volunteer divers and snorkelers to complete surveys of the natural habitat.
"We're going to go the middle Keys, and we're going to make an inventory of what they have as far as critical habitat that would be in the inner tidal zone that would be affected if the oil were to make it to the Keys," Djubin said.
With underwater cameras, they'll be able to take snapshots of what is now the native healthy habitat and document the natural history -- the mangroves, sea grass and coral reefs -- and current marine life that resides in the Florida Keys.
If the coastal ecosystem is tarnished by the oil, the pictures will serve as a scientific baseline to be able to assess just how bad the damage really is.
Djubin said volunteers are welcome. Those wishing to join them can go to the Marine Mammal Conservancy in Key Largo. The group will be meeting there at 9 a.m.Divers Going To Keys To Document Fla. Ecosystem(Last weekend)
All four News stories... more
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A joint report released today by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the UN Environment Program (UNEP) finds that our natural support systems are on the verge of collapsing unless radical changes are made to preserve the world's biodiversity. Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Ahmed Djoghlaf, called the bleak report "a wake-up call for humanity."
The report is the third edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-3). Employing scientific assessments and 110 government reports, the report confirms that governments around the world have failed in their 2002 pledge to reduce biodiversity loss by this year. Instead, the five biggest causes behind biodiversity loss—habitat destruction, over-exploitation of resources, pollution, invasive species, and climate change—have either worsened or stayed the same.
"We need a new vision for biological diversity for a healthy planet and a sustainable future for humankind," Secretary-General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, said.
In addition the report warns that several ecosystems are heading toward tipping points from which they may never recover. Due to a combination of climate change, deforestation, and fires, the Amazon rainforest may change irrevocably; while coral reefs are being pounded by overfishing, warmer waters, and ocean acidification; finally freshwater ecosystems like lakes and rivers are losing biodiversity and abundance due to nutrient runoff.
"Business as usual is no longer an option if we are to avoid irreversible damage to the life-support systems of our planet," Djoghlaf said.
Officials are increasingly comparing the current biodiversity crisis to the global economic meltdown of 2008-2009, stating that while governments moved quickly to tackle the economic crisis they have responded languidly to the many threats to the world's environmental systems. These systems underpin the human economy by providing food, clean water, pollination, pest control, buffers from natural disasters, medicine, and carbon sequestration to name a few of their natural goods, known to researchers as 'ecosystem services'.
"For a fraction of the money summoned up instantly to avoid economic meltdown, we can avoid a much more serious and fundamental breakdown in the Earth’s life support systems," write the report's authors.
Yet, Achim Steiner, the Executive Director of the UNEP, says that "many economies remain blind to the huge value of the diversity of animals, plants and other life forms and their role in healthy and functioning ecosystems from forests and freshwaters to soils, oceans and even the atmosphere."
* see comments below for more
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0510-hance_wake_up.htmlA joint report released today by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the... more
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The US Environmental PROTECTION Agency has approved the use of the toxic chemical dispersant for CONTINUOUS use by BP.
A BP official is telling The Associated Press that the company has received federal approval to continuously spray chemicals underwater on the massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.
BP PLC spokesman Mark Proegler said the company received Environmental Protection Agency approval and began pumping dispersant on the site starting at 4:30 a.m. Monday. The company plans to continue spraying and taking tests.
The dispersant has never been tried at such depths before this spill and officials have been 'worried' about the effect on the environment.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6469610n
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/10/national/main6470974.shtmlThe US Environmental PROTECTION Agency has approved the use of the toxic chemical... more
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The world's governments will not meet their internationally-agreed target of curbing the loss of species and nature by 2010, a major study has confirmed.
Virtually all species and ecosystems show continued decline, while pressures on nature are increasing, it concludes.
Published in the journal Science, the study confirms what conservationists have known for several years.
The 2010 target was adopted in 2002, but the scientists behind this study say implementation has been "woeful".
"Our analysis shows that governments have failed to deliver on the commitments they made in 2002," said research leader Stuart Butchart, from the UN Environment Programme's World Conservation Monitoring Centre (Unep-WCMC) and BirdLife International.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10092320.stmThe world's governments will not meet their internationally-agreed target of... more
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The illegal pet trade, along with hunting and habitat loss, are sending at least 9 of Madagascar's native turtles and tortoises toward extinction.
The Turtle Survival Alliance and the Wildlife Conservation Society warn that the radiated tortoise of Madagascar, is "rapidly nearing extinction" due to the illegal pet and meat trade. The species has just 20 years left, they predicted, if interventions aren't successful.
The dire conclusion comes after a field survey in Madagascar's spiny forest, which was once rife with tortoises; poachers have carted off truckloads of turtles and turtle meat, leaving an empty landscape akin to the American plains after the near-extermination of the bison.
"Areas where scores of radiated tortoises could be seen just a few years ago have been poached clean," said James Deutsch, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Africa Program. "Back then one could hardly fathom that this beautiful tortoise could ever become endangered, but such is the world we live in, and things can – and do – change rapidly."
Researchers say several factors contribute to the staggering decline of tortoise: years of extreme drought, which has sapped farm production; lack of enforcement against poachers, exacerbated by political instability; and loss of forest habitat to both farmers and invasive species.
Biodiversity hotspots like Madagascar are increasingly the focus of conservation, as the world tries to halt an extinction crisis that scientists believe is the first in the geologic record to be caused by one species, humans.
To bring attention to the issue, The Daily Green is republishing this feature, with updated information about the plight of this beautiful and critically endangered tortoise.The illegal pet trade, along with hunting and habitat loss, are sending at least 9 of... more
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England was given an uncomfortable reminder last week of the impact of its swelling number of inhabitants. Over the past two millennia, hundreds of its native plants and animals have been rendered extinct because the human population has risen from about one million to more than 51 million.
Victims have ranged from the great auk and the lynx to the humble blue stag beetle and Davall's sedge. More to the point, 480 of the 492 species made extinct since Roman times have disappeared in the past two centuries. Rates of eradication are rising, a trend that bodes badly for the future of the countryside, a report states.
Produced by Natural England, the government agency responsible for the countryside, "Lost Life: England's Lost and Threatened Species" focuses only on wildlife on English soil, although it has broad lessons for all of Britain. We live on "a fortress built by Nature for herself", Shakespeare claimed. If so, she is now paying a heavy price for its construction, as the study makes clear.
According to the report, a total of 24% of butterfly species and 22% of amphibians have been wiped out in England, along with individual types of wildlife such as Mitten's beardless moss; York groundsel, a weed only discovered in the 1970s; and Ivell's sea anemone, which was last seen in a lagoon near Chichester. Add to this the wolf, the wildcat and other large mammals and the level of devastation of our wildlife becomes chillingly apparent.
Indeed, the situation is far worse than the one outlined in the study, its lead author Dr Tom Tew, chief scientist of Nature England, admitted last week. The agency was as conservative and careful as it could in compiling the report, he told the Observer. "We wanted to avoid accusations of being alarmist." As a result, "Lost Life" underestimates, by a fair amount, the numbers of extinctions of animals and plants in England that have taken place in recent years. "There are many more species that we think we have lost, but we have not included them because they are not officially extinct." Examples include the golden eagle and the sturgeon. Both are occasionally seen in England but no longer breed here. In addition, the banded mining bee, the brilliant moon beetle and the lichen, Opegrapha paraxanthodes, have also been posted missing, presumed extinct.
The report highlights a number of culprits, though it is emphatic about the worst offender: habitat loss. The great inroads made into the English countryside by farmers and builders has had a devastating effect on our wildlife, destroying food sources, shelter and homes for hundreds of species.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/14/threat-english-plants-species-wildlifeEngland was given an uncomfortable reminder last week of the impact of its swelling... more
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For the first time since the dinosaurs disappeared, humans are driving animals and plants to extinction faster than new species can evolve.
A fifth of the world's known mammals, a third of its amphibians, more than a quarter of its reptiles and up to 70% of its plants are under threat of extinction.
Nearly half of all primates are in danger of becoming extinct.
Much more at link...For the first time since the dinosaurs disappeared, humans are driving animals and... more
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OPPORTUNITY
In the near future the Citizens of Florida will have an opportunity to show their opposition to oil drilling as close as 3 to 10 miles off our coast.
This movement will be made of people of all walks of life and will cross political affiliations.
This movement is not about politics; it is about protection of our shoreline, our tourism, our valuable properties and our way of life. Let us share our knowledge, energies and passion for protecting our waterways and beaches from the devastating effects of oil drilling.
We are Protesting to Protect!
Hands Across The Sand is devoted to protecting our coastline and waterways from the devastating environmental effects of oil exploration and support industries.
MISSION STATEMENT
1. To raise awareness about pending Florida legislation to drill for oil in our coastal waters.
2. To organize a statewide coastal movement to protest this legislation. This protest will bring thousands of Florida's citizens to our beaches and will draw metaphorical and actual lines in the sand; human lines in the sand against near shore oil drilling in our waters. This event will be held on Saturday February 13, 2010.
3. To convince our Legislators and Governor to drop any and all Legislation that would allow this folly.
Please join us in creating what could become the largest public gathering in the history of our state: February 13, 2010.
What To Do On…
February 13, 2010
STEP 1
Go to the beach at 1:00 PM Eastern/12:00 PM Central Time for one hour, rain or shine.
STEP 2
At 1:30 PM EST/12:30 PM CST, join hands for 10 minutes forming lines in the sand against oil drilling in our coastal waters.
STEP 3
Leave only your footprints.
IMPORTANT NOTE!
For ANYONE who is unable to attend, but would like to show their support, please visit the Hands Across the Sand's Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/HandsAcrossTheSand. Here, you will find a online link to show your support.
Protect Florida’s Beaches
Surfrider Foundation
Progress Florida
Audubon of Florida
Defenders of Wildlife
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g300/mosaic_moon/no-oil-drilling.jpg
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g300/mosaic_moon/map-1.jpg
http://www.handsacrossthesand.com/index.phpOPPORTUNITY
In the near future the Citizens of Florida will have an opportunity to... more
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A new short documentary by the Dutch group 'BothEnds' offers a clear, concise "you are there" view of problems being caused by the Bujagali Dam, now being built on the Nile River in Uganda.
This well-done piece of activist filmmaking shows the viewer firsthand what is at stake in this controversial project. You'll see what the dam will flood, visit a village forced to move for the project, hear from Ugandans who hope their businesses can afford the project's costly electricity, and see the beautiful Bujagali Falls themselves – soon to be submerged by the dam.
People on both sides of the debate give thoughtful commentary on key issues – all against the backdrop of the mighty Nile.
The video comes at a time when activists in Europe and Uganda have teamed up to call the European Investment Bank (EIB) to task for its role in the controversial project. A team from the EIB will visit Uganda next week to investigate the complaint, lodged by Uganda's preeminent environmental group, the National Association of Professional Environmentalists, or NAPE.
This is the third such official complaint about the project by the group, which also lodged complaints with the World Bank and African Development Bank.
Although these institutions' investigators substantiated key concerns raised by NAPE, the banks have taken few steps to resolve the problems. It seems they see their independent "inspection panels" as little more than suggestion boxes. Perhaps the third time will be the charm for these dogged activists.
Besides the dam's environmental impacts, one of NAPE's biggest complaints is that the project will only benefit a small elite in the poor nation. "Less than 5 percent of the Ugandan population is currently connected to the electricity grid. The project does not include any transmission line extension that would expand the number of people who have access to electricity, especially in rural areas," their complaint to the EIB states. Historically, electricity that cannot be sold in Uganda has always been sold to Kenya at a bargain – much less than the cost of production, according to NAPE. Talk about being sold down the river...
http://www.thewaterchannel.tv/index.php?option=com_hwdvideoshare&task=viewvideo&Itemid=53&video_id=521A new short documentary by the Dutch group 'BothEnds' offers a clear,... more
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Brazil's government has granted an environmental licence for the construction of a controversial hydro-electric dam in the Amazon rainforest.
Environmental groups say the Belo Monte dam will cause devastation in a large area of the rainforest and threaten the survival of indigenous groups.
However, the government says whoever is awarded the project will have to pay $800m to protect the environment.
The initial approval was a key step before investors could submit bids.
Resignations
The proposal to build a hydro-electric dam on the Xingu river, a tributary of the Amazon in the northern state of Para, has long been a source of controversy.
The initial project was abandoned in the 1990s amid widespread protests both in Brazil and around the world.
The government says the scheme has been modified to take account of fears that it would threaten the way of life of the indigenous peoples who live in the area.
Brazilian Environment Minister Carlos Minc revealed that those who win the bidding process to build and operate Belo Monte will have to pay millions of dollars to protect the environment and meet 40 other conditions.
However, critics say diverting the flow of the Xingu river will still lead to devastation in a large area of the rainforest and damage fish stocks.
They say the lives of up to 40,000 people could be affected as 500 sq km of land would be flooded.
When it is completed, Belo Monte would be third largest hydro-electric dam in the world, after the Three Gorges in China and Itaipu, which is jointly run by Brazil and Paraguay. It is expected to provide electricity to 23 million Brazilian homes.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8492577.stmBrazil's government has granted an environmental licence for the construction of... more
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Artist Josh Keyes adds an unusual twist to what could, in anyone else’s hands, be a typical wildlife painting. The paintings are created using acrylics on canvas, panel, or wood and depict animals in their natural environment, overrun with man-made debris.
http://www.whitespace.bz/ws/web/forms/pulse/PulseMainArticle.aspx?id=336Artist Josh Keyes adds an unusual twist to what could, in anyone else’s hands,... more
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WHEN Nobel prize-winning atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen coined the word Anthropocene around 10 years ago, he gave birth to a powerful idea: that human activity is now affecting the Earth so profoundly that we are entering a new geological epoch.
The Anthropocene has yet to be accepted as a geological time period, but if it is, it may turn out to be the shortest - and the last. It is not hard to imagine the epoch ending just a few hundred years after it started, in an orgy of global warming and overconsumption.
Let's suppose that happens. Humanity's ever-expanding footprint on the natural world leads, in two or three hundred years, to ecological collapse and a mass extinction. Without fossil fuels to support agriculture, humanity would be in trouble. "A lot of things have to die, and a lot of those things are going to be people," says Tony Barnosky, a palaeontologist at the University of California, Berkeley. In this most pessimistic of scenarios, society would collapse, leaving just a few hundred thousand eking out a meagre existence in a new Stone Age.
Whether our species would survive is hard to predict, but what of the fate of the Earth itself? It is often said that when we talk about "saving the planet" we are really talking about saving ourselves: the planet will be just fine without us. But would it? Or would an end-Anthropocene cataclysm damage it so badly that it becomes a sterile wasteland?
The only way to know is to look back into our planet's past. Neither abrupt global warming nor mass extinction are unique to the present day. The Earth has been here before. So what can we expect this time?
Take greenhouse warming. Climatologists' biggest worry is the possibility that global warming could push the Earth past two tipping points that would make things dramatically worse. The first would be the thawing of carbon-rich peat locked in permafrost. As the Arctic warms, the peat could decompose and release trillions of tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere - perhaps exceeding the 3 trillion tonnes that humans could conceivably emit from fossil fuels. The second is the release of methane stored as hydrate in cold, deep ocean sediments. As the oceans warm and the methane - itself a potent greenhouse gas - enters the atmosphere, it contributes to still more warming and thus accelerates the breakdown of hydrates in a vicious circle.
"If we were to blow all the fossil fuels into the atmosphere, temperatures would go up to the point where both of these reservoirs of carbon would be released," says oceanographer David Archer of the University of Chicago. No one knows how catastrophic the resulting warming might be.
That's why climatologists are looking with increasing interest at a time 55 million years ago called the Palaeocene-Eocene thermal maximum, when temperatures rose by up to 9 °C in a few thousand years - roughly equivalent to the direst forecasts for present-day warming. "It's the most recent time when there was a really rapid warming," says Peter Wilf, a palaeobotanist at Pennsylvania State University in University Park. "And because it was fairly recent, there are a lot of rocks still around that record the event."
By measuring ocean sediments deposited during the thermal maximum, geochemist James Zachos of the University of California, Santa Cruz, has found that the warming coincided with a huge spike in atmospheric CO2. Between 5 and 9 trillion tonnes of carbon entered the atmosphere in no more than 20,000 years (Nature, vol 432, p 495). Where could such a huge amount have come from?
Volcanic activity cannot account for the carbon spike, Zachos says. Instead, he blames peat decomposition, which would have happened not from melting permafrost - it was too warm for permafrost - but through climatic drying. The fossil record of plants from this time testifies to just such a drying episode.
Continued at link . . .WHEN Nobel prize-winning atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen coined the word Anthropocene... more
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About 600 miles west of the Ecuadorian coast sits the volcanic archipelago, which hosts a number of endemic species that largely depend on each other to survive, reported Reuters.
According to scientists, sudden and frequently changing sea temperatures and the death of coral reefs near the islands reveal the impact global warming is having on local sea life.
"The coral reefs create a habitat; they are like a forest, like the Amazon. They are home to scores of species. ... If the corals die we lose thousands of species that are associated to the coral," said German marine biologist Judith Denkinger.
"Everything is intertwined. You can't say this is land, this is sea, they are both one," Denkinger said.About 600 miles west of the Ecuadorian coast sits the volcanic archipelago, which... more
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Cypress trees belong in the ground, not in plastic bags!
A Florida cypress forest is a beautiful thing. Cypress trees provide habitat for threatened and endangered species, critical areas for migratory birds, help protect our communities from flooding, filter our waters, and are part of the amazing experience of being in nature in Florida. They are a valuable and intrinsic element of all that is wild and free in Florida. They belong in the ground, in our wetlands, and along our coastlines…NOT in plastic bags as mulch.
Cypress forests in Louisiana, Florida, and throughout the Gulf are being clear-cut to produce cypress mulch. Whole swamp ecosystems are being lost and the entire trees are being ground up to be sold in the garden departments of Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Lowe's.
These forests and wetlands are literally being sold off for two dollars a bag. It's like shredding the Constitution to make post-it notes: a NATIONAL TREASURE is being turned into a disposable product.
The Gulf Restoration Network (http://www.healthygulf.org/) and the Save Our Cypress Coalition (http://www.saveourcypress.org) has presented Lowe's, Wal-Mart, and Home Depot with extensive evidence of the destruction that is caused from cypress mulch. All three companies recognize it is a problem, but none of them have taken the concrete steps that are necessary to live up to the environmental commitments that they tout so loudly. These companies need to stop selling cypress mulch.
Cypress mulch is an unsustainable and unnecessary product, and there are much better options available. Melaleuca mulch is a great alternative and using this product is a way to help protect the Everglades while saving cypress trees. (Melaleuca trees were planted by the Army Corps of Engineers around the edges of the Everglades in the early 1920s as a way of drying the "swamps." This tree has become a pest because it proliferates at an enormous rate and can overtake native vegetation). And of course, there are always the leaves that fall in the driveway or the grass clippings from your yard.
The Gulf Restoration Network is proud to be working with Florida Defenders of the Environment to spread the word about protecting cypress forests. FDE has signed on to a Save Our Cypress campaign letter, and recently hosted a meeting of local activists in Gainesville who are working together to stop the sale of cypress mulch. Together we can protect rivers like the Withlacoochee and the Ocklawaha, and ensure the cypress-filled banks are there for future generations.
Please take a moment on your next shopping trip to tell the store manager that you don't want the company to sell cypress mulch, and visit www.healthygulf.org to send a message directly to the CEOs of Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Lowe's.
To learn more about the campaign and to get involved in this effort please contact Joe Murphy at 352-583-0870, or joe@healthygulf.org.Cypress trees belong in the ground, not in plastic bags!
A Florida cypress forest... more
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