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For most of us, whaling is distasteful. What has become clear is that whales are essentially swimming trees in terms of their positive impact on carbon emissions.
It is therefore quite frustrating that several nations continue to demand the ability to hunt whales.
Thankfully there is now so little demand for whale meet, that Iceland is going to end its hunt.
Continue reading “Iceland to end commercial whaling in 2024 as demand for the meat has disappeared”Can this have possibly been the same people? Is there really anyone stupid enough to try to weaken EU forest protection 1 week after saying they would accelerate protection?
This sort of behaviour should be punished hard. Agriculture is responsible for about 25% of the worlds greenhouse emissions and so they must make progress if the world is to succeed in cutting emissions. The 5 firms in question include ADM Bunge Cargill LDC and Viterra.
They tried to explain away this discrepancy, but what is clear is that we must force these companies to be honest about how they are performing. Furthermore, we the consumers, must be willing to leave products behind if the manufacturer is behaving so badly.
In the UK there has been a continual issue with tb in the cow population. It is thought that this is spread by badgers. Despite scientific analysis showing that badgers are responsible for an incredibly small percentage of the spread – and that culls will make the badgers more, not less, likely to spread the illness, the government has given in to farming lobbies and has allowed increasingly large culls of badgers.
The first analysis of the genome of the Straight-tusked elephant (a long extinct species) may well rewrite the elephant family tree – while at the current time there are 3 species of elephant (African forest, African bush and Asian Elephant) there are many more long extinct species.
It also suggests that the straight tusked elephant, long thought to be closely related to the Asian elephant, is actually an African elephant species. It does perhaps give another warning, to not classify animals by how they look but by their genes – convergent evolution can often mean species that look similar have little recent genetic links at all.
There has been much argument about whether the African forest is indeed a separate species. This debate must now be over. 2/3 of the African forest elephant has been lost in the last 15 years, we must stop arguing about its genes and get down to the work of saving this species.
Just 2500 years ago, the never-ending forests of west Africa was made up of fragments of forest, with areas of open land between them. This fragmentation was down to a change in the environment occurring which meant that the dry season started to loosing far longer.
It seems that this changed because of seed disposal animals – including chimpanzees, which helped by leaving heavy seeds behind with a healthy dollop of fertilizer, allowing these slow growing trees to have a good start in life. Unfortunately, now as we are destroying the rainforest, there are also human hunters that are killing these seed dispersers in great numbers, making sure that the forests cannot regenerate.
Are we making sure that forests cannot recover? Not only are we destroying them, but also removing the natural gardeners that helped it return last time it was threatened. My fear is that it may become necessary for humans to replant vast areas by hand. Should it become necessary and recognized, then I am sure we would rise to the occasion, but far better to recognise it before it is too late.
Trade of wild cheetah from east Africa (including the horn of Africa) to be kept as status symbols in the Arabian peninsula has thankfully declined, but has not been eradicated. Indeed, this decline may well be more down to better policing on the smuggling route and less down to a change in circumstance. All of the problem countries have laws banning the keeping of these animals yet these are not effectively enforced – when a cheetah or other exotic animal arrives in the Middle east it is likely too late, they are probably never going to be able to be returned to the wild. If as is usually the case, it is a cub, it is highly likely that the mother was killed in the cubs capture.
Reports of cheetahs for sale occur almost every week in the gulf states. In many states, keeping cheetahs as pets only became illegal in recent times UAE for instance only banned cheetahs as pets in 2017.
The problem is that (as readers of this blog will know) cheetah live in small and isolated populations – as a result, taking just 10 cheetah from a reserve could lead to the local extinction of the animal.
Other animals including chimpanzees orangutans and gibbons also enter these countries. It is essential that proper education of populations in countries like this is undertaken, so that they know these animals were not bred in captivity. Many of the owners would be horrified to learn that their action is causing these animals to be wiped out in the wild.
Global work on wildlife smuggling is far from over, and becomes only more and more urgent. There are many species that could be wiped out if we fail.
If you have friends looking for exotic animals as pets do encourage them not to, or we will find that our children will never be able to see cheetah in the wild where they belong.
Rhino poaching is devastating rhino populations across Africa and Asia. Many species such as the Indonesian species are already lost or on the brink. African species are not far behind.
If you have a strong constitution, do look up images. They are not nice particularly if you have seen this animal alive, as such I have not included a picture.
Currently there are about 16,000 wild rhinos in South Africa, out of a worldwide population that might not number more than 30,000.
9 people have been arrested for this poaching. Now it is clear that the rhino poaching is down from its peak, never-the-less what is necessary is to kill the demand for rhino horn. Currently, an Asian rhino horn can be worth $400,000 with an African rhino horn being worth $20,000. Given that the average annual salary in South Africa is $2000, even $20,000 can be a life changing amount.
It is highly likely that the end of ecotourism during the epidemic is responsible for the uptick in rhino poaching, as people become desperate with their income having vanished.
It is hard to believe it, but the most common source of plastic pollution we throw into the environment is cigarette ends. Worldwide 800,000 metric tonnes of cigarettes are burnt each year.
The butts contain 7000 toxic chemicals and take a decade to degrade. Also 70% of seabird stomachs examined and 30% of sea turtle stomachs contained at least one cigarette butt.
Given the quantity of single use plastics in a cigarette, they should be banned like every other type of single use plastic.
Tobacco companies have pledged to stop selling cigarettes yet worldwide 6 trillion are produced every year. It is quite simple – an industry which creates 800,000 tonnes of cigarette butts a year cannot be classed as sustainable.
If governments required tobacco companies to clean up all cigarette butts at the end of life – this would hammer home how difficult it is.
Biodegradable filters already exist, but until these either become legally required or the companies are forced to pay to clean up all their mess they have little reason to do the right thing.
Sodertailje, a city in Sweden is turning to an unlikely litter picker in an attempt to tidy up after smokers who cant be bothered to dispose of their cigarette ends properly.
Wild birds do the clean up, there is a bespoke machine which dispenses a little food for every butt end that it is given. in other words they are voluntarily assisting in the cleanup for payment.
Continue reading “Swedish firm deploy crows to pick up cigarette butts”In many ways humans are incredibly similar to the other great apes – Chimpanzees, Bonobos, gorillas and orangutans.
Stem cell researchers released a paper in late 2021 (In cell stem cell) that might explain. A previously overlooked section of the DNA – non-coded DNA may explain why our brain and that of other great apes works so differently.
Their study suggests that chimpanzees and humans use a part of the DNA stream in different ways, and this has a considerable effect on the way our brains form.
Perhaps unfortunately (or fortunately) this suggests that the data held outside of the protein-coding genes (which has up to now been labelled junk DNA) has greater importance. This of course means that there is still a great deal to de-code (never mind understand).
Roughly 2% of our genes are thought to be genetic, the other 98% (overlooked till now) is likely to have many hidden secrets that might give us a better idea if what it is to be human (at least from a genetical point of view.