Habitat destruction – Page 17

May 2, 2021July 1, 2022

Joined up effort to fight habitat loss and pandemics together

I have spoken repeatedly over the last year, about the positive impact of the epidemic. The loss of life has been horrible, and many people have suffered significant losses of different kinds. One of the advantages it is given though is a link between saving the remaining wildernesses on planet earth, and our own long-term health and wellbeing. Experts have once again stated the advantage of both fighting habitat loss and degradation at the same time as making sure that pandemics do not spread around the world again.

The idea that we might be the last generation on earth to have rainforests left to explore disgusts me. Perhaps the health of the worlds human population might give a reason to protect it

April 28, 2021June 30, 2022

Sri Lankan elephants are visiting landfill sites

Unfortunately, in many parts of the world wild animals and humans are coming closer and closer in where they live. Due to our wasteful lifestyle, our leftovers can provide good pickings for wildlife though this often leads to conflict.

Elephants in some parts of Sri Lanka have started visiting human waste dumps looking for food. This often leads to them eating things that they cannot digest and so can make them ill or kill them

April 18, 2021June 30, 2022

Asiatic lions are found in only one place, yet local government authorities refuse to move any

The asiatic lion only continues to exist in the For national park. When this area was first protected, the lion population had fallen very low, some saying a matter of only a couple of dozen remaining members. In the 50 or so years since the population has multiplied well. Now are said to be around 400, spread across 1 contiguous protected area (under a number of different authorities – Gir Sanctuary, Gir National Park, Pania Sanctuary, Mitiyala Sanctuary, and Girnar Sanctuary. The first 3 form the core, with the others lying within dispersal range.

Indian Lions do look incredibly similar to African lions, however are different in important ways

The problem is at these three have a combined area of about 561 square miles, which is an incredibly high density for lions.

April 2, 2021July 1, 2022

What to do about the wild animal market in China

The Coronavirus is thought to have emerged in one of the wet markets of Wuhan, China. Much of what went on in these markets was never fully legal. Indeed this $13 billion a year trade has often operated in the grey areas of the law.

However, it has become clear that these are actually rather dangerous. It is one thing to enter a wild area to see the animals that live there. However it is something quite different to go in and kill animals to eat. These wild areas often harbour odd viruses or bacteria and by taking animals alive or dead out of these ecosystems you bring out these threats so that we can contract the illness.

March 31, 2021March 23, 2021

Paris agreement for nature?

At the beginning of January an new agreement was signed by 50 countries who pledged to protect 30% of the earths land and oceans. The intention of this agreement is to stem the flow of extinctions that human activity has been causing for the last few centuries.

The hope is that this agreement can form the basis of a larger agreement at the UN, building on the early commitments from nations such as Nigeria Pakistan Costa Rica Canada and many more.

March 27, 2021July 1, 2022

Creating animal crossing of roads must improve

Roads help connect our world, however without carefully thought through plans a road can split one endangered but viable population of a species into 2 unconnected populations that are likely to disappear over the long term.

Genetic studies have shown that only one bear has managed to cross between these two Spanish bear populations. While there are only 3 major roads, there are plenty of large areas unfriendly to bears crossing through. What should put this in context, is that one bear has also managed to cross France unaided to join this population.

March 26, 2021July 1, 2022

Sea grasses appear to have another use: they sieve microplastics from the sea

Sea grasses once carpeted much of the worlds oceans at depths that suit them. In many places such as the UK destructive fishing practices have been allowed, such as bottom sea dragging. This has also severely damaged the UK cold water coral reefs, but that is a story for another day.

Neptune balls have the capability of sieving plastics from the sea

This latest information, may well give us a reason to replant them (aside from the benefits to biodiversity and the huge amount of carbon they take up).

March 26, 2021March 23, 2021

The number of wild deer in the UK is soaring because no one is eating them: bring back wolves?

Over the last half a century, the number of deer that live in the UK has climbed pretty much continually.

Red and roe deer numbers are increasing rapidly, as well as the many non-native species that now call the uk their home

In many parts of the country, the number of deer are controlled by regular culls. However, during the pandemic these have not happened, and that now means that 2 culls in a row have been missed.

March 25, 2021March 23, 2021

HSBC is voting on stopping funding coal? about time, but not action for 19 years

Over the last few years it has become increasingly clear that conservationists approach to fossil fuel companies were not working.

The problem is that there is a great deal of money to be made from fossil fuels. Companies like tesla hint at a world where this ceases to be the case, and the speed that the electric car market is growing, is incredibly fast. Indeed many people have commented on the fact that the growth curve of electric cars is clearly following the curve of many other disruptions from computers to mobile phones.