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As with the UK, there is an alarming habit (at the moment) within the EU, to make grandiose targets for cuts. Is this one of those or does the EU actually stand a chance of meeting this?
Well between 1990 and 2019 the EU cut its emissions by roughly 24% – a not insignificant achievement.
At the current time, there is only one home for the Asiatic lion. this is despite many millions spent to change this situation. For a decade Gir forest has been meant to transfer a handful of lions to Kuno reserve, in order to give them a second home.
Why is this important? We need multiple homes for Asiatic lions. There was recently a huge storm over their one home. It is not unthinkable for the Gir forest to be devastated by something similar.
The government of this part of India has declared exclusive rights to the lions – an absurd claim given these lions once roamed across Asia, north Africa and southern parts of Europe.
It would appear that lions are taking matters into their own hands (or paws). Gir forest has a lion density way too high, which is leading to high mortality from fights between males and infanticide to bring females back into oestrus
Lions are now regularly seen as far away as Madhavpur an area which would take hours to drive to (from Gir national park). They have also created new populations in Girnar, paniya Mitiyala reserves as well as in a whole host of unprotected zones.
One of the areas that the lions have been moving into is Jasdan-Chotila. Lions disappeared from this area about 150 years ago, but the area is still well suited to them. There are various species of prey, and leopards have survived in the area. There are various mitigations that locals would have to make to live comfortably alongside lions. There are also many wells in the area, which will have to have walls built around them, to stop the lions falling in. Lions falling to their deaths have been a significant reason that the Gir lion population has not grown bigger in recent years.
Still this is exciting, though it should force local politicians to look at the health of the lion population as well as their own bottom line as the only place to see Asiatic lions.
Having only green-lit beaver reintroduction in the UK in the last decade, there are large numbers of places that they will return to over the next few years.
There are now roughly 1800 wild pandas and so their status has been moved to vulnerable!
The Kazakstan population of these antelope has more than doubled in the last 2 years from 334,000 to 842,000. In 2015 there was a mass die-off and distressing images of the steppe strewn with bodies made the rounds. Thankfully, the mothers give birth to twins every year, so their ability to bounce back is impressive.
Back during the Soviet era there were many millions of these antelope, but with increasing development in their range a return to those days is highly unlikely.
With numbers like these of remaining individuals, one would be forgiven for thinking that these species is not critically endangered, or perhaps even endangered. However, these terms are applied based on percentage fall in the size of the population. Saiga antelope have suffered a 90% decline in their population at the end of the 20th century.
So long as there is not another mass die-off and poaching is kept under control, these animals are likely to recover, and continue to be the base of an extremely large food chain.
The Tapanuli Orangutan lives on Sumatra but are thought to be more closely related to Bornean Orangutans. Numbering around 800 members, they had a far wider ranging habitat until recently. They are now restricted to about 1000 square km – about 2.5% of their former range.
What is harder, is that these Orangutans are not naturally mountainous animals, but have been driven there by the hunting that has so decimated their numbers.
Continue reading “The Tapanuli Orangutan is still threatened with extinction, despite only recently being discovered”Afi mountain wildlife Sanctuary is tiny, covering only 38.6 square miles, yet analysis has shown that this reserve has a whole host of wildlife.
There has been a constant argument that the cost of moving to renewable energy is too high. However, it is becoming clearer and clearer. Our descendants will quite rightly have a very low level of respect for us.
The idea of saving a small amount of investment now, and not worry about the trillions that this will cost in the future is quite disgusting. What is more foolish, is that while many of these clean technologies do cost now, they will save far more money in the future.
Throughout human history, the human race has fought to leave a better life for their children. Are we seriously saying that we are the first generation who is going to say we don’t care if we make life harder?
IRENA did the analysis, and the found that while global energy demands are likely to double by 2050, 86% of the 2050 demands could be met from renewable energy. The majority of this increase could be met through wind and solar. However, progress is not constant; Trumps foolish solar tariffs the USA lost 20,000 solar energy jobs – talk about America first!
The faster the transition, the greater the impact on the climate change fight. We dont just need to clean up our act, we are going to have to deal with all the damage from the last 2 centuries, and the quicker we make the change, the less clean up we will have to do.
Street lamps do not consume a great deal of electricity. Unfortunately, as there are many of them this rapidly builds up.
A new turbine that spins horizontally rather than vertically may make a big difference. Apart from anything, these turbines will be forced to turn as traffic passes, guaranteeing plenty of electricity each day. While these turbines are never going to make large amounts of power, given the large number of street lamps around the UK, it could generate a lot of power (it is estimated that it could create 6mw of power a day, enough to power a small village.
The Vaquita is a small porpoise that is severely endangered. Up until now there has been a no take zone in the upper gulf of California, in order to avoid accidental bycatch, but unfortunately that has been eradicated.
With fewer than a dozen Vaquita left, this is likely to be the end, as bycatch of even just a couple a year will mean the little porpoise is no more very soon
Time will tell if conservationists are correct
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