One of the main concerns for oil exploration and use in the Arctic, has always been the difficulty of cleaning up any spills in this pristine environment.
A large spill has just occurred. A fuel reservoir for a power plant has just collapsed releasing 20000 tons of diesel fuel.
The company in question try to cover it up for some time, and indeed it seems that it only became common knowledge when the WWF found out about the spill and went public.
This problem is ongoing and they are yet to choose the method of dealing with this spill
Drought hit animals too, and in this instance a Drought in Zimbabwe has hit hwange national park so hard that the animals have started to die in large numbers.
While the number of tourists that come to Zimbabwe have fallen dramatically since Mugabe started doing his more destructive policies, these fall in tourists has started to reverse again. Furthermore, with the economy gradually on its way to recovery people can afford to buy food and thus the pressure on wild areas from poaching has decreased significantly.
The translocation is not insignificant, plans to move 600 elephant 2 prides of lions a pack of wild dogs, 50 buffalo 40 giraffe and 2000 Impala.
In other parts of Africa water is pumped into these areas to refill the watering holes. It is unclear whether this was impossible in this case or merely prohibitively expensive- though the cost of moving this many animals will be significant and does not solve the water problem permanently so so a longer-term solution must be found.
Zimbabwe is calling for the relaxation of rules about utilising animals (in ways other than photographic tourism) , and while this would be capable of giving the Zimbabwean government the money needed to protect these animals given the way they have behaved in recent years the international community cannot be sure that the Zimbabwean government will will behave responsibly towards their are flora and fauna.
It is certainly true that looking after animals like elephants that can hurt humans ( in recent years as much as 200 people have died in human animal conflict) is not cheap, however before the disastrous policies of Mugabe the animals of Zimbabwe bought in a large amount of money for it’s people. Returning to this situation can allow the animals to thrive alongside a higher income for people of the country.
Zimbabwe moving 30 young elephants to China, more to follow
Zimbabwe is also under pressure for sending roughly 30 young elephants to China deal in a did with a country. Supposedly this has to be done for the health of the animals as hwang national park where they come from is suffering from a horrific drought that has killed many elephants. However undercover camera work has already shown these young elephants in concrete and metal enclosures having their will broken, flowers to be more easy to control the circuses and zoos in China. Unfortunately it appears that despite Mugabe having left power in Zimbabwe the current government of Zimbabwe still looks on the wildlife as simply a commodity to be traded away and not say something to be preserved for the future. Tourists should look very carefully before being prepared to spend money on safari in Zimbabwe. In total 90 elephants have been moved to China and Dubai in return for 2.7 million dollars.
Through a number of different processes oceans can be a significant carbon sink. An increase in the carbon content of water does acidify it so this is not something we are interested in, but in healthy seas there is a great deal of plankton and that plankton does absorb carbon dioxide. It is furthermore believed that some of this carbon, locked away buy plankton, may actually make it to the ocean floor to be locked away long term at least in part. Indeed it is thought that carbon dioxide concentrations would be at least 50% higher wear it not for this part of the carbon cycle.
After the sudden rise in ivory poaching that started around 2008 there was a big increase in protection though this was often to slow. Half of the forest elephants of west Africa (thought to be as closely related to mammoths as African Savannah elephants), were taken in the last decade. ecosystems such as the Selous in Tanzania, one of the largest mostly undisturbed remaining Savannah habits, which lost up to 100,000 elephants. Continue reading “Extending the ban on ivory to other species”
Peru has set up a national park of 868,000 hectares that will protect the areas many animals and native people. This is one of the remaining areas of untouched Amazon within Peru. A recent survey saw showed that this area had a good population of giant otters. This is particularly exciting because, Continue reading “News in brief – Otters in Peru, Adelie Penguins and Spring in the Arctic”
These animals cause significant damage to woodland throughout the UK. They were first introduced to Henbury park in Cheshire, but have quickly spread. Being less reliant on trees than red squirrels they have done very well though it is thought that red squirrels were not doing well anyway. A great deal of money and time has been spent trying to control their spread, as they often carry squirrel pox which kills red squirrels quickly, meaning they don’t share land for long.
Huge numbers of species have been disappearing from some or all of their original range in the wild. While there are other reasons for animals to disappear from areas, humans are usually the biggest. This is certainly the case on a micro scale. The majority of impacts of climate change has shifted the entire range for a species in one direction or another. Many mountainous species have shifted their range up hill as the planet has warmed. The problem with this shifting is that often it leaves species stuck in small areas of suitable habitat at the top of hills or mountains. Continue reading “UK extinct species and imported species – Part 1”
Before 1992, as well as the Lions and Cheetah, there were huge packs of African Wild Dog (also called African Hunting Dogs) that would follow the herds as well. This was one of the largest populations of African Wild Dog population so it was devastating to have the population wiped out so quickly. However, the land given to the nomadic people of the Serengeti Continue reading “The loss of wild dogs from the Serengeti – and their return”
In 2011 a new country was created in Africa: South Sudan. This country is roughly the size of France. Before the split there had been a civil war going on much of the time for over 50 years. After the split there was a brief period of calm and scientists were able to go into the country to asses the state of the wildlife.
The decline of the Asiatic lion occurred long before the decline of the African lion. Within the last 200 years lions were found across Asia into parts of eastern Europe. In ancient times they were even found in large parts of the Iberian peninsula, so from the furthest east of Asia to the furthest west of Europe. Continue reading “A second home for Asiatic Lions”
