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Elon Musk has just announced that Tesla will no longer allow buyers to pay in bitcoin. Why is this relevant to a wildlife and environment blog?
Tesla is there to transition the world to sustainable transport, as a goal. of the roughly 4.1 trillion kwh of electricity used in the USA last year roughly 500 went on bitcoin (roughly 1 in 8) or 13%.
It might be a shock to many, but Jaguars were once native to the USA. What’s more despite humans biggest efforts, the eradication was not completely successful. The third largest big cat, after Tiger and Lion, was persecuted along with many other native fauna after Europeans started to settle in the USA.
After the Chernobyl nuclear accident an exclusion zone 2660 square kilometres (just over 1000 square miles) hod to be abandoned.
Now while the area is horrifically damaged by the the nuclear waste, the absence of humans has been such a boon that wildlife populations in the exclusion zone are doing phenomenally well.
The area hosts several dozen wolves, and bears returned for the first time in 2014 – having been absent from the area for more than a century.
Indeed what is fascinating about the area is the clear evidence that the damage caused by nuclear radiation is nowhere near as damaging as the human population.
Whether this can change and we can allow small pockets of wilderness in the heart of Europe is a question that most would answer no. However given how many benefits will genesis like this give to the area around them, perhaps we should be aiming to create more.
In many countries around the world, some conservation success can lead to problems. In Africa halting elephant poaching can lead to rocketing populations, which in turn can lead to not enough space and human elephant conflict.
In some places countries have sold the animals that they no longer say they have the space for.
The problem is that many countries are now doing this merely for the money. Namibia has decided to sell 170 elephants. The problem is is that namibia’s resident elephant population is very small, perhaps 5000 to 7000. More than 80% of the elephants in Namibia are migratory, in that they roam in and out of the country. In terms of the resident population, the 170 elephants represents at least 3% of the permanent population.
While selling animals can be a good way of raising money for conservation, reduction of this size is not wise particularly when elephants are not in a good place globally anyway.
A significant percentage of UK household waste is waste food.
Now it is true that better planning, better reuse can greatly reduce this. However only food that is uncooked can be put in a compost heap. The UK produces about 5 million tonnes of food waste year. If this was collected it could reduce emissions dramatically, as well as potentially creating significant biogas for power generation.
Continue reading “In the UK the government has mandated waste food collection by 2023 – but no funding”A significant percentage of UK household waste is waste food.
Now it is true that better planning, better reuse can greatly reduce this. However only food that is uncooked can be put in a compost heap. The UK produces about 5 million tonnes of food waste year. If this was collected it could reduce emissions dramatically, as well as potentially creating significant biogas for power generation.
Continue reading “In the UK the government has mandated waste food collection by 2023 – but no funding”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.
The problem is at these three have a combined area of about 561 square miles, which is an incredibly high density for lions.
Continue reading “Asiatic lions are found in only one place, yet local government authorities refuse to move any”At the end of last year, the people of Colorado have voted to reintroduce wolves to the state by 2023. It should be noted that a wolf has been collared in the state in the last few months. It came from a neighbouring state, and therefore clearly wolves would return on their own eventually.
The proposal squeaked across the line with 50.4% of the vote. Now, this decision is complicated by Trumps foolish move to delist wolves throughout the USA, despite their current position. Estimates of the number of wolves in the USA when settlers arrived, range from 250,000 up to 2 million. Even if we assume the low end of the range, the current wolf population of the lower 48 states in the USA is just 6000, a number that we can safely say is at the most, roughly 2% of historical numbers.
Continue reading “The Colorado population has voted to reintroduce wolves, and how does this square with Trumps delisting of wolves in the USA”After the civil war, the Liberian government made a sensible decision in giving communities control to conserve the rainforests around their villages.
Despite this exploration companies have started turning up with permits to explore. These are often dubious, but it is quite common that by the time a permit has been proved false, it is too late.
Continue reading “Liberia has huge areas of intact rainforest: some of the last in west africa. Now its under threat”While increasing amounts of land is given to wildlife in southern Africa and the lion population grows, unfortunately in east and central Africa the opposite is happening.
Unfortunately in west and central Africa, the lions (many of these lions are orphaned relict populations of the Asiatic lion, and therefore highly important) tend to live in fragmented and small groups cut off from others of their kind. If humans can reconnect these populations then the dramatic decline that is expected in this region, could be halted.
Continue reading “Lion population expected to half in the wild during the next 15-20 years”