This species was already only thought to have a wild population of 120, however the population has been found to have fallen to just 74 (a 38% reduction).
Just found in a fragment of rainforest on the Vietnam – China border, the remaining population is estimated to live in 11 family groups.
Surveys are capable of being done remotely, as the gibbons call loudly at certain times of the day (dawn) allowing them to be counted. Importantly, they have been able to “fingerprint” each of the gibbons by their unique calls. This means that a few handfuls of directional speakers should allow the ability to keep track of individuals across the whole forest (without having to put large numbers of researchers in the field each day.
To hear these creatures yourself, play the video above.
Once thought to be the same species as the Hainan black crested gibbon. It seems that this was an early false belief. This species will be added in the year future (indeed, if I succeed, its page will exist before this article goes live)
The Beaked whales are very hard to see, as they hold the record for length of time holding breath, with some having approached the 2 hour period.
As such, this family of whales are generally only seen occasionally. Assuming 10 minutes at the surface after each dive, you are talking about 2 hours every 24, and they also have very low profiles in the water.
As a result, dead animals washing up on shore from these species give a rare incite into this rarely seen family.
In this instance, one has washed ashore in New Zealand. The last sighting was in 2012, when a mother and calf washed ashore, but this was the first sighting for 150 years. It should be noted, that this species was described from a whale jaw-bone, as one would think, it is hard to describe something that is seen so rarely.
This animal has never been sighted alive. We have no idea if it is on the edge of extinction, or whether there are many of them, swimming deep in the worlds oceans. Below is a news article on this species, where you can see a video of the removal and an image or two.
Were there a legitimate purpose for bred lions and rhino, this law might be bad, but for now there only use was canned lion hunting which is banned, and rhino horn which is banned and must stay that way
In theory, one might think that this is not good news. After all, if rhino and lions are being bred, surely this is to replace wild populations or similar work?
Unfortunately not. Lions bred in South Africa, are initially usually used as photo props for tourists to have pictures taken with the species. However, when they get too old for this work, they are sold to cannned lion hunts. This is where a lion (remember, it has been petted, so it sees humans as friendly) is released into a relatively small wilderness (usually not more than a few tens of square miles, in order to be so called hunted by wealthy foreigners.
It is often quite simple as humans. We are very capable hunters, with our ability to make ourselves tools and similar. This, unfortunately, means that we do not obey the normal rules for predator and prey.
With an animal like a lion, they move into an area, and their population finds a level with local food. This way, the lion can continue to live their long-term; both the lion and the antelope that they eat, are not facing extinction.
We do not work the same way. When in a market economy, a supplier finds a resource which sells well, they will keep selling it, until there is nothing left. The poaching of white rhino in South Africa reduced the population of the animal by 66% in must 10 years. It was not a reducing population, but increasing anti poaching which finally bought this under control.
Sharks are similar. lying at the top of the food chain. This means that if we operate as we currently are, eating sharks from the top of the food chain, we will have a huge impact on other species further down the food chain.
This is already being seen, in oceans all over the world. Predators kept in check by animals like the mako shark, have population explosions, and this in turn decimates the population of species further down the food chain.
Do not worry, this website is still moving forwards! If you look closely at the maps on the home page, you will find that the number of destinations has been growing over time. I have been working on adding the rest of these.
However, I could not help but report on this GOOD JUDGEMENT
This is fantastic news. The giving of these licences is completely against the governments policies, and in their own assessments, they ignored the carbon footprint of the eventual use of the fuel (only taking into account the carbon emissions of extraction).
Climate activists, and even certain people in both houses of parliament have been pointing out the absurdity of this position- a position I might add, that had to go to the supreme court of the UK in order to be looked at rationally.
What does this mean? Well that is not clear, though it will require the government to explain their contradicting positions.
It is certainly a positive step forwards, as this ruling suggests that the UK courts are not going to allow the British government to make laws, and then make decisions that break those same laws.
Ron Desantis (DoD photo by Army Staff Sgt. Nicole Mejia)
Ron DeSantis has deleted mention of Climate change from Florida laws, and banned offshore windmills.
He is claiming that this is to protect Florida from ‘Green Zealots’. Other parts of the bill includes rules which give preferential treatment to natural gas companies, and scraps rules on energy efficient vehicles being bought for the state. Being a state with so much coastline, it is going to be hit harder than virtually any other state, and is already being eaten away by storms and similar.
In terms of cost, Florida has had 87 weather/climate disasters since 1980, each costing at least $1 billion, which is likely far more than it would cost to have adapt.
Are republicans truly that determined to not be liberal, that they are willing to ignore science and pay several billion dollars a year as a result? Ron DeSantis won by 60% to 40%, but the state has been moving further and further towards being a swing state – perhaps this will be the difference which makes the state firmly move into this category?
The current wild population of Gharials is 198 individuals, which means that the 23 that were released this year, accounts for around 1 eighth of the wild population. Furthermore, having been released into former range of the Gharial, they are unlikely to encounter other Gharials until the population is far less endangered.
Part of the reason for their decline is down to the dams and similar which have been built on the rivers, and have separated this population, so that they have been unable to breed.
The last gharial on the river that they were reintroduced to was seen in 1993.
Making concrete and steel are both incredibly carbon intensive. As such, this new process appears to be really important. By throwing old concrete into steel processing furnaces, not only purifies iron, but also reactivates cement as a bi-product. If the furnace is heated using carbon neutral electricity, then both of these incredibly important items (for the modern human world) can be made without emitting carbon at all.
At the moment, not only is cement the worlds most used building material, but it emits 8% of the worlds carbon emissions in the process of being made. Unfortunately, at the current time, there is still work that needs to be done, in order to get to the point where the concrete that comes out of this process is as high grade as brand new concrete
A highly encouraging video, of a native wallaby species chasing away a red fox, introduced from Europe. The species is likely a red wallaby.
It is quite simply a fact, that in many places, while introduced predators have an easy time predating young, often adult wildlife can either escape or fight back. This is true in this situation, and adult Kiwi birds are capable of fighting back in New Zealand.
Never-the-less it is quite simply an issue, that we have transferred species all over the world. While this is a greater threat on smaller islands (places like New Zealand – this island was full of various flightless birds, but having introduced land predators, many of these species are either on the verge of extinction, or are only doing well as a result of work by humans.
Might we see the last of these structures in the next few years?
If we have enough oil, gas and coal licenced to last us until we need to be carbon neutral, does that leave no space for further oil gas and coal licences or exploration?
Well, no, but if we are to be carbon neutral by 2050 and we have all the fossil fuels needed until then, then any further extraction must prove that it can capture the same amount of carbon as its products would release.
Is any oil company going to be able to guarantee that it will capture as much carbon as that is released? Unlikely.
At the current time, around us the price of petrol is roughly £1.50 (there are parts of the UK where it is as low as £1.00). Working on a price of £1.50 roughly 45p goes back to the oil company per litre. Now, petrol when consumed in a combustion engine emits roughly 2.3kg of carbon dioxide for every litre, so for the oil company to be able to pay for the carbon to be caught (current prices tend to range between $100-$400 per tonne, or 10-40cents per kg). This means a price per litre of petrol of between 23 cents and 92 cents – somewhere between half and over 2 times the earnings to the oil company.
In other words, provided each oil company lives up to its promises, there is no longer any profit in oil.
Furthermore, it is not possible to put up prices further, as the competition is electric cars. The UK miles per gallon are typically between 36 and 43, so for the £6.75 per gallon that petrol costs in the UK, giving a price per mile of between 16p and 19p, or £1.60-£1.90 for 10 miles. Our car (a relatively large, if efficient electric car) goes around 3.3 miles per kwh (better on the motorway) and with 1 kwh costing around 7p that means a price of 21p per 10 miles. That means that already electric cars are between 7.6 and 9 times cheaper to travel at the current time. These cars are only getting more efficient, so by 2050 it is probably even worse.
Who is going to choose to drive with a fuel almost 10 times more expensive? Oil for personal travel is a dead man walking. Heat pumps and many other things, mean that fossil fuels are not going to be used for so many more of the tasks in our life. It is true that we are yet to find a way to replace fossil fuels in air travel, but in the next 26 years, it is highly likely that we will crack this too.
The short conclusion, is that we do not need further licences, and anyone stupid enough to buy a licence is unlikely to be able to afford to use it – this at least suggests that the majority of the uses of fossil fuels will disappear in the next 25 years, though those in the west need to make sure that the prices come down fast, as this is the only way that the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) will move over to heat pumps and electric cars at the rate that we all require.
How do we help this happen, when so many of the people in these countries live hand to mouth anyway.
