20 Surprising Animals You Didn't Know Are Going Extinct When it comes to the Endangered Species List, some animals stand out as celebrities: polar bears, giant pandas, rhinos, snow leopards… But sadly, the list is so extensive that there are many species you may never have suspected are endangered. Here are twenty of them. 1. Zebras An icon of the African plains and a necessity in any wildlife documentary about lions going a-huntin’, the zebra is actually in trouble. 2. We wouldn’t think of peacocks as endangered, considering you can find them in any wildlife park, petting zoo, and even in random farms across the country. Photo Credit: Fowl vet (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Earth Blog: EARTH MEANDERS: U.S. Abrupt Climate Change 2012: Where Will You Be the Day Earth’s Death Became Unavoidable? The world’s and especially America’s environment has gone mad during the summer of 2012. Abrupt climate change is clearly upon us, and life-giving ecosystems are visibly failing, portending doom for our shared biosphere, all life, and humanity. Given overshoot of ecological boundaries, and failure to pursue concerted national and global sustainable development and ecological sustainability policy, 2012 may well be the year Earth’s death through collapse of its one shared biosphere becomes inevitable. By Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological InternetEarth Meanders come from Earth's Newsdesk Abrupt Climate Change Is Now Fundamentally the meaning of life is ecosystems [search]. Earth's biosphere - the thin mantle of life from underground to the top of the atmosphere, which self-regulates the Earth System to keep it habitable - is collapsing. U.S. It is the nature of ecological systems that damage done today is not fully realized for decades. Green Libertarianism: Being Green While Remaining Free
Biodiversity: Great Barrier reef has lost half its coral cover Outbreaks of the coral eating crown of thorns starfish have been responsible for 42 percent of the over 50 percent decline in coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef between 1985 and 2012. Photo courtesy Katharina Fabricius, Australian Institute of Marine Science. Multiple short-interval disturbances causing long-term decline, with southern areas hit hardest By Summit Voice SUMMIT COUNTY — Australian researchers say the Great Barrier Reef has lost half its coral cover in the past 27 years, with more impacts expected as the climate warms in coming decades. About half (46 percent) of the loss was from storm damage, with another 42 percent attributed to crown of thorns starfish and 10 percent lost to bleaching. “We can’t stop the storms but, perhaps we can stop the starfish. “This finding is based on the most comprehensive reef monitoring program in the world. The study clearly shows that three factors are overwhelmingly responsible for this loss of coral cover. Like this: Like Loading...
La course apparemment irréversible à l'effondrement de la biosphère Jean-Paul Baquiast 29/06/2012 Dans un article que nous avons publié par ailleurs, s'intéressant aux questions méthodologiques concernant es sciences de la prévision, nous avons signalé qu'une équipe pluridisciplinaire internationale suggèrait que les écosystèmes de la planète seraient engagés dans une course irréversible à l'effondrement. Celui-ci signerait nécessairement la fin des civilisations humaines telles que nous les connaissons (Voir en référence ci-dessous: Nature: Approaching a state-shift in Earth’s biosphere). Ce n'est pas le premier des diagnostics inquiétants concernant l'avenir de la biosphère que nous présentons sur notre site, tous émanant de scientifiques confirmés...si bien d'ailleurs que certains lecteurs nous reprochent une propension au catastrophisme. Les moteurs d'une possible transition critique à l'échelle planétaire (crédit: Anthony D. Recommandations Aussi le lecteur de cette étude ne peut se dissimuler qu'il s'agit là de vœux pieux. Références
Un mammifère américain sur dix ne survivra pas au changement climatique Adieu bisons, lamas et caribous? Les mammifères qui peuplent le continent américain pourraient avoir du mal à s’adapter au changement climatique, selon une étude parue le 14 mai dans Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Un mammifère sur dix, et dans certaines régions quatre sur dix, pourraient disparaître faute de se déplacer assez rapidement pour trouver de nouveaux habitats correspondant à leurs besoins. Les souris prennent de l’avance sur les singes «Nous sous-estimons la vulnérabilité des mammifères au changement climatique lorsque nous faisons des projections climatiques et surtout nous ne prenons pas en compte leur capacité à se déplacer et se disperser dans de nouvelles régions», explique Carrie Schloss, de l’université de Washington. Les scientifiques ont croisé des données climatiques, basées sur des prévisions d’évolution des émissions de CO2, avec les informations disponibles sur la rapidité de déplacement des populations d’animaux. Audrey Chauvet
Nearly one tenth of hemisphere's mammals unlikely to outrun climate change A safe haven could be out of reach for 9 percent of the Western Hemisphere's mammals, and as much as 40 percent in certain regions, because the animals just won't move swiftly enough to outpace climate change. For the past decade scientists have outlined new areas suitable for mammals likely to be displaced as climate change first makes their current habitat inhospitable, then unlivable. For the first time a new study considers whether mammals will actually be able to move to those new areas before they are overrun by climate change. Carrie Schloss, University of Washington research analyst in environmental and forest sciences, is lead author of the paper out online the week of May 14 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "We underestimate the vulnerability of mammals to climate change when we look at projections of areas with suitable climate but we don't also include the ability of mammals to move, or disperse, to the new areas," Schloss said.
Une étude prédit la fin de notre planète avant l'an 2100 Un article de la revue Nature intitulé "Approaching a state-shift in Earth’s biosphere" a fait l'effet d'une petite bombe dans la communauté scientifique en prédisant une fin imminente à notre planète. Cette fatalité aurait lieu d'ici l'année 2100 et serait due à l'emballement des changements radicaux des écosystèmes et du climat de la Terre. Une étude de la Simon Fraser University (SFU) de Vancouver publiée dans la revue Nature montrerait qu'un effondrement total de la planète se produirait d'ici la fin du siècle. L'étude, menée par 18 scientifiques, soulève plusieurs points inquiétants : la dégradation générale de la nature et des écosystèmes, les fluctuations climatiques de plus en plus extrêmes et le changement radical du bilan énergétique global. Ces modifications finiraient par arriver à un point de non-retour, c'est-à-dire qu'elles deviendraient irréversibles. Avez-vous déjà partagé cet article? Partager sur Facebook Partager sur Twitter
Les scientifiques le disent : la dénatalité ou la mort « Maintenant, c’est plus seulement Pièces et main d’œuvre qui le dit, c’est Nature. » Ainsi parlaient des chercheurs, il y a quelques jours dans les couloirs de la fac d’Orsay. Ils avaient tort. Bien d’autres, depuis des décennies, prophètes de malheur et oiseaux de mauvais augure, annoncent l’effondrement écologique et ses effets catastrophiques pour l’humanité. Deux revues font autorité dans le milieu scientifique mondial. Le 7 juin 2012, elle a publié une synthèse signée d’une vingtaine de chercheurs internationaux (spécialistes en paléontologie, biologie, géosciences, géographie, biochimie, géologie, biodiversité, entre autres, mais aussi « écoinformatique et écologie computationnelle »), intitulée « Approching a state shift in Earth’s biosphere » (à lire ici), nous alertant d’un proche basculement de la biosphère, irréversible et brutal. Deux raisons à cette agonie : la croissance démographique et de la consommation des ressources per capita. Partage de la pénurie. Lire aussi :
The Pleistocene-Holocene Event - Sixth Great Extinction The Pleistocene-Holocene Event: The Sixth Great Extinction "Soon a millennium will end. With it will pass four billion years of evolutionary exuberance. [Extinction is the gravest conservation problem of our era. Click Here For Full PDF Report... or read Summary below... (Many of our reports are in Adobe Acrobat PDF Format. The Crisis The most important—and gloomy—scientific discovery of the twentieth century was the extinction crisis. A few biologists—including geneticist Michael Soulè (who was later the founder of the Society for Conservation Biology) and Harvard's famed E. That discovery hit with all the subtlety of an asteroid striking Earth: RIGHT NOW, TODAY, LIFE FACES THE SIXTH GREAT EXTINCTION EVENT IN EARTH HISTORY. The crisis we face is biological meltdown. Five Great Extinctions The fossil record reveals five great extinction episodes in the last half-billion years. Devonian—345 million years ago, 30 percent of animal families became extinct, including some types of early fishes.
Despite wins, Minnesota's endangered species list up by 180 The gray wolf, the peregrine falcon, the snapping turtle and 26 other Minnesota plants and animals are healthy enough to come off the state’s list of endangered and threatened species. But 180 species of plants and animals have been added, a reflection of the state’s major environmental problems — from loss of prairies and forests to invasive species and polluted water. The update of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) list, the first revamp in 17 years, brought to 590 the total number of species that may be endangered or on their way to extinction. Several were removed, including the wolf, bald eagle and trumpeter swan, leading some to say the law is succeeding. “We’ve got to learn how to manage at a larger scale,” said Richard Baker, endangered species coordinator for the DNR. The strategy of trying to save one species at a time will no longer work, Baker said. The wolf controversy Some of the decisions were controversial — especially the wolf.
PLOS Research Predicts Climate Change 'Winners' and 'Losers' | Linda Marsa There's a growing consensus among scientists that the earth is in the midst of its sixth mass extinction. They have in hand voluminous data demonstrating the changing conditions putting 20,000 species of animals and plants around the globe at high risk for disappearing from the wild. From the fossil record we know that such a rapid loss of so many species has previously occurred only five times in the past 540 million years. The last mass extinction, around 65 million years ago, removed dinosaurs from the face of the earth. Predictions about the impact of man-made climate change on these 20,000 vulnerable species are based on a set of measurable changes to the earth's atmosphere, soil, polar ice sheets, and oceans, and a calculation of how these ongoing changes will affect the survival of each bird, plant, mammal, amphibian, or other organism living in a particular habitat -- based on all that we know about these species. Loading Slideshow