John R. Platt (Scientific American) writes that “Dozens of frogs, fish, orchids and other species—many unseen for decades—may no longer exist because of humanity’s destructive effects on the planet.” His article lists the many species lost in 2020, including 32 orchid species in Bangladesh, the Smooth handfish from Tasmania, 65 North American plants, 22 frog […]
What We’ve Lost: The Species Declared Extinct in 2020 — Repeating Islands
Extinction is a natural event: animals and plants disappear naturally as time goes by, but – unfortunately – natural extinction is accelerating, due to anthropic factors, involving an increasing number of animals and plants. Natural extionction is usually a consequence of a gradual process, in which the number of animals or plants, belonging to a […]
WHY ARE SO MANY PLANTS AND ANIMALS ON THE BRINK OF EXTINCTION? — The Mirror
BBC News reports “Our planet is broken,” the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, has warned. Humanity is waging what he describes as a “suicidal” war on the natural world. “Nature always strikes back, and is doing so with gathering force and fury,” he told a BBC special event on the environment. Mr […]
Humans waging ‘suicidal war’ on nature – UN chief Antonio Guterres — Natural History Wanderings
Los Angeles Times Sequoia experts may never know how many of the world’s most massive trees died in the Castle fire, but judging by what they have seen so far, they say the number is certainly in the hundreds — and could easily top 1,000. Read full story at Hundreds of giant sequoias killed by California’s […]
Hundreds of giant sequoias killed by California’s Castle fire — Natural History Wanderings
Devastating wildfires, forestry policies, general habitat loss, climate change are all adding to the stresses on the Australian Koala population.
These little symbols of Australia are naturally delicate, and they are not fairing well in our modern age. Disease, too, has impacted the remaining populations.
We should all press anybody we can think of in Australia to do much better in terms of protecting this special little wildlife species…
EurekaAlert reports A new study in The Auk: Ornithological Advances, published by Oxford University Press, suggests that wildfires change the types of songs sung by birds living in nearby forests. Read story at Wildfires cause bird songs to change | EurekAlert! Science News
via Wildfires cause bird songs to change — Natural History Wanderings
All hell is breaking lose down under, By SunBôw Photo: Bairnsdale, Victoria, Australia, Dec 30, 2019, 10 pm… Bairnsdale is the first town I visited in Australia 3 weeks ago. It’s a couple hours drive east of where I am now, in eastern Victoria. Tonight a vast region around Bairnsdale looks like hell as up […]
UC- Berkeley News reports Spotted owl populations are in decline all along the West Coast, and as climate change increases the risk of large and destructive wildfires in the region, these iconic animals face the real threat of losing even more of their forest habitat. Rather than attempting to preserve the owl’s remaining habitat exactly as […]
via How Wildfire Management Can Impact Spotted Owls — Natural History Wanderings
Guest essay by Eric Worrall Climate scientists have expressed their dismay that Aussie politicians are not treating this year’s awful bushfire season as a wakeup call for climate action. Leading scientists condemn political inaction on climate change as Australia ‘literally burns’ Climate experts ‘bewildered’ by government ‘burying their heads in the sand’, and say bushfires […]
via “Bewildered” Climate Scientists: Aussie Politicians are Still Not Listening — Watts Up With That?
Video above – this fire fighting thing could get expensive. Associated Press: Australia’s forests are burning at a rate unmatched in modern times and scientists say the landscape is being permanently altered as a warming climate brings profound changes to the island continent. Heat waves and drought have fueled bigger and more frequent fires in parts of […]
via Australia Forest Loss “Unprecedented” — Climate Denial Crock of the Week
huggers.ca 