Biodiversity

Scientists have successfully cloned an endangered black-footed ferret from the genes of an animal named Willa that had died over thirty years ago. After Willa died, her remains were frozen and sent from Wyoming to San Diego Zoo Global that maintains a bank of frozen tissues for over 1,100 endangered and...

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  • February 19, 2021

Native to the Amazon river basin, the Arapaima is likely the earth's largest freshwater predatory fish at 10 feet and 400 pounds, where they have lived for over five million years. In south-central Florida, far from Amazonia, one individual washed up dead on the banks of the Caloosahatchee River on Florida's west...

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  • February 17, 2021

“In all things of nature, there is something of the marvelous.” ~ Aristotle It is a fact that the biggest threat to our species is not climate change, though it will likely end much of what we experience today, but rather our war on bio-diversity. Bio-diversity is under attack from...

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  • February 6, 2021

The Ermineskin and Whitefish Lake First Nations, along with ranchers, have filed two lawsuits against Alberta’s government after the province rescinded protections for the eastern slopes of the rocky mountains. Alberta’s decision will no longer require any coal mining to be done underground, and that prohibited mountain top coal mining. As a...

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  • December 26, 2020

Yemen’s Houthi rebels in Yemen finally gave the United Nations access to a disintegrating oil tanker that threatens the northern Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba's coral reefs and coastal communities. Safer, the tanker, had been abandoned with over 1.1 million barrels of crude oil (four times the amount of the...

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  • December 18, 2020

The Independent writes on the intensification of melting on the Antarctic peninsula. Last year's melt season was the highest in forty years of satellite records. Antarctica’s Larsen C Ice Shelf experienced its highest rate of melting since records began 40 years ago from 2019-2020, a new study has found. The unprecedented melt at...

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  • December 11, 2020

Donald Trump has been plotting to screw our climate and kill off the diversity of life for four years.  This isn’t hyperbole; he has devasted critical habitat and created scars over 400 miles long through National Parks, private and public lands along the US and Mexican borders with his racist wall. By changing...

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  • December 8, 2020

“When this campaign began, we said ‘not one acre.’ We meant it.” Patrick Donnelly, Center for Biological Diversity In early July of 2020, GOP  Utah Congressional Representative Rob Bishop introduced an amendment to force the Fish and Wildlife Service to turn over 50 percent of the Desert National Wildlife Refuge's southern half to...

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  • December 4, 2020

“Until now, Donald Trump served as a support for the Brazilian president to act irresponsibly. Now with the U.S. adding to Europe’s pressure, Brazil is more isolated, and the government will find it harder to stay on this foolish path.” Alessandro Molon, the opposition Brazilian Socialist Party  The Amazon is half...

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  • December 2, 2020

The Greater Glider, one of many marsupials that evolved in Australia, is three species and not one as had been previously thought. The findings from a new study mean that the population of each species is smaller than thought. The species is not a new mammal discovery by humans; we've known about...

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  • November 11, 2020

Jo Biden had offered 20 billion to preserve the Amazon. It was ridiculed denied by the Trump of the Tropics, Jair Bolsonaro. Perhaps a similar offer to the nations involved in Africa would be a rational response and likely considered. It’s worth a try. I highly suspect this diary will...

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  • November 3, 2020

“'Tis the time's plague when madmen lead the blind.” William Shakespeare The evil of science deniers recently has been beyond the pale. Not content with killing the planet over climate change, and sowing doubt over vaccines the far-right conspiracy theorists have a new target to haunt the world with the crazy,...

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  • September 17, 2020

Human consumption and climate change have sent humanity on a steep, dangerous, and deadly spiral spin toward a “catastrophic collapse” warn researchers. The dire warning is published in the scientific journal Nature Scientific Reports. Physicists Mauro Bologna and Gerardo Aquino layout in their research that there will be a ninety percent chance...

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  • July 30, 2020

Antarctica is estimated to have a quarter of the world’s marine methane stores. Methane, a dangerous greenhouse gas ( 25% more potent than the greenhouse gas CO2), accelerates global heating, aggravating the planetary climate emergency and collapse of biodiversity. The first methane leak discovered in Antarctica is on the Wilkes Subglacial Basin...

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  • July 27, 2020

“We have to be aware that climate change and biodiversity loss are stress factors for ecosystems, for humans, for animals, and for the microbiome. Our research shows that if the different axes of the disease pyramid are destabilized, new infectious diseases can be expected, including for humans.” Dirk Schmeller, Université de...

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  • June 30, 2020

The oceans are really what tells you how fast the Earth is warming. Using the oceans, we see a continued, uninterrupted, and accelerating warming rate of planet Earth. This is dire news.”  Professor John Abraham, University of St Thomas, MN There are many complicating factors in our efforts to combat the...

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  • June 26, 2020

We are getting a pretty good look at what a rapid transition to green energy would look like if we ever act to slow down the looming apocalypse. Of course, we are in one now because of the trifecta of coronavirus, climate change, the sixth mass extinction, and predictions of...

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  • April 22, 2020

Not since the plague, also known as the Black Death, arrived in Europe in the early 1300s has the human population been more vulnerable to exotic disease. Black Death is estimated to have killed 30 to 60% of the population of Europe.  With international transport of people and goods, dense...

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  • March 20, 2020

From Antarctica to agricultural fields, plastic waste is everywhere across the globe. We should be very concerned as this is yet another threat to our ability to feed ourselves. We consume these plastics from our food and water. We don’t know what effect it is having on our bodies though...

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  • January 29, 2020

The Washington Post has obtained audio of Donald Trump schmoozing his deep-pocketed donors at a Friday night Mar-a-Lago fundraiser, and he made one remark that’s sure to enrage rank-and-file Republicans and GOP lawmakers — if someone can manage to stick the transcript in an enchanted pneumatic tube system and send...

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  • January 18, 2020

“Strong safeguards and rigorous enforcement are needed to prevent this from ever happening again. If we can't protect a biodiversity hotspot like the Galapagos Islands from this kind of pollution, nowhere is safe. There's a dark symbolism to this Galapagos spill, which comes as fossil fuel pollution creates a climate...

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  • December 23, 2019

Those outside of Kentucky are already betting heavily on Amy McGrath as the Democratic nominee to take on Moscow Mitch in 2020.  However, Kentucky progressives are not happy with McGrath, and I one of those people.  Before all you centrists jump down my throat and give me shit, I will...

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  • November 29, 2019

The Paris Climate Accord goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 Celsius was to prevent runaway climate change (the world is currently at a 1C increase above preindustrial temperatures ). The study authors did note that humanity can avoid the loss of the Antarctic Peninsula by keeping temperature rise to...

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  • July 9, 2019

The climate is extremely complicated and overwhelming for those of us that are not scientists. One thing we know for sure about humanity's massive science project with our atmosphere, however, is that pumping unfathomable amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere damages the interconnectivity of Earths ecosystems resulting in a cascading...

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  • June 29, 2019

The MoveOn.org Fracking Fighter petition to ban fracking in Illinois got off to a fast start! It's just shy of the first 500 signatures. The comments people add are fun to read so here are some of my favorites, with each signer's town instead of their name because internet trolls....

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  • January 24, 2014
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