MetaFilter posts tagged with endangeredspecies

"This listing will not stop global climate change"

salvia — Wed, 14 May 2008 21:22:26 -0800

“I can’t express how extremely disappointed I am that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service has chosen to list the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act," Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski said in a statement issued today. The Department of the Interior Secretary himself, Dirk Kempthorne, stressed his decision was compelled by the Endangered Species Act, "perhaps the least flexible law Congress has ever enacted." "But [listing the polar bear as threatened] should not open the door to use the ESA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, power plants, and other sources...To make sure that the Endangered Species Act is not misused to regulate global climate change, I will take the following specific actions..." You can find more from the US government, including sea ice photos, audio and video clips, and a statement from the US Fish & Wildlife Service director, here. Here is coverage from the NY Times, Scientific American, the Wall Street Journal, and others.

Go south, young polar bear

commonmedia — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:59:02 -0800

A new campaign plans to relocate polar bears to Antarctica to protect them from the effects of climate change. Based on the rates of ice melt in the North, scientists say most polar bears will be gone by 2050. The first bears will be moved on Earth Day, April 22. The relocation will be the initial step in a planned five-year program to migrate 3,000 polar bears from the Northern Arctic to the southern continent of Antarctica. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to rule soon on whether to list polar bears as endangered species; however, it has indicated that relocating polar bears would be much less expensive to taxpayers than listing them under the 1973 act.

Gray Wolf Killed in W. Mass.

VicNebulous — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:07:08 -0800

Tests reveal that an animal killed in Western Massachusetts was a gray wolf. The species has not been seen in the state for 160 years.

Cheers, Big Ears!

chuckdarwin — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 04:25:15 -0800

The first known film of the long-eared jerboa, an endangered Mongolian rodent with legs like a kangaroo, was released today by the owners of London Zoo. Previously

Illustrations of primates

salvia — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 11:31:35 -0800

Look at that tail! Stephen Nash has illustrated the most endangered primates (image gallery: part 1, part 2) -- so faithfully over the years that one now bears his name. The just-released "Primates in Peril" report has full profiles of each animal, along with all of Nash's illustrations (including those replaced by photos in the gallery above -- don't miss the sumatran orangutan!).

Scientists are getting a bit nervous.

salvia — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 11:23:23 -0800

In what it calls "the final wake-up call to the international community," a UN report (press release, website, 21 MB PDF) warns that damage to the environment is reaching a "point of no return" and now threatens "humanity's very survival." Oh, c'mon, tell us what you really think.

The New New Environmentalism

salvia — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 09:50:50 -0800

Not ones for subtlety, the Death of Environmentalism guys (previously) are at it again with a Manifesto for a New Environmentalism. Their Apollo Alliance is getting early support from both Clinton and Obama. But it's not the only "new environmentalism" out there. There's this New Environmentalism, while others would include both market-based approaches among the the idols of old environmentalism.

California has been delta tough situation

salvia — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 17:19:30 -0800

"California has a decision to make. We either brace ourselves for long-term [water] cuts that threaten our economy and our very way of way of life, or we invest in a solution to fix the [San Francisco Bay] Delta and expand our water toolbox so we can meet future challenges head-on.” Long Beach, California has become the first California city to ration water after a court decision last month (SFChron, SacBee) which may require Delta water pumping to be cut by one-third starting in December -- "the single largest court-ordered redirection of water in state history" -- to protect a tiny threatened fish called the delta smelt [resizes window]. (The court decision is not online. An earlier related decision is here.) But the situation is more complex than "drinking water versus fish." Extensive previous efforts have not succeeded in addressing the problems of the Delta, where weak levies were already barely protecting the water supply for 23 million people, a key infrastructure pipeline [pdf], and more and more people's homes [pdf]. (More technical documents here.) Will current efforts be more successful? The many possible solutions each carry their own benefits and controversies. The decision to limit the pumps will certainly draw attention to the issues and give them new urgency. The situation is so complicated, interrelated, and ever-shifting that one artist's Delta primer portrays it as a giant game of chance [pdf].

American Bald Eagle Information

netbros — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 21:16:49 -0800

Recovering nicely, the American Bald Eagle was delisted (pdf) as an endangered species this summer by the Department of the Interior. Only a handful of species have fought their way back from the endangered species list. Credit the ban on DDT for the bald eagle's remarkable resurgence.

Don't Hate Me Because I'm Not Beautiful

owhydididoit — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 08:43:07 -0800

Endangered Ugly Things. Sure, they're not cute. But they're at least as important as your fuzzy thing.