Tag Archives: ecosystems

Earth Has 12% Fewer Mangroves Than Previously Thought, New Satellite Data Reveals

photo: Tim Keegan via flickr We’ve known the world’s mangrove forests have been declining for some time, but new satellite imagery from the US Geological Survey and NASA shows that the situation is worse than we thought: More accurate mapping tells us there are 12.3% fewer mangroves than previously believed…. Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Earth Has 12% Fewer Mangroves Than Previously Thought, New Satellite Data Reveals

What Do Woolly Mammoths and Whales Have in Common?

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons 15,000 years ago the ecosystems of North America suffered a dramatic disruption . Within 5,000 years, dozens of Pleistocene species—including herbivors like mammoths, mastodons, ground sloths, and camels, and predators like lions, dire wolves, and two species of saber-toothed cats—went extinct. In all, two-thirds of the continent’s large mammals were lost during this period. And the disruption has direct analogs to shifts occurring in North America today…. Read the full story on TreeHugger

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What Do Woolly Mammoths and Whales Have in Common?

Gulf oil spill killing birds and sealife

Pictures of the extent of this ecocide as the oil continues to gush out of the well 31 days after the Deepwater Horizon blew… THIRTY ONE DAYS. Scientists estimate that it could well be 100,000 gallons not 5000 gallons per day escaping from this well, which surely explains how it has now created subsurface plumes and become a part of the current loop that will in time more than likely carry it up the East Coast to spread its cancer. You cannot look at the photos of these animals and not be emotionally struck by them. Our very biodiversity and the ecosystems they and we depend on to live are now in great danger. And yet, all we get from BP are lies, coverups, and one failed attempt after another to plug this well and aggressively seek to save the wildlife and sealife that inhabits this once beautiful part of our country. And all we get from this government is a reshuffling of the incompetence that aided in it and feigned outrage as BP's stock price actually rises. There is no way to recover the moral conscience lost in regards to this gash that now bleeds our planet. It is an open wound that reveals to all the price paid when what is less important is given a false value over those things whose value is immeasurable. I really don't know how much more I can watch of this unfolding. Water is what gives us life, and we are killing it… and my heart is aching. I do know this, however. I know that as someone like so many who cares for the sustainability of this planet and the future of our children, I will not rest until those responsible for this pay. added by: JanforGore