Leaping Ahead of Extinction

You've got to love a good ad-campaign. Especially when it's to raise awareness about threatened species around the world. Scientists have known for at least a decade now that amphibians have been suffering dramatic losses globally. This year, to celebrate Leap Day (February 29), zoos and nature parks around the world are joining forces to put on a program called, "Leaping Ahead of Extinction," to educate us all about the successful conservation programs for amphibians. It's about time we had some good news. There's no zoo in the Boston area featuring the program, but maybe there's one in yours?

Check out the Amphibian Ark for more news about our froggy friends.

Clever Animated Short

Well the Oscars are tomorrow and this one isn't nominated for anything (wrong year anyway), but you got to love a little film that so cleverly demonstrates what goes round comes round.

Tar Sands, Pipelines and the Future of the Land

 

Wade Davis, Canadian author, activist and National Geographic explorer-in-residence gives a passionate speech about the repercussions of routing the tar sands pipeline through British Columbia. Some great comments on how we view species and our land, how resource capitalism works, marketing, what it means to inherit the land from our ancestors and how to be good stewards, which makes it applicable viewing to all of us near and far from the proposed pipeline. Before you shy away and think that 30 minutes is too long, think about what short-term corporate profit and decisions without public consultation mean compared to long-term environmental damage. 


                                

The Great Challenge

I showed this to my class last week and found out that concern for species becoming extinct is very high among students, but so is pessimism that anything significant can be done in the next ten years...