Climate Change and Biodiversity

Pine damage in Rocky Mtn NP due to bark beetles

You've heard of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (the IPCC). This week we're going to start hearing about the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (the IPBES). If only the powers that be could have come up with a name that would lend itself to a better acronym. Nevertheless, in the midst of the sixth mass extinction, it's high time nations met to start dealing formally with the crisis and begin rolling back the high rate of species extinctions.

During President Obama's second inauguration speech today, he paid special attention to climate change Though his measures, like increasing home appliance efficiency, reducing emissions from power plants and making the federal government itself more effective, are progressive, they fall short of the sweeping changes that are necessary to prevent the planet's temperature from increasing by 2 degree celsius. As Thomas Lovejoy describes in his NY Times Op-Ed, we're already seeing the nasty effects of climate change at the current global warming of 0.8-0.9 degrees Celsius. For example, the present temperature increase has now tipped the balance in favor of bark beetles in western North America that are now decimating coniferous forests. Most of the 900 known extinctions since the year 1600 were caused by the introduction of invasive species, habitat destruction, pollution, and over-exploitation. Given the sensitivity of ecosystems to small changes in temperature, we could soon see climate change vault to the front of the list as the cause of species extinctions, particularly if we see the predicted 2 degree Celsius rise.  It's time to get serious about this stuff.

 Read the rest of Lovejoy's op-ed here. As for the IPBES, bring it on!

Appalachian Salamanders

Who knew that Appalachia was a hotspot for salamanders? I saw a couple of brillian orange fellows on the Appalachian Trail last summer. Here's a nice little video from the Smithsonian describing what they're about.

An Overpopulation Primer

World Population Day only comes around once a year, so it's great that actress and activist Alexandra Paul has taken the time to spell out the overpopulation problem is in this great 8-minute TED talk.

The sooner we take this topic out of the closet and start talking about it the better! Ready to do something? Check your state's reproductive health report card here.

Crisis? What Crisis? II (A list of extinct birds)

Carolina Parakeet, extinct in 1914

The modern extinction crisis has hit birds hard -- it's not just the passenger pigeon and the great auk that are gone, according to the list created by Martin Fowlie at Birdlife International, there's 130 more:

Species	Category
King Island Emu Dromaius ater	EX
Kangaroo Island Emu Dromaius baudinianus	EX
New Zealand Quail Coturnix novaezelandiae	EX
Double-banded Argus Argusianus bipunctatus	EX
Mauritius Shelduck Alopochen mauritianus	EX
Reunion Shelduck Alopochen kervazoi	EX
Amsterdam Duck Anas marecula	EX
Mauritius Duck Anas theodori	EX
Labrador Duck Camptorhynchus labradorius	EX
Auckland Islands Merganser Mergus australis	EX
Large St Helena Petrel Pterodroma rupinarum	EX
Small St Helena Petrel Bulweria bifax	EX
Alaotra Grebe Tachybaptus rufolavatus	EX
Atitlan Grebe Podilymbus gigas	EX
Colombian Grebe Podiceps andinus	EX
Reunion Ibis Threskiornis solitarius	EX
Black-backed Bittern Ixobrychus novaezelandiae	EX
Reunion Night-heron Nycticorax duboisi	EX
Mauritius Night-heron Nycticorax mauritianus	EX
Rodrigues Night-heron Nycticorax megacephalus	EX
Pallas’s Cormorant Phalacrocorax perspicillatus	EX
Guadalupe Caracara Caracara lutosa	EX
Reunion Kestrel Falco buboisi	EX
Hawkins’s Rail Diaphorapteryx hawkinsi	EX
Red Rail Aphanapteryx bonasia	EX
Rodrigues Rail Aphanapteryx leguati	EX
Bar-winged Rail Nesoclopeus poecilopterus	EX
Wake Island Rail Gallirallus wakensis	EX
Tahiti Rail Gallirallus pacificus	EX
Dieffenbach’s Rail Gallirallus dieffenbachii	EX
Chatham Rail Cabalus modestus	EX
Ascension Crake Mundia elpenor	EX
St Helena Crake Atlantisia podarces	EX
Miller’s Rail Porzana nigra	EX
St Helena Rail Porzana astrictocarpus	EX
Laysan Rail Porzana palmeri	EX
Hawaiian Rail Porzana sandwichensis	EX
Kosrae Crake Porzana monasa	EX
Reunion Gallinule Porphyrio coerulescens	EX
New Caledonia Gallinule Porphyrio kukwiedei	EX
White Gallinule Porphyrio albus	EX
North Island Takahe Porphyrio mantelli	EX
Mascarene Coot Fulica newtoni	EX
Canary Islands Oystercatcher Haematopus meadewaldoi	EX
White-winged Sandpiper Prosobonia ellisi	EX
Tahitian Sandpiper Prosobonia leucoptera	EX
Great Auk Pinguinus impennis	EX
Dodo Raphus cucullatus	EX
Rodrigues Solitaire Pezophaps solitaria	EX
St Helena Dove Dysmoropelia dekarchiskos	EX
Reunion Pigeon Columba duboisi	EX
Bonin Wood-pigeon Columba versicolor	EX
Ryukyu Pigeon Columba jouyi	EX
Passenger Pigeon Ectopistes migratorius	EX
Liverpool Pigeon Caloenas maculata	EX
Norfolk Island Ground-dove Gallicolumba norfolciensis	EX
Tanna Ground-dove Gallicolumba ferruginea	EX
Thick-billed Ground-dove Gallicolumba salamonis	EX
Choiseul Pigeon Microgoura meeki	EX
Red-moustached Fruit-dove Ptilinopus mercierii	EX
Rodrigues Blue-pigeon Alectroenas rodericana	EX
Mauritius Blue-pigeon Alectroenas nitidissima	EX
Norfolk Island Kaka Nestor productus	EX
Rodrigues Parrot Necropsittacus rodericanus	EX
Raiatea Parakeet Cyanoramphus ulietanus	EX
Black-fronted Parakeet Cyanoramphus zealandicus	EX
Paradise Parrot Psephotus pulcherrimus	EX
Mascarene Parrot Mascarinus mascarinus	EX
Seychelles Parakeet Psittacula wardi	EX
Newton’s Parakeet Psittacula exsul	EX
Mauritius Grey Parrot Lophopsittacus bensoni	EX
Broad-billed Parrot Lophopsittacus mauritianus	EX
Jamaican Red Macaw Ara gossei	EX
Dominican Green-and-yellow Macaw Ara atwoodi	EX
Jamaican Green-and-yellow Macaw Ara erythrocephala	EX
Lesser Antillean Macaw Ara guadeloupensis	EX
Cuban Macaw Ara tricolor	EX
Guadeloupe Parakeet Aratinga labati	EX
Carolina Parakeet Conuropsis carolinensis	EX
Guadeloupe Amazon Amazona violacea	EX
Martinique Amazon Amazona martinicana	EX
St Helena Cuckoo Nannococcyx psix	EX
Snail-eating Coua Coua delalandei	EX
Reunion Owl Mascarenotus grucheti	EX
Rodrigues Owl Mascarenotus murivorus	EX
Mauritius Owl Mascarenotus sauzieri	EX
Laughing Owl Sceloglaux albifacies	EX
Gould’s Emerald Chlorostilbon elegans	EX
Brace’s Emerald Chlorostilbon bracei	EX
St Helena Hoopoe Upupa antaios	EX
Bush Wren Xenicus longipes	EX
Stephens Island Wren Traversia lyalli	EX
Kauai Oo Moho braccatus	EX
Oahu Oo Moho apicalis	EX
Bishop’s Oo Moho bishopi	EX
Hawaii Oo Moho nobilis	EX
Kioea Chaetoptila angustipluma	EX
Chatham Bellbird Anthornis melanocephala	EX
Lord Howe Gerygone Gerygone insularis	EX
Huia Heteralocha acutirostris	EX
North Island Piopio Turnagra tanagra	EX
South Island Piopio Turnagra capensis	EX
Maupiti Monarch Pomarea pomarea	EX
Eiao Monarch Pomarea fluxa	EX
Nuku Hiva Monarch Pomarea nukuhivae	EX
Ua Pou Monarch Pomarea mira	EX
Guam Flycatcher Myiagra freycineti	EX
Chatham Fernbird Bowdleria rufescens	EX
Aldabra Warbler Nesillas aldabrana	EX
Robust White-eye Zosterops strenuus	EX
Kosrae Starling Aplonis corvina	EX
Mysterious Starling Aplonis mavornata	EX
Norfolk Island Starling Aplonis fusca	EX
Rodrigues Starling Necropsar rodericanus	EX
Reunion Starling Fregilupus varius	EX
Bonin Thrush Zoothera terrestris	EX
Kamao Myadestes myadestinus	EX
Amaui Myadestes woahensis	EX
Grand Cayman Thrush Turdus ravidus	EX
Bonin Grosbeak Chaunoproctus ferreorostris	EX
Lanai Hookbill Dysmorodrepanis munroi	EX
Lesser Koa-finch Rhodacanthis flaviceps	EX
Greater Koa-finch Rhodacanthis palmeri	EX
Kona Grosbeak Chloridops kona	EX
Greater Amakihi Hemignathus sagittirostris	EX
Lesser Akialoa Hemignathus obscurus	EX
Greater Akialoa Hemignathus ellisianus	EX
Kakawahie Paroreomyza flammea	EX
Ula-ai-hawane Ciridops anna	EX
Hawaii Mamo Drepanis pacifica	EX
Black Mamo Drepanis funerea	EX
Slender-billed Grackle Quiscalus palustris	EX

These are extinctions in the last 500 years. If you think that the worst is over and we know better now, I'm here to tell you that the worst is yet to come and though we mean well in our conservation efforts, our numbers and our appetite for land and resources is the new force of nature. The prospects for the crisis getting worse before it gets better are embedded in this list of not 21, not 210, but 2122 endangered birds. You can also read about bird poaching in Cyprus, where in 2010, some 2 million migrating birds were caught and sold to be eaten.  See also how Todd McGrain has been memorializing five extinct North American birds through The Lost Bird Project. If you want to do something to help birds this holiday season, why not join the Christmas Bird Count? You can probably find a site near you.

Reproductive Health Report Card

Be careful if you visit the Population Institute, it might make you nervous. Their website has a population counter and while I was there a few days ago, the counter showed that new people were being added to the planet every second. Now, a few days later, more than 660,000 people have been added since my first visit. Well, welcome all of them, but my gosh, that's a lot of people in such a short time. It makes me nervous that with all our talk of sustainability, it won't be enough to feed, clothe and house everybody.

This week, the Population Institute released its report, Not Making the Grade: a 50 State Report Card on Reproductive Health and Rights. Overall, the US gets a grade of C- because, among other reasons, the teen pregnancy rate here is higher than any other industrialized country. Nearly 3 out of every 10 teenage girls will become pregnant and nearly half of all pregnancies in the US are unintended. You can find the report here and see how your state fares. Massachusetts scores barely above the national average with a C, partly because it does not mandate sex education in public schools (really? in 2012?), nor does it offer a Medicaid expansion for family planning services.

Only 12 states received grades of B- or better and 3 states received grades of A: California, Oregon and Washington. Here's why California received an A: (i) It does not currently have abortion restrictions that would make it unnecessarily difficult for a woman to obtain an abortion should she choose to do so; (ii) it guarantees a woman’s right to access emergency contraception in the emergency room and in pharmacies; and (iii) it requires private insurance companies to cover birth control with only a limited refusal clause that exempts only churches and church associations.

How does your state fare? Shouldn't we be trying to boost the national average?

The End of the Wild

If you’re worried about the present extinction crisis, you can stop now. It’s over. We lost. That’s the conclusion of MIT professor Stephen Meyer in his trenchant analysis, “The End of the Wild”, published in 2006 by Boston Review Books. He writes, “Nothing – not national or international laws, global bioreserves, local sustainability schemes or even ‘wildlands’ fantasies – can change the current course.”

The wild is gone, we have destroyed it. In the process we have created an environment where weedy species can thrive. Weedy species are adaptive generalists like raccoons, coyotes, rats and deer. They are to be distinguished from “relic” species, like African elephants and giant pandas, whose numbers are declining due to human encroachment, and “ghost” species, who are doomed to extinction either because they can’t adapt quickly enough to human changes in their environment or from over-hunting and over-fishing. Examples of ghost species include African lions, whose numbers have plunged from greater than 200,000 in 1980 to under 20,000 today mostly because of perceived threats to livestock, and large fish such as tuna and swordfish.

Meyers identifies the main causes of the crisis as landscape transformation, pollution and over-consumption. Though we’ve enacted legislation (such as the Endangered Species Act) and created reserves, these actions, he argues, are too little too late. They are not changing the outcome that we are losing species and the wild.

So what’s to be done?

First, Meyers contends, we have to abandon business as usual. The future biosphere under the present scheme of benign neglect will not be human-friendly: we would see the collapse of additional fish stocks, ecosystems would lose the functions we depend on, there would be an increase in pests, parasites and disease-causing organisms and, worst of all, we would lose all the species that are psychologically important to us – the quality of life on Earth would plummet.

Second, in order to understand the crisis, we must realize that the end of the wild is about us, not about “the environment.” Our own cultural norms, values and priorities are now being tested. Meyers reminds us that though it’s easy to blame corporations, it’s still about us and our demands for “instant-on appliances, out-of-season vegetables and ten mpg armored transports to move groceries home.” This is why we’re drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

He advocates an ecological identity that “underscores the connection between how we live and what happens around us.” Though we’re beginning to see the wild as providing us with natural resources and the genetic links between ourselves and other species on the tree of life, we need to see moral linkages and the realities of a shared existence and shared fate. Presumably, Meyers admits, this ethical transformation will take centuries.

In the meantime, he argues, we have a moral obligation to take steps to reduce the impact of the heavy hand of human selection. He urges research into understanding how the remaining wild functions, protecting the landscape to preserve ecosystem functions and more intensive management, through, for example, additional legislation. These efforts allow us to examine our role as the planet’s stewards. After all, Meyers asks, “What is the essence of our own morality if it fails to encompass most of the life on Earth.” 

Meyers' book is a concise diagnosis of one of the main problems of our time. Buy it here. 

Koch Brothers Exposed

A few nights ago I watched the provocative documentary, Koch Brothers Exposed, with a group of activist students here at Boston University. I had seen the film before and it was good to see it again, particularly now, between the mock fright of Halloween and the present presidential election, whose outcome could cause a real fright.

Koch Brothers Exposed is a sort of horror film where you constantly wonder what how the Koch Brothers will next rear their greedy heads. According to the film's website, between 1997 and 2010 the Koch Brothers, whose company, Koch Industries, is one of the top ten polluters in the US, gave more than $60 million to climate change denial groups. They are one of the main reasons that there is popular uncertainty over climate change in this country, while the science has long been settled (yes, humans are affecting the climate). In sixty minutes, the film shows the Koch Brothers' self-serving reach in issues as diverse as social security, environmental regulations, workers rights, education and voter identification.. It's amazing what a few well-placed million dollars here and there will do to get your point across.

One of their most disturbing causes is grants to colleges and universities. So far, more than 150 colleges and universities are receiving Koch dollars and one wonders how long it will be before we see the results of this Koch cash in terms of curricula and ideology. There are claims that this money often comes with strings attached -- the donors want a say in hiring decisions. If that doesn't impinge on academic freedom, I don't know what does. 

You can read more about the Koch Brothers shady efforts to quash social security, how they tried to resegregate schools in North Carolina, their involvement in voter suppression and their efforts to fund climate change denial

In the film, the Koch Brothers' mandate is exposed for all to see. It's about greed, doing what's right for the 1%, corruption and attacking democracy. Their dealings need to be brought to light for all to see. Get the film, host a screening, expose the Koch Brothers once and for all.