Biodiversity

Biodiversity Below Safe Levels Across More Than Half Of World

July 24, 2016 Adam Vaughn, www.theguardian.com Educate! Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Food and Agriculture, Sustainability

By Adam Vaughn for The Guardian. The variety of animals and plants has fallen to dangerous levels across more than half of the world’s landmass due to humanity destroying habitats to use as farmland, scientists have estimated. The unchecked loss of biodiversity is akin to playing ecological roulette and will set back efforts to bring people out of poverty in the long term, they warned. Analysing 1.8m records from 39,123 sites across Earth, the international study found that a measure of the intactness of biodiversity at sites has fallen below a safety limit across 58.1% of the world’s land. Under a proposal put forward by experts last year, a site losing more than 10% of its biodiversity is considered to have passed a precautionary threshold, beyond which the ecosystem’s ability to function could be compromised.

Seeds Of Suicide

May 23, 2016 Vandana Shiva, www.asianage.com Resist! Biodiversity, Environment, United Nations

By Vandana Shiva for The Asian Age - May 22 has been declared International Biodiversity Day by the United Nations. It gives us an opportunity to become aware of the rich biodiversity that has been evolved by our farmers as co-creators with nature. It also provides an opportunity to acknowledge the threats to our biodiversity and our rights from IPR monopolies and monocultures. Just as our Vedas and Upanishads have no individual authors, our rich biodiversity, including seeds, have been evolved cumulatively.

1 In 6 Species Could Disappear Due To Climate Change, Study Finds

May 2, 2015 Nick Visser, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! Biodiversity, Climate Change, Environment

16 percent. Remember that number. If climate change continues unabated, 16 percent -- one in six -- plant and animal species will go extinct, according to a new study published in Science. The report, "Accelerating Extinction Risk From Climate Change," analyzed 131 other studies that diverged widely in their estimates of the rate of extinction that will occur if climate change continues unabated. Some of the underlying studies found that very few, if any, species would disappear, while others placed the number close to 54 percent. Humans still have time to prevent widespread extinction caused by climate change, but the window of opportunity is closing, said Mark Urban, a professor at the University of Connecticut and the study's lead author.

Great Barrier Reef Campaign: Scientists Against Coal Projects

March 23, 2015 Oliver Milman, www.theguardian.com Educate! Biodiversity, Coal, Environment, Ocean, Science

Australia’s leading coral reef scientists have called for huge coalmining and port developments in Queensland to be scrapped in order to avoid “permanent damage” to the Great Barrier Reef. The Australian Coral Reef Society (ACRS) report, compiled by experts from five Australian universities and submitted to the United Nations, warns that “industrialising the Great Barrier Reef coastline will cause further stress to what is already a fragile ecosystem.” The report notes that nine proposed mines in theGalilee Basin, in central Queensland, will produce coal that will emit an estimated 705m tonnes of carbon dioxide at capacity – making the Galilee Basin region the seventh largest source of emissions in the world when compared to countries. Climate change, driven by excess emissions, has been cited as the leading long-term threat to the Great Barrier Reef. Corals bleach and die as water warms and struggle to grow as oceans acidify.

On Columbus Day, Native Peoples Condemn GE Trees

October 13, 2014 Jay Burney and BJ McManama, www.stogetrees.org Organize! Biodiversity, Food and Agriculture, GE Trees

(Qualla Boundary, North Carolina)--In the shadow of Columbus Day and the legacy of colonization in the Americas, the Indigenous Environmental Network [1] and Eastern Band of Cherokee community members organized a gathering of Indigenous Peoples from across the Southeastern US for an historic Indigenous Peoples' action camp against genetically engineered trees (GE trees). Participants condemned GE trees as a form of colonization of the forest. The Indigenous Environmental Network Campaign to STOP GE Trees Action Camp focused on building an information-sharing and mobilization network of tribal representatives and community members to address the unique threats posed by GE trees to Indigenous Peoples, their culture, traditions and lifeways.

Do-It-Yourself Biodiversity

June 19, 2014 Terry Shistar, www.beyondpesticides.org Create! Biodiversity, DIY, Environment, Food and Agriculture, Gardening, Organic

Counteracting the threats to the biological communities that support life on Earth is a huge task, but there are also many ways in which we as individuals can make real contributions to preserving biodiversity. Conservation biologists have used the theory of island biogeography to develop strategies for preserving biodiversity. Small islands of habitat cannot support large predators, but they can provide refuges for smaller species, and many small islands can be strung together to support larger, mobile species. Almost all of us can help by creating islands of biodiversity wherever we live. Soil In land-based ecosystems, biodiversity begins with the soil. Recent science has shown that J.I. Rodale and other organic pioneers were right-- the soil is a living organism, and synthetic fertilizers and pesticides do kill the soil. The growth of all the plants we see above ground--from lettuce seedlings to redwood trees--results from a symbiosis between the plants and the fungi, bacteria, insects, and other soil-dwelling organisms. For a greater understanding of the microbial life in the soil, see Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web by Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis.

Think About Biodiversity Before You Flip That Switch

April 13, 2014 Staff, www.popularresistance.org Create! Biodiversity, Light Pollution

For three billion years now, life on this Earth has existed with a regular and dependable day-night schedule to the illumination levels in the environment. This regularity has become ingrained into the DNA of species up and down the evolutionary tree. It regularizes basic and fundamental biological activities across species from plants to us humans. It is the height of apathetic ignorance and insanity that we expect other living organisms on this planet to just "adapt" to newly created lighting schedules of our convenience. The effects of light pollution on plants and animals in the environment are numerous and are becoming more known. In general, the most common action is that light pollution alters and interferes with the timing of necessary biological activities.

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