climate change Archives - Page 2 of 3

The FWP weekly digest of wondrous wildlife happenings
and other interesting items from the natural world

Creatures to meet | Things to learn
Things to do

Lisa S. French

“If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow.”
Rachel Carson | Marine Biologist

FYI: Here’s a link to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2021 Sixth Assessment Report on how it’s going: not so good!

You can read five important findings from the report here.

As we’re witnessing on a daily basis, the effects of climate breakdown are absolutely heartrending. Although it’s difficult to remain hopeful given the additional uncertainty related to the pandemic, don’t despair. If we act now, there’s still time to save our beautiful, life-sustaining home from the worst impacts of climate change.

Our immense gratitude to the fact-finding, seed-planting scientists at the IPCC for persevering and fighting the good fight—for people, wildlife, and the planet.

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Lisa S. French August 9, 2021

Fishy Antifreeze

1-minute read

It’s officially summer in the northern hemisphere. With record-breaking high temperatures already being recorded in the U.S., Canada, parts of Europe, and the Arctic, it looks like 2021 is going to be another climate change-intensified scorcher.

If you’re in need of a way to keep cool—really cool—how about a little cold water swimming? And what could be more refreshingly chilling than a dip in a polar sea? Well, as tempting as that may seem when the thermometer reads 116°F, unlike polar fishes, we gill-free types are just not equipped to last long in cold water. So what do our piscine pals have that we don’t to help them survive frigid marine temperatures? Bodies fortified with antifreeze.

To manage the challenges of a life lived in icy seas, Arctic and Antarctic fish species that aren’t able to migrate to warmer waters evolved with antifreeze proteins in their blood and body tissues. These protective proteins lower the freezing point of polar fishes to below water temperature. When they come into contact with ice crystals either on their skin or gills or through eating or drinking, the antifreeze binds to the ice to prevent the scaly swimmers from turning into fish-icles. Now, how cool is that?

If you’d like to learn more about which animals have adapted to life in the coldest environment on the planet, the New Zealand government has created a splendidly informative poster of the wildlife occupying the world’s largest marine protected area in Antarctica’s Ross Sea.

And if you’re keen to swim with fishes of the non-polar variety this summer, courtesy of The Guardian, scientist Heather Massey has some tips on how to avoid hypothermia while paddling in open waters.

Fishy business aside, just a reminder that extreme heat, like extreme cold, can be life-threatening. If you’re suffering through triple-digit temperatures and can’t make it to a pool or the beach, Google the location of your nearest cooling center and head on over. For tips on how to manage a heat wave without air conditioning, check out this list from MedicineNet. Keep cool. Stay safe.

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Lisa S. French June 29, 2021

The Prophecy of the Manatee

2.5-minute read

What does the manatee, Florida’s beloved native marine mammal, have to teach us about the importance of maintaining healthy coastal ecosystems? As recent environmental events indicate, quite a lot. A keystone species, the gentle, slow-moving occupants of the Sunshine State’s rivers, marshes, and lagoons are sensitive to environmental stressors that impact the normal functioning of their underwater world. Although manatees have few natural enemies, harmful changes in water quality have become a matter of life and death for the iconic animals—alerting us to the fragility of marine ecosystems.

Manatees, a.k.a sea cows, need two things to stay comfortably in the swim: access to warm water (at least 68°F) and a whole lot of vegetation to eat. The 1,000-pound animals can consume up to 10% of their body weight a day in plant matter, primarily seagrass. Because manatees don’t have blubber to keep them warm like whales and dolphins, the colder the water, the more calories they need to survive. The seagrass that manatees depend on for the bulk of their diet, in turn, depends on sunlight for photosynthesis.

As reported in Science, 761 manatees wintering in one Florida lagoon died of starvation in 2021 due to a shortage of seagrass. Because massive algal blooms resulting from excess nitrogen and phosphorous in the water prevented sunlight from reaching carbon-storing seagrass beds, the plants that support manatees, as well as sea turtles, fish, crustaceans, and mollusks, failed to reproduce. Although Florida manatee numbers have doubled from 3300 in 2001 to close to 7000 in 2021 thanks to protective legislation, last winter’s die-off represents a gut-wrenching 10% loss of the marine mammal’s population.

In addition to struggling to survive the algal blooms that diminish life-supporting seagrass, manatees, and other marine life, are facing the environmental effects of toxic red tides that are increasing in size and duration due to rising ocean temperatures. Between 2017 and 2018, an estimated 200 manatees died from ingesting and inhaling the neurotoxic algae from a year-long red tide event.

Despite the manatee’s status as a protected species, as with many living creatures, its capacity to adapt to adverse environmental and climate impacts is limited. The fate of the manatee and other marine animals rests on protecting and restoring life-supporting habitat. Changes to the population and well-being of the silent marine sentinels speak volumes about the health of coastal ecosystems and marine biologists and conservationists are paying close attention. They’re developing strategies to provide manatees with adequate food supplies and warm-water sanctuaries when temperatures drop and promoting policies that will help to improve water quality year-round in a rapidly warming world.

To find out how you can become a citizen scientist and help make coastal ecosystems user-friendly for the magnificent manatee and other aquatic creatures, check out this fact-sheet from the University of Florida, which includes tips on how to reduce nutrient runoff and the next right thing to do if you come across a manatee in distress.

Wherever you are in the world, if you’re looking for another great reason to head to the beach, the Ocean Conservancy has more bright ideas on how to participate in the global mission to combat water pollution by starting a local trash cleanup. And for ten simple ways to help power the pristine by reducing your plastic footprint stop by the World Wildlife Fund. Planet tidying—good for water, good for people, good for wildlife.

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Lisa S. French June 17, 2021

Reducing Emissions. Increasing Hugs.

It’s Hug a Climate Scientist Day!

Emissions are still rising, and climate scientists still need hugging. That’s the bad news. The good news is, thanks to breakthroughs in biotechnology, actual hugs are making a comeback. So, we’d like to extend a major squeeze of gratitude to COVID scientists as well. Oh, and while we’re at it, thanks very much to all of the ecologists, biologists, environmental chemists, and atmospheric, geo, and social scientists toiling away every day on behalf of people, wildlife, and the planet. Hugs all around, you dedicated science brainiacs—where would the world be without you! And for anyone else in need: ((())). Plus a booster: ((())).

One more thing, speaking of dedicated people working to save the planet and all of its inhabitants, we’d like to share a beautiful and important short film (2:20 minutes) from the conservation NGO Big Life Foundation. Talk about hug magnets!

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Lisa S. French June 11, 2021

Endangered Species Day: Say Hello to the Hairy-Nosed Wombat

2.5-minute read

We think one of the best ways to honor Endangered Species Day (May 21) is to increase awareness of the most precious wild creatures remaining on our planet because we believe that to know them is to love them and to love them is to protect them. So, to aid the conservation of a rare one, we’d like to introduce you to the critically endangered northern hairy-nosed wombat. A species is classified as critically endangered if its population has declined by at least 90%. At last count, there were only 250 of the iconic Australian marsupials left in the wild. Although conservation scientists are working diligently to prevent the hairy-nosed wombat’s extinction, the cuddly-looking critter remains one of the most at-risk animals on Earth.

For your ESD information, here’s a wombat what’s what:

Claim to fame:
In addition to having an unusually furry snout, the northern hairy-nosed wombat is the largest, plant-eating, burrowing mammal on Earth. The average weight of an adult wombat is about 70lbs—roughly the same weight as a golden retriever. Now, that’s a big digger! By comparison, a burrowing groundhog weighs only 9 lbs.

Aboriginal name:
When the Dharug people of southeast Australia first came across the short-legged, bear-like marsupial, they christened the animal wambad, which officially evolved into wombat in 1798. Although they’ve also been called native badgers and native bears, we think they definitely have more of a wambad look about them.

Preferred Hangout:
Underground. Wombats are expert excavators, digging 70 to 100 ft of tunnels, 10 to 13 ft below the earth with multiple entrances for easy access. The northern hairy-nosed wombat’s burrowing habitat once spanned parts of New South Wales and Queensland, but now they can only be found in Epping Forest National Park and Richard Underwood Nature Refuge in Queensland. However, their reduced range hasn’t stopped the wombats from digging in—they’ve tunneled out 470 burrows in their Epping Forest habitat.

Social style:
The nocturnal hairy-nosed wombat is a social distancing specialist, spending about 70% of burrow time on its lonesome. In 1300 hours of video recorded in Epping Park, there were only 12 social interactions. Although wombats occasionally burrow hop, they prefer home base, avoid unfamiliar situations and aren’t particularly chatty. When the introverted marsupials do vocalize, they communicate through whispery squeaks. You can listen to the cautious chittering of the common wombat here.

Favorite foods:
The wombat might look a bit like a bear, but it eats like a bunny—90% of its diet is grasses.

Special skills:
What’s good for the wombat is good for healthy ecosystems. Burrowers help to improve soil quality and plant diversity and create habitats for other endangered animals like wallabies, echidnas, and bettongs.

Why they need TLC:
Between 1870 and 1920, the northern hairy-nosed wombat was nearly wiped out. Researchers believe that their burrows were destroyed to eliminate pests that inhabited their tunnel system. Habitat loss, invasive species, and competition for food resulting from worsening drought continue to take a toll on the critically endangered animals.

How to help:
Like many of Australia’s amazing species, wombats need help to survive the increasing threats of climate change and habitat loss. If you would like to find out how you can support the work of scientists and volunteers dedicated to ensuring the northern hairy-nosed wombat can tunnel on, visit the good people at The Wombat Foundation.

To learn more about the status of threatened wildlife globally, check out the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List—the world’s most comprehensive source of information for endangered flora and fauna. For a compelling overview of where we are on the wildlife conservation front and where we’re headed, we highly recommend The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert.

And because we’d like to leave you with some hopeful news, you can learn about a bold initiative launched by Leonardo DiCaprio to restore some of the planet’s rarest species at re:wild.org. The other good news is you don’t have to be a celebrity to help protect and preserve wildlife. You can find local ESD events, educational material, and more recommended reads at Endangered.org. Then head on over to World Wildlife Fund to sponsor a favorite creature year-round. Until we get Endangered Species Day off the calendar, it’s all hands on deck.

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Lisa S. French May 21, 2021

The Flower Power of Pigment

2-minute read

When it comes to growing flowers on your patch, are you partial to fiery reds, eye-popping pinks, cool blues, or vivid violets? Maybe all of the above? If you’re digging into the hopeful fall task of planting bulbs and perennials in anticipation of shades of spring to come, you may be interested to learn that there is more to flower color than meets the eye. How flowering plants keep on doing that beautiful blooming thing they do is partly owing to the protective power of pigment.

According to new research from Clemson University, petal pigmentation has been rapidly increasing in response to the stress of environmental change, helping pollen-producing parts of flowers to stay in good working order. This built-in mechanism for adjusting color intensity protects pollen from damage caused by ultraviolet (UV) radiation and higher temperatures, which can negatively impact plant reproduction.

Over the course of the 20th century, a decline in ozone led to more UV rays hitting the Earth’s surface. Flower petals can either absorb or reflect radiation to shield exposed or enclosed pollen-filled anthers from overexposure to UV. When ozone decreases and radiation increases, the Clemson research found that one way flowering plants with exposed anthers reduce UV stress is by increasing radiation-absorbing pigmentation. The study examined 42 species of plants on three continents over a period of eight decades and found that petal pigmentation has been increasing by about 2% a year.

Why the fuss about a bump up in petal pigment? More highly pigmented petals don’t just hang around looking pretty. By reducing the reflection of radiation onto the exposed anthers, the flower power of pigment increases resilience to changes in radiation so that pollen remains fertile and the plant can reproduce and bloom on. Learning more about how flowering plants adapt to environmental stress so when growing gets tough, the tough keep growing will be critical to maintaining the health of green living things for the benefit of both people and pollinators.

If you’ve tucked in the last of your tulip bulbs and poppy seeds and now you’re feeling the urge to go big, you can find out about the how, what and where of tree planting from our pals at American Forests.

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Lisa S. French October 29, 2020

A Trillion Trees! A Trillion Trees!

1-minute read

Good news alert!

In the midst of converging global challenges-COVID-19, climate change, biodiversity loss, and economic upheaval, there is a light at the end of the tunnel—and it’s green!

Our planting partners at American Forests have teamed up with the World Economic Forum to launch the U.S. Chapter of 1t.org. The goal of the collaboration is to conserve, restore and grow one trillion trees by 2030, creating millions of jobs to help ensure equitable environmental progress towards a green recovery.

This hopeful news for people and the planet also means cleaner air and water, more action on climate change, greater tree equity for our cities, and expanded habitat for the wild ones. What’s not to like?

American Forests and 26 diverse organizations have collectively pledged 855 million trees so far, as well as investments in mapping technologies and carbon finance. Planted across the United States from sea to shining sea, those 855 million trees will store more than 500 million tons of carbon dioxide. In case you’re wondering, that’s equal to the annual emissions from 108 million cars. Bring on the lovely, leafy sky vacuums.

FWP is delighted to contribute to this big tree-planting effort in our small press way, and if you’re feeling it, you can help too. Every time you buy a print or e-book from the Frankie and Peaches: Tales of Total Kindness series, we’ll thank you very much by planting one wildlands tree. If you’d really like to dig in and participate in the global greening movement, you can volunteer and share ideas through the 1t.org digital platform UpLink. We’re all in. Hope to see you there!

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Lisa S. French August 27, 2020

Crushing the Extinction Curve

2.5-minute read

Are there just about enough elephants? What is the right number of rhinos? Is there such a thing as an appropriate population of polar bears?

As we continue to monitor coronavirus numbers amidst the current round of hotspot whack-a-mole, conservation scientists are paying close attention to another important set of planetary health figures—rising extinction rates among the estimated 2 million documented species that make up the natural world. From the littlest lemur to the biggest tusker elephant, regardless of size, the unique genetic make-up of every species contributes to the diversity of life. And it’s that biological diversity that keeps our ecosystems stable and functioning, which is a really good and necessary thing for the well-being of all of Earth’s inhabitants.

Protecting and preserving the interdependent members of interconnected ecosystems is a massive, multi-faceted challenge. Is there a single target number that we should aim for that can be applied across millions of species to ensure that we can all keep on keeping on? Like the web of life, it’s complicated. Every species loss reduces diversity and weakens the web to varying degrees.

Scientists calculating how many species we can afford to lose have come up with a clear numerical goal to raise public awareness so that biodiversity conservation can be front and center as we make plans to protect nature better post-pandemic. According to their June 2020 report, the current rate of extinction is estimated to be up to 2,000 species a year—much higher than it should be so that Earth can continue to function as we like it. To help reduce extinctions everywhere on the globe, and to ensure that there is a place for everything and everything is in its place for proper planetary functioning scientists are recommending that we don’t exceed 20 extinctions a year across all species and ecosystems. From 2,000 to just 20.

Can we do it? To quote the stoic’s stoic, Marcus Aurelius, “…if a thing is humanly possible, consider it to be within your reach.” Through international cooperation, conservationists believe it is within our reach to reduce the number of species extinctions globally. As a case in point, despite a very turbulent year that has all but eliminated the tourism that provides critical support to conservation groups in biodiversity hotspots, Big Life Foundation continues to crush the megafauna extinction curve in Kenya. One of the most effective conservation organizations in Africa, Big Life protects and secures wildlife in 1.6 million acres of some of the most important natural habitat left in the world. And through the development of programs that benefit local communities, including critical health and education initiatives, Big Life also supports the people who will support conservation into the future. Winning hearts and minds through clever community-based conservation for healthy people on a healthy planet—most definitely humanly possible.

You can find out what’s currently happening on the ground in Kenya from Big Life’s conservation scientist Jeremy Goss and head of security Craig Millar here. If you would like to explore the strikingly evocative wildlife photography of Big Life co-founder Nick Brandt you can do that here. And if you’ve got any headspace left to monitor non-COVID-19 numbers, you can keep tabs on 95% of species known to science at the Catalogue of Life.

Before we go, we’d like to bid farewell to the smooth handfish. The last of its fish-fingered kind has officially departed the planet—the first modern-day marine fish to be declared extinct. We just got to know you, but we miss you already.

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Lisa S. French July 29, 2020

Dolphin See, Dolphin Do

2-minute read

While imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery amongst humans, for dolphins, believed to be the second most intelligent creatures on Earth, copying the behavior of finned friends is very much a practical matter—it’s all about upgrading fish acquisition skills.

According to new research from scientists working with the Dolphin Innovation Project at Australia’s Shark Bay Marine Reserve, the clever cetaceans are making the most of their ability to absorb and apply knowledge by forming alliances outside of their families and learning specialized tool-using techniques to increase the day’s catch.

Like many young in the animal kingdom, bottlenose dolphin calves typically pick up foraging know-how from their mothers. However, the Shark Bay study revealed that the cognitively advanced animals recognize a good idea when they see one—even if it doesn’t come from mom. The dolphins are also motivated to learn tool-based foraging innovations from social interactions with non-parental adults. This marine life mentoring has resulted in the spread of an ingenious prey capture strategy known as shelling.

By observing and imitating others, a small group of dolphins in Shark Bay have learned how to trap prey in large gastropod shells, lift the shells above water, and shake them to dislodge and devour the fishy contents. This is how they do it.

Researchers believe the dolphins may have developed the trap and shake method of foraging to adapt to environmental change. For two years following a 2011 heatwave that caused a reduction in food supply impacting their reproduction and survival, the dolphins’ shelling behavior increased by 50%. By taking advantage of opportunities to interact and learn from other adults, the Shark Bay dolphins increased their resilience to life-threatening ecosystem stressors. Who’s a super-smart, social-networking aquatic mammal!

By the way, the Shark Bay Marine Reserve is located in Useless Loop. Is there a better town name? Well, there might be, but we haven’t come across it!

If you’d like to help ensure bottlenose dolphins can keep on being their big-brained, tool-using selves, you can contribute to the mission-critical conservation of marine habitats by participating in Plastic Free July, a global movement to give up the indestructible stuff and return our oceans to their prior state of pristine. Feeling motivated to reduce your use of plastic at home, school, and work? You can get all sorts of inspiring ideas about how to cut it out from the good people at the Plastic Free Foundation.

As a powerful visual reminder of how much plastic ends up in our oceans (8 million metric tons a year!), the talented artists at Oregon’s Washed Ashore Project have created a menagerie of 80 beautiful and thought-provoking wildlife sculptures constructed from debris collected from local beaches. If you’ve ever wondered what a shark, seal, or sea turtle built from bottles, buckets, and gumboots might look like, wonder no more. You can take a peek at Washed Ashore’s current art to save the sea exhibits here.

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Lisa S. French July 15, 2020

Calling All Tree Lovers

1.5-minute read

We thought we’d start off this unusually unusual July with a celebration of something cool and comforting and lovely and leafy—trees—ahhh! We write about trees and plant trees and tend to trees because well, we’re tree people and because they’re the unsung green heroes of the planet. We believe in giving nature credit where credit is due, and so do our planting partners at American Forests, which is why since 1940, they’ve sponsored a national hunt to locate and crown the most colossal of America’s trees.

So if you’re looking for a perfect activity to help you keep your social distance during the dog days of summer, it’s officially tree-tracking season, time to hit the lonesome trails, and keep your eyes peeled for a massive marvel in your local field, forest or national park. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, and we hope that you will, is to locate, measure and nominate the largest tree you can find to American Forests’ National Register of Champion Trees. Learn how to propose a potential champion, then gather your tree’s photos, facts and figures and submit your awe-inspiring specimen for consideration beginning October 1, 2020. Not only will you be contributing to forest heritage, you’ll also be helping scientists learn more about how large, old-growth trees capture and store carbon and filter water.

If wandering in one of 419 U.S. national parks in pursuit of gargantuan trees is on your safely-able-to-do list, you can also share your unique photographic point of view in the federal recreation lands photo contest. Check out rules, recent snaps, and previous winners here.

And if you’d like to find out which trees were the 2020 favorites of our nature-loving friends in Europe, you can read the winning stories of the Guardian of the Flooded Village, the Gingko from Daruvar, and the Lonely Poplar at the aptly named European Tree of the Year.

To borrow from EU environmental expert Ladislav Miko, we celebrate trees and get to know their stories to learn why they are important for us as humans. Tree lovers and tree admirers create a good society of people.

We always knew being a citizen of nature would come in handy.

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Lisa S. French July 6, 2020