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New laws liberalizingthe hunting and trapping of gray wolves in the Northern Rockies might warrant putting the animals back under the protection of the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said this past Wednesday.
Backed by the ranching industry, which views wolves as a growing liability in states with extensive cattle and sheep grazing, bothIdaho and Montana enacted laws earlier this yearmaking it easier to hunt and trap wolves, legalizing tactics previously reserved for far…
39-year-old Raymond Jones of Salmon was bow hunting for a mountain goat in the east fork of Hayden Creek when he was last seen on Sept. 7, 1968. The next afternoon, Lemhi County Sheriff Bill Baker was called to the camp as Jones had not returned.
On Sept. 9,1968, an official search was initiated and lasted for several days. The search was hampered by foul weather, and Jones was never located.
On Sept. 17, 2021 at about 4 p.m., the Lemhi County Sheriff’s Office received a call from a bow hunter who was hunting in the east fork of Hayden Creek. The hunter was seeking a shortcut from one hunting area to another when he found human remains…
A 74-year-old Italian hunter died in hospital after being attacked by a wild boar during a hunting trip in the Piemonte region of northern Italy on Sunday.
The boar’s tusks severed the man’s femoral artery, causing a haemorrhage. He was flown by helicopter to hospital in Alessandria where he died of his injuries a few hours later.
The man is reportedly the first victim of the 2021 hunting season, which over the five-month period last autumn/winter, resulted in the deaths of 14 people in accidents, according to Italian media.
Wild boar orcinghiali- which regularly make the news in Italy – can be extremely dangerous particularly in the…
A fatal hunting incident occurred Friday on the Kilpacker Basin Trail in the San Juan National Forest. (Courtesy photo)
An arrest affidavit reveals that two hunters from Pennsylvania were calling in an elk Friday morning in the San Juan National Forest north of Rico, Colorado, when one mistook a bow hunter for their prey and fatally shot him.
Berlin — Senior politicians in Germany expressed shock over the weekend killing of a young gas station clerk who asked a customer to wear a face mask, and they warned Tuesday against the radicalization of people who oppose the country’s coronavirus pandemic restrictions. A 49-year-old German man was arrested in the fatal Saturday shooting of the clerk in the western town of Idar-Oberstein. The suspect is being held on suspicion of murder.
Authorities said the man told officers he acted “out of anger” after being refused service for not wearing a mask while trying to buy beer.
A police car is seen at a gas station in the city of Idar-Oberstein, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, September 21, 2021, after an employee was fatally shot by a man who objected to the national face mask mandate.THOMAS FREY/PICTURE ALLIANCE/GETTY
“He further stated during interrogation that he rejected the measures against the coronavirus,” the Trier police department said in a statement.
A requirement to wear masks in stores is among the measures in place in Germany to stop the spread of the virus.
According to police, the suspect left the gas station after the dispute but then returned half an hour later wearing a mask and fatally shot the 20-year-old clerk in the head.
The suspect, a German citizen who wasn’t identified by name in line with privacy laws, fled the scene and turned himself in to police on Sunday morning.https://www.cbsnews.com/embed/video/?v=35f39e5069e2b3947a89111fcb597ac9#xVkJb9vGEv4rBIHqHRYl3qRcGIWPuDVemvjZSVE8yxWW5Eraild2Scmyof%2F%2BZnYpkZLjukXSNonN5V5z7Lcz3zBPOqmrokzJWj%2BeklTQvp7QJYupfgwNsYAxva8vWUIL%2FfhJZxXNhH5896RX6xLnLIsExlkCTRKZI8%2BzRobr2KbhBmZiRNYoNmxzGnoRsSxqUpiblQ83dHqFK66D98n35qef1%2F%2B9St7Gbu1d1tnksSYfy%2FrnklAHZou0nsHMjPCF8VjHC8ojymeGIGthTElMo6JYGJxmxZImhhUaGUtTVuRGWYhKGCtWzY24APVhQLB8WvCMVDi%2BKvIKdzHmxcrISL42SgpuoMaS0RVsVc1pBuIrVqVo5o8gX%2FvfTr5W5NplI11bkjhmOdV2EgaDgY5uXMBCaEzrNH1pH7Sj3amxQ7NCrbFDk3ZoaId2%2Fv6nqwtt346%2BBob8o8J9NLBEQ0s0ZYmmLNEaS2KSFzmLSfrhb1elYhkVFclK%2Fdjy7ZEd%2BqFnwh%2FwWc3lXvqxbQbt61sS0RRUNp1jO4ANUvWeg2MBexmZUYHgFIipeVWV4ng8HA%2FjSOR0JewBNBjIq1g8iItsPJzX0XjIxkM%2BHtqmbY2HZjgeWvCThNbIia3Y8Nxoarj%2BNDJGcWIZYWJHI5rYZuLD7GpeZ1FOWDoe%2Bq754PjmeEhNK7AsmOuSkRVG1nREvMSFvtCiUzoKUAagM66yDoolMA9wuWD5zAgCJxi5RrP74NdyBkbPP2ud9SdaZ9mh%2BRDYYF7smTBOXN%2BOvNCjFEyNk4TCwUWmH3jki83b9PWSU4TJR57u2SnKFKLRgGTpbMCK8ZCUYNvShh%2BMSePhazFkPGw2Hg%2FbQNbZv%2BRFMoAoJkcGjVeVJ5sXEAW%2BnKfi0KHgTtcJHNd1fAucJM0KJnJiRkRF%2BSBz6nAr1f7LxSq3Y2Qu0YnyBMbDByMr6ezjzVuYUR84e7Va7evSOPlvCb%2FywJi4ynAzynf5CVISi2Uywhvh%2Bqbre3ZoBF4IKljUNkaJZRumaYVTGhLTjMw2j4BxsDcTRlbwHLCI94pRTng8hwR4h%2BMajmvb8XsAJuE0rz6g1Hckw9B5fnarfcBZPz7f5WytJt09nwV7kTRtxOyrcQ8XgJZMFAkstUBdSgSGQd1C3eksAw3UQF0CnoXYeQN2PI1j6DlLi3ixC4rio6D8to5EzFlEk910URa5KPh23pw%2BnF7QKalTxInZh7%2B67D1re51R3%2FX63ggGSIJ%2Bn67U70nK8sUefoKpGQSD5WC6yiAN5rSC%2B5qMhzMA7XexYMnJEiyfNAibNPxisqLRBK5Cj4h8deLZpmNZvZjA7Nfudm%2BaktnJN%2FYZyeIIHjSLOTxEWpXyITs%2FVfIBnAYf04gkOLbOY3jktVxAaMV6Ga34iWXaTq%2FVAm7ptGl%2F45x%2BXxSzlF6cXp3fnl5NliaML3l%2Bcndz%2Bu7i%2FY%2F3PTiX8mSZkdJCeXAV3Z7omLQsO5O%2FnYD%2FckbhUPIJ3M8Jmmuem%2BdOcHoBlOncNdw3l4Fxeml7xtmbs%2FMzy7%2B4DL03PfAanGmJ12gC9%2FdEeh%2B0%2B8a%2BhH8HN7i3nNWw85N8bHri8eQJuR7lE8Ee6aY3h6v1yg4lMj1Yho9NT16%2Bkyf52PQUVTx5Us9ND%2Fau8JJLKbK16aGhTEzg%2FeRJPTe9p2kmJnCvSCY23%2BryipFM5nBECdLK38AJ4hDcqh8rvyK1Yb%2BTTSJeYOYR4uUI0XKEWDlCpBwhTo4QJUeIkSNEyBHi4wjRgbwV8AFXEADS17vSESOwp3o9foYRtA5QAjO2Rw89iBS0ErFyJJGC13zPKETL%2FqLniEGjfw9mJBvdQ81vRX1MWAgXmNPgBpV7xNcudjBOAHpe2als6oQGP%2FoufOsNhvROwbHFEa5r8NNIVVhqnKBQhCMNniR9aBds65YNdFecxEg6JLaKTMQFp7IN6dgxTc8MfQCQq4L6u1bv2Ieuf2OQhJdcTEQ1maGKaJrqIeWE4Am9Gw9Pd3PiSoLXsnY90kPdvVGrmaqm4qLOK86Qvd5BcohS0DVluEJG6w1CWx6Z%2BBz1c16kfttVr7OjAUmiyUOGRmb1wzUvSsqr9X8oJEPddgOaEM93rCCxPHfkjizbcYjj65t7eR2IJN3g4YrO1tiGvnmRKMJB80Sa2iReSSQMoAkcIAT0oKxTwhENCh6gPiQmTHJtzYX3vGTQ2NGQhzkworhIUxorLrNb1kw5FDAefocQKWYzmkxYfmLqB5Bg4k1OohQTZMVrTKccvJnS0xos4Vik3umOmZA4iWLDJyF5iWHcHyzdkoDmrLR%2FzhkQ5lyL1pA06b8682UlbPmea%2FpeYFBvRAwoHKgRhY5vJI4Xxa7ljUwr1ndLruvoApyOZwTM0DBHhm1plnvsjI5Nv522rfRmRGgSJlDEQTeUfVnNE8qhIoMboxGB3tCIFteiKjLKtarQVpTACBRxYtHZcHtYeQU%2BnzS9eFt2Z6JcNrJ94CSeY9Bk5EOpQYgRkhHYFPngPhKEoemgC9p1O38VvMjJkvFaaBCwAN84T8WFRnz7WYKJC7pEL8gUMttOkEkDv1Rg3ILnDwzZ452%2BKnia4HbYeavkwnTVrXqbHTA%2Bw%2F1hSwqOiLZBS56Ubwbe1DVf45tVhy5uBdRAyRoBWIxjIcsyBrfd3Xn4tqi5DIUE7Ys4yZPrJrBJ6duUiLpOWkcACZT8VLRm9ruu3H8zEob8kkLKsJDVIZE3mpNWbF12A2yMBjYYHtS4Qg6OUo68XbqTAiISwtc7HZ51XiVNNx5T45bxUJU5TYEA%2Bxu8hhKg2dnoyDckbI0tbGVlMLlut2rccvyFW24RcLFNSPs4%2BOWXX1qX49xrzqAyWt8ozoLRuFEEB5s5%2BxoiMihJWZ1h9EHqwNLOcLOO5ohqLBH1TefLzWFp%2FKxa%2ByLjM5owcl2ACjChgSnNsHZQp%2FbnSpfh%2B1URf3M5utlWQLOywkdF%2BAzI4ZZdbGOZDJHdu9dQnru%2F7kp%2B5htuhyCpmLalZt1wGSsk%2F%2BEz3APthEDdKH11XuRTJr0DtSDEpQU2E4zZoe1D1PtEti3YFvmVepHIl%2B1Nv0MqkJIbLMcEKjn0TDGju6emDXNq5bCWVukzNHWK7mG46pFgXJ3Dr8UKfkmu9wn7BP4iOIV9QmuwqF9TLMw725P6cHvZkz8ezhOMHM4UuGO2Rsej%2BGquvpsD9PEs56g4y2EfZAbJx5xVTcTMikjGiKduN9IY5C3V8375XbXT%2BdTscJnSB4jFMu40txw03QazR6nknWObfc%2B8798BN%2B7bqmVbfcfChuP37RC7oI7C%2BuAeM7jkDB%2B6FwEYYQ4YWdKFpJGxOY2ApsTSvoQ%2BvHmI5ySf0VuAnMxpdmA6oaUQGlP80qG6IaO6AcAeWWRrAkQoW0r5LZWfadqX01zowxy0M9%2F%2BegY4Lxhgm88NcP64AXtqO19Pbe8lta0Dta%2Fy%2BAu1BjVQma%2BleXCo%2BR2yYR%2BZNIw0Ta9t%2Bm0zaJth2xztmr7ZNq22abdNp2220vxWmt9K81tpfivNb6UFrbSglRa00oJWWtBKC1ppQSstaKUFIUQTFRBugVwu1p87v%2F0TEmreVzuk0UvX2nYAXlK5snwewj7LmzC%2FklLQNxkkrgu23FZsglY3dApMbf4Rkg3k4OQ2Lar2AymMn6dQzRyMqsWQdjGMXoFwRtK3BWm%2FlD4fOodqk%2BQq6ajlVBaPt%2BChlN7QTzXF2r07dIo56wZqYcqlGxup6tvqzS5dYCoiyXuZx2XQV6t%2FoAR6zqBy7C5Wekmbdgf0Pkc9X7aq8RDIktbpuzmnCVxsTtX35cZyJfyGlhSKzOQ0EZ3vEUCUCORfrmohyyWOG8d2GI%2FUf9YW1U%2BEi72Er2Mef4kMPz9U%2BcW7agqJXS3zua876LKGpyIfw1fYQVUa0AZKtTSAxhDOyVp%2BYI%2BBHbIDHSZElUo4cks5sqZrUs1leYKfrmEfNagKBAoUHY8MGUsd3XZeobi7ZFxUWJV07g0eyGbzfw%3D%3D
The center-left Green party’s candidate to succeed German Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced dismay at the killing. Germany’s federal election is scheduled for Sunday.
“I’m shaken by this terrible murder of a young man who merely asked that existing rules be followed,” Annalena Baerbock said in a tweet.
Baerbock also expressed concern about the radicalization of Germany’s Querdenken movement, which includes people who oppose masks and vaccines, conspiracy theorists and some far-right and neo-Nazi extremists.
Authorities didn’t immediately say whether the suspect in the gas station killing was associated with the movement, which has come under increasing scrutiny from Germany’s security services following a series of large antigovernment protests, some of which turned violent.https://www.cbsnews.com/embed/video/?v=35f39e5069e2b3947a89111fcb597ac9#zVkLb9tGEv4rAoEKd2etxDcpF0Yh28nFd0nqs5MWOCsVlsultDVf4ZKSHUP%2F%2FWZ2KZGynaZF0%2BDQwFztax777cw32weDNnVRpvTeOE5oKvnIiPlaMG4cQ0PewpgxMtYi5oVx%2FGCImmfSOL55MOr7EuesixjGRQxNyjzHcUxOEjcJiBuEPoks1ySR6YaMW0lgxgnMzcq7K55c4Iq7j%2B9vr94Fr5bZ6zKJSuuaX76xfnr1c%2FGv%2F87c%2F%2BQcZsu0WcLMzQokk1XRSE6KJOGVJIymKdmIekXigtUF9NQFyQW7FSQTOf2V0KTmFaloWcKnLGQtyZoyJnIOE6TIk6LKaC2KnMC%2FGnaC6SCxFnWKlv2MIgevUOSg4rIs8lgO6mLwBjcf1BvO60GRD%2FSW4%2FHYQM%2FdwkJoJE2aPrePVn2Aqg9Q9UGr%2BkDpOniL2rcClMLt7nxwqDDKfbdXmNG8ALtp%2Bu5bSaxFxmVNs9I4tnzHCh0n9D3TNMEDTaXmG8euG3Q%2FX9OIp6CZGRzbAWyQ6t85uAnAk9Ell4guiaBY1XUpj%2BeT%2BYRFMucbaY2hIUBeLdiYFdl8smqi%2BUTMJ9V8Ypu2NZ%2BY0%2FnE8ueTMOSuGfpTYoeeQ9zEjUkY8YSwqWlO%2FanPfMeeT%2BpVk0U5Fel84rvmneOb84njTGkyDa3Ed1wvhpnwh4cec6kXJdOYa21I0kgEzLeCI9mrSoKp69kWaRUe%2F1ouwY%2BrZx1m%2F4UOs%2BzQvAts8Bgz3all8iBioeM6oZnYQeAHlHMbbroXO%2F%2BPHtuOjLKC8MY376v0wHWyTCHojWmWLseimE9oCe5ag%2B0q9M0nXwpV80m78XzSxcve%2FmVVxGMIlmpk3B6UPpz2B4iC41ml8vEZWVM3AF%2BbduB53nyCZlnThZqYUQk2jzOnCXdS7W8uVh8DJoASnahOBBxGspIv31%2B9hhnNI2dvNptDXVonfyuQqDMS8iLD%2BRDRdpkPkp1gKs3hvQqpEzDfiwiLYpe4EYsglcU%2BSSKTU2YHUysIuwyF9uCNFLyiFVtBOr3RfR8Ac7Tief0Od39LMwzRZ6fXb%2FuzT%2B%2F1wI0egTVgd7cF4JaXQhYxTLFAJKcSY6xhoXy%2BzGB3PdCUAEMp9xbBLjPGoOc0LdjtPuLK95JX100kWSUiHu%2BnY5aTRbWbt%2BJ3s3Oe0CbF4zVH8J%2Bhek%2B7Xmc6cr2RN4UBGqPvko3%2Bu0hFfntw7EFiBsF4PU42WZWNc17DNYvnkyVg7QcmRXyyBmsXLTAWLftYbHi0AAQPqcw3J55tOpY1ZBRmf%2BlKDpOULk%2B%2Bs09pxiL48IxV8JFpXaqP6vxYqw8wHvwkEY1x7D5n8MkbtYDyWgwzXlcnlmk7w04LuFxJ2%2F7Omf2zKJYpP59dnF3PLhZrE8bXVX5yczV7e%2F7jmw9D5BAn64yWFsqDG%2BQOZc%2Bkddmb%2FP0C%2FJcLDoeSLwDaCzD30jwzz5xgdk5s8wzw%2BOJlQGYvbY%2Bcvjg9O7X885eh92IIXoMzLRHwC7h2J8r7oN139kv49%2BjiDdfLBnZ%2BUJ%2FtUH46eUAmyKuFFJ%2F4driC6%2FGFHUrkgbAMP9uhukAnD%2BqzHWoiefKgv9sh7F3jdVRSVGs7REOFXMDvkwf93Q4fkkwu4M7QTG6%2FN9T1oZkiCIgSJJ2%2FgRPEIbjVONZ%2BRXokfifXRLzAzCPEyxGi5QixcoRIOUKcHCFKjhAjR4iQI8THEaIDWS3gA64gAGRk9KUjRmBP%2FfP4CUbQOkAJzNgdPfQgUtBKxMqRQgpe8wOjEC2Hi54iBsZ%2FF2YUcT1AzW8Fa8wzCBeY0%2BIGlfuEP%2FvYwTgB6PnCTmVbRbT4MfYh2GgxZPTKkR2OcF2Ln1aqxlLrBI0iHGnxpLJ%2Bt2BX1Wyhu64oZJJ8qbBVZJIVFVdtyKKOaXpAjQBAbhuwO72ZD13%2FwCAJP3K5kPViiSqiabqHlguKJ%2FR2Ppnt57Bagdey9j3KQ%2F29UaulrrVY0eR1JZAa30BCiFLQNRW4QkXrLUJbHZl8jgQ6nyWBu1VfJjVjGkeLuwyNzJq7y6qAHFvf%2F5tDcjNsN%2BAx9YD%2BB7HluVMgg7bjUMc3th%2FUdaCK0YOHa768xzb0rYpY8wSex8rUNnmq%2FE%2BKNa8AQpDFyyalqtDQ8AD1ITFhkuvKM7znpYBGR9FWkNhZkaacaQqyX9ZOeSxgPvkBIVIslzxeiPzENB5BQsgXOY1STJB11WA6rcCbKZ81YEmFJeyN4ZgxZXHEiE9DSiyL22QaWzYxTStMeEhNMzJVPu8v3SX79qwGf1uJOOb5ILqHpMn%2F3puv6mTL91zT9wLCvSklrhVwEoWOT2LHi5hreVPTYsZ%2ByWUTnYPT8YyA0BETyL01sNxjZ3ps%2Bt20XbW4pHKgYAIlHnRXt4OsqWJe8XgAN2ZAJXpjQAeskXWRQc0INfCGUxgZAA%2B87W24O6y8Bp8v2l68Lfsz0S6b2j5wEqg3OBRaxPUpJSGdgk2RD%2B6jQRiaDrqgW7f3V1EVOV2LqoGStgJ6J3Gejgut%2BO7RQshzvkYvqBSy3E1QSQPfMTBuwfeVQAZ4Y2yKKo1xO%2By81nLx5UF16952B%2F0aIMWagyOiXdBSJ%2BWbgZdARUUCL4w%2Fh4Z2QUsFdwKA9FatACzosUoWmYDb7u49fF00lQqFFO2LKprHl21gU9J3KRF1XXSOABKouKfszBz1XXn4i8QC%2BSWHlGEhq0soAyqtT5oVcJGI6gbYkBY2GB70uEYOjnJg3fm9cicHRMS0ut%2Fr8KTzIm678Zhat8wnujrRInF%2FUjUpJ%2B3OpCefKNiSHWwVu19cdlu1bjn%2Bk1vuEHC%2BS0iHOPjll186l%2BPcy0pkYOGV5iwYjVtFcLCdc6ghIoPTVDQZRh%2BkDiLtDbfreI6oxsrO2PZefx5XtE%2BKrD9lfMZjQS8LUAEmtDDlGdYO%2BtT%2BWukqfH9RxLevIre7omdZ1vipabUEPrgjFLvwpaJi%2F7q1LOfm293CZx51e5xIh7EdG%2BtHSKbB%2B4eP7QCnCwqlovLVWZEnQnkHyj8IRbfYjDFMh7YPge4j3bVgW6RU%2BocCu2pvRz0egSyciBxzpqLNS02Gbh7aNsxptMM6JmUs0dQE3SNw1SeKoXQFf2438EfRu4%2FYJ%2FEPxSniI1qD7233HGvx3va0eby96sk%2FPZ4nBX08U%2BKO2T06HsXXK%2F2QDmhXDwmouMDaH8lA%2FD4XdRsksyJSYeGh343MBalK%2FbRfvdP2Oh%2FaHV6m%2FA7Crwo17cUGTXfx65NS8saxzZFnfhjdAB0e2bplWyPHwobjj%2BwQu6B0wpLgAyZtRRPe9S8CkMAcMLLmt4o5MjOJgJkwZV%2FM717csRXNl%2FwaIKfSmB2YTmhphDKOjxu6G5KoGwDskTh2JkBQspWU31L5iaYjNc2FPkw7e%2FPtr2eA8xkDbPOpAc4fN%2BBAbefrqe19Tm3rkdoXOfuTWoMaqMzX0jx4rPkNEmAfyTOMtE2va%2FpdM%2BiaYdec7pu%2B2TWtrml3TadrdtL8TprfSfM7aX4nze%2BkBZ20oJMWdNKCTlrQSQs6aUEnLeikBSFEEx0QroFP3t4%2Fd36HJyT1vK92SNPPXWvbAXgp5cryaQh7liphfqWl5C8ySFznYr0r0iSvr3gC5Gz1HpIN5OD4Oi3q7k0Uxs9SKGAejerFkHYxjF6AcEHT1wXtHkefDp1BgUlznXT0cq7qxWvwUMqv%2BMeGY7neH5phzrqC8pdXyo2tVP2cerVPF5iKaPyjyuMq6OvVrziFnlMoFvuLtV7Kpv0B%2FZijnp%2B3qvUQyFLWGfs5sxgudsX1k3JruRZ%2BxUsOdWU8i2XvCQKqPQr5t9Llj%2BVSx2XMDtkUMSrBtT%2FRSh4kfAPz%2BOf479NDVY%2FcdVs77MuX5x500GUtNUU%2Bhj9hB11cQBso1ZoAjaFVRe%2FVmzorilvxSIcF1dURjlzzClnTJa1XqiLB12rYRw%2FqmoBLqf93Jz6%2BR9e9n0A%2FX4pK1liI9O4NHsh2%2Bz8%3D
Prosecutors told Germany’s dpa news agency that the man wasn’t previously known to police and that he wasn’t legally entitled to possess the firearm found at his house.
Paul Ziemiak, the general secretary of Merkel’s center-right Christian Democratic Union party, called the clerk’s slaying “incomprehensible.”
“A young man was virtually executed because he pointed out the mask requirement,” Ziemiak said on Twitter. “An inconceivable level of radicalization!”
Facebook last week removed almost 150 accounts and pages linked to the Querdenken movement under a new policy focused on groups that spread misinformation or incite violence but which didn’t fit into the platform’s existing categories of bad actors.
Toxic microbial blooms thrived during the Great Dying, the most severe extinction in Earth’s history, and they are proliferating again due to human activity.By Becky FerreiraSeptember 21, 2021, 6:17am
FISH DIE AS A RESULT OF ALGAL BLOOM IN FLORIDA, 2021. IMAGE: ANDREW LICHTENSTEIN / CONTRIBUTOR VIA GETTY IMAGES
ABSTRACT breaks down mind-bending scientific research, future tech, new discoveries, and major breakthroughs.SEE MORE →
If you live near a freshwater river or lake, odds are good that you have seen warning signs about harmful algal and bacterial blooms posted on its shores. Alarmingly, a new study reports that these blooms may be early indicators of an ongoing ecological disaster, caused by humans, that eerily parallels the worst extinction event in Earth’s history.
Some 251 million years ago, the end-Permian event (EPE), popularly known as the “Great Dying,” wiped out nearly 90 percent of species on Earth, making it the most severe loss of life in our planet’s history.ADVERTISEMENT
Ominous parallels of that upheaval are now showing up on Earth, according to a team led by Chris Mays, a postdoctoral researcher and palaeobotanist at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm. The researchers found that toxic algal and bacterial blooms during the Great Dying are similar to a recent microbial proliferation in modern lakes and rivers—a trend that has been linked to human activities such as greenhouse gas emissions (especially carbon dioxide), deforestation, and soil loss.
“We are not there yet,” Mays said in an email, referring to the conditions of the EPE. “There was probably a six-fold increase in carbon dioxide during the EPE, but today carbon dioxide levels haven’t yet doubled since pre-industrial times.”
“But with the present steep increase in carbon dioxide, we’re playing catch-up pretty well,” he cautioned. “And the chances of harmful microbial bloom events, along with many other deleterious facets of change (e.g., intense hurricanes, floods, wildfires), also rise…all the way up this steep carbon dioxide slope.”
The repeated correlation of these blooms with mass extinction events is “a disconcerting signal for future environmental change,” report the researchers in a study published on Friday in the journal Nature Communications. Indeed, there’s a lot of evidence to suggest we are currently in the midst of yet another mass extinction event, caused by humans. ADVERTISEMENT
Not only do microbial blooms transform freshwater habitats into “dead zones” that can both choke out other species, thereby increasing the severity of extinction events, they can also delay the recovery of ecosystems by millions of years, the team noted.
Mays and his colleagues reached this troubling conclusion by analyzing fossil records near Sydney, Australia, that were laid down before, during, and after the end-Permian extinction.
Though the exact mechanisms behind the Great Dying are a matter of debate, it was driven in part by an intense bout of volcanic eruptions that sparked a dramatic uptick in global temperatures and greenhouse gases emissions. Wildfires, droughts, and other disruptions swept across the woodlands, causing a collapse of plant life and widespread deforestation.
The sudden loss of forests, which act as a sink for carbon, created a noticeable “coal gap” during the end-Permian that exposes this long-term interruption in carbon sequestration. Nutrients and soils that had once been metabolized by these botanical ecosystems instead seeped into nearby freshwater habitats, bolstering microbial blooms that were already thriving as a result of higher temperature and atmospheric carbon.
These microbial communities are an integral part of freshwater ecosystems worldwide, but the effects of human-driven climate change—including wildfires, deforestation, soil loss, and drought—are driving a new bloom boom. ADVERTISEMENT
“The three main ingredients for this kind of toxic soup are accelerated greenhouse gas emissions, high temperatures, and abundant nutrients,” Mays said. “During the EPE and other extreme warming events, volcanic eruptions provided the first two, while sudden deforestation caused the third. Specifically: when the trees were wiped out, the soils bled into the rivers and lakes, providing all the nutrients that the microbes would need.”
“Today, humans are providing all three of the ingredients in abundance,” he noted. “Carbon dioxide and warming are the inevitable byproducts of burning fossil fuels for hundreds of years, and we’ve provided copious nutrients into our waterways, mostly from agriculture and logging. Together, this mix has led to a sharp increase in freshwater toxic blooms.”
This pattern threatens to spread the reach of toxic sludge and create the kind of dangerous dead zones that contributed to the enormous ecological turmoil, and slow recovery, of the Great Dying. Indeed, Mays’ team drew comparisons between the End-Permian’s blooms and those that are flourishing today, including their texture, filamentous structure, strong fluorescence, and concentrations.
“The concentrations of algae from the end-Permian event, the worst mass extinction in Earth’s history, were as high as some bloom events we see today,” Mays said. “But the EPE blooms occurred without humans helping.”Tech
The team notes that “the optimal growth temperature range” for these freshwater microbes is 20–32°C, which matches the estimated summer air temperatures during the early Triassic, the period that immediately followed the Permian, and is also within the range of projected temperatures at mid-latitudes for the year 2100, according to the study.
“The beauty of looking at prehistoric extreme warming events, like the end-Permian, is that they provide, arguably, a cleaner signal of the consequences of climate change,” Mays noted. “This is because the fossils and rocks show us the results of warming without additional messy influences from humans” such as “nutrient influx from agriculture, deforestation via logging, extinctions by poaching/overfishing,” and more. ADVERTISEMENT
“As it turns out, you can cause a large number of extinctions simply by releasing a lot of greenhouse gas in a short time frame,” he continued. “It doesn’t matter where the gases come from―volcanoes, airplanes, coal-fired power plants―the results may end up the same.”
Clearly, it’s not encouraging to see the same ecological trends of the worst mass extinction event in Earth’s history popping up in freshwater systems all around us. Tracking the continued emergence of these blooms could help scientists predict the environmental costs of the climate crisis in the coming years and decades, which may also include an extremely delayed recovery of the ecosystems lost to the advance of microbial dead zones.
Mays and his colleagues also plan to study the role of wildfires in mass extinction, as well as the burning of crucial carbon sinks such as the wetlands of South America or the peatlands of Siberia.
“As we’ve seen in the fossil record, without these regions of carbon-dioxide-drawdown, the world can stay intolerably warm for hundreds of millennia,” Mays said. “While wildfires play an important role in some ecosystems, I think most scientists would agree that preventing the burning of carbon sinks should be a global priority if we want to help minimize the long-term impacts of warming.”
“Unlike the species that suffered the mass extinctions of the past,” he concluded, “we have the opportunity to prevent these toxic blooms by keeping our waterways clean and curbing our greenhouse gas emissions.”
Some familiar faces in the fast food industry have banded together to ‘sue’ a vegan meat company – at least according to Alpha Foods.
The California-based brand has launched a cheeky campaign to promote its plant-based meat products. The campaign sees blurred-out images of Ronald McDonald, Colonel Sanders, and Wendy alleging that Alpha Foods ‘accidentally’ turned them vegan.
“It first started with the chik’n nuggets, and then their meatless spicy chorizo breakfast sandwiches, and that led to their bac’n scramble burritos,” said the Wendy-like figure. “I feel the emotional scars will never heal. Without punitive damages to heal them.”
Ronald McDonald claimed: “I got duped into becoming vegan and it makes me sad. It’s my job to be happy. So I’m suing for lost wages.”
Alpha Foods campaign
Alpha Foods teamed up with creative agency Mischief @ No Fixed Address to create the campaign.
Hunter Fine, Creative Director at Mischief, commented: “We loved having fun with the idea that America’s most dedicated meat eaters are disturbed and confused by how much Alpha’s plant-based products taste like real meat.
“These days unhappy consumers usually complain on the Internet, or they sue. We went with the second option.”
The campaign invites consumers to ‘seek compensation’ by registering on the Alpha Foods’ website. Those who do receive a free vegan burrito or a $1 coupon for any Alpha Foods product.
ByAUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITYSEPTEMBER 20, 2021
Credit: Australian National University
Decaying wood releases around 10.9 gigatons of carbon worldwide every year, according to a new study by an international team of scientists.
This is roughly equivalent to 115 percent of fossil fuel emissions.
Co-author of the study Professor David Lindenmayer from TheAustralian National University(ANU) says it’s the first time researchers have been able to quantify the contribution of deadwood to the global carbon cycle.
“Until now, little has been known about the role of dead trees,” Professor Lindenmayer said.
“We know living trees play a vital role in absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But up until now, we didn’t know what happens when those trees decompose. It turns out, it has a massive impact.”
By AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY SEPTEMBER 20, 2021
Credit: Australian National University
Decaying wood releases around 10.9 gigatons of carbon worldwide every year, according to a new study by an international team of scientists.
This is roughly equivalent to 115 percent of fossil fuel emissions.
Co-author of the study Professor David Lindenmayer from The Australian National University (ANU) says it’s the first time researchers have been able to quantify the contribution of deadwood to the global carbon cycle.
“Until now, little has been known about the role of dead trees,” Professor Lindenmayer said.
“We know living trees play a vital role in absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But up until now, we didn’t know what happens when those trees decompose. It turns out, it has a massive impact.”
Professor Lindenmayer said the decomposition is driven by natural processes including temperature and insects.
“The decomposition of wood and the recycling of those nutrients is a critically important process in forests,” he said.
The research showed decomposition can’t happen without wood-boring insects such as Longicorn Beetles.
“We knew insects such as termites and wood-boring Longicorn beetles can accelerate deadwood decomposition,” study co-author Dr. Marisa Stone from Griffith University said.
“But until now, we didn’t know how much they contribute to deadwood carbon release globally.
“Insects accounted for 29% of deadwood carbon release each year. However, their role was disproportionately greater within the tropics and had little effect in regions of low temperatures.”
The global research project encompassed 55 forest areas on six continents. The research team studied wood from more than 140 tree species to determine the influence of climate on the rate of decomposition.
“Half the wood was placed in mesh cages which kept out insects, allowing us to study their contribution,” Professor Lindenmayer said.
“We found both the rate of decomposition and the contribution of insects are highly dependent on the climate, and will increase as temperatures rise. Higher levels of precipitation accelerate the decomposition in warmer regions and slow it down in lower temperature regions.”
Tropical forests contribute 93 percent of all carbon released by deadwood, due to their high wood mass and rapid rates of decomposition.
The study was led by Dr. Sebastian Seibold from the Technical University of Munich.
“At a time of global change, we can see some dramatic declines in biodiversity and changes in climate,” Dr. Seibold said.
“This study has demonstrated that both climate change and the loss of insects have the potential to alter the decomposition of wood, and therefore, carbon and nutrient cycles worldwide.”
The study has been published in Nature.
Reference: “The contribution of insects to global forest deadwood decomposition” by Sebastian Seibold, Werner Rammer, Torsten Hothorn, Rupert Seidl, Michael D. Ulyshen, Janina Lorz, Marc W. Cadotte, David B. Lindenmayer, Yagya P. Adhikari, Roxana Aragón, Soyeon Bae, Petr Baldrian, Hassan Barimani Varandi, Jos Barlow, Claus Bässler, Jacques Beauchêne, Erika Berenguer, Rodrigo S. Bergamin, Tone Birkemoe, Gergely Boros, Roland Brandl, Hervé Brustel, Philip J. Burton, Yvonne T. Cakpo-Tossou, Jorge Castro, Eugénie Cateau, Tyler P. Cobb, Nina Farwig, Romina D. Fernández, Jennifer Firn, Kee Seng Gan, Grizelle González, Martin M. Gossner, Jan C. Habel, Christian Hébert, Christoph Heibl, Osmo Heikkala, Andreas Hemp, Claudia Hemp, Joakim Hjältén, Stefan Hotes, Jari Kouki, Thibault Lachat, Jie Liu, Yu Liu, Ya-Huang Luo, Damasa M. Macandog, Pablo E. Martina, Sharif A. Mukul, Baatarbileg Nachin, Kurtis Nisbet, John O’Halloran, Anne Oxbrough, Jeev Nath Pandey, Tomáš Pavlíček, Stephen M. Pawson, Jacques S. Rakotondranary, Jean-Baptiste Ramanamanjato, Liana Rossi, Jürgen Schmidl, Mark Schulze, Stephen Seaton, Marisa J. Stone, Nigel E. Stork, Byambagerel Suran, Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, Simon Thorn, Ganesh Thyagarajan, Timothy J. Wardlaw, Wolfgang W. Weisser, Sungsoo Yoon, Naili Zhang and Jörg Müller, 1 September 2021, Nature.
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President Biden, in his first address to the United Nations General Assembly since taking office, told his international peers that they “stand at an inflection point in history,” calling it a “decisive decade” for the world in which the United States intends to “lead on all of the greatest challenges of our time,” while maintaining his commitments to allies and partners.
The president began his address by saying the world is at “a moment intermingled with great pain,” but “extraordinary possibility,” calling it a “dawning of what must be a decisive decade for our world” – a decade that “will quite literally determine our futures.”
“We are not seeking the new Cold War, or the world divided into rigid blocks,” the president said. “The United States is ready to work with any nation that steps up, that pursues peaceful resolution to shared challenges, even if we have intense disagreement to shared challenges, because we will all suffer the consequences of our failures if we don’t come together to tackle COVID-19, climate change or threats like nuclear proliferation.”
The president, addressing his administration’s full withdrawal of U.S. military assets from Afghanistan on Aug. 31, after the country fell to the Taliban, said America has “ended 20 years of conflict in Afghanistan.”
President Joe Biden speaks during the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York on Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2021. (Eduardo Munoz/Pool Photo via AP) (Eduardo Munoz/Pool Photo via AP)
“As we close this period of relentless war, we’re opening a new period of relentless diplomacy,” Biden said, adding that the U.S. will continue “renewing and defending democracy,” and maintaining that, “no matter how challenging, government by and for the people is still the best way to deliver for all of our people.”
The president went on to say that the U.S. has “turned the page,” and said “all the unmatched energy, will and resources of our nation are now squarely focused what is ahead of us – not what is behind.”
“As we look ahead, we will lead on all of the greatest challenges of our time, but we will not go it alone,” Biden said. “We will lead together with our allies and partners, with all who choose and believe as we do, that this is within our power to meet challenges, build a future, lift all of our people, and preserve this planet.”
Biden added, though, that “none of this is inevitable – it is a choice.”
“But I can tell you where America stands. We will choose to build a better future,” Biden said, rallying his peers saying “we cannot afford to waste any more time.”
“Let’s get to work. Let’s make our better future now,” Biden said.
The president, though, said he is “not agnostic about the future we want for the world.”
“The future will belong to those who embrace human dignity, not trample it; the future will belong to those who unleash the potential of their people, not those who stifle it; the future will belong to those who give their people the ability to breathe free, not those who seek to suffocate with an iron hand,” Biden said.
“Democracy remains the best tool we have to unleash our full human potential,” Biden said, urging nations to “come together” on issues that unite, rather than divide, “so we can accomplish what we must together.”
“Ending the pandemic and making sure we’re better prepared for the next one, staving off climate change, ensuring a future where technology is a vital tool to solving human challenges, not a source of greater strife and repression,” he said, adding that the challenges can “only” be met by looking to the future.
The president touted his administration’s work thus far in “rebuilding partnerships and alliances central to America’s enduring security and prosperity,” detailing the U.S. effort to reaffirm the commitment to NATO allies, renewed engagement with the European Union, his rejoining of the Paris climate agreement, and more.
“The United States seeks to rally the world to action,” Biden said, adding that America “will lead not just by the example of our power, but by the power of our example.”
“Make no mistake, the United States will continue to defend ourselves and allies against threats,” Biden said, referring to terror threats around the world, but said “the mission must be clear and achievable.”
“United States military power must be our tool of last resort, not our first. It should not be used as an answer to every problem we see around the world,” he said, noting that “many of our greatest concerns,” pointing to COVID-19 and climate change, “cannot be solved or addressed by arms.”
Biden went on to discuss the U.S. commitment to fighting COVID-19, saying the country has dedicated $15 billion to global response efforts.
Shifting to nuclear proliferation, Biden said the United States “remains committed to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” adding that the nation is “seeking a return to the JCPOA.”
“We are prepared to return to full compliance if Iran does the same,” Biden said.
Biden also said the U.S. is committed to de-nuclearization of the Korean peninsula, which he said the U.S. is effecting with “serious and sustained diplomacy.”
Biden did not address the pressures he is currently facing from France after French President Emmanuel Macron recalled its ambassadors from the U.S. and Australia following a new trilateral agreement focused on the Indo-Pacific among the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia (AUKUS) last week.
The agreement is set to focus on developing Australia’s nuclear-powered submarine capabilities – an effort France was working to undertake with Australia. France previously made an agreement to send French-made submarines to Australia.
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Exposing the Big Game 
