Yellowstone National Park announced Monday all entrances are temporarily closed due to “extremely hazardous conditions” caused by “unprecedented” rainfall and flooding.
“Effective immediately, all entrances to Yellowstone National Park are temporarily CLOSED due to substantial flooding, rockslides and mudslides on roadways from recent unprecedented amounts of rainfall and flooding,” the park said in aFacebook post.
No inbound traffic is allowed “until the conditions stabilize and the park can assess damage to roads and bridges,” the post added. The North, Northeast, West, South and East entrances are all closed.
The park posted asituation updateon its website Monday afternoon saying that no inbound visitor traffic would be allowed on Tuesday or Wednesday “at a minimum.”
“Our first priority has been to evacuate the northern section of the park where we have multiple road and bridge…
POLK COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – A wildlife corridor inPolk Countyaims to reconnect the Hilochee Wildlife Management areas and beyond for the first time in half a century.
“Fifty years ago when the interstate was built, they severed that connection. So with this new wildlife crossing, you’ll be able to connect one side of I-4 to the other side,” said Brent Setchell, district drainage design engineer for the Florida Department of Transportation.Shots fired during argument outside Brandon mall
Every day, 100,000 drivers travel on I-4 which makes it impossible for wildlife to cross, according to Setchell.
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Floridians often lament that wildlife roaming through homes and commercial areas have nowhere else to go. In recent months,a panther was spottedin the yards of residents in south Lakeland.
Angered by Nike’s refusal to stop slaughtering wild kangaroos for their skin, dozens of animal rights activists disrupted business at the company’s store in New York City’s Flatiron District. During the protest, which took place on June 5th, the activists educated pedestrians about kangaroo slaughter and encouraged Nike customers to purchase cruelty-free alternatives to skin. The protest was organized by the animal rights groups NYCLASS, TheirTurn and The Center for A Humane Economy, a Washington-D.C.-based advocacy group leading the #KangaroosAreNotShoes campaign, a global effort to end the use of kangaroo skin for shoe leather.
The massacre of kangaroos in Australia represents the largest slaughter of land-based wildlife in the world. According to the Center for a Humane Economy, 70% of the approximately two million kangaroos killed each year for commercial purposes are used to make soccer shoes for sportswear companies like Nike.
Nike and other sportswear companies hire hunters to slaughter wild kangaroos for their skin, which they use to make soccer shoes.
The Australian National Code of Practice for the Humane Shooting of Kangaroos and Wallabies for Commercial Purposes governs the industry and sanctions this cruelty. An estimated 40% of kangaroos are shot in the neck or body instead of the head, in violation of the federal code, resulting in wounding and non-instantaneous death. Those who escape die slowly from their gunshot wounds.
Some of the females who are shot have babies (joeys) in their pouches or by their sides. Code dictates that hunters either decapitate or bludgeon to death the joeys who are in the pouches. The joeys who are not in their mother’s pouch often die slowly from exposure and predation. Each year, an estimated 500,000 to 800,000 joeys die during the nightly kangaroo hunt.
According to the Center for a Humane Economy, approximately 70% of the kangaroos who are hunted for commercial purposes are used to make soccer shoes for companies like Nike
The Center for a Humane Economy says that Nike rationalizes the mass slaughter of wild kangaroos by engaging in green washing and humane washing. According to Nike, “Suppliers must source animal skins from processors that use sound animal husbandry and humane animal treatment/slaughtering practices.” Activists say that hunting down wild animals who want to live in peace with their families is inherently inhumane.
Animal rights activists are calling on Nike to use cruelty-free alternatives to kangaroo skin
The Kangaroo Protection Act, federal legislation introduced in 2021, would ban the importation of kangaroo products into the United States. Several retailers, including Nordstrom, Gucci, Prada, and Versace, have already stopped selling kangaroo skin products. The sale of kangaroo parts is banned in California.
Animal rights activists in the U.S. and Australia are campaigning to end the use of kangaroo skin as shoe leather
New York City is one of many U.S. and Australian cities participating in the #KangaroosAreNotShoes campaign. On June 4th, activists in Los Angeles staged a disruption inside of the Nike store in Santa Monica, and activists in Portland protested in front of a sports stadium.
New Zealand has unveiled a plan to tax sheep and cattle burps in a bid to tackle one of the country’s biggest sources of greenhouse gases.
It would make it the first nation to charge farmers for the methane emissions from the animals they keep.
New Zealand is home to just over five million people, along with around 10 million cattle and 26 million sheep.
Almost half the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, mainly methane.
However, agricultural emissions have previously not been included in New Zealand’s emissions trading scheme, which has been criticised by those calling for the government to do more to stop global warming.
“There is no question that we need to cut the amount of methane we are putting into the atmosphere, and an effective emissions pricing system for agriculture will play a key part in how we achieve that,” New Zealand’s climate change minister James Shaw said.
Under the proposal farmers will have to pay for their gas emissions from 2025.
The plan also includes incentives for farmers who reduce emissions through feed additives, while planting trees on farms could be used to offset emissions.
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Andrew Hoggard – who is a dairy farmer and the national president of Federated Farmers of New Zealand – told the BBC that he broadly approved of the proposals.
“We’ve been working with the government and other organisations on this for years to get an approach that won’t shut down farming in New Zealand, so we’ve signed off on a lot of stuff we’re happy with.”
“But you know, like all of these types of agreements with many parties involved, there’s always going to be a couple of dead rats you have to swallow,” he added.
Mr Hoggard also highlighted that the fine details of the plan’s rollout have not yet been agreed.
“There are still the nuts and bolts to be hammered out, like who actually implements the scheme, so there’s still stuff to work through with the government.”
The money raised from the scheme will be invested in research, development and advisory services for farmers, the country’s environment ministry said.
Last month, New Zealand’s finance minister committed NZ$2.9bn (£1.5bn; $1.9bn) for initiatives to tackle climate change, which would be funded by an emissions trading system that taxed polluters.
Meanwhile on Thursday, investors managing $14tn of assets urged the United Nations to create a global plan to make the agriculture sector sustainable.
Methane is the second most common greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide (CO2).
It is one of the most potent and responsible for a third of current warming from human activities. Individual methane molecules have a more powerful warming effect on the atmosphere than single CO2 molecules.
At last year’s COP26 environmental conference in Glasgow the US and the EU agreed to cut emissions of the gas by 30% by 2030. More than 100 countries, including New Zealand, have also signed up to the initiative.
How is methane emitted?
Around 40% of CH4 comes from natural sources such as wetlands but the bigger share now comes from a range of human activities, ranging from agriculture, such as cattle and rice production, to rubbish dumps.
One of the biggest sources is from the production, transport and use of natural gas and since 2008 there has been a big spike in methane emissions, which researchers believe is linked to the boom in fracking for gas in parts of the US.
In 2019, methane in the atmosphere reached record levels, around two-and-a-half times above what they were in the pre-industrial era.
What worries scientists is that methane has real muscle when it comes to heating the planet. Over a 100-year period it is 28-34 times as warming as CO2.
Over a 20-year period it is around 84 times as powerful per unit of mass as carbon dioxide.
However, there is much more CO2 than methane in the atmosphere and individual molecules of it can remain there for hundreds of years.
YAKIMA – The Washington State Department of Agriculture has confirmed that a backyard flock in Yakima County, Washington tested positive for the highly pathogenic avian influenza (bird flu) on June 7. This detection makes the tenth county to have confirmed domestic flocks with bird flu, with a total of 18 infected flocks statewide.
According to the WSDA, all infected flocks have had contact with wild waterfowl, which are known to transmit the virus without necessarily being affected by it.
“The virus continues to be present in all corners of our state,”State Veterinarian Dr. Amber Itle added.“It’s so important we remain vigilant.”
Dr. Itle has cautioned bird owners to withdraw from exhibitions or fairs until at least the end of June and has also requested that live bird markets discontinue sales temporarily.
The head of Russia’s State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, has threatened that if Western governments provide Kyiv with nuclear weapons, as the former Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has suggested, a nuclear conflict would follow in the heart of Europe.
Sikorski, who is now a member of the European Parliament, reportedly told Ukrainian online television channel Espreso TV that the West has the right to give Ukraine nuclear warheads to protect its independence, as “Russia has violated [the Budapest] memorandum,” as shown in a video shared by Belarusian media outlet Nextaon Twitter.
FILE – In this Oct. 21, 2015, file photo, cage-free chickens walk in a fenced pasture at an organic farm near Waukon, Iowa. Some farmers are wondering if it’s OK that eggs sold as free-range come from chickens being kept inside. It’s a question that arises lately as farmers try to be open about their product while also protecting chickens from a highly infectious bird flu that has killed roughly 28 million poultry across the country. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
OLYMPIA, Wash. – The Washington State Department of Health says it is working with local and federal health officials to investigate a multi-state Salmonella outbreak that has sickened nearly a dozen people in Washington.
DOH says the 11 cases of Salmonella in Washington residents are linked to backyard poultry in Pierce, Kitsap, Snohomish, Lincoln, King, Yakima, and Lewis counties. It’s part of a nationwide outbreak that has sickened 219 people in 38 states.
State health officials say two of the 11 people in Washington have been hospitalized and all of them reported recently purchasing young chicks or ducklings.
Backyard poultry, such as chickens and ducks, can carry Salmonella germs even if they look healthy and clean. The Department of Health says Salmonella germs are spread by touching backyard poultry or anything in the areas where they live and roam and then touching your mouth or food with unwashed hands.
China’s Defense Minister Wei Fenghe at the Shangri-La Dialogue summit in Singapore on June 12.Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty ImagesSingaporeCNN—
Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe on Sunday accused the United States of being a “bully” and “hijacking” countries around the region, during a combative speech in which he said his country would “fight to the very end” to stop Taiwanese independence.
“Taiwan is first and foremost China’s Taiwan,” Wei told the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s premier defense conference, adding that China would “not hesitate” to crush any attempt by the self-governed island to “secede.”
The speech – which came just weeks after US President Joe Biden said the US wouldrespond “militarily”if China attacked Taiwan – capped a weekend of confrontational exchanges between the American and Chinese military chiefs.
Wei also called out US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin…
Our brains are scary good at finding patterns where none actually exist. It’s why we seea face on the surface of Mars,and it’s the basis for the cloud gazing game many of us played as kids. The shifting nature of condensing water vapor in the sky makes perfect fodder for finding silhouettes of passing pirate ships or rampaging dinosaurs, if you’re willing to let your imagination loose. It’s even goodinspiration forSNLskits.
Cloud gazing has very likely been a favored pastime for as long as humans have been around and looking up. In most climates, clouds can be counted on to streak slowly across the heavens, or else gather ominously in advance of a storm. As climate change progresses, however, that might change. While humans are great at…
A positive result on a home COVID test. If you catch it once, can you catch it again? Turns out the answer is: Yes.
Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
We regularly answer frequently asked questions about life during the coronavirus crisis. If you have a question you’d like us to consider for a future post, email us atgoatsandsoda@npr.orgwith the subject line: “Weekly Coronavirus Questions.” See an archive of our FAQshere.
You got sick with COVID back in January, so you figured you were done with the virus for a while. But then you began feeling a scratchy throat and a runny nose, took a home testjust in case —and that second line blazed red once again.
You might well be wondering: How this can happen? Is it possible to get COVID again…
Exposing the Big Game 