Stop tormenting Nevada wildlife
Reply
Author Archives: Exposing the Big Game
City Government in Hokkaido Ramps Up Bear Hunter Training; Local Interest Surges
The Earth’s CO2 Levels Are Increasing Faster Than Ever (msn.com)137
Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday May 11, 2024 @10:34AM from the global-warning dept.
“Atmospheric levels of planet-warming carbon dioxide aren’t just on their way to yet another record high this year,” reports the Washington Post.
“They’re rising faster than ever, according to the latest in a 66-year-long series of observations.”Carbon dioxide levels were 4.7 parts per million higher in March than they were a year earlier, the largest annual leap ever measured at the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration laboratory atop a volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island. And from January through April, CO2 concentrations increased faster than they have in the first four months of any other year…
For decades, CO2 concentrations at Mauna Loa in the month of May have broken previous records. But the recent acceleration in atmospheric CO2, surpassing a record-setting increase observed in 2016, is perhaps a more ominous signal of failing efforts to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and the damage they cause to Earth’s climate. “Not only is CO2 still rising in the atmosphere — it’s increasing faster and faster,” said Arlyn Andrews, a climate scientist at NOAA’s Global Monitoring Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. A historically strong El Niño climate pattern that developed last year is a big reason for the spike. But the weather pattern only punctuated an existing trend in which global carbon emissions are rising even as U.S. emissions have declined and the growth in global emissions has slowed. The spike is “not surprising,” said Ralph Keeling, director of the CO2 Program at Scripps Institution, “because we’re also burning more fossil fuel than ever….”
El Niño-linked droughts in tropical areas including Indonesia and northern South America mean less carbon storage within plants, Keeling said. Land-based ecosystems around the world tend to give off more carbon dioxide during El Niño because of the changes in precipitation and temperature the weather pattern brings, Andrews added. And for CO2 concentrations to fall back below 400 parts per million, it would take more than two centuries even if emissions dropped close to zero by the end of this century, she added.
This year’s reading “is more than 50 percent above preindustrial levels and the highest in at least 4.3 million years, according to NOAA.”
Covering the biggest sand desert with solar panels: 173 TWh and the biggest mistake in human history
Endangered ocelots likely increasing in South Texas, study shows
Injured bobcat rescued in Jensen Beach, safely released back into wild
‘Our wildlife is taking a very large hit with the growth of the population,’ animal control officer Amanda Heffron says
A young bobcat is back in the wild after facing a scary encounter.
By: Cassandra Garcia
Posted at 10:49 PM, May 09, 2024
and last updated 8:22 PM, May 09, 2024
JENSEN BEACH, Fla. — A young bobcat is back in the wild after facing a scary encounter.
Deputies in Martin County said the injured animal may have been hit by a car but managed to seek shelter under another vehicle.
As wooded areas of the county are torn down to make way for housing complexes and stores, it poses a problem for wildlife.
00:09
02:00
Read More
https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.640.0_en.html#goog_918852065
https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.640.0_en.html#goog_918852066
https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.640.0_en.html#goog_918852067
https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.640.0_en.html#goog_918852076
“I feel like it’s kind of unfortunate because there’s a lot of building going on,” resident Lauren Smith said. “The animals have nowhere to go, and they’re just going to where they can.”
“They really have no choice,” Scott Smith, Lauren’s husband, added. “The animals, if they’re there, they’re going to get pushed out into the environment.”
The Martin County Sheriff’s Office Animal Services unit on Thursday rescued an injured bobcat from the parking lot of the Treasure Coast Medical Pavilion in Jensen Beach. They believe it was clipped by a car and took shelter underneath a vehicle.
“[There was] a deputy on one side of the car [and] myself on the other side of the car, and it was just a game of cat and mouse basically trying to secure it so that we could get it evaluated at the wildlife hospital to make sure it was OK,” Amanda Heffron, a certified animal control officer with the Martin County Sheriff’s Office, said.
Heffron said the bobcat was transferred to the Treasure Coast Wildlife Center for care. The animal hospital said the bobcat had superficial scrapes on its front and back legs. It was treated and later released in a safe area. They believe the male bobcat was likely less than a year old.
Heffron, who facilitated the rescue, said calls about wild animals are becoming increasingly common and the animals don’t always walk away unscathed.
“Our wildlife is taking a very large hit with the growth of the population and all the building that’s going on,” Heffron said. “It’s taking away their habitat and their running looking for food.”
Jensen Beach resident Becky Smith said she wasn’t surprised to hear that a bobcat was rescued from an urban area, adding that she’s no stranger to wildlife roaming around.
“We used to have some of the clear lots basically that did have trees, but then homes and all that have taken over,” Smith said. “We do see a lot more animals, wildlife because they’re looking for their homes.”
The Kristi Noem Dog-Killing Story Is Actually Worse in Context
‘I am starting to panic about my child’s future’: climate scientists wary of starting families
Epidemic of dying sea life shows Florida’s lax water quality regulation is fouling our public waters
Year after year, we hear the ridiculous arguments from polluter-friendly politicians that Floridians are somehow standing in the way of progress by asking for commonsense environmental protections.
Published May 10
ADVERTISEMENT
This time of year, endangered smalltooth sawfish are usually giving birth to their young in the waters at Florida’s southern tip. But this spring, people are watching, horrified, as dozens of sawfish thrash helplessly in circles before they die.
Marine experts are baffled, and they’ve raced to South Florida to try to pinpoint the cause and rescue ailing fish. They have tested the water and samples from dead fish and ruled out water temperature, red tide and other variables. Experts interviewed by the Tampa Bay Times and other media outlets say current evidence points to a type of toxic algae.
And it’s not just sawfish, which are a species of ray with unusually long, toothy snouts. People fishing and boating around the Florida Keys, southwest Florida and Everglades National Park’s coastal areas have reported over 50 different marine species acting erratically and then dying, including sharks, Goliath grouper, snook, snapper, sting rays, stone crabs and pinfish.
We are witnessing another wakeup call about Florida’s poor water quality. On South Florida’s reefs, corals are bleaching and dying from disease. Hundreds of manatees starved to death in 2021 when algae outbreaks — fueled by fertilizer, sewage and agricultural waste — shaded out the seagrass they eat.
Year after year, we hear the ridiculous arguments from polluter-friendly politicians that Floridians are somehow standing in the way of progress by asking for commonsense environmental protections. We hear false assumptions about why we don’t need to properly conserve wetlands and mangroves; and most of all, that it would be too harsh to set more effective limits on the agricultural waste, sewage and fertilizer that are fouling our public waters, spewing dead fish on our beaches and chasing away swimmers.
When the unprecedented 2021 manatee die-off happened, Earthjustice filed suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity, Save the Manatee Club and Defenders of Wildlife. Our lawsuit, which focuses on Florida’s water quality standards, is ongoing.
The background: Years ago, when EPA approved Florida’s water quality standards, federal wildlife agencies had to assert, under the law, that the state’s measures would protect wildlife listed under the Endangered Species Act. But the hundreds of dead manatees in the Indian River Lagoon are proof that Florida’s water quality standards aren’t working. The lawsuit asks the court to require EPA to reinitiate consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service to reassess its approval of Florida’s water quality standards for the Indian River Lagoon.
It is critical to remember that the United States has laws to protect clean water and the species that depend on those waters. The smalltooth sawfish, in fact, was the first marine animal to be added to the Endangered Species Act list in 2003. Southern Florida is their last stand; they used to roam as far north as North Carolina and Texas, and south to Brazil.
Spend your days with Hayes
Subscribe to our free Stephinitely newsletter
Columnist Stephanie Hayes will share thoughts, feelings and funny business with you every Monday.
Sign up
You’re all signed up!
Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.Explore all your options
Our leaders need to take these wildlife warnings seriously, set effective pollution limits, and do more than just pose for photo shoots in front of sparkling waves to prove they will protect our public waters.
Alisa Coe is deputy managing attorney in the Florida Office of Earthjustice.
