LANSING, Mich. — Michigan’s list of threatened and endangered species has been updated.
The list now includes 407plantandanimalspecies after 58 species were added to the list, with 36 others removed, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
We’re told it’s the seventh time the list was updated in the last 50 years.
“When people come together to collaborate on conservation, we can recover rare species,” says Endangered Species Specialist Jennifer Kleitch. “For instance, trumpeter swans were just removed from Michigan’s threatened and endangered species list. Their populations have grown as a result of significant conservation efforts by many partners over decades.”
The ocean is getting warmer, and fast. TheBBCreports that “a recent, rapid heating of the world’s oceans” has raised alarms among scientists who worry the sudden trend is a sign that climate change is accelerating. That could have devastating consequences: Fish and other marine life could die off, more extreme weather events could be on the way, and the oceans — already rising — will encroach on coastal areas.
“This is heading in an unprecedented direction, and could be taking us into uncharted territory,” the University of East Anglia’s Ben Webber tellsThe Guardian. Why is the ocean warming? What effects will it have? And can anything be done?
What’s going on with the oceans?
The temperature has spiked in the last two months. “From early March to…
India’s population has reached 1,425,775,850 people, surpassing the number of people in mainland China, according to the UN’s estimates.
India’s decennial census – scheduled to be held in 2021 – has been delayed, so there’s no official population data. China’s most recent – and seventh census – was conducted in 2020.
To estimate and project populations of both India and China, the UN relies on information about levels and trends in fertility, mortality and migration acquired from records, surveys and administrative data.
What is clear is that both India and China have more than 1.4 billion people each, and for over 70 years have accounted for more than a third of the global population.
A Chinese study says that tracking the H3N2 canine influenza virus for 10 years has shown adaptions that allow the dog flu to recognize a human-like receptor.
The virus originally spawned from the bird flu and has stabilized within canines, although there’s still no jump to humans.
Continued adaptation in mammals could mean an eventual threat to humans.
The so-called dog flu may be moving ever closer to infecting humans, according to a new Chinesestudy.
The H3N2 avian influenza virus—highly contagious and lethal in the bird population—successfully jump to dogs around 2006. And it hasn’t gone away. Instead, according to a study published ineLifeby scientists at the China Agricultural University, it is stabilizing and adapting to better recognize human-like receptors.
TheBiden administration is under firefor regulatory proposals critics have warned could serve as a backdoor attack on hunting and could lead to more aggressive measures targeting hunting.
According to experts and hunting industry officials, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is expected topublish draft hunting guidelinesthat would substantially curb the type of equipment sportsmen are allowed to use on federal refuge properties. The guidelines are, among other provisions, expected to expand the refuge area where cost-effective lead ammunition and fishing tackle will be banned.
“Raising the cost of hunting, raising the cost of fishing and raising the cost of our crowd doing their thing is objective number one, without a doubt, because they know if you make it more expensive, less people will do it,” Todd Adkins, the vice president of government affairs for the Sportsmen’s Alliance, a pro-hunting group, told Fox News…
Almost 10 billion animals are raised on U.S. factory farms every year, crowded together in intensive confinement and unable to carry out even some of their most basic natural behaviors. Local farmers are pushed out of business or into poverty while mega-corporations bring in record profits. It doesn’t have to be this way. There is legislation – Senate Bill 85-1 – that would protect our local communities from the threats factory farms pose to animals, farmers, our air and waterways and our rural communities.
New data from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals confirms that the vast majority of Oregonians (83%) support a moratorium on all kinds of new and expanding factory farms like the proposed Foster Farms industrial poultry operations or the Lost Valley and Easterday mega-dairies. For decades, mega-dairies have played a primary role in harming Oregon’s family-scale farmers and polluting the air and water of neighboring communities; this is why the moratorium must address factory farms in full.
Following multiple packed hearings held by the Oregon Senate Natural Resources Committee earlier this year, where this public sentiment was voiced, I urge my state lawmakers to follow through on the will of their constituents to keep dangerous factory farms out of Oregon.
Maral Cavner, Portland
Cavner is senior manager of corporate policy, ASPCA Farm Animal Welfare
Conservationists have warned Australia is poorly prepared for the potential arrival of a deadly form of avian influenza that has killed millions of birds and thousands of mammals overseas.
When HPAI H5 (high pathogenicity avian influenza of subtype H5) arrived in South America late last year it killed more than 60,000 seabirds and 3,500 sea lions within weeks in Peru alone.
It has spread to every continent except Australia and Antarctica, and has so far affected 300 species of wild birds and caused hundreds of mass mortality events.
The Invasive Species Council (ISC) has written to the…
A Las Vegas concert. An Orlando nightclub. An elementary school in Newtown, Conn. A Texas church. And now a high school in Parkland, Fla.
America’s most popular weapon was there for all of them.
AR-15-style rifles have increasingly appeared in American mass shootings, including the deadliest high school shooting in the nation’s history at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Wednesday.
The National Rifle Association has called the AR-15 — the semi-automatic, civilian version of the military’s M-16 — the “most popular rifle in America” and estimates Americans own more than 8 million of them.
The name AR-15 (AR stands for ArmaLite, not assault rifle, which is a common misconception) is trademarked by the firearms manufacturer Colt. But since the patent on the weapon’s operating system ran out, a host of other manufacturers began making their own variants of the popular rifle.
The NRA said “the AR-15 has soared in popularity” because it’s “customizable, adaptable, reliable and accurate.” It is also versatile and can be used for “sport shooting, hunting and self-defense situations,” the NRA said, adding the ability to “personalize” so many of the rifle’s components “is one of the things that makes it so unique.”
On top of that, the weapon is accurate, relatively lightweight and has low recoil.
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence also cited the rifle’s versatility in evaluating its popularity.
“They’re accurate and they can basically shoot as quickly as you can pull the trigger,” according to a campaign statement.
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“Along those lines, they’re very customizable — most average people can figure out how to install accessories like forward trigger grips that let you hold the gun at waist height and spray bullets while stabilizing the gun, laser sights, and you can add high-capacity magazines.”
The ability to add a high-capacity magazine to the rifles is certainly one factor that makes them attractive to people looking to commit mass murder. A 30-round magazine is fairly standard with MSRs (although some states cap the capacity to 10 or 15 rounds), but “drums” holding as many as 100 rounds are also available.
But the AR-15 and its variants aren’t the only high-capacity semi-automatic rifles on the market.
Dean Hazen, owner of The Gun Experts in Mahomet, Ill., and a master firearms instructor, said the reason mass shooters are turning to the AR-15 is due to a “copy-cat” mentality more than any feature of the rifle.
“It’s really just a perception thing,” Hazen said. “There are rifles that are more powerful and more dangerous than that, but they’re not being used.”
Hazen said the AR-15 has “gotten a bad rap.” He believes mass shooters generally don’t know much about guns and choose the AR-15 because of the reputation it has gotten from being used in other mass shootings.
“Thank God they don’t know any better because if they did they would use much more effective weapons,” Hazen said.
Here is a list of mass shootings in the U.S. that featured AR-15-style rifles during the last 35 years, courtesy of the Stanford Geospatial Center and Stanford Libraries and USA TODAY research:
Feb. 24, 1984: Tyrone Mitchell, 28, used an AR-15, a Stoeger 12-gauge shotgun and a Winchester 12-gauge shotgun to kill two and wound 12 at 49th Street Elementary School in Los Angeles before killing himself.
Oct. 7, 2007: Tyler Peterson, 20, used an AR-15 to kill six and injure one at an apartment in Crandon, Wis., before killing himself.
June 20, 2012: James Eagan Holmes, 24, used an AR-15-style .223-caliber Smith and Wesson rifle with a 100-round magazine, a 12-gauge Remington shotgun and two .40-caliber Glock semi-automatic pistols to kill 12 and injure 58 at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo.
Dec. 14, 2012: Adam Lanza, 20, used an AR-15-style rifle, a .223-caliber Bushmaster, to kill 27 people — his mother, 20 students and six teachers — in Newtown, Conn., before killing himself.
June 7, 2013: John Zawahri, 23, used an AR-15-style .223-caliber rifle and a .44-caliber Remington revolver to kill five and injure three at a home in Santa Monica, Calif., before he was killed.
March 19, 2015: Justin Fowler, 24, used an AR-15 to kill one and injure two on a street in Little Water, N.M., before he was killed.
May 31, 2015: Jeffrey Scott Pitts, 36, used an AR-15 and .45-caliber handgun to kill two and injure two at a store in Conyers, Ga., before he was killed.
Oct. 31, 2015: Noah Jacob Harpham, 33, used an AR-15, a .357-caliber revolver and a 9mm semi-automatic pistol to kill three on a street in Colorado Springs, Colo., before he was killed.
Dec. 2, 2015: Syed Rizwyan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, 28 and 27, used two AR-15-style, .223-caliber Remington rifles and two 9 mm handguns to kill 14 and injure 21 at his workplace in San Bernardino, Calif., before they were killed.
June 12, 2016: Omar Mateen, 29, used an AR-15 style rifle (a Sig Sauer MCX), and a 9mm Glock semi-automatic pistol to kill 49 people and injure 50 at an Orlando nightclub before he was killed.
Oct. 1, 2017: Stephen Paddock, 64, used a stockpile of guns including an AR-15 to kill 58 people and injure hundreds at a music festival in Las Vegas before he killed himself.
Nov. 5, 2017: Devin Kelley, 26, used an AR-15 style Ruger rifle to kill 26 people at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, before he was killed.
Feb. 14, 2018: Police say Nikolas Cruz, 19, used an AR-15-style rifle to kill at least 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
A U.S. official confirmed to NBC News on Sunday that a U.S. Navy ship, the USNS Brunswick, has arrived in Port Sudan, Sudan, to assist with the effort to evacuate American citizens.
Armed drones escorted hundreds of Americans as they began their escape fromwar-torn Sudanon Saturday amid fierce fighting between the military and a rival paramilitary group.
The unmanned aerial vehicles flew above a convoy of buses as they made the 500-mile journey from the African nation’s capital, Khartoum, to Port Sudan on the country’s east coast, a U.S. official familiar with the matter confirmed to NBC News.Several hundred Americans were on board at least a dozen buses, said the official, who was not authorized to speak…
