Endangered species.

[IsaacNewton]

The boreal forest of Canada is huge, it stretches from the east coast to the west coast and covers probably 1/2 of the total surface area of Canada (est). Yet there are only 20 species of trees in the whole forest.

In the Amazon rain forest, you can find more than 1,000+ tree species in a few square mile area. This is also true of other orgainisms like insects, frogs, birds. The diversity is very large. However, each of the species in the rain forest is very narrowly adapted to its niche. The competition is so fierce that, for instance, a tree species may only exist in an area of a few hundred yards square. And most species are pH sensitive as well as temperature sensitive.

There are thousands of scientists studying the rain forest, actually living there and taking daily measurements. As the standard temp rises, a tree species for example will start to seek out higher elevations where the temperature is in its habitable zone. Trees migrate up mountains, or the seeds they produce sprout only in higher elevations where the temperature is where their evolution has told them to sprout. Even tiny variations in temperature can wipe out species that can't quickly make this move, and many can't. The estimate right now is that 14 species a day go extinct in the rain forest due to Global Warming.

A mass extinction started a number of years ago and it is manmade. The current geologic era is in the process of being renamed to the Anthropocene epoch. The era of man. Because our activity has affected the entire globe enough that even 100 million years from now if an archeologist were alive and looked at the small sliver of Earth dated to this time period our activity would be recognizable in the sediments. Similar to when we look at the small sliver at the K/T boundary from 65 million years ago when the dinosaurs went extinct.

 

[waltky]

Dot Com wrote: what is it w/ waltky and her necro thread-bumping?

The content is what is important...

... and it's revelence to the subject at hand...

... not the date.

 

[MeBelle]

These 18 photos of grizzly bears will make you want to get in your car and drive to Yellowstone right now

One of those key foods is whitebark pine seeds. Within the last decade, the 18 million-acre whitebark pine forest ecosystem has collapsed—it's functionally extinct as a reliable food source. Climate change has exacerbated insect infestation so we're now getting two beetle reproductive cycles in the course of a single year, when in the past we might get one.

^^^What does this have to do with ANWR?^^^^

~~~~~~~

The state of Alaska is continuing its war on wildlife -- by trying to kill wolves from helicopters.
Remote Unimak Island, in Alaska's Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, is home to the Aleutian Island chain’s only naturally occurring populations of brown bears, wolves and caribou. Caribou numbers on the island have varied drastically over the past 100 years and have recently plummeted.

Save the wolves, starve the people!

Stop Aerial Gunning of Wolves on Federal Wildlife Refuge / petitions to sign - Le Blog Officiel d' ISABELLA P.P

 

[Mr. H.]

ANWR is an area adjacent to an oil field that the deniers haven't got their hands on yet. Flora & fauna exist there & its a migration point as are many other points on the globe.

And you're inferring that oil and gas operations would disrupt the flora and fauna?

yes. the pipelines, associated spills, and emissions wouldn't bode well for an area untouched for millions of years.

I understand your concern, but I believe the benefits far outweigh those risks.

And there are ways to exploit resources that minimize the impact of the work being done, but the all or nothing watermelon crowd can't have that.

It's the same line of thought that makes these idiots oppose regulated hunting of older members of species trying to be saved. People are willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to bag one of these things, hunts can be arranged to limit it to only non-breeding members of the specie, and limits can be severely enforced.

But no, knee jerk bans on big game trophies being returned makes people feel like they are doing something, and the hunts stop, and the money dries up, and the locals go from seeing the animals as a resource, and back to seeing them as a nuisance. or worse they still see them as a resource, and a black market develops that doesn't care about the survival of the specie.

Take for example the birds that are killed by wind and solar installations. Those are considered acceptable risks by the eco-crowd. Their argument is "but cars and buildings kill far more".

If a single endangered bird is found dead at my crude oil facility, it would mean thousands of dollars in fines. If hundreds are found at a wind or solar installation... no problem. The government just grants them 10 year waivers.

 

[Mr. H.]

And you're inferring that oil and gas operations would disrupt the flora and fauna?

ummm..... yes? Mr. H.

No pain no gain, bitch. Live a day without hydrocarbons.

While you're at it, put up a similar cartoon as it relates to agriculture.

Then go starve your sorry fucking ass.