‘Existential Threat to Our Survival’: See the 19 Australian Ecosystems Already Collapsing
27 February
Climate
Ningaloo Reef near Exmouth on April 2, 2012 in Western Australia. James D. Morgan / Getty Images News
By Dana M Bergstrom, Euan Ritchie, Lesley Hughes and Michael Depledge
In 1992, 1,700 scientists warned that human beings and the natural world were "on a collision course." Seventeen years later, scientists described planetary boundaries within which humans and other life could have a "safe space to operate." These are environmental thresholds, such as the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and changes in land use.
<p>
Crossing such boundaries was considered a risk that would cause environmental changes so profound, they genuinely posed an <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/david-attenboroughs-witness-statement-for-the-planet-commentary/" target="_blank">existential threat to humanity</a>.
</p><p>
This grave reality is what our major research paper, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.15539" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">published Thursday</a>, confronts.
</p><p>
In what may be the most comprehensive evaluation of the environmental state of play in Australia, we show major and iconic ecosystems are collapsing across the continent and into Antarctica. These systems sustain life, and evidence of their demise shows we're exceeding planetary boundaries.
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<p>We found 19 Australian ecosystems met our criteria to be classified as "collapsing." This includes the arid interior, <a href="https://theconversation.com/ecocheck-australias-vast-majestic-northern-savannas-need-more-care-59897" target="_blank">savannas</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/extreme-weather-likely-behind-worst-recorded-mangrove-dieback-in-northern-australia-71880" target="_blank">mangroves</a> of northern Australia, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-just-spent-two-weeks-surveying-the-great-barrier-reef-what-we-saw-was-an-utter-tragedy-135197" target="_blank">Great Barrier Reef</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/shark-bay-a-world-heritage-site-at-catastrophic-risk-111194" target="_blank">Shark Bay</a>, southern Australia's <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-other-reef-is-worth-more-than-10-billion-a-year-but-have-you-heard-of-it-45600" target="_blank">kelp</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-the-australian-bush-is-recovering-from-bushfires-but-it-may-never-be-the-same-131390" target="_blank">alpine ash</a> forests, tundra on Macquarie Island, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/antarcticas-moss-forests-are-drying-and-dying-103751" target="_blank">moss beds in Antarctica</a>.</p><p>We define collapse as the state where ecosystems have changed in a substantial, negative way from their original state – such as species or habitat loss, or reduced vegetation or coral cover – and are unlikely to recover.</p>
The Good and Bad News
<p><span>Ecosystems consist of living and non-living components, and their interactions. They work like a super-complex engine: when some components are removed or stop working, knock-on consequences can lead to system failure.</span></p><p>Our study is based on measured data and observations, not modeling or predictions for the future. Encouragingly, not all ecosystems we examined have collapsed across their entire range. We still have, for instance, some intact reefs on the Great Barrier Reef, especially in deeper waters. And northern Australia has some of the most intact and least-modified stretches of savanna woodlands on Earth.</p><p><span>Still, collapses are happening, including in regions critical for growing food. This includes the </span><a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/importance-murray-darling-basin/where-basin" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Murray-Darling Basin</a><span>, which covers around 14% of Australia's landmass. Its rivers and other freshwater systems support more than </span><a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/latestproducts/94F2007584736094CA2574A50014B1B6?opendocument" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">30% of Australia's food</a><span> production.</span></p><p><span></span><span>The effects of floods, fires, heatwaves and storms do not stop at farm gates; they're felt equally in agricultural areas and natural ecosystems. We shouldn't forget how towns ran out of </span><a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/issues-murray-darling-basin/drought#effects" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">drinking water</a><span> during the recent drought.</span></p><p><span></span><span>Drinking water is also at risk when ecosystems collapse in our water catchments. In Victoria, for example, the degradation of giant </span><a href="https://theconversation.com/logging-must-stop-in-melbournes-biggest-water-supply-catchment-106922" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mountain Ash forests</a><span> greatly reduces the amount of water flowing through the Thompson catchment, threatening nearly five million people's drinking water in Melbourne.</span></p><p>This is a dire <em data-redactor-tag="em">wake-up</em> call — not just a <em data-redactor-tag="em">warning</em>. Put bluntly, current changes across the continent, and their potential outcomes, pose an existential threat to our survival, and other life we share environments with.</p><p><span>In investigating patterns of collapse, we found most ecosystems experience multiple, concurrent pressures from both global climate change and regional human impacts (such as land clearing). Pressures are often </span><a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1365-2664.13427" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">additive and extreme</a><span>.</span></p><p>Take the last 11 years in Western Australia as an example.</p><p>In the summer of 2010 and 2011, a <a href="https://theconversation.com/marine-heatwaves-are-getting-hotter-lasting-longer-and-doing-more-damage-95637" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">heatwave</a> spanning more than 300,000 square kilometers ravaged both marine and land ecosystems. The extreme heat devastated forests and woodlands, kelp forests, seagrass meadows and coral reefs. This catastrophe was followed by two cyclones.</p><p>A record-breaking, marine heatwave in late 2019 dealt a further blow. And another marine heatwave is predicted for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/24/wa-coastline-facing-marine-heatwave-in-early-2021-csiro-predicts" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">this April</a>.</p><h2>These 19 ecosystems are collapsing: read about each</h2>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-565" class="tc-infographic" height="400px" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/565/c520f0fa1e0169ca3dfe5d2d5c668f8f9fd8bc45/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
What to Do About It?
<p><span>Our brains trust comprises 38 experts from 21 universities, CSIRO and the federal Department of Agriculture Water and Environment. Beyond quantifying and reporting more doom and gloom, we asked the question: what can be done?</span></p><p>We devised a simple but tractable scheme called the 3As:</p><ul><li>Awareness of what is important</li><li>Anticipation of what is coming down the line</li><li>Action to stop the pressures or deal with impacts.</li></ul><p>In our paper, we identify positive actions to help protect or restore ecosystems. Many are already happening. In some cases, ecosystems might be better left to recover by themselves, such as coral after a cyclone.</p><p>In other cases, active human intervention will be required – for example, placing artificial nesting boxes for Carnaby's black cockatoos in areas where old trees have been <a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/factsheet-carnabys-black-cockatoo-calyptorhynchus-latirostris" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">removed</a>.</p><p><span>"Future-ready" actions are also vital. This includes reinstating </span><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/gardening/factsheets/a-burning-question-fire/12395700" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cultural burning practices</a><span>, which have </span><a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-you-have-unfinished-business-its-time-to-let-our-fire-people-care-for-this-land-135196" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">multiple values and benefits for Aboriginal communities</a><span> and can help minimize the risk and strength of bushfires.</span></p><p>It might also include replanting banks along the Murray River with species better suited to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/gardening/factsheets/my-garden-path---matt-hansen/12322978" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">warmer conditions</a>.</p><p>Some actions may be small and localized, but have substantial positive benefits.</p><p>For example, billions of migrating Bogong moths, the main summer food for critically endangered mountain pygmy possums, have not arrived in their typical numbers in Australian alpine regions in recent years. This was further exacerbated by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/six-million-hectares-of-threatened-species-habitat-up-in-smoke-129438" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2019-20</a> fires. Brilliantly, <a href="https://www.zoo.org.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Zoos Victoria</a> anticipated this pressure and developed supplementary food — <a href="https://theconversation.com/looks-like-an-anzac-biscuit-tastes-like-a-protein-bar-bogong-bikkies-help-mountain-pygmy-possums-after-fire-131045" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Bogong bikkies</a>.</p><p><span>Other more challenging, global or large-scale actions must address the </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iICpI9H0GkU&t=34s" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">root cause of environmental threats</a><span>, such as </span><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-018-0504-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">human population growth and per-capita consumption</a><span> of environmental resources.</span><br></p><p>We must rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero, remove or suppress invasive species such as <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/mam.12080" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">feral cats</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-buffel-kerfuffle-how-one-species-quietly-destroys-native-wildlife-and-cultural-sites-in-arid-australia-149456" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">buffel grass</a>, and stop widespread <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-reduce-fire-risk-and-meet-climate-targets-over-300-scientists-call-for-stronger-land-clearing-laws-113172" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">land clearing</a> and other forms of habitat destruction.</p>Our Lives Depend On It
<p>The multiple ecosystem collapses we have documented in Australia are a harbinger for <a href="https://www.iucn.org/news/protected-areas/202102/natures-future-our-future-world-speaks" target="_blank">environments globally</a>.</p><p>The simplicity of the 3As is to show people <em>can</em> do something positive, either at the local level of a landcare group, or at the level of government departments and conservation agencies.</p><p>Our lives and those of our <a href="https://theconversation.com/children-are-our-future-and-the-planets-heres-how-you-can-teach-them-to-take-care-of-it-113759" target="_blank">children</a>, as well as our <a href="https://theconversation.com/taking-care-of-business-the-private-sector-is-waking-up-to-natures-value-153786" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">economies</a>, societies and <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-address-the-ecological-crisis-aboriginal-peoples-must-be-restored-as-custodians-of-country-108594" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cultures</a>, depend on it.</p><p>We simply cannot afford any further delay.</p><p><em><a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/dana-m-bergstrom-1008495" target="_blank" style="">Dana M Bergstrom</a> is a principal research scientist at the University of Wollongong. <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/euan-ritchie-735" target="_blank" style="">Euan Ritchie</a> is a professor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life & Environmental Sciences at Deakin University. <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/lesley-hughes-5823" target="_blank">Lesley Hughes</a> is a professor at the Department of Biological Sciences at Macquarie University. <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/michael-depledge-114659" target="_blank">Michael Depledge</a> is a professor and chair, Environment and Human Health, at the University of Exeter. </em></p><p><em>Disclosure statements: Dana Bergstrom works for the Australian Antarctic Division and is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Wollongong. Her research including fieldwork on Macquarie Island and in Antarctica was supported by the Australian Antarctic Division.</em></p><p><em>Euan Ritchie receives funding from the Australian Research Council, The Australia and Pacific Science Foundation, Australian Geographic, Parks Victoria, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, and the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC. Euan Ritchie is a Director (Media Working Group) of the Ecological Society of Australia, and a member of the Australian Mammal Society.</em></p><p><em>Lesley Hughes receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is a Councillor with the Climate Council of Australia, a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists and a Director of WWF-Australia.</em></p><p><em>Michael Depledge does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/existential-threat-to-our-survival-see-the-19-australian-ecosystems-already-collapsing-154077" target="_blank" style="">The Conversation</a>. </em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A rare bird not seen for 170 years has turned up in Borneo's South Kalimantan province in Indonesia. robas / Getty Images
In October 2020, two men living in Indonesia's South Kalimantan province on Borneo managed to catch a bird that they had never seen before. They photographed and released it, then sent the pictures to birdwatching organizations in the area for identification.
<p>To the men's surprise, the bird wasn't just new to them. Ornithologists identified it as the black-browed babbler (<em>Malacocincla perspicillata), </em>a bird last documented around 170 years ago. It is so rare that the data on the <a href="http://orientalbirdimages.org/search.php?Bird_ID=1428&Bird_Image_ID=28450" target="_blank">only collected specimen</a> lists it as "presumed extinct."</p><p>"It feels surreal to know that we have found a species of bird presumed by experts to be extinct," Muhammad Rizky Fauzan, who found the bird along with Muhammad Suranto, told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/25/black-browed-babbler-found-in-borneo-180-years-after-last-sighting" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>. "We didn't expect it to be that special at all — we thought it was just another bird that we simply have never seen before."</p><p>Ornithologist Panji Gusti Akbar was equally surprised when he saw Fauzan and Suranto's picture of the bird on WhatsApp, <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/mystery-bird-not-seen-in-172-years-makes-surprise-reappearace-in-borneo-forest/#:~:text=Mystery%20bird%20not%20seen%20in%20172%20years%20makes%20surprise%20reappearance%20in%20Borneo%20forest,-by%20Elizabeth%20Claire&text=The%20black%2Dbrowed%20babbler%20was,sometime%20between%201843%20and%201848" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mongabay reported</a>.</p><p>"I contacted as many leading ornithologists as possible, and they all agreed that there is no other bird that [it] looks [like] other than a black-browed babbler," Akbar told Mongabay. "It just blew my mind."</p>
<p>The black-browed babbler was first captured on an expedition to the East Indies in the 1840s, according to The Guardian. Charles Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon's nephew, named and described it. German naturalist Carl A.L.M. Schwaner collected the only known specimen, now located at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the Netherlands, Mongabay reported.</p><p>Lead author Akbar detailed the new find in a <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5c1a9e03f407b482a158da87/t/6034c09a3440914018d3c306/1614071211606/Black-browed-Babbler.pdf" target="_blank">paper published in BirdingAsia</a> on Thursday. The report noted that this is the longest an Asian bird has been lost to science. The authors also detailed the rediscovered bird's physical characteristics and the differences between the one in the recent photograph and the taxidermied specimen.</p><p>"The facial appearance of the bird was very distinct, with the crown being chestnut brown, demarcated by a broad, black eye-stripe extending across the malars (cheekbone) to the nape and necksides," the report authors wrote.<br></p><p>There are three major differences between the live and stuffed specimens. The former has maroon irises instead of yellow; its legs are slate gray instead of brown; and its bill is a different color.</p>
<p>"These three parts of a bird's body are known to lose their tint and are often artificially colored during the taxidermy process," Akbar told The Guardian.</p><p>The researchers do not have enough information to determine the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation" target="_self">conservation</a> status of the rediscovered species, but they hope to do further study. However, The Guardian noted massive <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/deforestation" target="_self">deforestation</a> in lowland Borneo, and Akbar believes habitat loss poses a threat. The bird's reemergence is another argument for preserving Borneo's unique <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/rainforest" target="_self">rainforest</a>.</p><p>"It's sobering to think that when the black-browed babbler was last seen, Charles Darwin's Origin of Species hadn't even been published and the now extinct passenger pigeon was still among the world's commonest birds," Ding Li Yong of BirdLife International and study coauthor said in a <a href="https://www.orientalbirdclub.org/club-news/2021/2/25/black-browed-babbler-rediscovered" target="_blank">press release</a>. "Who knows what other riches lie deep within Borneo's fabled rainforests, especially in the Indonesian part of the island?"</p>
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Like many other plant-based foods and products, CBD oil is one dietary supplement where "organic" labels are very important to consumers. However, there are little to no regulations within the hemp industry when it comes to deeming a product as organic, which makes it increasingly difficult for shoppers to find the best CBD oil products available on the market.
<p>Here you can learn about the importance of organic hemp oil, why it's better for the environment, and which CBD companies actually make trustworthy products with sustainable farming processes. origins which weigh heavily on many consumers who want to buy a product that's produced in the best way possible for not only themselves to ingest, but for the environment as well through sustainable farming methods. </p><h2>What Is CBD Oil?</h2><p>First things first, CBD stands for cannabidiol, and it's a cannabinoid found within cannabis sativa plants. This plant compound is believed to have many potential benefits, and it is primarily derived from hemp plants via a CO2 extraction process. </p><p>Since CBD is extracted from industrial hemp, which contains only trace amounts of THC (the psychoactive component in cannabis plants), this means that CBD won't make you feel high like marijuana, which has much higher levels of THC that causes psychoactive effects. Instead, the effects of CBD are much more subtle and promote a general sense of calm and relaxation in most users.</p><h2>What Makes a CBD Oil Organic?</h2><p>In terms of organic labels, perhaps the most important (and prominent) certification comes from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This government organization has been labeling foods as "organic" for many years, but what exactly does this certification entail? Essentially, a label indicating that a product is "USDA Organic" or "Certified Organic" means that at least 95% of the ingredients are obtained from organic sources.</p><p>For a crop to be considered organic by the USDA, it must be grown without the use of industrial solvents, irradiation, genetic engineering (GMOs), synthetic pesticides, or chemical fertilizer. Instead, farmers rely on natural substances and <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2012/03/22/organic-101-what-usda-organic-label-means" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mechanical, physical, or biologically based farming</a> techniques to cultivate healthy and organic crops.</p><p>Before the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, no hemp-derived products could be dubbed as "certified organic" since the hemp plant and its extracts were still categorized as a Schedule I Controlled Substance. However, it's still difficult for CBD companies to obtain a USDA certified organic label for their products due to the legal grey area that still surrounds CBD extracts. </p><p>Because of these challenges, and due to the fact that industrial hemp has only recently become an agricultural crop, very few CBD oils are USDA certified organic. Rather, many CBD products contain hemp extracts from plants that were grown in organic conditions but may not be federally certified.</p><h2>What are the Best Organic CBD Oil Brands?</h2><p><em>Each product featured here has been independently selected by the writer. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.</em></p><em><br></em>
<h2>Why Organic Hemp Oil Matters</h2><p>Hemp is a unique plant, not only for its rich cannabinoid content, but also for its ability to absorb a wide variety of components in soil. But this trait poses great risks when it comes to the creation of CBD products derived from hemp.</p><p>Because hemp has a high capacity for compound uptake, this means that the plants can retain <a href="https://www.remedyreview.com/industry/lab-test-results/" target="_blank">harmful chemicals like pesticides</a>, heavy metals, and other residual solvents. This is especially true when it comes to synthetic chemicals that are more toxic to humans, and difficult to remove once they have been absorbed by the hemp plant.</p><p>Organic farming practices help reduce the risk of hemp crops absorbing harsh chemicals that may later end up in CBD oil after extraction. When you're taking CBD as a wellness supplement to help alleviate your symptoms or improve your overall well-being, the last thing you want is to ingest compounds that might negatively outweigh the benefits of CBD. This is an important reason to look for third party lab test results when shopping for CBD products since these certificates of analysis can show the full cannabinoid and terpene profile of a hemp extract, as well as test results that search for the presence of any residual solvents.</p><p>In addition to creating a better end product, organic farming practices are also better for the environment. Sustainable and organic farming methods may <a href="https://www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-eating/organic-foods.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reduce pollution, conserve water, reduce soil erosion, increase soil fertility, and use less energy</a>. The use of natural pest deterrents as opposed to chemical pesticides is also better for nearby animal populations and ecosystems.</p><h3>Organic vs. Natural</h3><p>While there are only a select few companies offering certified organic ingredients in their products, almost every brand in the CBD market creates "natural" products. The term "all-natural" or "plant-based" does not mean that a product is organic, and since hemp oil is a natural derivative of hemp plants, these products are often referred to as all-natural. However, there are some synthetic CBD oils that should be avoided because they are chemically constructed and may produce unwanted side effects that are not caused by naturally derived CBD extracts.</p><h2>What are the Benefits of Organic CBD Oil?</h2><p>There's a long list of potential CBD oil health benefits, and some of the most common wellness advantages include:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2503660/" target="_blank">Chronic pain relief</a></li><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4604171/" target="_blank">Anti-anxiety effects</a></li><li>Better sleep</li><li><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/inner-source/201901/cbd-oil-mental-health-should-you-take-it-too" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Improvements in mood</a></li><li>Internal balance and regulation</li></ul><p>When dealing with pain, inflammation, sleep issues, and mental health struggles, it can be hard to find sufficient treatment options. The use of certain prescriptions can cause unwanted side effects, yet they are often the only solution for patients with these medical conditions. In search of other therapies, people have started to flock towards CBD oil as an alternative remedy for a variety of conditions. However, it should be noted that CBD products are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and you should seek your doctor's advice before using CBD if you have a serious medical condition.</p><h2>Look at the Labels Before You Buy CBD Oil</h2><p>When you go online to buy CBD oil, you'll quickly realize there is an overwhelming number of brands that are saturating the market. It can be difficult to determine which products are truly as good as they make themselves out to be. Always look for up-to-date third-party lab tests so you know you are getting a great product, and don't hesitate to contact the brand if you have any additional questions. And if you're intent on purchasing 100% organic CBD oil, it's best to look for certified products or brands that are held to strict regulatory standards.</p><p><strong>Melena Gurganus </strong>is the Reviews Editor at EcoWatch. She is passionate health and wellness and her writing aims to help others find products they can trust. Her work has been featured in publications such as Health, Shape, Huffington Post, Cannabis Business Times, and Bustle.<br></p>
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FAB CBD
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjIyNS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NDIwOTEyMn0.MlTjz096FJ0ev_-soK7_Z-FeQeJczWoeh9Qi9SSkHsY/img.jpg?width=980" id="04b26" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="76aa4862f44603242e318982acea6646" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="fab cbd oil" data-width="800" data-height="800" /><p>For an organic CBD oil that has it all, FAB CBD offers plenty of variety for any type of consumer. All of its products are made with zero pesticides and extracted from organically grown Colorado industrial hemp. FAB CBD oil comes in five all-natural flavors (mint, vanilla, berry, citrus, and natural) and is also available in four strengths (300, 600, 1200, and 2400mg per bottle).</p>
$39
NuLeaf Naturals
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjIxOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NzExNTgyMX0.D6qMGYllKTsVhEkQ-L_GzpDHVu60a-tJKcio7M1Ssmc/img.jpg?width=980" id="94e4a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3609a52479675730893a45a82a03c71d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="nuleaf naturals organic cbd oil" data-width="600" data-height="600" /><p>As an industry-leading brand, it comes as no surprise that NuLeaf Naturals sources its CBD extract from organic hemp plants grown on licensed farms in Colorado. The comany's CBD oils only contain two ingredients: USDA certified organic hemp seed oil and full spectrum hemp extract.</p><p>NuLeaf Naturals uses one proprietary CBD oil formula for all of its products, so you will get the same CBD potency in each tincture (60mg per mL), but can purchase different bottle sizes depending on how much you intend to use.</p>
$38.50
Charlotte's Web
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDcwMjk3NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MzQ0NjM4N30.SaQ85SK10-MWjN3PwHo2RqpiUBdjhD0IRnHKTqKaU7Q/img.jpg?width=980" id="84700" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a2174067dcc0c4094be25b3472ce08c8" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="charlottes web cbd oil" data-width="1244" data-height="1244" /><p>Perhaps one of the most well-known brands in the CBD landscape, Charlotte's Web has been growing sustainable hemp plants for several years. The company is currently in the process of achieving official USDA Organic Certification, but it already practices organic and sustainable cultivation techniques to enhance the overall health of the soil and the hemp plants themselves, which creates some of the highest quality CBD extracts. Charlotte's Web offers CBD oils in a range of different concentration options, and some even come in a few flavor options such as chocolate mint, orange blossom, and lemon twist.</p>
$60
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This Popular Condiment Is Helping Save Sea Turtles From One of Israel’s Worst Oil Spills
25 February
Animals
A sea turtle rescued from Israel's devastating oil spill. MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP via Getty Images
Rescue workers in Israel are using a surprising cure to save the sea turtles harmed by a devastating oil spill: mayonnaise!
<p>The condiment can both help break down the tar that has coated even the turtles' insides and clean out their system, Guy Ivgy, a medical assistant at the National Sea Turtle Rescue Center in Michmoret, explained to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/mayonnaise-help-turtles-oil-spills-c5f679439e7a0f95fb79384978944cde" target="_blank">The Associated Press</a>.</p><p>"They came to us full of tar. All their trachea from inside and outside was full of tar," he said.</p>
<p>Tar from a mysterious oil spill began washing up on Israeli beaches last week, as EcoWatch reported previously. The spill is being called one of the worst ecological disasters in the nation's history, and has now covered most of Israel's 120 miles of coastline along the Mediterranean, according to The Associated Press. It has now also spread to the coastline of Lebanon.</p><p>The spill has generated around 1,000 tons of tar, which has seriously affected <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self">wildlife</a>, including sea turtles. The injured turtles have been taken to the National Sea Turtle Rescue Center, which is north of Tel Aviv. Ivgy told The Associated Press Tuesday that the center was currently treating 11 turtles. Yaniv Levy, the center's founder and director, told <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-with-mayonnaise-and-q-tips-israelis-save-oil-drenched-turtles-1.9562907?v=1614269214502" target="_blank">Haaretz</a> the same day that the center was treating 27 turtles total and six for tar damage specifically.</p>
<p>The tar-coated turtles have to be cleaned both inside and out, Levy explained.</p><p>"They all got here with a coat of tar on their heads, and in their eyes, nostrils, mouth, digestive system and stomach," he said. "With this kind of damage they have no chance to survive without treatment. We removed the tar from their nostrils and eyes so they could breathe and see."</p><p>The mayonnaise helps clean the digestive system. First, volunteers use vegetable oil to thin the tar. Then, they use mayonnaise to dilute the tar and remove it from the stomach and intestinal lining. At the same time, the mayonnaise provides fats and proteins to the turtles while it is not safe for them to eat solid food.</p><p>"If they eat regular food, it turns into a lump with the tar and could cause blockages, which is why we don't give them solid foods during the first days," Levy said.</p>
<div id="69149" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5c72399c478551575fe4f92bdb8d25dc"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1364507790841180160" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">At this Israeli turtles hospital, oil spill victims are saved with Q-tips and mayonnaise
https://t.co/XrmHbKrmHu https://t.co/bmmlcY4wTJ</div> — Haaretz.com (@Haaretz.com)<a href="https://twitter.com/haaretzcom/statuses/1364507790841180160">1614158983.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>This isn't the first time mayonnaise has been used to treat sea turtles rescued from an oil spill. The Turtle Hospital in Florida also recommends it as a safe and effective treatment, according to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-56194624" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">BBC News</a>.</p><p>Mayonnaise is an effective treatment because of its unique properties, <a href="https://www.livescience.com/mayonnaise-sea-turtle-treatment-after-isreal-oil-spill.html" target="_blank">Live Science explained</a>. That is because it is an emulsion, a mixture of two liquids that don't usually mix, in this case oil and water. The egg yolks in mayonnaise contain both water and lecithin, a molecule that is hydrophilic (water-attracting) on one side and hydrophobic (water-repelling) on the other. That means that, when the yolks are combined with acid (usually lemon juice or vinegar) and oil to make mayonnaise, the oil sticks to the hydrophobic sides of the lecithin molecules, and the hydrophilic sides stick out, sticking to the water and preventing it from separating from the oil.</p>
<p>Live Science explained why this is good news for tar-coated turtles:</p><blockquote>Because mayonnaise has both hydrophobic and hydrophilic properties, it can interact with both the oily, hydrophobic tar and hydrophilic molecules in a turtle's digestive tract. The hydrophobic oil can mix with the tar, making it thinner and less viscous; meanwhile, the hydrophobic ends of the lecithin molecules are also drawn towards the tar, with their hydrophilic ends facing out. This creates a barrier around the tar that better interacts with water, making the toxic substance less sticky.</blockquote><p>In Israel, the treatment appears to be working. Levy told Haaretz he thought the turtles in his care would be ready to be released in a month or two.</p><p>"A little more mayonnaise and they'll all recover and get back to natural food," he said.</p>
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Yves Adams / Instagram
A rare yellow penguin has been photographed for what is believed to be the first time.
<p>Belgian <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self">wildlife</a> photographer Yves Adams snapped the shot in December 2019 on an island in South Georgia during a two-month expedition, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/yellow-penguin-photo-south-atlantic-b1804738.html" target="_blank">The Independent reported</a>. However, he first posted the photograph on Instagram this month.</p><p>"While unpacking our rubberboats merely after landing on a remote beach on the island of South-Georgia, this leucistic King penguin walked up straight to our direction in the middle of a chaos full of Sea elephants and Antarctic fur seals, and thousands of other King penguins," Adams wrote in his post. "How lucky could I be!"</p>
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<p>Leucism is a genetic mutation that causes some but not all of an animal's melanin to disappear, <a href="https://www.livescience.com/yellow-penguin-south-georgia.html" target="_blank">Live Science explained</a>. King penguins typically have black and white feathers with a yellow bow-tie-like stripe on the collar. Melanin, or dark pigment, is responsible for the darker feathers. While pigment anomalies in penguins are rare, they can be either melanistic (all black), albanistic (all white) or leucistic (a mix of both).</p><p>Dee Boersma, a University of Washington conservation biologist who was not a part of Adams's expedition, told Live Science that she agreed with his diagnosis.</p>
<p>However, Kevin McGraw, an integrative behavioral ecologist at Arizona State University who also was not a part of the expedition, was less sure, as he told Live Science:</p><blockquote>"It does look albino from the perspective that it lacks all melanin" in its plumage, feet and eyes, McGraw said. Still, "we'd need feather samples for biochemical testing if we aimed to unequivocally document," whether melanin is present, he said.</blockquote><blockquote>Animals can be albino but still have non-melanin pigment, he added.</blockquote>
<p>McGraw added that the mutation might put the unique penguin at a disadvantage, since penguins use their coloring for choosing mates and protecting themselves from both predators and the sun.</p><p>"It's conceivable that such color aberrations could impact both survival and reproduction," McGraw said.</p><p>For whatever the reason, the white-and-yellow coloring is rare enough that it has never been seen before, as far as experts are aware. A white chinstrap penguin was spotted in Antarctica in 2012, The Independent reported.</p><p>The rarity made Adams feel especially lucky to get a chance to photograph this individual. He said that it was one of at least 120,000 penguins in the colony.</p><p>"It was heaven that he landed by us. If it had been 50 metres away, we wouldn't have been able to get this show of a lifetime," Adams told The Independent.</p>
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A gray wolf is seen howling outside in winter. Wolfgang Kaehler / Contributor / Getty Images
Wisconsin will end its controversial wolf hunt early after hunters and trappers killed almost 70 percent of the state's quota in the hunt's first 48 hours.
<p>By the end of Tuesday, the second day of the hunt, 82 wolves had been killed, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/wisconsin-wolves-animals-eau-claire-monroe-4319806de94ca754dcfc95e19b869694" target="_blank">The Associated Press reported</a>. As of Wednesday morning, 135 had been killed, exceeding the quota, according to the <a href="https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/hunt/wolf/index.html" target="_blank">Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR)</a>.</p><p>"Wisconsin's actions offer a tragic glimpse of a future without federal wolf protections," the Wolf Conservation Center <a href="https://twitter.com/nywolforg/status/1364338681776070657" target="_blank">tweeted</a> in response.</p><p>President Donald Trump's <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/gray-wolves-endangered-trump-2649746799.html" target="_self">delisting</a> of gray wolves under the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species-act" target="_self">Endangered Species Act</a> triggered the hunt. The DNR originally set a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/gray-wolf-wisconsin-hunt-2650553450.html" target="_self">quota of 200 wolves </a>to be killed between Feb. 22 and Feb. 28. Of the 200, 81 were allocated to the Ojibwe Tribes in accordance with treaty rights, the <a href="https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/environment/article_d575dba3-6e63-54de-9927-e59c2ca5cfb9.html?fbclid=IwAR06BdtuJaJmVPgX4cSgM_H2jH0fHCFXsFi2kDzBssU6Tm7Kec1jybQwqTs" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Wisconsin State Journal reported</a>. Hunters killed about half of the remaining 119 by Tuesday morning and 69 percent by Tuesday afternoon, The Associated Press reported. By Wednesday morning, hunters exceeded the quota by 16 wolves.</p><p>Hunters also exceeded the quota set for three of the state's hunting zones, according to DNR. They killed 33 of an 18-wolf quota in zone 2, located in the northeast; 24 of a 20-wolf quota in zone 3 located in the center; and 30 of a 17-wolf quota in southern zone 6. The hunt ended Wednesday at 10 a.m. CT in the most depleted zones and will end at 3 p.m. CT for the remaining half.</p>
<p>The hunt is the state's first since 2014, according to the Wisconsin State Journal. After wolves were returned to state management under Trump in January 2021, Wisconsin intended to plan a hunt for November 2021, arguing that it needed the time to study the population and consult with Native American tribes and the general public. However, pro-hunting group Hunter Nation sued the state to start the hunt earlier in the year, with a judge ruling in their favor. This past Friday, an appeals court dismissed the Wisconsin DNR's appeal, <a href="https://www.wpr.org/wolf-hunt-will-move-forward-after-panel-judges-dismisses-dnr-appeal" target="_blank">Wisconsin Public Radio reported</a>.</p><p>"The reckless slaughter of 135 wolves in just three days is appalling," said Collette Adkins, carnivore conservation director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "Sound science was ignored here in favor of catering to trophy hunters who were all too eager to kill wolves even at the height of breeding season. It will take years for Wisconsin's wolf population to recover from the damage done this week. And without federal protections, this bloody spectacle could easily play out in other states."</p><p>The hunt killed about 12 percent of Wisconsin's wolves, which last numbered between 1,034 and 1,057 according to 2020 DNR <a href="https://u7061146.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=4tNED-2FM8iDZJQyQ53jATURDPtJG0H2bp-2FS2p7qmrdoE1k0lZGUnoapBLdZjmTJCK15VS_9DWd1IQpF0pa6moAa2K0USVLPw-2BdyUxYOf6Uxh7iNF2j-2F-2B0i4WsvfzVmvKM60HQTKBTl7-2FdSSDZkDf9HSA47QUmgHfQ3pfCbKBt6d7suISzSlDId36RWi2csLv7-2FEXhWWSkoFglobYU5KfJ7V3rYnRLAHtVsTP8O04pEbdY9PBs-2FAxY8iDOIk6FL2bAvqwldRziPkNjC-2BKVHe2TrnwXpAIlV04TbyPn9o7CtwxLPlvMAhJI3e9jhBOxTwgwhRoCaVts11Bai8tW99bXDuohXcTwxsWRJcrKOj5sA0Ou0d4lTdNEXHwRnqoYdIhdKAhslQX1vA6J-2Bi9MX9nfC-2BVBjgrRm0YUvz-2FtiGSLBiybmIHg-3D" target="_blank">data</a>.</p><p>Other <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation" target="_self">conservation</a> groups also raised concerns about the rushed hunt. At the same time, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/indigenous" target="_self">Indigenous</a> communities criticized the lack of consultation. The state is required by law to consult with tribes on resources management.</p><p>"This hunt is not well-thought-out, well-planned, totally inadequate consultation with the tribes," Peter David, Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission wildlife biologist, told Wisconsin Public Radio. "And maybe the biggest concern of all is that this season is not so much a hunting season as it is a killing season. No justification, really, was given for what was the legitimate purpose other than killing wolves."</p>
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Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation safely returned 10 rescued orangutans to the wild on Borneo Island, Indonesia. Afriadi Hikmal / Getty Images
With lockdowns in place and budgets slashed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many environmental protections vanished this past year, leaving some of the world's most vulnerable species and habitats at risk. But conservationists at the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation were faced with an entirely different threat.
<p>Their beloved orangutans share a strikingly similar DNA to humans, making them susceptible to respiratory illnesses such as COVID-19, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-orangutans/ten-rescued-orangutans-returned-to-the-wild-in-indonesia-idUSKBN2AN0R7" target="_blank">Reuters reported</a>. So when it came time to reintroduce a group of rescued orangutans back into the wild, conservationists had to rethink their usual transportation methods to prevent potentially spreading the virus.</p><p>The solution? Reintroduce the critically endangered species via helicopter.</p><p>Last week, ten orangutans returned to the wild by taking a flight to the Indonesian portion of Borneo Island, Reuters reported.</p><p>"For an entire year, we have not been able to release orangutans due to the global pandemic, but we are still strongly committed to the orangutan conservation effort," Jamartin Sihite, CEO of the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, said in a <a href="https://orangutan.or.id/press-release-bos-foundation-conducts-back-to-back-orangutan-releases-in-central-and-east-kalimantan/" target="_blank">statement</a>.</p>
<p>Prior to their release, the orangutans were held in rehabilitation centers, according to Reuters. They included five males, a mother and two babies and two other females.</p><p>"Using a helicopter is the best way to transport orangutans during the pandemic," Denny Kurniawan, BOSF program manager, told Reuters. Normally it would take three days to drive the orangutans to their drop-off area, adding to the risk of further exposure between humans and orangutans, Reuters noted. However, air travel reduced travel time and kept veterinarians and orangutans at a safer distance.</p><p>"Efforts to help curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus have hampered many conservation-related activities," Handi Nasoka, acting head of Central Kalimantan's conservation agency, told Reuters.</p><p>Orangutans are critically endangered, according to the <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/orangutan" target="_blank">World Wildlife Fund</a>, with about 104,700 Bornean orangutans remaining. While the decline in populations is partially due to the expansion of palm oil and other agricultural plantations, causing habitat loss, orangutans also fall prey to illegal hunting and trading. The latter has been on the rise since the pandemic started.</p>
<p><br>In Africa, for example, international travel restrictions caused the continent's $39 billion tourism industry to decline, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/science/coronavirus-poaching-rhinos.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The New York Times reported</a>. Highly visited areas have become empty, making it difficult for conservation groups to keep track of illegal activity across Africa's vast lands, The New York Times reported.<br></p><p>"These animals are not just protected by rangers, they're also protected by tourist presence," Tim Davenport, who directs Africa's species conservation programs at the Wildlife Conservation Society, told The New York Times. Since the March lockdown, South Africa had experienced a rapid increase in rhino poachings. Now poachers are taking advantage of unpatrolled lands, illustrating "the risks of relying too heavily on tourism to support conservation," Davenport added.</p><p>While the pandemic highlights the unique threat that economic struggle poses to endangered species, it also emphasizes the necessary role conservationists play in protecting them.</p><p>"We cannot afford to stop our work under any circumstance," Sunandar Trigunajasa, head of the East Kalimantan Natural Resources Conservation Agency, which helped with the orangutan release, <a href="https://orangutan.or.id/press-release-bos-foundation-conducts-back-to-back-orangutan-releases-in-central-and-east-kalimantan/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said in a statement</a>. "What we must do is keep on innovating and adapting to the dynamic conditions and moving forward."</p>
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The numbers of migratory freshwater fish such as salmon have declined 76 percent since 1970. Mike Bons / 500px / Getty Images
The latest warning of the Earth's mounting extinction crisis is coming from its lakes and rivers.
<p>A new <a href="https://wwfint.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/world_s_forgotten_fishes__report_final__1.pdf" target="_blank">report</a> from a coalition of 16 <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation" target="_self">conservation</a> groups warns that almost a third of freshwater <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fish" target="_self">fish</a> species face extinction because of human activity.</p><p>"Nowhere is the world's nature crisis more acute than in our rivers, lakes and wetlands, and the clearest indicator of the damage we are doing is the rapid decline in freshwater fish populations. They are the aquatic version of the canary in the coal mine, and we must heed the warning," Stuart Orr, WWF global freshwater lead, said in a <a href="https://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/press_releases/?1529966/Worlds-forgotten-fishes-vital-for-hundreds-of-millions-of-people-but-one-third-face-extinction-warns-new-report" target="_blank">statement</a> Tuesday announcing the report.</p><p>WWF is one of the many organizations behind the report, along with the Alliance for Freshwater Life, Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy, to name a few. Together, the groups emphasized the incredible diversity of the world's freshwater fish and their importance for human wellbeing.</p><p>There are a total of 18,075 freshwater fish species in the world, accounting for 51 percent of all fish species and 25 percent of all vertebrates. They are an important food source for 200 million people and provide work for 60 million. But their numbers are in decline. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species has declared 80 to be extinct, 16 of those in 2020 alone. The numbers of migratory freshwater fish such as salmon have declined 76 percent since 1970, while mega-fish such as beluga sturgeon have fallen by 94 percent in the same time period. In fact, freshwater <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/biodiversity" target="_self">biodiversity</a> is plummeting at twice the rate of biodiversity in the oceans and forests.</p>
<p>Despite this, freshwater fish get much less attention than their saltwater counterparts, the report authors say. Titled "The World's Forgotten Fishes," it argues that policy makers rarely consider river <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self">wildlife</a> when making decisions. </p><p>The main threats to freshwater fish include building <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/dams" target="_self">dams</a>, syphoning river water for irrigation, releasing wastewater and draining wetlands. Other factors include <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/overfishing" target="_self">overfishing</a>, introducing <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/invasive-species" target="_self">invasive species</a> and the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>.</p><p>"As we look to adapt to climate change and we start to think about all the discussions that governments are going to have on biodiversity, it's really a time for us to shine a light back on freshwater," Orr told <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/extinction-threatens-third-freshwater-fish-species-report-finds-n1258591" target="_blank">NBC News</a>.</p><p>To protect these forgotten fishes, the report authors outlined a six-point plan:</p><blockquote>1. Let rivers flow more naturally;<br>2. Improve water quality in freshwater ecosystems;<br>3. Protect and restore critical habitats;<br>4. End overfishing and unsustainable sand mining in rivers and lakes;<br>5. Prevent and control invasions by non-native species; and<br>6. Protect free-flowing rivers and remove obsolete dams.</blockquote><p>They also called on world leaders to include freshwater ecosystems in an ambitious biodiversity agreement at the upcoming UN Convention on Biological Diversity conference in Kunming, China.</p><p>But the solution will require more than just government action.</p><p>"It's now more urgent than ever that we find the collective political will and effective collaboration with private sector, governments, NGOs and communities, to implement nature-based solutions that protect freshwater species, while also ensuring human needs are met," Carmen Revenga of The Nature Conservancy told <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56160756" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">BBC News</a>.</p>
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Volunteers Form Human Chain in Tireless Effort to Save Beached Whales in New Zealand
23 February
Animals
In a tireless, two-day effort, volunteers in New Zealand joined together to successfully refloat a pod of long-finned pilot whales stranded on the beach.
<p>On Monday, the pod of 49 long-finned pilot whales was found stranded on Farewell Spit, a remote beach on the South Island, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/40-beached-whales-refloated-new-zealand-07def068f617a588500c64d5dfcbe2be" target="_blank">AP reported</a>. In response, rangers from New Zealand's Department of Conservation, volunteers from Project Jonah, a whale rescue group and local residents joined efforts to keep the whales alive and in deep waters, AP reported.</p><p>When first sighted, nine whales were already dead, but volunteers drenched the animals still alive with buckets of water and ensured the animals kept the pressure off of their fins throughout the day, Louisa Hawkes, a spokesperson for Project Jonah said, according to AP.</p>
<p>By late Monday, when the tide had risen, 150 people, most of them volunteers, formed a human chain and guided the whales back into deeper waters, <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/124318871/reports-of-up-to-50-whales-stranded-at-farewell-spit" target="_blank">Stuff reported</a>.</p><p>Darren Foxwell, the Department of Conservation whale stranding operations manager, said the purpose of the human chain was so the whales could "re-orientate" and so the volunteers could "keep them together, otherwise there's a risk of re-stranding if they take off on their own," according to <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/124318871/reports-of-up-to-50-whales-stranded-at-farewell-spit" target="_blank">Stuff</a>.</p>
<p>Once the whales were in deep enough water, boats moved back and forth to prevent the whales from swimming back to shore, AP reported. Yet despite these efforts, the whales still had not swum deep enough into the ocean for safety by the end of the day.</p><p>"It's always fantastic to see whales out in deeper water where they should be," Hawkes told AP. But the volunteers worried their efforts may not save the pod. "Everyone is very hopeful but also very realistic," Hawkes added.</p>
<p>On Tuesday morning, the pod of whales was found stranded once again, <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/124326615/pilot-whales-refloated-for-a-second-time-at-farewell-spit" target="_blank">Stuff reported</a>. This time, only about 28 whales were alive and their chances at survival looked slim.</p><p>By that point the whales had become languid and were making little effort to swim away, a local Department of Conservation ranger, Andrew Lamason, told <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/436955/whales-strand-again-at-farewell-spit" target="_blank">RNZ</a>. With another dry tide on the horizon, volunteers were rocking the whales and attempting to direct them into the deep water.</p><p>By early Tuesday afternoon, the Department of Conservation reported that the pod had successfully swum offshore, following the formation of another human chain that pushed the animals deeper into the water, <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/124326615/relief-as-stranded-pilot-whales-refloated-for-a-second-time-head-out-to-sea" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Stuff reported</a>.</p>
<p>"Volunteers have been pulled out of the water now, because the whales are swimming below the low tide zone and heading out to sea," Lamason told Stuff. "That's really good news; such good news that I'm going home."</p><p>This is not the first time New Zealand's Farewell Spit has experienced whale strandings. Each year, about 300 whales and dolphins are stranded at the top of New Zealand's South Island, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38953557" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">BBC reported</a>. In 2017, more than 400 pilot whales were stranded on the beach's three-mile-long stretch.</p><p>This is partly due to the region's unique geographical shape, creating a "natural trap" for long-finned pilot whales, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38953557" target="_blank">BBC noted</a>. Shaped like a hook, the spit's geography causes a whale's echolocation signal to bounce back, disorienting the animal into shallower and unsafe waters.</p>
<p>While scientists do not have a definite answer as to why whales and other animals consistently find themselves stranded on these shores, they do suspect it may also have something to do with changes in feeding patterns and altered <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oceans">ocean</a> temperatures, especially in January and February, BBC reported.</p><p>The whale pod is now swimming offshore – their success credited to the efforts of volunteers and whale advocates alike, now relieved and heading home.</p><p>"I'm just doing what I can, it's not something I've done before and it's not how I hoped to see whales. I just hope we can help them live and survive," one volunteer at Farewell Spit said, according to <a href="http://stuff.co.nz/" target="_blank">Stuff</a>. "But as sad as it is, this kind of thing also brings people together," another commented.</p>
<div id="029bc" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="973d152bb86646a00e2a20317ac08a0c"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1363934301033693185" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">If you are able to support our rescue efforts with a one off donation, we'd really appreciate it. As a really small… https://t.co/zrcQVmO1lM</div> — Project Jonah (@Project Jonah)<a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectJonah/statuses/1363934301033693185">1614022252.0</a></blockquote></div>
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A worker at the Israeli Sea Turtle Rescue Center removes oil from a sea turtle in Mikhmoret, Israel on February 21, 2021. Menahem Kahana / AFP / Getty Images
A mysterious oil spill began to wash up on Israel's coast last week, closing beaches and harming wildlife.
<p>The Israeli government urged people not to visit a wide stretch of beach on Sunday, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-tells-public-not-to-visit-beaches-after-worst-oil-spill-in-its-history-1.9556663" target="_blank">Haaretz reported</a>. Of Israel's 119 miles of beach, 105 were impacted by the disaster, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/22/middleeast/israel-oil-spill-ecological-disaster-intl-hnk/index.html" target="_blank">according to CNN</a>. That's 40 percent of Israel's coastline, Haaretz noted.</p><p>"The enormous amounts of tar emitted in recent days to the shores of Israel from south to north caused one of the most severe ecological disasters to hit Israel," the country's Nature and Parks Authority said Sunday, CNN reported.</p>
<div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0423bbb6c4ed7e662f2564d7685e70ad"><div class="fb-post" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/IsraelNaturParks/posts/10159120844857899"></div></div>
<p><br>People first noticed the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oil" target="_self">oil</a> last Wednesday, according to Haaretz. It washed up as sticky, dark pieces of tar, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/02/21/969949310/mediterranean-oil-spill-injures-wildlife-closes-israels-beaches" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">NPR reported</a>. As of Monday, it had spread to the beaches of southern Lebanon, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/israel-environment-oil-spill-lebanon-int/oil-spill-off-israel-reaches-south-lebanese-beaches-idUSKBN2AM1AZ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Reuters reported</a>.</p><p><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/animals/" target="_self">Animals</a> have also been found covered in tar, including a few <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/birds" target="_self">birds</a> and nine <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-turtles" target="_self">sea turtles</a>, Haaretz added. Sadly, four of the turtles died. The rest have been taken to the National Sea Turtle Rescue Center to recover.</p><p>Additionally, a fin <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/whales" target="_self">whale</a> washed up dead on the Israeli coast on Thursday. Preliminary tests revealed that it did contain oil in its body, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/israel-environment-oil-spill-int/israels-beaches-blackened-by-tar-after-offshore-oil-spill-idUSKBN2AL0AZ" target="_blank">Reuters reported</a>.</p><p>Not least, ecologists are worried about <em>Dendropoma petraeum, </em>a reef-building snail whose population is already declining because of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>, NPR reported.</p>
<p>Volunteers have rallied to help with cleanup efforts, with more than 4,000 people from the non-profit EcoOcean working to remove the tar. However, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority said it would take years to remove all of it, Haaretz reported. Most of the work will have to be done by hand.</p><p>The government is currently investigating the cause of the spill with the help of European authorities, according to NPR. Israel thinks it likely spilled from a ship about a week ago during stormy weather in the Mediterranean. One candidate is a Feb. 11 oil spill from a ship passing about 21 miles from shore, Reuters reported.</p><p>Environmental Protection Minister Gila Gamliel said the investigation had pinpointed nine ships as potential culprits.</p><p>"There is a more than reasonable chance that we will be able to locate the specific ship," she told Ynet TV, Reuters reported.</p>
<p>Israel could take legal action if the responsible vessel is identified, such as suing insurance companies for the cost of the cleanup.<br></p><p>However, in a move journalists are calling irregular, a court placed details of the investigation under censor Monday following a request from the Environmental Protection Ministry, <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/israel-oil-spill-disaster-investigation-details-placed-under-censor-659765" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Jerusalem Post reported</a>.</p><p>This has prompted criticism from environmental organizations.</p><p>"When the entities operating at sea and producing a risk of pollution are rich oil companies and shipping companies that have much influence on the regulator, Zalul demands a transparent investigation and that the [censor] order be lifted immediately," Maya Jacobs, director-general of the Zalul Environmental Association, told The Jerusalem Post.</p>
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New Data Show Higher Rates of Contamination in Pork Plants Under New Slaughter System
22 February
Food
Plants adopting the Trump-approved New Swine Inspection System had nearly double the rate of fecal and digestive matter contamination of other facilities. Juanmonino / Getty Images
By Brett Wilkins
New data released Friday revealed pigs slaughtered at plants piloting a controversial new system—which speeds production while replacing many government inspectors with slaughterhouse employees—had much higher rates of fecal and digestive matter contamination than animals processed in other plants, information that the Trump administration hid from the public while expanding the system.
<p>The consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch <a href="https://foodandwaterwatch.org/news/pilot-swine-slaughter-plants-self-inspection-rules" target="_blank">said in a statement</a> that from 2014 to 2017, pork processing plants implementing the New Swine Inspection System (NSIS) on a trial basis had, on average, "nearly double the violations than comparably sized plants outside the program" and "were almost twice as likely to be cited for contamination."</p><p>According to Food & Water Watch, the plant's higher rates of United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) violations were for the agency's FS-2 food safety standard for fecal matter, digestive contents, and milk.</p>
<div id="3d1b9" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a8b85539bdb4b59a69c715198e4bfd66"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1362824326123249665" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">“This new data should end this argument once and for all: Meat companies should not be left to police themselves to… https://t.co/ocjzYckRaR</div> — Food & Water Watch (@Food & Water Watch)<a href="https://twitter.com/foodandwater/statuses/1362824326123249665">1613757614.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>"These substances can contain human pathogens, like potentially deadly <em>Salmonella</em>, which the agency has estimated is responsible for 69,000 people getting sick from eating pork each year," Food & Water Watch said. "Because of its seriousness, the agency has zero tolerance for FS-2 violations, meaning that no carcass contamination is acceptable."</p><p>"This new data should end this argument once and for all: Meat companies should not be left to police themselves to protect consumers from dirty and dangerous pork products," said Zach Corrigan, a senior attorney for Food & Water Watch, in a <a href="https://foodandwaterwatch.org/news/pilot-swine-slaughter-plants-self-inspection-rules" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">statement</a> Friday. </p><p>The new revelations follow 2018 <a href="https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2018-02-21/dirty-us-meat-could-come-over-here-after-brexit" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reporting</a>—based on documents obtained by Food & Water Watch—that plants piloting the NSIS were "rife with food safety violations," including "fecal contamination, sanitation issues, and failure to remove diseased carcasses from the food chain."</p><p>Despite this, the USDA adopted the NSIS last year as part of the Trump administration's <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/01/30/dangerous-and-dumb-trump-signs-executive-order-torching-regulations" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">aggressive</a>—and <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/14/deregulations-deadly-consequences-report-details-how-trumps-assault-government" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sometimes deadly</a>—deregulation and privatization agenda. The NSIS is supported by the North American Meat Institute, an industry lobby group that came under fire last year after <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/15/usda-and-meatpacking-industry-collaborated-undermine-covid-19-response-documents" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">revelations</a> that one of its draft executive orders on keeping meatpacking plants open during the coronavirus pandemic bore striking similarities to an actual directive signed by then-President Donald Trump.</p><p>Center for Food Safety staff attorney Ryan Talbott has <a href="https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/news/lawsuit-challenging-trump-dirty-swine-slaughter-rules-allowed-proceed-federal-court" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">called</a> the NSIS' lifting of production line speed limits and partial privatization of meat inspection by replacing USDA inspectors with plant workers "a recipe for disaster." </p><p>The coronavirus pandemic—which has <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/19/depraved-tyson-food-managers-accused-betting-how-many-their-workers-would-get-covid" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hit meat processing plants</a> particularly hard—has further increased risks, including the prospect of <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/06/food-safety-groups-warn-looming-zoonotic-pandemic-blast-usdas-new-slaughter-plant" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">new zoonotic diseases</a> that could be the source of the next pandemic. </p>
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<p>Worker safety is also a critical issue. The lifting of processing line speed limits, which had been <a href="https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/news/confirmed-usda-now-pursuing-privatized-beef-inspections" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">390 pigs per hour</a>, doesn't just mean more contamination—it has resulted in <a href="https://kfgo.com/2021/02/19/as-u-s-pork-plant-speeds-up-slaughtering-workers-report-more-injuries/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">more worker injuries</a>. </p><p>"Meatpacking is already one of the most dangerous industries for workers in America," said Deborah Berkowitz, worker safety and health program director at the National Employment Law Project, in a <a href="https://www.nelp.org/commentary/line-speeds-worker-safety-real-concerns/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">letter</a> last year. "Every day, tens of thousands of hog slaughter workers make the same repetitive motions, thousands upon thousands of times a day, using saws, hooks, and knives to slaughter and break down hogs into the pork steaks that we all buy and eat."</p><p>"The scientific evidence in the record for the NSIS is clear—the faster hog slaughter workers must do their tasks, the higher the risk of injury," added Berkowitz. </p><p>In a bid to mitigate risks, a group of Democratic lawmakers last year <a href="https://www.aspca.org/news/bill-introduced-protect-farm-animals-food-workers-and-consumers-during-covid-19" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">introduced</a> the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/7521/text" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Safe Line Speeds in Covid-19 Act</a>, which would prohibit high-speed slaughter systems such as the NSIS from operating during the pandemic. </p><p>Last year, Food & Water Watch <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/13/recipe-disaster-consumer-safety-groups-sue-usda-over-trumps-effort-privatize" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sued</a> the USDA over the NSIS, calling it "a draconian reversal to the swine slaughter inspection system that has existed in the United States since 1906." Earlier this month, a federal court <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2021/02/05/lawsuit-challenging-trumps-dirty-swine-slaughter-rules-allowed-proceed-federal" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ruled</a> that the lawsuit could proceed.</p><p>"Were the Biden administration to continue defending [the NSIS] in court, it would be to support exposing consumers to more pork contaminated with potentially pathogenic fecal matter and other contaminants," said Corrigan. </p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/19/dirty-and-dangerous-new-data-show-higher-rates-contamination-pork-plants-using-new" target="_blank">Common Dreams.</a></em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A swamp wallaby searches for food in a bushfire-scorched forest on February 3, 2020 in Braidwood, Australia. John Moore / Getty Images
By Tara Lohan
A hailstorm in South Texas. Tornadoes in Tennessee. Wildfires across the West. A barrage of Gulf Coast hurricanes. Those are among the record 22 weather and climate disasters that each topped $1 billion in damages last year in the United States.
<p>In all, the price tag for 2020 hit a whopping $95 billion — and that's just in the United States. Reinsurance firm Swiss Re put <a href="https://www.swissre.com/media/news-releases/nr-20201215-sigma-full-year-2020-preliminary-natcat-loss-estimates.html" target="_blank">global economic losses</a> at $175 billion last year, including $32 billion for <a href="https://qz.com/1950391/the-10-most-expensive-natural-disasters-of-2020/" target="_blank">floods in China</a> and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/22/weather/cyclone-amphan-damage-intl-hnk/index.html" target="_blank">$13 billion in damages</a> from Cyclone Amphan across India and Bangladesh.</p><p>The worst news? Our profligate burning of fossil fuels means we're in store for more.</p><p>Studies show that climate change is supercharging some weather and climate events and will lead to more severe and longer-lasting <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/305/5686/994" target="_blank">heat waves</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/18/climate/climate-changes-hurricane-intensity.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">stronger hurricanes</a>, an <a href="https://www.c2es.org/content/wildfires-and-climate-change/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">increased wildfire risk</a> and a longer wildfire season. We can also expect more <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2881/earths-freshwater-future-extremes-of-flood-and-drought/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">heavy rain events</a> and <a href="https://www.c2es.org/content/drought-and-climate-change/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">severe droughts</a>, not to mention other extreme events like February's polar vortex.</p><p>"You can't attribute any particular storm to climate change, but what we do know is that climate change tips the odds of making many of these events more severe," says Bruce Stein, chief scientist and associate vice president at the National Wildlife Federation.</p><p>While experts tabulate the economic losses — homes destroyed, crops ruined, businesses shuttered — ecosystems and wildlife can also sustain damage that's harder to quantify.</p><p>Many plants and wildlife evolved with and have adapted to dealing with large-scale disturbances, but we're beginning to see "megadisturbances" at levels beyond what we saw in the past, says Stein.</p><p>And that can take a toll. Extreme weather can kill animals directly — or indirectly, like by destroying food sources, contaminating water or altering habitat, forcing a species to move into areas where there may be more competition, fewer resources or a greater risk of predation.</p><p>"What we begin to find when you get some of these mega disturbances is that it's beyond the ability of a species — or their adaptive capacity — to bounce back," says Stein.</p>
<h1>The Research</h1><p>The effects of climate change on the natural world are being felt at two speeds. One is more gradual, referred to by scientists as "ramping" — shrinking glaciers, rising sea levels. The second is quick, like extreme weather events.</p><p>Both are problematic, says Sean Maxwell, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Queensland's Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science. But, he adds, "I think the changes to acute events have the greatest potential to devastate local populations or ecosystems, and the impacts of these events are often more difficult to plan for or avoid."</p><p>Maxwell was the lead author of a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ddi.12878" target="_blank">2018 study</a> published in the journal <em>Diversity and Distributions</em> that examined how changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather and climate events affected wildlife. The researchers looked at 519 studies of ecological responses to extreme events — including cyclones, droughts, floods, and heat and cold waves — that took place from 1941 to 2015. They found that the response was negative 57% of the time. (And in those instances where species benefited, they were mostly invasive species.)</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY3MjMxMS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MDQ5MjcwMX0.vWOhTY5PgWrupHYIMFFce6KUG1XH6n1aw0qMCWv3-bE/img.jpg?width=980" id="3f9df" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f1ccfeffe9a6723900d8f76612d9f9b8" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="799" data-height="533" />
A manatee stranded by Hurricane Irma in Melbourne, Florida. Bill Greer, FWC / CC BY-ND 2.0
<p>"Some of the negative responses we found were quite concerning, including more than 100 cases of dramatic population declines and 31 cases of local population extinction following an extreme event," says Maxwell. "Populations of critically endangered bird species in Hawai'i, such as the palia, have been annihilated due to drought, and populations of lizard species have been wiped out due to cyclones in the Bahamas."</p><p>Plant species, the researchers found, had the highest number of negative responses to extreme events, followed by reptiles and amphibians.</p><p>"Collectively, the studies in our review suggest that extreme weather and climate events have profound implications for species and ecosystem management," the researchers concluded.</p><h1>The Most Vulnerable</h1><p>Species that are already threatened or endangered are of course especially at risk.</p><p>Take the Attwater prairie chicken. A million of these birds once ranged across the prairies of Texas and Louisiana.</p><p>Today fewer than 100 remain in the wild and scientists have sought to bolster their populations with captive breeding programs. But when Hurricane Harvey walloped Texas with 130-mile-per-hour winds and record rainfall in 2017, the birds were right in harm's way.</p><p>"The Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge tracked 29 individual birds, mostly hens. Post-hurricane, staff confirmed only five of them still alive," <a href="https://texasclimatenews.org/features/attwaters-prairie-chicken-population-hit-hard-by-harvey/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Texas Climate News</a> reported. "The hurricane also killed roughly 80% of a prairie chicken population on private property in Goliad County."</p><p>Other species with limited ranges, like those on islands, also face big threats.</p><p>"If a species is well distributed, then if one part of its range gets hit, there's the ability for it to recover," says Stein. "But if essentially all its eggs are in one basket, and that particular place gets hit by one of these big disturbances, that's when you have a real concern."</p><p>In 2017 Hurricane Maria <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/after-hurricane-dorian-survey-shows-hope-and-concern-bahamas-birds" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cut the population of just 200 Puerto Rican parrots</a> in half. The year before, Hurricane Matthew was believed to have wiped out the last Bahama nuthatches (<em>Sitta insularis</em>). It took two years before a few of the birds were found — and then Hurricane Dorian struck in 2019, making their survival unlikely, according to Diana Bell, a professor of conservation biology at the University of East Anglia.</p><p>"In fact, Dorian may have not only sealed the fate of the nuthatch but also severely impacted other birds endemic to these islands, particularly the Bahama warbler and the Abaco parrot," Bell <a href="https://theconversation.com/hurricane-dorian-was-also-a-catastrophe-for-the-bahamas-unique-birds-123493" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wrote</a> in an essay for <em>The Conversation</em>. "Also known as the Bahama Amazon parrot, this subspecies uniquely nests in limestone cavities on the ground which are likely to have been flooded by the storm surge."</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY3MjMxOC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY3NTgxMjYyMH0.GEcdU7i6_0jsNoolMUAM1ZNpvsQWjlDj8KfSZzLxvNE/img.jpg?width=980" id="47539" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0aaf95300b450d0f8d0a49b310aeae5a" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="799" data-height="533" />
Damage in the Bahamas from Hurricane Dorian. Seaman Erik Villa Rodriguez / U.S. Coast Guard
<h1>Compounding Crises</h1><p>The risk to wildlife from extreme storms can be compounded by the ramping effects of climate change, too.</p><p>"If you have increasingly severe hurricanes where you've also got sea-level rise essentially providing a higher lodge point for the storm surge, then you start seeing impacts beyond the historical record," says Stein.</p><p>In other places, extreme weather is an extra blow to species already struggling with other environmental pressures, like habitat loss, invasive species or pollution.</p><p>Last year the world watched in horror as land-use management, climate change and drought helped push Australia's bushfires to a terrifying new level, killing 34 people and burning 37,500 square miles.</p><p>In the immediate aftermath, one expert put the death toll for wildlife at <a href="https://therevelator.org/australia-bushfires-extinction/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">1 billion animals lost</a>. Since then the figure has been revised to <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/study-says-australias-bushfires-harmed-3-billion-animals/a-54344204" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">3 billion killed or displaced</a> by the blazes.</p><p>A <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-020-1251-1.epdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">study</a> published in <em>Nature Ecology and Evolution</em> found that the fire impacted the critical habitat of 832 native species, with 70 species losing more than 30% of their natural range. Twenty-one of those were already at risk of extinction.</p><p>Those that survived could find themselves hard-pressed in future climate disasters. "Multiple extreme events are likely to act in synergistic ways to exacerbate risk of species' extinction," wrote Maxwell and the other researchers of the 2018 study.</p><p>Australia already has one of the highest extinction rates, and the wildfires could limit the capacity of some species to recover — like the endangered Kangaroo Island dunnart and the long-footed potoroo — and threaten others. Australia's record blazes last year could push the number of endangered species in the country up by 19%, the study in <em>Nature Ecology and Evolution </em>found.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY3MjMyMS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MTE0NDI3NX0.GIq4Um10O8jxxaX6lV8YLVU0ZEeSfml4KGSas0xx_rc/img.jpg?width=980" id="b65a7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="23f41600dfbd2c618b67fac0e1b87ac6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="799" data-height="533" />
Kangaroo Island, the only habitat of the endangered Kangaroo Island dunnart, after the 2019-2020 Australia wildfires. StephenMitchell / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
<h1>Solutions</h1><p>When Hurricane Irma sacked the Florida Keys in 2017, the storm tossed boats ashore, destroyed more than 1,000 homes and left a trail of debris across the islands.</p><p>It also endangered one of the region's beloved endemic species, the tiny Key deer, which today primarily live on Big Pine Key. Some deer were killed in the storm, and surviving animals faced threats to their already limited freshwater supply as the storm surge dumped saline ocean water into freshwater pools.</p><p>Island residents responded the way folks often do after a disaster — they offered help to their neighbors.</p><p>"What you saw during and shortly after Irma is that these Key deer were coming up to houses looking for fresh water," says Stein. "And people were putting out kiddie pools of water for them."</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY3MjMyNi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MjM4MTE0OH0.x_zKoXw0-UArsFon5rOFwKQ93UVDBTyJdRClAD98qvE/img.jpg?width=980" id="7cf53" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7af4c5a126d38d68aeda4daaaa4ad61c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="799" data-height="533" />
Key deer after Hurricane Irene. Carol Lyn Parrish /CC BY-ND 2.0
<p>Following Australia's bushfires last year, the country's government jumped to the aid of wildlife by dropping 4,000 pounds of carrots and sweet potatoes to starving brush-tailed rock-wallabies who lost their food source in the blazes.</p><p>"There's a lot of things that we can do to help human communities as well as wildlife after these acute disturbances," says Stein.</p><p>But beyond immediate food and water relief, there's a much bigger task ahead: reducing greenhouse gas emissions to address the ongoing dangers of climate change and the ability of ecosystems to adapt. Key deer, for example, also face a long-term threat to their drinking water supply from rising seas, something no number of kiddie pools can repair. And more severe hurricanes are likely in their future, too.</p><p>"As climate change continues to ensure extreme climate and weather events are more and more common, we now need to act to ensure species have the best chance to survive," says Maxwell. "Wherever possible, high-quality and intact habitat areas should be retained, as these are the places where species are most resilient to increasing exposure to extreme events."</p><p>If such intact habitat doesn't exist, ecological restoration efforts can be used to help species adapt, his study found.</p><p>And the more we know, the better.</p><p>"Incorporating extreme events into climate change vulnerability assessments and adaptation plans will be challenging," the researchers of the 2018 paper concluded. "But by doing so we have a greater chance of arriving at conservation interventions that truly address the full range of climate change impacts."</p><p>And that could give more species a fighting chance in a changing climate.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://therevelator.org/author/taralohan/" target="_blank"><em>Tara Lohan </em></a><em>is deputy editor of The Revelator and has worked for more than a decade as a digital editor and environmental journalist focused on the intersections of energy, water and climate. Her work has been published by The Nation, American Prospect, High Country News, Grist, Pacific Standard and others. She is the editor of two books on the global water crisis.</em></em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="The%20Revelator" target="_blank">The Revelator.</a></em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Photos of alligators engaged in "icing" were posted on Facebook by an Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation worker. David Arbour / Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation
As unusually cold temperatures descended on the south and central U.S. this week, it wasn't only humans who struggled to adjust.
<p>In Texas, sea turtles had to be <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/turtle-rescue-texas-2650597417.html" target="_self">rescued by the thousands</a> as cold water temperatures made them go limp. Now, in Oklahoma, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/alligators" target="_self">alligators</a> have been pictured engaging in an extraordinary survival technique.</p><p>That technique is called "icing," and David Arbour of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation posted photos on Facebook Tuesday of alligators engaging in this odd-looking strategy.</p><p>What is icing exactly?</p><p>"They keep [their] nose up through the ice to maintain a[n] air hole so they can breathe," Arbour explained in the comments.</p>
<p>Arbour took the photos in the Red Slough Wildlife Management Area, a 5,814-acre wetland in southeastern Oklahoma that is home to alligators as well other reptiles, fish, mammals and amphibians, the <a href="https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article249345545.html#:~:text=The%20alligators%20were%20recently%20seen,helps%20the%20alligators%20breathe%20properly." target="_blank">Tri-City Herald reported</a>.</p><p>The behavior is also called snorkeling, and this is not the first time it has been observed in American alligators (<em>Alligator mississippiensis</em>). Alligators in a frozen-over pond in North Carolina were pictured doing the same thing during a cold snap in 2018, <a href="https://www.livescience.com/61389-alligators-snorkel.html" target="_blank">LiveScience reported at the time</a>.</p>
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<p>Because alligators are cold blooded, they depend on the surrounding environment to keep warm. That is why they bask on sunny days. But when it freezes, this kind of basking isn't possible, and that is when they "ice."</p><p>"It's an interesting behavior because it's opposite of what most crocodilians do," James Perran Ross, a retired associate scientist of wildlife ecology and conservation at the University of Florida, told LiveScience. "The normal response of most other crocs when it gets really cold is to come out of the water and try to bask to get warm again."</p><p>However, Ross added, this would be a bad idea for alligators in a cold climate, since the air is usually colder than the water. If they left the water, they might freeze.</p>
<p>Arbour wrote on Facebook that the alligators in his pictures would not freeze as long as the water remained liquid. He added that the ice did not hurt their snouts, because they are only made of cartilage.</p><p>Instead of hibernating, Arbour wrote, alligators enter a state called brumation.</p><p>"They can still move and are aware of things," Arbour said.</p><p>Brumation is a reptile-wide response to cold weather, according to <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/this-how-alligators-stuck-frozen-swamps-spending-winter-brumation-hibernation" target="_blank">Science Alert</a>. The <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/animals/" target="_self">animals</a> slow down their metabolism and are very lethargic. Usually, alligators brumate at the bottom of swamps and come up once a day to breathe. When water freezes over, however, that is not possible.</p>
<p>Alligators can survive in water as cold as 40 degrees Fahrenheit, but it is not ideal.</p><p>"Obviously, that is not optimal, being frozen like that," North Carolina's Shallotte River Swamp Park general manager George Howard told <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/frozen-alligators-winter_n_5a55043de4b01e1a4b1a401e" target="_blank">HuffPost in 2018</a>, when alligators were videoed icing in his swamp. "I can't imagine it being very good for them if it was much over a week in cold water. That's why you don't see indigenous alligators north of North Carolina. Their bodies like the warmth."</p><p>In Oklahoma, temperatures have now been below freezing for 10 days as of Thursday, according to <a href="https://www.wlbt.com/2021/02/18/oklahoma-alligators-frozen-water-with-snouts-sticking-out/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WLBT3</a>. However, the Southern Plains are expected to finally thaw this weekend, according to the <a href="https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/discussions/hpcdiscussions.php?disc=pmdspd" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">National Weather Service</a>.</p>
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