Great Barrier Reef suffers complete ecosystem collapse after record ocean heat wave – Bleaching event is ‘much more extreme than we’ve measured before’

By Dominique Mosbergen25 July 2016 (Huffington Post) – It’s been a wretched year for Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the largest living structure and one of the most complex natural ecosystems on Earth. The area suffered the worst bleaching event ever, one that impacted over 90 percent of the reef and killed more than a third […]

Conservation organizations oppose synthetic rhino horn – ‘It could lead to more poaching because it increases demand for the real thing’

Updated April 2016 (IRF/SRI) – Joint Statement by the International Rhino Foundation and Save the Rhino International (July 2015) Introduction Over the past two years or so, Save the Rhino International (SRI) and the International Rhino Foundation (IRF) have been monitoring the progress of four US-based companies that have announced their intentions – with varying […]

Vanishing Act: Why insects are declining and why it matters – ‘The decline is dramatic and depressing and it affects all kinds of insects, including butterflies, wild bees, and hoverflies’

By Christian Schwägerl6 July 2016 (e360) – Every spring since 1989, entomologists have set up tents in the meadows and woodlands of the Orbroicher Bruch nature reserve and 87 other areas in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The tents act as insect traps and enable the scientists to calculate how many bugs live […]

Great Barrier Reef mammal declared extinct due to global warming – ‘Significantly, this probably represents the first recorded mammalian extinction due to anthropogenic climate change’

[Many more to follow. –Des] 14 June 2016 (University of Queensland) –  University of Queensland and Queensland Government researchers have confirmed that the Bramble Cay melomys (Melomys rubicola) – the only mammal species endemic to the Great Barrier Reef – is the first mammal to go extinct due to human-induced climate change. In a newly […]

Pacific Northwest orcas are starving – ‘There simply aren’t enough salmon out there for them to eat’

By David Neiwert24 June 2016 (Crosscut) – Vancouver photographer Mark Malleson took this photograph of the Southern Resident killer whale known as J-34, or Doublestuf, breaching while he was in the interior waters of the Salish Sea this spring. It’s a remarkable and frightening photo for orca lovers, because the male orca’s ribs appear to […]

The Great Barrier Reef: A catastrophe laid bare – ‘It was one of the most disgusting sights I’ve ever seen’

By Michael Slezak6 June 2016 (Guardian) – It was the smell that really got to diver Richard Vevers. The smell of death on the reef. “I can’t even tell you how bad I smelt after the dive – the smell of millions of rotting animals.” Vevers is a former advertising executive and is now the […]

Video: Diving in the stench of millions of rotting animals at the bleached Great Barrier Reef

7 June 2016 (Guardian) – Richard Vevers from the Ocean Agency had never experienced anything like the devastation he witnessed in May diving around the dead and dying coral reefs off Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef. When his team emerged from the water, he says, ‘We realised we just stank – we stank […]

New photos show the rapid pace of Great Barrier Reef bleaching – ‘We are currently experiencing the longest global coral bleaching event ever observed’

By Merrit Kennedy14 May 2016 (NPR) – The massive bleaching hitting the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia is likely that country’s “biggest ever environmental disaster,” says Dr. Justin Marshall, who has studied the reef for three decades. Only 7 percent of the reef has escaped bleaching, according to researchers at the ARC […]

Leopards have lost 75 percent of their historic range globally – ‘Our next steps in this very moment will determine the leopard’s fate’

5 May 2016 (Discovery News) – Worldwide, leopards have lost about 75 percent of their historic range, according to a new survey – the first to attempt to get a glimpse of the big cat’s remaining global paw print. The analysis was produced by a group of partner organizations, including the National Geographic Society’s Big […]

Great Barrier Reef bleaching is just one symptom of ecosystem collapse across Australia

By Dale Nimmo, David Lindenmayer, John Woinarski, Ralph Mac Nally, Shaun Cunningham2 May 2016 (The Conversation) – Media reports around the world have brought the mass coral bleaching of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef into people’s offices and homes. With 93% of individual reefs showing bleaching, the devastation among researchers, celebrities and the public is palpable. […]

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