Snowpack in the West “isn’t just low — it’s gone”

Tom Yulsman for Discover Magazine

March 9. 2015

The snowpack, essentially serves as a water tower for the western region of the US, it produces meltwater that flows of mountains once warmer weather begins to occur. The meltwater refills streams, and reservoirs of water. As well as serving as a source of water for fields and cities through dry summers, which occur in the semiarid regions?  However this snowpack is starting to experience gaps as the temperatures rise, the Cascades and Sierra Nevada mountains are the most problematic as the climate has become too warm for the snow to replenish the ecosystem each season. With this changing climate, some of the seasonal storms are also changing (occurring more frequently), this results in more rain and less snow, which is in no way good for the snow pack.

The result the so called water tower, which provides one third of California’s water  is no longer being re filled each winter, and in return leaving a gap in the water supply for the summer. This could mean that California could face a fourth year of water shortages, what is even more worrisome is that there is no plan to deal with this situation, meaning that water shortages could become a reality.  The second source of water for California originates from aquifers; however they too are being depleted to quickly and cannot replenish themselves. 90 miles from Sacramento a study was conducted, finding only one inch of water stored in the snowpack, which is a staggering 5 percent of the historical average.  The pack as a whole is now only 19% the size it was in previous decades.  2010 was the last wet year, but most of the past 15 years were dry.

The fact that he snowpack is melting shows a clear increase in the global temperature. As the icepack has been around for a very long time, and since it is melting now, it is obvious that a change in the climate has occurred. Looking at the effect this has on human lives, California is generally known as a dry place, and now that it’s being left without one of its main sources of water it is much more prone to droughts. On a more global scale the melting of the snowpack should serve as a reminder of the problems posed by global warming, and that it is making a significant impact already. In the western region the snowpack has already melted. At many monitoring stations the amount of snow recorded is at a record low. The main problem is the surprising increase in temperatures that lead to premature melting.

One in six of world's species faces extinction due to climate change – study

Aleksej Janicijevic

One in six of world's species faces extinction due to climate change – study

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/apr/30/one-in-six-of-worlds-species-faces-extinction-due-to-climate-change-study

This article by the guardian basically weighs out the effects of what current rates of global warming will bring us in the relatively near future, the basic statistic that it is focused on is the idea that one sixth of the world’s species will be extinct by the end of the century if the global warming rate is as predicted (4 degrees Celsius).  

The article warns that Australia, New Zealand and South America will be the biggest target of the extinction due to a large number of species being exclusive to their areas, which makes them more prone to extinction, another contributing factor to Australia and New Zealand being so prone to extinction is the fact that the animals have no place to migrate in search of a more suitable climate.

The study used analyses 131 existing study on the topic, to reach the conclusion that at current rates we will lose a sixth of species, the importance of this study is that it is released in a time period prior to a big carbon emission control summit in Paris, in which world leaders will try to forge an agreement to limit carbon emissions. The goal of these meetings is to keep global warming within its safe zone, which is 2c, the issue however is the original deal struck in the summit won’t be able to do that on its own; rather governments would have to take initiative on their own in order to reach to safe zone. No matter the effects of the summit, what has occurred so far in regard to climate change will inevitably take its toll on our species diversity, since even if we achieved the safe zone of global warming it is predicted 5% of species will die out.

Another point to take into consideration is that even the species that may not be extinct will still suffer consequences in regard to their population and distribution, and these effects are not only significant from an environmental point of view but also from the potential issues that could arise on a economic level if the extinctions had a knock on effect and created greater harm to the systems in place in nature which we rely on.

A positive side is that since we understand how long the extinctions may take, it is possible to intervene with some conservation efforts to help the animals that are at risk adapt, nonetheless, it is an indicator that it is due time for some legitimate changes to occur since we are reaching a very dangerous zone in regard to the risks we are handling.

This study emphasizes much of what we already know, but adds a sense of urgency and a call to action to all of us, and helps us understand that the consequences are very real and very present today, thus it is vital that we take them seriously, since we could be living with the complications of environmental abuse sooner than we believed. What I personally like about this article is that it uses statistics in order to truly portray the complexity of what may potentially occur, and also takes varying views of the topic, such as an economic standpoint, which means it could appeal to a wider group of people to all take action rather than exclusively those who associate themselves with conservation and environmental efforts. Also, it is important that the article gives the reader an understanding of the upcoming summit, as well as how important it is for it to be successful, since there could be dire consequences on all of us. Overall, I think that this article shows us that we have already done a lot of damage, but there is no more time to shift reparation attempts to the future, and there is no time to spare when it is our environment and more specifically the biodiversity of our earth at stake. 

Bats, Not Easy to Love, Dying Daily by Thousands

abc News vis World News

Lee Dye

November 24, 2014

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wind-turbines-kill-thousands-bats-day/story?id=20997657&singlePage=true

There has recently been a concern regarding the danger made to the domestic bats in the U.S. The death toll of the species has gone up with the rate of wind turbine plantations. This caused to be rethink, and brought me into the dilemma, that even though renewable energy is used and is a beneficial factor, it is also more harmful to other aspects of the environment.

 

The largest issue from the increased death os the bats is the cost to the agricultural department, as bats eat insects which threaten the crops, saving farmers billions of dollars. However, currently, bats are being threatened by the wind turbines as well as the White Nose Syndrome, a mass extinction disease. However, its not the collision itself which is causing the bats to die from he turbines - it is the turbines’ effect on the air pressure. As the pressure drops, the lungs of bats which are like those of a mammal, expand resulting in haemorrhage. The government and farmers have taken initiative as researchers are looking into possible solutions to this drastic problem.

Even though wind turbines are effective and eco-friendly, by causing the death of many bats they harm many other aspects. This includes the outbreak of insects which damage the crops, the spread of disease, and among all, by removing an organism out of a food chain, everything else will be affected and possible threatened to extinction.

So what can be done to make a change for the better? Knowing that the turbines were already put there with a correct intention, how do we keep them and bring safety to the animals which inhabit the particular habitat?

Scientists have found that increasing the sensitivity of the wind turbines, to automatically turn on at a higher wind speed, would result in less bat deaths. This is, because the bats only fly during low winds, and therefore the turbines wouldn’t affect them if they only work at high speed winds. This change saves up to 93% of the bat deaths, which may over time bring their population back to stable.

In my opinion, this problem doesn’t necessarily influence me directly, however I feel effected in that a small alteration can make such a large scale change to the environment. I also believe, that developers need to look into the habitats in which they are placing their wind turbines, as they are effective but unsafe. Lastly, I was very shocked after reading that bats are facing mass extinction due to many factors such as disease or air pressure changes. By altering their habitat, we are pushing these species into extinction, faster than they were already heading towards. 

Global decline of large herbivores may lead to an 'empty landscape'

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/05/150501151606.htm


Date: May 1,2015
Source: Oregon State University

Large number of animals such as thinoceroses, zebras, camels,elephants and tapirs are threatened with extinction in grasslands, savannahs, deserts and forests.
"Without radical intervention, large herbivores (and many smaller ones) will continue to disappear from numerous regions with enormous ecological,social and economic costs." -Oregon State. A team of wildlife ecologist led by William Ripple, professor in the College of Forestry, made an analysis of data on the world's largest herbivores, including key threats, endangerment status and ecological consequences.University. Rippie said " I expected that habitat change would be the main factor causing the endangerment of large herbivores." "But surprisingly, the results show that the two main factors in herbivore declines are hunting by humans and habitat changes. They are twin threats." Highest number of threatened large herbivores live in Southeast Asia, India and Africa. Just one endangered large herbivore lives in Europe, that is the European bison. There are none in North America, the author says that " they had already lost most of its large mammals" through hunting and habitat changes.Herbivore hunting happens for two major reasons:meat consumption and te global trade in animal parts.They say that the market for medical uses can be very strong for some body parts, such as rhino horn. Apparently horn sells for more by weight than gold, diamonds or cocaine. Africa's western rhinoceros was declared extinct in 2011.The authors say that if the large herbivores get lost that other parts of wild ecosystems will decrease. Consequences  include: decrease in food for large carnivores such as lions and tigers, more frequent wildfires, "slower cycling of nutrients from vegetation to the soil and changes in habitat for smaller animals including fish, birds and amphibians."

I believe that animals should not be killed by people just so they could sell it, and benefit from it. If people continue to hunt these animals, very soon there wil be no left and then it will be late to find a solution for animal extinction. 

Giraffes, Zebras Face Surprising Top Threat: Hunting

National Geographic
Jane J. Lee
May 1, 2015

Link to article


The safari is one of the few places on earth where you can see animals such as the elephant, giraffe, zebra, lion, hippo, etc. in their wild forms. A popular tourist destination this iconic symbol of Africa is coming under threat. This article is explaining how hunting is now becoming a larger concern to the loss of wildlife in the safari than habitat loss. Most of us have already read about or heard of the hunting of rhinos and elephants for their horns and tusks. These animals are rapidly being poached to extinction. However they are not the only species that are coming under threat. As the article on National Geographic explains, because of increased demand of "wild meat", populations of zebra, giraffe, and the 72 other 100 kilogram plus herbivores are all being over hunted and could soon be faced with extinction. In fact around 60% of these herbivores are already facing extinction, and if the hunting rates do not drop then that number will continue to climb. And with the diminishing number of large herbivores the whole safari will be affected. These large herbivores eat the vegetation, taking away from potential fuel for wildfires. Also because they can cover such large distances their dung transports seeds much further, spreading plants and trees helping to keep the habitats species frequency up. Additionally without large herbivores Africa's famous carnivores such as the lion and the cheetah will start dying out due to loss of their major food source. All this just because some people want a few souvenirs or exotic meats.

Because of this heightened interest in herbivores as a food item they are just as in danger as the carnivores hunted for their pelts. Of course not all the zebras and giraffes and other 100 kilogram plus herbivores are killed just as a exotic thing on a menu. There are those who depend on these animals as a food source, and they are growing in numbers. Between the demand from cities and the increasing numbers of hunters, it is no wonder that these large herbivores may soon be threatened with complete extinction.

Of course, hunting for food is not the only cause of concern. Along with the rhino and the elephant. Animals such as hippos, gorillas, and cervids (deer) are also being over hunted. Hippos for their ivory rich teeth, gorillas for their body parts to be used as decoration, and cervids for their antlers. 

I think that this article raises a lot of concerns on the ethical guidelines when it comes to what we can or can't hunt. One of the major problems with hunting these animals for meat is that their meat is not banned in most places, which means that they are shipped off to places such as the States or China or the UK as specialty items. It gives us a lot of information on whats being hunted, for what purpose, and to what effect which I think makes the article a lot more powerful. The article also encourages us to read from other articles on National Geographic to improve our background knowledge such as the farming of African lions in the US or the farming of Tigers in Southeast Asia. In my opinion there should be stricter rules on trafficking and use of wild animals in restaurants to prevent them from becoming endangered and leave them for the people who depend on them for sustenance.  This would need to be a world wide effort as countries would need to adopt new policies regarding wild animals. However at the end of the article it talked about how National Geographic is trying to pass a bill in the States to sanction countries that allow the import of rhino horns and elephant tusks. This shows that there is still hope for change as long as everyone contributes.



Bibliography
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/05/150501-herbivore-largest-africa-hunting-poaching-conservation-science/
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/content/dam/news/2015/04/30/herbivorethreat_nationalgeographic_1911066.adapt.1190.1.jpg

Elephants, Rhinos and Other Large Plant-Eaters Face Extinction, Study Says

Sam Frizell for Time.com

May 4, 2015

Article

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Will there be safaris in the Future? This is a question that could be asked in this time. A new study has found that the elephants and Rhinos in Africa could soon face their extinction. This means that there will not be any large grazing animals left on the earth in some years. Yet in the past years, the extinction of these types of animals has been increasing over time. This has been caused by excessive poaching for the tusks of these animals, due to that these have a great worth. The ivory from these animals can in total bring more money than even diamonds and gold are worth. Although animals like elephants and rhinos can regrow in their mass, it could still be that too many animals are poached that could eventually cause extinction between these species.

The article also states that eventually this excessive killing of these species could have “enormous ecological and social costs.” This means that if many of the over 100kg animals go extinct, it could mean that the succession in the regions of Africa could not work correctly, for example in the grasslands due to that the plants can grow further the whole time, yet there is no one who can limit the amount of grass that grows in this region. Further the article also states that there has been a decline of more than 62% of the whole elephant population in the time period of 2002 to 2011, this is only 9 years, and more than half of the total elephant population has been killed in this time period. Yet the killing is not the only factor that caused extinction. The overly destruction of forests has also caused the elephants to decline in population. They can’t find enough food anymore, as most of the trees that they have eaten before, are not present anymore.

Due to that no one is currently attempting to solve the problems of the poaching and destruction of habitats, the article critics what is going on, and that no one is trying to solve these problems. The people, who are dependent on poaching these animals or even eating them, actually should not be dependent on this, as it would mean a failing of the politics, which the article states passively. It states directly, that the crisis of the extinction has to be stopped, as otherwise all of these animals could eventually be lost.

Personally, I think that it is quite important for us to keep these animals. It should not be that animals are killed only because of the rich people wanting ivory for themselves. They don’t think about the consequences for the earth and even people who are dependent on these animals in other ways. It is not good to see that there has been a decline in the population of over half in only 9 years, which means that even until 2020, there could eventually be not a single elephant left in the wildlife. Already, to this date, there have been extinctions of certain rhinoceros types. For example, a single rhino is protected by almost a whole army, just because it is the last male left in the world, and other places like zoos only have female rhinos. This really won’t mean any good, if more and more elephants are going extinct, and in the end we could also lose all of them. So in conclusion, we should really not lose all the rhinos and elephants, as these are unique types of species, which should be rescued and not let to die.

Regions at greatest risk for species extinction the least studied

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150430225703.htm

Science Daily: University of Connecticut
Mark C. Urban & Sheila Foran
April 30, 2015


A rising concern regarding the ongoing 6th mass extinction has caught the eyes of researchers, as new predictions supported with recent studies were released. Extinction of species is natural, as each organism had its own background extinction rate. However, as the climate is being worsened by pollution and global warming, this extinction rate is being rapidly increased. This evoked a question among researchers on whether or not, the effect of global warming is greater in particular regions and how the disturbance in species diversity can lead to problems which have a large effect on humans too.

Steady increase
The researchers at University of Connecticut have noticed a correlation, that as the global temperature increases, the extinction rate does as well. Quite common to think, however, it is not a regular increase, but much of an exponential trend. With a current conditions, the predicted rate is at 3% - if there is an increase of 3°C, the rate would also increase to 8.5%. As this trend continues, a 4.3°C would result in a 16% extinction rate, which is expected to occur by 2100. This drastic change is something which should concern many, as exponential growth is one which is difficult to control or decrease. With 16% species becoming extinct within less than a century, researchers continued their investigations to see what other factors could affect the extinction rates.

Climate Ranges
The probability of species becoming extinct is much greater in the Southern Hemisphere near Australia and New Zealand, which are near the ozone hole, as well as South America. When species who were adapted to small temperature changes throughout the year are now exposed to larger changes, they then struggle to survive and are at a higher risk of extinction. Nearly 60% of studies have shown that the southern hemisphere is more prone to species extinction due to the varying climate ranges which have been altered by global warming. This mostly relates to the Emperor Penguins, as their habitat is melting, and is being melted earlier in the season too. Therefore, the extinction of species in the southern hemisphere is sped up in contrast to those of the northern hemisphere.

Effects on society
Some of the mentioned effects of this issue are the dangers which extinction would create to the human population. Despite the fact that we are the ones who have caused the issue - humans and the agricultural and production movement - we are now the ones in danger. Not necessarily complete species extinction, but also species disruption or abundance would effect crop growth, spread of disease and ecosystems. Despite our strong position on the planet, where we have much technology and materials to prevent several ecological issues, it will be very difficult to manage the changes caused by the climate, as all the side effects would create many more problems. "It's hard enough to predict change, but in the end, we have one climate to contend with." The scientists are calling out to the population to take initiative in realising that we have only one climate to manage, and one earth to take care of, with no second chances for a change.

In my personal opinion, I believe that this is an issue which is not regarded too greatly on a more overall perspective. We generally look at issues which directly affect us now - however, these issues will be a large concern to our future generations. As the Earth is shaped by our previous generations, I believe it is our responsibility to take care of it rather than worsen the situation for the future. Global warming will not only affect the species diversity and lead to extinction, but it will become a chain reaction. Once several species are extinct and removed from the food webs, the other species will then become threatened as well. Therefore, species extinction at an exponential trend would lead to large scale effects on the human race, as our agriculture and ecosystem would deteriorate and become unstable. Breaking the equilibrium will lead to the extinction of the last species remaining: Homo sapiens.