Wildlife
If you plant it, they will come. A new study confirms the crucial aid that typical British gardeners might unknowingly provide to rapidly declining pollinators. According to Ecologists at Plymouth University, it matters not to busy bees where they are getting their food sources. When searching for nectar and pollen, urban gardens make happy destinations for bumblebees. In fact, it might seem counter intuitive but urban dwellings can provide a safer area for bees that otherwise might get exposed to so much agricultural spraying.
An increase of acidity in the Pacific Ocean is quickly killing off one of the world’s most beloved shellfish, the scallop, according to a report by the British Columbia Shellfish Grower’s Association.
Lovers of seafood, beware. Ocean acidification is wreaking havoc on populations of seafood just about everywhere. The latest victim? Millions of scallops at a shellfish producer in British Columbia. The Parksville Qualicum Beach News reports that rising acidity in the waters off the west coast of Canada has claimed three years worth of scallops, worth more than $10 million, at Island Scallops, a local shellfish producer.
Claiming that the future of American food production depends on a revived honey bee population, the Agriculture Department on Tuesday announced it will spend $3 million to help ranchers and farmers improve the health of the bugs, key to pollinating $15 billion worth of food.
More Than a Half Million People Demand Home Depot and Lowe’s Stop Selling Bee-Killing Pesticides. Dennis van Engelsdorp: “Why are we using these highly toxic chemicals on plants that have no human health risk or pose no food safety risk? Why are we marketing products that are so toxic to insects for purely ornamental use?”
The Sixth Extinction: Elizabeth Kolbert on How Humans Are Causing Largest Die-Off Since Dinosaur Age
Source: democracynow
In the history of the planet, there have been five known mass extinction events. The last came 65 million years ago, when an asteroid about half the size of Manhattan collided with the earth, wiping out the dinosaurs and bringing the Cretaceous period to an end. Scientists say we are now experiencing the sixth extinction, with up to 50 percent of all living species in danger of disappearing by the end of the century. But unlike previous extinctions, the direct cause this time is us. In “The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History,” journalist Elizabeth Kolbert visits four continents to document the massive “die-offs” that came millions of years ago and those now unfolding before our eyes.
One quarter of the world’s cartilaginous fish, namely sharks and rays, face extinction within the next few decades, according to the first study to systematically and globally assess their fate
On Tuesday, fishermen on Japan’s Pacific coast kill more than 200 dolphins as their annual hunt begins. The dolphins are driven into shallow water in Taiji cove by fishermen using nets and boat engines, where fishermen in boats and some in wetsuits tie their tails to stop them escaping. A tarpaulin is then erected to stop cameras from filming the killing and the blood seeping into the sea.
Study findings show that the widespread use of the pyrethroid pesticide is causing worker bees to hatch at a smaller size and demonstrate ongoing retarded growth. The research, published today in the Journal of Applied Ecology, reveals that prolonged exposure to a pyrethroid pesticide, which is used on flowering crops to prevent insect damage, reduces the size of individual bees produced by a colony.
