One common assumption made by right wingers is that reducing the amount of CO2 will hurt the economy. They argue that removing a resource that which our economy relies on will cause the economy unnecessary troubles. In reality, ignoring the problem will cause our economy much more trouble if we wait and see how it "plays out." Recent studies show that there will be greater costs to both our economy and society if we choose to ignore our CO2 problem. We must invest in plans for reusable energy and in plans to phase out the world's massive carbon use. Carbon Pricing Proposals have been proposed to the House of Representatives which put a cost on carbon use where the money would circulate back into efforts to remove carbon as a resource but these proposals have been denied. But it is time for people to wake up. If we as a planet do not take action in stopping our massive green house gas use, we will have more than the economy to worry about. Another common argument made against global warming is that it is an El Nino year. Although El Nino does cause a short term raise in temperature, it cannot explain the raise in temperature ever since the industrial revolution. It also fails to address why the entirety of our oceans are warming. In reality, El Nino can only be attributed to roughly 2.3% of global warming. It is time to stop making up excuses we hear from Fox News. Global warming as a reality. http://www.skepticalscience.com/co2-limits-economy-intermediate.htm http://www.skepticalscience.com/el-nino-southern-oscillation.htm
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According to officials of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the Grauer's gorilla has seen its numbers drop to fewer that 4,000. It's status has moved from endangered to critically endangered which is the category right before extinction. Conservationists have warned that extinction is becoming more of a reality for these gorillas. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has recorded a 77% drop in population of Grauer's gorillas in the past generation, going from roughly 17,000 to 4,000. Bushmeat hunting and civil war of the Democratic Republic of Congo have been leading causes of the population decline in these gorillas. All gorillas are now considered to be critically endangered. It seems surprising to me that people in this world are oblivious to the fact that the world's largest gorilla is on the brink of extinction. Although an animal being put onto the critically endangered list is never good, maybe all gorillas will receive the attention they deserve. Also, with the recent murdering of the beloved Harambe, people seem to be coming around on animal preservation and conservation. Hopefully conservation efforts will compensate for habitat loss and poaching that cause the declining numbers in gorillas. http://www.livescience.com/55987-grauers-gorillas-are-critically-endangered.html http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/30/asia/sea-shepherd-japan-whales-new-ship/ The Sea Shepherds Australia have recently vowed to take a more aggressive standpoint against Japanese whalers this upcoming season. The United States were forced to reach an agreement with Japan where US Sea Shepherds can no longer physically intervene with Japanese whalers. Previously, the US Sea Shepherds would throw stink bombs onto whalers' ships causing the meat to go bad and the ship to become unpleasant. The Sea Shepherds even boarded the Japanese whaling vessels in order to stop whaling from happening. At one point, the Sea Shepherds even sacrificed their own boat in order to stop whaling. Whaling was actually outlawed in the 80's but Japan and a few other countries have taken advantage of a loop hole. This loop hole is that a country can hunt whales for scientific research. A resent study has confirmed that the claim Japan is making "whaling for research" is completely false and that they do indeed hunt to sell. Because of the recent setback the US has suffered, many deemed the Japanese the victors of the "Whale Wars." The Sea Shepherd community then proceeded to acquire Ocean Warrior, their fastest vessel yet. It was built for these missions of stopping whaling. Because the new agreement reached and applies to the United States, the Australian Sea Shepherd fully intend to physically intervene with Japanese Whalers.
This new agreement reached between Japan and the United States seems to heavily aid the Japanese in their whaling efforts. I have to say, I am disappointed that the US would reach this type of agreement. It seems to me that the United States would have only accepted these terms if the Japanese agreed to stop whaling. The fact the the Japanese are still whaling is repulsive as the majority of the rest of the world, including those with more extensive whaling history, have stopped the hunts. I am though excited about the Australia's strong position against whaling. Considering their ideal global positioning. The Ocean Warrior also makes me feel like a little kid on Christmas Morning. It can reach up to 25 knots compared to their previous ships that could only go 15 knots. The Japanese whaling ships can reach up to 22 knots so this upgrade is vital to stopping them. Zimbabwe is in an ongoing war against ivory poachers who are looking to harvest the horns of elephants and rhinos to sell for thousands of dollars. In Africa ivory roughly has the same value of gold and is believed to cure diseases such as cancer. Because of this, the demand of ivory has skyrocketed. Around fifty rhinos where killed in Zimbabwe last year for there horns, so wildlife conservationists set out to solve the problem. They plan on removing horns of the 100 adult rhinos that live in state game parks. Unfortunately it costs over one thousand dollars to sedate a rhino which is required when removing a horn. Horns also grow back each year so one would have to repeat this process each year in order to keep poaching down. This method has actually been proven to drastically reduce the number of rhinos poached all though it does have its flaws. A major flaw to this method is that the horns grow back fairly quickly. This makes this method relatively unsustainable as it is an expensive procedure. This method also does not fundamentally fix the problem Africa is having. Ivory is deeply routed in African societies and has become a source of income for many families. In order to truly fix this problem, one would have to introduce an alternate source of income for many of these families. One would also have to disprove the idea that ivory helps cure diseases. I have heard of ideas about a dye that can be injected into the ivory causing it to be unusable in ivory trade and it is relatively cheap. This is a fantastic idea although again, one would have to provide an alternate source of income to aid with the economic fall from a lack of ivory. http://thescienceexplorer.com/nature/zimbabwe-dehorning-its-rhinos-curb-poaching |
Alex Garcia-Environmentalist Archives
December 2016
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