A large research project studying endangered species in Australia has tallied 29 recovered species—all animals that can be safely de-listed from the country’s endangered species list.
Australia’s Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act currently lists 446 species of animals in genuine need of protection, but 29 of those are no longer in need—15 mammals, 8 birds, 4 frogs, a reptile, and a fish.
Among these critters are the golden, Western barred, and Eastern barred bandicoots, Western quoll, sooty albatross, waterfall frog, Flinder’s Range worm-lizard, yellow-footed rock wallabies, greater bilby, humpback whale, growling grass frog, Murray’s cod, and others.
— Read on www.goodnewsnetwork.org/29-australian-animals-found-to-have-recovered-enough-for-delisting-in-milestone-for-celebration/
Tag: Ecosystem
Ecological Mismatch’: Hot Winter Wreaking Havoc On PA Environment
PENNSYLVANIA — While the impacts of climate change are cumulative and sometimes incremental to the point of obscurity, there’s no escaping the realities of the warmest winter in the recorded history of eastern Pennsylvania.
Chief among those consequences: a phenomonom termed “ecological mismatch” by researchers that happens when plants and animals are no longer synchronous on their seasonal cycles.
Specifically, what is essentially the early arrival of spring changes when certain plants bloom. Some blooms will appear early in Pennsylvania this year, and could potentially have already died off by the time the pollinators think it’s time for them to arrive.
Sunoco Convicted Of Environmental Crimes Over Mariner East 2 Pipeline | Patch
HARRISBURG, PA — Sunoco has been convicted of environmental crimes in Pennsylvania after construction of its Mariner East 2 Pipeline repeatedly ravaged sensitive ecosystems around southeastern Pennsylvania and damaged drinking water. On several occassions, Sunoco failed to report spills or take required precautions to prevent incidents from occurring, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office said.
Mariner East 2 aims to transport Marcellus shale natural gas from western Pennsylvania and Ohio to Marcus Hook, on the Delaware River. The pipelines pass through 17 counties across southern Pennsylvania, including in the densely populated Philadelphia suburbs, where safety issues and water pollution impacted thousands.
“We have a constitutional right in Pennsylvania to clean air and pure water,” Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in a statement. “It’s a right that was enshrined in our state constitution at a time when the people of Pennsylvania learned a tough lesson first-hand — the health of our children, and our economic future, depended on protecting our environment from reckless profit and unchecked corporate interests.”
— Read on patch.com/pennsylvania/norristown/s/icqvx/sunoco-convicted-of-environmental-crimes-over-mariner-east-2-pipeline
Record Heat Means Only Female Sea Turtles Are Hatching in Florida
“Scientists that are studying sea turtle hatchlings and eggs have found no boy sea turtles, so only female sea turtles for the past four years,” Zirkelbach told Reuters.
The discovery is not limited to Florida. Zirkelbach told the news organization that researchers in Australia have also documented similar findings, with an estimated 99% of the country’s turtles born female over the past few years.
— Read on people.com/pets/only-female-sea-turtles-born-in-florida-due-to-hot-weather/
Pipeline Spilling 300,000 Gallons Kills Fish and Other Animals.
On Dec 27, 2021, in New Orleans a pipe bursts and spills 300,000 Gallons into two artificially made ponds. Killing Fish, Birds. and other wildlife. According to the State and Local Official, a majority of the fuel was recovered.
Yet that’s not the point is it? Animal Life was lost due to yet, another pipeline burst.
According to the pipeline owner. The spill from the 16-inch-diameter line operated by Collins Pipeline Co. was discovered on Dec. 27 near a levee in St. Bernard Parish, just east of New Orleans, according to documents from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
An inspection of the 42-year-old Meraux Pipeline more than a year earlier, in October 2020, revealed external corrosion along a 22-foot section of pipe in the same area as the spill. But repairs were delayed and the line continued operating after a subsequent inspection indicated the corrosion was not bad enough to require work immediately under federal regulations, according to the pipeline agency.
Let me remind the people of how serious Corrosion is when it comes to pipelines. Or how dangerous it is when ship hauls are weak.
BP OIL SPILL JUNE 4 2010
On July 25, Japanese ship MV Wakashio struck a coral reef on the southeast coast of Mauritius, spilling thousands of tons of fuel into the ocean. Soon the crystal-clear water turned black, triggering an environmental catastrophe.
The New Orleans spilled fuel also contaminated soil in an environmentally sensitive area near the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, a closed canal, according to state and federal officials. A small amount of diesel remains in the two borrow pits, said Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality spokesman Gregory Langley.
Fuel Companies like BP and Collins do not care about the environment, they are killing everything slowly, and for what? GREED!
If Fuel Companies cannot stick to protocols and safety management, then what’s the point of even having a pipeline? Why not just spill it completely and kill everything right now instead of slowly. Get it over with, and by the time you want to collect that cash, you’ll have no customer base.
This is exactly one of the most important reasons why the majority of advocates are speaking up for NEW SOURCES of CLEAN FUEL. I understand switching from OIL to either Hydro, Corn, or Wind power is expensive. However, in the long run, it is worth it. You would be producing more jobs, truckers would be able to safely transport the water, corn oil, and or wind turbines. Companies would be able to make money from a cleaner fuel source. Everyone would win in this scenario.
Because you can’t get sick off of Corn Oil, Water/Hydro, or even Wind. The fact that companies say there is no money in cleaner fuel sources, is hyperbolic. The electric fuel source for cars – they’re making the figures to keep them around. To be fair the majority of people actually want a cleaner way of life, which is why many have switched to “Solar Power” and “Electric Cars”.
Besides that, these Oil Companies have Nearly Depleted these fossil fuels, there really isn’t much left. And this is also why gas prices have risen. Supply and Demand. It’s time to switch to a cleaner source of fuel.
This year should be the year where companies switch. It’s 2022 we should be more advanced by now. We should be on the cleaner path, we only have one planet, there is no escape when this planet dies off completely. Look at Mars for that example.
Lanternfly population continues to grow
At first glance, the adult lanternfly is a beautiful spectacle with spotted, bright red wings and a little bumble bee-esque body. But as the species continues its trek across the U.S., federal and state officials have a unified message: If you come across the insect, kill it.
The lanternfly is an invasive species from China that wreaks havoc on agriculture. They aren’t physically harmful to humans, but they threaten everything from oak, walnut and poplar trees to grapes, almonds and fruit orchards. It was first detected in the U.S. in Pennsylvania in 2014, but it has now spread to at least nine states, primarily in the Northeast. Growing numbers have been spotted in New York City this summer.
Source CBSNews
Although we value all life here at Guardians Of Life. This specific insect is causing havoc with the ecosystem.
Therefore we urge people to follow the request officials have put forth. Otherwise, a majority of food source as well as habitat for animals and people will be diminished.
We also urge businesses who use overseas transports to examine their cargo before allowing their shipments to come through, in order to lessen the access of Lanternflys.
Precautions should be taken. No matter what.
Biologists Discover New Species of Glowing Pumpkin Toadlet | Science | Smithsonian Magazine
By Riley Black
SMITHSONIANMAG.COM
APRIL 28, 2021 2:00PM
Pumpkin toadlets look exactly like what their name suggests. Less than half an inch-long, these tiny, orange frogs hop around the sweltering forests along Brazil’s Atlantic coast. But how many species of these frogs are there? The question isn’t just important to biology, but for conservationists seeking to preserve unique rainforest amphibians.To researchers, pumpkin toadlets belong to the genus Brachycephalus. Determining how many Brachycephalus species exist, however, isn’t easy. As many as 36 have been named, but researchers sometimes disagree on which species are valid or which species a particular population of frogs should be assigned to. Different populations of these frogs look very similar to each other, not to mention that their genetic makeup only varies slightly.
— Read on www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/biologists-discover-new-species-glowing-pumpkin-toadlet-180977610/
Glaciers are melting faster than they did 15 years ago, study shows | PBS NewsHour
Glaciers are melting faster, losing 31% more snow and ice per year than they did 15 years earlier, according to three-dimensional satellite measurements of all the world’s mountain glaciers.
Scientists blame human-caused climate change.Using 20 years of recently declassified satellite data, scientists calculated that the world’s 220,000 mountain glaciers are losing more than 328 billion tons (298 billion metric tons) of ice and snow per year since 2015, according to a study in Wednesday’s journal Nature. That’s enough melt flowing into the world’s rising oceans to put Switzerland under almost 24 feet (7.2 meters) of water each year.
The annual melt rate from 2015 to 2019 is 78 billion more tons (71 billion metric tons) a year than it was from 2000 to 2004. Global thinning rates, different than volume of water lost, doubled in the last 20 years and “that’s enormous,” said Romain Hugonnet, a glaciologist at ETH Zurich and the University of Toulouse in France who led the study.
— Read on www.pbs.org/newshour/science/glaciers-are-melting-faster-than-they-did-15-years-ago-study-shows
President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to ban new oil and gas leasing
President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to ban new oil and gas leasing on America’s federal public lands and waters on Day One of his administration.
Nearly a quarter of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions come from public lands due to coal mining and oil and gas drilling. We can’t keep leasing public lands to the fossil fuel industry and have any chance of reducing emissions or seriously confronting the climate crisis.
And due to Trump’s executive orders of undermining the Environmental Protection Act, along with the Water Protection Act. Big companies such as BP and Keystone, are free to muddy our waters with chemicals. Whilst also spewing poisonous gases into our ozone layer.
Just because Biden pledged to halt and undo Trump’s actions doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll DO. Let’s make him keep his words. By using our voices and signature.
Sign the petition and share.
Urge President-elect Biden to keep dirty fossil fuels in the ground
A Melting Antarctica Could Raise the Sea Level More Than Expected
Rounding Error
As rising global temperatures continue to melt the ice in Antarctica, scientists predict that we’ll face serious problems in the coming decades — from rising sea levels to devastating storms to temperatures rising even faster because there’s less ice to reflect heat.
Now, it turns out all those problems could be even worse than scientists predicted, according to research published in the journal Climate Dynamics. Existing models tended to predict ice melt based on average conditions over time, but accounting for fluctuating extremes paints a far more dire picture.
Accelerated Timeline
Climate models need to represent how chaotic weather patterns can be, study author and Penn State climate researcher Chris Forest argued in a press release. Accounting for those fluctuations, Forest’s work shows that the Antarctic ice sheet could retreat 20 years sooner than expected.
Factoring that in, the melting ice could raise the sea level by an additional 2.7 to 4.3 inches on top of the 10.6 to 14.9 inches that simpler models predict by the year 2100.
“We know ice sheets are melting as global temperatures increase, but uncertainties remain about how much and how fast that will happen,” Forest said in the release.
Read more: https://futurism.com/the-byte/melting-antarctica-raise-sea-level-more-than-expected
Guardians Of Life 
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