Image courtesy of NRDC 

When it comes to global warming, humans have certainly felt the effects, and this year more than ever.  With one weather disaster after another hammering the globe (there were a dozen in the U.S. alone that topped the billion-dollar mark for damages), there’s no denying that the natural course of the climate has been altered due to the many greenhouse gas emissions we spew into the air courtesy of industry and transport.  And the results of our pollution are not only affecting us, but also the many species of wildlife that call this planet home.  The question is: how is our negligent attitude towards the protection of the environment affecting wild animals?

1. The warming trend.  Warmer temperatures are only one part of the extreme weather conditions that global warming is responsible for, but they are a biggie.  In the Arctic Circle, melting polar ice caps have taken away the hunting grounds that support polar bears as well as the cool waters that salmon depend on for breeding.  Eventually, this could spell disaster for both species.  And in the deserts of the world, nomadic animals like elephants that have trekked the same migratory paths for centuries are finding watering holes dried up thanks to higher temperatures and drought conditions.
2. The cooling trend.  Although climates near the equator are more likely to suffer from extreme heat, their neighbors to the far north and south are struggling with longer, colder winters that see animal populations dwindling.  Thanks to plummeting temperatures and a surge in winter storms, many animals that can’t find adequate shelter are freezing while others starve due to winters that seem to last longer.
3. Storms.  Human have suffered not only monetary damages in the last year, but also a fairly high death toll thanks to extreme storms like tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards, and fires (brought on by drought).  Animals, too, have suffered.  Many have lost their habitat, which means they have had to wander closer and closer to the dangers of human civilization in search of basic sustenance, breeding grounds, and a place to raise their young.
4. Ocean acidification.  This is a side effect of greenhouse gas pollution that few people have heard about, and although it isn’t directly linked to global warming, it is related to the same pollutants that cause climate change.  When hydrocarbons are absorbed by the waters of the ocean, it causes the pH levels to drop, which affects bottom feeders like lobster, shrimp, and clams (not to mention corals).  It renders them unable to form the hard outer shells (or exoskeletons) that they rely on for survival.  The result is that these populations will begin to die out, followed by a chain reaction (up the food chain) that could deplete marine life across the globe.
5. Overall.  If you thought mining operations, mountaintop removal, and crop dusting were detrimental to surrounding ecosystems, multiply that damage by a thousand (and you still won’t come close to the destruction that continues to be wrought by global warming).  Not only are animals all over the world finding themselves short of food and water, the situation is also upsetting migratory patterns and breeding cycles, which mean some species could be heading rapidly towards extinction.

Thai authorities find baby leopards, panthers, monkeys and bear drugged and crammed inside luxury passenger’s luggage

A Thai vet treats a panther cub rescued from the luggage of a suspected wildlife trafficker from the United Arab Emirates. Photograph: Freeland Foundation/EPA

Photo: puuikibeach / cc

In a world increasingly dominated by humans, it seems there’s less and less room for just about everything else — so to cope, animals and plants across the globe are gradually getting smaller. For centuries, human activities such as hunting and encroachment have made life difficult for the largest species, from mammals and fish to insects and trees, leading to an evolutionary trend towards the miniature. And researchers suggest that unless countermeasures are taken to ensure ‘big’ makes a comeback — we may be heading towards a world of tinier and tinier creatures. 

While research into the diminution of non-human life on Earth has been steeped in academic study, the logic behind the phenomena is actually quite simple. The largest animal specimens, like deer, are typically the most targeted by hunters — which results in fewer big deer to pass their largeness genes to a new generation. Naturally, such a selective process would dictate deers grow smaller over time, or else face a greater threat to the species itself.

Humans’ love of the biggest of the bunch, of course, doesn’t stop at deer. In fact, few of the largest animals on Earth, megafuana, have not been impacted by us. A report fromAustralia’s ABC sums up our rich history of wiping-out our big animal brethren:

More than 25,000 years ago, one megafaunal species — we humans — began to spread rapidly around the globe and in the process helped to wipe out about half of all land mammals weighing more than 44 kilograms.”More than 101 genera perished,” Anthony Barnosky, an ecologist at University of California, Berkeley, reported in a 2008 study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Among the victims were whole groups of mammoths, mastodons, saber-toothed tigers, giant ground sloths, and big beavers. Many vanished in just a 4,000 year span that ended about 11,000 years ago. By then, Australia had lost roughly 88 per cent of its big mammal groups, South America 83 per cent, and North America 72 per cent. Africa did better during what is now called the Quaternary Megafauna Extinction (QME), losing about one-fifth of its big species, while Eurasia lost one-third.

Even species that aren’t directly targeted by humans seem to be shifting towards a smaller frame. Shrinking or altered habitats, due to human development, tend to signal smaller inhabitants. Biologists have observed Europe’s green clock beetle trending towards a lesser size over the last fifty years as increases in soil disturbances caused by humans reduce its larvae development stage, favoring faster growing, but notably smaller beetles.

Some pants also may be feeling the effect of human-selection. Historically, the biggest trees are often the first to be cut down — a fact which may have inadvertently worked to weed-out the gene for big growth.

“Size matters,” biologist Chris Darimont of the University of California, Santa Cruz, tells ABC. “A larger body size makes a species more vulnerable to all kinds of problems, from getting hunted by humans to habitat change.”

Reversing this trend towards smaller wildlife will likely be slow, if it’s possible at all. Researchers have noted a shortage of big fish species as fisheries target the meatiest specimens while returning the leanest. The Head of the Ocean Sciences program at the U.S. National Science Foundation, Chris Conover, says “it was going to take at least 12 generations for the fish to recover,” referring to a species of fish he and his team ‘overharvested’ in a laboratory experiment to test the evolutionary process.

As of late, the effect of climate change on body-size of wildlife isn’t well documented, but the specter looms as experts anticipate dramatic changes to Earth’s ecosystems in a warmer world. Researchers say that smaller creatures tend to be the most resilient to many habitat changes, and that the loss of their larger predators may actually be a boon to them — but this may matter little if changes in weather patterns come about as climatologists have warned.

In light of a future which may hold smaller wildlife than we know today, it is important to note that the opposite is likely true for us — and the two factors are hardly unrelated. Obesity rates in humans continue to skyrocket as our lives become more sedentary in carbon-spewing motor vehicles, our food sources become more remote , and as it takes more encroachment into natural areas to accommodate us and all of our stuff.

The funding shortfall is undermining protection of the ecology and biodiversity, which are threatened by and left vulnerable to illegal human activities, such as poaching, logging and farming.

But a recent report shows that in some areas, conservation efforts are derailed by widespread hunting for bush meat, in addition to other human encroachment activities. To address the situation, the experts want to see more investment in conservation, to help the government recruit and train more personnel and partner with local communities in the management of natural resources.   

“Tanzania is hugely under-resourced for conservation tasks; this is a major problem,” says Mr Trevor Jones of the Udzungwa Elephant Project, who cautions that the country is facing increasing difficulties to conserve its remaining fantastic natural riches.

But his comments come in the wake of a new report released early this month, which warns that “the populations of several animal species in southern Tanzanian forests are suffering alarming declines due to bush meat hunting and habitat degradation”.

The report, prepared by Tanzanian and international scientists and conservation organisations, describes the results of three separate research projects focused on the threats to biodiversity in Uzungwa Scarp Forest Reserve in southern Tanzania since 2004. It shows that Tanzania’s wildlife has been hugely impacted by human activities and recommends that action be taken urgently to protect it. Also affected is the biodiversity critical to the health of the ecosystems which many Tanzanians rely on for water, soil fertility and other services.

 “Tanzania has an amazing conservation record, but the increase in human population, and other external pressures such as the increased demand for ivory and other animal products from China, means it will get harder and harder for the country to conserve the incredible natural riches it still has,” Mr Jones, a biologist in the team which compiled the report, further noted.

Another member of the team, Sokoine University lecturer Amani Kitegile, says bush meat hunting is also becoming a serious threat to wildlife in Tanzania. He told The Citizen on Saturday that apart from fire, hunting is an immediate threat to wildlife populations and a major conservation problem for the Uzungwa Scarp Forest Reserve. 

The fires and bush meat hunting aside, other human activities like pole cutting and illegal logging have also exacerbated the problem, as they lead to further deforestation and soil degradation. According to Mr Kitegile, the government needs to revisit its policies and approaches towards conservation issues to tackle the problem holistically.

“Increased law enforcement will have some immediate effect at decreasing human pressure on the forest. But the costs will be high if other options are not considered; and these include providing alternative sources of protein (meat) and income and some level of assurance that the preservation measures will benefit local people in the long term,” he noted.

Tanzania’s national website shows that the contribution of forestry sector to the country’s gross domestic product is estimated to be eight to 10 per cent.

A press release on the report quotes Udzungwa Ecological Monitoring Centre coordinator Arafat Mtui saying that the study results dramatically show that some species in the area were on the brink of extinction from one of their last remaining strongholds. Among the most affected species is the Udzungwa red colobus, a monkey found only in these mountains and nowhere else in the world.

The report also found that duikers, small antelopes, are too in danger of vanishing from the forest due to hunting, and the Angolan colobus, another monkey found in the area, may have already disappeared from parts of the forest. Historically, the authors of the report argue, hunting and other human impacts have long taken a toll in the forest – wiping out large animals as elephants and buffalos.  

“The Udzungwa Mountains are the pearl of the Eastern Arc Mountains because they contain the largest forests and have extraordinary numbers of plant and animal species found nowhere else on earth, including two species of monkeys,” stated Dr Francesco Rovero of Italy’s Trento Museum of Natural Sciences, who led the preparation of the report. 

He added: “Unfortunately, while some of the forests are protected by the Udzungwa Mountains National Park, there are important forests such as Uzungwa Scarp Forest Reserve that have not been granted adequate protection.” 

The researchers have recommended immediate steps to be taken to halt the decline of the forest’s rare species, including stepping-up law enforcement efforts and forest patrols; providing opportunities for local communities to get involved in managing the forest; and environmental education for locals. The researchers further recommended that the government should upgrade the area’s protected status to ‘Nature Reserve’. 

“The government needs to allocate the resources that are required to manage this national treasure and to address the needs of the adjacent communities,” Mr Charles Meshack, the executive director of the Tanzania Forest Conservation Group, noted in the statement.

A biological hotspot, the Eastern Arc Mountains are home to some 100 unique animal species and 850 unique plants. In a recent list prepared by Conservation International (CI), Africa’s mountain forests, including the Eastern Arc, were listed in the world’s top 10 most threatened forests.

Urgent: help stop oil exploration inside one of Africa’s most iconic national parks

WWF – Action Center.

Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Virunga National Park is Africa’s oldest national park, one of the few places in the world wheregorilla populations are not in steep decline.

Scientists say chimps face ‘major and urgent threat’ as the bushmeat trade expands in country’s north

Bushmeat in a market in Kisangani, Congo. Photograph: Schalk Van Zuydam/AP

They are some of the most mysterious apes on the planet that according to local legend, kill lions, catch fish and even howl at the moon. But according to an 18-month study of remote human settlements deep in the Congolese jungle, chimpanzees are being subjected to a “wave of killing” by bushmeat hunters.

The scientists who carried out the study believe that the region, in the north of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), is home to at least 35,000 of the unusually large sub-species of chimpanzees. This is probably the largest population of chimps in Africa, but such is the hunger for chimp meat that the researchers believe the animals are facing a “major and urgent threat” and that northern DRC is now “witnessing the beginning of a massive ape decline.”

“I was actually astonished to see the sheer quantities of bushmeat being taken out of the forest,” said team member Dr Cleve Hicks, at the University of Amsterdam. “It was really shocking.” He estimates that roughly 440 animals in the region are being slaughtered each year.

Because of the remote nature of the terrain and the ferocity of the DRC civil war, it was only in the last decade that the apes were studied in detail by primate researchers. Hicks documented a group of super-sized chimps with a unique culture, including a sighting of the apes feasting on a leopard carcass – although it was unclear whether they had actually killed the animal. He said that the local belief that the animals howl at the moon has never been confirmed.

To document the threat posed by bushmeat traders, Hicks and his colleagues conducted regular surveys of bushmeat markets in local towns and on roads on either side of the Uele river in northern DRC. In total they spent 1,365 days in 10 cities and towns and surveyed 13,140km of road. They recorded chimp carcasses and orphans for sale. The primatologist Dr Jane Goodall has estimated that for every chimp orphan that is sold as a pet, 10 others from its family group will have been killed.

In total, the team saw 44 orphan chimps and 35 carcasses, plus nine leopard skins, 10 okapi (a type of antelope) skins, parts of 14 elephants, bushmeat from two hippos, 169 monkey carcasses and 69 monkey orphans. Two of the orphan chimps had their top incisors knocked out or burned down with hot knives to prevent them from biting their handlers. The study is published in the peer-reviewed journal African Primates.

Almost all of this trade, which the researchers describe as “larger and more widespread than anticipated, and expanding”, is happening in the region south of the Uele river. Here the human population is more dense than to the north because of illegal artisanal goldmining operations. Also local taboos about eating bushmeat have begun to break down in recent years. Hicks, who is also affiliated with the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, said that one tribe, the Barisi, used not to harm the animals because they believed their tribe was descended from a union between a man and a female chimp. The women of two other tribes, the Azande and Babenza, previously refused to eat or cook ape meat for fear that it would result in them giving birth to babies with “big ears”.

The spread of a Christian group called the “message believers” whose doctrine is based on the teaching of an American faith healer and preacher called William Branham who died in 1965 has swept away some of the old beliefs. Hicks said that followers interpret his teachings as condoning bushmeat hunting.

A spokesperson for William Branham ministries said that this was a misinterpretation of Branham’s teachings. “I have no idea where they would be getting that,” he said. “He didn’t have any type of doctrine where you can eat whatever you want. William Branham was an avid outdoorsman. It was very important to him to follow all the laws of the land.”

Hicks said that many people do not know that it is against DRC law to hunt chimpanzees and that the law is not enforced locally. Some of the people who had orphan chimps even showed the researchers documents signed by local officials that purportedly gave them permission to keep the animals. “Once the population is fragmented [its decline] is probably going to speed up rapidly,” said “Hicks. “What we are seeing probably is the beginning of that process. Its not too far gone yet too stop it … There are very few roads so theoretically it wouldn’t be that difficult to control.”

Alice Macharia of the Jane Goodall Institute in Arlington, Virginia said: “The increasing level of the bushmeat trade in this region is truly alarming. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has the largest population of chimpanzees in the wild, the bushmeat trade, the illegal commercial hunting of chimpanzees, remains one of the greatest threats to their survival along with loss of habitat due to deforestation. When roads are cleared to make way for mining, logging and other concessions, hunters have greater access to these endangered animals.”

Hanoi, Vietnam — Vietnam’s Environmental Police have confiscated two frozen tigers and a frozen panther in the central province of Nghe An.

The animals, reportedly along with five kgs of suspected tiger bones, were confiscated from the home of a 53-year old man in Dien Chau district early last week. The suspect was placed under arrest.

The confiscation resulted from a co-ordinated effort between enforcement authorities, including the recently established Environmental Police.

TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, commended the authorities for their diligence in enforcing Vietnam’s wildlife laws. TRAFFIC is a joint programme of WWF and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

“The Environmental Police have demonstrated once again their dedication to halting the illegal trade in protected species such as tigers,” said Thomas Osborn, Co-ordinator of TRAFFIC’s Greater Mekong Programme.

Despite their protection under Vietnamese and international law, tigers and panthers continue to be illegally hunted and traded across Vietnam and Southeast Asia for their meat, as souvenirs, and for their bones, used in traditional medicine and to make tiger bone wine.

In March this year, Lao Bao Border Guard Police seized a body of a tiger (95 kgs) and a black panther (27 kgs) being transported across the border to be sold in Vietnam. In October 2009, Vietnam Environmental Police seized two frozen tiger carcasses weighing a total of 130kgs and arrested five suspects in Hanoi.

As few as 30 wild tigers are estimated to survive in Vietnam.

“If we hope to save the country’s remaining tigers and other threatened species, it will take ever increasing vigilance from authorities and a strong commitment by the government to support and promote existing wildlife laws,” said Osborn.

Tigers have become a global icon for species on the brink of extinction, especially during the current Chinese Year of the Tiger. There are as few as 3,200 tigers left in the wild around the world.

WWF and TRAFFIC are working this year to secure political commitments that will double the number of tigers by the next Year of the Tiger in 2022.

• Voser says rising demand forces search for new sites
• Storm threatens clean-up operation of BP’s Gulf spill

Royal Dutch Shell‘s boss, Peter Voser, insisted that today it was not possible to satisfy the world’s growing energy demands without drilling for oil in deep-water reserves, despite the ongoing environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

At a conference in South Africa, Voser defended the oil industry’s push into deeper oil reserves and said Shell would continue to play its part, even as a tropical storm threatened to disrupt BP‘s efforts to clean up oil off the coast of Louisiana.

“Given the rise in the population and the rise in the developing world of energy needs, we will have to develop those resources in deep waters, so my expectation is that we will go forward with it, but it will need some changes,” Voser told the Fortune Global Forum in Cape Town.

It is now 68 days since the Deep-water Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, triggering a devastating leak on the seabed in which 100,000 barrels of oil have spewed into the water. BP’s failure to cap the leak has put the oil industry’s safety record under fierce scrutiny, with environmental campaigners demanding that deep-water drilling is banned until safety measures have been improved.

Voser, though, implied that the Macondo well would not have erupted with such devastating consequences if Shell, rather than BP, had been in charge.

“We would not have drilled the well in the same way. We have got other safety procedures across the globe. But I think for some companies there will be some learning from this as well,” Voser said.

The future of deep-water drilling remains uncertain, after a US judge overturned a six-month ban imposed by President Barack Obama. The US is appealing against the ruling but may have to rewrite the moratorium if it is to prevent new wells being drilled in the Gulf this year.

It appears BP will be given the go-ahead to drill in deep-water sites off the coast of north Africa. The head of Libya’s National Oil Company said today that the “accident” in the Gulf of Mexico would not mean that BP lost its contract to drill for oil in the Mediterranean Sea.

“Accidents happen all the time. If an air crash takes place, we don’t stop air traffic,” said Shokri Ghanem. “So we have to continue but we take this step to learn more lessons.”

BP’s shares plunged 6.5% to a new 14-year low of 298p last Friday, meaning that more than £60bn has been wiped off its market capitalisation since 20 April.

Weather experts warned today that Tropical Storm Alex could hamper the clean-up operation in the Gulf. Although Alex is not expected to cross over the area of the spill directly, it could generate high waves that would make it harder to collect some of the leaking oil or prevent the spill reaching land.

The UK continues to argue that BP should not be forced to pay excessive levels of compensation that would endanger its future as a company. Speaking at the G20 summit, chancellor George Osborne said David Cameron had reminded Obama that BP was an international company.

“We have stressed that BP is an important global business. It has many investors in the US, it is the largest oil company in the US and it is both in the US interest and the UK interest that BP has a strong future,” said Osborne.

BP has put $20bn (£13bn) into a compensation fund, but faces the prospect of claims from tens of thousands of people indirectly affected by the spill. Last Friday, a top New Orleans chef, Susan Spicer, sued the company over the loss of valuable local seafood.

Louisiana residents commandeer idle BP boats to protect marshlands as local people grow frustrated

President Barack Obama survey damage along the Louisiana coastline at Fourchon Beach from the BP oil spill. Louisiana residenst are angry at what they view as an inadequate federal and BP response. Photograph: Larry Downing/REUTERS

In a small, wood-panelled courtroom in the back streets of Belle Chase on the banks of the Mississippi, a trial of sorts is taking place. Chief witness for the prosecution is a large rotund man with a breeze-reddened face who is addressing the legal benches and the packed public area with growing passion.

“Where is the plan?” he says, speaking into a microphone. “We have been waiting and waiting for a plan, and still there isn’t one. There is no plan.”

In the dock the absentee defendants are BP, the US coastguard and the federal government, who all stand accused in the court of local public opinion of failing to protect Louisiana’s rich coastline from the oil disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico.

Billy Nungesser, the elected parish chief for this stretch of the Mississippi, has come to address the full council, assembled for convenience’s sake in this unused courtroom.

“We are going to throw everything and the kitchen sink at this, and we don’t care if we don’t have permission. Come Saturday, we are going to go out there and begin the clean-up, with or without BP.”

The public bursts into applause. This being a council meeting and not a proper trial there is no judge to call the room to order. If it had been a criminal setting, and not a civil assembly of council officials, you might call it vigilantism.

It began last Sunday in a spontaneous expression of frustration at the apparent lack of action to protect Louisiana’s wetlands, one of America’s largest and richest ecosystems, from the menacing swirl of oil gathering off the coast from the stricken Deep Horizon well.

As the first big flows of oil began to reach land last weekend, local people were astonished to find 30 private shrimp boats sitting idle at Grand Isle, a pristine stretch of beach that was now directly threatened. BP had commissioned the boats for use in fighting the slick, but had left them doing nothing.

Nungesser, backed by the governor of the state of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, went it alone. They “commandeered” the boats and mobilised fishermen, sending them out to lay a boom in front of Grand Isle to hold back the oil.

Such was the success of that action – both in terms of ameliorating the oil impact and in boosting the morale of those involved – that Nungesser then wanted to roll it out across the marshlands. “We can’t wait anymore for BP to give us permission, we’re going ahead anyway,” he told the courtroom.

Outlining his alternative plan, he said that on Saturday two teams of about 50 people would be sent out to barrier islands off the coast to begin dredging up small berms (barriers) to keep the oil from getting into the marshes.

Where oil had already encroached into the sensitive grasses of the wetlands, special equipment would be used to drive it out then collect it.

A helicopter supplied by the sheriff’s office would act as their eyes overhead and they would be advised by Philippe Cousteau, grandson of the underwater explorer Jacques. It was into this cauldron of brewing anger that Barack Obama jumped on yesterday, touring Louisiana for the second time since the crisis had begun on 20 April with the explosion of the Deep Horizon rig.

With every day that passes, comparisons between the oil spill and George Bush’s disastrous handling of the Katrina hurricane in 2005 become more prevalent, and with them the political perils for the Obama administration.

As it happens, one of the US president’s supporters over his handling of the crisis is Nungesser. The two met the last time Obama visited the region, and Nungesser was impressed by his willingness to listen to ideas about what to do.

When a coastguard official expressed doubt about the efficacy of Nungesser’s suggestions, Obama turned to that official and said: “You got a better plan?”

According to the US coastguard, more than 100 miles of shoreline in Louisiana has now been affected by the oil, only a quarter of which will easily be cleaned. More than a million feet of protective booms have been laid around the most endangered islands and bayous, an emergency response that the coastguard claims has been “historic”, “epic” and largely successful.

But the contrast between the rhetoric and what they see has baffled residents. If the response has been so successful, why was oil coming ashore this week with no attempt to stop it? Why have booms been laid in stretches that appear to be ad-hoc and patchy? Why, when you approach the authorities for permission to protect a marshland, is there so much red tape and no clear accountability between BP, the coast guard and the federal government?

Above all, they ask, why, with the disaster declared bigger than Exxon Valdez, the worst in US history, does there seem to be such a lack of urgency?

“It’s sad to see the oil just sitting there,” said Darren Crowe, a Louisiana state senator, after Nungesser finished speaking. “It’s like your house is burning down when you have a fire engine sitting there right over the road.”

We take a boat out to look at some of the affected areas, speeding along bayous through a bed of grasses that extends to the horizon. As the waterways open into the bay we come to Cat island where thousands of pelicans are nesting.

The island has been encircled with orange booms that are meant to contain the oil, but the equipment seems in need of maintenance as in parts it has been deposited on shore. The island was awash with oil two days ago, collected between the rings of the boom.

The neighbouring island, Queen Bess, has oil in patches on the grasses, rendering them dark brown and greasy,. A group of pelicans and their young are perched three metres away.

For now the oil has gone again, swept back out to sea by changing winds. But everybody expects that, in days, weeks, months, maybe even years, it will be back again, and they want to know what is going to be done to stop it next time.