Frogs are disappearing from the Sierra Nevada in California, from the Monteverde cloud forest reserve in Northern Costa Rica and from Australia. In Central Costa Rica the population of several endemic frogs crashed. Rare and specialised species are vanishing from populated and disturbed areas and from …
The Moa – Extinct 1445
For millions of years, nine species of large, flightless birds known as Moas thrived on the islands today known as New Zealand (Aotearoa). The evolutionary lineage of these Moas dates back sixty million years. The Moa fed on twigs and plants. The Moas had one main predator and that was the …
People are not evil, just amoral
To be evil is to know right and wrong and to deliberately choose to do wrong, to wilfully cause pain, death and destruction. To be amoral is to be indifferent, to be unconcerned as to rightness or wrongness of anything. This causes one to act selfishly in a way that is totally uncaring of consequences. This is a …
Biodiversity – Size Matters
Marine life, and ocean coral reefs in particular, are threatened by acidification, illegal fishing, legal overfishing, agricultural runoff, the spread of algae, excessive silt flowing in the seas and oceans caused by deforestation and dynamite fishing. In fact most of marine life will …
Passenger Pigeon – Extinct 1914
The passenger pigeon flew with grace, speed, and agility. The bird had a small head and neck. The tail was elongated and wedge-shaped. The wingspan was broad and the wings were pointed and powered by large breast muscles that gave it capability for prolonged flight. The average length of the male was …
The Age of Humans
Nobel Prize winning Dutch chemist, Paul Crutzen popularised the term ‘Anthropocene’ (The Age of Humans) that represent this human dominated geological epoch. His argument was based on the facts, 18 years ago, that human activity has has transformed between a third and a half of the land surface area of …
The Great Auk – Extinct 1844
The Great Auk was eighty centimetres tall, weighed around five kilos and looked like a large penguin. They spent most of their lives at sea but returned to land to nest. The great auk was a flightless bird and a fantastic swimmer and lived in the northern hemisphere. This bird ranged from Norway to …
The Sixth Mass Extinction
A study published nearly two years ago warned that “This current ‘biological annihilation’ underlines the seriousness for humanity of Earth’s ongoing sixth mass extinction”. This was a study by Gerardo Ceballos, Paul Ehrlich and Rodolfo Dirzo called ‘Biological annihilation via the ongoing …
Northern White Rhinoceros – Extinct 2018
It is estimated that 8,000 rhinoceros have been killed by humans in the last 10 years alone. There are 21,000 rhinoceros left in the world today. The evolutionary history of rhinoceros goes back 50 million years. The white rhinoceros is said to be descended from Ceratotherium praecox that lived around …
The Safe Zone
The 2018 WWF Living Planet Report on the State of the Earth explains how in recent decades we have developed a clearer scientific picture of the complex links between climate, animal and plant life, the land and water habitats and importantly how this sustains human life. Observation and geological evidence have been used to build […]