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Biodiversity is the total number of species or life forms within any given ecosystem. The more varied the species, the healthier the earth is. Even cockroaches have their uses.
To celebrate a healthy Earth, the UN established International Day for Bilogical Biodiversity, which is celebrated every May 22, intending to bring biodiversity issues into focus. This is relevant to our times since global warming and climate change are likely to become the dominant and direct cause of biodiversity loss (wikipedia.org).
The theme for 2008 is “Biodiversity and Agriculture.” It seeks to “highlight the importance of sustainable agriculture not only to preserve biodiversity, but also to ensure that we will be able to feed the world, maintain agricultural livelihoods, and enhance human well being into the 21st century and beyond.”
Click here for a list of countries who have already scheduled and submitted activities. At the moment, they include Azerbaijan, Canada, Colombia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, the EU, Italy, Japan, Sri Lanka, and the UK. If your country is not on the list but celebrates biodiversity day in its own way, try to get the right officials to submit their participation to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Secretariat.
Canada, home to the CBD Secretariat, is inviting individuals and organizations to organize an event and submit a summary here. They also graciously provided a guide so we don’t have to wrack our brains for appropriate activities, click here for the list.
What can we do? Let’s help get the word out and promote awareness.
Why is Darfur in the news? Darfur–loosely translated as land of the Fur, the dominant tribe in this western region of Sudan– has been the scene of another ethnic cleansing in Africa reminiscent of the Rwandan Genocide. This time, it’s the Sudan government and a nomadic arab tribe, the Janjaweed, against a ragtag collection of rebel groups from three ethnic tribes in the Darfur region.
Darfur is not a religious conflict, the battle lines were drawn across ethnicity. But is it really about a group of people unable to accept the color and creed of another? The Janjaweed and the Furs have existed peacefully in symbiosis for centuries. What really is behind the Darfur killings aside from the Sudan government using the Jajanweed to eliminate a threat to their regime?
Previously, we made a post on the 10 effects of global warming. Number 10 on the list is the threat on global security brought about by competition for dwindling resources. During one of our web wandering moments, we stumbled into this report titled The Real Roots of Darfur. It tells the story of Alex de Waal, an anthropologist who studied the social impact of the drought gripping the Darfur region even before the war broke out, and an old Arab sheik.
The old, bed ridden Arab said he feared the future because “the way the world was set-up since time immemorial was being disturbed and it was bewildering, repressing, and the consequences were terrible.” And that was back in the mid-80’s. The old timer has never been out of his beloved desert and he doesn’t know, nor care, about things like greenhouse gases, global warming, and climate change.
His fears were based simply on the following observations in his twilight years:
1. Sand blew into fertile lands.
2. The ever rarer rains washed away the remaining fertile soil.
3. Farmers who once welcomed his tribe and their camels are now blocking their migration because the land could no longer support both people.
4. Many of his tribesmen has already lost their stock and scratched at millet farming on marginal plots, often the last resort for survival by a proud Arab people.
Now, the terrible consequences the wise sheik spoke of is happening. His fears were brought into reality by a person close to his heart, Musa Hilal, his son and leader of the Jajanweed.
Originally, the environment’s degradation and the subsequent sufferings were blamed on the region’s inhabitants until scientists pinpointed another: global warming…
But by the time of the Darfur conflict four years ago, scientists had identified another cause. Climate scientists fed historical sea-surface temperatures into a variety of computer models of atmospheric change. Given the particular pattern of ocean-temperature changes worldwide, the models strongly predicted a disruption in African monsoons. “This was not caused by people cutting trees or overgrazing,” says Columbia University’s Alessandra Giannini, who led one of the analyses. The roots of the drying of Darfur, she and her colleagues had found, lay in changes to the global climate.
Are the events in Darfur a glimpse of what will happen in the future on a grander scale once disruptions caused by climate change makes unavailable the natural resources we are enjoying today? Will our generation or those coming after us be able to answer that question in the affirmative?
Looks like not only these 7 artic species are threatened by Global Warming, even Homo sapiens sapiens is at risk, especially those living in and around the Sahara, as detailed in this article entitled How to Prevent the Next Darfur by Time. This book by Stephen Faris, called Forecast: The Consequences of Climate Change, who wrote it after he learned in Darfur that the root to the conflict is related to climate change might give us clues to the answer.
It’s never too early to prepare for World Environment Day. We can, in fact, start celebrating it now. The said environmental holiday was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 as part of the United Nations Environmental Programme (wikipedia.org). It’s main purpose is to “stimulate awareness of the environment and enhance political attention and public action.”
Although it is a world-wide celebration, a particular city serves as the host every year. The host city for 2008 is Wellington in New Zealand, where the main international celebrations will be scheduled.
Here are some interesting stuff about World Environment Day 2008:
1. The slogan for 2008 is “CO2, kick the habit! Towards a low carbon economy.”
The electric vehicle was first realized in the mid-1880s but PayPal co-founder Elon Musk wanted to take electric cars to the next level so maybe that’s why he named his company after Nikola Tesla, a pioneer in electromagnetism. When we first came across the site of the Tesla Electric Roadster 2 months ago, they were in the later stages of final testing and ready for production but we didn’t include it in our line-up of better cars for the environment for one reason, which we will divulge later.
Now, the Tesla roadsters are all over the web and news and it’s getting a lot of attention too. Who wouldn’t want one? Consider these performance and efficiency specs:
1. 0 to 60 in under 4 seconds.
2. Top speed of 125 miles per hour.
3. Range of approximately 220 miles on a single charge.
4. With batteries empty, a full charge takes 3 hours and 30 minutes. Half-empty, takes less than 2 hours.
5. Batteries will last for 100,000 miles.
6. With off-peak charging, it is possible to drive the Tesla roadster at 1 cent per mile.
7. Battteries are light, durable, and recyclable.
9. Absolutely zero emission.
All that power and eco-friendliness comes wrapped in a super-sexy tight little package…
So what makes it different from our list of cars? It’s price that hovers around $100,000.00 plus the fact we can’t use it to carry a lot of groceries and the kids. Nice car but looks like another toy for the wealthy. It’s always been our stand that no matter how earth-friendly a vehicle is, if only a few people will use it, it won’t have much impact on our effort to reduce overall emissions.
But there’s hope since Tesla is planning to release “whitestar,” costing from $50,000-$70,000, next year as an alternative to the BMW 5 Series and Audi 6 and a “bluestar” model in 2012, costing $30,000.00 (wikipedia.org).
Despite the high price that’s beyond the means of regular pops and moms, Tesla is still to be lauded for picking up the pieces of General Motors’ EV1– centerpiece of the movie “Who Killed the Electric Car?”–and resurrecting the electric vehicle.
A study in the Ecological Applications journal published by the Ecological Society of America takes a look at arctic animals and how global warming affects them. As discussed in our previous post on 10 effects of global warming, marine arctic animals are threatened by arctic shrinkage or melting of the ice.
The study revealed that seven (7) “core” species, those the spend nearly all their lives in the arctic region, are in danger of being killed-off if global warming escalates. They are the following:
1. Bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus).
The Bowhead Whale is also known as Greenland Right Whale or Arctic Whale. A stocky dark-colored whale without a dorsal fin, it can grow to 20 metres (66 ft) in length. Estimated maximum weight of this thick-bodied species is 136 tonnes (152 tons), second only to the Blue Whale, although the Bowhead lags behind several other whales in maximum length. The Bowhead spends all of its life in fertile Arctic waters, unlike other whales that migrate for feeding or reproduction. Current population is estimated from 14,400 to as many as 44,000 (wikipedia.org).
2. Beluga or White whale (Delphinapterus leucas).
The Beluga is an Arctic and sub-Arctic cousin of the narwhal. Popular as the white whales of the St. Lawrence river. This marine mammal is commonly referred to simply as the Beluga or Sea Canary due to its high pitched squeaks. It is up to 5 metres in length and an unmistakable all white in color with a distinctive melon-shaped head. The global population of beluga today stands at about 100,000, mainly threatened by pollution and hunting (wikipedia.org).
3. Narwhal (Monodon monoceros).
The narwhal’s name is ultimately derived from the Old Norse word for “corpse,” thus it is also known as the corpse whale. Narwhals are famous for their long tusks, which served as the basis for the myth of the unicorn. They are an arctic specialist species and are probably the most in danger to the melting of the ice. Narwhals move closer to coasts during summer and retreat to densely-packed ice in winter. The world population is currently estimated to be around 50,000 individuals (wikipedia.org).
4. Bearded Seal (Erignathus barbaratus).
The bearded seal or square flipper seal, is a medium-sized seal that is found in and near to the Arctic Ocean. It is a primary food source for polar bears and for the Inuit of the arctic coast. It is currently considered at a lower risk for extinction (wikipedia.org).
5. Ringed Seal (Phoca hispida).
The Ringed Seal, also known as the Jar Seal, is an earless seal inhabiting the northern coasts. They have a light gray coat spotted with black. Ring seals can be found throughout the arctic ocean. They are well known for maintaining breathing holes in the ice. In addition for threats from predators, due to the effects of global warming, icepacks have begun breaking up earlier than in the past. Birthing lairs are often destroyed before the seal pup is able to forage on its own leading to poor body condition (wikipedia.org).
6. Walrus (Odobenus rosmarus).
Walruses are immediately recognizable due to their prominent tusks, whiskers and great bulk. Adult Pacific males can weigh up to 4,500 pounds and are exceeded in size only by the elephant seals among pinnipeds. They spend a significant proportion of their lives on sea ice in pursuit of their preferred diet of mollusks and are considered a keystone species in Arctic marine ecosystems (wikipedia.org).
7. Polar bear (Ursus maritimus).
The polar bear has become almost iconic for global warming but, in reality, the narwhal faces a bleaker future with the melting of arctic ice. Polar bears spends much of the year on the frozen seas as they can hunt consistently only from sea ice, although most polar bears are born on land. Biologists use a working estimate of about 20,000-25,000 polar bears worldwide (wikipedia.org).
Presently, none of these arctic species are on the endangered list. That may change in the future. Which do you think is the most appropriate mascot in our efforts to fight off global warming?
During the month of May, we usually puzzle over the perfect mother’s day gift. Isn’t it a coincidence we also call nature as “mother?” So why not look for something that celebrate both our nurturing mothers and mother nature? For those who are still at a loss on what to give these special persons on May 11, here are ten eco-friendly gift ideas.
Who doesn’t love reading books and magazines? They are quintessential favorites for mother’s day gifts but before setting off for the nearest bookstore or ordering a magazine subscription online, consider these facts:
–The world consumes 300 million tons of paper a day. The U.S., who only accounts for 5% of the world population, consumes 30% of all paper. Around 28% of trees cut in the U.S. is used to produce paper. (Ecology.com)
–Over 5 million tons of paper end up in landfills every year, where they rot and produce methane, a greenhouse gas responsible for global warming (digital-publishing.co.uk).
Doesn’t paperless reading sounds attractive? The Amazon Kindle might just be perfect for a mother bookworm. Sure it’s clunky and resembles a doorstop more than a paperback but it’s very user friendly, can survive a drop of 30 inches, and has an ever expanding selection of books, newspapers, and magazines for downloads. It can even be used to read and answer Email anywhere, anytime.
Baggu totes are chic, washable, and fold right into their own pouches. Weighs only two ounces yet can hold up to 25 pounds. Make all moms discard those ubiquitous paper and plastic bags.
We may want something more substantial than a rip-resistant nylon tote since it is mothers’ day after all. This Genuine leather tote can provide the same function as the Baggu, only classier. They also lasts. However, leather isn’t washable but it can be wiped clean.
Have you received and email saying that reusing plastic bottles or leaving a bottled water in a car will leach carcinogens into the water? Breathe easier because both Cancer.org and Snoops says it is unlikely. But why takes chances? Besides, bottled water isn’t healthier than tap water, has a carbon footprint, and presents disposal problems.
A yoga mat can serve as a hint and natural rubber is a renewable resource. It goes beyond a simple mat that help us get fit. In many Asian countries, rubber trees are planted in hilly regions where they grow up to 35 feet in length before they are cut-down for a new crop of trees (a cycle that takes 25-30 years). Rubber plantations are essentially man-made forests that helps prevent soil erosion and absorb carbon dioxide. SO when we buy rubber materials, we support those man-made forests. Please check for allergic reactions though.
A handmade back pack from natural and renewable materials makes a unique mother’s day gift. It’s made by an artisan in Thailand. Great style for summer. A gift for a mother to help another mother in need. Sold in association with National Geographic.
Not another T-shirt! Well, there are T-shirts and there are organic and eco-friendly T-shirts. BuddhiWear makes them from organically grown cotton and every shirt made means 1/3 pound of chemicals wasn’t used in growing them. So mothers get a super comfy shirt and we stop poisoning the Earth.
So what really is the perfect mother’s day gift? That would only be our love.
Please bear with this very short post. Treasure Nature was featured in Entrecard Favorites in celebration of Earth Day. Read all about it here. We know, it’s not a Pulitzer but we’re happy TN got acknowledge for blogging about nature and the environment.
We’ve been busy preparing for our local Earth Day celebration on April 22. We have caravans, tree plantings, and concerts. After everything was set, it was time to think about what we can do if we want to stay at home with the kids. Is there a way we can celebrate Earth Day with them? It’s a great time to make our kids be aware of our responsibilities as nature’s children.
Here’s a few things we can do to celebrate Earth Day with children:
1. Plant trees.
Trees symbolizes mother nature. April 22 is also the birthday of J. Sterling Morton, the founder of Arbor Day. It’s the perfect time to get the kids up close and personal with a seedling. They’ll also love “playing” with the dirt. Just remember to keep a distance from walls, leaky water pipes, and wells. Check out which trees thrive where you are here (U.S. and Canada only).
I was barely out of my teens when I saw this animated film of a forest in danger of being cut-down by an evil spirit who took over some machines. Fun to watch with the whole family.
3. Finger painting.
Remember how fun it was to mess around with paints? Crayola has washable Fingerpaint that’s easy to clean off. Kids could learn all about our dear planet while painting trees, flowers, butterflies, and animals.
4. Fly a kite.
Flying kites has become a tradition for us every summer. We usually do it on a beach and the children loves the sand, sea, surf, wind, and the blue sky, all part of the Earth. Click here for instructions on how to make a basic diamond kite. Use old newspapers to make it even more earth-friendly.
5. Do an extended Earth hour.
Remember Earth hour where we turned-off all lights and electrical appliances for an hour? How about a whole electricity-less evening? Okay, except for the refrigerator and freezer. A candlelit dinner of salad, fruits, and nuts followed by stargazing outside or curled up in the living room with the kids listening to dad telling Johny Appleseed’s story.
Those are just 5 ideas to kick-start our imaginations. Love the earth and treasure nature for our future!
The different views on global warming are all based on facts. If that is so, why are there so many conflicting claims? Because of 2 reasons: (1) like what we discussed in our global warming is fake! article, our scientists were like the blind men of Hindustan groping an elephant, each with his own interpretation of what the creature was depending on the part he was holding and (2) people tend to twist facts to serve their purpose.
That’s why, as the ones that will be duped if global warming is a scam or suffer if it’s not, we should not swallow global warming movies hook, line, and sinker. Take the global warming movie An Inconvenient Truth, critics didn’t exactly took it sitting down. The movie was supposedly for the good of humanity, right?
In all honesty, Al Gore + Documentary are not exactly the perfect ingredients for a blockbuster and I found the video doc a total snore. But it was a box office hit and it got 4 stars from over a thousand viewers at Amazon, not bad. To round off our view of global warming and make sure we see the elephant for what it really is, here’s a few other global warming movies I’m waiting to rent at our local DVD shop. They are all available at Amazon right now.
Dubbed as the anti inconvenient-truth, The Great Global Warming Swindle got 4.5 stars from 42 viewers. A few but passionate supporters. However, the movies doesn’t say that there is no global warming, only that the causes are different as alleged in An Inconvenient Truth.
I may be a bit paranoid but I always get the feeling that either big brother or big business or, simply, big jerk-o is always behind propaganda-type materials. The movie Global Warming or Global Governance? (DVD) takes that point of view too. Here’s a production description from Amazon:
Is there an agenda that motivates supporters of catastrophic man-made global warming? Are the leaders and advocates really a benevolent confederation of concerned scientists and citizens who simply desire to protect the environment and care for the poor? Or are they being used by others who have a political goal in mind?
In this eye opening documentary, Global Warming or Global Governance (DVD) you will not only hear from leading scientist and climatologist who refute the current crop of alarmists cries; but also congressman, economist, newscasters and sociologist who believe that something more sinister is involved.
What is the objective of global warming alarmist? They want the United States to give up her sovereignty and her rights surrendering them to the socialistic mandates of the United Nations. A global problem, so the Kyoto protocol proclaims, requires a global solution. This new non-elected governing body would place global institutions, which are not accountable to the American people, in control of even the smallest aspect of the U.S. and World economies; controlling how much fuel is sent to a region and doling out citations for violators.
Every American, every citizen of the world, needs to hear the other side of the global warming story.
A non-fiction counterpoint to the 2004 movie The Day after Tomorrow. I’m expecting National Geographic to show us in all their graphic splendor the effects of each degree increase in global temperature. Like a visual counterpart of the book Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet.
Produced in 2007, the series Planet Earth is an intimate look at nature and its denizens. This video will give us a good look of what is at stake in the great global warming debate.
Touted as the An Inconvenient Truth for the younger set, this one is narrated by Leonardo de Caprio. Will his Titanic presence make a difference in selling global warming to the youth? The product description says we will actually see less of De Caprio and more of sevral international big guns like former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and Physicist Stephen Hawking.
Here’s the full product description from Amazon:
Environmental documentary 11th HOUR resides at the polar opposite of escapist summer fare its mission to firmly confront viewers about the indelible human footprint that humans have left on this planet and the catastrophic effects of environmental neglect and abuse. Produced and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio and ably directed by Nadia Conners and Leila Conners Peterson the documentary doesn’t get much fancier than talking heads news footage and the occasional animated illustration but its message is potent and delivered effectively.
The first hour of the film is essentially a horror story recounting the myriad sins perpetrated against the environment (pollution deforestation over-mining resources) the reasons behind it (corporate greed faulty public policy bad leadership ignorance) and what it means for the human race. Thankfully the last third of the movie tilts the mood upward with a spirited discussion of solutions offered by a crack team of scientists designers and thinkers.
Stirring visions of alternate energy sources diversified transportation enlightened governmental agendas sustainable homes and cities and most importantly more conscious consumer choices leave viewers with the palpable feeling that change is both necessary and possible. If the “eleventh hour” for our planet is drawing near this admirable film points confidently towards a new dawn.
Five global warming movies, that should be enough to turn-up the heat this summer.
The Tubbataha reef is an atoll reef in the Sulu sea, Philippines. It is home to an amazing number of sea life. It was declared by UNESCO as a world heritage park to protect the area from exploitation. Here’s their brief description of the reef:
The Tubbataha Reef Marine Park covers 33,200 hectares, including the North and South Reefs. It is a unique example of an atoll reef with a very high density of marine species; the North Islet serving as a nesting site for birds and marine turtles. The site is an excellent example of a pristine coral reef with a spectacular 100-m perpendicular wall, extensive lagoons and two coral islands.
That description, of course, does not do justice to its underwater beauty. Visit the reef’s official site here for a photo gallery. The thing is, it is ecosystems like the Tubbataha’s that are threatened by the increase in the ocean’s acidity and temperature brought about by run-away greenhouse gas emission and global warming.
We can help make people aware of this impending disaster by voting for Tubbataha as one of the new 7 wonders of the world. If not for us, then for our kids, the future.
, who wrote it after he learned in Darfur that the root to the conflict is related to climate change might give us clues to the answer.
for kids. 
–and resurrecting the electric vehicle.
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A non-fiction counterpoint to the 2004 movie The Day after Tomorrow. I’m expecting National Geographic to show us in all their graphic splendor the effects of each degree increase in global temperature. Like a visual counterpart of the book 
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Produced in 2007, the series 
for the younger set, this one is narrated by Leonardo de Caprio. Will his Titanic presence make a difference in selling global warming to the youth? The product description says we will actually see less of De Caprio and more of sevral international big guns like former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and Physicist Stephen Hawking.
