- Obama administration blocks future prospects of oil drilling in the Arctic.
- California bans use of microbeads in hygiene products.
- Activist explains why hip hop culture may be the key to bringing together the movements for social and environmental justice.
The latest weird effect from climate change [Washington Post]
Climate change is affecting wildlife in a lot of serious, and sometimes even weird, ways. Scientists have revealed another weird effect: climate change may be disrupting the sex ratio among baby sea turtles.
Is this planned killing of 18,000 necessary? [Mongabay]
The government believes that bats have become a “pest,” and a culling event to reduce bat population by 20 percent is scheduled to start mid-October. Conservationists say this decision to cull is not backed by scientific evidence, may drive the species to Endangered status, and is “unacceptable.”
The list no one wants to be on, and how it works [Smithsonian.com]
It wasn’t that long ago when the concept of an endangered species didn’t even exist. Today, both the ESA and the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources’ Red List define endangered species and identify extinct ones.
These nations are already pleading for help in preparation of climate change [The Guardian]
Pacific island nations have started begging wealthy countries to help their people migrate and find work if they are forced to flee their homelands because of the effects of climate change.
Why this country is losing their birds in shocking numbers [Mongabay]
New research in Ghana’s highly-biodiverse Upper Guinean rainforests has found that logging has taken a tremendous toll on wildlife. Researchers found understory bird abundance fell by more than half in just 15 years while illegal and legal logging increased by 600 percent.
When it comes to the slaughter of animals, are we misdirecting our anger? [Guardian UK]
This week we’re up in arms about one elephant, albeit a majestic one with huge tusks that weighed a reported 120lb combined. But did you know that poachers, who used cyanide to poison them, over the past two weeks in Zimbabwe, killed forty elephants?
Hip-hop to be new contender in the fight against climate change [Yale e360]
In an interview, Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., a social and environmental activist and the head of the hip hop caucus explains why hip hop culture may be the key to bringing together the movements for social and environmental justice.
The Obama administration makes good use of red tape [The Guardian]
Barack Obama blocked future prospects of oil drilling in the Arctic by imposing new lease conditions that make it practically impossible for companies to hunt for oil in the world’s last great wilderness.
Pharrell Williams challenges you to clean up the ocean in this new video game [TreeHugger]
Rapper Pharrell Williams has an ongoing partnership with G-Star RAW to help raise awareness about ocean pollution, as well as push forward efforts to clean it up. The latest project from that collaboration is a video game for mobile devices.
California bans this hygiene product ingredient [Fox News]
Environmentalists say that microbeads used in our toothpastes, soaps and body wash are easily passing through water filtration systems without disintegrating. California’s ban on microbeads puts added pressure on the industry nationally to phase out the products.
Undue risk: Nuclear waste headed for Australia [BBC]
A ship carrying 25 tonnes of nuclear waste to Australia has left a French port despite warnings from environmentalists that the vessel may be unsafe. A French environmental group representative said that other ports had found “staggering number of flaws” in the 14-year-old ship.
MONGABAY HIGHLIGHTS
The bill that acquired 1.4 million co-signers
Last Wednesday, accompanied by a crew of religious leaders, celebrities, senators and other supporters of a ban on the felling of Brazil’s forests, the activist group formally presented the draft legislation to the Brazilian Congress — signed by 1.4 million Brazilians.
This massive bleaching event is threatening our world’s coral
Triggered by global warming, and a strengthening El Niño, the bleaching event could result in mass coral reef die-offs. By end of 2015, around 4,633 square miles of coral reefs could die due to the current bleaching event, NOAA estimates.
A bird that has evolved…in reverse?
Researchers with Chicago’s Field Museum say they’ve discovered a case in which multiple bird species merged back into one — what they’ve called “despeciation,” or, evolution working “backward.”
They refer to themselves as the Blue Sky Revolution
A new civil action group staged a protest against deadly haze pollution in the capital of Indonesia’s Riau province on Monday. Presumably thousands gathered under the banner of the Blue Sky Revolution calling for action against the fatal haze emanating from fires in Indonesia.