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Preliminary government data has showed deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rose for the 14th consecutive month in June, heaping further pressure on President Jair Bolsonaro who is under fire for worsening destruction of the rainforest on his watch.

Destruction rose 10.7 per cent for the month, compared to June 2019, according to national space research agency Inpe.

Reuters Newsagency reports in the first six months of the year, deforestation is now up 25 per cent to 3066 square kilometres, agency data showed.

http://econews.com.au/64826/brazil-amazon-deforestation-up-in-june-set-for-worst-year-in-over-a-decade/

A new report has warned investment firms, banks, and pension funds have spent hundreds of billions of dollars supporting “destructive” global meat and dairy companies that are failing to take adequate action on carbon emissions and deforestation.

Findings published by United Kingdom-based campaign group Feedback reveal that between January 2015 and April 30 this year, the world’s 35 largest meat and dairy companies received more than $478 billion of investment from the private sector.

British environmental news website BusinessGreen reports big meat and dairy companies are “as damaging” to the planet as the fossil fuel industry.

The report also warns the livestock sector is on track to use up more than half of the world’s emissions budget for 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming by 2030 and 80 per cent by mid-century.

The five largest companies, JBS, Tyson, Cargill, Dairy Farmers of America, and Fonterra, together emit more greenhouse gases than oil and gas giant ExxonMobil.

The report, entitled Butchering the Planet, reveals that British banks Barclays and HSBC are among the world’s top five creditors to ‘Big Livestock’ firms, investing billions of pounds into carbon-intensive agribusinesses that produce chlorinated chicken and are alleged to fuel the deforestation of the Amazon

http://econews.com.au/64832/stop-bankrolling-meat-and-dairy-is-the-message-to-banks-investors-and-pension-funds/

Will This Species Be Sacrificed Due to COVID?

The blue blood from horseshoe crabs is the only known source of limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL)LAL is used to detect endotoxins, bacterial contaminants that can be deadly if they end up in vaccines, injectable drugs or other medical devices and implants, such as artificial knees and hipsEvery year, the pharmaceutical industry captures about 500,000 horseshoe crabs on the East Coast of the U.S. and drains up to one-third of their bloodEven using conservative estimates of mortality caused by bleeding, and combining it with the 13% of bled crabs sold for bait, at least 130,000 horseshoe crabs may be killed every year by the biomedical industryAside from the crabs that die outright, sublethal effects, including injury and disorientation, decreased spawning and disease, are also known to occur as a result of capture, handling and transportation, and may affect horseshoe crabs for weeks following the bleedingPopulation monitoring studies suggest horseshoe crab populations decreased more than 10%, or about 1% per year, from 2003 to 2014, although more striking declines of up to 95.3% have been noted in certain areasA synthetic alternative to the LAL test exists, and switching to it would reduce the demand for LAL by 90%, which could save about 100,000 horseshoe crabs from dying every year in North America alone.

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/07/18/will-horseshoe-crabs-be-sacrificed-due-to-covid.aspx?

A 15-year-old boy has died in western Mongolia of bubonic plague after eating an infected marmot, the country’s health ministry announced.

Health officials reported that two other teenagers who ate the marmot are being treated and fifteen people who had contact with the boy were isolated and given antibiotics. The government has also imposed a quarantine on part of the Gobi-Altai province, where the cases occurred.

 Plague can be passed through rodents or fleas to humans, but the disease can also be spread from person to person. The disease is responsible for the deadliest pandemic in human history with an estimated 50 million deaths in the Middle Ages. If treated quickly enough, modern antibiotics can prevent complications and death. Still, it is a major threat to both humans and animals.

Marmots are large rodents that live in burrows in the North Asian grasslands. The Mongolian government warned the public not to hunt or eat marmots. Mongolia has recorded 513 deaths out of 692 cases of plague from marmot from 1928 to 2018. The Russian embassy in Mongolia commented that despite the warnings local residents “continue to hunt them and eat them, as this is a local delicacy.”

The plague recently resurged with cases reported in China, Mongolia, and the US. The World Health Organization categorized the plague as a re-emerging disease with approximately 1,000 to 2,000 cases every year which even doesn’t include unreported cases.

Sorry but all I can say is serves them right -- apparently they eat a lot of them there even though they know they carry the Bubonic plaque

--- Marmots can be eaten, is a number 1 dish in Mongolia.... but Pneumonic plague can be spread by marmots.

I agree, if people keep eating animals, especially wild ones, we are going to keep having diseases like this.

Yes it disgusts me that people think they can eat/kill -- for  "FUN'/sport fish/shoot/ and do whatever the hell they want to --IMO it should be outlawed

Scientists are gearing up to explore a mysterious 425-foot underwater sinkhole off the coast of Florida called the 'Green Banana'

Scientists to explore a 425-foot underwater sinkhole off Florida

Next month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will explore the crevasse, an underwater sinkhole referred to as a 'blue hole', for the first time. The content of blue holes are still fairly mysterious as are their frequency and typical location. According to the NOAA, they can also be difficult to access

 

Makes me think of the missing planes and ships in the Bermuda Triangle, maybe they fell in a big sinkhole at the time.

That was my first thought when I read that article!

Mediterranean Sea was 3.6°F hotter during the time of the Roman Empire - the warmest it has been for the past 2,000 years, study shows 

 

NEW The Empire coincided with a 500-year period, from AD 1 to AD 500, that was the warmest period of the last 2,000 years in the almost completely land-locked sea.

 

Interesting. Possibly because of volcano eruptions?. We are still increasing temperatures faster than in any other time in recorded history though.

Wearing face masks will be compulsory on public transport in ...

Wrong topic, post it on the mask topic, duh

First humans may have reached the Americas and settled in Mexico 15,000 years EARLIER than previously thought, study shows

 

First humans may have reached the Americas 15,000 years EARLIER than thought

Excavations in a cave in Mexico called Chiquihuite (top right, bottom right) revealed evidence of human occupation dating back up to 27,000 years. This however, was in clear contradiction to the widely accepted belief that humans did not reach North America until around 16,000 years ago. As a result, the scientists suggest that people from North-East Asia into what is modern-day America around 33,000 years ago. With the initial colonisation of the continent moved vastly back in time, the researchers also set out to map out the timeline of the first humans in America. Two contrasting theories suggest an explanation for how humans reached the Americas. Humans from North-East Asia may have popped over the land bridge at the Bering Strait before the Ice Age when there was a gap between the Laurentide Ice Sheet and the Cordilleran Ice Sheet. Or they could followed the coastline and arrived in the Americas from Asia via boat or raft (left).

 

Interesting they are always coming up with more evidence.

Crocodiles reached America around 11 million years ago by migrating westwards from Australasia via Africa, ancient skull reveals

Spanish scientists believe ancient crocodiles, which first emerged in Australia, moved first into Africa before later conquering the Americas.

 

Interesting to read about ancient migrations both animal and human, thanks Celia.

Coastal flooding will rise by up to 50 per cent due to climate change over the next 80 years and cost the global economy more than £10 TRILLION, study warnsCoastal flooding predicted to rise by up to 50% by 2100

UK and Australian researchers conducted climate change scenarios where carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere continue to rise rapidly. They found the associated flooding, due to the melting of polar ice, would endanger millions of people and cost more than £10 trillion. Land exposed to extreme flooding will increase by more than 96,500 square miles globally - up 48 per cent or more than 308,000 square miles from today. While infrastructure exposed to flood water could cost of up to $14.2 trillion (£10.8 trillion), which represents 20 per cent of global GDP

Global distribution of projected 100-year return period extreme sea levels. Rises are expressed in metres and colour-coded 

Global distribution of projected 100-year return period extreme sea levels. Rises are expressed in metres and colour-coded 

'Global inundation hotpots': The difference between projected episodic flooding in 2100 minus present day episodic flooding. The bigger the difference, the bigger the width of a circle   +6  

'Global inundation hotpots': The difference between projected episodic flooding in 2100 minus present day episodic flooding. The bigger the difference, the bigger the width of a circle

You can see how places like Bangladesh are already suffering and have been for years because of flooding. We need some drastic and fast actions by global leaders.

What was interesting to me about this is the fall at around Sharks Bay and Ningaloo Reef I would have thought it would be higher up near Broome where there is a bit tidal wave already.

Mind you the people that put this today probably don't think there is any difference in the two areas!  LOL

Endangered 'scrotum frog' living near Lake Titicaca in Peru is on its last legs with 90 per cent of its population having disappeared since 2004 

In a coordinated effort, the governments of Bolivia and Peru, with the support of the UN, have formed a cross-border conservation team to protect the species.

 

Frogs are an indication of how healthy the environment is.

Why are they allowed to do this? I believe North Korea does the same thing, is this where all the cheap imported seafoods to the Western world come from?

New Guinea named world’s most plant-rich island

Nearly 100 researchers have completed a comprehensive study of plant life on the island of New Guinea, finding more than 13,634 species and earning it the title of most the botanically-diverse island in the world.

The finding comes as logging, mining, and agriculture increasingly threaten the island’s forests, which are vital to the world’s carbon sequestration needs.

Led by Dr Rodrigo Cámara-Leret from the University of Zurich, the study involved 99 researchers from across the globe, including Dr Bruce Webber from Australia's national science agency, CSIRO, and was published this week in Nature.

New Guinea is the world’s second largest island after Greenland, and is part of both Papua New Guinea to the east and Indonesia to the west.

The study found that the island had 19 per cent more species than Madagascar and 22 per cent more species than Borneo across its varied climate, which includes lowland mangroves rising to tropical alpine grasslands and a glacier on the 5030m mountain, Puncak Jaya.

Dr Webber said this was the first attempt to critically catalogue the entire vascular plant diversity of New Guinea.

"This is the most mega-diverse island, from a floristic perspective, with 68 per cent of plants only found in the region, which is unmatched in tropical Asia," Dr Webber said.

"In an area so varied, it is likely there are many more plants on New Guinea that are undescribed and unknown to western science."

However, Dr Webber said the island's floral diversity was increasingly under threat from logging, mining and conversion of forests for subsistence agriculture.

"This is the most concerning part of the work for me," Dr Webber said.

"It's likely that we're losing plants before we even know they exist.

Dr Cámara-Leret said because nearly 70 per cent of the flora was endemic, it was important to document and understand the region.

"New Guinea's flora is also globally important because, along with the Amazon and the Congo, it is one of the last three tropical wilderness areas with around 70 75 per cent of its original forest cover intact," Dr Cámara-Leret said.

"Therefore, it has a major role in carbon dioxide sequestration.

"Indigenous communities domesticated some of the most important plants that are eaten today, including the banana and sugar cane, and have discovered a wide range of uses of other plants.

"Looking after the plants of New Guinea is important for supporting local livelihoods. Some of the authors of this paper are actively involved in working with policy makers to help Indigenous communities preserve their forests."

The paper is temporarily free to access here: New Guinea has the world’s richest island flora [pdf · 7mb] 

And can then be accessed here: Nature - New Guinea has the world’s richest island flora 

This work was enabled by the study of plant specimens in herbarium collections around the world, including the Australian National Herbarium (ANH).The ANH collection houses thousands of plant specimens that were collected in New Guinea from the 1950s up until the present day. They reveal the biodiversity of the island.During the past year, staff at the herbarium have given scientific names to five new species from New Guinea, including four that are related lilly pillies and one rainforest shrub.The Australian National Herbarium is part of the Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research, a joint venture between the Department of the Environment's Parks Australia Division and CSIRO.

 

Flowers of the orchid species Bulbophyllum alkmaarense.

Bulbophyllum alkmaarense. Photo: Andre Schuiteman

Download imageFlowers of the Dendrobium subclausum species.

Dendrobium subclausum. Photo: Andre Schuiteman

Download imageFlower of the orchid species Dendrobium tapiniense.

Dendrobium tapiniense. Photo: Andre Schuiteman

Download imageRed and yellow flowers of Rhododendron versteegii.

Ericaceae, Rhododendron versteegii. Photo by William J. Baker  ©William J. Baker, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Download imagePink flower of the orchid Dendrobium cuthbertsonii.

The orchid Dendrobium cuthbertsonii. Photo: William J. Baker  ©William J. Baker, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Download imageThe flower from a Syzygium longipes species.

Syzygium longipes, taken by co-author Dr Eve Lucas in Terminabuan, West Papua province, Indonesian New Guinea.

Download imageA view across primary forest canopy at Baitabag village, Madang Province, Papua New Guinea with cloudy sky in the distance.

A view of primary forest canopy at Baitabag village, Madang Province, Papua New Guinea. Photo: Zacky Ezedin

Download imageAerial view of lowland tropical forest in Western Province, Papua New Guinea showing a river with thick forest stretching out on either side.

Lowland tropical forest in Western Province, Papua New Guinea. Photo: Zachy Ezedin  ©Zacky Ezedin

Download image

 

Celia, wasn't sure if I should post here or on the Our Corner of the world, or other? I also thought it was nice for the scenery one too maybe?

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