Archive for the "S. L. Pimm" Category

  • Stuart Pimm National Geographic interview

    Click below to listen to the National Geographic interview with Stuart Pimm. NatGeo's Boyd Matson talks with Stuart about his Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, which will be formally awarded this coming week in Los Angeles. BTW Stuart regularly writes for the National Geographic blog (check here or on

  • Tropical Forests and Global Warming: Fulfilling the United States’ Copenhagen Commitment

    [caption id="attachment_559" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Giant log awaiting the sawmill, Iquitos, Peru. Image courtesy of Jungle Photos."][/caption] When the Copenhagen climate talks ended without a solid treaty, most environmentalists were bitterly disappointed. Meanwhile, politicians went home saying they'd done their jobs. But one of the positive outcomes of Copenhagen was that the United States committed $1 billion over the next three years to help protect tropical forests. This is hugely important given that tropical deforestation and degradation account for about 15% of global

  • Leading the Bioblitz

    Dr. Pimm is taking a leading role in this year's Bioblitz. According to Wikipedia, a Bioblitz is "a special type of field study, where a group of scientists and volunteers conduct an intensive 24-hour (or 48 hour) biological inventory, attempting to identify and record all species of living organisms in a given area." Stuart led the birding contingent for a Bioblitz in Indiana in 2009. (Read the blog posts about the 2009 bioblitz, in the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.)

  • Stuart Pimm is awarded the Tyler Prize

    [caption id="attachment_497" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="The Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement is the premier award for environmental science, environmental health and energy conferring great benefit upon mankind."][/caption] This morning sees the following announcement from Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement website. "Two conservationists whose careers have centered on understanding ecosystem functions as the essential foundation for ecosystem restoration will share the 2010 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. The award, consisting of a $200,000 cash prize and

  • Suit Seeks to Protect 70,000 Additional Acres for Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow

    WASHINGTON— The Center for Biological Diversity and Florida Biodiversity Project filed suit today to obtain a larger protected area for the highly endangered Cape Sable seaside sparrow by reversing a Bush-era decision that struck down 70,000 acres of critical habitat identified by scientists as essential for the survival of the rare songbird. The lawsuit is part of a larger campaign on the part of the Center to undo a slew of decisions by the Bush administration that ignored the government’s own scientists and weakened protections for endangered species. More

  • Science Education and Science Citizenship

    New York Academy of Sciences Media A panel discussion with: Sheril Kirshenbaum, Kevin Finneran, Adrienne Klein, Stuart Pimm, Stacy Baker Watch it here

  • An Inordinate Passion for Tropical Moths

     National Geographic grantee Professor Roger Kitching wants to know how much less diversity there is in tropical rainforest that has been logged than in unlogged "primary" forest. He finds some clues from the moths he draws to his lamp, Stuart Pimm reports in words, images, and video from the field, deep in the Borneo jungle. By Stuart L. Pimm Special Contributor to NatGeo News Watch More

  • Novos caminhos para salvar a floresta

    On May 27, coinciding with the Dia da Mata Atlântica (Day of the Atlantic Forest), a new book was launched with a plan of action for saving Rio de Janeiro's biodiversity. Compiled by more than 100 experts on conservation of the Atlantic Forest, including Clinton Jenkins and Stuart Pimm, the book contains detailed explorations of the problems, and proposed solutions, for all of the regions of the state. Read more in O Globo

  • Going, Going,…

    By Stuart Pimm, Doris Duke Professor of conservation ecology This century will surely be remembered as the time the Earth bit back—not that Mother Nature hadn't been a little testy before now. In the fourteenth century, plague spread more easily as the population both grew and became more concentrated in urban areas. When Europeans began to travel widely to other parts of the world, they took diseases with them to vulnerable continents—smallpox to the Americas, for example. And, there were plenty of regional examples of cultures, some sophisticated, that declined precipitously, abandoning long-occupied sites where

  • Florida Panther Fights for Survival Again–This Time in Washington D.C.

    The Florida panther has made a dramatic recovery. Whether it will continue to survive now depends on whether we protect its shrinking habitat. Photo by Stuart L. Pimm By Stuart L. Pimm Special Contributor to NatGeo News Watch There's a small plane circling me a thousand feet up and its annoying noise makes it difficult for me to hear the Cape Sable sparrows I'm trying to census for my research. On these April mornings at sunrise, there's usually nothing

  • Florida Keys Shifting Baselines – Thoughts on World Oceans Day

    Since last December, we've been involved with a number of good friends in Key West, Florida, on a green initiative that includes the investigations of medicinal plants of the Florida Keys and northern Caribbean. Following from these interactions with students and colleagues at Duke University and in Key West itself, I had the good fortune of being interviewed last week together with conservation biologist Stuart Pimm on KONK-1630AM community radio by Erika Biddle for her biweekly Eco-Centric World program. Raised in Germany, she participated in the formations of the first political Green Party after witnessing the destruction of

  • Birding at the BioBlitz with Stuart Pimm

  • Many Mammal Migrations Are at Risk of Extinction

    By Stuart L. Pimm for NatGeo News Watch There's an urgency to find quality food and water that forces many large mammals to migrate. A new study finds that human activities increasingly threaten their ability to do so. Photo of zebra migration by Stuart L. Pimm   read more

  • Carbon neutrality in Key West’s future?

    Key West Mayor Morgan McPherson hopes to make Key West a carbon-neutral destination, create a new industry on the island and reach out to Cuba to work together on ocean conservation, all in one fell swoop. More

  • Biologists Call on Obama Administration to Overturn Bush Rules That Cut Science Out of Endangered Species Decisions

    WASHINGTON - April 27 - More than 1,300 federal and independent scientists with biological expertise and three leading scientific societies today called on the Interior and Commerce departments to overturn rule changes made in January that weaken the scientific foundation of the Endangered Species Act. In a letter, the scientists urged the department secretaries to rescind changes to Endangered Species Act regulations that allow federal agencies to decide for themselves if their own projects -- such as roads, dams and mines -- would threaten imperiled species. Previously, federal agencies were required to consult with biologists at the U.S. Fish and

  • Friday Cocktail: The Conflagration: Splash the G-Word, 1 Shot of Rainforest, Light My Fire & Pass the Ganga

    As Steve Allen said: Do not allow children to mix drinks. It is unseemly and they use too much vermouth. Round 1: The G-word punched through the media membrane this week. Geoengineering. Big word for the headlines. Uttered by none other than John Holdren, Obama's chief scientific adviser. He was referring to the possibility that we might be well advised to at least talk about some potential solutions to climate change that involve mitigating the shitstorm coming our way. You'd think he'd just come out in favor of pedophilia. Pour that man a drink. He's going to need

  • Reserves found to be ‘effective tool’ for reducing fires in Brazilian rainforests

    DURHAM, NC – Rainforest reserves – even those disturbed by roads – provide an important buffer against fires that are devastating parts of the Brazilian Amazon, according to a new study by a trio of researchers at Duke University published April 8 in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE. "Our findings show that reserves are making a difference even when they are crossed by roads," said lead author, Marion Adeney, a PhD candidate at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment. "We already knew, from previous studies, that there were generally fewer fires inside reserves than outside – what we didn't

  • Klimawandel betrifft Tierarten unterschiedlich stark

    Washington DC/Wien (pte/09.03.2009/15:45) - Nicht alle Tier- und Pflanzenarten werden von der Klimaveränderung gleich stark betroffen sein. Zu diesem Schluss kommt ein Forscherteam der Universität von Wisconsin-Madison http://www.wisc.edu und der University of Arizona im Fachmagazin Science. Einige der Spezies werden sich aufgrund schneller Evolution den neuen Gegebenheiten sehr rasch anpassen.  More

  • A must-see: Key West Botanical Garden

    As I mentioned in my intro post to our week in Key West, I was definitely going to make a visit to the Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden. We took the then-PharmToddler there in December 2003 when this gem was just being relaunched after decades of negligence. According to Georgia Tasker at the Miami Herald: It was begun in the Great Depression days of 1934 by the City of Key West, and built by the WPA at the same time as the city's aquarium. At one point, the garden contained an aviary, hand-made rock walls, green houses

  • Scientists Worldwide to Speak Out on Population Problem

    The Global Population Speak Out aims to break down the barrier to public discussion of the population-environment link. Boulder, CO, November 21, 2008 --(PR.com)-- Scientists from around the world have pledged to speak out publicly in February, 2009 on the problem of the size and growth of the human population. Speaking out as well will be environmental and science writers, social activists, and representatives of environmental groups. The event, called the Global Population Speak Out (GPSO), aims to weaken a decades-long taboo against open discussion of population issues. More

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