Posts Tagged "conservation"

  • Listen to Dr. Pimm podcast on the BP oil spill

    [caption id="attachment_882" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="An oiled bird struggles to get over a boom in the middle of the Gulf oil spill. AP Photo"][/caption] Stuart Pimm is interviewed by the Endangered Species Coalition about the BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Listen to this podcast (with intro

  • Help stop trade in conflict minerals

    [caption id="attachment_865" align="alignleft" width="178" caption="Cellphone illustrating how conflict minerals are used in its production (Image credit: Enough Project)"][/caption] You've probably heard of blood diamonds, which fund armed conflict in mostly poor and underdeveloped parts of these worlds. Blood diamonds are part of a larger market in conflict minerals. These similarly rare and valuable commodities are mined by corrupt governments or marginal paramilitary

  • Q. What’s the greatest threat to endangered species? A. The Internet.

    A study by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, reported at the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Doha, Qatar, says the Internet is the biggest threat to endangered species. (See BBC report.) According to the BBC report, online stores and auction sites help buyers and sellers connect with ever greater ease and simplicity. And they can do it anonymously. At the same time people can easily ship items practically anywhere, given the efficienc y of global shipping and mail services. Bad news. And combined with the

  • Conserving indigenous areas would significantly reduce carbon emissions caused by deforestation

    [caption id="attachment_511" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Courtesy of NASA"][/caption] According to a PLOS Biology study reported March 15 in NatureNews, "deforestation in protected areas and indigenous lands is 7–11 times less than in the surrounding areas." Such an observation offers a clear way ahead for advocates of rainforest conservation. By supporting preservation of indigenous lands and other protected areas (ILPAs), organizations "could slow forest loss, conserve biodiversity and preserve local cultures." Given the failure of last December's climate talks in Copenhagen, Denmark,

  • Engaging conservationists through social media

    The Neotropical Conservation Foundation provides a great example of how a conservation organization can use social media to engage its audience while at the same time meeting its own needs. The NCF wants a new logo. Rather than roll out a new logo fait accomplis, it posted ideas on its Facebook page and asked "Fans" of the page to comment. Ted Kahn, Executive Director of the NCF and who founded its Facebook Fan page, posted the logo to the page’s photo album and wrote "I created a new logo for NCF. I value your

  • 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