GreenWatch

B. McPherson Ice caps are Earth's air conditioners Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is thinning and disappearing quickly. Each summer the ice retreats sooner and farther. The alarm has been sounded for those mammals that use the ice as haul out sites – seals, polar bears – but little attention has been given to the land animals that inhabit the Arctic tundra. A new article published by Science and authored by Eric Post of the University of Penn State and Jedediah Brodie of the University of British Columbia as well as other contributors points out how the retreat of sea ice and the warming of the tundra will have a profound impact on the land based animals and plants as well. The land animals use frozen ocean sections as bridges. Warming of the tundra, melting the permafrost may create open swamps and lakes, thwarting the migration of animals like the caribou. The loss of these pathways means an increasing isolation of populations. A rare but increasing phenomenon bein...

B. McPherson The explosion of palm oil plantations in the tropics has pushed people and nature out of the way as corporations seek to cash in. Indonesia has been hard hit with destruction of its wetland jungles. In the process species found nowhere else have been pushed to the teetering edge of extinction. Included in the sacking of the jungles are our close relatives, the orangutans. International Animal Rescue (IAR) was recently involved in saving a female orangutan and her baby along with a pregnant ape who were slowly starving to death. They were clinging to the one remaining tree left when land clearing was done to start another palm oil plantation. An unusual twist in this story is the people responsible for clearing the land contacted the rescue organization. The more usual course of action has been to simply kill the marooned wildlife. The badly starved animals have been removed to a rescue centre where they are being cared for. Coincidentally, a group of ...