Blog

Great Barrier Reef Protected (1975)

By Royal Assent of the government of Australia, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park was created on June 20, 1975.  The act stated that its purpose was “to provide for the long term protection and conservation of the environment, biodiversity and heritage values of the Great Barrier Reef Region.”

Giant clam on the Great Barrier Reef (photo by Jandark)

            And it is a “region,” often described as the world’s largest living structure.  The area included in the park is about half the size of Texas, or about the size of Germany.  The reef system stretches along the northeastern coast of Australia for about 1400 miles, making it 8 times longer than the world’s second longest reef (in Belize).  The park itself extends from shore into the sea, up to 150 miles at its widest.  The park specifically also includes the airspace above and the seafloor below the reef itself.

            The size is matched by the amount of biodiversity.  Ecosystems include 3000 coral reefs and about 1000 islands of various origin—land, coral and mangrove.  Those ecosystems are inhabited by an immense variety of species—600 corals, 100 jellyfish, 3000 mollusks, 500 annelids, more than 1700 fish and 30 marine mammals.

Agincourt Reef, Great Barrier Reef (photo by Robert Linsdell)

The park itself is what IUCN calls a “managed resource area.”  Rather than the type of total protection provided by typical U.S. national parks, the Great Barrier Reef is managed in zones.  Some zones are totally protected but others are available for commercial and aboriginal fishing, commercial tourism and as transportation corridors for port cities within the region .

Despite its protected status, the reef has been subject to negative impacts through time.  It is a UNESCO World Heritage Area, but in 2012, a special report by UNESCO indicated that it required more protection to retain that designation.  In response, the Australian government strengthened protection against transportation damage and siltation from poor land use practices on adjacent shore areas.  In 2015, the government announced the elimination of ongoing dredging operations, restriction on new port development and transportation corridors and allocation of $2 billion for restoration and protection.  The Reef 2050 Plan calls for a 50% reduction in sediment loads by 2025.

The coral features on Lizard Island, photographed here in 2014, have now been largely killed by climate change (photo by Ryan McMinds)

Climate change has also affected the Great Barrier Reef.  Long periods of exposure to warm water can kill coral animals, a process known as coral bleaching.  Reefs usually recover from bleaching events, but the recolonization process can take decades.  If warm-water events recur frequently, the damage can become irreversible.  Record high temperatures caused consecutive bleaching events in 2016 and 2017, damaging large areas of the reef.  Estimates suggest that up to one-third of shallow-water corals may have been killed on the northern reef.

References:

Commonwealth of Australia.  2015.  State party report on the state of conservation of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (Australia).  Available at:  http://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/resources/cb36afd7-7f52-468a-9d69-a6bdd7da156b/files/gbr-state-party-report-2015.pdf. Accessed June 21, 2017.

Commonwealth Consolidated Acts.  Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975-Sect 2A.  Available at:  http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/gbrmpa1975257/s2a.html. Accessed June 21, 2017.

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.  Facts about the Great Barrier Reef.  Available at:  http://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/about-the-reef/facts-about-the-great-barrier-reef. Accessed June 21, 2017.

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.  Managing the Reef.  Available at:  http://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/managing-the-reef. Accessed June 21, 2017.

Greening Australia.  Improving the health of the Great Barrier Reef—Reef Aid.  Available at:  https://www.greeningaustralia.org.au/project/Great-Barrier-Reef. Accessed June 21, 2017.

Hoggenboom, Mia.  2016.  How will the Barrier Reef recover from the death of one-third of its northern corals?  The Conversation AU, May 30, 2016.  Available at:  https://theconversation.com/how-will-the-barrier-reef-recover-from-the-death-of-one-third-of-its-northern-corals-60186.  Accessed June 21, 2017.

World Day to Combat Desertification

When the United Nations held the first worldwide conference on environment and sustainable development in Rio during 1992, the assembled leaders recognized that land degradation was a problem needing immediate and global attention.  Two years later, in 1994, the nations of the world came together to create the Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).  And to bring global attention to the issue, they also created an annual day of focus on the day the convention was signed—June 17.

Desertification is the loss of land productivity due to poor land-use practices (photo by Jeanajean)

            Let’s start with the definition of desertification.  It is not the spread of existing deserts due to natural phenomena (so don’t choose that on the multiple-choice exam).  Rather, says the UNCCD, desertification is the “degradation of land in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas…. It occurs because dryland ecosystems, which cover over one-third of the world’s land area, are extremely vulnerable to overexploitation and inappropriate land use.  Poverty, political instability, deforestation, overgrazing and bad irrigation practices can all undermine the productivity of the land.”

              Desertification happens because humans change the ecosystem to make way for agriculture and cities.  Consider the numbers.  Of the 20% of the earth that is habitable land, half has been modified for agriculture and another bit for cities.  Of those agricultural lands, 77% is used for livestock and 23% for cultivated crops. While much of this agricultural land is sustainable for agriculture, 44% is in dryland ecosystems—areas subject to desertification. 

            Most of this vulnerable land is in Asia and Africa, where the pressure to grow food is high.  The result can be loss of soil fertility due to inappropriate cultivation and irrigation or overgrazing by livestock.  About 5 billion acres of land have been degraded, and 24 billion tons of soil are lost annually.  More than 3 billion humans face lowered quality of life because of desertification.  Soil organic carbon, essential for productive land use, has fallen 8% globally, adding to greenhouse gas emissions.  the economic cost of all this is estimated to be US$300 billion annually.

            The UNCCD, with 197 nations participating, and World Day to Combat Desertification exist to reverse this trend.  The day (which sometimes is broadened to cover desertification and drought) chooses an annual theme that focuses on sustainable land-use practices and public education.  Many positive programs are operating today.  China is creating a new Great Green Wall of China that will include 100 billion trees planted along a 3,000-mile swath of dryland adjacent to the Gobi Desert .  In Africa, nations in the Sahel Region are re-vegetating lands that have been degraded, matching the specific plants and cultivation strategies to the local conditions.  Often, acacia trees are planted in association with other crops, a type of agro-forestry.

Restoration of a dryland forest on Maui (photo by Arthur Medeiros, USGS)

            Like most strategies in ecological restoration, fighting desertification yields other benefits.  Ibrahim Thiaw, leader of UNCCD, said, “By restoring land, we store carbon, and we also restore biodiversity at the same time, while responding to multiple benefits for local communities.”  Land restoration also invests in the local community, providing jobs and improving profits from land-use.  The benefit:cost ratio averages about 10:1, and as much as 80% of the economic investments and benefits stay at home.

References:

Funnell, Antony.  2019.  China and Africa are building ‘ great walls’ of trees to hold back the desert.  But will it work?  ABC Radio National, 16 Oct 2019.  Available at:    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-17/green-walls-in-china-and-africa-keeping-deserts-at-bay/11602796. Accessed February 29, 2020.

UN Convention to Combat Desertificiation.  Land in Numbers 2019.  Available at :  http://catalogue.unccd.int/1202-Land%20in%20numbers_2%20new-web.pdf. Accessed February 29, 2020.

UN Convention to Combat Desertification.  UNCCD History.  Available at :  https://www.unccd.int/convention/about-convention/unccd-history. Accessed February 29, 2020.

United Nations.  World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought 17 June.  Available at:  https://www.un.org/en/events/desertificationday/.  Accessed February 29, 2020.

Feast of the Forest, Palawan, Philippines

The Palawan Province of the Philippines celebrates June 19 each year as “Feast of the Forest,” a local holiday that recognizes the importance of forests to the province and its commitment to environmental sustainability.

            Palawan Province is a group of long, thin Philippine islands that run southwest from near Manila almost to Borneo in Malaysia.  In geological history, Palawan was connected by land to Borneo, and much of the flora and fauna is more closely related to Borneo than the larger land mass of the Philippines.

Subterranean River National Park in Puerto Princesa, capital city of Palawan Province (photo by Charisma312017)

            In 2001, the government of the Philippines declared the special holiday for the capital city of Puerto Princesa as Feast of the Forest “to generate participation in activities strengthening the province’s commitment to reforest our precious lands and contribute to the global effort of preserving God’s gift of nature for future generations to enjoy.” 

            The nation could not have picked a better place to praise and protect nature.  Palawan is recognized by several travel and tourism sources as the world’s most beautiful island.  Its biodiversity is impressive—thousands of square miles of mangrove forests with 90% of the nation’s known species; of 11 endemic amphibians in the Philippines, 8 are found only there; 279 bird species, 27 of which are endemic, nest there; and much more.  Most impressive are the coral reefs, which contain 379 species, or 82% of all those in the country (learn more about the coral richness of the area here).  Palawan is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites—Tubbataha Reef National Park and Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park—and is a Man and Biosphere Reserve (learn more about UNESCO here)/.

School of barracuda in Tubbataha Reef National Park (photo by Jun V Lao)

            The main city of Puerto Princesa is equally notable for its commitment to trees and their carbon-capturing ability.  Starting in the 1990s, the city began an aggressive tree-planting program that has continued and grown ever since.  Now known as “The City in the Forest,” Puerto Princesa has adopted the idea of Community Based Forest Management to engage the entire population in the tree-planting effort.  Each year, local groups have planted about 100,000 trees, raising the forested area of the city by about 100,000 acres over a 20-year period.

            The massive increase in growing trees has made Puerto Princesa not only the first carbon-neutral city in the country, but a carbon-negative city!  Trees pull more carbon out of the atmosphere than all the carbon-emitting activities of the city of 220,000 people. Imagine if every medium-sized city in the world did that!

References:

Chan Robles Virtual Law Library.  An Act Delcaring June Nineteenth of Every Year as a Special Working Holiday in the City of Puerto Princesa and the Province of Palawan as Pista U Ang Kagueran.  Republic Act No. 9001, Government of the Philippines.  Available at:  http://www.chanrobles.com/republicactno9001.html#.WUgDluvyupo.  Accessed June 19, 2017.

Jayagoda, Dimithri Devinda.  2015.  A unique case study of tree plantation bringing increased forest cover to Puerto Princesa, Philippines.  Journal of Sustainable Development 8(1):138-155.  Available at:  http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jsd/article/viewFile/41442/24405. Accessed June 19, 2017.

Ledbetter, Carly.  2017.  Palawan, the most beautiful island in the world, is sheer perfection.  Huffington Post, February 6, 2017.  Available at:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2016/07/07/coron-palawan-philippines_n_6193058.html. Accessed June 19, 2017.

Official Website of the City Government of Puerto Princesa.  Puerto Princesa:  The first carbon neutral city in the country.  Available at:  http://puertoprincesa.ph/?q=about-our-city/puerto-princesa-first-carbon-neutral-city-country. Accessed June 19, 2017.

 Save Palawan Campaign.  Palawan biodiversity facts and figures.  Available at:  https://pnni.wordpress.com/palawan-biodiversity-facts-and-figures/. Accessed June 19, 2017.

Gray Whale Delisted (1994)

One of the great success stories of conservation is the recovery of the eastern North Pacific Ocean population of the gray whale.  It has recovered to its pre-exploitation levels, allowing the U.S. to remove it from the endangered species list.

Gray whale (photo by Marine Mammal Commission)

            The gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) is a special kind of whale.  It is the only species in its family and is believed to be the most ancient of living whales.  It is a baleen whale, which refers to a series of keratin plates that hang from the roof of its mouth and allow it to filter small organisms in the ocean’s water.  Baleen whales swim through the water with their mouths open, collecting huge amounts of water and organisms; then they partially close their mouths, with the baleen plates forming a filter.  They push the water out, and the food organisms collect on the inside of the baleen plates.  The whales use their massive tongues to scrape the food from the baleen plates and swallow.

            What makes gray whales unique is that they feed on the bottom, rather than in the water column like other baleen whales (blue and right whales, for example).  They dig into the bottom substrate in shallow water, using their snouts or rolling along the bottom, sending clouds of sediment and organisms into the water.  The whales then take in huge mouthfuls of the mixture, spit out the water and muck, and eat what is left.  What fun!

Gray whale breaching; the gray whale has a distinctive appearance because barnacles and marine lice attach themselves to the head and tail of the animals (photo by Merrill Gosho, NOAA)

            Gray whales also make extensive migrations, perhaps the longest among all mammals.  Individuals spend the summer months grazing in the Bering and Chukchi Seas off Alaska and Russia.  As autumn arrives, they migrate south along the Canadian and U.S. Pacific coasts, down to Baja California in Mexico, where females give birth to a single calf.  The total migration is over 10,000 miles per year.

            Whalers nicknamed the species “devilfish” because the whales fought ferociously when harpooned or to protect their calves. Nonetheless, other characteristics made them a desirable target. Because gray whales travel close to shore on their migrations, they have always been vulnerable to hunting.  Individuals are large, but manageable (about 45 feet long and weighing 45 tons) for hunters, both aboriginal and commercial.    Consequently, the gray whale was hunted to near extinction by the 1860s, shrinking from a pre-industrial abundance of about 30,000 to a low of 2,000.

Whale watching is now the primary concern for whale conservation, as the popularity may impact whale behavior (photo by S. Rae)

            Conservation efforts stopped the exploitation.  The gray whales were (and are) protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the International Whaling Commission’s moratorium on commercial whaling (learn more about the IWC here), and listing as an Appendix I species by the Convention on International Trades in Endangered Species (CITES) (learn more about CITES here).  With little hunting mortality, the species has recovered well, growing at about 3% per year and now above 27,000 individuals.  Because this is considered within the normal pre-industrial population range, the eastern population is considered recovered and was removed from the U.S. endangered species list on June 16, 1994.

            The species has two distinct populations, however, and only one—the eastern—is de-listed and recovered.  The western population, which lives in coastal waters of Russia and northern Asia, is nearly extinct, with perhaps as few as 200 individuals remaining; it remains on the U.S. endangered species list.

            Today, the main threat to the gray whale is its popularity (tangling in fishing gear is also a worry).  Because animals travel close to shore and in shallow water, the species is the main target of whale watching excursions.  If whale-watching boats get too close to the whales, follow them for too long or chase them as they swim, the whales can become stressed and exhausted.  Consequently, the U.S. has issued rules for whale watching—prohibiting approach closer than 100 yards and restricting viewing of individuals to no more than 30 minutes.

            We all love whales, of course, but let’s be sure that we don’t love them to death.

References:

CITES.  Proposal from Japan to Transfer Gray Whales to Appendix II.  Available at:  https://www.cites.org/sites/default/files/eng/cop/11/prop/15.pdf.  Accessed February 28, 2020.

NOAA Fisheries.  Gray Whale.  Available at:  https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/gray-whale.  Accessed February 28, 2020.

Save the Whales.  Gray Whale.  https://savethewhales.org/gray-whale/.  Accessed February 28, 2020.

Global Wind Day

Global Wind Day is celebrated around the world annually on June 15.  Begun in 2007 as just Wind Day, it became Global Wind Day in 2009.  The annual event is sponsored by the Global Wind Energy Council, a wind-energy industry association and WindEurope (formerly the European Wind Energy Association), both located in Brussels, Belgium.

            The purpose of Global Wind Day is to promote the use of renewable energy, particularly wind energy.  According to the official website, “it is a day for discovering wind, its power and the possibilities it holds to reshape our energy systems, decarbonize our economies and boost jobs and growth.”

            European leadership of this annual event makes sense because Europe is the global leader in virtually all aspects of this renewable industry.  The European industry employs 300,000 people, generates about $72 billion annually and is one of Europe’s largest exports. Wind energy accounts for 15% of Europe’s electricity supply overall, with Denmark leading among individual countries with 47%.  Denmark’s goal is generate all electricity by renewable sources by 2030, most of which would come from wind turbines.

An offshore wind farm in Denmark (photo by Kim Hansen)

            In 2019, total world supply of wind-generated energy reached 591 gigawatts—enough to power the equivalent of every U.S. household, with a lot left over!  According to the Global Wind Day’s sponsors, on-shore wind energy is today the least expensive type of new electrical power to install.  For that reason, the rate of new installations worldwide continues to grow, with 91 countries around the world using wind to produce electricity.  China leads in new installation, with the U.S. second.  China also has the most installed wind capacity, at 221 gigawatts, or about 37% of the world’s total (but that is only about 2% of China’s total electricity production).  Globally, more than 1 million people work in wind energy.

            The growth of the U.S. wind energy sector is impressive, even if the total energy produced is still small.  The U.S. produces about 105 megawatts of wind capacity as of the end of 2019, or about 6.5% of the country’s total electricity production.  Texas leads all states in production, with more than one-quarter of the nation’s total.  Iowa is second (10%), followed by Kansas and California (both with about 5%). The industry grows at about an 18% annual rate, tripling in the last decade, and 60,000 wind turbines are at work in 41 states.  New jobs in the U.S. wind industry are being added at eight times the rate for all jobs, making the sector one of the fastest growing in the nation. 

Wind farm in Idaho, United States (photo by energy.gov)

References:

American Wind Energy Associaton.  Wind Facts at a Glance.  Available at:  https://www.awea.org/wind-101/basics-of-wind-energy/wind-facts-at-a-glance.  Accessed February 26, 2020.

Climate Action Program.  Global Wind Day 2017:  Discover the Power of Wind Energy.  Available at:  http://www.climateactionprogramme.org/news/global-wind-day-2017. Accessed February 26, 2020.

Globalwindday.org.  Global Wind Day.  Available at:  https://globalwindday.org/. Accessed February 26, 2020.

Gronholt-Pedersen, Jacob.  2020.  Denmark sources record 47% of power from wind in 2019.  Reuters, January 2, 2020.  Available at:  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-denmark-windpower/denmark-sources-record-47-of-power-from-wind-in-2019-idUSKBN1Z10KE. Accessed February 26, 2020.

WindEurope.  Wind Energy in Europe 2019.  Available at:  https://windeurope.org/about-wind/statistics/european/wind-energy-in-europe-in-2019/#findings.  Accessed February 26, 2020.

Bramble Cay Melomys Went Extinct (2016)

The Bramble Cay melomys, a small rodent that lived on one small island in the Great Barrier Reef region, was declared extinct on June 14, 2016.  The extinction is notable as the first extinction of a mammal caused by climate change.

the Bramble Cay melomys, a small rodent, lived only on the small island of Bramble Cay in Australia (photo by Ian Bell, ENP, State of Queensland)

            The Bramble Cay melomys (Melomys rubicola) was about 5 inches long, with a similar length tail.  It had a rough scaly-looking tail—leading to its other common name as the Bramble Cay mosaic-tailed rat. It lived in shallow burrows under the island’s vegetation and was probably an omnivore, feeding on both plants and sea-bird eggs from the numerous bird colonies on the island. 

The rat picked a tough place to evolve.  Scientists hypothesize that it had lived isolated on Bramble Cay, a 10-acre coral reef island, for at least one million years.  The island is the northernmost extent of the Great Barrier Reef, lying in the midst of the Torres Strait, a transportation corridor between Australia and Papua New Guinea (learn more about the Great Barrier Reef here). The low-lying island is covered over a portion of its area by grasses and low shrubs, but the vegetation is greatly disturbed by the nesting activities of sea birds and sea turtles.  The island is one of the premier nesting sites in Australia for green turtles. 

Bramble Cay as seen from the water in 2014; note the extensive bird life (photo by Ian Bynther, EHP, State of Queensland)

            The island is also buffeted by storms and strong tides that cover large portions of its surface at times.  However, with rising sea level and stronger storms associated with climate change, the island has been subject to more frequent and more extensive flooding in recent years.

            That flooding proved too much for the Bramble Cay melomys.  Either because of loss of vegetation or from direct drowning of individuals, the population had been declining slowly. Because of the decline and the species isolation, the IUCN Red Book had classified the species as critically endangered beginning in 1996.  A proposed captive-breeding project never got off the ground.  The last confirmed sighting of the rat was in 2009, and repeated surveys since then have captured no specimens.  In 2016, both the Australian government and IUCN declared the species extinct—the first mammal in the world to succumb to climate change.

References:

Ellison, Joanna C.  1998.  Natural History of Bramble Cay, Torres Strait.  Smithsonian Institution, Atoll Research Bulletin No. 455.  Available at:  https://web.archive.org/web/20090226041803/http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/duffy/ARB/450-458/455.pdf.  Accessed June 14, 2017.

Hance, Jeremy.  2016.  ‘Devastated’:  scientists too late to captive breed mammal lost to climate change.  The Guardian, June 29, 2016.  Available at:  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/radical-conservation/2016/jun/29/bramble-cay-melomys-australia-extinction-climate-change-great-barrier-reef. Accessed June 14, 2017

IUCN Red Book.  2016.  Melomys rubicola.  Available at:  http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/full/13132/0#end_uses. Accessed June 14, 2017

Queensland Government, Department of Environment and Heritage Protection.  Bramble Cay melomys.  Available at:  https://www.ehp.qld.gov.au/wildlife/threatened-species/endangered/endangered-animals/bramble_cay_melomys.html. Accessed June 14, 2017

Smith, Lauren.  2016.  Extinct:  Bramble Cay melomys.  Australian Geographic June 15, 2016.  Available at:  http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/news/2016/06/extinct-bramble-cay-melomys. Accessed June 14, 2017

Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General, Born (1944)

Whoever the Secretary-General of the United Nations might be, he (or she, maybe, someday) is unquestionably a world leader.  But Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General from 2007 to 2016, deserves our special recognition as an environmental leader who moved climate change to the top of the world’s agenda.

Ban ki-Moon at World Economic Forum, 2008 (photo by World Economic Forum)

            Ban Ki-moon was born on June 13, 1944, in South Korea when it was still occupied by Japan.  As a boy, he lived through the Korean War.  He said, “I grew up in war and saw the United Nations help my country to recover and rebuild.  That experience was a big part of what led me to pursue a career in public service.” He graduated from Seoul National University and then received an M.A. from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

            Ban immediately entered his nation’s diplomatic service.  Among his many positions, he was the South Korean Ambassador to Austria (1998-2000) and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade (2004-2006).  On January 1, 2007, he was elected as Secretary-General of the United Nations; he was unanimously re-elected for a second five-year term that ended on December 31, 2016.

            While Secretary-General, Ban focused on climate change as one of his highest priorities.  He led the 2007 Climate Change Summit in Bali, the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, and the 2015 Paris meeting that led to the Paris Climate Agreement.  He oversaw the worldwide focus for sustainable development through the Millennium Development Goals and led the formation of the subsequent Sustainable Development Goals that began in 2015 (learn more about the Millennium and Sustainable Development Goals here).

Ban Ki-moon’s focus on climate change is celebrated as he prepares to leave his position as UN Secretary-General (photo by Unclimatechange)

            Since leaving the UN at the end of 2016, Ban has continued his work on climate change and sustainable development.  With Dr. Heinz Fischer, former president of Austria, he founded the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens, a non-profit organization that seeks to “use its independence, expertise and network to work for peace, poverty eradication, empowerment of youth and women, justice and human rights worldwide.”  He is President and Chair of the Council of the Global Green Growth Institute, which works through 36 member nations to support and promote “strong, inclusive and sustainable economic growth in developing countries and emerging economies.”

            I will let Mr. Ban’s views on climate change and sustainability speak for themselves.

“Saving our planet, lifting people out of poverty, advancing economic growth … these are one and the same fight.  We must connect the dots between climate change, water scarcity, energy shortages, global health, food security and women’s empowerment.  Solutions to one problem must be solutions for all.”

“Climate change has happened because of human behavior, therefore it’s only natural it should be us, human beings, to address this issue.”

“It is unfair, politically wrong, morally wrong when countries that have not contributed much to the climate phenomena should bear the cost and consequences.  If industrialised countries who have contributed seriously negatively to this climate phenomena are not taking their own responsibility than who can?”

“We have reached 2020 but because of the lack of political will we have not yet been able to mobilise that which is absolutely, urgently necessary for developing countries to mitigate and adapt.”

“We must turn the greatest collective challenge facing humankind today—climate change—into the greatest opportunity for common progress towards a sustainable future.”

References:

AZ Quotes.  Ban Ki-moon Quotes About Climate Change.  Available at:  https://www.azquotes.com/author/21299-Ban_Ki_moon/tag/climate-change. Accessed February 25, 2020.

Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens.  Mission.  Available at:  https://bankimooncentre.org/mission. Accessed February 25, 2020.

Encyclopedia Britannica.  Ban Ki-Moon.  Available at:  https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ban-Ki-moon. Accessed February 25, 2020.

Global Green Growth Institute.  About GGGI.  Available at:  https://gggi.org/about/. Accessed February 25, 2020.

United Nations.  Former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.  Available at:  https://www.un.org/sg/en/formersg/ban.shtml, Accessed February 25, 2020.

Zacharias, Anna.  2020.  Industrialised countries must help solve climate change, says Ban Ki-moon.  The National UAE, January 8, 2020.  Available at:  https://bankimooncentre.org/mission.  Accessed February 25, 2020.

Frank Chapman, Creator of the Christmas Bird Count, Born (1864)

            Frank Chapman, the most influential ornithologist of the early 20th Century, was born on June 12, 1864 (died 1957).  He became known as the “Dean of American Ornithologists” for his leadership of the evolving field of avian biology.  His career marked many outstanding firsts, but his legacy continues today through the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count, first suggested and implemented by Chapman in 1900.

Frank Chapman (unknown photographer)

            Chapman was born in rural New Jersey and grew up in what one biographer described as a “veritable paradise for birds.”  Birds captured his heart and mind from childhood on.  However, the need to help support his family after his father’s premature death led him to a job in banking.  But he also volunteered for studies of bird migration with the American Ornithologists’ Union, feeding his avocation and growing his bird-based network.  When he received an offer to become an assistant to the bird curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, he walked away from all other possibilities and obligations.  He started at the museum in 1888 and worked there for the next 54 years!

            He rose through the ranks, until the museum decided to split its mammal and bird department in 1920—and Chapman landed the job as head of the Department of Birds.  His impact on the museum was massive.  Before him, bird displays were generally rows and rows of stuffed specimens lined up on plain shelves, appealing only to the most serious observer.  Chapman reasoned that more visitors would be attracted to a new type of display—the diorama—that displayed birds in natural settings, postures and activities.  He was correct, of course, and the diorama became the standard museum format for generations.

            During his tenure, which ended in 1942, Chapman conducted field work across the Americas, wrote the Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America, promoted Barro Colorado Island as a biodiversity paradise and created and edited the magazine Bird-Lore (which later became Audubon Magazine) for 35 years. 

            But his true legacy is the Christmas Bird Count.  At the end of the 19th Century, a popular Christmas activity was the “side hunt.”  On Christmas Day, local groups of hunters would divide into two teams and head out to shoot as many animals—birds and mammals—as possible.  The team (i.e., the side) with the highest tally won.  Sporting magazines often carried the results, much like today’s sports pages, praising the prowess and carnage of the winning team.

Participants in the Christmas bird count in Hawaii, 2012 (photo by Forest and Kim Starr)

            Chapman had a better idea.  As he wrote in a 1900 issue of Bird-Lore, he proposed “a new kind of Christmas side hunt, in the form of a Christmas bird-census, and we hope that all our readers who have the opportunity will aid us in making a success by spending a portion of Christmas Day with the birds….”  The idea was to note all birds present and their relative abundance, providing a huge database that could be used to follow population trends into the future.

Twenty-seven bird enthusiasts participated in the first year, counting birds at 25 separate locations.  They counted 90 species.    

Fast-forward 119 years to the 2018-2019 Christmas Bird Count.  More than 79,000 people participated, spread across the Americas and many Pacific islands.  They counted birds in just over 2600 separate locations.  They counted 2638 species, about 25% of all bird species known to exist.  Over 48 million individual birds were counted.

References:

Audubon Society.  History of the Christmas Bird Count.  Available at:  http://www.audubon.org/history-christmas-bird-count. Accessed June 13, 2017.

Chapman, Frank.  1900.  A Christmas Bird-Census.  Bird-Lore Magazine.  Available at:  http://www.audubon.org/sites/default/files/documents/original_cbc_mention_in_bird_lore_1900.pdf. Accessed June 13, 2017.

LeBaron, Geoff.  2019.  The 119th Christmas Bird Count Summary.  Audubon, December 19, 2019.  Available at:  https://www.audubon.org/news/the-119th-christmas-bird-count-summary.  Accessed February 24, 2020.

Gregory, William King.  1947.  Frank Michler Chapman, 1864-1945.  National Academy of Sciences, Volume XXV, Fifth Memoir.  Available at:  http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/chapman-frank-m-1864-1945.pdf. Accessed June 13, 2017.

M. Chapman of the American Museum of Natural History.  The Auk 122(2):389-402.  Available at:  https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/4090434.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A205288f5fd80b88c11a38db487af5d9a Vuilleumier, Francois.  2005.  Dean of American Ornithologists:  The Multiple Legacies of Frank. Accessed June 13, 2017.

Jacques Cousteau, Ocean Explorer, Born (1910)

A favorite trivia question is, what does “scuba” stand for?  The answer, of course, is self-contained underwater breathing apparatus.  A much better question would be who was the famous co-inventor of scuba?  The answer is the same as the answer to the question who’s the most famous ocean explorer?  Right, Jacques Cousteau.

Jacques-Yves Cousteau (photo by NASA)

            Jacques-Yves Cousteau was born on June 11, 1910, in a small town near Bordeaux, France (died 1997).  Although he was anemic and sickly as a child, he learned to swim at an early age.  He said, “I loved touching water.  Physically.  Sensually.  Water fascinated me.”  Not surprisingly, he enlisted in the French navy.  His attraction was to the air, however, not the water—he trained to be a navy pilot.  But a traffic accident near the end of his training broke both his arms, ending his dreams to fly.  He swam daily in the Mediterranean as physical therapy for his arms, and when, in 1936,  a friend loaned him a pair of goggles for his swim, he saw his future clearly: ”Rocks covered with green, brown and silver forests of algae and fishes unknown to me, swimming in crystalline water. Sometimes we are lucky enough to know that our lives have been changed, to discard the old, embrace the new, and run headlong down an immutable course. It happened to me on that summer’s day, when my eyes were opened on the sea.”

            World War II delayed his sea adventures for a time.  He was a gunnery officer for the Navy and later served as a spy in Italy for the French Resistance (his heroics earned him the Legion of Honour Award from the French people).  As the war ended, he convinced the navy to let him lead an Undersea Research Group that swept harbors and shipping lanes for mine.

            In 1943, he began working with an engineer, Emile Gagnan, to free divers from heavy, constraining, and surfaced-tethered diving gear.  Compressed air-tanks had been perfected for wartime use, with one-way valves to control air flow.  Cousteau and Gagnan adapted the tanks for underwater use, patenting the “Aqua-lung,” that we now call scuba, in 1946.  They also invented a waterproof case for cameras that could descend hundreds of feet.

Cousteau in 1948, during his early years of ocean diving (photo by Philippe Tailiez)

            Armed with an Aqua-lung and movie camera, Cousteau began the work for which he became famous.  Although not trained as an oceanographer, he explored the world’s oceans with the eyes of both a scientist and an artist.  He became, as eulogized at his death, “the Rachel Carson of the oceans.”  His first book, The Silent World, published in 1953, sold more than 5 million copies and has been translated into 22 languages.  A movie of the same name expanded his fame—and public appreciation of the oceans—even more.  He renovated a World War 2 minesweeper into an oceanographic research vessel that he named Calypso and sailed to all corners of the world’s oceans.  He made 120 documentaries about the ocean (including 9 seasons of the U.S. based “The Undersea World of Jacque Cousteau”), wrote more than 50 books, received several Oscars and the Palm d’Or.  He was a “popularizer of genius.”

            During his long career, Cousteau’s accomplishments went well beyond producing movies and publishing books.  He headed Monaco’s Oceanographic Institute for more than 30 years.  His early work with scuba demonstrated its utility for salvaging ancient artifacts, establishing the field of underwater archeology.  He invented the aqua-disk, a one-person submarine.  He experimented with long-term underwater habitation, in both shallow and deep water.

Cousteau’s famous research vessel, Calypso, in Montreal in 1980 (photo by Rene Beauchamp)

            He used his mastery of mass media to spread the need for conservation of the oceans and the earth as a whole.  In 1974, he founded the Cousteau Society, a U.S.-based non-profit group dedicated to “the protection and improvement of the quality of life for present and future generations.”  He considered himself not an “ecologist for the animals,” but “an ecologist for people.”  He was outspoken about what he felt were the fundamental problems facing our future.  “You see a beer can and you pick it up.  You think you’ve done a great thing for the environment….But these are just symptoms of our sickness….It is the economic system that confuses price and value.  This confusion causes us to hurt and deplete our natural resources and damage the environment we are living in.” 

            Cousteau lived by a principle that drove him for all his 87 years on earth.  In English it reads, “We must go and see for ourselves.”  He went everywhere to see for himself, especially to the depths of the oceans.  As John Denver sang in his elegy to Cousteau, Calypso, “Aye Calypso the places you’ve been to; The things that you’ve shown us; The stories you tell; Aye Calypso, I sing to your spirit….”  (learn more about John Denver here). May I suggest that we follow Cousteau’s example—and go see a bit of the outdoors, today!

References:

Cousteau Society.  About the Cousteau Society.  Available at:  https://web.archive.org/web/20090122055053/http://cousteau.org/about.html.  Accessed February 24, 2020.

Encyclopedia Britannica.  Jacques Cousteau, French Ocean Explorer and Engineer.  Available at:  https://www.britannica.com/technology/transportation-technology. Accessed February 24, 2020.

Kraft, Scott.  1995.  Lose Angeles Times Interview:  Jacques Cousteau:  A Lifetime Spent Fighting for the Environment.  Los Angeles Times, Oct. 1, 1995.  Available at:  https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-10-01-op-52539-story.html

Accessed February 24, 2020.

Jonas, Gerald.  1997.  Jacques Cousteau, Oceans’ Impressario, Dies.  The New York times, June 26, 1997.  Available at:  https://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/26/world/jacques-cousteau-oceans-impresario-dies.html. Accessed February 24, 2020.

Sea and Sky.  Meet the Ocean Explorers – Jacques Cousteau.  Available at:  http://www.seasky.org/ocean-exploration/ocean-explorers-jacques-cousteau.html. Accessed February 24, 2020.

E. O. Wilson, Father of Biodiversity, Born (1929)

Ant-Man is a popular comic book character and a blockbuster recent movie, with Paul Rudd in the starring role.  But the real ant-man is a scientist who has devoted his life to the study of these humble and ubiquitous six-legged creatures.  E. O. Wilson has used his knowledge of ants to create the ecological ideas that drive biodiversity conservation today.

E. O. Wilson in 2003 (photo by Jim Harrison)

            Edward Osborne Wilson was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on June 10, 1929.  He and his family moved often, and the young Wilson chose nature as his best friend.  He wanted to study birds, but poor hearing in one ear and blindness in one eye (a fishing accident) meant he didn’t have the acute senses needed for ornithology.  So, he turned to insects, noting that “Most children have a bug period.  I near grew out of mine.”

            Wilson’s specialty was—and is—ants. He is the world’s expert on ants, from taxonomy (he has named hundreds of new species) to behavior.  While in high school in Decatur, Alabama, he studied the ants of Alabama and was the first to report the presence of fire ants in the United States.  He studied at the University of Alabama (B.S. and M.S.) and Harvard, earning his Ph.D. in 1955.  The next year he was appointed to the Harvard faculty, where he remained for his entire career, officially retiring in 1997.  He studied ants across the world, mainly in the South Pacific and the American tropics.

Wilson was the first person to report fire ants, shown here, in the United States (photo by Challiyan)

            His decision to study ants was providential.  “Ants are always there,” he said, “and that has given me an edge.  I’ve ridden ants the whole way.”  Ants led him to several important discoveries.  First, he revealed that ants communicated largely through chemicals that he called pheromones; his work launched the field of chemical ecology.  Then, studying ant diversity on islands, he developed the theory of island biogeography (with colleague Robert MacArthur); that theory has become one of the bedrock ideas and strategies of biodiversity conservation.  He then concentrated on ant behavior, recognizing in their complex social organization the similarity to human communities.  From those studies came a series of books exploring social behavior in humans, including his seminal text, Sociobiology.  He introduced the concept of “biophilia,” the need for humans to maintain contact with nature. Many of his ideas on human behavior were initially disparaged, but most have survived decades of scrutiny to become now standard tenets of behavioral biology and psychology. 

            His understanding of the importance of ants in tropical ecosystems led to his fundamental concern for preserving biodiversity.  “Biological diversity—‘biodiversity’ in the new parlance—is the key to the maintenance of the world as we know it,” he wrote.  “Life in a local site struck down by a passing storm springs back quickly because enough diversity still exists.” He has lavished attention recently on the Mozambique island ecosystem of Gorongosa, one of the most biodiverse landscapes on earth and a place where public-private partnerships are protecting and restoring the ecosystem.  He argues today for a concept called “half-earth,” protecting half of the globe in parks and preserves—another new idea for a man and a mind that won’t quit.

            By any standards, E. O. Wilson is among the greatest living scientists and conservationists in the world.  He has written 20 books, received more than 150 major awards (including two Pulitzer Prizes for his books), and been named one of the most influential people of the century.  He remains optimistic that an enlightened human species can and will protect the earth.  His understanding of animal behavior gives him confidence that humans will grow to appreciate what is truly valuable in the world:  “Destroying rainforest for economic gain is like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal.” 

References:

E. O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation.  E. O. Wilson.  Available at:  https://eowilsonfoundation.org/e-o-wilson/.   Accessed February 21, 2020.

French, Howard W.  2011.  E. O. Wilson’s Theory of Everything.  The Atlantic, November 2011.  Available at:  https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/11/e-o-wilsons-theory-of-everything/308686/.  Accessed February 21, 2020.

Ruse, Michael.  Edward O. Wilson, American Biologist.  Encyclopedia Britannica.  Available at:  https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-O-Wilson. Accessed February 21, 2020.

Wilson, E. O.  1992.  The Diversity of Life.  Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.  424 pages.

This Month in Conservation

March 1
Yellowstone National Park Established (1872)
March 2
Theodore Geisel, or Dr. Seuss, Born (1904)
March 3
World Wildlife Day and Creation of CITES (1973)
March 3
Isle Royale National Park Authorized (1931)
March 4
Hot Springs National Park Established (1921)
March 5
Lynn Margulis, Evolutionary Biologist, Born (1938)
March 6
Martha Burton Williamson, Pioneering Malacologist, Born (1843)
March 7
Luther Burbank Born (1849)
March 8
Everett Horton Patents the Telescoping Fishing Rod (1887)
March 9
The Turbot War Begins (1995)
March 10
Cape Lookout National Seashore Established (1966)
March 11
Save the Redwoods League Founded (1918)
March 12
Girl Scouts Founded (1912)
March 12
Charles Young, First African American National Park Superintendent, Born (1864)
March 13
National Elephant Day, Thailand
March 14
First National Wildlife Refuge Created (1903)
March 15
Harold L. Ickes, Secretary of the Interior, Born (1874)
March 16
Amoco Cadiz Runs Aground (1978)
March 17
St. Patrick and Ireland’s Snakes
March 18
Nation’s First Wildlife Refuge Created (1870)
March 19
When the Swallows Return to Capistrano
March 20
“Our Common Future” Published (1987)
March 21
International Day of Forests
March 22
World Water Day
March 23
Sitka National Historical Park Created (1910)
March 24
John Wesley Powell, Western Explorer, Born (1834)
March 25
Norman Borlaug, Father of the Green Revolution, Born (1914)
March 26
Marjorie Harris Carr, Pioneering Florida Conservationist, Born (1915)
March 26
Kruger National Park Established (1898)
March 27
Trans-Alaska Pipeline Begun (1975)
March 28
Joseph Bazalgette, London’s Sewer King, Born (1819)
March 29
Niagara Falls Stops Flowing (1848)
March 30
The United States Buys Alaska (1867)
March 31
Al Gore, Environmental Activist and U.S. Vice President, Born (1948)
January February March April May June July August September October November December