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The rising frequency of extremely hot temperatures tied to human-caused global heating is creating “climate chaos” that drives widespread declines of bumblebees, some of the planet’s most important pollinators, according to a new study published in the journal Science.
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‘Consistent With a Mass Extinction’: New Study Warns Climate Chaos Driving Rapid Decline of Bumblebees
by Jessica Corbett
The rising frequency of extremely hot temperatures tied to human-caused global heating is creating “climate chaos” that drives widespread declines of bumblebees, some of the planet’s most important pollinators, according to a new study published in the journal Science.
The rising frequency of extremely hot temperatures tied to human-caused global heating is creating “climate chaos” that drives widespread declines of bumblebees, some of the planet’s most important pollinators, according to a new study published in the journal Science.
Researchers at the University of Ottawa in Canada and University College London in the United Kingdom developed a new measurement of temperature based on species’ heat tolerance. “We have created a new way to predict local extinctions that tells us, for each species individually, whether climate change is creating temperatures that exceed what the bumblebees can handle,” explained study co-author Tim Newbold.
The team applied their technique to data on 66 different bumblebee species across North America and Europe collected from 1901 to 1974 and 2000 to 2014. They concluded that more frequent extreme heat “is increasing local extinction rates, reducing colonization and site occupancy, and decreasing species richness within a region, independent of land-use change or condition.”
“We found that populations were disappearing in areas where the temperatures had gotten hotter,” said the study’s lead author, Peter Soroye. “Using our new measurement of climate change, we were able to predict changes both for individual species and for whole communities of bumblebees with a surprisingly high accuracy.”
The researchers found that the rate at which bumblebees are declining is “consistent with a mass extinction.” Over the course of a single human generation, the chances of a local bumblebee population surviving has fallen by an average of more than 30%. Soroye noted that the findings have implications for more than just the bees.
“Bumblebees are the best pollinators we have in wild landscapes and the most effective pollinators for crops like tomato, squash, and berries. Our results show that we face a future with many less bumblebees and much less diversity, both in the outdoors and on our plates,” he said. “If declines continue at this pace, many of these species could vanish forever within a few decades.”
Although the study serves as a bleak warning about the need for urgent action to address the declines of bumblebees, the authors are hopeful that their technique for gauging the impact of extreme events like droughts and heatwaves can also aid with conservation efforts for other species.
“We’ve known for a while that climate change is related to the growing extinction risk that animals are facing around the world,” Soroye said. “In this paper, we offer an answer to the critical questions of how and why that is. We find that species extinctions across two continents are caused by hotter and more frequent extremes in temperatures.”
“Perhaps the most exciting element is that we developed a method to predict extinction risk that works very well for bumblebees and could in theory be applied universally to other organisms,” he added. “With a predictive tool like this, we hope to identify areas where conservation actions would be critical to stopping declines.”
Study co-author Jeremy Kerr said that “predicting why bumblebees and other species are going extinct in a time of rapid, human-caused climate change could help us prevent extinction in the 21st century.”
“This work also holds out hope by implying ways that we might take the sting out of climate change for these and other organisms by maintaining habitats that offer shelter, like trees, shrubs, or slopes, that could let bumblebees get out of the heat,” he said. “Ultimately, we must address climate change itself and every action we take to reduce emissions will help. The sooner the better. It is in all our interests to do so, as well as in the interests of the species with whom we share the world.”
In a related “perspective” article published by Science, scientists Jon Bridle of the University of Bristol and Alexandra van Rensburg of the University of Zurich wrote that the new research “adds to a growing body of evidence for alarming, widespread losses of biodiversity and for rates of global change that now exceed the critical limits of ecosystem resilience.”
Recent reports, including one published in November 2019 by University of Sussex biology professor Dave Goulson, have raised alarm about a decades-long human-caused insect “apocalypse” that has resulted from not only the climate crisis but also habitat loss and pesticide use.
Last month, 73 international scientists released a global roadmap to battle the “bugpocalypse,” emphasizing that “insects are key to our own survival.” Their recommendations included curbing planet-heating emissions; cutting back synthetic pesticides and fertilizers; limiting light, water, and noise pollution; and preventing the introduction of invasive and alien species.
Originally published by CommonDreams.org
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The majestic Royal Bengal Tiger in the Sundarbans
by Zeenat Khan
The islanders claim that the world is becoming a global village where people from faraway places come to relate to the tigers. They argue, as humans, their very presence is seen as illegal, or even unwelcome, in what has become a World Heritage Site. They lament,while the Bengal tigers of the Sundarbans are a source of constant delight and curiosity to many, they are largely ignored, as people fail to respond to their
complaints and suffering.
A Bengal tiger in the Sundarbans, which crosses India and Bangladesh.
In describing the Sundarbans (beautiful forests), Amitav Ghosh, an internationally acclaimed writer wrote in his novel, The Hungry Tide: “A mangrove forest is utterly unlike other woodlands or jungles. There are no towering, vine-looped trees, no ferns, no wildflowers, no chattering monkeys or cockatoos. Mangrove leaves are tough and leathery, the branches gnarled and the foliage often impassively dense. Visibility is short and the air still and fetid. At no moment can human beings have any doubt of the terrain’s hostility to their presence, of its cunning and resourcefulness, of its determination to destroy or expel them. Every year, dozens of people perish in the embrace of that dense foliage, killed by tigers, snakes and crocodiles.”
The brilliant paragraph above describes the enchanting Sundarbans, a truly unique ecosystem in the world which stretches along the Bay of Bengal. The huge mangrove forest is called the Sundarbans, which crosses India and Bangladesh. It is a world unto itself. Authors like Amitav Ghosh and Sy Montgomery had undertaken long and treacherous journeys on the delta of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna Rivers surrounding the Sundarbans to see and find answers to their own curiosities.The Sundarbans’ surrounding islands are known as “bhatirdesh”or the tide country. The dense and heavy green mangrove forests are inhabited by man-eating Royal Bengal Tigers. The Bengal tigers are considered solitary animals. Their home is the low-land parts of the Sundarbans, near the swamps and grasslands. They are carnivores and are on constant hunt for people, spotted deer, wild boar, gaur and water buffalo.
For centuries on,these ferocious and beautiful animals have been a source of great mystery and have increased human curiosity about the relationship between science, mythology and nature. According to the Bangladesh Department of Forestry, on average, 45 people are killed annually by the tigers in the Sundarbans, home to the Asian rainforests.In 2015, an opinion piece that a Bangladesh online portal had carried said, “The preliminary results of the recent tiger census gave us an alarming message – we have only 106 Bengal tigers left in the Sundarbans of Bangladesh. This number is remarkably lower than the previous estimate of 440 from 11 years ago. A recent survey in the Indian part of the Sundarbans also yielded an estimate of 74 tigers against its previous estimate of about 270 tigers in the area from 2004.”
On December 31, the Times of India reported that it lost 110 tigers in 2019 due to illegal poaching. The number went up from 2018. The number of deaths also increased from the previous year. In 2018, it was recorded that 104 tigers had died. Because of illegal poaching and habitat loss Sundarbans’ most treasured symbol of our heritage and pride — the Bengal Tiger now is highly endangered. The tigers are often gunned down by poachers for its invaluable skins and bones. Both are in high demands on the black market trade. They are smuggled in China where the bone is used for making traditional Chinese medicine. According to a CNN report, last August, the authorities in Bangladesh had killed six tiger poachers in Sundarbans National Park. When police raided their hideout they died during a shootout. Later 10-foot long three adult tigers’ skin was found. “Already threatened by poaching and humans spreading into its shrinking habitats, researchers say that in just 50 years it could completely disappear from one of its last remaining strongholds,” the Sundarbans.
Highly revered and hugely feared, these beautiful creatures are at a point of extinction. In the last hundred years, the Sundarbans have lost about 95% of the world’s tigers. Researchers have established that there are about 4,000 tigers left in the wild and some are in captivity. Bengal tigers are only found in some of the Asian countries and a few hundred at present are roaming the Sundarbans. According to the last tiger census report in 2019, “there are 2,967 Royal Bengal tigers in India.” India has “more than 75% of the total tiger population.
Dipankar Ghose, director of the species and landscapes program at the World Wildlife fund said, the number of Bengal tigers in Bangladesh is “dangerously low, as it fell from 440 to 106 because of an increasing poaching crisis.”Habitat degradation, fragmentation of the Sundarbans, rising sea level due global warming, and lack of fresh water is having a direct impact for the numbers to go down.
Habitat loss and over-hunting by poachers are the two most important threats to the survival of the Bengal tigers. The forests are now besieged by human needs as they need it for their very survival. According to a recent CNN report, a study disclosed how much of the Sundarbans will remain a suitable environment for the tigers since the global greenhouse carbon emissions continue to increase at an alarming rate. The study concluded that by 2070, the iconic Bengal tigers could extinct because of rising sea levels, harsh weather conditions, hurricanes, decimated forests because of illicit logging,coal based power plants, accumulative salt in the water, and the soil surrounding the Sundarbans. The upstream dams in the rivers of India have greatly reduced the freshwater flow into the rivers of the Sundarbans. The establishments of the coal-run Rampal Power Plant on the edge of the Sundarbans will immensely imbalance its delicate ecosystem. The difficulties are only increasing. Therefore, along with the tigers other species are slowly vanishing.
Climate change and sea level rise is bringing more salt water into the mangroves. “Rising sea levels and a decline in rainfall have already increased the amount of salt in the water, causing Sundari trees — from which the Sundarbans region gets its name — to die, and shrinking the tiger’s mangrove habitat,” according to Sharif Mukul, the study’s co-author and assistant professor at the Independent University of Bangladesh.As climate change shrinks the Sundarbans, more needs to be done to preserve the habitat for the tigers. The tigers will have no other sanctuary when that happens. “It’s also leaving tigers without access to fresh water, Mukul told CNN.” “Fresh water is crucial for Bengal tigers to survive… If sea levels [continue] to rise, Bengal tigers might not have any way to [survive]…The study does not take into account the impact of disease outbreak, poaching and prey reduction, Mukul said, meaning the actual scenario could be better or worse than projected.”
An ongoing conflict with the humans for their survival is greatly factoring in for the decline in the number of the tigers. With lack of fresh water and food supply decreasing, the tigers are leaving their natural habitat and going to the areas where there are human settlements in search of food, water, and shelter. The numbers of the tigers are also decreasing because of revenge killing – farmers kill them to prevent them from preying on their cattle. Another reason for the number of the tigers being diminished is their main source of food; the spotted deer are being hunted by illegal poachers as well. A six-year old study revealed that every year, at least three tigers die due to human-tiger conflict. According to the same study, on the average 20-30 people are eaten by the tigers in the Bangladesh side of the Sundarbans. Some of the studies are based on estimation, and in reality, the numbers can be much higher. Sometimes the killings are not reported as it is illegal to enter the tiger habitat without the right permit. So those deaths go unreported.
On the Indian side of the Sundarbans, the tourist bureau has taken new initiatives by making artificial lakes with fresh water to lure the tigers out of the wilderness. Such ingenuity has an added bonus where business is concerned. Visitors touring the Sundarbans can have a closer look at the tigers from the protected observation deck and watch them coming out of the jungles to drink fresh water. To the most visitors’ dismay, that is a rare occurrence as the tigers are intelligent enough to stay out of their way. From a mile away, they can sense that there are spectators who are waiting to marvel at their majestic beauty. When they come into sight, the visitors are always ready with high powered binoculars and fancy cameras, snapping photos and making videos to their hearts’ delight. The visitors sometimes leave the resort disappointed, and other times after seeing the tigers. They are often content, if they can hear the tigers roar that can be heard miles away.
The conservationists are happy that their sincere efforts to save the tigers are resulting in less killing of the tigers for poaching. The chief executive of Wild Team Anwarul Islam told CNN, “The number of tiger attacks and deaths has fallen in the past five years due to increased awareness of wildlife protection among local communities.”The villagers have an additional benefit to be working with the conservationists, according to Islam. “If a stray tiger comes out of the forest, people know that they will not be killed because of the tiger team. They feel safe.”They have also set up a tiger hotline to report of a tiger sighting if they spot a tiger roaming the streets. Sometimes a little effort goes a long way and ultimately contributes to the positive efforts by the conservation groups who are working very closely with the authorities to save the species in the Sundarbans.
RatulSaha of the WWF Sundarbans Landscape program told CNN,“To protect the Bengal tigers, India and Bangladesh should identify hotspots where mangrove plants and species are thriving, despite a lack of soil nutrients, and move these resilient mangroves to dying parts of the forest.””It is crucial that the necessary steps be taken to increase climate resilience in the region. For tigers, conservation efforts must remain focused on habitat restoration and protection,” he concluded.
In the early colonial times, the Sundarbans were referred as “wasteland.” Since the waterways carry very little freshwater and due to lack of large scale economic opportunities, human habitation in the adjoined islands was sparse. The islands around the largest contiguous mangrove forest are now only inhabited by poor woodcutters, honey gatherers and fishermen. The largest remaining coastal mangrove has an abundant source of honey, and its waterways are source of fish, including tiger prawn. Collecting wild honey in theSundarbans can be a life threatening task for the honey collectors. The islanders claim that the world is becoming a global village where people from faraway places come to relate to the tigers. They argue, as humans, their very presence is seen as illegal, or even unwelcome, in what has become a World Heritage Site. They lament,whiletheBengal tigers of the Sundarbans are a source of constant delight and curiosity to many,they are largely ignored, as people fail to respond to their complaints and suffering.
Zeenat Khan, a former special education teacher, short story writer, and columnist, writes from Maryland, USA
Palestinian rights and Western duplicity
by Ron Forthofer
President Trump’s fraudulent Middle East deal runs roughshod over Palestinian rights, harms long-term Israeli interests, and is only the latest example of the US arrogance and disdain for international law. Essentially Trump’s offer, negotiated without any Palestinian input, requires the Palestinians to sell out their hopes for justice and a decent life free of occupation for money. Trump was attempting to satisfy Israel and its US supporters, including many of his big money donors, with this deal that would allow Israel to steal even more Palestinian land.
President Trump’s fraudulent Middle East deal runs roughshod over Palestinian rights, harms long-term Israeli interests, and is only the latest example of the US arrogance and disdain for international law. Essentially Trump’s offer, negotiated without any Palestinian input, requires the Palestinians to sell out their hopes for justice and a decent life free of occupation for money. Trump was attempting to satisfy Israel and its US supporters, including many of his big money donors, with this deal that would allow Israel to steal even more Palestinian land.
Former President Carter’s office said in a statement that Trump’s plan “breaches international law regarding self-determination, the acquisition of land by force, and annexation of occupied territories…. By calling Israel ‘the nation-state of the Jewish people,’ the plan also encourages the denial of equal rights to the Palestinian citizens of Israel.”
Robert Fisk, a British reporter and expert on the Middle East, said the deal was unique and historic: “since its belief that the Palestinians would dream of accepting such a deranged, farcical set of political demands is without precedent in the western world.”
Israel and the US have little-to-zero credibility given their failures in living up to international law and agreements they have signed. Therefore, why would the Palestinians or anyone else trust them not to renege on any deal Trump proposed, even one as biased in Israel’s favor as this proposal?
Trump’s latest proposal continues over 100 years of crimes by the Western colonial powers against Palestinians. Britain, the leading colonial power of the time, set the stage for troubles in the Middle East with its 1917 Balfour Declaration that called for a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. The Declaration also said that nothing was to be done to prejudice the civil and religious rights of the non-Jewish communities that were the overwhelming majority of the population in Palestine.
Complicating the situation, before the Balfour Declaration Britain had already promised the Arabs independence and self-determination in the Middle East, except for a small area where France had interests, if they would rise up against the Ottoman Empire. The Arabs accepted the agreement and revolted against the Ottomans. However, France and Britain had already agreed to divide up the area between themselves. This British perfidy was not unusual for a colonial power.
After WWII, Britain eventually turned over the Palestinian issue to the UN. In November 1947 the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Arab and Jewish states. In September, before the Partition Plan for Palestine was approved, Loy Henderson, director of the US State Department’s Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs, warned:
“The UNSCOP [U.N. Special Committee on Palestine] Majority Plan is not only unworkable; if adopted, it would guarantee that the Palestine problem would be permanent and still more complicated in the future.” Henderson added: “The proposals contained in the UNSCOP plan … are in definite contravention to various principles laid down in the [U.N.] Charter as well as to principles on which American concepts of Government are based. These proposals, for instance, ignore such principles as self-determination and majority rule. They recognize the principle of a theocratic racial state and even go so far in several instances as to discriminate on grounds of religion and race against persons outside of Palestine.”
Based on domestic political concerns, President Truman ignored this guidance from the State Department and supported the partition plan. For over 70 years now, with only a few exceptions, domestic political concerns have played an important role in shaping the US position in the Middle East. Trump is only the latest US president who ignored international law and human rights in his support of ongoing Israeli crimes against the Palestinians.
Ron Forthofer, Ph.D. is a retired Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Texas School of Public Health, Houston, Texas; former Green Party candidate for Congress and for Governor of Colorado
The Rama Of Gandhi
by Kabir Deb
Gandhi was a man of the masses, for the masses and made by the masses. His Rama does not stand for lynching or to hate the non Hindus. His Rama does not stand against
love. It is strange how the root is so pure yet the branches are so sickly bigoted. When Amjad Ali Khan plays “Vaishnav Jana To”, the Vaishnava in it does not stand against all the non Vaishnavas. When Bismillah Khan declared “Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram” as the soul of musical India, the Rama in it did not call him an anti national.
Indian Courts Have Let Down Democracy
by Aijaz Zaka Syed
No wonder Katju is livid at the former chief justice of India, calling him a “blot on the judiciary” and skewering him for practically prostrating before the BJP government and handing over “the entire Supreme Court to the political executive, giving up its solemn duty of protecting the rights of the people.”
How doubtful citizens can be ‘foreigners’
by Dr Madabhushi Sridhar
‘National Population Register’, which has
its base in the rules framed by the Central government under the Citizenship Act, 1955 in 2003 called the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003. Incidentally, these are the same rules which give legal framework for National Register of Indian Citizens as well. For making NRC, the particulars entered in the NPR is first verified by the Local Register of Citizens as per Rule 4(3). Following this verification, the NRC is finalised, after removing ‘doubtful citizens’.
Time For UNHRC To Act Firmly On War Crimes Committed In Sri Lanka
by Kumarathasan Rasingam
Sri Lanka is fast moving towards a military state and is now promoting alleged war criminals to top posts in Military and Government Departments.
JNU and the idea of Affordable Education
by Martand Jha
While the JNU students are called freeloaders, the actually freeloaders are crony businessmen and industrialists who keep getting doll outs in thousands of crores and their debts being written off and paid by the public money. They’re the ones who have a proven track record of being the biggest burden on the public exchequer.
Delhi Elections: The shades of Communal Polarization
by Dr Prem Singh
The voting-day (8 February 2020) for the Delhi Assembly elections has finally arrived. The BJP has continued its all-time strategy of communal polarization and Congress bashing in its election campaign. However, the emphasis remained more on communal polarization in the discussions held in the public domain and also in circles of anti-BJP intellectuals.
#She!
by Sonali Chanda
Someday,sometimes,if you remember her..,!
Do remember as a lone warrior,
Who has her own silent war,
where no one can be her fellow soldier!!
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