Fursday-Thursday, Gorilla’s, Whales, Birds and Butterflys

Millions of American Migrating Birds Impacted by Tar Sands Oil Development in Canada’s Boreal Forest

Each spring more than half of America’s birds flock to the Canadian Boreal forest to nest. There, tens of millions of birds — as many as 500 breeding pairs per square mile of forests, lakes, river valleys, and wetlands — spend the winter. Yet almost all the biggest oil companies are mining and drilling important Boreal forest and wetlands to access thick, low-grade petroleum. As much as an area the size of Florida is endangered. This December 2008 report from NRDC, The Pembina Institute and the Boreal Songbird Initiative describes how Canada and the United States must protect migratory birds and bird habitat from this new form of high-impact energy development.

Tar sands oil development creates open pit mines, habitat fragmentation, toxic waste holding ponds, air and water pollution, upgraders and refineries, and pipelines spreading far beyond the Boreal forest. This development is destroying habitat for waterfowl and songbirds that come from all over the Americas to nest in the Boreal. Each year between 22 million and 170 million birds breed in the 35 million acres of Boreal forest that could eventually be developed for tar sands oil.

Faced with tar sands development, migrating birds don’t just move elsewhere since they depend on a certain type of habitat. Not only do many adult birds die when faced with lost and fragmented habitat and ponds of mining waste, but future generations of birds will have lost their chance to exist.

The rapidly expanding industrial tar sands oil extraction operations increasingly place these birds at risk. Virtually every facet of tar sands oil development has the potential to harm Boreal birds — many of which are migratory birds that are protected by treaty and national law. Combining the various estimates of the loss of birds from mining and in situ operations, the report projects a cumulative impact over the next 30 to 50 years ranging from a low of about 6 million birds lost to as many as 166 million birds lost.

How many reasons do we need to get off our Fossil Fuel Addiction? Every time the price of oil drops, the price of gas drops. In this downward spiral, the worlds interest in alternative fuels also drops. We’ve seen it with the latest round of price drops at that pump, as Alternative Fuel startups, which were just 2 months ago, the worlds great hope, struggle to stay alive.

Just because gas is under $2.00 a gallon once again, does not mean that we should not be supporting renewable fuels like Green Crude. (Algae Biofuel)

Source: NRDC

Photo Credit: Rick Leches via Flickr Creative Commons

Whale Songs Being Drowned Out By Oceanic Noise Pollution

ROME – The songs that whales and dolphins use to communicate, orient themselves and find mates are being drowned out by human-made noises in the world’s oceans, U.N. officials and environmental groups said Wednesday.

That sound pollution — including increased commercial shipping, seismic surveys and a new generation of military sonar — is not only confounding the mammals but also further threatening the survival of these endangered animals.

Source: MSNBC

My wife likes to say “Adam, your a Mess!” She says it lovingly and jokingly, most often when I trip over my own feet or do something silly. But the older I get, the more I realize what a mess we are as a species. I mean, what person, as an individual would approve of the things that we are doing to our planet?  I can’t think of many.

But as a group, we tend toward the group think, the follower mentality. We allow things because we feel that as individuals we can do nothing to stop it. Like Lemmings, we jump off the cliff, one following another.

So often I hear “It’s a shame that……” or “I cant believe that….”  When I hear these things, I want to ask “What have you done to stop it?” But I know that most of the time the answer would be, “Nothing.”

I hope that like me, you refuse to do “Nothing.” Making a small change in your life, or raising your child to respect the planet, is huge.

I had an employer one time who used to say, “Don’t come to me with a problem, unless you have an offer for a solution.” What is your solution?

Keep up the good fight, and Alter the Eco!

Adam

Photo Credit: Ben via Flickr Creative Commons