Category Archives: Biodiversity Loss

If we lose enough species, we’ll drive ourselves extinct as well

Why vultures are so important — and dying off

Posted on July 13, 2017 by

University of Utah. May 5, 2016. Why vultures matter—and what we lose if they’re gone. Original paper: Evan R. Buechley et al, The avian scavenger crisis: Looming extinctions, trophic cascades, and loss of critical ecosystem functions, Biological Conservation (2016).Vultures in … Continue reading →

Posted in Biodiversity Loss | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Why vultures are so important — and dying off

The global threat of invasive species to marine biodiversity

Posted on July 5, 2017 by

Molnar, J. L., et al. 2008. Assessing the global threat of invasive species to marine biodiversity. Frontiers in ecology and the environment #6 Although invasive species are widely recognized as a major threat to marine biodiversity, there has been no … Continue reading →

Posted in Biodiversity Loss, BioInvasion | Tagged , | 1 Comment

An invasive green monster that can double in 2 days and impossible to control threatens 20 states

Posted on June 23, 2017 by

    [ The 2011 House of Representatives hearing below is a discussion of how to control salvinia. We spend about $135 billion on invasive species a year – what will happen when the fossil energy to remove them is … Continue reading →

Posted in Biodiversity Loss, BioInvasion, Peak Food | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Biggest threat to biodiversity is not climate change: it’s agriculture, fishing, and hunting

Posted on April 29, 2017 by

[ This article makes the point that other factors are far more to blame for biodiversity loss than climage change. And with “peak everything“, especially peak oil, but also peak coal, and peak natural gas — greenhouse gas emissions will … Continue reading →

Posted in Biodiversity Loss, Fisheries | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Biggest threat to biodiversity is not climate change: it’s agriculture, fishing, and hunting

Because we’ve stuffed staggering numbers of cows on factory farms we live in a cow toilet

Posted on April 11, 2017 by

[ Book review of “Cowed: The hidden impactof 93 million cows” by Alice Friedemann   www.energyskeptic.com  author of “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation”, 2015, Springer] Hayes, Denis and Gail. 2015. Cowed: The Hidden Impact of 93 … Continue reading →

Posted in Antibiotics, Biodiversity Loss, CO2 and Methane, Pollution, Soil | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Chemical industrial farming is unsustainable. Why poison ourselves when pesticides don’t save more of our crops than in the past?

Posted on March 16, 2017 by

Pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides destroy soil, ecosystems, and a third of the crop is still lost to pests, just as in the many millennia of farming before chemicals. [ This is a book review of Dyer’s “Chasing the Red Queen”, … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Agriculture, Biodiversity Loss, Chemicals, Overshoot, Pesticides, Soil | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Chemical industrial farming is unsustainable. Why poison ourselves when pesticides don’t save more of our crops than in the past?

North American freshwater mussels are going extinct

Posted on November 14, 2016 by

Stokstad, E. 2012. Nearly Buried, Mussels Get a Helping Hand. Science Vol. 338, Issue 6109, pp. 876-878 [excerpts] Freshwater mussels are in trouble. They are the most endangered group of organisms in the United States, with most of their river … Continue reading →

Posted in Biodiversity Loss | Tagged , | Comments Off on North American freshwater mussels are going extinct

Are humans an invasive species?

Posted on October 22, 2016 by

Rob Jordan. April 5, 2016. Populations of early human settlers grew like an ‘invasive species,’ Stanford researchers find. Stanford University. When humans colonized South America, their populations grew like a typical invasive species – an initial explosive growth rapidly reached … Continue reading →

Posted in Biodiversity Loss, BioInvasion, Peak Food | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Menhaden going extinct — the key food source at bottom of food web

Posted on October 4, 2016 by

[ This is a really long introduction so I can reply to a comment that menhaden are “neither overfished nor experiencing overfishing”.   Huh? Both their numbers and range are small compared to their original population. If there were a reduction, … Continue reading →

Posted in Biodiversity Loss, Extinction, Fisheries, Starvation | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Humans driving species to extinction 1,000 times the natural rate

Posted on July 11, 2016 by

[ According to a paper published in Science the current rates of extinction are 1000 times the background rate. This estimate is higher than previous estimates is due to a more sophisticated analysis. Other extinction news: 2017-1-18 World’s primates facing … Continue reading →

Posted in Biodiversity Loss, Extinction | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Humans driving species to extinction 1,000 times the natural rate