Month: March 2021

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has reported that Africa’s elephants are now more endangered than before, due to increasing threats of poaching and loss of habitat.

The African forest elephant is critically endangered, and the African savanna elephant is endangered. They were considered one species and classified as vulnerable by the IUCN.

The population of savanna elephants dropped by more than 60% over a 50-year period, while the number of African forest elephants has fallen by over 86% over a 31-year period, according to the IUCN, which rates the global extinction risks to the world’s animals.

Overall, Africa has around 400,000 elephants left, counting both the savanna elephants and forest elephants together.

Poaching of elephants is a symptom of destabilized and corrupt government and officials in certain areas.

“Eighty to 90% of our ivory goes to Nigeria and ends up funding (the jihadist rebels) Boko Haram. So it’s very much a cross-border fight against organized crime and even against terrorism,” said Lee White, Gabon’s minister of water and forests, according to the Associated Press.

The demand for ivory could push the elephants in the continent to even more worrying numbers in the upcoming years, as criminal networks working with corrupt officials remains a large problem.

This is an essay on King Leopold II, the second king of Belgium, what he did, what he wanted, and why it matters. This is the counterpart to a presentation I made.

A short presentation on the second king of Belgium, what he did, and why it matters. This is the counterpart to an essay I wrote.

Surrounding the Balearic Islands are one of the world’s most powerful natural defenses against climate change. The Posidonia seagras, nicknamed “immortal seagrass” has been known to live for thousands, and in some case, hundreds of thousands of years.

A strip of this plant has been proven to absorb 15 times more carbon dioxide than an equal sized piece of the Amazon Rainforest.

Ironically, this ancient and delicate plant is now under threat from climate change and tourism. Despite having survived for millennia, anchoring by tourist boats. crushing, tearing, and ripping the meadows. There are currently 55,000

The plant reproduces either sexually or asexually, cloning itself. Being one of the longest-lived organisms on the planet, it’s estimated that one clone came from a seed that was released and sprouted 200,000 years ago on the seafloor.

It’s estimated that Posidonia meadows in Formentera were reduced by 44% because of anchoring. Unfortunately, its growth is quite slow, taking almost 1,000 years to restore the damage suffered in a single day by one yacht’s anchor.

Ocean temperatures also have a large impact on the growth of the plant, having an upper limit of around 28C, or 82F. Almost half the summers since 2000 have exceeded that temperature inteh Balearic Islands.

While this alone wouldn’t necessarily cause large patches to die, the slow growth could be hindered by increasing temperatures.

A Solution to Climate Change and Seagrass?

While there isn’t a single simple solution to the problem facing Posidonia oceanica, public awareness and government action to protect and and stress the importance of the species is increasing.

Some researchers believe that countries trying to reach the goals of the Paris agreement may find themselves in higher need of carbon credits, which the plant can help with.

Allthough this is welcome news, it might not be enough. Human lifetimes are short, compared to that of an almost immortal seagrass, and rising temperatures aren’t going to be solved in a day.

Perhaps, if we could sit for a couple centuries…