Tag Archives: biodiversity

Time to Honor the Soil

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Toxic Corporations Are Destroying the Planet’s Soil

Colin Todhunter

Anewly published analysis in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Science argues that a toxic soup of insecticides, herbicides and fungicides is causing havoc beneath fields covered in corn, soybeans, wheat and other monoculture crops. The research is the most comprehensive review ever conducted on how pesticides affect soil health.

The study is discussed by two of the report’s authors, Nathan Donley and Tari Gunstone, in a recent article appearing on the Scientific American website.

The authors state that the findings should bring about immediate changes in how regulatory agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) assess the risks posed by the nearly 850 pesticide ingredients approved for use in the USA.

Conducted by the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth and the University of Maryland, the research looked at almost 400 published studies that together had carried out more than 2800 experiments on how pesticides affect soil organisms. The review encompassed 275 unique species or types of soil organisms and 284 different pesticides or pesticide mixtures.

Pesticides were found to harm organisms that are critical to maintaining healthy soils in over 70 per cent of cases. But Donley and Gunstone say this type of harm is not considered in the EPA’s safety reviews, which ignore pesticide harm to earthworms, springtails, beetles and thousands of other subterranean species.

The EPA uses a single test species to estimate risk to all soil organisms, the European honeybee, which spends its entire life above ground in artificial boxes. But 50-100 per cent of all pesticides end up in soil.

The researchers conclude that the ongoing escalation of pesticide-intensive agriculture and pollution are major driving factors in the decline of soil organisms. By carrying out wholly inadequate reviews, the regulatory system serves to protect the pesticide industry.

The study comes in the wake of other recent findings that indicate high levels of the weedkiller chemical glyphosate and its toxic breakdown product AMPA have been found in topsoil samples from no-till fields in Brazil.

Writing on the GMWatch website, Claire Robinson and Jonathan Matthews note that, despite this, the agrochemical companies seeking the renewal of the authorisation of glyphosate by the European Union in 2022 are saying that one of the greatest benefits of glyphosate is its ability to foster healthier soils by reducing the need for tillage (or ploughing).

This in itself is misleading because farmers are resorting to ploughing given increasing weed resistance to glyphosate and organic agriculture also incorporates no till methods. At the same time, proponents of glyphosate conveniently ignore or deny its toxicity to soils, water, humans and wildlife.

With that in mind, it is noteworthy that GMWatch also refers to another recent study which says that glyphosate is responsible for a five per cent increase in infant mortality in Brazil.

The new study, ‘Pesticides in a case study on no-tillage farming systems and surrounding forest patches in Brazil’ in the journal Scientific Reports, leads the researchers to conclude that glyphosate-contaminated soil can adversely impact food quality and human health and ecological processes for ecosystem services maintenance. They argue that glyphosate and AMPA presence in soil may promote toxicity to key species for biodiversity conservation, which are fundamental for maintaining functioning ecological systems.

These studies reiterate the need to shift away from increasingly discredited ‘green revolution’ ideology and practices. This chemical-intensive model has helped the drive towards greater monocropping and has resulted in less diverse diets and less nutritious foods. Its long-term impact has led to soil degradation and mineral imbalances, which in turn have adversely affected human health.

If we turn to India, for instance, that country is losing 5334 million tonnes of soil every year due to soil erosion and degradation, much of which is attributed to the indiscreet and excessive use of synthetic agrochemicals. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research reports that soil is becoming deficient in nutrients and fertility.

India is not unique in this respect. Maria-Helena Semedo of the Food and Agriculture Organization stated back in 2014 that if current rates of degradation continue all of the world’s topsoil could be gone within 60 years. She noted that about a third of the world’s soil had already been degraded. There is general agreement that chemical-heavy farming techniques are a major cause.

It can take 500 years to generate an inch of soil yet just a few generations to destroy. When you drench soil with proprietary synthetic agrochemicals as part of a model of chemical-dependent farming, you harm essential micro-organisms and end up feeding soil a limited doughnut diet of toxic inputs.

Armed with their multi-billion-dollar money-spinning synthetic biocides, this is what the agrochemical companies have been doing for decades. In their arrogance, these companies claim to have knowledge that they do not possess and then attempt to get the public and co-opted agencies and politicians to bow before the altar of corporate ‘science’ and its bought-and-paid-for scientific priesthood.

The damaging impacts of their products on health and the environment have been widely reported for decades, starting with Rachel Carson’s ground-breaking 1962 book Silent Spring.

These latest studies underscore the need to shift towards organic farming and agroecology and invest in indigenous models of agriculture – as has been consistently advocated by various high-level international agencies, not least the United Nations, and numerous official reports.

from:   https://off-guardian.org/2021/06/23/toxic-corporations-are-destroying-the-planets-soil/

First Came GMO’s And Now GDO”S

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NGOs call for moratorium on controversial ‘gene drive organisms’

By Natasha Foote | EURACTIV.com

 Jul 3, 2020 (updated:  Jul 6, 2020)

Synthetic gene drives are a new form of genetic engineering intended to permanently modify or eradicate populations, or even whole species, in the wild. [SHUTTERSTOCK]

After over 78 environmental and agricultural organisations signed a letter this week calling for a moratorium on gene drive technology, EURACTIV took a closer look at the controversial technology to find out about what it is and the implications it holds.

The letter, which was sent on Tuesday (30 June), urges the European Commission to outlaw the release of so-called ‘gene drive organisms’ (GDOs), calling the technology “incompatible” with the Commission’s proposed EU strategy on biodiversity protection. But scientists say the technology holds enormous potential for eradicating some of the world’s deadliest diseases.

Synthetic gene drives are a new form of genetic engineering, created via the genetic engineering method CRISPR/CAS9, and are intended to permanently modify or eradicate populations, or even whole species, in the wild.

They are currently defined as a system where genetic elements or traits have more than the usual 50% chance of being inherited, irrespective of whether they benefit or harm the organism inheriting them.

The idea of gene drive technology is to force the inheritance of detrimental genetic traits. In this way, scientists hope to reprogramme or eradicate species such as disease-carrying insects and invasive species.

This is a key distinction between GDOs and genetically modified organisms (GMOs), which are explicitly designed to contain the spread of modified traits.

Debate about if and how GDOs could be safely employed is proceeding. As it currently stands, GDOs fall under the EU GMO directive but an EFSA expert working group, mandated by the Commission, is currently developing recommendations for regulations on gene drive modified organisms, expected by the end of 2020.

While it may sound far fetched, this is far from mere conjecture, with experiments already well underway both in the EU and elsewhere.

from:    https://www.euractiv.com/section/health-consumers/news/ngos-call-for-moratorium-on-controversial-gene-drive-organisms/

Situation: Critical – The Burning of the Rainforest

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The Amazon Rainforest is on Fire and Hardly Anyone’s Talking About It

The hashtag #PrayForAmazonia went viral on Tuesday as social media users attempted to draw the world’s attention to the Amazon rainforest, which has been devastated for weeks by fires so intense they can be seen from space.

According to Euro News, it is unclear whether the fires were caused by agricultural activity or deforestation. Both have accelerated rapidly under Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who made opening the Amazon to corporate exploitation a key plank of his election campaign.

Twitter users on Tuesday slammed the media for paying too little attention to the Amazon blazes, particularly given the essential role the rainforest plays in absorbing planet-warming carbon dioxide—a capacity that earned it the nickname “lungs of the world.”

“The Amazon has been burning for three weeks, and I’m just now finding out because of the lack of media coverage,” wrote one observer. “This is one of the most important ecosystems on Earth.”

Satellite data collected by the Brazilian government’s National Space Research Institute (INPE) published in June showed that deforestation has risen dramatically under Bolsonaro, who dismissed the research as “a lie” and fired INPE director Ricardo Galvão for defending the data.

As The Guardian reported, the INPE findings showed the Amazon “lost 739sq km during the 31 days [of May], equivalent to two football pitches every minute.”

As Newsweek reported Tuesday,

One large fire, which started in late July, burnt around 1,000 hectares of an environmental reserve in the Brazilian state of Rondônia—located on the border with Bolivia. This blaze, along with others in the region, created dense plumes of smoke that spread far across the state, endangering the health of people living in the area and the lives of animals.

 

Two weeks ago, the state of Amazonas in the northwest of the country declared a state of emergency in response to an increase in the number of fires there… Various fires have also been burning in the state of Mato Grosso, according to satellite imagery.

The fires have become so intense that smoke from the blaze darkened the afternoon sky on Monday in São Paulo, Brazil’s most populous city.

“The Amazon rainforest has been on fire for weeks, and it’s so bad it’s literally blotting out the sun miles away,” tweeted Robert Maguire, research director at U.S. government watchdog group Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington.

The advocacy group Amazon Watch on Tuesday called the Bolsonaro regime’s attacks on the world’s largest rainforest “an international tragedy.”

“What can we do?” the group tweeted. “1. Support the courageous resistance of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon. 2. Make clear to the agribusiness and financiers involved in the destruction that we won’t buy their products.”

By Jake Johnson | CommonDreams.org | Creative Commons

from:    https://www.wakingtimes.com/2019/08/22/the-amazon-rainforest-is-on-fire-and-hardly-anyones-talking-about-it/

The Importance of Rainforests

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Facts About Rainforests

By Alina Bradford, Live Science Contributor |
This interior part of the Amazon rainforest is one of the most diverse corners of the Amazon basin. A hectare of forest typically contains 250 species of large trees.

Credit: Nigel Pitman | The Field Museum

Rainforests are found all over the world — in West and Central Africa, South and Central America, Indonesia, Southeast Asia and Australia — on every continent except Antarctica. They are vitally important, producing most of the oxygen we breathe and providing habitat for half of the planet’s flora and fauna.

Types of rainforests

The term “rainforest” has a wide classification. Typically, rainforests are lush, humid, hot stretches of land covered in tall, broadleaf evergreen trees, usually found around the equator. These areas usually get rain year-round, typically more than 70 inches (1,800 millimeters) a year, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. Various types of forests, such as monsoon forests, mangrove forests and temperate forests, can be considered rainforests. Here’s what makes them different:

  • Temperate rainforests consist of coniferous or broadleaf trees and are found in the temperate zones. They are identified as rainforests by the large amount of rain they receive.
  • Mangrove rainforests are, like their name, made of mangrove trees. These trees grow only in brackish waters where rivers meet the ocean.
  • Monsoon rainforests are also called “dry rainforests” because they have a dry season. These get around 31 to 71 inches (800 mm to 1,800 mm) of rain. Up to 75 percent of the trees in dry rainforests can be deciduous.

Most rainforests are very warm, with an average temperature of 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) during the day and 68 degrees F (20 degrees C) at night.

A rainforest consists of two major areas. The very top part is called the canopy, which can be as tall as 98 feet to 164 feet (30 to 50 meters). This area is comprised of the tops of trees and vines. The rest, below the canopy, is called the understory. This can include ferns, flowers, vines, tree trunks and dead leaves.

Some animals stay in the canopy and rarely ever come down to the ground. Some of these animals include monkeys, flying squirrels and sharp-clawed woodpeckers, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Upper montane cloud forest during rainfall at Mt. Kinabalu in Malaysia.
Upper montane cloud forest during rainfall at Mt. Kinabalu in Malaysia.

Credit: L. A. Bruijnzeel and I. S. M. Sieverding

Animals and plants

The rainforest is home to many plants and animals. According to The Nature Conservancy, a 4-square-mile (2,560 acres) area of rainforest contains as many as 1,500 flowering plants, 750 species of trees, 400 species of birds and 150 species of butterflies. The Amazon rainforest alone contains around 10 percent of the world’s known species.

Just about every type of animal lives in rainforests. In fact, though rainforests cover less than 2 percent of Earth’s total surface area, they are home to 50 percent of Earth’s plants and animals, according to The Nature Conservancy. For example, rhinoceroses, deer, leopards, gorillas, chimpanzees, elephants, armadillos and even bears can be found living in rainforests across the world.

Many unusual animals and plants have been discovered in rainforests. For example, the fairy lantern parasite (Thismia neptunis) reappeared in the rainforest of Borneo, Malaysia, in 2018, 151 years after it was first documented. This plant sucks on underground fungi and doesn’t need sunlight to survive. “To our knowledge, it is only the second finding of the species in total,” the Czech team of researchers wrote in a paper, which was published Feb. 21, 2018, in the journal Phytotaxa.

Some of the animals are also unusual. For example, the tapir is a mammal that looks like a mix between an anteater and a pig and can be found in the rainforests of South America and Asia. The stunning silverback gorillalives in the rainforest of the Central African Republic. Forest giraffes, or okapi, a strange-looking cross between a horse and a zebra, also inhabit the African rainforest.

One particularly surprising rainforest find is a spider as big as a puppy. The massive South American Goliath birdeater (Theraphosa blondi) is the world’s largest spider, according to Guinness World Records. Each leg can reach up to 1 foot (30 centimeters) long, and it can weigh up to 6 ounces (170 grams).

Seventy percent of the plants identified by the U.S. National Cancer Institute as useful in the treatment of cancer are found only in rainforests, according to The Nature Conservancy. Scientists have identified more than 2,000 tropical forest plants as having anti-cancer properties. However, less than 1 percent of tropical rainforest species have been analyzed for their medicinal value.

Rainforests are found on every continent except Antarctica. Map shows tropical rainforests in dark green and temperate rainforests in light green.
Rainforests are found on every continent except Antarctica. Map shows tropical rainforests in dark green and temperate rainforests in light green.

Credit: Ville Koistinen

Importance

Humans and animals rely on the rainforest to make the majority of Earth’s oxygen. One tree produces nearly 260 lbs. of oxygen each year, according to the Growing Air Foundation, and 1 hectare (2.47 acres) of rainforest may contain over 750 types of trees.

A tree uses carbon dioxide to grow. A living tree draws in and stores twice as much carbon dioxide than a fallen tree releases. But when the tree is cut down, it releases its stored carbon dioxide. For example, dead Amazonian trees emit an estimated 1.9 billion tons (1.7 billion metric tons) of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, according to a study published in the journal Nature Communications in 2014. The same trees typically absorb about 2.2 billion tons (2 billion metric tons) of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide makes up around 82.2 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Out of the 6 million square miles (15 million square kilometers) of tropical rainforest that once existed worldwide, only 2.4 million square miles (6 million square km) remain, and only 50 percent, or 75 million square acres (30 million hectares), of temperate rainforests still exists, according to The Nature Conservancy. Ranching, mining, logging and agriculture are the main reasons for forest loss. Between 2000 and 2012, more than 720,000 square miles (2 million square km) of forests around the world were cut down — an area about the size of all the states east of the Mississippi River.

Deforestation around the world also decreases the global flow of water vapor from land by 4 percent, according to an article published by the journal National Academy of Sciences. Water constantly cycles through the atmosphere. It evaporates from the surface and rises, condensing into clouds. It is blown by the wind, and then falls back to Earth as rain or snow. In addition, water vapor is the most important greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, according to NASA. Even a slight change in the flow of water vapor can disrupt weather patterns and climates.

“Rainforests are under increasing threats for many reasons, including logging, clearing for crops or cattle, and conversion to commercial palm oil plantations,” Jonathan Losos, director of the Living Earth Collaborative and William H. Danforth Distinguished University Professor for the Department of Biology, at Washington University in St. Louis, told Live Science. “On top of that, the changing climate is having adverse effects on rainforest health. Last year was an especially bad one for the Amazon, with a substantial uptick in the rate of deforestation.”

On the other hand, Losos said, there are some glimmers of hope:

  • The two countries with the largest amount of rainforest – Indonesia and Brazil – have both acknowledged the importance of these forests and have taken innovative and aggressive efforts to halt deforestation.
  • There is a growing understanding that halting deforestation and reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are closely linked; new, large-scale efforts are under way to address both concerns.
  • While there is a continued decline in primary rainforests, a bright spot is the fact that in many tropical countries, there is an extensive regeneration of secondary forests, which are critical to supporting much of these countries’ biodiversity.

 

  • from:    https://www.livescience.com/63196-rainforest-facts.html

Biodiversity & Mass Extinctions

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extinction

Earth now facing sixth mass extinction as Hawaii’s “extinction crisis” accelerates

Friday, September 04, 2015 by: Daniel Barker

(NaturalNews) Hawaii is known for its amazing biodiversity, but in recent years it has also become known as the “extinction capital of the world.” A groundbreaking study has just been published that focused on the ecosystem’s invertebrates as well as its bird and mammal populations in an effort to determine just how quickly species are disappearing across the whole spectrum of indigenous fauna.

The results of the research indicated that the loss of species to extinction has been far more serious than previously thought. In fact, Hawaii’s wildlife diversity is being decimated so quickly that scientists now believe that we are seeing the beginnings of a “sixth mass extinction” cycle across the globe.

As much as seven percent of the world’s animal species may have been lost in recent years, according to researchers.

The Washington Post.com reports:

On Hawaii alone, scores of brightly colored, tropical birds have been crossed off the islands’ list of extant fauna over the past two centuries. The same fate came to a number of moths and insects, and as a result, other species relying on those animals are now threatened. One of the islands’ plants, the stout Brighamia, known for growing on Hawaiian sea cliffs, now must be pollinated by hand because the insects that would do it naturally are gone.

By including the loss of invertebrates in Hawaii – specifically the land snail species – the scientists were able to gain a better picture of how quickly the planet is losing species to extinction. The loss of land snail species belonging to the Amastridae family could be as high as 14 percent per decade, according to the researchers.

This time, it’s our fault

Mass extinctions have occurred five times so far during the Earth’s history. The last one was triggered by the asteroid that hit the Yucatan. This time, however, it’s not due to natural forces; it’s because of us. That’s according to yet another recent study conducted by a different group of researchers.

From The Washington Post.com:

In a study published [June 19, 2015] in the journal Science Advances, biologists found that the Earth is losing mammal species 20 to 100 times the rate of the past. Extinctions are happening so fast, they could rival the event that killed the dinosaurs in as little as 250 years. Given the timing, the unprecedented speed of the losses and decades of research on the effects of pollution, hunting and habitat loss, they assert that human activity is responsible.

The scientists involved in this study say they can “confidently conclude” that extinction rates are now “exceptionally high” compared to the past and that they are on the increase, indicating that a sixth mass extinction is indeed under way.

If the trend continues, they say, “humans will soon (in as little as three human lifetimes) be deprived of many biodiversity benefits.”

Consensus among experts

If you’re tempted to believe this is the mere opinion of a small group of alarmist researchers who are exaggerating the dangers, perhaps you should think again.

A number of other respected individuals and groups are saying essentially the same thing.

As far back as 1998, scientists were warning that a mass extinction event was beginning to occur. In that year, a poll conducted by the American Museum of Natural History found that 70 percent of 400 biology experts believed that “the Earth is in the midst of one of its fastest mass extinctions, one that threatens the existence of humans as well as the millions of species we rely on.”

In 2003, Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson published his book, The Future of Life, in which he calculated that half of the higher life forms now inhabiting the Earth will be gone by 2100 if we continue with the current rate of “human disruption.”

There are many other studies and scientific opinions corroborating Wilson’s predictions.

It remains to be seen whether or not we will be able to collectively recognize the threat to our planet and our own race and then actually manage to do something about it.