Did you hear the latest excellent news about songbirds, whales, bears (each black and grizzly), and air pollution?
No? Well, that doesn’t shock us. In a season dominated by the chaos of the midterms, the newest U.N. local weather convention and billionaires gone unhealthy, a number of good environmental information slipped by means of the cracks.
So let’s spackle these cracks with some tales you’ll have missed. Welcome to Links From the Brink: Good News Edition.
Conservationists are respiratory sighs of aid this month for the straw-headed bulbul (Pycnonotus zeylanicus), an Asian songbird with a few of the pure world’s most lovely vocalizations.
Alas, these songs — meant to draw mates — are the principle motive this chook has grow to be endangered lately, as people have trapped so a lot of them that a few of the species’ native forests have fallen silent. The caged and trafficked birds find yourself competing in Southeast Asia’s songbird competitions, the place homeowners can win huge prizes for the birds with one of the best songs.
Photos: Michael MK Khor (CC BY 2.0)
But November noticed necessary progress when the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) lastly added the bulbul to its checklist of species which might be banned from authorized commerce. This solely impacts worldwide gross sales, not these inside a nation’s borders, however it’s an enormous step that can assist to assist present nationwide legislations.
Also protected by CITES this 12 months: Another songbird (the white-rumped shama), 90 shark species (together with hammerheads and guitarfish), 53 turtle species, all 160 glass frog species, and plenty extra. Meanwhile proposals to reopen commerce in elephant ivory and rhino horns have been, fortunately, defeated.
Discussions about defending wildlife proceed this week on the UN Biodiversity Conference, which lastly convenes in Montreal from Dec. 7-19 after a string of Covid-related delays. Here’s what to anticipate.
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In extra native information, town of Port Townsend, Washington, this week formally acknowledged the inherent rights of the final 74 Southern Resident killer whales, who typically swim previous its shores.
The newest victory within the Rights of Nature motion, town’s proclamation declares that the orcas have “the right to life, autonomy, culture, free and safe passage, adequate food supply from naturally occurring sources, and freedom from conditions causing physical, emotional, or mental harm, including a habitat degraded by noise, pollution, and contamination.”
Southern Resident killer whales. Photo: NOAA
Of course, Port Townsend can’t save the Southern Residents by itself. These whales want further assist from different communities. Gig Harbor might be subsequent: The metropolis council will learn a proclamation recognizing orca rights at their assembly on Dec. 12. Meanwhile, organizers hope to persuade Washington to increase Rights of Nature to the orcas on the state degree.
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Hunters in Washington can decrease their rifles: The state simply closed the door on its annual spring black bear looking season. Last 12 months hunters killed a reported 1,686 black bears out of an estimated statewide inhabitants of 20,000. About 120 of these got here in the course of the now-closed spring looking season, which occurred to correspond to when hungry bears (together with new moms) emerge from hibernation.
Most states don’t allow bear looking throughout this post-hibernation season, and Washington now, eventually, joins their ranks.
Which brings us to good bear information # 2: The Biden administration simply jumpstarted long-brewing efforts to reintroduce grizzlies to Washington’s North Cascades National Park. The plan, like so many others, fell by the wayside in the course of the Trump years and has now been resurrected. Getting extra grizzlies to the park — a handful could already reside within the area — might take years, however this can be a big step in the proper route and will sign renewed willingness to reintroduce the bears in different components of the nation.
Here are some extra success tales to heat your coronary heart and hold you motivated:
Green and Gossamer, and Not Gone: A Sri Lankan Dragonfly Flits Back to Life
Scientists Discover a Giant Manta Ray Population, 10 Times Bigger Than Any Other
The Guam Kingfisher Could Soon Return to the Wild After a 30-Year Absence
Amid Mexico’s Day of the Dead, A Fish Declared Extinct Comes Back to Life
Schools of Herring Are Filling A Once-Dead Waterway
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Renewables will overtake coal by early 2025 to grow to be “the largest source of global electricity generation,” based on a gorgeous new report from the International Energy Agency.
Why the speedy shift? Two phrases: vitality safety. That’s normally a time period bandied about by Republicans supporting home fossil-fuel manufacturing, however on this case it’s the rising recognition that reliance on fossil fuels is inherently unsafe on account of manufacturing and distribution disruptions — like, say, the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Energy security concerns caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have motivated countries to increasingly turn to renewables such as solar and wind to reduce reliance on imported fossil fuels, whose prices have spiked dramatically,” writes the IEA.
The Block Island Wind Farm off the coast of Rhode Island. Photo: Dennis Schroeder / NREL (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
This report provides precisely zero solace to the struggling folks of Ukraine or vitality insecure households in Europe, nor does it justify this harmful conflict. But on the identical time, this appears like a possible transformative second. It might be probably the most necessary environmental tales to observe within the coming 12 months.
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Speaking of fossil fuels, who’re the world’s worst polluters? New mapping tasks have some solutions.
The first, known as Climate Trace, tracks the greenhouse fuel emissions of almost 80,000 of the worst polluters on the planet — every little thing from oilfields and cargo ships to cattle feedlots. Anyone can dig into the maps to seek out the polluters of their space (in my case, the worst are an airport, a metal manufacturing unit, and a few landfills) or simply take a look at the world to see how nations evaluate.
The second map covers simply the United States, however there’s lots to cowl. The EPA’s FLIGHT undertaking tracks greenhouse emissions from massive industrial services across the nation — about 8,100 of them. Users can zoom into their state or filter the outcomes by facility kind (energy crops, chemical factories, and so forth.). You may even see how issues have modified over time, with information going again to 2010 (and yeah, they bought worse previously 12 months).
Seeing all these polluters visualized out can really feel, admittedly, a bit disheartening. But there’s a motive we included this work within the “good news” class: The extra information like this now we have, the higher we’re capable of goal emissions and shut them down. These maps will assist regulators, activists, and on a regular basis residents to allow us to all breathe a bit of simpler.
This publish first appeared at The Revelator and is republished right here based on a Creative Commons license. Top photograph: Danika Perkinson