PLANET IN PERIL

ScienceNews Map: Distribution of Rangifer tarandus (Caribou/Reindeer) TBjornstad Newly-recorded oral histories of the Tsaatan people help researchers document climate change.  Story here.  

The Guardian An emaciated moose in Riding Mtn. National Park, Canada. A PinP photo. All but one of 459 species have traits making them vulnerable to rising temperatures, study finds. Story here. To quote from the initial study in Nature, Climate Change:  "Climate change is a threat to ecosystems and biodiversity globally and has emerged as a driver of observed and potential species decline and extinction. Government laws and policies should play a vital role in supporting climate change adaptation for imperilled species, yet imperilled species protections have been critiqued as insufficient in Australia, Canada and Europe."   PinP -->

Science Magazine Fire on Cape Barren Is. Australia, 2016. Photo by Planet Labs, Inc. Summary Australia is on fire like never before—and this year's "bushfire" season, which typically peaks in January or February, has barely begun. Driven in part by a severe drought, fires have burned 1.65 million hectares in the state of New South Wales, more than the state's total in the previous 3 years combined. Six people have died and more than 500 homes have been destroyed. As  Science  went to press, some 70 uncontrolled fires were burning in adjacent Queensland, and South Australia was bracing for potentially "catastrophic" burns. David Bowman, a fire geographer and director of the Fire Centre Research Hub at the University of Tasmania in Hobart, spoke with  Science  about the unprecedented crisis. The flames have charred even wet ecosystems once thought safe, he says. And the fires have become "white-hot politically," with Prime Minister Sco

BUREAU OF INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM E-cigarettes. Photo by Ecig Click The embattled American vape company Juul is pushing foreign governments to ditch strict e-cigarette regulations as it aggressively expands across the globe in an attempt to offset lost profits in the US. Story here.

Common Dreams Another denizen of the Amazon. Photo by Tom MacKenzie -  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service "These figures confirm what we feared, namely that 2019 has been a dark year for the rainforest in Brazil."    Story here.

The National Observer Daniels Flat (Bay of Fundy) A survey estimates more than 1.8 million pieces of garbage are strewn over the bottom of the Bay of Fundy, prompting concerns about potential harm to marine life. Story here.

Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society In the northeast corner of Alberta lies Wood Buffalo National Park.  Known for its sheer size and biodiversity, it is Canada’s largest national park and World Heritage Site. Its size and remote location have led many to believe it is untouched by human impacts, but it has sadly been affected by upstream industrial development outside of the Park. It is now additionally threatened by a proposed open-pit oil sands mine just 30-km south of its borders. If approved, the Teck Frontier oil sands mine would be the largest open-pit mine in North America, with a massive 290 sq-km footprint.  This mine would pose serious environmental risks to the approximately 1 million migratory birds that fly over the region, species at risk that depend on the intact boreal habitat, and negatively influence downstream waters on the Athabasca River.  The federal government has a public comment period open until November 24, 2019  to hear what people think of

SCIENCE MAGAZINE "Harvesting"   by  Beegee49   Brazil has reopened the door to expanding sugarcane plantations in the Amazon, even though it is difficult to grow the crop there. Scientists worry the move will increase deforestation and harm biodiversity and carbon sequestration in the jungle. President Jair Bolsonaro, who has pushed for more economic development in the Amazon, on 5 November revoked a 2009 agricultural zoning plan that prohibited public funding for sugarcane production within the Amazon region, where low yields increase risk for private investors. But Bolsonaro's administration says the ban is unnecessary because other laws require that the cultivation be environmentally sustainable. Brazil is already the world's largest producer of sugarcane, with approximately 10 million hectares of cane fields—only 1.5% of which are now in the Amazon. The region's extremely humid weather and poor soils are not ideal for popular cane varieties, and stu

The Committee on the Status of Endangered Species in Canada (COSEWIC). The Eskimo Curlew. Photo credit - the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The Eskimo Curlew, a bird known to nest only in Canada, has been assessed as Endangered. Given there have been no verified sightings of this wildlife species anywhere since 1963, the Eskimo Curlew is on the brink of becoming the first Canadian bird to be declared Extinct since the Passenger Pigeon nearly 100 years ago. Without a reversal in habitat loss, climate change and direct human impacts, these assessments of Extirpated and Extinct will become more frequent.

Phys Org It's feared that a changing climate may be providing improved conditions for the mosquito which spreads the zika virus, sometimes responsible for severe brain conditions in infants like this. Climate change will damage the health of an entire generation unless there are immediate cuts to fossil fuel emissions, from a rise in deadly infectious diseases to surging malnutrition, experts warned Thursday. Story here.