Posts Tagged ‘Climate Change’
International scientific congress talks whale poo
Whale poo and its contribution to marine productivity and climate change mitigation will be part of the agenda of the 28th International Congress for Conservation Biology, which opened July 23 in Cartagena, Colombia. Scientists will consider how a range of eco-friendly services provided by whales could underpin conservation decisions made by large organisastions that determine…
Read MoreWhales could help save Arctic Seed Vault
Recently, Norway announced that the entrance to the Global Seed Vault in the Arctic was flooded after very high temperatures caused the permafrost to melt. The vault, a storage facility deep inside a mountain on the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, is designed to preserve the world’s crops from future disasters. The store holds seeds from c.5,000 crop…
Read MoreManaging or Recovering Leviathan
Is it time to reframe the conversation? A recent article published in Oceanography by Dr. Phillip Clapham is entitled Managing Leviathan: Conservation challenges for the great whales in a post-whaling world. In the article, Dr. Clapham reviews the history of modern whaling (i.e. industrial, commercial whaling) and its removal of nearly 3,000,000 whales in the 20th Century alone, reducing some…
Read MoreWhy whales can help save our planet – if we let them
As Icelanders spend today assessing the damage caused by last night’s “double hurricane force” winds which battered their island, and people in north west England and southern Scotland begin the grim process of mopping up after widespread flooding in the wake of Storm Desmond, few are likely to link these extreme weather events with whales…
Read MoreNew pollution study warns of drastic change to ocean food chain
The latest study into carbon dioxide emissions, and the changes in the world’s oceans that they cause, suggests that pollution could drastically transform the entire ocean food chain. The ocean absorbs about a third of the carbon dioxide emissions generated by human activity. The result is acidification which, according the study by scientists in the…
Read MoreClimate Change data versus “parallel science”- it’s time for us to face the facts
When a representative of the office of U.S. Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) called to invite WDC to participate in a Congressional Briefing on climate change, we were both honored and eager to attend. Living at the Extremes: Geoscience Research at the Coolest Places on Earth, was co-sponsored by Senator Reid and Senator Ed Markey’s (D-MA)…
Read MoreIs Climate Change causing whales to relocate?
When a Gray whale was spotted off the coast of Israel in 2010 and then three weeks later off the coast of Spain (almost 2,000km away) it set the whale and dolphin community into a spin. Gray whales are considered to be extinct in the north Atlantic Ocean so where had this whale come from…
Read MoreScottish windfarms decision bad for marine mammals
WDC are supportive of efforts to reduce climate impacts and move away from the use of fossil fuels. However, the decision by Scottish Ministers today to consent these four offshore wind farms off the Forth and Tay on the east coast of Scotland will drive another nail in the coffin of the local harbour seal…
Read MoreGood news for Welsh Whales and Dolphins
Here at WDC we welcome the recent news that a large wind farm that was proposed in the Irish Sea, has been withdrawn. The Rhiannon offshore wind farm was to be situated 12 miles off the coast of Anglesey, consisting of over 400 turbines and covering an unprecedented 497 km2 – an area where there have…
Read MoreGlobal interest in report on impacts of marine renewable energy on whales and dolphins
While generating increasing amounts of energy from marine renewable sources such as wind, wave or tides could help reduce our overreliance on fossil fuels, marine renewable energy developments (MREDs) that are designed, placed, built, operated and decommissioned without a thought for their potential impact on local whale and dolphin populations could prove disastrous. To highlight…
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