A third of the animals will die.
Are we in the end times? Check out theses
verses and read the following news articles and decide for yourself.
Bird beak deformities,
Study: Imperiled animals lack protection,
Report: Pollution Didn't Kill R.I. Fish,
Mysterious Brazil zoo deaths hit 73,
Florida Probing Bottlenose Dolphin Deaths,
Increasing Destruction of Amazon Alarms Activists,
Red Squirrel Facing UK Extinction Threat,
Wash. State Adds Orcas to Endangered List,
More Than 20 Dead- Sick Otters in Calif,
Eye of newt and toe of frog may one day be gone.
verses
Ezekiel 14
Judgment Inescapable
12 The word of the LORD came to me: 13 "Son of man, if a country sins against me by being unfaithful and I stretch out my hand against it to cut off its food supply and send famine upon it and kill its men and their animals, 14 even if these three men-Noah, Daniel [1] and Job-were in it, they could save only themselves by their righteousness, declares the Sovereign LORD
Ezekiel 14
20 as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD , even if Noah, Daniel and Job were in it, they could save neither son nor daughter. They would save only themselves by their righteousness.
21 "For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem my four dreadful judgments-sword and famine and wild beasts and plague-to kill its men and their animals! 22 Yet there will be some survivors-sons and daughters who will be brought out of it. They will come to you, and when you see their conduct and their actions, you will be consoled regarding the disaster I have brought upon Jerusalem-every disaster I have brought upon it.
Revelation 8
8The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, 9a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
10The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water--
Bird Beak Deformities Concern Scientists
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - A bird beak deformity first recorded among black-capped chickadees near Anchorage has been increasingly seen in crows in Southeast Alaska, broadening an already mysterious phenomenon.
Black-capped chickadees, Northwestern crows and 27 other species of birds in Alaska have been reported with beaks up to three times their normal length. The deformity often strikes mature birds and reduces their ability to feed and preen effectively. In many birds, the deformity leads to death.
``We don't know what's causing the problem,'' said Colleen Handel, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey's Alaska Science Center in Anchorage. She's been studying the beak deformities for five years.
Though the phenomenon was first noticed in black-capped chickadees in the early 1990s, a deformed raven, a deformed Steller's jay and several deformed crows have been reported in Southeast Alaska since 1997. Southeast sightings have increased this year, biologists told the Juneau Empire.
The center has received 1,600 reports of deformed black-capped chickadees beaks in Alaska and 200 reports of other kinds of birds in Alaska, compared with only 12 reports of beak deformities of black-capped chickadees in the rest of North America. Handel had no total for other deformed birds elsewhere in North America but said nowhere is there a concentration as in Alaska.
Those deformities could have been caused by genetic mutations. Damaged DNA could be implicated in the abnormal growth, Handel said, but no one knows what might be causing damage to the DNA.
``With such a broad geographic range, you look for something that could be occurring over a broad area, and that immediately calls to mind something like contaminants or a disease organism that could be affecting a large area,'' Handel said.
Tests on affected birds have shown no specific parasite or disease, and only low levels of contaminants.
Besides caring for the health of Alaska's wildlife, there are concerns about possible implications to humans, Handel said.
``In the back of my mind I always wonder what else might be affected, depending on what's causing it,'' Handel said. ``... If there's something happening to those species, it's certainly something that raises an alarm for all of us.''
04/07/04 08:15
Study: Imperiled animals lack protection
Thursday, April 8, 2004 Posted: 4:09 PM EDT (2009 GMT)
The Comoro black flying fox, a fruit bat, is one of hundreds of threatened species that are still not protected.
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INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana (AP) -- Hundreds of imperiled species around the world -- from a tiny opossum to a radiant blue bird -- lack protection from human encroachment despite the vast amount of land set aside for conservation, a new study warns.
Researchers said the findings are a wake-up call pointing to the need for new strategies to ensure that protected lands and the ranges of threatened species overlap.
At present, the largest protected areas are in desert or cold climates where the biodiversity is far lower than in tropical areas teeming with life, said Stuart L. Pimm, a professor of ecology at Duke University.
"The protected areas tend to be in the wrong places. We have huge national parks in Alaska, but few protected areas in biologically rich places like Florida or Hawaii," said Pimm, who was not involved in the research.
The findings appear in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.
In the study, researchers from nine nations compared maps of more than 100,000 protected areas around the globe to maps of the ranges of 11,633 animal species -- mostly tropical and many threatened or endangered.
They found that for about 12 percent of the species, their ranges did not include parks or nature preserves that would protect them from human activities such as logging, hunting or mining operations.
And among 3,896 species deemed threatened, they found that 20 percent had no protection. About 300 of those animals are on the verge of extinction.
They include a tiny Colombian marsupial called Handley's slender mouse opossum and Indonesia's Cerulean Paradise-flycatcher, a bright blue bird with 100 or so survivors confined to a single forest-topped extinct volcano. Other critically endangered species are the Comoro black flying fox, a fruit bat found only on the Indian Ocean's Comoros islands, and Myanmar's Burmese star tortoise.
Smaller studies have shown "gaps" between protected areas and threatened species, but the new work offers the first global view of that situation by evaluating the predicament of some of the best documented animal species, said Ana S.L. Rodrigues, a research fellow at Conservation International in Washington, D.C.
"Even for these species that we know well, we're finding these levels of unprotection, of gaps. It's alarming," said Rodrigues who was the study's lead author.
Although about 11.5 percent of Earth's land surface has protected status, she said many developing nations simply lack the resources to protect their national parks. Conflicts over conservation are common, she said, because areas highly attractive to humans such as fertile lowlands and forests are also the richest in species.
Craig Hilton-Taylor, a Cambridge, England-based conservation biologist with the World Conservation Union, called the research "scary" because it did not even look at thousands of little-known species such as small mammals, freshwater fish, plants and invertebrates that have very tiny ranges.
"We have a long way to go before we can say, 'Yes, we are truly conserving the world's biodiversity,"' he said.
Report: Pollution Didn't Kill R.I. Fish
By RICHARD C. LEWIS
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Scientists at the University of Rhode Island say there's little evidence that last summer's fish kill in Greenwich Bay was caused by nutrient pollution, contradicting findings by a state commission and legislative panels that excessive runoff caused the mass death.
The debate concerns what occurred on Aug. 19, when millions of marine organisms, mostly juvenile fish called menhaden and shellfish, washed ashore along Greenwich Bay. Scientists called it the worst fish kill in recent memory.
The kill sparked public interest in Narragansett Bay, and spawned the creation of the Governor's Narragansett Bay and Watershed Planning Commission and two Senate committees to investigate why the kill happened. Each has released reports in the past two months blaming nutrient pollution for killing the marine life.
Scott Nixon, an oceanography professor at the University of Rhode Island, told The Associated Press the fish kill was caused by hot weather, little wind, and low tides, which created a dead zone because a section of water was not carrying oxygen. He said such conditions are exacerbated in Greenwich Bay, because it is shallow and has weak circulation.
``The bay's not dying,'' Nixon said. ``It's a productive system, and when the weather and the tides coincide, as they did last summer, we get short periods of (low or no oxygenated) waters, especially in shallow coves in Greenwich Bay.''
Nixon teamed with Malcolm Spaulding, a colleague in URI's oceanography department, on the research. It was printed in ``41 Degrees North,'' a publication of the Rhode Island Sea Grant & Land Grant programs.
In the article, Nixon wrote there's no evidence that nutrients from runoff, wastewater treatment plants and home septic systems caused the fish kill. He said studies he has conducted periodically since the mid-1970s on rivers and discharge from wastewater treatment plants show nitrogen levels have remained the same, and declined in some cases.
Other scientists at the school have reported better water clarity and lower levels of chlorophyll, the ingredient that causes plant blooms, in lower parts of Narragansett Bay.
Scientists agree that nitrogen from runoff and wastewater plants are beneficial to the bay, because they spawn plant life upon which the marine organisms feed, and which help produce the bay's bountiful shellfish harvest. But they differ on how much is needed, and whether Narragansett Bay is getting too much.
``There is disagreement within the scientific community as to whether the bay is in trouble,'' said Chris Deacutis, a scientist with the Narragansett Bay Estuary program at URI's Coastal Institute.
Deacutis served on the governor's commission, that, like the Senate committees, concluded the bay is overloaded with nutrients. They point to last summer's fish kill, beach shutdowns throughout the state and shellfish bed closings as evidence.
Marci Cole, a coastal ecologist with the environmental organization Save the Bay, said field studies she has conducted on eelgrass shows nutrients are harming the bay. Save the Bay has been unable to plant eelgrass in upper sections of Narragansett Bay for the past three years, she said, because too many nutrients are clouding the water and deterring the plants from getting the sunlight they need to take root.
While Cole said she agrees with Nixon that nitrogen amounts likely haven't increased, ``obviously what's going into the system is too much of a good thing.''
In the reports, policy-makers have recommended wastewater treatment plants cut their output, and that more residents around Greenwich Bay tie their septic systems to the municipal sewer network. In addition, Carcieri has proposed a $15 million bond issue to help cut discharge from groups such as marina operators.
Nixon said nitrogen levels should not be limited, at least until there's more research on how current levels affect the bay's productivity.
He suggested politicians' blaming the fish kill on excessive pollutants helps them show they're trying to help those worried by the fish kill.
``It's a one-sided story out there,'' he said.
Florida Probing Bottlenose Dolphin Deaths
CAPE SAN BLAS, Fla. (AP) - A die-off that claimed 105 bottlenose dolphins in the Florida Panhandle apparently has ended, but an investigation of the cause will continue, officials said Monday.
Ron Hardy, co-owner of Gulf World Marine Park at Panama City Beach, said he recommended that the team investigating the deaths declare it over. He expected the team to make a decision within a few days.
``We haven't had any new animals die now in over a week,'' said Hardy, the team's on-scene coordinator. ``Red tide is still the No. 1 suspect.'' Red tide is an algae bloom that kills sea life.
The die-off began March 10 and the last death was reported April 3. Most of the carcasses were found in and along St. Joseph's Bay and nearby waters of the Gulf of Mexico surrounding Cape San Blas. A few, however, turned up as far west as Panama City Beach, about 50 miles from here.
Scientists have found a high level of brevetoxin, a powerful neurotoxin released by red tide, in the marine mammals' stomach contents, urine and feces, but internal lesions usually associated with the poison have been absent.
``We still have a lot of unanswered questions,'' said Blair Mase, Southeast stranding coordinator for the National Marine Fisheries Service. ``Even though the event is over, the investigation will go on for several months.''
Mase agreed that red tide is the chief suspect, but she said scientists also will try to determine if another naturally occurring toxin, domoic acid, common to California waters but rare in the gulf, played any part. The substance also was found in the carcasses.
Two young dolphins died at Gulf World during the same period and another pair became ill but are recovering, Hardy said. He said test results are still pending, but he doubted his dolphins were affected by the same thing that killed the wild animals.
04/13/04 15:19
Mysterious Brazil zoo deaths hit 73
Wednesday, April 7, 2004 Posted: 10:40 AM EDT (1440 GMT)
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SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) -- Seventy-three Sao Paulo Zoo animals have died from poisoning this year, and Brazilian police said Tuesday they were extending their investigation because they still lacked sufficient evidence to charge suspects.
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But the leading detective on the case, Clovis Ferreira de Araujo, said the culprits could be caught soon. Speaking to journalists, Araujo said police were looking into groups that might have benefited financially from the animals' deaths.
"The action was intended to weaken the internal controls of the park and with this carry out illicit activities that could generate ill-gotten gains," Araujo said without elaborating.
He said the toll now stood at 73, up from the previously announced 67. The dead animals included kangaroos, an elephant, dromedaries, porcupines and primates.
The investigator said he would request more time to conduct the investigation, due to lack of sufficient evidence.
Ten people are being interrogated, of whom six may soon be indicted, but "there are still no clues to order the arrest of these suspects," said Araujo. He added that he would likely request the telephone and bank records of the suspects.
The suspects continue working at the zoo.
"There are still risks for the animals. I cannot rule out the possibility of new deaths," Araujo said.
Increasing Destruction of Amazon Alarms Activists
By Andrew Hay
BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - The rate of deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rose 2.1 percent last year to its second-highest level ever as farmers encroached further on the world's largest jungle, Brazil's government said on Wednesday.
The high rate of destruction alarmed environmentalists, who said too little was being done to combat the problem by the government, which has vowed to reduce the level this year.
"I am worried, the figures are too high," said Rosa Lemos de Sa of conservation group WWF Brazil. "The tendency is for it to stay high unless drastic measures are taken, and I don't see the government doing anything drastic."
Preliminary figures from Brazil's Environment Ministry showed deforestation in the Amazon jumped to 9,170 square miles in 2003 from 8,983 square miles in 2002. The 2002 data was recalculated, it said.
"The growth rate of deforestation has been halted," said Brazil's Environment Minister Marina Silva, a former maid who comes from the Amazon. "The big challenge is that 23,000 is still a very worrying number."
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil's first working-class president, last month unveiled plans to halt the destruction amid criticism his center-left government failed to act during its first year.
He promised satellite monitoring and joint action by ministries after a 28 percent jump in deforestation between 2001 and 2002 pushed the level toward the record rate of 11,229 square miles seen in 1995.
ECONOMIC GROWTH POSES THREAT
Critics say Lula could hasten Amazon destruction as he focuses on infrastructure projects and export crops to fight the economic stagnation and rising unemployment that has dogged Brazil since he entered office.
The Amazon, an area of continuous tropical forest that is larger than Western Europe, has been described as the "lungs of the world" because of its vast capacity to produce oxygen.
Environmentalists fear its destruction because it is home to up to 30 percent of the planet's animal and plant species and is an important source of medicines.
Deforestation has often lurched higher and lower on the fortunes of Latin America's largest economy and the amount of credit available to farmers.
"It's only thanks to the adverse economic climate the deforestation didn't go even higher last year," said Roberto Smeraldi, director of Friends of the Earth in Brazil.
He said Lula's anti-deforestation plan had a good focus on law enforcement but did not grasp the scale of economic incentives needed to prevent destruction.
Most Amazon destruction occurs due to burning and logging to create farms. Environmentalists want Lula to push for jobs in areas like sustainable forestry and tourism rather than cattle ranching and soy farming.
Deforestation declined in most states in 2003 but jumped nearly 30 percent in Mato Grosso, Brazil's top soy growing region. Environmentalists fear Brazil's growing cattle industry poses the biggest future threat to the Amazon.
Red Squirrel Facing UK Extinction Threat -Expert
LONDON (Reuters) - The much-loved red squirrel, once found in its millions in England, is under threat of UK extinction, a leading zoologist said on Wednesday.
Fast losing ground to the imported gray squirrel, the red's numbers have become dangerously low in its English strongholds of Cumbria and Northumberland.
The news came as ornithologists in the same region announced this week that the Lake District had lost its only breeding female Golden Eagle.
Peter Lurz of the University of Newcastle has been studying the native red squirrels.
"I'm worried that there is a real risk we could lose them," he told Reuters. "We estimate that there are only 20,000 left in England."
The sturdier grey, originally from North American forests and brought over to Britain in 1817, has stronger food-gathering skills in most environments than the red.
It has also been discovered that two-thirds of greys are silent carriers of a viral skin disease.
"We know that once the greys appear, the reds start dying of it," said Lurz, adding that the average lifespan after exposure was two weeks.
Scotland is estimated to have about 100,000 reds while populations of the animal in other European countries are under less threat -- although there too, greys are encroaching.
With the help of government conservation agencies, English Nature and Forest Enterprise, efforts are continuing to isolate the 1,000 red squirrels left in Cumbria in a captive breeding program.
Centerd in conifer forests around the Lake District, the hope is that they will find a safer home, shielded from greys.
"They could go in the UK in the next 10 or 20 years (if nothing is done)," Lurz said.
The Lake District has also lost its only breeding female golden eagle, according to ornithologists.
The bird, which reared nine offspring in 20 years, has not been seen for weeks and is feared dead, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said in a statement.
It was one-half of 422 breeding pairs of golden eagles in the UK, according to the RSPB. Its male partner is said to be circling the territory for a new breeding partner.
04/07/04 10:56
Wash. State Adds Orcas to Endangered List
SEATTLE (AP) - The state Fish and Wildlife Commission has added Puget Sound's orcas to the state's endangered species list.
``This may be a step toward some significant changes,'' said David Bain, an affiliate assistant professor of psychology at the University of Washington who has been researching local whales for 25 years.
``One of the reasons killer whales have been troubled is that food supply has been depleted,'' he told The Seattle Times. ``The state has a major role to play in salmon.''
The Fish and Wildlife Commission, a nine-member citizens panel that sets policy for the Department of Fish and Wildlife, voted unanimously Saturday in Spokane to approve the listing.
The agency made a recommendation for the listing last month based on a status report indicating the population of ``southern resident'' killer whales in Puget Sound and nearby waters has declined 18 percent since 1995.
The ``southern residents'' in the inland marine waters off Washington state and British Columbia include 84 orcas - down from a historical high of more than 120 in the 1960s.
A state listing triggers a recovery plan to guide efforts to protect the killer whales. Southern resident orcas are listed as ``depleted'' under the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act, which also requires a recovery plan for the species.
Meanwhile, the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service is considering whether to grant southern resident orcas protection under the federal Endangered Species Act.
``It's critical that the federal government looks into this and that they don't just blow it off,'' said Russ Cahill, a Fish and Wildlife commissioner. ``This is the major flag that waves over the Puget Sound.''
NMFS in 2002 ruled that southern residents did not warrant Endangered Species Act protection because they were not a ``significant population segment.''
In December, U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik ordered the agency to reconsider, ruling that NMFS had not used the best available science in making its listing decision.
A ``listing under the federal Endangered Species Act would be much more significant,'' Bain said. ``The fact that Washington state and the Canadian government have already listed increases the chances that will happen.''
Information from: The Seattle Times, http://www.seattletimes.com
04/06/04 11:50
More Than 20 Dead, Sick Otters in Calif.
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (AP) - More than 20 sea otters have been discovered dead or sick along a bay in central California in the past week, and scientists suspect a natural marine toxin.
The dead or sickened animals represent nearly 1 percent of the wild population of the southern sea otter, a threatened species protected under federal law. Many were found comatose or suffering from seizures or muscle tremors, scientists said Wednesday.
Wildlife experts believe the otters may have eaten mussels, clams and scallops contaminated with domoic acid - a naturally occurring toxin found in algae blooms at this time of year.
Post-mortem examinations on 12 otters and tests on tissue samples are expected to reveal what killed or sickened the animals.
Other marine mammals, birds and humans can also suffer nervous system damage from eating shellfish and fish that contain domoic acid.
The state Department of Health Services has warned the public not to eat sport-caught shellfish in San Luis Obispo County.
Only 2,505 otters were counted in their current range between Santa Barbara and Half Moon Bay during a 2003 census. The population must exceed 3,000 to be taken off the federal government's list of threatened species.
A year ago this month, 48 otters died, the highest short-term mortality rate in modern times. Their deaths were attributed to marine toxins, shark bites and parasites, including one linked to cat waste.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Eye of newt and toe of frog may one day be gone from witches grog.
Indeed, not just frogs and newts but amphibians in general are rapidly becoming threatened worldwide, a new study shows.
And while few would miss the evil broth concocted by the witches in Shakespeare's Macbeth, the rapid decline of animals like toads and salamanders is raising concerns as it worsens, a team of researchers reported Thursday.
"What we're seeing here is completely unprecedented declines and extinctions," said Simon N. Stuart of the World Conservation Union, lead researcher on the study.
These declines are "outside our normal experience," Stuart said in a telephone interview.
There are a variety of reasons for some losses, while others remain a mystery, the group reports in a paper being published online by the journal Science.
Amphibians have porous skins and narrow environmental requirements, and their decline may be an indication that something sinister is under way in the environment, Simon said.
"Where amphibians proceed, others may follow, possibly us also," he said.
The researchers reported that 1,856 species, 32.5 percent of the known species of amphibians, are "globally threatened," meaning they fall into the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's categories of vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered. By comparison, 12 percent of bird species and 23 percent of mammal species are threatened.
The researchers reported 435 amphibian species are in rapid decline, at least nine species have gone extinct since 1980 and another 113 species have not been reported from the wild in recent years and are considered to be possibly extinct.
Their findings, called the Global Amphibian Assessment, were compiled by more than 500 scientists in 60 countries.
"All in all, amphibians are certainly in deep trouble in many areas, for a whole suite of reasons," said Ross A. Alford, a professor of tropical biology at James Cook University in Australia.
Alford, who was not a co-author of the report, said via e-mail that the study "has done a good job of documenting (the decline), and also of pointing out how much more we need to know to really understand the scale of the problem and begin to attempt to solve it."
Indeed, he added, the report may even understate the problem due to the patchiness of knowledge of amphibians.
"It is quite possible that there are as-yet large-scale ... declines, similar to those that have been documented for Australia and the New World tropics, that are occurring or have occurred" elsewhere, said Alford, author of a 1999 study of amphibian decline.
'Extremely worrying'
Trevor Beebee of the University of Sussex in England added that amphibians may be a type of warning, like the canaries miners used to take with them because the birds are more sensitive than people to the dangerous gases that can occur in mines.
"In my view this assessment of amphibian declines is very important, because it quantifies an extremely worrying set of observations," Beebee said via e-mail. "Amphibians are declining in many places all over the world, often in areas where we might expect human effects to be minimal."
The new paper concludes that while exploitation and loss of habitat are factors in some losses, other declines remain enigmatic, occurring for unknown reasons.
Overexploited species are concentrated in East and Southeast Asia where frogs are harvested for food, the report says. Habitat loss occurs more widely, but especially in Southeast Asia, West Africa and the Caribbean, it adds.
A major concern, the researchers say, are the enigmatic declines and disappearances occurring in North and South America, Puerto Rico and Australia.
"Such declines have taken place even within well-protected areas, such as Yosemite National Park (California), Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve (Costa Rica) and Eungella National Park (Australia)," the researchers wrote.
Some studies have associated these unexpected declines with a fungal disease that tends to occur at higher elevations and streamside locations, the report notes. Beebee also suggested subtle effects of climate change may also be at work.
