CAN WE FINALLY GET PAST PRETENDING TO BE SPECIAL?

I cannot believe there are still allegedly intelligent hominids who cling to the belief that something, or some person, or some tribe,  or some nation or some species is exceptional, is unique, is “the only one.”  True some things are more one way than most things, one species may be slightly faster or heavier or have a few more teeth…but everything in the real world occurs on a scale or in a complex pattern.

Just now there is research indicating some Neanderthal burials may have included flowers.

Just in my life time we have seen evidence that has put to rest the old myths that only Home sapiens made tools, or had language, or made symbols.  I am afraid there is nothing positive that we can claim uniquely for our species, or any of our nations, or smaller groups like tribe or religion or political party.  Yes, we do have nuclear weapons that could destroy most life.  And we are testing the limits of heating the planet to great risk for all concerned, and those oblivious as well.

We are part of nature and nature has been experimenting randomly for billions of years and will go on until the universe  implodes, explodes, reboots or reverts or does all that and more.  Nothing, nobody, no thing, no animal, no group is completely and truly exceptional.  One might be slightly more red or musical or tall or long-lived than others but it is clearer every decade that much of life, much of the universe, much of whatever gathering you choose, that much of anything shares much of its nature with much else.  That much is clear.  We can now honestly abandon that BS about “humans are the only animal that…”
We are just another species that needs THIS earth to survive and if we destroy this planet’s life-sustaining nature, we will be just another failed species.  Trilobite.  Stegosaurus.  Dodo. Neanderthal, flowers and all.  Atlantis.  Sumeria.  Scythia. Pompeii.  Roman Empire. Inca Empire.  Austro-Hungarian Empire. USSR.

NEWS STORIES RELATED TO SAN FRANCISCO’S NATURAL HISTORY

A wrap-up of enviro-news, including verrry bad news about Nor Cal kelp forests.

Worst case scenario for Earth in 2050. From book published in 2020.

Summary report on the Pacific Ocean heating  event of 2015-6.  Report issued in 2020.

Climate change killing off ocean fish.

2019 report on pollution on Treasure Island.  Thanks, U.S. Navy.

In a recent Guardian an article traces the changes made in California’s Silicon Valley since the days of the Ohlone, who got there before the Spanish Empire and their vicious missionaries who came to “convert” and enslave the locals.  This piece does describe the epidemics that nearly wiped out the Indian population.  It does not disclose that even before Europeans and their guns arrived, the Indians had more slowly done great damage to the native wildlife.  Why did Europeans in 18^th and 19^th Century find a wildlife paradise when they arrived in the Bay Area?  European diseases arrived first and the Indian population had decreased markedly, removing alpha predators, allowing ducks and deer and elk populations to soar.

Scallops, nanoplastics and what we have done to our planet.

Plastic in every human  body.

What climate change has already done…destruction and deaths.

The sixth mass extinction now underway. Over 80% of mammals killed by people.

Climate change: will the west see major emigration?  Smoke the wine industry.  Smoke leads to lay-offs at theatre festival.

Now the transit center next to the troubled Millennial Tower has its own structural issues.  Engineering does not conquer all.

Climate change will make disease and traffic accidents…worse.

Curse of the introduced spartina–a video tour.

August, 2018:  California firefighters on front lines of battle with climate change.

The earth as a hothouse.

San Francisco is a disaster waiting to happen…according to scientists.

July, 2018: Northern Hemisphere overheated.

How we need to get beyond plastics.  So old and out-dated and dangerous.

Earlier springs.

The battle over fuel efficiency standards in California.  Trump Admin comes out in favor of more pollution and more gas guzzling.

The ecological woes of the Central Valley; slumping land, arsenic in the water.

Why plant restoration should be done in stages.

China has stopped being the world’s major plastic buyer.  Oh well, we can always keep dumping it into the ocean…or maybe burn it, sniff that aroma…or bury it where it can last through the millennia and leach chemicals for eons…or maybe we could stop making the stuff?  Oh, sorry, that might hurt some corporate profits.  Oh dear…

How climate change is killing off trees around the globe, including California’s pines.

How badly the world is failing to deal with climate change according to one of the first scientists to sound the alarm…thirty years ago!

How our use of antibiotics has led to superbugs, that we cannot stop, like MRSA and a new strain of gonorrhea.

How robotic tech will alter the food poison industry.  Zap, not spray away.  Why not lasers? I ask?  Or super-heated steam?

National Park Service quietly releases report on climate change and sea level rising.

Two pieces in “Sierra Magazine” on effects and economics of climate change: https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2018-3-may-june/feature/the-case-for-climate-reparations

https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2018-3-may-june/feature/worlds-sinking-islands-challenge-our-imagination

California has sick and dying Brown Pelicans. 

Now you can watch an animation that lets you see what happens to your favorite coastal area. South of Market goes under water. Martinez will take a drowning as well.  Back east Florida becomes a narrow neck of land.  Sea level rise with climate change…watch it happen on this website, Earthtime. 

American cities losing their trees because of streets, parking lots and construction, i.e. capitalism,  not conservation.

Humans have been destroying other species for a long time.

How cities’ artificial environments speed up wildlife evolution.

Can migratory songbirds adapt to climate change?  Will migration and nature’s changing schedule cause population crises?

Trash vs. whale…trash wins.

New York City joins SF’s lawsuit against fossil fuel companies over climate change.

Scientists look at what climate change could do to California agriculture.

Modern agriculture  messes with environment; nature strikes back in Argentina.

Up to one-third of American wildlife species may be headed to extinction.

Heavy use of antibiotics, polluting planet and helping resistant microbes evolve faster.  Will this bring the demise of people?

Washington State has banned all Atlantic salmon farms in that state.  That follows an accidental but apparently careless release of Atlantic salmon into the wild when netting around a salmon farm broke in 2017.

San Francisco and Oakland vs. five big fossil fuel companies…in climate change lawsuit.

Bay Area biologist, Paul Ehrlich, predicts over-population will destroy civilization.

The heat blob diminishes in the Pacific Northwest.

Pacific plastic pollution worse than earlier estimated.

What’s killing starfish–the science.

San Francisco’s endangered manzanita.

Hot times in the Arctic…bad news for polar bears, coastal cities and life in general.

Drying earth leads to big crack in Arizona’s skin.

NOAA’s 2017 technical report on projected sea level rise in US.

Washington State ousts Cooke Aquaculture from one lease after the firm’s nets broke, releasing thousands of Atlantic salmon.

Dutch man comes up with plant to remove plastic pollution from the oceans.  We need to hurry because most seabirds on the planet are already carrying plastic inside them.  If Bill Gates puts enough of his money behind the clean-up, it could be good news. We need some.

Plastic is just another bad thing we humans are doing to coral reefs.

The ozone layer in the atmosphere is not recovering over cities…likely due to man-made chemicals.   One more self-destructive move by people against themselves.

Capetown dried up due to climate change.

Joys of fossil fuels: gas well explosion in Oklahoma.

2017 one of the three hottest years on record.  Other two: 2015 and 2016.  Get it?

Salmon killing ag chemical protected by Trump Regime.

Poison used by non-organic pot farms threatens wildlife.  I point in my book that poisoning rats in Golden Gate Park killed off the Great Horned Owls and it took them a decade to return.

New York City vs. Big Oil

Noise pollution hard on birds as well as humans.

How animals cope with extreme heat–some die.

Story on the size of 2017’s climate related disasters.

Graphic showing increasing costs of climate change influenced disasters. How long before our lifestyle drives this nation broke?

Leaning tower of San Francisco (Millennium) cited for fire risk.

Modern technology and economy killing the Earth’s oceans.

Oregon sues Monsanto over PCBs, decades after they were banned.

Is there a population problem on earth or is that a silly worry?

Greenland’s melting ice and coastal cities’ future.

Don’t flush those drugs down the toilet or put ’em in the sink or the landfill.

CLIMATE CHANGE TALK–HERE’S MY BIBLIOGRAPHY

I speak about western birds and climate change at 530pm in Hannon Library at Southern Oregon University, Ashland, Oregon on the night of October 15th. Talk is free.

CLIMATE CHANGE: A SELECTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR PACIFIC COAST BIRDERS This bibliography include articles and books that deal with species outside the Avian clan but changes in moose or monarch populations, or diseases in forest trees cannot be isolated from similar or related affects on birds.

Alaska’s spruce bark beetle crisis:
http://forestry.alaska.gov/insects/sprucebarkbeetle.htm

Amphibian decline:
http://amphibiaweb.org/declines/declines.html

Aridity:
A Great Aridness. William de Buys.

All the Wild That Remains. David Gessner. Book describes the environmental thoughts of Stegner and Abbey and author visits sites they knew and loved.

When the Rivers Run Dry. Fred Pearce.

Avian keratin disorder:
http://atowhee.wordpress.com/2014/08/14/freak-beak/
I am investigating an epizootic of similar bill deformities in Alaska. This epizootic has recently spread to the Pacific Northwest, with a large cluster of bill deformities appearing in the Puget Sound region. Birds affected by this ‘avian keratin disorder’ have bills that are abnormally long and often crossed, such as in this nuthatch. We’ve determined that the keratin layer of the beak (like the material in a person’s fingernails) is growing too rapidly. Despite extensive testing, we still don’t know what’s causing the problem. We’ve documented beak deformities among a large number of species, including chickadees, crows, nuthatches, jays, woodpeckers, ravens, and several raptors. We are very interested in receiving reports of any birds with abnormal bills such as this one. Please visit our website at the USGS Alaska Science Center or contact me directly:
http://alaska.usgs.gov/science/biology/landbirds/beak_deformity/index.html
–Colleen Handel
Research Wildlife Biologist
USGS Alaska Science Center
cmhandel@usgs.gov

Beetle infestation:
Empire of the Beetle. Andrew Nikiforuk.
Birds as sentinel species: “Canaries in a Global Cole Mine?” pp. 1337-1338. “Ecology” 88(5), 2007. Review of the book Birds and Climate Change by Moller et al. Elsevier. Burlington, Mass. 2006.

Bobcat-lynx hybrids:
http://www.nrri.umn.edu/lynx/information/hybrid.html

Bumble bee evolution right now: Functional mismatch in a bumble bee pollination mutualism under climate change. Authors: Nicole E. Miller-Struttmann, Jennifer C. Geib, James D. Franklin, et al. Science 25 September 2015: 1541-1544. [DOI:10.1126/science.aab0868] Researchers write: “We found that in two alpine bumble bee species, decreases in tongue length have evolved over 40 years. Co-occurring flowers have not become shallower, nor are small-flowered plants more prolific. We argue that declining floral resources because of warmer summers have favored generalist foraging, leading to a mismatch between shorter-tongued bees and the longer-tubed plants they once pollinated.”

California climate change:
http://www.climatechange.ca.gov/climate_action_team/reports/
http://oehha.ca.gov/multimedia/epic/ [this contains list of all state’s climate change reports]

California’s official West Nile Virus website:
http://westnile.ca.gov/wnv_basics.htm

California West Nile infection map:
http://westnile.ca.gov/latest_activity.php

Carbon tetrachloride still being emitted:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/23/ozone-depleting-compound-found_n_5701157.html

Center for Biological Diversity:
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/index.html

Christmas Bird Count Analysis:
WWW.audubon.org/bird/bacc/species.html

Climate change anxiety:
http://www.care2.com/causes/climate-change-anxiety-and-how-we-can-become-climate-resilient.html

Climate change disagreement, not debate:
“How to Talk About climate Change So People Will Listen. By Charles Mann. “The Atlantic,” Sept., 2014.

Climate Peril: The Intelligent Reader’s Guide to Understanding the Climate Crisis. By John Berger. Northbrae Books. 2014.

Coal use worse than we’ve been told:
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-28942403

Coal burning waste:
http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/coalvswind/c02d.html

Coffee:
“Climate for Coffee” in “National Geographic” magazine. Sept. 2015.

Extinction
Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. Elizabeth Colbert. Henry Holt. 2014.

Extinctions predicted:
“Extinction risk from climate change” letter in Nature 427, 145-148 (8 January 2004) | doi:10.1038/nature02121; Received 10 September 2003; Accepted 13 October 2003, By Chris Thomas, et al.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v427/n6970/full/nature02121.html

Feral. George Monbiot. Penguin. 2013. Argues for helping all animals and plants find space for survival.
Website for book: http://www.monbiot.com/2013/05/24/feral-searching-for-enchantment-on-the-frontiers-of-rewilding/

Greenhouse gas list, according to IPCC:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPCC_list_of_greenhouse_gases

Greenland ice sheet loss accelerates:
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-28852980

Grizzly-Polar Bear Hybridization
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/17/magazine/should-you-fear-the-pizzly-bear.html?

Health hazards with climate change:
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/impacts-adaptation/health.html

IPCC report, Fall, 2014:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2014/08/26/climate-change-report-united-nations/14638079/

Christina Larson “Hostile shores”
Science 9 October 2015: 150-152. [DOI:10.1126/science.350.6257.150]. Describes environmental degradation of marshlands used by Asian migrant birds.

Methane from rice:
http://www.ghgonline.org/methanerice.htm

Methane sources:
http://epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gases/ch4.html

Minnesota moose population:
http://www.startribune.com/local/270761141.html

Moose population decreases:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/15/science/earth/something-is-killing-off-the-moose.html

Monarch migration and species hybrids on NPR’s “On Point:”
http://onpoint.wbur.org/2014/08/20/monarch-butterflies-migration-climate-change

Monarch population decline:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/08/140819-monarch-butterfly-milkweed-environment-ecology-science/

Monarch population decline covered by “Living on Earth,” of NPR:
http://www.loe.org/shows/shows.html?programID=14-P13-00026

Monterey pine disease:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_pitch_canker

Mountaintop species and climate change:
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/biodiversity/mountaintop_species/index.html

National Wildlife Federation, on adaptation to climate change:
http://www.nwf.org/climate-smart

Oak sudden death:
http://www.suddenoakdeath.org/

Ocean acidification effects on marine life:
http://oceana.org/en/our-work/climate-energy/ocean-acidification/learn-act/effects-of-ocean-acidification-on-marine-species-ecosystems
“PATHOLOGY ASSOCIATED WITH WEST NILE VIRUS INFECTIONS IN THE YELLOW-BILLED MAGPIE (PICA NUTTALLI): A CALIFORNIA ENDEMIC BIRD”
Holly B. Ernest, Leslie W. Woods and Bruce R. Hoar
Journal of Wildlife Diseases Apr 2010, Vol. 46, No. 2 (April 2010) pp. 401-408
M

Moller, Anders, et al. (eds). Feeling the Heat. Elsevier, Burlington, MA. 2006.

Pepperwood Preserve climate change studies:
http://app.pepperwoodpreserve.org/pls/apex/f?p=514:10:7789024140228

Pine beetles:
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/whats_killing_the_great_forests_of_the_american_west/2252/

Rising land:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-21/epic-drought-in-west-is-literally-moving-mountains.html

Solar power installation kills birds:
http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2014/08/22/pecking-order-energys-toll-on-birds

Starfish die-off on Pacific Coast:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/scientists-zero-whats-causing-starfish-die-offs/

Tricolored Blackbird Population Crisis
http://ca.audubon.org/newsroom/press-releases/2014/california-fish-and-game-commission-considers-emergency-listing-tricolo
Urban heat islands:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/20/urban-heat-island-effect-us-cities_n_5696009.html?

Warming hiatus:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/atlantic-ocean-slows-global-warming-but-scientists-believe-hiatus-will-end-around-2030-1.2743216?cmp=fbtl

White-tailed Ptarmigan’s future:
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/birds/white-tailed_ptarmigan/map.html
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/birds/white-tailed_ptarmigan/
World Health Organization on climate change, starvation and disease:
http://www.who.int/topics/climate/en/