Save Lord Howe island wildlife

This video is called Diving at Lord Howe Island.

From Wildlife Extra:

Lord Howe Island to be cleared of rats

Iconic island has already lost 18 endemic species, including 5 birds

July 2012. Rats that have for decades plagued Lord Howe Island and killed off native animals will be wiped out under a $9 million plan announced by Australian Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke and New South Wales Environment Minister Robyn Parker.

130,000 rats to be exterminated with poison

A bold initiative of the Lord Howe Island Board, the plan is to rid the Island of more than 130,000 rodents using poison baits, some dropped by air, in conservation areas. Special “arks” will be constructed to protect endangered species until the rats are eradicated

“The NSW Government and the Commonwealth are each putting up $4.5m to save the animal and plant species clinging to life on this magnificent island,” Minister Burke said.

“Following a feasibility study in 2001, the Lord Howe Island Board commenced the eradication plan as part of its responsibility to protect the islands’ ecosystems, the Kentia Palm, its tourism industries and the health and wellbeing of residents and visitors,” Ms Parker said.

More than 30 species driven to extinction since 1918

Part of New South Wales, the island describes itself as “the Last Paradise”, yet more than 30 species have been driven to extinction by the Black Rats, which came ashore when the SS Makembo ran aground on the island in 1918. Gone are five bird species, including the Grey Fantail, at least 13 invertebrate species, including two snails and 11 beetles, and the localised extinction of the Lord Howe Island Phasmid, White-Bellied Storm-Petrel and Kermadec Petrel.

Ms Parker said the success of the operation is dependent on the participation and commitment of the local community and a shared responsibility to protect the islands’ ecosystems.

The NSW Office of Environment and Heritage intends to hold further meetings with the 350 residents on Lord Howe Island about how the project has been designed and how residents’ safety will be assured. The CSIRO has endorsed the plan.

13 bird species still threatened

The rats pose an ongoing threat to at least 13 bird species that breed on the island, including the endangered Lord Howe woodhen and Lord Howe pied currawong, and to endemic reptiles including the Lord Howe Island gecko and invertebrates such as the Whitelegge’s land snail and Lord Howe Placostylus. They also destroy vegetation and are threatening the Little Mountain palm and the Kentia Palm, which is of enormous economic value to the island.

Non-toxic trials have been carried out to ensure minimal risk to wildlife while project managers will work with landholders and the community to protect stock and domestic animals during the baiting program.

The Lord Howe Island Group is located 700 kilometres north-east of Sydney and was included on the World Heritage List in 1982.

“Lord Howe Island is a national treasure; it is a World Heritage listed haven for a diverse range of flora, fauna and marine life,” Minister Parker said.

100 day plan

The Ministers said under the plan, it is hoped the rodents would be eradicated in a prolonged 100-day baiting operation. The safety and protection of residents, the environment, non-target species, livestock and pets will be paramount.

“Lord Howe Island is a jewel of the Pacific that is of exceptional natural importance and biological diversity,” Mr Burke said.

Lord Howe has spectacular landscapes, including volcanic mountains and diverse low-lying rainforests as well as palm forests and grasslands. There is a large number of species of native plants, many of which are endemic to the island and over 160 species of birdlife. Outstanding underwater vistas include reefs considered to be among the most beautiful in the world while more than 500 species of fish are found in local waters.

August 2012. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Island Conservation have announced that efforts to restore Desecheo Island’s native species and their habitat by removing non-native, invasive black rats from Desecheo Island have been completed safely and successfully. The removal of invasive rats will allow the native forest to recover and will promote the recolonization of the island by several seabird species that historically nested there: here.

Invasive Species Definition Clarification and Guidance White Paper: here.

Bahrain pro-democracy resistance continues

This video says about itself:

Bahraini riot police have fired tear gas and stun grenades at hundreds of demonstrators attempting to block a highway. Frequent anti-government protests have wracked the country since February 2011. RT talks to Patrick Henningsen, geopolitical analyst at the current affairs UK column web site – READ MORE here.

Bahrain chemical warfare culprit: here.

Rights groups express concern to French President over meeting with Bahraini king: here.

At least 40 people were arrested in Bahrain on Friday in a government crackdown on a pro-democracy rally. Bahraini forces fired tear gas and bird shot to disperse the crowd, wounding at least 45 people. Among those detained was pro-democracy activist Zainab Alkhawaja, the daughter of Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, who ended a more than three-month hunger strike in May. Bahrain is a key U.S. government ally, hosting the Navy’s Fifth Fleet: here.

Rare English spider discovery

From Wildlife Extra:

One of the UK’s rarest spiders discovered in Hainault Forest for first time in 32 years

July 2012. Staff from the British Arachnological Society have discovered one the UK’s rarest spiders, the Midas tree-weaver (Midia midas) at the Woodland Trust’s Hainault Forest in Essex. A female specimen was found in one of 20 traps which were placed amongst the 6,000 hornbeam pollards found in the ancient woodland.

Nationally endangered

A money spider, associated with ancient trees, the Midas tree-weaver is listed as nationally endangered and is identified as a Priority Species for conservation action under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (UKBAP). In the UK, the spider has only ever been recorded in five locations, one of which is Hainault Forest – but the last known recording of the spider on site was over 30 years ago.

Geoff Sinclair, Woodland Trust Site Manager, said: “Ancient woodland is one of the most precious habitats we have and the fact that a Midas tree-weaver has been recorded in Hainault Forest highlights the importance of ancient trees and woods as a wildlife habitat. We must do all we can to protect them to ensure the survival of such creatures.”

The surveying was carried out by sorting litter, birds nests and squirrel dreys from ancient trees and placing aerial pitfall traps in the crowns of trees.

Tony Russell-Smith from the British Arachnological Society added: “Despite the heavy rainfall in May and June which flooded many traps, the fact that we have found the tree-weaver again is a great result and confirms its continuing survival at this site, the only one so far recorded in the whole of the UK this year.”

The work forms part of a wider survey to establish the distribution and status of Midia midas in different regions of Britain. It is hoped to use the information obtained to clarify the need for future conservation work for this species and to help define the scope of such work.

The midas tree weaver, Midia midas is one of Britain’s rarest spiders. It is equally rare throughout its range in Western Europe, where it has been recorded from Denmark, France, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania and Spain, either from single or a very few individuals. In the UK, it has been recorded from just five localities, Sherwood Forest, Notts. (Crocker, 1979), Donington Park, Leics. (Crocker & Daws, 1996), Epping Forest, Essex (Russell-Smith, 2002), Hainault Forest (Essex) and Windsor Forest (Berks), where it is always associated with ancient trees, either in forest or ancient wood pasture settings. The reasons for its close association with ancient trees are still unclear but its extreme rarity almost certainly results from both habitat loss and decline in woodland management practices such as pollarding.

Saudi women fight for their rights

This video says about itself:

“Olympic Dreams” – Saudi Human Rights Defender – Samar Badawi

Animation of Saudi human rights defender Samar Badawi for the Front Line Defenders Olympics 2012 Campaign – www.sportshrd.org.

Samar Badawi is a leading woman human rights defender in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. She participated in the ‘right to drive’ campaign and registered to vote in Saudi elections, both of which prompted authorities to act against her and generated threats and harassment.

To learn more, go to

www.frontlinedefenders.org/SamarBadawi

From Gulf News:

Saudi Arabia’s Rosa Parks helps women speak up

The rights movement may not have achieved much in terms of legislative reform, but it has given women a platform to voice their views

By Mona Kareem

August 3, 2012

Since the 1990s, Saudi women have been demanding the right to drive cars, travel alone, and abolish the male guardianship system. The struggle was limited to certain women from less conservative communities. After the Arab Spring, with the driving campaign, Saudi women were able to make their demands heard through a larger number of people involved and with the help of media exposure; western and Arab. It was believed that they were leading what can be called a ‘Saudi spring’.

Right after the Egyptian uprising, Saudi women worked online under the name ‘Saudi Women Revolution’ and although they started with bigger demands that sought radical changes to their status, gradually, the mild voices among them were able to dominate because they were less controversial and ‘more reasonable’, as some claim. Women were arrested and this was the easiest way to create leaders that exclusively were able to define the movement and its direction. A good example of that is Manal Al Sharif.

What has the movement achieved so far? Nothing when it comes to legislation, but a lot when it comes to having more women getting involved and speaking up. King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz promised that in the coming municipal elections (that have no set date) women would be able to contest and vote. The decision did not state whether those who wished to run for election needed permission from their male guardians.

Once again, women fall under the power of men and stay second class citizens. Eventually, this results in having a women’s rights movement that is limited to families who are less conservative and more educated; a movement that unintentionally excludes many women of low-class, and of conservative families.

The Saudi women’s movement has generated criticism. Several young voices have realised that the movement cannot contribute much if it stays limited to basic demands led by working women from the middle class. Some called on women to join male activists who are calling for reform in the kingdom, believing that the process of a true democracy is expected to grant women their rights and cannot be limited to changes within the political system.

Last year, people were drawing comparisons between historical movements and the movement by the Saudi women. A good example is the comparison with the civil rights movement in the US and how Al Sharif could be the Rosa Parks of Saudi Arabia. What such examples neglected, however, is how African-American women were fighting not only for their rights as women, but first, as people of colour experiencing racism.

Right now, many African-American women have been active, highlighting different issues related to violations of their rights as women and as women of colour. However, at that time, there was no possible way, no open space, for them to fight separately and work in a feminist movement not concerned with the rights of black people.

Lessons to learn

Global historical examples, especially western, might not be the closest to the Saudi example considering the cultural, social, political, and time differences. I recall how many Saudi women used to say that they were not aiming ‘too high’ for the time-being, but were asking to have the same rights that their Gulf counterparts had achieved, and specifically what Kuwaiti women had achieved.

The latter have always been socially involved, enjoying a greater level of freedom. They were able to get their political rights in 2005 and won four seats in the parliament three years ago.

In the Kuwaiti example, if there is a lesson to learn, it is that female activists were fighting for their rights without neglecting the calls for political reform. …

Having Saudi women drive cars was a good way to get attention and make a point. There was a line and it was crossed but there are other lines that need to be crossed in order to keep the women’s movement alive. If this movement decides not to get politically involved and surrenders to its icons to control it, then we will eventually witness the death of another Saudi women’s movement that was not able to comprehend the situation and work within the current political context.

Mona Kareem is a Kuwait-born blogger, writer and poet based in New York.

Saudi authorities claim that a teenager who was killed during a protest in Qatif had attacked an army patrol, killing one soldier and injuring another. Rights activists, though, say it was part of a violent police crackdown on the Shia minority: here.

Florida nature reserve Leffis Key

This video from Florida is called Anna Maria Island‘s Breath Taking Bay Walk At Leffis Key.

From the Bradenton Herald in the USA:

Leffis Key is a natural island paradise

Published: August 4, 2012

Leffis Key is an island preserve due east of Coquina Beach at the southern tip of Anna Maria Island. Once a barren spoil island, the area is a small paradise of native plants, saltwater wetlands and wildlife.

A 26-foot tall hill in the center of Leffis Key offers a 360-degree view of the Gulf of Mexico, Sarasota Bay and the Intracoastal Waterway. The hill is covered with many types of native foliage, such as sea oats, beach elder, dune sunflowers, southern red cedars, green buttonwood, sea grapes, gumbo-limbo and strangler figs.

Leffis Key is a favorite location for bird watching. Each year birders gather at the park for the Manatee County Audubon Societ[y]‘s Christmas Bird Count.

Amenities at Leffis Key include footpaths that weave through the island, up the hill and across boardwalks that cut through dense mangrove forests, opening up to scenic views of the water.

Interpretive signs are placed along the way to provide a better understanding of the habitats, as well as the animal and plant life. There are benches along the path for those adventurers that want to pause and reflect.

Leffis Key offers hiking, fishing, scenic views and an opportunity to learn about our pristine and fragile environment.

Due to the park being in the Coquina Beach Baywalk, dogs are not permitted.

Leffis Key is at 2351 Gulf of Mexico Drive on Anna Maria Island.

– Grant Jefferies, Herald photojournalist

London Olympics and poverty

This video about swimming is called Ranomi Kromowidjojo Of The Netherlands Wins Women’s 100m Freestyle Gold With Olympic Record.

By Chris Marsden in Britain:

The London Olympics and the social crisis

4 August 2012

The Olympic Games bring together the finest sportsmen and sportswomen in the world. No one who follows the various events can fail to be moved by the spectacular displays of athleticism and physical prowess of the competitors. The apparently superhuman character of their achievements is in reality proof of the contrary—the tremendous potentialities of the human race.

Major sporting matches, however, are inevitably coloured by broader economic, social and political factors, and none more so than this, the premier global event. There has never been a “golden age” of the Olympics and there is no justification for doe-eyed complaints about the betrayal of the Olympics’ “ideals” and “spirit” at this late stage.

It is over a hundred years since Baron Pierre de Coubertin revived the games. He did so based not merely on a belief that organised sport was a source of individual “moral and social strength,” but that physical education would better prepare [French] men to fight and win wars.

The games have ever since been refracted through the prism of nationalism and national antagonisms, most famously in the failed attempt by Hitler to utilise the 1936 Olympics as a demonstration of Aryan prowess. For most of the post-Second World War era, the Games were an arena in which the Cold War between US imperialism and the Soviet Union was fought by proxy—including the tit-for-tat boycotts of 1980 and 1984.

Even when viewed against the backdrop of this history, the past quarter century distinguishes itself for the ever more malevolent presence of nationalism and commercialism in successive Olympics.

Gold, silver and bronze medals that should be symbols of individual and collective sacrifice, dedication and attainment have long been aggregated and utilised as marks of national superiority. But this distortion has been reinforced by the grotesque amounts of corporate money invested in sport. Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 were benchmarks in the commercialisation of the games, bringing with it ever higher staging costs and admission prices.

With London 2012, the baleful impact of the social, political and cultural impasse of contemporary capitalism on sport finds its most pronounced expression. Alongside stunning performances, we have seen more than a dozen athletes disqualified for illegal drug use. Another two, Greece’s Pareskevi Papahristou and Switzerland’s Michel Morganella, were kicked out for posting racist messages on social networking sites.

The games have also witnessed a match-throwing scandal, involving female badminton doubles teams from China, Indonesia and South Korea who were disqualified for deliberately losing points in their final group matches so as to secure a favourable draw in the next round.

The image of rows of empty seats continues to be a feature. At least 275,000 tickets remain unsold, including 200,000 soccer tickets. This is because many working people have been priced out of an event that has been dedicated instead to corporate junketing—including £2,012 tickets for the opening ceremony and £655 and £1,500 tickets for the close. Even less prominent events charge ludicrous sums for standard tickets—£65 for beach volleyball, £75 for women’s archery, £125 for men’s weight-lifting.

Commercial sponsors have shelled out £1.4 billion in expectation of vast returns. This is on top of the sponsorship of teams and individual athletes by the sports companies, energy drink manufacturers, et al, which ratchets up the pressure to secure medals. Sponsorship of athletes is the main reason for the ongoing plague of performance enhancing drugs.

Then there is the blanket use of Olympic symbolism in advertising, with adverts for patriotic Union flag nappies and Olympic-themed tampons among the most bizarre.

The most disturbing and significant feature of London 2012 is that it takes place behind what the British Armed Forces describe as a “ring of steel”. A fly-past by the Red Arrows, and the Union and Olympic flags being raised by members of the armed forces in the opening ceremony were reminders of the extraordinary militarisation of these games.

At a cost well in excess of £1 billion, 49,000 uniformed personnel, including 17,000 troops, have been mobilized to guard the games in the largest single mobilization of British security forces since the 1956 Suez crisis. Also deployed are the carrier HMS Ocean, fighter planes, attack helicopters and surface-to-air missiles. Not to be outdone, the US sent personnel from the CIA, FBI and other agencies to guard its athletes, police airport customs checkpoints, and establish a “threat integration center” in the US embassy.

This cannot be explained as a response to a perceived terrorist threat. London appears like a city under occupation. The global elite have descended on London to party and do business deals, and the city has been handed over to them as a virtual fiefdom. It is London’s residents—those who will foot the bill for the games even as their lives are blighted by hardship, poverty and unemployment—rather than Islamic fundamentalists whom the oligarchy considers to be a threat.

The government and the state forces have determined that the lower orders will be kept away from the proceedings and there will be no political protest or incident involving a VIP to sully the capital’s reputation as a financial and commercial centre.

The World Socialist Web Site has already drawn attention in a previous perspective column to the official claim that the Olympic spirit seeks to “place sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity,” along with “social responsibility and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.”

No sporting activity could fulfill such a mandate. But today more than ever, it is not sport that must promote the development of humankind, but the further development of humankind and its social organization that must save sport.

Sport should belong to and be enjoyed by everyone. But, like so much else, it is appropriated and controlled by the ruling elite and denied to those who cannot afford to pay, and in the process distorted and degraded.

Every aspect of human endeavour—not just athletic, but artistic, scientific and intellectual—is threatened by and militates against the stultifying constraints of the profit system. What is intrinsically a noble and life-affirming pursuit of excellence is cheapened by being made to function as a mechanism for giant corporations and the super rich to add to their bank balances and promote nationalism.

London: Disability activists said today that Tory plans to put millions of benefits claimants through a gruelling new tickbox test will drive a wave of suicides among those who see payments slashed: here.

Adidas’s flagship London store was targeted by anti-exploitation campaigners on Saturday who say the Olympic sponsor is “raking in profits” at its workers’ expense: here.

Anti-poverty charity War on Want stepped up its row with Olympic sponsor Adidas at the weekend after projecting a huge image condemning the sports giant’s alleged use of sweatshop labour onto a building overlooking the Olympic Park: here.

7 Ways the International Olympic Committee Saps the Fun Out of the Olympics: here.

No Olympic boost as the Games just add to economic misery: here.

Campaigners including one wearing a giant head of Olympics chief Seb Coe distributed copies of a spoof London evening paper last night attacking Games sponsors for alleged human and environmental abuse: here.

Kemp’s ridley turtles after BP disaster

This video says about itself:

It’s already one of the world’s most endangered animals, but the very survival of the Kemp’s Ridley turtle was dealt a massive blow by the BP oil spill in 2010.

At the time, scientists had been moving eggs in a desperate bid to save the species.

Now, as part of our “What happened Next?” series, Rachel Levin travels back to Tamaulipas reserve to see how the turtles are doing.

Al Jazeera’s Rachel Levine reports from La Pesca, Mexico.

A recent decision by the Alabama state legislature to allocate funds from an early settlement with British Petroleum (BP) to build a convention center has aroused anger from Gulf Coast environmental groups. The project is part of a $594 million plan announced last week by BP and the five Gulf Coast states affected by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster: here.

August 2012. After a leak of seawater from a pipe, 300 Green turtles have died at a turtle farm on the Cayman Islands. The turtle farm is a controversial turtle breeding centre that also sells turtle products to raise money. Not everyone agrees with this style of conservation, and although much good has been done in boosting local populations of turtles, there is much disquiet in some quarters about their methods: here.

Endangered Sea Turtles Face Increased Threats: here.