News
Watch Blue August on Planet Green
August 22nd, 2011
Watch the special Blue August presentations featuring AGC and Ian Somerhalder on Planet Green! Visit Planet Green to see videos of Ian Somerhalder’s trip to Trinidad to protect leatherback sea turtles, and learn about the wonders of our threatened oceans.
Discovery Channel’s Planet Green Features AGC’s Generation Extinction Campaign this month!
August 4th, 2011
This August, Planet Green presents a week-long robust line-up of aquatic programming that brings the mysteries and wonders of our oceans and waterways to life. BLUE AUGUST is hosted by the star of The Vampire Diaries and Lost, Ian Somerhalder whose non-profit organization, The Ian Somerhalder Foundation, aims to empower, educate and collaborate with people and projects to positively impact the planet and its creatures. Featuring some of television’s most renowned natural history documentaries, BLUE AUGUST kicks off on Planet Green on August 21 at 8PM (ET). Read the full press release from Discovery Channel on Blue August.
Click here to watch the PSA on Planet Green featuring Ian Somerhalder. Be sure to tune in to Discovery Channel beginning August 21 at 8 pm (ET) to see special programming hosted by actor Ian Somerhalder!
Visit the AGC’s new website focusing on endangered species at www.generationextinction.org
“Vampire Diaries” Actor Ian Somerhalder Talks to Congress on Behalf of Rare Wildlife
August 4th, 2011
Actor Ian Somerhalder, star of CW’s Vampire Diaries, came to Washington D.C. to urge Congress to act on behalf of the world’s rapidly disappearing endangered species. Somerhalder spoke at a hearing of the Natural Resources Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs in support of H.R. 50, the Multinational Species Conservation Funds Reauthorization Act. “Wildlife and environmental conservation has always been not just a passion, but a priority of mine,” Somerhalder told the committee. The Actor focuses his philanthropic work around 3 themes: habitat conservation, species protection, and clean energy initiatives. Somerhalder spoke about the plight of iconic speaks like tigers, elephants, sea turtles and great apes. “Scientists warn us that we are on the cusp of the largest mass extinction spasm since the dinosaurs,” Somerhalder noted. “This is an issue that Americans care deeply about, and it is critical that the United States, as a world leader and global power, continue to lead the planet’s efforts in global species conservation. Due to instability or indifference in the areas that many of these species call home, for most of them we are the first, last, and only hope for survival. As the ones with the power to make a difference, the responsibility rests with us. It is imperative that we live up to it.”
Read the full text of Ian’s testimony here.
Watch the video of Ian’s testimony.
See photos of Ian’s visit to Washington D.C. on our facebook page!
Ian Somerhalder testifies before Congress
July 29th, 2011
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Urging wildlife preservation, Ian Somerhalder testified before the Congress on behalf of the Multinational Species Coalition.
“Environmental conservation has not been just a passion of mine, but a priority,” said The Vampire Diaries actor…
Read the full article and watch the video here.
Somerhalder addresses Congress on environment issues
July 28th, 2011
ABC News (Phoenix, Arizona)
VAMPIRE DIARIES actor IAN SOMERHALDER jetted to Washington, D.C. on Thursday (28Jul11) to urge members of the U.S. Congress to push for greater preservation of natural resources. Read the full article here.
Actor Ian Somerhalder Speaks Up for Species Preservation
July 28th, 2011
E! Online
Ian Somerhalder has no trouble showing his altruistic side in real life.
Fresh from a Vampire Diaries taping last night, the actor hopped a red-eye to Washington, D.C., in order to testify before Congress today on behalf of the Multinational Species Coalition, comprising eco-minded organizations ranging from the World Wildlife Fund to the Sierra Club to the National Audubon Society.
“Wildlife and environmental conservation has always been not just a passion, but a priority of mine,” said Somerhalder, who also has an eponymous nonprofit devoted to educating people about ecological issues and funding groups that work on habitat conservation, species protection, and clean energy initiatives. Click here to read the full article and watch the video of Ian’s testimony.
Integrating Conservation and Development
June 16th, 2011
InterAction brought members of the global environment and development communities together earlier this year in an ambitious effort to tackle one of the great challenges of the 21st century: how to lift three billion people from poverty—and assist billions more living on its cusp—against a backdrop of severe natural resource degradation. Read more.
Read the Interaction paper on integrating environment into US. Government global development policy.
Read the press release from InterAction.
Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability Conference
June 8th, 2011
The Nexus of Business Ethics and Social Responsibility
09 – 10 June, 2011
The Westin Georgetown (formerly, The Westin Grand)
Washington, D.C.
Queens University award for frog skin cancer research
June 7th, 2011
BBC News
Scientists at Queen’s University Belfast have won an award for work on frog and toad skins which could lead to treatments for over 70 major diseases.
The researchers received the commendation at the Medical Futures Innovation Awards in London on Monday.
The research, led by Professor Chris Shaw at Queen’s School of Pharmacy, has identified two proteins which can regulate how blood vessels grow.
The team are the only entry from NI to win at this year’s awards.
They discovered that a protein from the waxy monkey frog can inhibit the growth of blood vessels and could be used to kill cancer tumours. Read more.
AGC to speak at June 8 luncheon on corporate social responsibility
May 20th, 2011
The 2011 Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability Conference: The Nexus of Business Ethics and Social Responsibility will be held at the Westin Grand Hotel from June 8- 10. Elia Herman, Senior Associate for the Alliance for Global Conservation will be speaking at the luncheon of the pre-conference seminar on June 8.
For more information or to reserve a space please visit:
Online www.conferenceboard.org/sustainability2
email customer.service@conferenceboard.org
Phone 212 339 0345 8:30 am to 5:30 pm ET Monday through Friday
Download the full invitation here.
AGC partners with Izaak Walton League
May 18th, 2011
Please join the Izaak Walton League of America (www.iwla.org/population) the Center for Environment and Population (www.cepnet.org), and the Alliance for Global Conservation (www.actforconservation.org), with Americans for UNFPA (www.americansforunfpa.org), for an informal lunch discussion.
The World at 7 Billion: What It Means for Women and the Environment
Monday, May 9, 2011
12:30pm — 2:00pm
Americans for UNFPA, 370 Lexington, Suite 702
New York, NY 10017
Presentations
- Elia Herman, Senior Associate, Pew Environment Group, The Pew Charitable Trusts, to discuss “Women Heroes of Global Conservation”
— an innovative woman-centered approach to global conservation of the Alliance for Global Conservation. - Representatives from UNFPA and Americans for UNFPA will brief us on ways to get involved in “World at 7 Billion” activities.
Discussion following on
- How women are key allies on the world’s most pressing environment and development issues
- U.S. leadership funding and support for conservation and development programs worldwide
Space is limited, so please RSVP to let us know if you or a representative from your organization is able to attend. Lunch will be served.
For more information and to RSVP, please contact:
Rebecca Wadler Lase, Izaak Walton League, (301) 548-0150 x243 or rwadler@iwla.org
Vicky Markham, Center for Environment and Population, (203) 966-3425 or vmarkham@cepnet.org
Gen. Anthony Zinni (Ret.) speaks on the links between environmental degradation and conflict
May 18th, 2011
On September 22, 2010 General Anthony Zinni (Ret.) and Lt. Col Beebe went to Washington DC to talk about the links between natural resources and security. The event also featured a report by the Center for New American Security entitled “Sustaining Security: How Natural Resources Influence National Security”
World’s oldest panda dies: Ming Ming dead in Chinese zoo
May 17th, 2011
Huffpost Green
Chinese state media say the world’s oldest panda has died at the age of 34.
The Global Times reported that Ming Ming had kidney failure. She had been living at a zoo or preserve in Guangdong province.
The China Panda Protection Center in Sichuan province said in a statement she died May 7, but it was reported only Tuesday in local media. More details about her were not available. Read more.
Fish species discovered in Bali
May 16th, 2011
The Guardian
A two-week marine survey conducted by scientists with Conservation International (CI) in Indonesia, along with local partners, led to the discovery of eight potentially new species of fish and a potentially new species of coral in the waters surrounding Bali island. Read more.
AGC partners with USAID on Feed the Future: Briefing series highlights importance of natural resources to food security
April 4th, 2011
Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative, is focused on sustainably reducing hunger and poverty. Through Feed the Future, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) develops individual country implementation plans that detail U.S. government strategy for alleviating hunger in that region. The Alliance for Global Conservation, together with other development and conservation organizations, is working with USAID on a 4-part series that highlights the challenges and opportunities presented by integrating natural resources management into U.S. government efforts to develop sustainable, scalable solutions to food insecurity. A meeting will be held Thursday, April 7 in Washington, D.C. and via webinar. View the invitation
The Series
The Feed the Future Guide recognizes that “[e]nvironmental degradation and climate change are critical cross-cutting issues that can affect the sustainability of investments in agricultural development and food security, impede long-term economic growth, and adversely affect livelihoods and well being.” This event series, “Integrating Natural Resource Management and Climate Change into Feed the Future,” will seek to articulate some of the challenges and opportunities that integration of these issues poses, and present successful program approaches and tools for working across the disciplines of climate change, Natural resource management, and food security. The series will share relevant tools, lessons learned, and recommend best practices in the areas of soil, water, nutrition, and climate change resilience and will seek to raise the profile of these cross-cutting issues and their critical linkages to food security.
Ripple effect: Piracy in the waters off Somalia shows how an environmental issue such as overfishing can evolve into an international security crisis.
March 11th, 2011
LA Times
By Shannon Beebe
It has become apparent that real piracy is far different from the lighthearted subject sometimes portrayed in popular culture, and the problem is growing much worse. Besides the tragic cost in lives, the U.S., many other nations and NATO spent roughly $2 billion combined last year to safeguard the busy international sea lanes off the Horn of Africa from Somali pirates. According to the International Maritime Bureau, “hijackings off the coast of Somalia accounted for 92% of all ship seizures last year,” and the price tag does not include the costs of reallocating critical military resources.
Sadly, much of this could have been avoided had the world made a stronger commitment to conservation and environmental protection years earlier. Somalia provides a classic example of how problems related to poverty and the environment are increasingly evolving into traditional international security risks. Read the full article
Women are key to global conservation
March 10th, 2011
Alliance for Global Conservation Huffington Post Blog
By Anne Hallum and Rachel Hallum-Montes
In 1991, my 9-year-old daughter Rachel traveled with me to Guatemala where we were struck by the heartbreaking rural poverty and mudslides worsened by widespread deforestation. Read more.
Coral reefs heading for fishing and climate crisis
February 23rd, 2011
BBC News
By Richard Black
Three-quarters of the world’s coral reefs are at risk due to overfishing, pollution, climate change and other factors, says a major new assessment. Read more.
Kids found organization to save endangered species
February 22nd, 2011
Mongabay.com
By Jeremy Hance
Many American children under ten spend their free time watching TV and moves, playing video games, or participating in sports, but for siblings Carter (9 years old) and Olivia Ries (8) much of their time is devoted to saving the world’s imperiled species. The organization One More Generation (OMG) not only has a clever name (yes, it is meant to pun the common Oh-My-God acronym), but may have the two youngest founders of any environmental organization in the US. Read more.
50 Million Environmental Refugees By 2020, Experts Predict
February 22nd, 2011
The Huffington Post
By Joanna Zelman
This past week, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), experts warned that, “In 2020, the UN has projected that we will have 50 million environmental refugees,” the AFP reports. Read more.
“The Last Lions” opens in theaters this weekend
February 18th, 2011
The Alliance for Global Conservation has partnered with National Geographic Partnership to bring attention to the plight of wild lions and other endangered species. National Geographic’s new feature film “The Last Lions” is a gripping story about some of the world’s last wild lions.
Click here for theater listings and opening dates.
Foreign aid cuts jeopardize U.S. national security
February 16th, 2011
The Hill
By Rep. Steve Rothman (D-N.J.)
America’s national deficit will burden future gen
erations and hurt the long term well-being of our nation. That is why, as the stewards of our constituents’ hard-earned taxpayer dollars, Congress must always ensure that every cent we spend is absolutely essential. But we can never forget that in meeting Congress’ first priority – keeping America safe – there is no better value than the one percent of the U.S. budget that is spent on foreign aid and diplomacy. Read more.
Obama cuts foreign assistance to several countries in new budget request
February 14th, 2011
Foreign Policy
By Josh Rogin
President Obama’s newly released budget request for fiscal 2012 proposes cuts to a wide range of State Department and foreign-operations programs, including the complete elimination of foreign assistance and military training to several countries. Read more.
Engineers Hone Clean-Energy Stoves For The World
February 9th, 2011
NPR: All Things Considered
By Martin Kaste
Almost half the world still cooks its food with solid fuels, such as wood and charcoal.
The results are deforestation and black carbon, which contributes to global warming. And smoke-related disease kills an estimated 1.6 million people a year. Read more.
“The Last Lions”: National Geographic’s new feature film highlights extinction risk
February 2nd, 2011
The Alliance for Global Conservation has partnered with National Geographic to bring attention to the world’s last wild lions, which share the plight of many of the world’s endangered species. National Geographic’s feature film, “The Last Lions,” is set in one of the few remaining regions where lions can live in the wild. Faced with dwindling land and increasing pressure from hunting, lions are approaching the brink of extinction.
About the film: In Botswana’s Okavango Delta, an ostracized lioness and her two cubs must fight alone to survive a multitude of threats, from the raging wildfires on the Delta, to the jealousy of sister lionesses, to marauding males. Their only defense is to escape to Duba Island—and with that, an unknown future. “The Last Lions” is now showing at theaters across the country. Click here to find the film at a theater near you!
Scientists: road through Serengeti would likely end wildebeest migration
February 2nd, 2011
Mongabay
By Jeremy Hance
A new study finds that a proposed road cutting through Serengeti National Park would likely have devastating consequences for one of the world’s last great migrations. According to the study the road itself could lead to a 35% loss in the famed park’s migrating wildebeest herd, essentially cutting the herd down by over half a million animals.
Africa’s vanishing wild: mammal populations cut in half
January 27th, 2011
Mongabay
By Jeremy Hance
The big mammals for which Africa is so famous are vanishing in staggering numbers. According to a study published last year: Africa’s large mammal populations have dropped by 59% in just 40 years. Read more
Researchers find “alarming” decline in bumblebees
January 3rd, 2011
Reuters
By Maggie Fox
Four previously abundant species of bumblebee are close to disappearing in the United States, researchers reported Monday in a study confirming that the agriculturally important bees are being affected worldwide. Read more.
New Species Discovered in 2010
December 30th, 2010
Our Amazing Planet
By OurAmazingPlanet Staff
The Earth and the diversity of life it harbors continues to surprise us. This year, researchers found some truly astounding creatures that had been unknown to science even through centuries of exploration. While some of these newfound species were found in remote, little-visited corners of the world, others were hiding in seemingly plain sight.
Here, OurAmazingPlanet takes a look of at some of the new species found in 2010. Read more and see pictures.
UN gives final approval to biodiversity science panel
December 21st, 2010
BBC News
By Richard Black
The UN has given final approval for the establishment of an expert panel to advise governments on science and policy issues relating to biodiversity. Read more.
Saving the Hotbeds of Pharmaceutical Innovation Before They’re Gone
December 15th, 2010
The Huffington Post
By Ethan Zohn
The world of professional soccer certainly has its share of stars—players who’ve elevated themselves to hero status with an incredible save or game-winning goal. But as anyone who’s ever played soccer will tell you, this beautiful game truly is a team sport.
In fact, the lessons I learned as a player and coach on the soccer field proved invaluable both as a competitor in “Survivor: Africa” and in my later struggle with cancer. Yet while a reality show competition and a battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma may not seem to have much in common at first glance, I was able to survive both due to an invaluable assist from nature. Read more.
Why We Might Fight, 2011 Edition
December 12th, 2010
New York Times
By Thom Shanker
Countries thirst for oil, compete for minerals and confront climate change. The American military, with surprising allies, worries that these issues represent a new source of conflict.
Rare minerals. Food and water. Arable soil. Air-cleansing forests. In the intellectual heart of the American military and policy-making world, these are emerging not just as environmental issues, but as the potential stuff of conflict in the 21st century. Read more
Nations Agree to Slow Biodiversity Loss
December 9th, 2010
Time Magazine
By Bryan Walsh
For all the focus on the climate, we sometimes forget what is perhaps the original environmental issue: endangered species. The situation is dire. Despite a pledge by governments in 2002 to slow the rate of species loss by 2010, the year dawned with extinctions on the rise and little evidence that it would be curbed any time soon. The causes are many — invasive species, habitat loss, hunting and climate change — but the results are grim. Still, 2010 ended with a ray of hope for species. At the meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity in the Japanese city of Nagoya, countries from around the world pledged to expand the percentage of the world’s land and water under some form of protection to 17% and 10%, respectively, while promising to work again to cut the loss of species. Time will tell whether these goals are met, or whether they will join the long list of broken promises by humanity to its fellow species — but at least it’s a start. See the article.
Biodiversity loss hazardous to your health?
December 7th, 2010
Philadelphia Inquirer
By Sandy Bauers
We often think of declines in biodiversity — an animal here, a plant there, either extirpated from one local or extinct altogether — as a tragedy for the environment. But a new study shows losses may bode poorly for human health. That’s because the species most likely to disappear are the ones that buffer disease transmission. And the ones that remain are often ones that magnify the transmission of diseases. Case in point: Lyme disease. When forests are fragmented, the oppossum, which eats Lyme-carrying ticks, declines. But the white-footed mouse, a tick host, thrives. “The mice increase numbers of both the blacklegged tick vector [transmission pathway] and the pathogen that causes Lyme disease,” said co-author Richard Ostfeld of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y. The study is published in last week’s edition o the journal Nature. It was funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health Ecology of Infectious Diseases Program and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Ostfeld said scientists don’t yet know why ”the last ones standing when biodiversity is lost” are the ones that also amplify pathogens. But the researchers argue that preserving natural habitats is all-important. Read more
What Does Rape Have To Do With Trees?
November 29th, 2010
Huffington Post
By Jamie Bechtel
What does rape have to do with trees? What does HIV have to do with fish? Blindness with water? Everything. Especially if you are a woman in the developing world and you are trying to feed your family. Let me give you three examples of the links between women, survival and natural resources: Forests are a safety net for many of the world’s poor; they provide food, water, medicine and energy. In many places around the world forests are declining. That means there are fewer trees to do important things like make rain, protect soil and provide homes for birds, primates and other animals, all of which play important roles in maintaining ecosystems; and, frankly, make the world a more interesting place to live. As forests disappear women who must collect wood to cook with have to travel further and further away from the safety of their communities to find resources. They frequently get raped along the way. Read more
Saving the Wild Tiger
November 23rd, 2010
New York Times
A century ago, there were an estimated 100,000 tigers living in the wild. Now there are perhaps 3,200 left. The best chance — probably the only remaining chance — to save them from extinction is being worked out during a five-day summit meeting this week. Read more.
Editorial: Fighting Species Extinction
November 22nd, 2010
The Providence Journal
A study unveiled in October in the journal Science showed that, while about a fifth of mammals, birds and amphibians are in danger of disappearing, conservation has proved capable of halting the trend. While dozens of species move closer to extinction annually, without conservation the losses would be at least 20 percent greater.
A bipartisan measure pending in both houses of Congress, the Global Conservation Act of 2010, maps out steps for an active U.S. role. Finally, more Americans should demand change. Protecting our ecological infrastructure could be our most important gift to the future. Read more.
Could This Kill Cancer? Why scientists are heading underwater to search for a new generation of cures.
November 21st, 2010
Newsweek
Mother Nature is a pharmacological factory. The cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor is a cousin of red yeast rice. A species of periwinkle from Madagascar excretes a chemical for treating leukemia. Malaria is combated with quinine, originally from a rainforest tree. “About 60-plus percent of all drugs are natural products, modified natural products, or mimics of natural products,” says David Newman, chief of the natural products branch at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). On land, we’ve already mined most of the easy targets for these compounds. Marine environments, however, have been largely ignored.
Now, advances in technology are making it easier and increasingly profitable to hunt for drugs in the ocean. Marine bioprospectors, as they’re known, are scouring coral reefs, deep-sea trenches, and everything in between. Newman estimates that at least 30 research teams are experimenting with marine-derived compounds for treating cancer, neural degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, malaria, diabetes, depression, asthma, and other ailments. Read more.
Conserving Nature to Protect our Health
November 8th, 2010
Care2
By Dana McCreesh and Samuel Blackman
Brent McCreesh is a happy, healthy second grader, but if he were born 10 years ago he might not have even made it to preschool. Brent was diagnosed with neuroblastoma – an aggressive cancer — when he was just 2 years old. Thanks in part, however, to a medicine created from molecules identified in an African flower, an American mayapple tree and a soil bacterium, doctors were able to save his life. Read more.
Greening Afghanistan
October 29th, 2010
Living On Earth and the World Media Foundation
War might have kept the province of Bamiyan hidden for decades, but now Afghanistan’s first and only woman governor has established the first national park there and is working to build its future on ecotourism. Living on Earth’s Mitra Taj reports on Bamiyan Governor Habiba Sarabi’s green ambitions for one of the poorest places in Afghanistan.
Blogging for Nature: A Welcome from the Alliance for Global Conservation
October 21st, 2010
Huffington Post
The last remnants of the world’s natural areas are quickly disappearing—taking with them species that have lived on the planet much longer than humans have, forests that help stabilize soils and ensure clean water supplies, potential cures for diseases, and the livelihoods of millions of people. Read more
U.N. report stresses the value of nature to world’s economies
October 20th, 2010
The Washington Post
By Juliet Eilperin
The world has vastly underestimated the economic value of nature in developing nations, according to a report the United Nations is releasing Wednesday. Read more
Honorees Show Relation Between Environment and Women’s Welfare
October 19th, 2010
America.gov
By Stephen Kaufman
Often serving as their family’s primary caregivers and providers of food, women in developing countries can keenly appreciate the effects of environmental damage upon their daily lives. As Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai has pointed out, the tasks of finding clean water, firewood, food sources and other life essentials for the home become difficult or even impossible when faced with man-made degradation such as deforestation and pollution. Read more.
Under Secretary of State Maria Otero blogs on women conservation heroes
October 18th, 2010
On October 7, I had the opportunity to attend a lunch honoring six women conservationists who have dedicated their lives to saving the planet and improving women’s rights. As these six heroes exemplify, environmental conservation begins at home and requires creativity, innovation, and courage.
Around the world, women are at the forefront of providing solutions to global environmental challenges, but they are also the ones who often feel the negative impact of environmental destruction most acutely. These heroes understand that fact, and through their work have improved both the environment and the lives of women. Read more
Afghanistan’s “first lady of the environment” calls for awareness
October 12th, 2010
By Darius Dixon
Climatewire
Sarabi, 53, is governor of Bamyan province, in central Afghanistan, west of Kabul, the nation’s capital. She is Afghanistan’s first and only female governor, and has become a motivating force for environmental conservation in a country wracked by war and chaos. Read more
Significance of Biodiversity to Health
September 23rd, 2010
The United Nations declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity. Despite the magnitude of the global crisis of biodiversity loss, its far-reaching consequences to human health remain largely unappreciated. The legacy of the natural world to medicine is profound and its potential to yield new therapeutics and advancements in biomedical science undervalued. The enormity of the global crisis underscores a fundamental truth, one that is seemingly obvious but has been tragically overlooked: Our species does not exist in isolation from the biosphere. Rather, our fate depends on it.
Read article from Biotropica journal by Christopher Herndon and Rhett Butler
Developing countries: Better off green than gold
September 16th, 2010
The Miami Herald
By Anthony Zinni
Recently the Department of Defense reported that the value of Afghanistan’s reserves of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and other strategic minerals approached $1 trillion. Some have started calling this financially strapped nation the Saudi Arabia of lithium. Even Zimbabwe, one of the poorest countries in the world, could vault into the top ranks of the world’s diamond producers, according to a U.N. announcement. It sounds so hopeful, yet in fact we see very few examples of nations where mineral wealth has led to peace and prosperity.
Instead, gold and other rare minerals in Congo have helped to finance that region’s longstanding conflicts. Oil drilling in Niger has enriched politicians while creating few jobs for local people. And Sierra Leone’s diamonds have funded a violent national crime syndicate.
If developing nations are looking toward natural resources as a way to help break the cycle of poverty and conflict, their hopes may not be misplaced. But they could be looking at the wrong resources.
A recent study by the Center for a New American Security examined how environmental degradation, poverty, migration, conflict, weak societal institutions and failed states form a feedback loop. It found that loss of “green” natural resources, such as forests, fresh water, fish and fertile soils, can play a significant role in driving instability and conflict. In fact, possessing green wealth may contribute more to peace and prosperity than gold, diamonds or lithium.
Environmental degradation by itself, of course, doesn’t automatically lead to conflict, for the linkages are complex. But ample evidence indicates that the desperation, hopelessness and displacement of people that can come from exhausted green resources can encourage conflict and even failed states.
According to an analysis by the United Nations, at least 11 violent struggles since 1990 have been fueled in part by the degradation of forests, fish, water or soils. While these connections are usually ignored by the media, environmental decline has played a role in several conflicts critical to U.S. interests.
In one key example, the center’s report describes how the lack of access to fish stocks helped turn desperate Somali fishermen into pirates, requiring an increased U.S. military presence in the region. And it makes clear how the shifting loyalties of impoverished rural Afghans become more logical when considering that soil erosion and deforestation have put 75 percent of the country’s land area on the brink of becoming barren desert.
Protecting green wealth in the developing world offers far greater potential for peace and prosperity than exploiting mineral resources for three reasons. First, access to the economic benefits that environmental resources provide is far more broadly and democratically shared than that of minerals, which are typically controlled by a single company, government agency or sometimes a foreign country.
Second, protecting the environment requires cooperation, participation and openness. It’s no surprise that in some of the world’s most autocratic countries, many of the only open, democratic institutions are local forest councils and water boards.
And finally, mineral stocks eventually run out, encouraging a “gold rush” mentality that defeats longer term considerations. Green resources, however, can keep on giving – for many generations – if used thoughtfully and shared equitably.
It’s no surprise that the handful of developing countries that decided years ago to take a development path preserving their environmental resources have experienced higher economic growth and greater social stability than their neighbors. Conservation-minded countries like Costa Rica and Botswana have also been islands of peace in regions otherwise wracked by conflict.
The new scholarship on conservation and security also contains lessons for the United States: Serious environmental degradation has the potential to undermine our security, economic and political goals in many regions of the world. The lesson is being taught to us in Afghanistan, Somalia and many other places, if we care to pay attention: It’s harder to win over hearts and minds when the environment has already been lost.
Anthony Zinni is a retired four-star Marine general and a former commander in chief of the U.S. Central Command. Readers may send him e-mail at Aczinni@aol.com.
Media Advisory: Sept. 22 Lunch briefing with General Anthony Zinni (Ret.) on environmental degradation and national security
September 16th, 2010
MEDIA ADVISORY
For Wednesday, September 22
CONTACT:
Brandon MacGillis, 202-887-8830
Holly Cowan, 202-339-9598
Sustaining Security:
How Natural Resources Influence National Security
WASHINGTON – The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) will host a lunch briefing with General Anthony Zinni (Ret.) on the growing threat that unfettered environmental degradation around the world poses to national security. As former Commander in Chief of the U.S. Central Command, General Zinni observed firsthand how soil erosion, deforestation and water scarcity jeopardized U.S. goals in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
A recent CNAS study concluded that the loss of renewable natural resources—such as forests, fresh water, fish and fertile soils—can play a significant role in driving instability and conflict in the developing world.
During the lunch, speakers will discuss conservation topics such as the links between the loss of fish stocks and Somali piracy; how environmental degradation helps explain the shifting loyalties of impoverished rural Afghans; and how conservation and natural resource management can be a valuable asset for U.S. foreign policy.
WHO:
The Honorable Russ Carnahan (D-MO)
The Honorable Norm Dicks (D-WA)
The Honorable Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE)
The Honorable Eni Faleomavaega (D-AS)
The Honorable Dave Reichert (R-WA)
The Honorable Adam Smith (D-WA)
General Anthony Zinni, Former Commander in Chief, U.S. Central Command (Ret.),
Lt. Col. Shannon Beebe, author, The Ultimate Weapon is No Weapon: Human Security and the New Rules of War and Peace
Christine Parthemore, Fellow, Center for New American Security (CNAS) and co-author, Sustaining Security: How Natural Resources Influence National Security
WHAT: Lunch Briefing on the links between global conservation and security
WHERE: 2255 Rayburn House Office Building
WHEN: Wednesday, September 22 from noon to 1 pm
For more information on this issue, see www.cnas.org/blogs/naturalsecurity and http://www.actforconservation.org.
# # #
Save a Species, Save a Life
August 24th, 2010
Care2
By Ethan Zohn
The world of professional soccer certainly has its share of stars — players who’ve elevated themselves to hero status with an incredible save or game-winning goal. But as anyone who’s ever played soccer will tell you, this beautiful game truly is a team sport.
In fact, the lessons I learned as a player and coach on the soccer field proved invaluable both as a competitor in “Survivor: Africa” and in my later struggle with cancer. Yet while a reality show competition and a battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma may not seem to have much in common at first glance, I was able to survive both due to an invaluable assist from nature.
According to an ever growing body of research, however, the last remnants of the world’s natural areas are quickly disappearing. And I’m now speaking out in an effort to get others to join me in the effort to save these last wild areas.
It all started on Survivor: Africa. I’m alive today due to a drug derived from the rosy periwinkle, a rare African flower found on the island of Madagascar. Yet in 2002, while competing in “Survivor: Africa,” this delicate pink flower was the farthest thing from my mind.
Global Conservation Act Introduced in U.S. Senate
June 21st, 2010
Bi-partisan bill will advance global conservation polices that protect the economy, national security and public health
WASHINGTON (June 18, 2010) – Senators from both parties yesterday introduced the Global Conservation Act of 2010 S. 3508 that would, for the first time, place the strategic and diplomatic resources of the U.S. government behind efforts to address extinction and natural resource depletion worldwide. Companion legislation (H.R. 4959) was introduced on March 26 in the U.S. House of Representatives.
- Protect millions of square miles of land and sea,
- Address illegal and unregulated fishing around the world,
- Safeguard the natural sources of fresh water to several major population centers around the world,
- Stop the worst wildlife trafficking operations, and
- Stabilize environmental destruction trends in areas vulnerable to conflict and instability.
The bill identifies a coordinator in the executive branch to ensure action and encourages the administration to secure additional funding and support for a global conservation strategy from other countries—including European nations, Japan, China, and India.”Thanks to the work of Senators Udall and Brownback, this landmark bill represents a major step forward in efforts to address worldwide resource destruction and species loss,” said Wise. “The legislation lays out a common-sense strategy that will help protect the world’s most ecologically and economically important wilderness and marine areas and promote global security.”Healthy terrestrial and marine ecosystems are critical to food security and disaster prevention. An analysis by David Pimentel at Cornell University concludes that wild species such as birds and insects provide US$100 billion worth of pest control services to world agriculture every year. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, healthy coral reefs reduce the impact of large storms on coastal populations, a protective function valued at US$9 billion a year.
The destruction of natural areas can come at a tremendous cost. Research by the World Resources Institute has found that medicines derived from natural sources, including 10 of the world’s 25 top-selling drugs, have a market value of US$75-$150 billion per year. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, current extinction rates could eliminate at least one prescription drug from entering the market every two years.
“Fields, trees, streams, and wildlife are essential for rich and poor countries alike,” according to Kenneth Arrow, Professor of Economics Emeritus, Stanford University and Nobel Laureate in Economics. “Wealthy societies depend on clean water, recreation, and storm and flood control. And the poorest communities in the world rely on nature for their livelihoods and sometimes their very survival.”
The Alliance for Global Conservation—a coalition of some of the world’s major conservation organizations including Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, the Pew Environment Group, Wildlife Conservation Society and the World Wildlife Fund—is working to prevent the destruction of the world’s remaining natural ecosystems for the species and human communities that depend on them.
Don Cheadle Working Toward American Eco-Policy Reform
June 1st, 2010
Ecorazzi
by Elizah Leigh
On the heels of his efforts just one year ago to inspire global policy makers to make positive changes on behalf of the environment during the Copenhagen Climate Conference of 2009, Cheadle is now attempting to propel America to the ‘forefront of the environmental movement’ by drawing attention to the latest eco-bill making the rounds.
The aptly named Global Conservation Act of 2010 (H.R. 4959) – which “places the strategic and diplomatic resources of the U.S. government behind efforts to address extinction and natural resource depletion worldwide” – calls for preventing species extinction, reducing billions of tons of carbon emissions, sustainably developing sea and land while conserving when at all possible, protecting freshwater supplies and applying $1.1 trillion in yearly disaster mitigation and eco-protection services.
The Role Of Ambassador
May 24th, 2010
National Journal
by Mike Magner
In the new movie “Iron Man 2,” Don Cheadle plays James (Rhodey) Rhodes, a tough military officer who is one of the superhero’s closest confidants and who becomes an armor- clad hero himself known as the War Machine. In real life, Cheadle is a polite and mild-mannered advocate for preserving the global environment, a role he believes fits perfectly with his ongoing campaign against genocide in Africa.
The 45-year-old, who has played everything from drug-addicted Washington disc jockey Petey Greene to Rat Packer Sammy Davis Jr. was on Capitol Hill last week to lobby for the Global Conservation Act, a bill introduced in March calling for an international strategy to protect natural resources and biodiversity.
Carnahan’s conservation push attracts celebrity attention
May 21st, 2010
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan’s push to preserve global habitats has caught the attention of Hollywood.
The St. Louis Democrat met this week with actor Don Cheadle, who is supporting a Carnahan bill aimed at preserving natural resources and protecting wildlife around the world.
Cheadle has grown as a global activist since appearing in “Hotel Rwanda,” the 2004 film set against the backdrop of genocide in Africa.
Cheadle’s Hill Sequel: Saving the Planet
May 20th, 2010
ROLL CALL
By Emily Heil and Elizabeth Brotherton
Actor Don Cheadle is back on Capitol Hill, this time advocating for the environment.
The “Iron Man 2” star is set to appear with scientist Jane Goodall on the Hill today for a lunch discussion supporting the Global Conservation Act, which funds the effort to fight extinction and natural resource depletion worldwide.
Read the full article (see 4th headline in “Heard on the Hill”)
Don Cheadle won’t use the F-word in D.C.
May 20th, 2010
THE HILL
By Christina Wilkie – 05/19/10 07:32 PM ET
The similarities between Hollywood and Capitol Hill are well-documented, and for at least one A-list actor, this makes it easy to come to D.C.
DON CHEADLE’S SECURITY SOLUTION
May 20th, 2010
Politico
By Kiki Ryan
Actor Don Cheadle sees protecting the environment as more than a case of preserving natural beauty: It’s integral to our national security.
“We need a War Machine to [protect us],” Cheadle told POLITICO on Tuesday, referring to the name of his character in “Iron Man 2.” Natural resources are “the next thing to fight and kill over,” he said.
Don Cheadle speaks on the Global Conservation Act
May 20th, 2010
Don Cheadle speaks at a briefing on the Global Conservation Act
Fortenberry Announces Global Conservation Act
May 20th, 2010
Omaha World-Herald
Congressman Jeff Fortenberry today joined world-renowned conservationist Jane Goodall and Academy Award-nominated actor Don Cheadle in unveiling the Global Conservation Act. Jane Goodall is a frequent visitor to Nebraska, and Don Cheadle grew up in Lincoln. Fortenberry recently introduced the measure with Congressman Russ Carnahan (MO).
Global Conservation Discussion with Don Cheadle and Dr. Jane Goodall
May 19th, 2010
Global Conservation Discussion
Contact:
Brandon MacGillis, 202-887-8830
Jamie Shor and Holly Cowan, (202) 339-9598
Lunch with Oscar nominated actor Don Cheadle and legendary scientist Dr. Jane Goodall to discuss protecting species and ecosystems around the world
WASHINGTON – On Thursday, May 20 at noon the Alliance for Global Conservation will host a lunch time briefing with actor Don Cheadle, Dr. Jane Goodall, Representative Russ Carnahan (D-MO) and Representative Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) about the rapid loss of species and ecosystems around the world. The focus of this lunch will be the recently introduced the Global Conservation Act of 2010, H.R. 4959, a bill that 
places the full strategic and diplomatic resources of the U.S. government behind efforts to address extinction and natural resource depletion worldwide.
The destruction of natural areas, like rainforests and coral reefs, comes at a tremendous cost. Research by the World Resources Institute has found that medicines derived from natural sources, including 10 of the world’s 25 top-selling drugs, have a market value of US$75-$150 billion per year.
WHO:
– Don Cheadle, Oscar-nominated Actor
– Dr. Jane Goodall, UN Messenger of Peace; Founder, Jane Goodall Institute
– The Honorable Russ Carnahan (D-MO)
– The Honorable Jeff Fortenberry (R- NE)
– Jeff Wise, director of the Alliance for Global Conservation and the Pew Environment Group’s Global Conservation Initiative, moderator
WHAT:
Briefing on the importance of protecting species and ecosystems around the world. Lunch will be served.
WHERE:
2200 Rayburn House Office Building
WHEN:
Thursday, May 20 at Noon
Don Cheadle’s Mission
May 19th, 2010
In the video below, Oscar nominated actor Don Cheadle discusses the recently introduced Global Conservation Act of 2010, H.R. 4959, a bill that places the full strategic and diplomatic resources of the U.S. government behind efforts to address extinction and natural resource depletion worldwide.
Reality TV winner beats cancer with African flower
May 14th, 2010
By Ethan Zohn, Special to CNN
- Winner of TV’s “Survivor: Africa” beat cancer with chemo from African plant
- Ethan Zohn’s brush with death spurred him to save natural habitats
- Zohn urges Congress to pass bill that outlines strategy to protect natural habitats
Editor’s note: Ethan Zohn is the winner of “Survivor: Africa” (2001), co-founder of Grassroot Soccer, a featured columnist for Tonic.com and a survivor of a rare form of cancer — CD 20+Hodgkins Lymphoma. He works with the Alliance for Global Conservation to raise awareness of the links between international conservation and treatments for deadly diseases.
(CNN) — When I won the reality show competition “Survivor: Africa” in 2001, I never dreamed that an obscure African flower would provide the drug that later helped me survive cancer. But that’s the way my life has unfolded.
One day I was battling opponents for a million dollars, the next I was battling lymphoma for my life.
I couldn’t have won either fight without having nature on my side. Now I’m working hard to protect natural areas that will provide the source of future drugs that could save millions of lives.
On the show we were expected to live off the land. I learned very early that survival would mean figuring out how to work with, rather than against, nature.
We used thorny acacia plants to keep predators away from our camp. We drank from the same watering hole as elephants and giraffes, learning the best times to drink and how to stay out of their way.
Nature was a good teacher. I won $1 million and the confidence that I could survive just about any challenge.
In 2009, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and it turned out that the confidence I gained on “Survivor” proved even more valuable than the million dollars. But not even the trials of the show could have prepared me for the greatest struggle of my life.
Chemotherapy drugs wracked my body for months. But as they worked I found some comfort when I learned that one of them was derived from an African flower, the rosy periwinkle.
The drug born of this flower, vincristine, was part of the regimen that saved my life. My cancer is now in remission and once again I owe my survival to working with nature.
My case is not an isolated one. It turns out that dozens of plants in nature manufacture anti-cancer agents as chemical defenses. Scientists figured this out years ago, and 80 percent of all anti-cancer drugs possess an active ingredient from the natural world.
This promise extends to other diseases as well, with half the new drugs created in the past 25 years derived from nature.
According to a recent study, natural drugs and related products are used to treat 87 percent of all known diseases, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes and HIV.
Yet this pharmaceutical pipeline is in danger.
Researchers unraveled the biochemistry of the snakeroot plant to improve the treatment of hypertension, but the plant is now threatened by deforestation in Indonesia.
Scientists derived a compound for treating severe chronic pain from a cone snail found in Pacific coral reefs, though its habitat is now threatened by destructive fishing practices and marine pollution.
The first antiviral medication approved for the treatment of HIV/AIDS came from a marine sponge, yet marine habitats around the world are threatened by pollution, overfishing and climate change.
Given the accelerating destruction of rainforests, reefs and other natural habitats around the world, we must take action today — as there’s no telling how many useful undiscovered natural compounds we could lose for tomorrow.
Right now, there’s a bipartisan bill in Congress, the Global Conservation Act of 2010, that seeks to address extinction and natural resource depletion worldwide by laying out a strategy for helping other countries protect millions of square miles of natural habitat.
President Obama must put his weight behind this bill and the Congress must pass it soon.
According to the World Conservation Union, more than 16,000 species, plant and animal alike, are in danger of extinction, largely because of human activities.
Indeed, scientists warn that two-thirds of the planet’s 10 million species could face extinction by the end of the century. Time is not on our side.
I won “Survivor: Africa,” and I’ve won my battle against cancer. But in each case, I didn’t do it alone. I had the most unlikely of partners: a small watering hole and, later, a flower.
I don’t know what I’ll need from nature next or where the newest nature-based medicines will come from, but I’m not willing to risk losing any of them.
The rosy periwinkle saved my life. Who knows what could save yours?
Third of all plants and animals face extinction
May 9th, 2010
The Sunday Times
May 9, 2010
ANIMAL and plant species are being killed off faster than ever before as human populations surge and people consume more, a United Nations report is expected to say this week. It will warn that the expansion of countries such as China, India and Brazil is adding hugely to the environmental threats already generated by developed western nations, and that a third of species could face extinction this century.
Read the full story at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7120676.ece.
Bucksport Man Lobbies for Conservation Bill
May 7th, 2010
The Ellsworth American
Take a second look in your medicine cabinet. There could be a jungle in there.
Half of all drugs developed in the past quarter-century have an active ingredient derived from nature, according to statistics provided by the Alliance for Global Conservation.
Yet the habitats where these ingredients are discovered are rapidly disappearing. Scientists estimate habitat destruction and extinction cause one major new drug to be lost every two years.
The figures lend a pragmatic twist to environmentalism.
Cancer survivor promotes the planet
May 6th, 2010
Round Rock woman urges feds to protect Earth’s environment
Round Rock Leader
On April 19, Round Rock resident Amy Huff joined 15 other cancer survivors and survivors of chronic diseases in Washington, D.C. to bring attention to the Global Conservation Act of 2010.
For three days, group members met with their respective states’ representatives to garner support for the bill. Huff was among the group because of her friendship with Angela Patterson, a fellow cancer survivor who blogged about her journey through cancer and treatments. It was Patterson’s blog that caught the attention of the Pew Charitable Trust, a non-profit organization based out of Washington, D.C. that hosted the group while they were there.
Huff was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006, when she was pregnant.
On Earth Day, salute the plants that make medicines possible
April 22nd, 2010
St. Petersburg Times
By Irene Maher, Times staff writer
In Print: Thursday, April 22, 2010
This week supporters of the Global Conservation Act of 2010 are in Washington to ask Congress to protect what they see as nature’s drug development pipeline. Among them is 48-year-old Debbie Trujillo of Tampa, a real estate agent and breast cancer survivor who was treated with Taxol and today has been cancer-free for five years. “This is urgent,” she says. “It takes years to find these plants, test them and get the drugs to patients. If there’s a rain forest on the other side of the world that could save a life, we have to preserve it now.” Read the full article
Pew and Academy of Natural Sciences Highlight Protecting Species and Ecosystems
April 13th, 2010
The Philadelphia Examiner
The rapid loss of species and ecosystems around the world is affecting our country’s health, economy and national security according to environmental experts who spoke today at a public forum co-hosted by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Academy of Natural Sciences.
“There is no more important issue for humanity than conserving the biological infrastructure of the planet,” said Dr. Thomas E. Lovejoy, a George Mason University professor and the biodiversity chair at the Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment.
Preventing the next big bailout – of nature
March 22nd, 2010
The Miami Herald
By John S. Adams
March 15, 2010
There’s an old saying that there are three kinds of bankers: the ones who can count and the ones who can’t. And, in fact, during the financial crisis we found that bad accounting and short-sighted thinking created a lot of trouble.
While the continuing government inquiry and proposed financial reforms could encourage more forward thinking and fewer government bailouts, poor accounting and planning extend far beyond the banking system. Unless we apply some of the lessons learned in the financial crisis, we could end up bailing ourselves out of something even costlier – a crisis in our natural world.
Although the field of finance often ignores the fact, all of modern economics depends upon nature. It is impossible for any nation to maintain a healthy economic base without access to clean water, arable soil and the other multitude of products and services provided by the environment. However, we’re facing a historic crisis in the world’s natural systems.
Sixty countries have lost virtually all of their forest cover. More than three-quarters of the world’s fish stocks, providing food for 2 billion people, are in steep decline. Nearly one-third of the globe’s cropland has been abandoned in the last 40 years due to erosion. And the world has lost half its wetlands and one-third of its coral reefs.
This all comes with a hefty price tag. When watersheds no longer provide freshwater, forests no longer help prevent droughts and floods, and oceans no longer support healthy fish stocks, governments will be called upon to provide these goods and services in other – usually much more expensive – ways.
For instance, building water purification systems is far more costly than conserving natural watersheds. Rebuilding cities is enormously expensive compared to the cost of conserving forests and reefs that protect against floods and storms.
Such expenditures would be nothing more than another government bailout for poor planning and accounting. And if we don’t change course, the cost of paying for damaged natural systems could dwarf the bank bailouts of the last 18 months.
A recent study conducted by a Deutsche Bank economist added up the value of all the services performed by forests globally. After considering the economic value of providing clean water, preventing floods and absorbing carbon dioxide, the study concluded that the global economy is suffering a loss of over $2 trillion a year from deforestation alone.
Just as we are raising the amount that banks, insurers and mortgage holders must keep in reserve to balance out losses, we must also balance out the losses to nature. A recent UBS report estimated that businesses and governments will invest – mostly in developing countries – an average of $500 billion per year during the next 20 years on natural resource extraction activities like oil drilling and mining. Since we are spending trillions to exploit such resources to achieve economic growth, we need to make sure the wealthy nations of the world are spending what’s necessary to maintain the world’s natural systems.
Yet expenditures on extracting natural resources globally now dwarf spending on conserving nature by over 100 to 1. This is a stunning imbalance and current international conservation funding fails to offset the environmental effects of modern growth and development. Just as Washington is leading the call for reforms in the global banking system, President Obama and the Congress should rally other world governments behind an effort to strengthen global conservation programs.
We must protect the ecosystems that provide the trillions of dollars worth of goods and services to humanity each year before they crash like our banking system did. As the largest consumer of natural resources, the United States can serve as an example to the rest of the world by increasing our commitment to global conservation programs from just a few hundred million dollars a year to at least a billion annually – and by asking other nations to join us in this effort. This is a difficult call to action in a difficult economic environment.
But if the financial crisis taught us anything, it’s that we can no longer wait for problems to ripen into crises before acting. Bailouts always cost far more than taking preventive action. It’s time to start accounting for nature.
ABOUT THE WRITER
John S. Adams is senior vice president of investments for UBS Financial Services. Readers may write to him at UBS Financial Services, 925 Fourth Avenue, Suite 2000, Seattle, Wash. 98104; e-mail: john.s.adams@ubs.com
Environmental Economics: A new United Nations study puts dollar signs on the services nature provides.
November 13th, 2009
By Daniel Stone
“…the net return from conservation is higher when you protect these resources than when you exploit them economically,” says Jeff Wise, director the Alliance for Global Conservation, a consortium of U.S. conservation groups.
Read the full article here: http://www.newsweek.com/id/222701
Reef troubles warn of disaster
November 4th, 2009
Chicago Tribune
By JEFF WISE
Today, many of our planet’s natural areas are seriously threatened by human incursion, overexploitation and global warming: Less than a fifth of the world’s original forest cover remains in unfragmented tracts, while just one-third of coastal mangroves survive to protect coastlines from storms and erosion. But none of these are declining as rapidly as coral reefs. By revealing what could be in store for other natural systems, reefs resemble the proverbial canary in a coal mine.
Jacques Cousteau first brought the wonders of these underwater marine vistas to millions around the globe, just over 50 years ago. In award-winning documentaries like “Silent World,” he captured in living Technicolor the awesome beauty of the Earth’s oldest and largest living structures.
Providing a safe harbor where more than a quarter of all marine life can feed, spawn and raise their young, reefs’ ecological diversity rivals that of the world’s lushest rainforests. Unlike the forests, however, the relative remoteness of many reefs seemed to promise a small degree of protection for these fragile ecosystems. What a difference 50 years makes. The combination of destructive fishing practices and marine pollution hits reefs hard. A 2006 U.N. report found that close to one-third of corals are already destroyed or damaged, a figure that could double by 2030. And as reefs are extremely sensitive to changes in both the temperature and acidity of seawater, climate change will only make this situation worse.
Indeed, the former chief scientist of the Australian Institute of Marine Science warned in a recent presentation to the Royal Society of London that, “There is no hope of reefs surviving to even mid-century in any form that we now recognize and when, they go, they will take with them about one-third of the world’s marine biodiversity.” Like the rapidly shrinking Arctic ice cap, recent research has accelerated estimates on the risk to corals by decades, if not centuries.
Healthy ecosystems are important for our economies and our survival.
Reefs sustain many commercial fisheries and reduce the impact of large storms on coastal populations, saving communities more than $9 billion every year. New drugs developed from natural sources, both above and below the waves, are used to treat everything from heart disease to leukemia. In fact, the renowned AIDS treatment drug AZT is based on chemicals discovered in a Caribbean reef sponge. Researchers also recently discovered a compound in a species of coral near Taiwan that could help patients with severe nerve damage.
To give reefs and other ecosystems a chance, it’s crucial that world leaders embark upon a combined effort to protect earth’s remaining natural areas, beyond even international attempts to control global warming emissions.
To lead the rest of the world toward an effective conservation strategy the United States must first develop one itself. Right now, no less than six U.S. agencies are involved in helping other countries conserve their natural resources. Yet various initiatives often lack coordination, and the federal government doesn’t have any overarching policy or common metrics to determine whether or not these disparate efforts add up to real progress.
To help address this problem, the president should direct his advisers to develop a coordinated global conservation strategy for all federal agencies. At home this would allow the White House to assess the effectiveness of U.S. programs that are implemented overseas, while abroad the United States could speak with more authority in calling for a new plan to protect the Earth’s last vestiges of nature. It’s tragic that so many of the vibrant ecosystems Jacques Cousteau documented a few short decades ago have become desolate seascapes.
Scientists estimate we have only a decade to boost conservation efforts, or we face irreversible losses. To meet this challenge, the president must work together with his counterparts around the globe soon.
We have a window of opportunity to save much of what’s left, but that window is quickly closing.
Jeff Wise directs The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Global Conservation Initiative.
Save the frogs — and perhaps ourselves
September 1st, 2009
BALTIMORE SUN
By Karen Lips
Amphibians are going extinct around the globe. As a scientist specializing in frogs, I have watched dozens of species of these creatures die out. The extinction of frogs and salamanders might seem unimportant, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. These animals regulate their local ecosystems, consume and control populations of mosquitoes and other insects that spread disease, and potentially point the way to new drugs for fighting diseases such as cancer and HIV- AIDS. Their fate is inexorably linked to our own.
The biggest danger to most species today is habitat loss. But a new threat, specific to amphibians, has spread across the globe. From the Panamanian jungles to the Appalachian Mountains, entire species of frogs and salamanders are disappearing at an alarming rate. But it’s not too late to implement global conservation policies that could mean the difference between survival and extinction.
This epidemic is due to a disease called chytridiomycosis, caused by a microscopic fungus that lives in water and moist soil. Animals that live primarily in cool, moist environments are the perfect target for the deadly pathogen.
This disease does not respect boundaries between countries or those that identify protected areas. We have already officially lost more than 120 species, but the real number is likely much higher, as lack of research funding limits the necessary investigations required to officially declare a species extinct or to even identify many of those that can be distinguished only through genetic analyses.
Such extinctions can devastate nature’s ecosystems, but humans will feel the loss too. Biomedical researchers have relied on animals to help understand and treat disease in humans for generations. Indeed, two of my colleagues recently found some chemicals that are naturally produced in the skin of various frog species that can kill the HIV virus, certain kinds of cancers and other microbial pathogens.
When species go extinct, our list of ingredients for products and pharmaceuticals shrinks, potentially erasing cures before they are discovered. And with one in three amphibians currently in danger of extinction, researchers are now locked into a high-stakes race with the clock.
U.S. policymakers should get serious about saving amphibians. Most of the world’s frogs live in developing countries, which lack the economic resources to protect their habitats and fight the spread of the fungus. Additional U.S. funding for labs already working on innovative potential cures would be a fabulous investment. It is also critical that the U.S. and other developed nations provide financial support to help protect frog habitats in the developing world. Rampant destruction of wetlands and tropical forests around the world could leave many frog species with nowhere to call home.
Beyond that, leaders in Washington should move to create a national strategy to address the overall global species extinction crisis. Currently, with more than six federal agencies involved in international conservation, we still lack any coordination or overarching strategy.
Meanwhile, all over the world, we are losing our rich diversity of plant and animal species at an unprecedented rate. The services provided by amphibians go far beyond their aesthetic appeal. Frogs and salamanders, like the other wild inhabitants of our planet, make the world a better place.
Scientists have concluded we have only a decade to substantially scale up conservation efforts to address this extinction crisis, or face irreversible losses. While time is short, there is still an opportunity to preserve the bounty of nature we have remaining – a task that’s critical not only for nature’s sake, but our own.
Karen Lips is an associate professor of biology and director of the Program in Sustainable Development and Conservation Biology at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her e-mail is klips@umd.edu.
The Sixth Extinction
May 25th, 2009
The New Yorker
Abstract:
A reporter at large about the sixth mass extinction. Describes how graduate student Karen Lips observed the mysterious disappearance of large numbers of local golden frogs, in the nineteen-nineties, at several locations in Panama and Costa Rica. Whatever was killing Lips’s frogs moved east, like a wave, across Panama. Of the many species that have existed on earth, more than ninety-nine per cent have disappeared. Yet extinction has been a much contested concept. Throughout the eighteenth century, the prevailing view was that species were fixed. Charles Darwin believed extinction happened only slowly, but he was wrong. Over the past half billion years, there have been at least twenty mass extinctions. Five of these—the so-called Big Five—were so devastating that they’re usually put in their own category. The fifth, the end-Cretaceous event, which occurred sixty-five million years ago, exterminated not just the dinosaurs but seventy-five per cent of all species on earth. Once a mass extinction occurs, it takes millions of years for life to recover, and when it does it’s generally with a new cast of characters.
Read the full story (subscription required)
‘Survivor: Planet’ We’re all competing
February 26th, 2009
ROME (GA) NEWS-TRIBUNE
BY ETHAN ZOHN and JENNA MORASCA
Recently, millions of Americans tuned in to witness the crowning of the winner of Survivor: Gabon– Earth’s last Eden. Over the course of 12 weeks the contestants dealt with all the challenges that nature, the producers and their fellow competitors could throw at them — an experience we both know all too well. At risk was the ultimate title of ”Sole Survivor,” a $1 million prize and a host of life-changing opportunities that the winner can only scarcely imagine.
Yet amid the attention surrounding the close of this season’s Survivor, it’s important the public also be aware of a very different survival struggle going on today.
According to the World Conservation Union, more than 16,000 species, plants and animal alike, are in danger of extinction, largely because of human activities. If we don’t stop this onslaught on nature, scientists warn that two-thirds of the planet’s 10 million species could face extinction by the end of the century — a situation that puts the term ”being voted off the island” in a whole new light. While the picture may look gloomy, however, there are steps leaders in Washington can take to create real-life ”immunity idols” for species — tools the international community could use in this struggle.
Participating in Survivor was an incredible experience. Living off the land, waking up with lions and giraffes or toucans and pink dolphins in your backyard — it gives you a very different perspective on nature. It showed us how fragile life can be. Gabon is, indeed, one of the Earth’s ”last Edens” because modern society has destroyed all but a few remnants of wild nature. According to the United Nations, over the last 300 years global forest area has shrunk by almost half. Coral reefs in the Caribbean have been reduced by roughly 80 percent over the last 30 years. And more than 75 percent of the world’s marine fish have been fished to the brink of extinction.
In the Amazon, according to Brazilian officials, roughly 290 square miles of forest was destroyed in August alone, more than double the amount from last year. And if you think this won’t impact Americans, think again.
Roughly 20 percent of the planet’s oxygen is produced by the Amazon rainforest. But perhaps more important is its treasure trove of plants.
Just one square kilometer of the Amazon contains over 75,000 types of trees. And while extinction of an obscure tree might not seem important, native plant species provide a vital tool in combating diseases, with half of the most prescribed medicines in the United States derived from natural compounds. The drug vincristine, for example, from an obscure flower in Madagascar, is one of the most effective current treatments for childhood leukemia.
Forests also hold water, preventing both catastrophic floods and droughts, while healthy coral reefs reduce the impact of large storms on coastal populations. Small investments in conservation can translate into huge savings in lives and property. But we needn’t sit back and passively and watch this crisis unfold like a drama on TV. We still have a chance to make a difference.
In conjunction with efforts to address the climate crisis, leaders in Washington over the next two years should take steps to ensure that our nation has a plan to address this global species extinction crisis. An excellent first step would be adopting a national global conservation strategy and then planning for how all U.S. government agencies involved in conservation abroad could advance that goal. The Obama administration should also start a global dialogue on how the international community can provide the resources to protect the world’s most ecologically and economically important species-rich land and marine areas. Together, these tools could literally make the difference between life and death for what’s left of the natural world and those species on the brink of survival.
To win at Survivor you not only have to learn how to outwit, outlast and outplay your opponents, but how to live in balance with the game’s most influential player — Mother Nature. If we’re all going to win this ultimate survival challenge we have to put on our game faces now. TV shouldn’t be the only place where future generations can experience the wonders of Africa, the Amazon or any of our planet’s remaining Edens.
Ethan Zohn is the winner of Survivor: Africa; Jenna Morasca is the winner of Survivor: Amazon.
