ecosystems

Today I saw this article reporting on a study clearly linking declining fish stocks to algal blooms (so-called 'toxic tides'). For me this situation drives home three things about sustainability.

In fall, trees let go of leaves,

which swirl and twirl

and slip into streams.

They ride in a rush

above rocks

and over rapids.

They snag and settle soggily down.

Bacteria feed on the leaves.

People who are concerned about climate change struggle with carbon offsets. Do they make a difference, or are they just indulgences? And if they do make a difference, how can you tell which programs have real quality? It all comes down to measurement, testing and accountability.

The number of Florida scrub-jays, the only species of bird found exclusively in Florida, is declining - even within preserves set aside for them - a new report has concluded. The birds are being squeezed out by suburban sprawl and overpopulation in the state.

Coming out of Bali are details on a new plan to address the largest overlooked contributor to climate change – the destruction of forests. Right now, developing countries earn more from cutting forests than from keeping them standing. This plan looks to establish a financial value for the carbon stored in standing forests.

From the ground, peering up at their vertigo-inducing heights, the green and wooded mountains of southern West Virginia look ancient and undefiled. But from the air, the stark reality of an ecosystem under siege becomes clear. The mountains around Charleston retain their diverse hardwood cover and contours shaped by time immemorial, but things change abruptly 35 miles to the southeast. Replacing the green mountains are flat, bare and terraced plateaus that evoke the mesas of the Southwest, though with added black stripes from the coal seams.

In what is being described as a one-of-a-kind model for water-supply management, the Aquarion Water Company and the Nature Conservancy (TNC) have established a water-management partnership that will attempt to hold sufficient water in reserve for human needs without denying an area watershed the flow of water necessary for ecological health and vitality.

People depend on natural systems for survival, but these systems – and the lives they support-- are threatened by the inevitable impacts of climate change. It is crucial that we begin helping nature and people adapt to climate change now. A new bill in the Senate would provide funds to do just that.

Once thought completely eliminated from Central America’s Mayan Forest, The majestic Harpy Eagle is returning thanks to community-based conservation efforts that are restoring the bird’s natural habitat.

An estimated 80% of life on earth depends on healthy oceans and coasts, but a new report states that Europe's coastal marine regions are largely degraded. So are we acting too late to save important coastal areas?