By Robert Stalnaker

The following is a list of headlines and excerpts that chronicles the pending destruction of earth. There will still be a planet, but "destroyed" due to the extinction of species and ecosystems. Governments across the globe, led by the USA, are on an all-out war against the environment. When a judge gives a guilty criminal just a $1 fine for killing the near extinct Whooping Crane, governments and judges are clearly in bed with real estate and construction companies in the war against ecosystems.  What type of life will we have without the parks, wetlands, shores, species and ecosystems?

Links were active when posted and may or may not still be active but the source can be usually seen in the URL. If a link is dead or has been changed, I leave it in the chronicle for the still valid headline and excerpt. If you would like to add a headline and link, email me at:

robert.wildlife@yahoo.com.

I hope those visiting this website consider supporting a quality conservation org, volunteer for an eco organization and most importantly, write (snail mail for impact) to your politicians about stopping the poaching of endangered species and the destruction of ecosystems that is leading to the extinction of species.

________________________________________________________________________

Most recent entry #117 on Jan 21, 2015 

#117 Endangered chimpanzees may experience drastic habitat loss within five yearsDramatic habitat loss by 2020 threatens the population of the planet's most endangered chimp subspecies, according to research published in BMC Evolutionary Biology. The work suggests that climate change could do more harm to chimpanzee populations than previously realized.
Phys Org

#116 Emerging Solar Plants Scorch Birds in Mid-Air  Federal wildlife investigators who visited the BrightSource Energy plant last year and watched as birds burned and fell, reporting an average of one "streamer" every two minutes, are urging California officials to halt the operator's application to build a still-bigger version.
ABC News

#115 Emperor penguins at risk of extinction, scientists warn

The entire population of Antarctica's famous emperor penguins could fall by a third by the end of the century because of disappearing sea ice, putting them at risk of extinction, researchers said on Sunday.

The Guardian

#114 Sick Sea Lions Flood Shelters in California

Pups Wash Ashore All Along the Coast Amid What Scientists Say Are Strains on the Ocean
Record numbers of distressed sea lions have washed ashore in California for a second straight year, the latest example of a marine mammal facing severe problems amid what biologists say is overfishing and other human-caused strains on the world's oceans.
Wall Street Journal

#113 Large Carnivores Disappearing From the Earth
An analysis of 31 carnivore species published today in the journal “Science” shows for the first time how threats such as habitat loss, persecution by humans and loss of prey combine to create global hotspots of carnivore decline.More than 75 percent of the 31 large carnivore species are declining, and 17 species now occupy less than half of their former ranges, the authors report.
Environment News Service

#112 One of World’s Greatest Birds Now Critically Endangered
The Great Indian Bustard, Ardeotis nigriceps, has been uplisted to Critically Endangered, the highest level of threat. Hunting, disturbance, habitat loss and fragmentation have reduced this species to as few as 250 individuals.  “In an ever more crowded world, species that need lots of space, such as the Great Indian Bustard, are losing out. However, we are the ones who lose in the long run, as the services that nature provides us start to disappear,” said Dr. Leon Bennun, BirdLife’s director of science and policy.
Environment News Service

#111 Largest lake in British Isles has lost three quarters of winter water birds
The study, by Quercus, Northern Ireland’s Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, found the number of diving ducks migrating to the lake for the winter months has dropped from 100,000 to less than 21,000 in the space of a decade.
Wildlife Extra

#110 Florida manatees dying at record rates
Toxic algae blooms that deplete the water of essential oxygen are killing a record number of manatees in Florida this year, biologists say.  A total of 769 manatees have died trough Tuesday, making 2013 the deadliest year ever for the blubbery denizens of the deep found off the Florida coast, Save the Manatee Club announced.  In the bay of Miami, where families of three or four manatees are commonly spotted along the shore, many of the animals are killed after being struck by boats.
Phys.org

#109 Clock ticks for Madagascar's lemurs
But crop burnings and wild fires destroy 200,000 hectares of Madagascar's forest a year. And the 13 percent of its natural forest that remains may disappear within a generation, according to Ratsimbazafy.
"If this rate of deforestation continues you could say that within 20 to 25 years there won't be any forest left, so no lemurs either," he said.
Phys.org

 #108 Philippines probes death of rare eagle released in wild
The carcass of the giant bird, belonging to a species that is threatened with extinction, was recovered from a resident of Gingoog city on the southern island of Mindanao, the Philippine Eagle Foundation said.  Auxtero said the Gingoog resident who had captured the bird had not been placed under arrest.  A Mindanao farmer was arrested in 2008 after he confessed to shooting and eating another male Philippine eagle.
Phys.org

#107 Condors found poisoned in Chile
"The hypothesis is that they suffered organophosphate poisoning after they were exposed to insecticides used for agriculture," said veterinarian Eric Savard, who has been treating them.
The Guardian

#106 Endangered Elephant Killings Rising in Indonesia
WWF Indonesia said killings of Sumatran elephants are on the rise, with 29 either shot or poisoned last year, including 14 in Aceh province. The group said Tuesday that no one has been convicted or jailed in the deaths that were counted in Riau province since 2004. The report came three days after two dead Sumatran elephants were found near a paper plantation in Riau, allegedly poisoned by poachers. Another elephant was killed last month near Tesso Nilo national park and its tusks were hacked off. An autopsy found a plastic detergent wrapper in its belly filled with poison.
ABC News

#105 Amphibians Disappearing at Alarming Rate
The U.S. Geological Survey said Thursday that populations of frogs, salamanders and toads have been vanishing from places where they live at a rate of 3.7 percent a year. That puts them on a path to disappearing from half their inhabited sites nationwide in 20 years.
ABC News

#104 Unless more Marbled Murrelet eggs survive, the central California population will go extinct within a century
"Every time folks throw out crumbs to bring out jays and squirrels, it's having a real impact on a very rare bird nesting overhead in an old-growth redwood tree," Bensen told OurAmazingPlanet.
NBC News

#103 Over 400 species of amphibians driven either to extinction or near extinction
"Humans are directly involved," Vredenburg told LiveScience." ... Bd kills by infecting amphibian skin, causing it to thicken by up to 40 times what is normal. Because frogs, salamanders and other amphibians breathe and take in nutrients through their skin, this is often disastrous. Individuals of many species die within days of infection, Vredenburg said. The tragedy of Bd is that it may have taken out amphibian species before anyone even noticed they were going missing, Lips told LiveScience. If so, scientists' very understanding of biodiversity could be skewed.
NBC News

#102 Last rhinos in Mozambique killed by poachers
The last known rhinoceroses in Mozambique have been wiped out by poachers apparently working in cahoots with the game rangers responsible for protecting them, it has emerged. The 15 threatened animals were shot dead for their horns last month in the Mozambican part of Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which also covers South Africa and Zimbabwe. They were thought to be the last of an estimated 300 that roamed through the special conservation area when it was established as "the world's greatest animal kingdom" in a treaty signed by the three countries' then presidents in 2002.
The Telegraph

#101 Feds: Many Causes for Dramatic Bee Disappearance
A new federal report blames a combination of problems for a mysterious and dramatic disappearance of U.S. honeybees since 2006. The intertwined factors cited include a parasitic mite, multiple viruses, bacteria, poor nutrition, genetics, habitat loss and pesticides. ... The problem has also hit bee colonies in Europe, where regulators are considering a ban on a type of pesticides known as neonicotinoids that some environmental groups blame for the bee collapse. The U.S. report cites pesticides, but near the bottom of the list of factors. And federal officials and researchers advising them said the science doesn't justify a ban of the pesticides yet.
ABC NEWS

#100 Rhino’s Dying Breath Signals General’s Return to War
As he watched a white rhino take its final breath after poachers broke its back and hacked off its horn, major general Johan Jooste said he realized that South Africa is facing a war to save the endangered species. “There’s no way in the world that losing two-plus rhinos a day is sustainable,” Craig Sholley, a vice-president at the Nairobi, Kenya-based African Wildlife Foundation, said in an April 22 phone interview. “We’re getting very close.”
Bloomberg

#99 As Tigers Go Extinct, Chinese Medicine Switches to Lions
Since 2008, by which time there had been a huge drop in the number of tigers in the wild, traders from countries such as China and Vietnam have been taking an interest in South African lions. Chinese medicine has traditionally used the powdered bones of tigers to cure many illnesses, such as rheumatism, ulcers and stomach aches. Tiger bones have also been credited with boosting virility in men. Apparently, now that the tiger population is waning, lions will do the trick.
Care2

#98 More than 10% of a species' population in a smuggle attempt
Thai man was caught in an airport trying to pick up 54 ploughshare tortoises. There are perhaps 400 ploughshare tortoises in the wild. It's tough enough for a species to fend off extinction without having smugglers as natural predators ... That luggage was filled with 54 ploughshare tortoises, or Astrochelys yniphora. Since there are estimated to be as few as 400 wild ploughshare tortoises in the wild, that means the operation was an attempt to move more than 10 percent of the species. On top of that, 21 radiated tortoises, another endangered species, were being smuggled, too.
eScience News

#97 Gorillas, Chimps, other Apes being lost to illegal trade
The multibillion-dollar trade in illegal wildlife — clandestine trafficking that has driven iconic creatures like the tiger to near-extinction — is also threatening the survival of great apes, a new U.N. report says. Endangered chimpanzees, orangutans, gorillas and bonobos are disappearing from the wild in frightening numbers, as private owners pay top dollar for exotic pets, while disreputable zoos, amusement parks and traveling circuses clamor for smuggled primates to entertain audiences.
Businessweek.com

#96 One in Five Reptiles at Risk of Extinction
Also at risk are freshwater turtles, with 50% of all species at risk of extinction from hunting; turtle parts are in high demand as ingredients in traditional medicine. According to the study 30% of freshwater reptile species are also in danger of completely disappearing.
Time Science and Space

#95 Pacific Leatherback Turtle headed toward extinction
"If the decline continues, within 20 years it will be difficult if not impossible for the leatherback to avoid extinction," Thane Wibbels, a biologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), said in a statement. "That means the number of turtles would be so low that the species could not make a comeback." Much of the decline is due to humans. Before the practice was outlawed in 1993, villagers and fisherman collected turtle eggs by the thousands in Indonesia. Dogs and pigs still dig up turtle eggs.
NBCNews.com

#94 1000s of shark fins drying on Hong Kong rooftop
Hofford states on his blog that traders have taken to using rooftops instead of ground-level markets to dry their fins out of public view: "I'm now of the opinion that this place has been operating for a very long time, and it's only in the last three days that their activities have come to light."
GrindTV

#93 More than 200 elephants slaughtered in Cameroon since January - massacre continues
At least 100 elephant carcasses have been found in the park in the past month and ongoing shooting is making it impossible to conduct a further, detailed assessment of the situation. It is understood that more carcasses are expected to be found in unexplored regions of Bouba Ndjida. According to reports, many orphaned elephant calves have been spotted abandoned following the shootings and concerns are high the babies may soon die of hunger and thirst. Their deaths will only compound the impact of the poaching spree on the Cameroon’s threatened elephant populations....NOTE: In November 2008 China and Japan bought 108 tonnes of ivory in a "one-off" sale from Botswana, South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe. These legal sales provide the cover necessary for the illegal trade in ivory to flourish.
IFAW

#92 120,000 Amur falcons massacred in 1 week in India
According to Conservation India: "We estimate that during the peak migration 12,000 - 14,000 birds are being hunted for consumption and commercial sale every day. We further estimate that a mind-boggling 120,000 to 140,000 birds are being slaughtered in Nagaland every year during their passage through the state." This is probably the single largest congregation of Amur falcons recorded anywhere in the world and it is tragic that they meet such a fate.
Wildlife Extra News

#91 African elephants face extinction by 2020, conservationists warn
African elephants are being killed for their ivory at such a rate that most large groups could be extinct by 2020, researchers warned. Writing in the journal Conservation Biology, Dr Wasser and fellow researchers warned that without public pressure to ensure a strengthening of anti-poaching measures, most remaining large groups of elephants will be extinct by the end of next decade.
The Telegraph

#90 Guard at Wildlife Sanctuary Kills Tiger For Its Whiskers
The Malaysian Sun Daily reports that the security guard admitted to authorities that he killed the six-year-old tigress, whose body was found mutilated last week at a sanctuary in Chhattisgarh, central India. After being arrested, the guard told authorities that he removed the cat’s claws, teeth, and whiskers, because he believes them to have magical medicinal properties — particularly in the bedroom. There are only around 1,700 of the tigers left in existence.
CARE2 make a difference

#89 Western black rhino declared extinct
Poachers (mostly paid for by the Chinese) have caused yet another rhino species to go extinct.
BBC

#88 Poachers kill last Javan Rhino in Vietnam; now extinct
Illegal hunting to supply the wildlife trade has reduced many species in Vietnam to small and isolated populations. The tiger, Asian elephant and endemic species such as the saola, Tonkin snub-nosed monkey and Siamese crocodile are on the verge of extinction in the country...‘The single most important action to conserve Vietnam's endangered species is protecting their natural habitat and deterring poaching and illegal wildlife trade. The report shows that these actions were inadequate to save the Javan rhino in Vietnam and this continued situation will no doubt lead to the extinction of many more species from the country.
Wildlife Extra

#87 Culprit sought after whale shot, washes up in NJ
He said shark fishermen commonly carry guns to shoot large sharks they catch before bringing them aboard boats, and speculated that someone on a boat where fishing was slow decided to use the whale for target practice.
Forbes.com

#86 Prominent environmental activist Wu Lihong plunges his hands into a thick layer of toxic green scum and brown foam floating on one of China's biggest freshwater lakes.
"There's no place in China that isn't polluted. There's no place in China that's clean," complains Wu, 43, who calls himself the "Guardian of Lake Tai ... But after three decades of explosive economic growth and lax enforcement of environmental protection laws, the lake -- like most waterways in China -- is heavily contaminated with toxic waste from surrounding factories and farms."
MSN News

#85 Mekong dolphin on the verge of extinction
The critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphin population in the Mekong River numbers just 85, WWF research has revealed. Calf survival was found to be very low, leading researchers to conclude that the small population is declining and at high risk of extinction. With the added pressures of gill net entanglement and high calf mortality we are really worried for the future of dolphins," Dr. Li said.
Wildlife Extra News

#84 Rainforest destruction up by 500 per cent…and now Brazil relaxes protection laws.
In the Mato Grosso area, 405.6 square kilometres of forest were destroyed in April 2011, more than in the whole of the previous year and a staggering 540 per cent increase in deforestation month on month increase, according to the National Institute for Space Studies (INPE). Worse still, under the new bill, there would be an amnesty for those who illegally cleared forest before July 2008.
Wildlife Extra News

#83 Sturgeon, nearing extinction in Europe, likely was poached.
When in 2009 a team of Romanian and Norwegian researchers attached a satellite transmitter to Harald’s 2.9 meter (9 1/2-foot) body, they hoped the data beamed back would show them ways of halting the rapid drop in the sturgeons’ numbers. But now the Beluga sturgeon is missing, presumed to be a victim of poachers. Now environmentalists are trying to head off the latest threat: a European Union plan to deepen shipping channels in the Danube that they fear could eliminate the last shallows where the sturgeon deposit their eggs, which would doom the fish to vanish in its last stronghold in Europe.
Washington Times

#82 Europe Faces Mass Animal Extinction
Nieto said the loss of biodiversity is more acute in Europe than in many other parts of the world because of the scale of residential and industrial development. With an average of nearly 70 people per square kilometer (180 people per square mile), Europe is the second most densely populated continent, behind only Asia — and about three times as densely populated as North America.
Global Animal

#81 Belief and butchery: how lies and organized crime are pushing rhinos to extinction
Rhino poaching, along with rampant deforestation, have put three of five rhino species into the Critically Endangered category, the worst before extinction. In fact, the Javan rhino and the Sumatran are two of the world's most endangered mammals. It is thought the last Javan Rhino surviving in Vietnam (there are still a few dozen in Java) was killed by poachers last year.
Mongabay.com

#80 An Epidemic Among Amphibians
Since the discovery of Bd, researchers have linked the fungus to the collapse of frog and toad populations in California, Australia, Panama and Peru. Some species have already gone extinct because of it. Amphibian numbers have been dropping for decades as a result of all the usual threats, including habitat destruction, pollution, invasive species and climate change. In the 1970s, researchers started to notice animals disappearing from pristine and protected areas, as well, which led them in 1999 to Bd.
Discovery News

#79 Torture at bear farms
Jill has made good on that promise and today, her organization called Animals Asia leads the crusade to shut down bear farms across the continent where it's estimated that tens of thousands of bears are locked in tiny cages and 'milked' daily for the bile from their gall bladders, which is prized for its use in analgesics, wines and even shampoo. The specific details of the bile extraction are too tragic to describe here, but suffice it to say that this is indeed one of the deepest forms of cruelty on earth.
Care2

#78 Tiger Cub Video Sparks Calls for Protection
Conservation group WWF on Monday urged timber firms to drop plans to clear Indonesian forest areas where infra-red cameras have captured footage of rare Sumatran tigers and their cubs. WWF warned last year, during the Year of the Tiger, that the species is on course for outright extinction by 2022 -- the next Year of the Tiger under the Chinese calendar.
Discovery News

#77 Rare birds of prey shot in Malta
One of the rarest birds of prey in Europe was seen struggling to survive gunshot wounds on Sunday, and a hunter in Gozo was filmed shooting at protected birds in broad daylight by the side of a main road. The Pallid Harrier is considered to be one of the rarest birds of prey in Europe - there are only between five and 51 breeding pairs of Pallid Harrier in the region. "While a constant stream of Easter Sunday traffic passed right behind him, this individual still felt that he could shoot at a protected species without any concern for the law. With incidents like these still being recorded on a regular basis, it is evident that illegal hunting is very far from being under control in Malta."
Times of Malta

#76 In some hibernacula, 90% to 100% of the bats are dying
Scientists say it could bring some species, even those that were once common such as the little brown bat, to the brink of extinction.
BBC

#75 NASA image reveals extent of deforestation in western Brazil
Farmers have repeatedly broken the Brazilian Forestry Code by often clearing far more than 20% of the land. According to the Forestry Code, farmers in the Amazon must leave 80% of the land as natural forest.
Mongabay.com

#74 Oslo says forest aid must continue despite corruption
The news came last Thursday, when the country’s Environment Minister, Erik Solheim, said that if developed countries wait for corruption to be eliminated, there could soon be hardly any trees left in the Congo.
IceNews

#73 U.N. Forecasts 10.1 Billion People by Century’s End
Editor note ... This article is strictly about the population explosion. The destruction of ecosystems today is happening with 6.9 billion people. As the earth grows to 10 billion people, conservation efforts are meaningless. Now matter how much effort is put into saving species and ecosystems, the population growth will override any of those attempts. Population growth is the single biggest reason for the pending earth's destruction.
New York Times

#72 Illegal Wildlife Still Being Sold To Restaurants
The raids follow survey results by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) that found 84 percent (57 out of 68) of restaurants in Da Lat were serving wildlife including those fined last August in Lam Dong’s biggest raid. ... the impact of these seizures to stop wildlife criminals in Da Lat is limited by the lack of effective punishment...The Lam Dong Forest Protection Department (FPD) carried out its latest wave of raids in Da Lat exactly one year after the demise of Vietnam’s last known rhino—found dead in Cat Tien National Park in May of 2010
Organic View

#71 The number slaughtered has tripled in the past few years. Rhino's are now being killed at the rate of almost a rhino a day.
While private game reserve owners feel each death keenly, it's in the national parks where the largest numbers are killed.
ABC News

#70 The end of the world as we know it
As we face the possibility of a mass extinction, Carl Zimmer asks scientists how the threat should be handled.
Sidney Morning Herald

#69 Massive bee deaths in Slovenia due to pesticide
The government issued a temporary ban on seeds treated with neonicotinoid pesticides which have caused massive bee deaths in the northeastern Pomurje region in the recent weeks. The use of Biscay, a pesticide, will also be limited.
The Slovenia Times

#68 Climate Change Spells Extinction for a Mountain Species
Their findings show that colonies of pikas disappeared from entire sites once every 10.7 years during the 20th century. Since 1999, their extinction rate jumped to once every 2.2 years. Pikas also migrated nearly 475 feet up-slope in the past decade, an 11-fold leap over the roughly 40-feet-per-decade shift seen throughout the 20th century.
Reuters

#67 Amphibians--New study finds wide array of causes for sudden extinction wave
Man-made factors include habitat destruction, environmental contamination, invasive species and climate change . . .“An enormous rate of change has occurred in the last 100 years, and amphibians are not evolving fast enough to keep up with it,” said Andrew Blaustein, a professor of zoology at Oregon State University and an international leader in the study of amphibian declines."
Summit County Citizens Voice

#66 Poachers selling endangered pig-nosed turtles for "aphrodisiacal qualities"
“It is easy to sell anything if you claim that it has aphrodisiacal qualities. A number of wildlife products are in the country with such claims,” he says.
The Hindu

#65 Corruption helping to drive more tiger species into extinction
In Jharkhand’s Palamau Tiger Reserve, forest officials claim poachers and Maoist rebels are to likely to blame for the loss of 44 of their tigers, eleven of which in just the last three to four years. They say they regularly receive death threats from poachers, which are completely ignored by administration and authorities.
Bush Warriors

#64 Illegal drug use helping to cause deforestation in Columbia
While cocaine use has declined minimally in the United States in recent years, it's on a global rise, particularly in places like Argentina, Brazil, Eastern Europe and the United Kingdom, Dávalos said. "People wouldn't be going out of their way to plant this if there wasn't an eager market," she added.
Scientific American

#63 Trapping threatens near-extinct Philippine eagle
The eagles continue to be harmed and poached
Physorg

#62 WWF warns of massive forest loss
More than 568 million acres of forest worldwide will disappear by 2050 if no action is taken, a new WWF report warns.
UPI.com

#61 Mass Extinction . . .Within a few decades, at least HALF of all plant and animal species will disappear forever
All over the world species are becoming extinct at an astonishing rate, from 1000 to 10,000 times faster than normal. The loss of biodiversity has become so severe that scientists are calling it a mass extinction event.
Trailer for "Call of Life--Facing the Mass Extinction

#60 Wildlife Loses to Big Business Interests in Eastern Texas
the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), voted 2-1 to establish river flow standards that could make the rivers in east Texas slow to a trickle -- leaving them with too little water to provide habitat for fish, birds, and other wildlife, and making Sabine Lake and Galveston Bay salty and inhospitable.
National Wildlife Federation

#59 Amphibians are dying at rates never before observed
More than 200 species have gone silent, while scientists estimate one third of the more than 6,500 known species are at risk of extinction. Species are disappearing even before they are described by scientists
Mongabay.com

#58 A Lyrebird, one of the best mimics in the world, mimics the sound of chainsaws cutting down its forest
the bird not only sang the songs of 20 other forest birds, it also did a perfect imitation of foresters and their chainsaws, who apparently were getting closer. That same bird made the sound of a car alarm. These birds were, in effect, recording the sounds of their own habitat destruction. And they were doing this, ironically, inside their mating songs.
Grist

#57 Mexican environmental activist shot dead
Javier Torres Cruz, 30, who fought illegal deforestation by drug traffickers in the Mexican state of Guerroro, was murdered a week ago.
Mongabay.com

#56Monster Bill Threatens Environmental Rules
A late arriving bill in the Florida House of Representatives includes changes to 29 different environmental laws
Audubon of Florida Advocate

#55 Three tiger species went extinct in last 60 years, a fourth may soon
Since 1900, the endangered tiger's habitat and numbers have been reduced by up to 95 per cent. Poachers continue to poison waterholes or set steel wire snares to kill tigers and tiger prey, selling their skins and body parts for use in traditional Chinese medicine.
Tigers in Crisis

#54 Condor is now ingesting the toxin DDE when eating marine carcasses
But it turns out these marine animals are feeding on DDE, and now the condors are feeding on them, and the shells of their eggs are thin and break." DDE is formed when the pesticide DDT breaks down. DDT is banned in the United States, but the chemical enters the environment through its use in other countries.
CNN

#53 Shark die-off now striking San Francisco Bay
While previous incidents of dead leopard sharks in 2006 and 2007 were related to oil spills, this new wave of carcasses could point to long-term, damaging environmental factors.
Natural News

#52 More Than a Year Later, Gulf Dolphins and Turtles Keep Dying
When she arrived the dolphin was still there, its silvery body still fresh, its bottle nose turned toward its salt water home. Tourists splashed in the water. A young boy surfed the waves nearby, seemingly oblivious to the lifeless marine mammal lying in the sand.
NRDC

#51 Fragile Páramo Ecosystem in Colombia Threatened by Coal and Gold Rush
“If this situation doesn´t stop, we will end up displaced, this time not by the guerrillas or any other armed group but from people like us who have exploited this land without control,” said Mayor Garzón, sitting atop a mountain rock and looking down at his hometown in the green valley below. “We’ll only have two options: leaving our homes or living in a desert”.
National Geographic

#50 Mining in the Grand Canyon?
As the Obama administration develops its final proposal to protect the Grand Canyon from hardrock mining, other national parks, monuments, forests and historic sites are also under threat from thousands of mining claims, many of them staked during the past five years.
Pew Environmental Group

#49 Only 100 Florida Panthers left and on verge of extinction. A dirtbag shoots one of them.
A $5,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever shot and killed a Florida panther.
WESH

#48 UK scientists are struggling to explain a catastrophic decline in the number of birds
According to Sheehan, numbers of migrant birds from Africa have declined dramatically in the UK since 1995. For turtle doves the figure is 71%; nightingales, 53%; and cuckoos, 44%. "That is a very significant and very worrying decline," she added.
Guardian

#47 Global Catastrophic Amphibian Declines
Amphibian declines around the world have forced many species to the brink of extinction.
Science Daily

#46 Judge fines killers of endangered whooping crane just $1
Wade Bennett, 18, of Cayuga, and an unnamed minor each received a year of probation, $550 in legal costs and a $1 fine for the crime. One dollar. Apparently the boys were out on a killing spree and managed to slaughter one of fewer than 400 whooping cranes left in the wild. "They would drive around shooting whatever (animals) they saw, kind of like target practice. They had been squirrel hunting, and then they came upon a large white bird and just shot it," said Special Agent Buddy Shapp of the Fish and Wildlife Service.
care2

#45 UK butterfly species in decline
Butterfly Conservation said that seven out of 10 species of the insect are in decline in the UK and half are threatened with extinction.
MSN

#44The world’s rain forests could completely vanish in a hundred years at the current rate of deforestation.
Loggers, some of them acting illegally, also build roads to access more and more remote forests—which leads to further deforestation. Forests are also cut as a result of growing urban sprawl.
National Geographic

#43 Four common species of bumblebee in the US has dropped by 96% in just the past few decades
It is unclear why, but scientists think it is from a combination of new diseases, changing habitats around cities, and increasing use of pesticides.
Guardian

#42 Five family members kill seven endangered rhinos
According to the CIB, they were holding a meeting to fix the price of rhino horn, which weighs 1.3 kg, before dealing with prospective buyers. The arrestees told the crime investigators that they were trying to sell the rhino horn for Rs 3.1 million.
The Himalayan Times

#41 Tropics in Decline as Natural Resources Exhausted at Alarming Rate
Humanity's demands on natural resources are sky-rocketing to 50 per cent more than the earth can sustain.
Center for Biological Diversity

#40 Poachers kill last female rhino in South African park for prized horn
The committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) warned last year that rhino poaching had reached an all-time high. The Cites conference in Geneva in July 2009 heard that Asia's economic expansion had fuelled the market in rhino horns. The horns are also used in the Middle East to make handles for ornamental daggers.
Guardian

#39 With Jaguars Disappearing, a Search for Survivors
Farmers still frequently kill jaguars that eat their livestock. Deforestation and development are rapidly destroying big cat habitats. And rural hunters may compete with jaguars for the same prey.
Discovery News

#38 Destruction of rainforests worsens in Madagascar
Armed bands are decimating rainforest reserves in northeastern Madagascar, killing lemurs and intimidating conservation workers, despite widespread condemnation by international environmental groups.
WildMadagascar.org

#37 Mercury in fish is widespread
Each tested fish in 291 streams had some; a quarter were above EPA level
AP via MSNBC

#36 10 Species Have Disappeared From Mexican Forest
between 1960 and 1990 those areas "suffered a significant rate of deforestation" as well as the division of the remaining forests into smaller and smaller parcels.
Fox News Latino

#35 40 Mediterranean fish species could vanish
The study released Tuesday by the International Union for Conservation of Nature says almost half of the species of sharks and rays in the Mediterranean and at least 12 species of bony fish are threatened with extinction due to overfishing, pollution and the loss of habitat.
AP

Video of windmill killing raptor
#34 One bird killed every minute by wind power in the US
Estimates by the federal government say that about 440,000 birds are killed each year by wind farms in the US, nearly one bird every minute.
Wildlife Extra

#33 Beyond the Oil Spill, the Tragedy of an Ailing Gulf
That tragedy is the ill and declining health of the Gulf of Mexico, including the enormous dead zone off the mouth of the Mississippi and the alarmingly rapid disappearance of Louisiana’s coastal wetlands, roughly 2,000 square miles smaller than they were 80 years ago.
New York Times

#32 New report shows wetland loss in Ontario continues at an alarming rate
Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) has released a report today indicating 72 per cent of southern Ontario’s large inland wetlands have been lost or converted to other land uses and this loss continues at an alarming rate.
Ducks Unlimited

#31 Scientists make disturbing discovery in exams of dead Gulf oil spill dolphins, Kemps ridley turtles
Scientists at the University of Florida in Gainesville have been performing tests on dead dolphins and Kemp’s Ridley turtles that have been collected and tagged as victims of the BP Gulf oil spill...And the solvents they contain can break down red blood cells, causing hemorrhaging. A fresh dolphin carcass found in the Gulf was bleeding from the mouth and blow hole.
examiner.com

#30 World’s Most Endangered Sea Turtle Threatened by BP Oil Slick
“Kemp’s Ridley turtles numbers have been reduced over a long period of time and here they are being battered again,” Richard Page, oceans campaigner with the environmental group Greenpeace, said in a telephone interview in London. “It’s the most endangered species of sea turtle that there is, and they’ll be ingesting oil and toxins. I’m sure there will be deaths.” [Note: later, over 500 turned up dead]
Bloomberg Businessweek

#29 Plan to create new wetlands upsets residents of Calcasieu Parish
The Calcasieu Parish Police Jury has voted 14-0 against a proposal to convert 165 acres of open water in Lake Charles into marshland, because of opposition from nearby residents.
NOLA

#28 United States
Ten states-Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, and Ohio-have lost 70 percent or more of their original wetland acreage. Overall, the data indicate that 22 states have lost 50 percent or more of their original wetland areas. The state with the highest percent loss of wetlands is California (an estimated 91 percent loss from the 1780's to the 1980's). Florida has lost approximately 9.3 million acres of wetlands during this 200-year timespan.
US Geological Survey

#27 Butterfly numbers in decline
We have just published a new Red List of European Butterflies showing that around 10 per cent of European butterfly species are facing possible extinction.
The Telegraph

#26 African freshwater animals and plants threatened
One in five species of plants and animals that live in fresh water in Africa is threatened with extinction. This is the conclusion of a comprehensive assessment of 5,167 freshwater species by 200 scientists over the past 5 years.
Wetlands International

#25 Snake populations show worldwide decline
“This is the first documented evidence from anywhere in the world that snake populations may be declining. Of 17 snake populations (11 species), 11 (8 species) from tropical (Nigeria), Mediterranean (Italy) and temperate (France and the UK) climates declined synchronously and over a period of about four years between 1998 and 2002,” Reading said.
National Geographic

#24 Numbers of waterbirds in Asia are rapidly declining
Rapid and poorly-planned human development leading to a lack of adequate official conservation of their important wetland sites are key reasons for their declining numbers.
Wetlands International

#23 Wader populations decline faster than ever
More than half the populations of waders in Europe, West Asia and Africa are declining at an accelerating rate.
Wetlands International

#22 Millions of birds killed worldwide by man-made barriers each year
However, each year the number of wind turbines, power lines, skyscraping radio, TV and cell phone
transmission masts, reflecting plate glass windows, tall buildings and other structures continues to grow, often without consideration of avoidance and mitigation measures known to reduce avian mortality through collisions with these structures.
Wetlands International

#21 Half of mammals are in decline. In South and Southeast Asia, 79 percent of primate species are threatened with extinction, the IUCN noted.
"Our results paint a bleak picture of the global status of mammals worldwide," Schipper and his co-authors said in the study. "We estimate that one in four species is threatened with extinctionand that the population of one in two is declining."
MSN

#20 Wetlands decline along East, Gulf coasts
...a net loss of 59,000 acres each year from 1998 to 2004
Ledger Enquirer

#19 Bangalore has witnessed 79% decline in wetlands
Unprecedented urbanisation is adversely impacting wetlands in the city. The city has seen a 79% decline in wetlands, and 76% decline in green cover due to unplanned development. The concentrated growth of urbanisation (632% during 36 years, between 1973 and 2009) has resulted in increased population and consequent pressure on natural resources.
Daily News and Analysis

#18 Pesticides detected more than 90% of the time in water, in more than 80% of fish sampled, and in 33% of major aquifers
By their very nature, most pesticides pose some risk of harm to humans, animals or the environment because they are designed to kill or adversely affect living organisms. Significant fish and bird kills have resulted from the legal application of pesticides, with millions of fish and birds estimated to die from pesticide exposure each year (Williams, Ted) (Pimental et al 1992).
US Fish and Wildlife Service

#17 Decline in global bird populations points to an unhealthy planet
current and projected extinction rates are estimated to be 1,000 to 10,000 times the natural background rate
News of the North

#16 Shorebirds' Migratory Wetland Habitat Declining Fast
“Collectively some species have probably declined 50 percent to 60 percent in the last 30 or 40 years. The precipitous decline is primarily due to wetland habitat losses,” Davis said. “Wetlands worldwide have seen great losses.”
Oklahoma State University, Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (2008, March 26). Shorebirds' Migratory Wetland Habitat Declining Fast. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 24, 2011, from
Science Daily

#15 Shorebird Numbers Crash In Australia
"This is a truly alarming result: in effect, three-quarters of eastern Australia's millions of resident and migratory shorebirds have disappeared in just one generation," says an author of the report, Professor Richard Kingsford. "The wetlands and resting places that they rely on for food and recuperation are shrinking virtually all the way along their migration path, from Australia through Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and up through Asia into China and Russia."
University of New South Wales (2008, April 13). Shorebird Numbers Crash In Australia. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 24, 2011, from
Science Daily

#14 China’s evaporating wetlands
The northern province of Hebei lost 90% of its wetlands in the last 50 years; 80% of what is left is polluted. In Shaanxi province the 30 counties in the Guanzhong area have seen up to 10,000 ponds disappear. Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake, now shrinks to as small as 50 square kilometers, down from 4,000 at its peak.
China Dialogue

#13 Study Traces Frog Population Decline To Weed Killer
All over the world, frog populations are declining because of diseases and the destruction of wetlands. A new study suggests another reason for the drop: a cascade of environmental changes set off by farmers who spray crops with the weed killer atrazine.
NPR

#12 For the first time in 50 years, Corkscrew Swamp sees two consecutive years without a wood stork nest
What’s going on out there is a drought. And that, paired with continuing development throughout South Florida, could be the reason the storks aren’t returning to nest.
Naplesnews

#11 Ohio Wetlands Loss
Five million acres of wetlands once covered the Buckeye State, and 3 million of those acres made up the former Great Black Swamp in northwest Ohio. Once a vast system of coastal wetlands, riverine marshes, wet prairies, hardwood swamps and oak savanna, today only 10 percent of the original wetlands remain.
Ohio DNR

#10 The decline of freshwater ecosystems
Some 34 percent of fish species, mostly from fresh water, are threatened with extinction ...
WRI

#9 California's Common Birds in Decline
The national study found that populations of some common birds nosedived over the past forty years, with several down nearly 80 percent. In California, Northern Pintail, Horned Lark, and Loggerhead Shrike topped the list with declines between 96 and 75%, mirroring national trends in the same species.
California Audubon

#8 False killer whales in sharp decline off Hawaii
Baird suspects a combination of longline fishing, declining prey, and environmental toxins are hurting the dolphins.
MSN

#7 Once-Common Birds In Dramatic Decline
Northern Bobwhites down 82 percent; Evening Grosbeaks down 78 percent; Northern Pintails down 78 percent; Greater Scaups down 75 percent; Eastern Meadowlarks down 71 percent; Common Terns down 70 percent; Snow Buntings down 64 percent; Rufous Hummingbirds down 58 percent; Whip-poor-wills down 57 percent; Little Blue Herons down 54 percent in the U.S.
Mother Jones

#6 Pennsylvania lost approximately 56 per cent of its wetlands.
The small, attractive turtles are desirable in the black market pet trade. The number of bog turtles has reduced by about 50 percent since 1990. In Europe and Japan, a pair of bog turtles can sell for about $2,000 and the greater the scarcity of the animal, the higher the price increases.
eHow

#5 Arizona
Less than 1 percent of Arizona's landscape has wetlands. Since the late 1800's, streams and wetlands throughout Arizona have been modified or drained, resulting in the loss of more than one-third of the State's original wetlands.
US Geological Survey

#4 New Mexico
New Mexico has lost about one-third of its wetlands, mostly due to agricultural conversion, diversion of water to irrigation, overgrazing, and urbanization. Other causes of loss or degradation have been mining, clear cutting, road construction, streamflow regulation, and invasion by nonnative plants.
US Geological Survey

#3 Nevada
More than one-half of Nevada's original wetlands have been lost, primarily due to conversion of wetlands to cropland and diversion of water for agricultural and urban use; many others have been seriously degraded by human activities. Some wetlands have been created by mine dewatering and sewage treatment.
US Geological Survey

#2 Nebraska
Nebraska has lost about 1 million acres of wetlands in the last 200 years--about 35 percent of the State's original wetland acreage. Conversion to agricultural use was the primary cause for most of the losses, but urbanization, reservoir construction, highway construction, and other activities also contributed.
US Geological Survey

#1 California
The State of California has a total surface area of approximately 101 million acres and it is estimated that in the 1780's California had 5 million acres of wetlands, or approximately 5 percent of California's total acreage was considered wetlands. It is now estimated that California has less than 500,000 wetland acres remaining. This estimate represents a wetlands loss of 91 percent of the 1780's estimated acreage, but also means that currently less than one-half of 1 percent of California's total acreage is wetlands.
US Geological Survey