September, 28 2010, 01:06pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Catherine Kilduff,
Center for Biological Diversity, (415) 644-8580
Todd Steiner/Teri
Shore, Turtle
Island
Restoration Network, (415) 663-8590 x 103/104
Vanishing African Penguin, Threatened by Climate Change and Fishing, Wins Protections
The
Interior Department announced today that the African
penguin, the only nesting penguin on
the African continent, will be listed as an endangered species under the
U.S. Endangered Species Act.
SAN FRANCISCO
The
Interior Department announced today that the African
penguin, the only nesting penguin on
the African continent, will be listed as an endangered species under the
U.S. Endangered Species Act. The decision responds to a 2006 Center for
Biological Diversity petition to protect 12 penguin species under the Act
as well as a legal settlement with the Center and Turtle Island
Restoration Network concerning delays in protecting the penguin.
"African penguins are sliding
toward extinction with no signs of stopping," said Catherine Kilduff, a
Center attorney. "Climate change, oil spills, overfishing and habitat
destruction are among the many threats that the Endangered Species Act
must begin to address."
African penguin populations,
which breed in Namibia
and South
Africa, have declined by 95 percent since
preindustrial times. Commercial fisheries have forced penguins to feed on
less nutritious prey and swim miles farther to find food, even as climate
change and ocean warming are making the penguins' prey more scarce. The
birds live along the major global oil transport route, so spills oil them
often. In addition, guano harvests eliminated their preferred nesting
substrate, leaving them exposed to predators, heat stress, flooding and
sea-level rise. Today's listing will raise awareness of their plight,
increase research and conservation funds, and offer additional oversight
of U.S.-government-approved activities that could harm penguins.
"Industrial fisheries and
ocean warming are starving the penguins. Longlines and other destructive
fishing gear entangle and drown them," said Todd Steiner, biologist and
executive director of TIRN. "Finally the government is throwing penguins a
lifeline to recovery by protecting them under the Endangered Species
Act."
By mid-century, if greenhouse
gas emissions remain on their current trajectory, climate change will
commit one-third of the entire world's species to extinction. The
endangered African penguin joins five other penguins with new protected
status, the Humboldt penguin of Chile and Peru and four New
Zealand penguins (the yellow-eyed,
white-flippered, Fiordland crested and erect-crested). The Center and TIRN
plan to file suit against Interior for denying listing to emperor and
northern rockhopper penguins despite scientific evidence that they are
jeopardized by climate change and commercial
fisheries.
For more information on
penguins, please see: https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/birds/penguins/index.html.
At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.
(520) 623-5252LATEST NEWS
'Beyond Comprehension': Medical Team Reports Starvation, Infections at Gaza Hospital
"We're doing everything we can, navigating through critical shortages and working with very limited resources, to save lives amidst this dire situation."
Mar 25, 2024
Members of an emergency medical team that has treated patients at a hospital in southern Gaza in recent weeks said Monday that the horrors they've witnessed there are "unimaginable," from worsening malnutrition to deadly infections stemming from lack of healthcare equipment.
The team formed by Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), the International Rescue Committee (IRC), and the Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF) has been working at the European Hospital near Khan Younis, a city decimated by Israeli bombing. At least two hospitals in the city are currently under siege by Israeli forces, which have killed more than 32,000 Gazans and injured tens of thousands more in less than six months.
"The situation we're facing is beyond comprehension," said Arvind Das, IRC's Gaza team lead. "Continuous Israeli military operations near hospitals are making an already tense situation even worse for those seeking shelter or medical help, pushing the healthcare system to the brink of collapse."
"Despite the relentless efforts of our medical teams, the infrastructure necessary to deliver optimal medical care has been severely compromised by bombing, stringent restrictions on the entry of aid including medical supplies, and the overwhelming surge in needs," Das added. "We're doing everything we can, navigating through critical shortages and working with very limited resources, to save lives amidst this dire situation."
Not a single hospital in the Gaza Strip is fully functional after months of Israeli attacks, and the dozen that are partially operating are well beyond capacity, with patients and displaced people filling the hallways and outskirts of the facilities. The United Nations' special rapporteur on the right to health has accused Israel's military of waging an "unrelenting war" on Gaza's medical system.
Dr. Konstantina Ilia Karydi, an anesthetist with the emergency medical team, said Monday that the European Hospital "had an original capacity of just 200 beds, and at the moment it has expanded to 1,000 beds."
"There are around 22,000 people that have been displaced from other parts of Gaza sheltering in the corridors and in tents inside the hospital, because people feel that it's safer to be here than anywhere else," said Karydi.
"We worked around the challenges we faced and managed in a different way, but the staff here are overwhelmed."
MAP said in a statement that the medical team's surgeons "completed successful complex vascular and orthopedic surgeries on patients" at the hospital, but some "later died due to infections in the hospitals and the inability to provide post-operative care."
"This is due to the intense security situation that forced healthcare workers to evacuate hospitals and hindered their access," said MAP. "Moreover, significant damage to hospital infrastructure and facilities, coupled with a complete shortage of equipment and medicine—largely due to Israel's restrictions on medical aid entry into Gaza—severely impacted the ability to provide necessary care."
Dr. Husam Basheer, an orthopedic surgeon with the emergency medical team, stressed that healthcare workers in the territory are "managing with the bare minimum of resources," lacking even basic supplies such as gauze.
"We worked around the challenges we faced and managed in a different way," said Basheer, "but the staff here are overwhelmed."
The medical team's report added to the abundance of harrowing accounts from healthcare personnel on the devastating conditions inside Gaza's hospitals, many of which have been shelled and raided—in some cases repeatedly—by Israeli forces.
Al Jazeerareported Monday that the Israeli military has "surrounded the al-Amal and Nasser hospitals in southern Gaza, while pressing on with their siege of Gaza City's al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical complex in the strip."
"Military vehicles, tanks, and attack drones are encircling these two facilities," Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud reported. "They're also blocking the entrance with piles of sand, preventing medical staff, patients, and injured people inside from leaving safely and constantly failing to provide a safe corridor for people and evacuees trapped inside the hospital."
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, responded with alarm Monday to reports that Israeli forces killed a Palestinian Red Crescent Society volunteer and a displaced person sheltering at al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis.
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"Starving a million innocent people to death by halting and slowing U.S. humanitarian assistance is a massive, deliberate choice."
Mar 25, 2024
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Sunday reiterated her description of the Israeli military's actions in Gaza as a "forced famine" and pushed back on the Netanyahu government's claim that it is targeting militants who carried out the October 7 attack.
"There is no targeting of Hamas in precipitating a mass famine of a million people, half of whom are children," Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) told CNN's Jake Tapper just two days after she delivered a floor speech characterizing conditions on the ground in Gaza as "an unfolding genocide."
The New York Democrat said Sunday that she believes the Israeli government's conduct in Gaza—from obstructing aid shipments to bombing densely populated areas—"have crossed the threshold of intent," a necessary condition of genocide.
"It is horrific," she said, noting that the even U.S. State Department has admitted the Israeli government is intentionally stonewalling aid deliveries, fueling starvation across the territory.
Asked to respond to the Israeli government's claim that the war would end within a day if Hamas released all the remaining hostages and dropped its arms, Ocasio-Cortez said, "The actions of Hamas should not be tied to whether a three-year-old can eat."
"The actions of Hamas do not justify forcing thousands, hundreds of thousands of people to eat grass as their bodies consume themselves," she continued. "The Israeli government has a right to go after Hamas, but we are talking about a population of millions of innocent Palestinians. We are talking about collective punishment."
CNN with all the resources can't determine if Israel is intentionally causing this famine, which UN and EU top diplomat & others said it's a ‘Man-made famine’ that led AOC to believe that's a genocide "I think with a forced famine is beyond our ability to deny or explain away" https://t.co/NwIMvnkB3l pic.twitter.com/48W73D3bsT
— HalalFlow (@halalflow) March 24, 2024
In a social media post following her CNN appearance, Ocasio-Cortez wrote that "starving a million innocent people to death by halting and slowing U.S. humanitarian assistance is a massive, deliberate choice."
The post came in response to criticism from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which has been described as "Israel's Attack Dog in the U.S." The group declared that the Israeli military is working to "cripple Hamas terrorists" and said those warning of genocide "merely perpetuate false claims and foster hate."
Ocasio-Cortez replied that the starvation Israel is inflicting on Gaza civilians with its suffocating blockade is both "irrelevant" to the government's stated objective of targeting Hamas and brings it "further out of reach and endangers hostages."
"There is no defense for forced famine," Ocasio-Cortez wrote.
The New York Democrat's assessment of the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza mirrors that of United Nations experts, aid agencies, and humanitarian organizations.
On Sunday, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)—the primary humanitarian aid organization operating in Gaza—said the Israeli government has informed the U.N. that it "will no longer approve any UNRWA food convoys" to the northern part of the enclave, which is facing famine.
In recent weeks, dozens of people have died of starvation and dehydration—most of them in northern Gaza.
"This is outrageous and makes it intentional to obstruct lifesaving assistance during a man-made famine," Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA's commissioner-general, said of Israel's decision to fully cut off UNRWA food shipments to northern Gaza.
"By preventing UNRWA to fulfill its mandate in Gaza, the clock will tick faster towards famine and many more will die of hunger, dehydration, and lack of shelter," he warned. "This cannot happen, it would only stain our collective humanity."
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The bill passed the Senate in a 74-24 vote at 2:03AM
Mar 23, 2024
Following the passing of the U.S. government appropriations bill early Saturday morning, Senator Bernie Sanders said:
I voted NO on the appropriations bill that the Senate passed last night. While hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children face starvation in Gaza, this bill actually prohibits funding to UNWRA, the key United Nations aid agency delivering life-saving humanitarian support. This will only intensify the already horrific situation in Gaza. This bill also provides another $3.3 billion in U.S. military aid for Netanyahu’s right-wing government to continue this barbaric war. The Netanyahu government should not receive another penny from U.S. taxpayers.
The bill passed the Senate in a 74-24 vote at 2:03AM Saturday morning following hours of intense negotiations.
Later on Saturday, President Biden signed the $1.2 trillion government funding bill to stave off a government shutdown.
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