September, 18 2013, 03:04pm EDT
New Report Highlights Nation's 10 Most Vulnerable, Least Protected Frogs, Turtles, Lizards and Salamanders
Pollution, Disease and Ongoing Habitat Loss Push Many Toward Extinction
WASHINGTON
A new report by the Center for Biological Diversity today identifies the nation's top 10 amphibians and reptiles in need of immediate federal protection to stave off extinction. The list includes a yellow-legged frog from California's high Sierras, a 2-foot-long eastern salamander and a colorful northeastern turtle.
The report, Dying for Protection: The 10 Most Vulnerable, Least Protected Amphibians and Reptiles in the United States, details the population declines and ongoing threats that have left once-common species like the western pond turtle and boreal toad spiraling toward extinction.
"These increasingly rare frogs, salamanders and turtles are on the fast track toward extinction if we don't step up and rescue them," said Collette Adkins Giese, a Center lawyer and biologist who specializes in conserving amphibians and reptiles. "And it's not just about protecting these irreplaceable amphibians and reptiles; it's about protecting the health of the priceless environment we share with them."
Some of the species included in the report have lost more than 90 percent of their habitat and, without Endangered Species Act protection, many will continue to decline due to fragmentation of their declining populations, pesticide pollution, killer diseases and over-collection. Scientists now estimate that 1 in 4 of the nation's amphibians and reptiles are at risk of extinction, yet they make up only 61 of the approximately 1,400 U.S. species protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Last year the Center and several internationally renowned conservation scientists, including E.O. Wilson and Thomas Lovejoy, filed a petition seeking Endangered Species Act protection for 53 of the nation's most threatened species of amphibians and reptiles. In 2011 the Center signed a landmark settlement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that is speeding protection decisions for 757 species, including dozens of amphibians and reptiles. The 10 species included in the report are among the neediest of the many reptiles and amphibians still waiting for the lifesaving protection of the Act, which over the past 40 years has prevented the extinction of 99 percent of the plants and animals entrusted to its care.
However, amphibians and reptiles continue to disappear at an alarming rate.
"Frogs, turtles and salamanders are some of nature's most delightful and fascinating creatures," said Adkins Giese. "They also help control populations of insects and rodents and in some cases even provide cures for diseases. We can and should help them avoid an extinction crisis."
Learn more about the amphibian and reptile extinction crisis here.
Download photos for media use.
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.
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Jewish New Yorkers Rally to Demand 'End to All US Military Funding to Israel'
"As Jews who support freedom and dignity for all people, no exceptions, we will not just sit in horror as the state of Israel carries out ethnic cleansing in our names."
Mar 06, 2023
Hundreds of Jewish New Yorkers rallied and marched on the home of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Sunday to protest his embrace of far-right Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid growing violence against Palestinians—violence that demonstrators said is enabled by the U.S. government's unwavering military and diplomatic support.
"As Jews who support freedom and dignity for all people, no exceptions, we will not just sit in horror as the state of Israel carries out ethnic cleansing in our names," said Jewish Voice for Peace member Jay Saper. "We are calling for an end to all U.S. military funding to Israel now."
The protest came less than two weeks after Schumer visited Israel and pledged the U.S. Senate's "fullest support" even as the Netanyahu government faces mass demonstrations over its authoritarian judicial reform proposal and international backlash for expanding illegal settlements on Palestinian territory.
"What we are witnessing is not a ' cycle of violence,' but rather a military superpower against an occupied people," said Eve Feldberg, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace's New York chapter. "Make no mistake—the Israeli government's oppression of Palestinians is the root cause of every violent death."
\u201cJFREJers are in the streets today with @jvpliveny channeling our collective anger, grief, horror, and responsibility for the relentless atrocities in Palestine, including the recent pogrom in Huwara\u201d— Jews for Racial & Economic Justice (@Jews for Racial & Economic Justice) 1678048180
Israeli forces have killed dozens of Palestinians since the start of the new year. In addition to official state violence, Palestinians are also facing increasingly frequent attacks by Israeli settlers, including a massive assault on the town of Huwara last week.
Last year, the United Nations recorded nearly 850 Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
"Research by the Israeli organization Yesh Din found that 93% of all investigations into settler attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank were closed without an indictment in the period between 2005 and 2022," Amnesty International noted in a statement last week. "Yesh Din also found that more than 80% of Palestinians' complaints to Israeli police were not investigated at all."
Joining demonstrators during Sunday's rally and march was New York State Sen. Jabari Brisport, who said that "until Palestinians are free, neither are we."
Brisport also took aim at the U.S. government's annual military aid to Israel, declaring that "every dollar of that $3.8 billion" is "killing Palestinians abroad and it's killing Americans who can't afford health insurance."
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In an interview just days before Schumer's trip to Israel last month, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said he is "very worried about what Netanyahu is doing and... what may happen to the Palestinian people."
"The United States gives billions of dollars in aid to Israel," said Sanders, a member of the Senate Democratic leadership. "And I think we've got to put some strings attached to that and say you cannot run a racist government. You cannot turn your back on a two-state solution. You cannot demean the Palestinian people there. You just can't do it and then come to America and ask for money."
The senator went on to say that he "may well" introduce legislation to place conditions on U.S. military aid to Israel, adding, "If a government is acting in a racist way, and they want billions of dollars from the taxpayers of the United States, I think you say, 'Sorry, but it's not acceptable. You want our money? Fine. This is what you got to do to get it.'"
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Ongoing protests against the far-right Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhu were larger than ever on Saturday night as an estimated 200,000 people or more took to the streets in Tel Aviv and other cities to denounce judicial reforms they warn put the nation on a path towards dictatorship.
For over two months, weekly protests—mostly on the weekends but increasingly during the workweek as well—large demonstrations have taken place in response to Netanyahu and his coalition government pushing a judicial takeover that critics say would curtail democracy.
Haaretzreported Saturday's turnout as a record since the movement started in early January.
"There's a great danger that Israel will turn into a dictatorship," Ophir Kubitsky, a 68-year-old high school teacher at the demonstration, toldReuters. "We came here to demonstrate over and over again until we win."
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The demonstrations in Tel Aviv and other locations "began peacefully," reports Reuters. "However, footage released by police later showed protesters breaking down barriers in Tel Aviv and igniting fires as they blocked roads. Police sprayed water cannons at the protesters."
While Israeli liberals increasingly register fear and discomfort over the direction of its government's growing autocratic tendencies, Palestinian rights advocates have noted that the right-wing slide is a direct and predictable continuation of a system that denies its Palestinian citizens full rights under the law while overseeing a brutal and repressive apartheid regime.
As American-Palestinian scholar Yousef Munayyer recently wrote in a column about the protest movement for +972 Magazine:
As tens of thousands of Israelis protest the reforms that Netanyahu’s government seeks to ram through in hopes of “saving the essence” of Israeli democracy, they are largely avoiding a confrontation with the foundational problem, namely that the essence of the Israeli system is to put settler colonialism ahead of any liberal principles around democracy, equality, or human rights.
A key question for many concerned not only about Israel's increasingly autocratic and right-wing lurch, but its ever-worsening treatment of the Palestinians living under hostile military occupation is this: "Does this loose group oppose the settler-colonial system that these legal reforms would further enable, or does it simply seek a return to the settler-colonial system, but without Netanyahu at its head?"
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"This is a historic day for conservation and a sign that in a divided world, protecting nature and people can triumph over geopolitics," said Greenpeace in response to an agreement to protect world's marine biodiversity.
Mar 05, 2023
Ocean conservationists expressed elation late Saturday after it was announced—following nearly two decades of consideration and effort—that delegates from around the world had agreed to language for a far-reaching global treaty aimed at protecting the biodiversity on the high seas and in the deep oceans of the world.
"This is a historic day for conservation and a sign that in a divided world, protecting nature and people can triumph over geopolitics," declared Dr. Laura Meller, the oceans campaigner for Greenpeace Nordic.
"We praise countries for seeking compromises, putting aside differences, and delivering a Treaty that will let us protect the oceans, build our resilience to climate change and safeguard the lives and livelihoods of billions of people," Meller added.
The final text of the Global Ocean Treaty, formally referred to as the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction treaty (BBNJ), was reached after a two-week round of talks that concluded with a 48-hour marathon push between delegations at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
"The High Seas Treaty opens the path for humankind to finally provide protection to marine life across our one ocean."
"This is huge," said Greenpeace in a social media post, calling the agreement "the biggest conservation victory ever!"
Rena Lee of Singapore, the U.N Ambassador for Oceans and president of the conference hosting the talks, received a standing ovation after announcing a final deal had been reached. "The shipped has reached the shore," Lee told the conference.
\u201cBBNJ President Rena Lee: "The ship has reached the shore."\n\nThe BBNJ Agreement is agreed.\u201d— Duncan Currie (@Duncan Currie) 1677984046
"Following a two-week-long rollercoaster ride of negotiations and super-hero efforts in the last 48 hours, governments reached agreement on key issues that will advance protection and better management of marine biodiversity in the High Seas," said Rebecca Hubbard, director of the High Seas Alliance, a coalition of over 40 ocean-focused NGOs that also includes the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Minna Epps, director of the Global Marine and Polar Programme at the IUCN, said the agreement represents a new opportunity.
"The High Seas Treaty opens the path for humankind to finally provide protection to marine life across our one ocean," Epps said in a statement. "Its adoption closes essential gaps in international law and offers a framework for governments to work together to protect global ocean health, climate resilience, and the socioeconomic wellbeing and food security of billions of people."
Protecting the world's high seas, which refers to areas of the oceans outside the jurisdiction of any country, is part of the larger push to protect planetary biodiversity and seen as key if nations want to keep their commitment to the UN-brokered Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework—also known as the known as the 30x30 pledge—that aims protect 30 percent of the world's natural habitat by 2030.
"With currently just over 1% of the High Seas protected," said the High Seas Alliance in a statement, "the new Treaty will provide a pathway to establish marine protected areas in these waters." The group said the treaty will make acheiving the goals of the Kunming-Montreal agreement possible, but that "time is of the essence" for the world's biodiversity.
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According to Greenpeace's assessment of the talks:
The High Ambition Coalition, which includes the EU, US and UK, and China were key players in brokering the deal. Both showed willingness to compromise in the final days of talks, and built coalitions instead of sowing division. Small Island States have shown leadership throughout the process, and the G77 group led the way in ensuring the Treaty can be put into practice in a fair and equitable way.
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The group said it is now urgent for governments around the world to take the final step of ratifying the treaty.
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