Endangered Species in South America

September 21, 2011 Animal
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Species belonging to various animal, plant and marine families are declining in there number all around the globe. Endangered species are prominent now a day. There are a number of laws governing and protecting endangered species but still more efforts should be made to help increase the number of these vulnerable or nearly extinct species.
Endangered Species in South America

South America is not exception to these trends of growing number of endangered species. South America is a vast land mass and home to a lot of humans. But it is not meant to be home to just humans. Animals are a part of our ecosystem and food chain but we humans fail to understand this simple fact and have taken over majority of land for ourselves leading to endangerment of lots of species. In South America alone more than a hundred and fifty species have been listed as endangered.
One such specie is the Amazonian Manatee found in the Amazon Rivers and its larger tributaries, including rivers of Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. Once an abundant species, the Amazonian manatee is now a rare species because of hunting by indigenous people for meat and the introduction of firearms. The Amazonian manatee is now legally protected and there is also a new population of manatee that has been established in a Brazil reservoir, but they are still being hunted.
Scarlet Macaw found in the treetops from Mexico to Southern Brazil has become endangered due to the overwhelming demand for its colourful feathers in fashion in earlier centuries. Demand has not diminished until now as the young are taken from their nests for pets by poachers. This has led to a great decline in their population. Law has been enforced in most of the countries where the Scarlet Macaw is found, but heavier penalties are yet to be enforced.
Vicunas that come from the camel family found in the Andes Mountains of Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile. They are hunted for their hides and wools valued for weaving fabrics, clothes and garments. As a result their number is decreasing on a high rate and yet they are not protected.
These are just a few names but actually there are many more species of animals like the Andean Bear, Black Squirrel Monkey, Chilean Dolphins, Darwin’s Fox, etc. that are under the great threat of becoming extinct. Extinction is not a good sign which means that ultimately we are heading towards our own extinction.

Reference: Illustrated Encyclopedia of endangered animals.

endangered species

What is the Strategy for Saving the Earth?

September 21, 2011 Nature
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Over the years, humans have learned how to turn wild natural areas into dream lands, how to build roads and buildings to expand their territories and have continued to improve their knowledge and develop new technologies that improves our lives. But as a well-known saying goes, excess of anything good is not good and we have overexploited the natural resources and the earth as a whole. This has given rise to a number of threats that has put a question mark on the existence of our planet.
saving the earth
The increasing industrialization and expansion of factories has led to increased levels of pollution and the purity of atmosphere has also reduced seriously. To worsen the situation, the massive deforestation activities have forced various plant and animal species to extinction disturbing the ecological balance of the earth.
The ever increasing population leads to over exploitation of the earth’s finite resources in order to adapt infinite needs of humans. All these problems add up and disturb the ecosystem and consequently a lot of natural calamities happen in the form of floods, hurricanes, famines, etc.
It is clear that our environmental issues have become so huge that they will get solved only if everyone does their part. There is need for the development of a strategy that saves the earth. We humans should adopt a lifestyle that will help in conserving energy, reducing toxicity, protecting our air and water, creating less trash, reducing deforestation and that does not lead to endangerment of more species.
Adopting such a lifestyle is not a difficult task. It includes simple tasks. When at home turn off unneeded lights even when leaving a room for a short time, unplug seldom used appliances, wash clothes with warm or cold water instead of hot, set your refrigerator temperature at 36 to 38 and your freezer at 0 to 5, turn off lights, computers and other appliances when not in use, and use compact fluorescent light bulbs to save money and energy.
While at your workplace copy and print on both sides of paper, reuse items like envelopes, folders and paper clips, use e-mail instead of paper correspondence, use recycled paper, use a ceramic coffee mug instead of a disposable cup and recycle printer cartridges.
One should also adopt habits like walking or riding your bike instead of driving, whenever possible, joining a carpool or vanpool to get to work, creating a wildlife habitat in your yard, watering grass early in the morning, and putting leaves in a compost heap instead of burning them or throwing them away. These will help us in saving the planet.