Svayam Incarnation

52% of water from the Colorado River is used for the agriculture industry, a new study finds. The paper, published in Communications, Earth & Environment, looks at where the water in the river—which is a critical resource for 40 million people—is going.

Additionally, the report shared the staggering volume of the water that goes to irrigating two cattle feed crops - alfalfa and grass hay. Researchers shared that about a third of all of the river’s water is going to those two cattle feed crops. The Colorado River has about 19% less volume than in the year 2000 and is expected to drop another 30% by 2050 if temperatures continue to rise, scientists say.

Image credit: Getty Images

Help save one of the most significant wetlands on Earth from an 8,000-acre strip mine.

The Okefenokee Swamp’s National Wildlife Refuge in southern Georgia was created to protect native wildlife and the ethereal rivers that wind through its 400-year-old cypress forests. This landscape is home to Bald Eagles, Eastern Indigo Snakes, Bobcats, Gopher Tortoises, Black Bears and over 13,000 American Alligators. As the largest blackwater swamp in North America, the Okefenokee is a massive carbon sink, storing the equivalent of 145 million tons of carbon dioxide in forests, aquatic plants, soils, and peat. Peatlands account for 65% of the carbon stored in the Okefenokee.

Mining next to the Okefenokee not only threatens the swamp’s critical biodiversity, but it also puts the swamp’s water levels at risk. When peatlands are dewatered, they release vast quantities of carbon-rich greenhouse gasses and put the area at risk for catastrophic wildfires, exacerbating climate change.

Visit the link in bio to take action with and tell local regulators in Georgia that this mining proposal is a threat to the Okefenokee’s ecosystems.

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The Scottish Rewilding Alliance is urging the Scottish government to declare Scotland a Rewilding Nation, committing to nature recovery across 30% of the land and seas to benefit nature, climate, and people.

About 6,000 years ago, most of southern Scotland was covered by broadleaf woodland, interspersed with patches of rich scrub, heath, and bog. In stark contrast, the landscape today is nature-depleted hills, with highly degraded sheep-grazed areas (so called ‘sheep-wrecked’ landscapes) and blocks of non-native spruce plantations. With this campaign, Scotland could be a world leader in rewilding its landscapes, ensuring clean air and water, storing carbon, reducing flooding, restoring wildlife, and improving the lives of locals.

Photo credit: Shawn Williams, Getty Images

The threat mining poses to great apes in Africa—gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos—has been greatly underestimated according to a new paper published in Science Advances (). More than one-third of great apes in Africa face threats from mining projects for rare earth metals such as copper, lithium, nickel, and cobalt. The authors noted that because mining companies are not required to make biodiversity data publicly available, the true impact of mining on biodiversity and great apes, in particular, may be even higher.

The most significant overlap of mining and apes, both in terms of proportion of population and overall numbers, was found in Guinea. More than 23,000 chimpanzees, or up to 83% of Guinea’s ape population, could be directly or indirectly impacted by mining activities. In general, the most sensitive areas, those with relatively high ape and mining densities, are not protected.

Authors on the paper included researchers from German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, and Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg ().

Photo of chimpanzee courtesy of Tatyana Humle
Photo of destruction caused by mining road courtesy of Genevieve Campbell

The largest dam removal in U.S. history begins as the Klamath River dams are demolished in Northern California and southern Oregon.

“It’s a beautiful thing, and a beautiful feeling, that that process of healing has begun,” said Leaf Hillman, a member of the Karuk Tribe who spent more than two decades campaigning for the removal of dams. The structures, which were built without tribal consent between 1912 and the 1960s, blocked salmon from reaching vital habitat and degraded the river’s water quality, contributing to toxic algae blooms in the reservoirs and disease outbreaks that killed fish. The Klamath River was once the third-largest salmon producer on the West Coast, but these barriers have blocked salmon, Steelhead and Pacific Lamprey from accessing habitat above them.

Finally, the Klamath River will be restored to its historic channel this year. This restoration will reopen hundreds of miles of salmon habitat and restore thousands of acres of land, some of which could be returned to local tribes. These efforts are providing new hope to some along the river. Visit the link in bio to learn more.

Photo credit: Brian van der Burg, Los Angeles Times

The Canadian government is considering extending the licenses for open-net pen salmon farms in British Columbia (BC) by up to 6 years. This would break their promise to phase out open-net pen salmon farms, which contain non-native Atlantic Salmon, from coastal BC waters by 2025.

Join to stop license extensions for ocean-polluting Atlantic salmon farms in BC beyond 2025. Visit the link in bio to learn more.

Photo credit: Getty Images

“Exploiting and killing animals, and causing them pain and suffering when we don’t have to, is absolutely wrong.” - Earthling Ed ⁠
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One out of seven deep-sea sharks and rays are threatened with extinction, according to a new study supported by .

Due to their long lifespans and slow reproduction rates, deep-sea sharks and rays are increasingly threatened by the marine hunting industry. Targeted for their meat and liver oil, deep-sea sharks require immediate conservation attention.

Photo credit: (Bluntnose Sixgill Shark and Broadnose Sevengill Shark)

Our planet’s last remaining ‘giants’ are in danger. The native forests of Tasmania are one of the only places on Earth where trees naturally tower over 280 feet tall.

These giants have been logged for decades, resulting in many forest species, including the Critically Endangered Swift Parrot, being pushed to the brink of extinction. For the past 20 years, the logging industry in Tasmania has relied heavily on taxpayer-funded subsidies to remain profitable. The Tasmanian government, for the first time since 2011, has announced an increase in the amount of native forest available for logging, despite 75% of Australians calling for an end to native forest logging altogether.

Mainland Australia and Tasmania have one of the worst wildlife extinction rates in the world, partly driven by habitat destruction. My organization, , and their partners continue to encourage the Australian government to uphold their zero extinction commitment in part by ending native forest logging across mainland Australia and Tasmania. Learn more by visiting the link in bio.



Photo credit: Rob Blakers