Earthworms invading forests throughout the region are probably being introduced by anglers. That’s the conclusion of a new study. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Stephanie Hemphill reports:
Transcript
Earthworms invading forests around the Great Lakes are probably
being introduced by anglers. That’s the conclusion of a new
study. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Stephanie Hemphill
reports:
Earthworms are good for gardens. But in forests they eat up the
thick layer of leaves on the forest floor.
Lee Frehlich is with the University of Minnesota. He supervised
the study.
“Many of the tree seedlings and the wildflowers that live in the
forest are actually rooted in all of this leaf material. So when
the worms eat that, their rooting material is literally eaten out
from under them, so a lot of them die.”
The study found in some areas infested with worms, there were
half as many young sugar maples as in worm-free areas. Birds
that use leaves for nests on the ground could also decline.
Frelich says anglers should bring any unused earthworms back home
with them, rather than dumping them in the lake.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Stephanie Hemphill.
A two-year study from the World Wildlife Fund has found Canada is facing a myriad of serious environmental problems. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly has more:
Transcript
A two year study from the World Wildlife Fund has found Canada is
facing a myriad of serious environmental problems. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly has more:
The report says much of Canada’s vast forestland has yet to be
protected.
Animals are threatened by the loss of tallgrass prairies.
And invasive species are wreaking havoc in the Great Lakes.
Kevin Cavanaugh is the director of biodiversity conservation for
World Wildlife Fund Canada.
He says the wide diversity of problems presents a significant
obstacle.
“One of the big challenges is that what is needed in one part
of the country is often quite different than another so this was
our attempt to try and help prioritize the kind of activities that
would need to take place in order to conserve nature.”
The provinces are the primary protectors of the environment in
Canada.
The reports says they must cooperate with the federal government
and industries to address Canada’s environmental problems.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Karen Kelly.
While wetlands have disappeared in great numbers over the last century in the Midwest, it seems that most of the wildlife relying on them have survived. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Bill Wheelhouse reports:
Transcript
While wetlands have disappeared in great numbers over the last century in the Midwest, it seems
that most of the wildlife relying on them have survived. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Bill Wheelhouse reports:
Nearly 90 percent of the wetlands in the Midwest are gone. They have been replaced by farm
fields and development. A study in the February issue of Conservation Biology says despite the
change. Most of the native species have survived in the remaining wetlands. Co-author David
Jenkins is a biologist at the University of Illinois. He says the study of crustaceons shows more
than 90-percent of those species are surviving in isolated shallow ponds and puddles. Jenkins
says the wetlands range in size from an office cubicle to a football field. He says there is far
more biodiversity tucked away in the Midwest than previously thought, but says the remaining
wetlands must be protected.
“It’s kind of a catch 22, in that the species that have been still hanging on are less likely to be able
to hang on if we were to lose more wetlands.”
Some state legislatures are considering measures that might help protect these types of wetlands,
although discussions are still in the early stages. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Bill
Wheelhouse.
Canada now has a national law to protect endangered species. It comes after nine years of study and debate. The new law takes effect early next year. It’s designed to protect more than four hundred species and their critical habitat. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Karpenchuk reports:
Transcript
Canada now has a national law to protect endangered species. It comes after nine years of study
and debate. The new law takes effect early next year (2003). It’s designed to protect more than
four hundred species and their critical habitat. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan
Karpenchuk reports:
Among the species to be protected are the grizzly bear, sage grouse, swift fox, whooping crane,
the humpback whale and the American pine marten, just to name a few.
Canada’s environment minister says the country’s first ever national endangered species law
fulfils the international commitments Canada made under the Biodiversity Convention.
The law provides for assessing which species are at risk and calls for an action plan to save those
species which are found to be most at risk.
Some environmental groups have welcomed the law as a positive first step, and a signal that
Ottawa has finally accepted some of the responsibility for protecting species and their habitats.
But others are critical. Peter Tabuns is with Greenpeace Canada:
“It’s in the end just a public relations gesture. It will not have any substantial effect on species at
risk in Canada. It won’t fulfill Canada’s obligations under the convention on biodiversity. It is
really a lost opportunity.”
Tabuns says he’s also upset that it will be the federal cabinet ministers, not scientists, that decide
whether an animal will be placed on a protected list.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Dan Karpenchuk
Canadian environmental groups say the American demand for fossil fuels is harming Canada’s environment. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly reports:
Transcript
Canadian environmental groups say the American demand for fossil fuels is harming
Canada’s environment. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly reports:
Environmentalists say Canada’s oil industry is booming. Natural gas production
increased by 70% over the past decade. And oil production went up by 50%.
Canada is now the single largest supplier of fossil fuels to the United States. John
Bennett of the Sierra Club of Canada says that increase in fuel production and
consumption is harmful for both humans and wildlife.
“What we get is air pollution, 16 thousand premature deaths every year. We also have
huge loss of habitat and biodiversity.”
Environmentalists are especially concerned about a proposed pipeline through the
Canadian arctic. They’re also fighting to maintain a moratorium on drilling off the coast
of British Columbia.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Karen Kelly.
Enter the keyword “sustainability” into any Internet search and dozens of web pages instantly appear – filled with words used to describe the ambiguous theory. Conservation, egalitarianism, and biodiversity to name just a few. But what does the environmental buzzword really mean? The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Joyce Kryszak was at a recent forum on sustainability in search of a definition, and she spoke with some of the world’s leading ecologists:
Transcript
Enter the keyword “sustainability” into any Internet search and dozens of web pages instantly appear – filled with words used to describe the ambiguous theory. Conservation, egalitarianism, and biodiversity to name just a few. But what does the environmental buzzword really mean? The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Joyce Kryszak was at a recent forum on sustainability in search of a definition. And she spoke with some of the world’s leading ecologists.
The impressive line-up of speakers included such notables as Jane Goodall, David Suzuki and Paul Hawken, people who certainly need no introduction with environmentalists, and for good reason. These three experts on ecology have more than a century of combined experience. Yet, when asked to define the subject they were invited to talk about – sustainability – their responses were well…less than definitive.
Paul Hawken is a best-selling author on corporate environmental reform, who isn’t usually uncertain with words -especially crucial words about the environment. But Hawken was quick to admit there are simply too many ways to describe sustainability. And, he says even the most commonly used definition falls short.
“As you can tell from my reciting of it, it’s not a definition I warm to at all – because it’s not a definition you wake up in the morning and say, ‘uh, man, I’m so happy to be alive, and what I’m going to do today, is to meet the needs of the current generation in a way that doesn’t compromise future generations. It’s so flat, and non-dynamic.”
Hawken says that sustainability, by its very nature, is a multi-dimensional concept. Which resources get used, and how much, from where, to produce what goods and services, for which people, and then what to do with the waste – and how do we fix what we’ve already ruined? Hawken says the answers to these tough questions require a broad understanding. And he says, in an increasingly more specialized world that makes a clear definition much more difficult to nail down.
“Most of us have been, or are educated, in schools that ask us to specialize and to really focus on one area of knowledge. Sustainability really cuts across all denims – from not just economy and ecology, but biology, sociology, psychology, forestry, geology, chemistry, physics…In a sense to really be conversant in sustainability you have to have a working knowledge of a lot of different subjects.”
Milling about the convention floor we find David Sukuzi, perhaps the most conversant proponent of sustainability. The award winning geneticist and broadcaster stops occasionally, chatting casually about bio diversity, reductionism, or maybe genetic polymorphism. But then, Suzuki is well known for easily making such complex science understandable. So, how does Suzuki define sustainability?
“I don’t know what sustainability means. We’ve changed the world so much that we can’t rely on nature’s abundance and productivity. We’ve already added thirty percent more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than existed two hundred years ago. We have no idea what that’s going to do. So, we don’t know what is going to compromise or not compromise. We know that we are trashing the natural world on which we ultimately depend.”
Any hope for a definition would seem to be lost. As would be any hope for sustainability itself. But Suzuki says, although there are big question marks, sustainability is the only option.
“We’ve got to pull back. We’ve got to protect as much wild nature as we can where it exists – and keep our fingers crossed.”
Jane Goodall is known for her monumental faith in nature. Forty years of research has earned her a reputation for an unfaltering commitment to social and environmental causes. Goodall admits that as the indigenous peoples of the world have vanished, so too, she says, has the true definition of sustainability – “to make only what is needed to sustain life.” But Goodall says we must not give up on that principle.
“That’s very dangerous for us, if we’re thinking about a sustainable world and a world that will be there for our grandchildren. We mustn’t let up. We must continue to work for the things, which we think, are important. If we have the ability to influence some little area of the community and the environment around us, then that is what we must do.”
And all the experts agree. They say that “urgency” is now the most important word in any definition of sustainability. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Joyce Kryszak.
Plotkin is the president of the Amazon Conservation
Team, a group working to preserve the cultures and species in the
rainforests of Central and South America.
Mark Plotkin is the author of
the recently released book Medicine Quest.
Plotkin has spent 20 years in the rainforest learning how the people there
use plants and animals for healing. Photo by Mark Plotkin.
Last year Time magazine named researcher Mark Plotkin an
environmental "Hero for the Planet." Plotkin has spent nearly 20 years
in
the rain forests of Central and South America, and is working to save
not
only the forests, but also the tribes who live there. He’s just
finished a
new book entitled "Medicine Quest: In Search of Nature’s Healing
Secrets." In it he argues that many ancient tribes of the forests
understand
plants better than botanists. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester
Graham recently talked with Plotkin and asked about his work:
Non-native plants like the wood rose, Japanese barberry and English ivy
are found in many gardens around the country. Gardeners love them
because they’re beautiful. But author and certified master gardener
Janet Marinelli says people don’t realize how harmful these plants can
be. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly spoke with Marinelli
about her findings:
Music has often imitated nature. Flutes trill to sound like birds.
Cymbals crash and drums thunder like storms. One musician has taken it
a step further and harmonizes with nature. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Lester Graham reports on an artist whose life-long pursuit
has been a musical communion with the earth and its creatures:
A coalition in the Chicago area is putting together a unique plan to
make the most of the remnants of the forests, prairies, sand dune
beaches, and other natural areas. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Lester Graham reports that other large cities are watching to see if
Chicago is successful in bringing back native plants and animals to a
largely urban area:
