October 12th, 2012

Vampire bats don’t actually suck your blood. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) they “peel back a small sliver of skin on their prey and use their long tongues to lap up the blood.” And they prey on livestock or wildlife, not humans.
I feel so much better!….But like so many other mammals, bats are threatened by encroachment on their habitat and loss of food sources caused by climate change and other factors….White-nose syndrome

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June 21st, 2012

This rare, critically endangered felid is the world’s most threatened cat. Only about 100 are left, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which lists them as “critically endangered“. Their ideal habitat is open grassland for hunting, mixed with shrubs and maquis thicket. However, habitat loss has forced them into more mountainous areas. Roaming mainly throughout Spain and possibly Portugal, the Lynx pardinus is a fearless, solitary hunter that wildlife conservationists say must be protected.

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May 15th, 2012

GENEVA – The World Wildlife Fund warns the world is consuming more of the Earth’s resources than the planet can bear. WWF is launching its Living Planet Report just five weeks before nations gather at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro (the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) to press political leaders into action to protect the earth for future generations.

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December 14th, 2011

Environmental groups make it easy this time of year to send someone on your list a gift that benefits wildlife.

WORLD WILDLIFE FUND

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February 4th, 2011

World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and sustainable energy consultancy Ecofys released a report Thursday that should gladden green hearts across the globe. It shows that the world could be fueled by clean renewable power by 2050. It’s possible, according to the analysis by The Netherlands-based Ecofys, and while this goal confronts huge technological challenges, it also presents economic opportunities.

One striking thing about the Ecofys analysis, which was two years in the making, is that it puts the lie to the claim of fossil fuel companies that the world must, by necessity, depend upon oil and coal for the rest of this century because energy demand is growing. Even as fossil fuels are depleted they will still be much in demand to round out our ever-growing power needs, this argument goes.

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April 13th, 2010

Most everyone is familiar with IKEA, home of affordable, assemble-it-yourself furnishings. But did you know that the company has a code of conduct known as the IWAY? The familiar blue-and-yellow stores began in Sweden in 1943. As USA Corporate spokeperson Mona Liss likes to say, they “own the whole pipeline,” meaning IKEA controls everything from start to finish, from sourcing to the end product.

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April 1st, 2010

From Green Right Now Reports

Environmental groups were taken aback by President Obama’s announcement this week that the U.S. would open vast areas along the Eastern Seaboard, in the Gulf of Mexico and selected areas of the Alaskan Arctic to off-shore oil and gas leasing. Reaction ranged from pure outrage to a more measured response from big groups that clearly want to maintain good relations with a White House that has pitched some wins their way.

The World Wildlife Fund and the Natural Resources Defense Council, for instance, issued straightforward statements saying they were not happy with the new drilling, but pleased with restrictions in some areas and glad that the administration is pursuing oil conservation measures like new higher mileage and stricter emissions standards for cars.

The best line:

“Short of sending Sarah Palin back to Alaska to personally club polar bear cubs to death, the Obama administration could not have come up with a more efficient extinction plan for the polar bear,” said Brendan Cummings, senior counsel at the Center for Biological Diversity.

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March 29th, 2010

From Green Right Now Reports

World Wildlife Fund said its Earth Hour event Saturday drew  hundreds of millions of people around the world who turned out their lights for one hour in support of action on climate change. The organization said the event was the largest public demonstration in history as individuals, businesses and government officials in 4,000 cities across 125 countries participated in Earth Hour.

In the United States, Earth Hour was observed in all 50 states and the nation’s capital, as darkness spread from governor’s residences to state capitol buildings, across downtown skylines and throughout the suburban landscape. The American landmarks going dark included Mount Rushmore, Niagara Falls, the Broadway Theater District and the Las Vegas Strip.

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March 19th, 2010

From Green Right Now Reports

Ready to spend a little time in the dark to show that you aren’t in the dark about climate change? Earth Hour 2010 is just around the corner.

The event – organized by the World Wildlife Fund and scheduled for 8:30 p.m. local time on Saturday, March 27 – once again will feature millions of Americans turning out their lights for one hour in support of action on climate change. In 2009, an estimated 80 million people in the U.S. and nearly a billion around the world participated on some level, resulting in the lights going dim at such iconic venues as the Eiffel Tower in Paris, New York’s Empire State Building, the Sydney Opera House and the Great Pyramids of Gaza.

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February 20th, 2010

By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

OK, I admit, I didn’t want to wade into this slush.

I was aware, as most of you no doubt are, that the IPCC (that’s the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has been caught in a few mistakes recently. And I was concerned, because we reporters rely on the IPCC’s reports — especially that last one from 2007. The one that many scientists believe underestimates what will happen with climate change. We rely on it because it’s based on the efforts of hundreds of peer-reviewed reports by scientists around the world and it’s widely considered to be the best forecast we have of what climate change might bring.

Of course, I had trouble hearing myself think in the din of cheers from climate skeptics, who were already reveling in record snows in the U.S. (The naysayers conveniently ignore that extreme weather patterns are predicted by global-warming models.) They shout from the stands, as though this were a junior high wrestling match instead of a serious discussion of what’s true or not, or reasonable to believe, about the future of the planet.

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January 20th, 2010

From Green Right Now Reports

One of the world’s largest tiger populations could disappear by the end of this century, according to a new study published in the journal Climatic Change. The World Wildlife Fund-led study says rising sea levels caused by climate change will destroy the tigers’ habitat along the coast of Bangladesh in an area known as the Sundarbans.

Tigers are among the world’s most threatened species — only an estimated 3,200 remaining in the wild. WWF officials said the threats facing Bengal tigers and other iconic species around the world highlight the need for urgent international action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“If we don’t take steps to address the impacts of climate change on the Sundarbans, the only way its tigers will survive this century is with scuba gear,” Colby Loucks, WWF’s deputy director of conservation science and lead author of the study, said in a statement . “Tigers are a highly adaptable species, thriving from the snowy forests of Russia to the tropical forests of Indonesia. The projected sea level rise in the Sundarbans will likely outpace the tiger’s ability to adapt.”

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January 19th, 2010

From Green Right Now Reports

World Wildlife Fund announced today that Earth Hour 2010 will take place on Saturday, March 27, from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., with many of the nation’s most iconic landmarks dimming their lights for one hour in what is expected to be the largest call for action on climate change in history.

WWF said the initial list of U.S. landmarks taking part in the event includes Mount Rushmore, Empire State Building, the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign, Harrah’s Caesar Palace and the MGM Mirage on the Las Vegas Strip and San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. New Earth Hour participants in 2010 will include Montezuma Castle National Monument in Arizona and the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Indianapolis. Other local landmarks taking part include Atlanta’s Bank of America building and the Pike Place Market sign in Seattle.

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