Endangered Species in Norway:
1. The Blue Whale
The blue whale is the largest animal that has ever lived on earth. It can weigh up to 136,400 kg (300,000 lb) and grow as long as 34 m (110'). It has a slim outline, especially in the winter, although it fattens in the summer. The tiny dorsal fin is set well to the rear of the body. 55 - 68 flexible throat grooves run along half the body length. Its coloration is mainly pale blue-gray.
The Blue Whale is found in all major oceans of the world. Its populations have been severely depleted throughout its range due to commercial whaling, which ceased in 1964. There have been reports of increased sightings in some areas, but in other areas the number of Blue Whales remains low.
There are several other types of whales in Norway under the same category. They are unfortunantly also endangered species.
2. The Polar Bear
The polar bear has an elongated neck and a stocky body. It can be up to 285 cm (9.3') long, stand 160 cm (5.2') high at the shoulder, and weigh up to 800 kg (1800 lb). A polar bear is completely furred except for the tip of its nose and its foot pads. Polar bear fur appears white when it is clean and in normal daytime sunlight. However, because the fur actually has no pigment, a bear may take on the yellow-orange hues of the setting and rising sun. In spring and late winter, many polar bears are "off-white" or yellowish because of oils from their prey and other impurities that have attached to their fur.
The polar bear occurs throughout the Arctic. It is still found in most of its original range. Significant depletion of polar bear populations, due to over-hunting, occurred in the early and middle 1900's. As a result, an international agreement was reached in which the five nations with polar bears (Canada, Norway, USA, the former USSR and Denmark/Greenland) agreed to prohibit unregulated hunting and to outlaw the hunting of the bears from aircraft and icebreakers. This agreement and the resulting actions by the signatory nations were responsible for a significant recovery of the polar bear by the 1980's.
3. The Wolf
The wolf (Canis lupus) became a protected species in Norway in 1973 and is cited on their red list of endangered species as 'critically endangered'. The Norwegian Ministry of the Environment is ultimately responsible for ensuring that there are viable populations of all red-listed species. Only last May, the Norwegian Parliament decided on a national goal of sustaining at least three family packs. The current hunt will reduce the number of packs to two, a clear breach of a parliamentary directive. In 2001, there were an estimated 50–80 wolves in the southern part of Norway and Sweden, consisting of several families. In that year, the Norwegian government approved the culling of 8 out of its 25 wolves. Today, there are reported to be only 20 left in Norway.
4. Arctic Fox
The fox is endangered on the mainland, but there is a stable population on Svalbard. Even though the Arctic fox has been totally protected in Norway since 1930, the situation for the mainland population is now critical. The species is classed as endangered in Norway's Red List. Arctic foxes are totally protected on Jan Mayen and Bjørnøya, but may still be trapped in the rest of Svalbard, except in protected areas. The population density in Svalbard is relatively high when compared to the alpine regions of Scandinavia. The Arctic fox was eradicated on Jan Mayen in the 1930s as a result of trapping.
5. Wolverine
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Global Warming
"In my view, climate change is the most severe problem that we are facing today -- more serious even than the threat of terrorism."
"With this warning to an international science meeting in February 2004, David A. King, Chief Scientific Advisor to the British Government, brought the issue of global warming into sharp focus.
The World View of Global Warming project is documenting this change through science photography from the Arctic to Antarctica, from glaciers to the oceans, across all climate zones. Rapid climate change and its effects is fast becoming one of the prime events of the 21st century. It is real and it is accelerating across the globe. As the effects of this change combine with overpopulation and weather crises, climate disruptions will affect more people than does war.
The 2005 average global temperature equaled (within several hundredths of a degree) the record warm year of 1998, according to meteorologists. 2002-4 were nearly as warm, and the 11 warmest years on record have all occurred since 1990. In response, our planet has been changing with warming winds and rising seas. At the poles and in mountains, ice is under fire and glaciers are receding. Down into the temperate zone, change is rearranging the boundaries of life. The plants and animals with whom we share the planet are adapting and moving -- some even going extinct -- because they have no choice.
We six billion humans are being affected, too. Coastal towns are suffering from rising sea level, storms are getting stronger and 35,000 people died in European heat waves in 2003. However, we have choices to make to help correct and ameliorate global warming. This is a story of frightening scale and and great urgency that is just beginning to be told. Please go to Actions to see what you can do now.
I began photographing climate change in 1999, about when scientists started to realize how great a change in temperatures is taking place in our time. Past earth temperatures left their mark in tree rings, glaciers and ancient lake and ocean sediments, and the record shows slowly decreasing temperatures over the last 2000 years. In that time there have been warm and cool periods, but nothing like the rise in temperatures in the past 150 years -- and no increase even close to the past 30. This research has created what has become the single most powerful icon of climate change, the so-called "hockey-stick" graph of temperatures. In 2005-6 it was subjected to intense re-analysis. Evidence of previous cool and warm periods has increased, but the rapid and sustained heat gain especially since the 1970s remains unparalleled in recent earth history.
In general global temperatures have risen since the 19th century industrial revolution. There is little scientific question the reason is a steep increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide -- CO2 -- from human use of fossil fuels. Methane, ozone, other gases and dusts have also increased greatly. The mechanism of our atmosphere is that gases like CO2 and methane trap some of the sun's radiation and hold it in the lower atmosphere, heating it. The natural greenhouse effect made the earth warm enough for life, but the effect is much higher now. Ice core records show that whenever CO2 has increased in the earth's past, so has temperature. The recent increase in atmospheric CO2 is 200 times as great as any previous change seen in the ice cores. The current level is 380 parts per million, the highest in more than 650,000 years. It shows no signs of decreasing.
This increase caused earth's average atmospheric temperature to go up about 1. degree F in the 20th century. Now, according to NOAA, the global warming rate in the last 25 years has risen to 3.6 degrees F per century. This tends to confirm the predictions of temperature increases made by international panels of climate scientists (IPCC). The ocean has actually absorbed most of the added CO2 and heat -- becoming warmer and very slightly more acidic. These increases, seemingly small, have a giant effect on weather, climate zones, plants and animals, sea life, glaciers and river flow -- and thus human life. My project and this Web site seek to document these changes. For more on past climate and today's weather, see especially the Paleoclimate and Weather sections".
www.worldviewofglobalwarming.org
Retrieved 3/25/2008
Mini Project 1
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is the leading independent campaigning organization that uses peaceful direct action and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and to promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future”. (www.greenpeace.com, retrieved
They have an air/energy program, a health program, an international program, a land program, a nuclear program, an urban program, and a water/oceans program”. (www.nrdc.org, retrieved
If I were to join one of these organizations, I would join Greenpeace. Out of the three, that is the only one I’ve heard of, and after reading about the three different organizations I discovered that it is also the one with the most members. Greenpeace have 250.000 members in the
Fox Hunting
300,000 at Boxing Day Fox Hunts in Britain
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LONDON, Dec. 26 (AP) — "More than 300,000 people thronged the British countryside on Tuesday for the annual Boxing Day fox hunts, organizers said, two years after Parliament passed a law banning traditional fox hunting in which dogs chase and kill the prey.
Under the Hunting Act, which took effect in February 2005, dogs can be used to locate a fox and drive it into open ground, but not to harm the animal, which is shot instead.
Many hunts have since been reformed into trail or drag hunting, in which dogs track an animal scent that has been artificially laid out through the woods.
Fox hunting, which dates back centuries in Britain, once involved groups of riders following a pack of hounds trained to track down and kill foxes. The new law followed a bitter fight in Parliament and raucous street demonstrations.
The Countryside Alliance, a group that represents hunting enthusiasts, said more than 300 legal hunts took place on Tuesday, the day of the traditional post-Christmas hunt.
An antihunting group, the League Against Cruel Sports, said it had no objection to the hunts if they were kept within the limits of the law".
www.nytimes.com/2006/12/27/world/europe/27britain.html
Retrieved 3/25/2008
Whales
| "Norway opens whale-hunting season | ||
| The Norwegian government has set a quota of 670 minke whales for the season, which The Scandinavian nation is the only country in the world that authorises whaling for Iceland and Japan are the only other nations to fish whales, though they claim to do so National pride Norway started commercial whaling again in 1993, despite an international ban on
the practice seven years earlier. It argues the hunt is needed to stop the whale population from growing so large that However, environmental group Greenpeace told AFP news agency that demand for It accuses the Norwegian government of persisting with its controversial whaling Grenade-tipped harpoons Controversy has also focused on the manner in which the whales are killed. Environmentalists say the grenade-tipped harpoons that explode inside the beast Whalers argue it is one of the quickest methods for killing a whale. The first whaling vessels left Norway to hunt in the North Sea last week. But the main Retrieved 3/25/2008 | ||
Sunday, March 23, 2008
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