Please invest in Our Daily Planet today, by making a one time or monthly contribution.
We do not charge our readers a subscription fee for our content. We want to continue to grow our readership, particularly among millennials and public servants. Voluntary contributions from readers will help us employ interns and freelance journalists, expand our content, and reach a larger audience.
If you make a contribution of $150 or more, you will become an official “Friend of the Planet” and receive a Friend of the Planet T-shirt or water bottle.
Our Daily Planet is a daily morning email (M-F) to keep you informed of the stories shaping our environment. If these issues matter to you, we’d like to be the best ten minutes of your morning.
The Komodo dragon, the largest lizard on Earth, has been added to the IUCN “red list” — a sign that the species is near extinction. The cause? Climate change. Komodo dragons live on land very close to sea level, so the rising water levelscould flood or destroy 30% of their habitat. Moreover, development on Indonesia’s forests and fires raging through its savannas havedecreased the lizards’ habitat by 40% between 1970 and 2000.
Why this Matters: This is the first time Komodo dragons have ended upnear-extinct in over 20 years. In addition, the IUCN has added over 38,000 out of 138,000 species to its “red list.” Startlingly, the IUCN suggested that the climate crisis and overfishing has threatened 37% of shark and ray species with extinction.
Sharks and Komodo dragons have been a part of the world’s ecosystem since prehistoric times. “The idea that these prehistoric animals have moved one step closer to extinction due in part to climate change is terrifying,” Andrew Terry, conservation director at the Zoological Society of London, told Al Jazeera.
Some Good News?
Though the IUCN red list had a dire report for Komodo dragons, it showed that four out of seven of the formerly near-extinct species of tuna — Atlantic bluefin, southern bluefin, albacore and yellowfin —have begun to recover. This upswing was a result of“harvest strategies,” a quota that limited the tuna from the threat of overfishing.
The good news suggests that conservation works, and that protecting Komodo dragons’ fragile habitats could save them from extinction.
By Ashira Morris, ODP Staff Writer Almost 1,000 of Florida’s manatees have died as of Oct.1 this year, setting a tragic record for the most deaths in a year, with two months left to go. Deaths were largely caused by starvation — the predator-less sea cows typically spend hours a day eating seagrass, but declining […]
Do you have a good eye? Are you surprisingly good at Where’s Waldo and like Walruses? If so, we have great opportunity for you! The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is seeking volunteers to help count Atlantic walruses…from space. Sea ice is retreating fast as global temperatures rise, forcing walruses to crowd on smaller floes […]
By Natasha Lasky, ODP Staff Writer At a UN conference in Kunming, China, President Xi Jinping set aside $230 million to form a fund that preserves biodiversity in developing countries. This announcement was made at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity talks (COP15) which are dedicated to preserving delicate ecosystems and preventing plants and animals […]
Subscribe to the email that top lawmakers, renowned scientists, and thousands of concerned citizens turn to each morning for the latest environmental news and analysis.
Want the lastest climate news summarized for you each morning?
Our Daily Planet is your daily dose of the stories shaping our world and the ways that you can take action. From the climate crisis to the protection of biodiversity, if these issues matter to you then please subscribe & stay informed!
Your privacy is Important! We promise never to use your email address to send you spam or advertisements.