• Animals

Angelina Jolie Takes One for the Bees and Women in Beekeeping

• #30x30
• #endangeredspecies
• Bees
• Campaign for Nature
• National Geographic
• UNESCO
• Women for Bees
• World Bee Day

Angelina Jolie appeared in a portrait for National Geographic on World Bee Day (May 20) to raise awareness for the need to protect bees and for a UNESCO-Guerlain program that trains women as beekeeper-entrepreneurs, Women for Bees.  

Why this Matters:  Jolie’s right. Three out of every four leading food crops for human consumption depend on pollinators — from fruit, nuts, and vegetables to alfalfa for cattle feed— all in all, honeybees created $20 billion in crop production for the United States

• Animals

Trump Team Finishes Off Migratory Birds Rollback

• #30x30
• #endangeredspecies
• migratory bird
• Migratory Bird Treaty Act

Companies that unintentionally kill or harm migratory birds will no longer face any penalties for their actions — as the Trump administration delivers its final blows to nature on its way out the door. Rolling back the1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act undermines the purpose of the legislation, which was created to protect migrating birds — not the businesses that harm them.  

Why this matters: The Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that industry action kills about 700 million birds every year. The administration has rammed through this rollback despite a court ruling that it’s illegal. Interior’s own analysis says it will push species onto the endangered list — but the rollback can be reversed by the incoming Biden administration. 

• Animals

One Cool Thing: Key UN Global Biodiversity Report Due Out Today

• #30by30
• #endangeredspecies
• biodiversity
• species
• United Nations

Today the UN will release its latest scientific assessment on the state of the global environment — this one is on biodiversity, and specifically how well the world did in meeting its goal of protecting 10% of the planet by the end of this year.  The UN’s Global Biodiversity Outlook 5 (GBO-5) is also expected […]

• Animals

One Turtle Thing: Tsunami Finds A Home In St. Louis

• #endangeredspecies
• Georgia Sea Turtle Center
• green turtle
• sea turtle

We just love a tsunami with a happy ending!  The Georgia Sea Turtle Center on St. Simons Island had been rehabilitating Tsunami, an endangered green sea turtle that was hit by a boat in 2017, for years with the hope of setting her free in the ocean.  But her injuries were too severe to survive […]

• Cosmos

Monitoring Animals From the Space Station To Improve Their Conservation

• #30x30
• #endangeredspecies
• animals
• extinction
• international space station
• migration
• science
• space
• wildlife trafficking

Using inexpensive tracking technology and a large antenna installed on the International Space Station, a consortium of researchers is hoping to gather a wider range of data than they had using previous tracking technologies, including long migration patterns, allowing them to better understand how climate change and habitat loss impact wildlife. 

Why This Matters:  In addition to better understanding of wildlife migration and threats, the technology could be used for a range of other goals.

• Ocean

Failure is Not An Option – Time to Save the North Atlantic Right Whale

• #endangeredspecies
• conservation
• lobsters
• North Atlantic Right Whale
• science
• whales

By CT Harry, Marine Campaigner, IFAW For millennia, every autumn and spring, one of the largest animals on Earth has followed ancient migratory pathways up and down the coast of North America. For nearly three decades, people and organizations around our ocean planet have marked World Oceans Day, raising awareness of the importance of the […]