Freshwater dolphin possibly extinct

From the Toronto Star:

Intensive search of Yangtze River in China fails to find single member of species

Aug 08, 2007 04:30 AM

Michael Kahn
REUTERS NEWS AGENCY

LONDON–The long-threatened Yangtze River dolphin in China is probably extinct, according to an international team of researchers who said this would mark the first whale or dolphin to be wiped out due to human activity.

The freshwater dolphin, or baiji, was last spotted several years ago and an intensive six-week search late last year failed to find any evidence that one of the rarest species on Earth survives, said Samuel Turvey, a conservation biologist at the Zoological Society of London, who took part in the search.

He said the dolphin's demise, which resulted from overfishing, pollution and lack of intervention, might serve as a cautionary tale and should spur governments and scientists to act to save other species verging on extinction.

"Ours is the first scientific study which didn't find any," he said in a telephone interview. "Even if there are a few left we can't find them and we can't do anything to stop their extinction."

The team, which published its findings in the Journal of the Royal Society Biology Letters today, included researchers from the United States, Britain, Japan and China. The survey was also authorized by the Chinese government, Turvey said.

The last confirmed baiji sighting was 2002, although there have been a handful of unconfirmed sightings since then. The last baiji in captivity died in 2002, Turvey said.

The dolphins will now be classified as critically endangered and possibly extinct.

Arctic thawing faster than forecast

From the Toronto Star:


Melting of ice cap is three decades ahead of international science panel's gloomiest prediction with experts saying the problem could further accelerate global warming

May 02, 2007 04:30 AM

Deborah Zabarenko
Reuters

WASHINGTON–The Arctic ice cap is melting much faster than expected and is now about 30 years ahead of predictions made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a U.S. ice expert said yesterday.

This means the Arctic Ocean could be free or nearly free of summer ice by 2020 – three decades sooner than the global science panel's gloomiest forecast of 2050.

No summer ice on the northern ocean would further accelerate global warming, said Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the U.S. National Snow and Ice Center in Colorado.

"Right now ... the Arctic helps keep the Earth cool," Scambos said in a telephone interview. "Without that Arctic ice, or with much less of it, the Earth will warm much faster."

That is because the ice reflects light and heat back into space; without it, the much darker land or sea absorbs more light and heat, making it more difficult for the planet to cool down, even in winter, he said.

Scambos and co-authors of the study, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, used satellite data and visual confirmation of Arctic ice to reach their conclusions. They present a far different picture than that obtained from computer models used by the scientists of the United Nations-backed intergovernmental panel.

"The IPCC report was very careful, very thorough and cautious, so they erred on the side of what would certainly occur as opposed to what might occur," Scambos said.

The range of what might occur included a much later melt up north, or a much earlier one, Scambos said.

"It appears we're on pace about 30 years earlier than expected to reach a state where we don't have sea ice, or at least not very much, in late summer in the Arctic Ocean," he said.

Scambos discounted the notion that the sharp warming trend in the Arctic might be due to natural climate cycles, adding: "There aren't many periods in history that are this dramatic in terms of natural variability."

He said he had no doubt that this was caused in large part by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which he said was the only thing capable of changing Earth on such a large scale over so many latitudes.

Asked what it would take to fix the problem – the topic of a new report by the intergovernmental panel to be released on Friday in Bangkok – Scambos said a large volcanic eruption might hold Arctic ice melting at bay for a few years.

But he sees continued warming as inevitable in the coming decades.

"Long-term and for the next 50 years, I think even the new report will agree that we're in for quite a bit of warming," Scambos said.

"We just barely now, I think, have enough time and enough collective will to be able to get through this century in good shape.

"But it means we have to start acting now and in a big way," he added.

Drunk man rescued from chimney

From the Toronto Star:

January 19, 2007

Tamara Cherry
Staff Reporter
A drunk Toronto man who spent five freezing hours in a stranger’s chimney Thursday morning was simply trying to enter the home after no one answered his knocks at the front door, police say.

The 35-year-old man left his friend’s Muskoka Lakes cottage in the middle of the night to “relieve himself,” Ontario Provincial Police said.

Stumbling back through the dark, he unknowingly ended up at an empty neighbouring cottage. Imagine his surprise, then, when he found the door locked and no one answering his knocks.

“Upset and determined to get in, he climbed onto the roof and slid down the chimney, the wrong chimney,” Bracebridge OPP said.

On his way down, the inebriated man became stuck at the bottom of the chimney, where he spent about five hours in freezing conditions before contractors working near the cottage heard his cries for help shortly after 9 a.m.

They initially thought someone had fallen into Lake Rousseau, OPP said. “They checked the water, but were surprised to discover the cries were coming from an intoxicated man stuck down the chimney.”

After climbing on the roof and finding the victim stuck with his arms above his head, the workers lowered a rope down the flue and managed to pull the freezing man out.

This will likely go down in the history books as “one of the strangest occurrences Bracebridge OPP officers, Township of Muskoka Lakes firefighters and paramedics have ever attended,” OPP said.

“It’s simply a miracle the victim escaped relatively unscathed without need of medical attention.”

Because the man had no criminal intent in entering the home, no charges will be laid, police said.