The Brink of Extinction

Extinction is when a particular species of animal is dead and gone from our planet forever (like the dinosaurs or the dodo bird).  The case of the Asian Crested Ibis is a hopeful story about an animal saved from complete extinction!

The Crested Ibis makes its home in the wetlands of Asia.

Due to habitat destruction, the Crested Ibis was on the brink of extinction.  In 1981, there were only 7 of these birds known to be alive in the wild!

Conservation programs were put in place to protect nesting areas, prohibit logging and stop the use of agrochemicals for rice farming.  In addition, Japan and China both began Ibis breeding programs to  help increase the number of birds in the safety of captivity.

Human activity was the direct cause of the Ibis's brush with extinction, but thanks to conservation, the Crested Ibis is making a comeback!  By 2002, there were approximately 140 birds living in the wild.  Today, there are more than 500!

Ten Crested Ibis are released into the wild in 2008.

Can you name some other animals that are currently in danger of extinction?  What is being done to help those animals survive in the wild?

WHAT IS GLOBAL WARMING?

"Global climate change" or "global warming" began with the Industrial Revolution.  Scientists say that global warming is primarily caused by the "greenhouse gas effect."  Greenhouse gases are the toxins (mostly CO2) released into the air when we burn fossil fuels--oil, coal and natural gas.  Another contributor to global climate change is deforestation (the destruction of trees), illustrated in the photograph below.

During the Industrial Revolution, lots of amazing new technology came along and we've been inventing cool things ever since!  But all this new technology--things like trains, cars, lightbulbs, computers, airplanes and electric toothbrushes--need energy to make them go!  The energy we use to power our cars and our homes comes mostly from burning fossil fuels.  It took millions of years for fossil fuels to be created, but humans have burned much of them up in just a few hundred years and the Earth can't handle it!

The more CO2 we have in the air, the more oceans try to suck it up to balance it out.  The more CO2 the oceans suck up, the warmer they become.  The warmer the oceans become, the more strange weather and wacky temperatures we get!  Strange weather leads to dangerous situations for humans.  Wacky temperature changes leads to the inability of many species of plants and animals to adapt quickly enough, which can lead to extinction.

On land, trees are an amazing natural way to get rid of CO2.  Plants soak up CO2 and store it for energy.  The combination of the greenhouse effect and deforestation has created a problem twice the size!

Obvious solutions:  1) PLANT TREES!  2) STOP BURNING FOSSIL FUELS!

More on global climate change to come!