Jennifer Marohasy

Total production of Nordmann firs in Europe is about 30 million trees per year while the demand is 33 million to 35 million.  Read more here.

Plans for a scientific panel on biodiversity, similar to a Nobel-winning group on climate change, have been knocked back by representatives of 80 countries at UN-sponsored talks.  Read more here.

Hi Jennifer,
 
I recently purchased a copy of Christian Vibe’s 1967 monograph ‘Arctic Animals in Relation to Climatic Fluctuation’,  Meddelelser om Grønland (1967) 170(5), pp 1-227. 
 
I have started putting direct quotes on the Environment Wiki that is linked to this blog:
 
The monograph with lots of information including about polar bears is available from Abebooks.
 
Cheers, [...]

THIRTY years ago polar bear experts were discussing ‘climatic fluctuations’ rather than climate change, and the effect this can have on polar bear distribution in the Arctic.  In fact, Christian Vibe, the Greenland representative on the Polar Bear Specialist Group, was more focused on how climatic fluctuations affected distribution, than abundance.  His observations back then, for example polar bears [...]

“Australian scientists have expressed serious doubts about a Japanese study which claims whales are losing blubber because more of them are competing for food,” according to a recent article at ABC Online. It continues,”The Japanese Government-backed study, published in the Polar Biology survey, examined more than 6,000 dead whales. It concluded that [...]

Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) have become a symbol of global warming, and their predicted decline a sign of worst to come, but until very recently population estimates were really just educated guesses. Current polar bear numbers are estimated to total between 20,000 and 25,000.
On May 14 2008, when announcing the decision to list polar bears [...]

There has been a dramatic reduction in the extent of summer sea ice in the Arctic since 1870, Chart 1.

Drawn by Nichole Hoskin using data from Arctic Climate Research at the University of Illinois
Australian television’s Four Corners showed a program on August 4, 2008, entitled ‘Tipping Point’ claiming that the disappearance of summer sea ice [...]

“FORTY years ago conservationists feared that humpback whales were being hunted to extinction. Now numbers have returned to such a level that they have been taken off the danger list.”
At least that is one of the good news stories in yesterday’s The Australian. It continues:
“The latest count stands at 40,000 mature individuals, [...]

Is this photograph of a Bridled Nailtail Wallaby and should it be in Scotia National Park near Broken Hill in south western New South Wales?

Photograph by Phil Cole, Scotia National Park, June 2008
The Bridled Nailtail Wallaby (Onychogalea fraenata) is considered endangered under CITES and some claim its range is now limited to central Queensland.
For more [...]

About two months ago, this magnificent adult female cassowary (above) traversed alongside our house with a dreadful limp. At the time, cassowaries had been fighting, so I assumed this one had suffered an injury in such conflict.
However, the big bird was not seen again for about two months and this was remarkable for this [...]