They have been saying that for years now - it featured on "Tomorrows World" a few times too (if you remember that great program - why can´t we have stuff like that back on TV?). No-one outside the scientific community seemed to take notice back then, and I really doubt anything will happen now. Nationally, or even globally - we will ignore any signs that means required changes may adversely affect our day to day lives. Making efforts, spending money, taking longer to do things - forget it, much easier to ignore things instead or say "It´s not just us" As a random - we used to have axolotls as pets years ago <img src=smilies/icon_smile.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle>
apparently, frogs and toads are now endangered species..
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oooh i loved TW. good ol´ Raymond Baxter. I met him once you know, at the Biggin Hill Airshow. and Michael Rodd came to our school (I almost got on Screen Test) axolotls? aren´t they really difficult to keep and die easily?
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The Endangered Species Act is a load of crap that is just a way for the government to screw you out of your land. I don´t care if Frogs are endangered, as ALL of you know, ANY government of ANY country will lie to you. I bet they´re doing this so they can take your land. (I´ll explain when I start "BS of today´s world: A Revolution Production.," but alas, this will have to wait until season four of Penn & Teller: Bullcrap! starts. (Change "crap" to the other word. And I promise, that is the real name of the show.)
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Met Howard Stableford at an explosives lecture (very briefly) as they were filming it - although it never showed on TV (the lecturer was one of my mothers old teachers). Great lecture, first of about 8 I ended up watching at various uni´s around the country in years to come, nothing better than lectures on blowing things up <img src=smilies/icon_smile_big.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> <img src=smilies/icon_smile_wink.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> TW was my fav program on TV when I was a kid, that along with "Michael Moores TV Nation" and "Quantum Leap". The axolotls didn´t seem unhardy, although you did have to keep em clean and feed them regularly on worms. Apart from that, pretty much a doddle (just had to be careful in the summer due to the hot sunshine...)
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There is a new phenomenon with toads: <font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade> Observers report that the amphibians crawl out of the water, swell to several times normal size, and then burst, their guts shooting a meter into the air. <hr size=1 noshade></BLOCKQUOTE></font><font face=´trebuchet ms, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica´ size=2> <A href=´http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/308/5723/788a´ Target=_Blank> Full Article in Science </a> I like the part about a scientist from <i>Trent University </i> <img src=smilies/icon_smile_big.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> But seriously: amphibians are an indicator for ecological problems. In Scandinavia and in parts of Canada thousands of ponds do not have any amphibious population any more, so snakes and some birds are extinct too. Similar problems exist in Costa Rica and in other (sub-)tropical countries. One of the possible explanations: more X-rays (or similar) because of thinner Ozone-shield. And it could get even worse. There are new facts showing that the global warming has been slowered by the so-called global dimming. Explanations: <A href=´http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/308/5723/847´ Target=_Blank> Science </a> <A href=´http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_dimming´ Target=_Blank> Wikipedia</a> <A href=´http://www.globalissues.org/EnvIssues/GlobalWarming/globaldimming.asp´ Target=_Blank> Globalissues</a> Of course when the global warming ´goes back to normal´ i.e. speeding up then it would not only have consequences for frogs and toads.
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Amphibians are both cold-blooded and would appear to have particularly porous and sensitive skin compared to most other classes of vertebrate. On top of that most species need to live in moist environments were chemical run off from agriculture and industry will accumulate. So both climate change or the presence of toxic chemicals in the animal´s environment are likely to affect it immediately and to a greater extent. <A href=´http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4249136.stm´ Target=_Blank>And amphibians in the UK look to be at risk of being further whalloped by a new fungal disease</a> recently brought in by released American bull-frogs. I can´t stand the ignoramuses who release foreign species into the wild, they can´t have a clue what they´re doing. *looks at parrots flying around in back garden stripping every apple tree they can find* Edited by - Recusant on 9/16/2005 3:10:15 AM
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Rec - do you live in London? They have flocks of parrots from what I have heard, really managing to survive. The introduction I dislike the most was that blasted American Grey squirrel! Used to have red squirrels up at my Grandparents donkeys years ago, but from when I was born, they have had grey only. Unfort the reds survive upon pine trees only, whereas the Grey will eat a wide range of food. Shoot the lil buggers as often as possible, once bagging 9 in just one hour.
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Yep, right near the edge with Kent. I tell you what was surreal, seeing a flock of bright green parrots in the snow a couple of years ago. They´re definitely thriving. Two years ago it was a pleasant surprise to spot the odd parrot, now you can hear the squawking most of the time. There´s a group of 20+ that we´re aware of near the house. In some parks there are flocks of hundreds. Even more oddly, apparently there was once a small group of escaped wallabies living wild in the Peak District, they were first spotted in the ´60s and survived through till the ´90s!
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the wallabies live over Leek way, about 8 miles from me, they´re a well known local curiosity. it was thought until recently that they´d died out but they are in fact alive and starting to increase numbers. we also have a herd of llamas wandering about on the Staffordshire/Peak borders. I got stuck in the fog up there once and heard this starnge noise then a bl**dy llama came wandering up out of the mist!
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Did llama spit at you? It ought to have if it were startled.
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Taw, it could be worse, you could have a group of vultures hanging around. <img src=smilies/icon_smile_wink.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle>
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we have wild boar and big black cats in kent
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Pft, we had ferral kids and ho´s in leeds.
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Ooh someone send me a parrot please!!! Well, for the most part I don´t think the general population would mind frogs being endangered, for them less frogs means less of a bother, as not many people actually like frogs. I doubt if many people think about the reason the frog population are actually declining. Last two frogs I saw both were dead, *shakes head*
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The bad thing about frogs and toads being endangered is that this is a Canary-in-a-coalmine effect: because their skin is semipermeable, they are most sensitive to environmental changes. This could signal that the world is on the brink of an environmental collapse.
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<font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade>This could signal that the world is on the brink of an environmental collapse. <hr size=1 noshade></BLOCKQUOTE></font><font face=´trebuchet ms, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica´ size=2> Environmental collapse could be taking it a bit far. It could equally indicate a small fluctuation in any number of factors affecting their environment. Still, it´s an unfortunate aspect of the capitalist system that externalities such as pollution largely go unchallenged until they affect humans. *Rambles on about Aldo Leopold´s land ethic*
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who´s been using frogs for pregnancy tests? <A href=´http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4257232.stm´ Target=_Blank>link</a> -arc
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:O archie you´re commander in chief?
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He´s working the code on the site now. Congrats Arcon. <img src=smilies/icon_smile_big.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle>
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I knew it! evil scientific experiments, another example of man´s arrogance upsetting the natural order. when will we ever learn? and people say genetic research is safe - my god, if it wasn´t safe back in the 30s when things were crude and primitive, how much more deadly is modern bacteriological research?