Back To Wild

For a long period of time we are persistently and of course perennially suffering from many things including some dangerous diseases and conditions and above all from global warming that have been caused by polluted air, sometimes directly and some times indirectly.

But this time you would be shocked to learn that the largest rain forest of our planet is suffering for too much clean air and it is in the verge of being completely destroyed naturally.

Some Facts: Really Tough to Digest
We are providing some proven facts that have been derived by some of the famous environmentalists’ and climate scientists’ studies.

• The Amazon that is widely known as the lungs of the earth- can be wiped out within half a century as a dire consequence of too much clean air, as it is suggested by some prominent Brazilian and UK climate scientist in the journal called Nature.
• According to a new research study, there is a connection between dipping sulphur dioxide emissions from increasing sea surface temperatures in the tropical north Atlantic and burning coal, resulting in a heightened risk of drought in the Amazon rainforest.
• The Amazon rainforest consists of around one tenth of the entire carbon stored in the   land ecosystems. It also recycles a great portion of the rainfall that actually falls upon it.
• As a consequence any kind of major variation to its existing vegetation that is generally brought about by deforestation or drought might leave an important as well as largely considerable impact on the global climate system.

Three Noteworthy Points about Amazon Rain Forest
The vast rainforest is very crucial to the Earth’s climate and with the every passing day, this forest is gradually coming under severe threat from the attempts to restrain the pollution, which causes acid rain, warn UK and Brazilian climate scientists. These are three such things that Amazon is able to do:

• The real ‘greenhouse effect’.
• Increase in dust offsets global warming.
• Amazon rainforest ‘could resist climate change’.

A Seoul-based biotechnology company and the owner of a dog trained to sniff out cancer cells from human beings, is most likely to be cloned in Japan. Ra Jeong-Chan, president of the RNL Bio brought to attention that cloned fetuses from the black Labrador retriever named “Marine” was implanted in a surrogate mother dog last month (April 2008).

Ra confirmed that the clones were going to be looked into at the end of May 2008. Marine, now six and a half years old, lost her ability to reproduce when her womb was extracted out of her because of the disease.

Marine’s master, Yuji Satoh, is a head trainer at the St. Sugar Cancer Sniffing Dog Training Center which is located in Shirahama, Chiba prefecture.

Yuji Satoh, claimed that the first cloned dog was created in 2005 of an Afghan named hound called Snuppy. Experts reveal that Snuppy is expected to become a father this month with the first breeding of cloned canines. Some skin samples were taken from Marine and brought to South Korea for cloning this year.  Satoh has no qualms about cloning Marine. As Marine has been regarded as a dog with the highest cancer sniffing capabilities, making clones out of her skin samples can help generate further studies on cancer-sniffing dogs.

The owner cum trainer is also very proud that it is the first ever kind of cloning of the best cancer-sniffing dog Marine. It also reported that the owner together with the Korean firm is going to develop 2 clones of Marine which are going to be late trained at Satoh’s center. In that case, one is expected to stay on at Satoh’s center while the other will brought back to South Korea for further studies.

It is assumed that if the project involving the two little clone pups succeeds then experts will create more clones. Satoh asserted that creating clones out of Marine will help in the worldwide distribution of such cancer-sniffing dogs which can encourage further studies on the canine detection of cancer.

Cloning of Marine is expected to be of great help for researchers who are trying to establish whether dogs have the ability to detect lung, prostate, breast and skin cancer at an early and treatable stage.

Japanese researchers opine that dogs can sniff or detect cancerous cells through their breath and urine. RNL Bio’s last such project involved the cloning of a pet dog on the request from a lady from the United States who wanted a recreated pit bull.

The Korean firm confirmed that it charged as much as $150000 from the woman from California to clone her pit bull by using the tissues of her dead pet named Booger. Some seven clones were also created out of drug-sniffing dogs last year and it is assumed that these clones were easier to train than ordinary canines.

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The recent research study of trace gases those got trapped in Antarctic ice cores presently provides a practical view of greenhouse gas concentrations as well as is further confirming the connection between the greenhouse gas levels and global warming. The study has been published in the journal Nature.

They also established the fact that there have been concentrations of methane and carbon dioxide during that entire period of time, there have never been concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane as towering as the current levels, said Edward Brook, an associate professor of geosciences at Oregon State University, and author of a Nature commentary on the new studies.

“The fundamental conclusion that today’s concentrations of these greenhouse gases have no past analogue in the ice-core record remains firm,” Brook said in the report. “The remarkably strong correlations of methane and carbon dioxide with temperature reconstructions also stand.”

The latest research on the ice coring in Antarctica has been conducted by the members of the European Project. It extends the data on the trace gases and went back another 150,000 years. It is basically beyond any kind of research studies that has been prior to this, Brook added. Finally, researchers would like to gain some data going back to minimum .5 million years.

The small bubbles of the prehistoric air that has been trapped in the polar ice cores are used to provide with the records of trace gases in the climate at distant points in the past. It actually occurred probably as the consequence of the cyclical changes in Earth’s orbit around the sun.

Recently the Government of Bolivia titled the Bolivian River Dolphin as a National Heritage. The designation “National Heritage” itself shows the importance laid on the conservation of river dolphin species and the freshwater ecosystem where it resides. The Bolivian government is committed towards its continuing efforts in the protection of this symbolic cetacean. The government is also determined to strengthen its conservation measures of dolphin and its habitat.

The declaration of Bolivian river dolphin as National Heritage is one of the result of South American river dolphin census conducted by WWF, Fundación Omacha and partners. Scientists for more than 15 months in 2006-2007 navigated and surveyed almost 2,000 miles between the Amazon and Orinoco rivers and their tributaries. During their expedition scientists covered 13 rivers within 5 countries: Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia and counted more than 3,000 river dolphins.

In local language Bolivian River Dolphin is called as Bufeo. The scientific community acknowledged Bufeo as the new endemic species of Bolivia. They also consider Bufeo as an important indicator of quality of the freshwater in which it resides. Scientific studies conducted on the dolphin are helpful in evaluating and measuring the threats to the freshwater ecosystem. This also includes the pollution caused from the mercury and hydrocarbons and also the impact caused by the infrastructure projects like waterways and dams.

The survey results are used by the local conservation organizations and WWF for the implementation of the conservation measures of the river dolphin. The future conservation plans includes a detailed estimation of Bufeo’s abundance and distribution. The next step would be the execution of management and sustainable plans at regional and local level and also the promotion of sustainable livelihoods.

Fernando Trujillo, Leader of South American River Dolphin Census and Scientific Director, Fundación Omacha said: “River dolphins are seriously threatened and in danger of extinction in other continents, such as Asia. Nonetheless, South America, and particularly Bolivia, still have river dolphin populations in relatively good conservation status.” He further added: “We still have time to implement necessary measures to prevent South American river dolphins following the same fate as the Asian species. For example, we urgently need to know the potential impact of the proposed hydroelectric dams in the Madeira River on the Bolivian river dolphin populations.”

Findings suggest that enormously sized pythons capable of swallowing dogs or alligators are encroaching into the south eastern territories of the United States. Florida is first to have identified these gigantic pythons says a recent study.

Frank Mozzotti, a professor from the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, suggested that pythons can invade a territory thronged by animals like alligators. For example, north Florida, Louisiana and Georgia are some states where alligators inhabit.

The pythons which survive in Florida were Burmese pythons which were brought to the United States as pets. Eventually, they were thrown into the wild. Mazzotti is his study reveals that between 2002 and 2005, about 201 pythons came under the clutches of the state authorities. The figure seemed to have doubled to 418 from 2005 to 2007.

The largest specimen was as long as 16.4 feet which weighed about 154 pounds.

Professor Frank claims that even though the species were huge, they were not poisonous and could swim to great distances within short time frames. Fro instance, some pythons caught and let go with transmitters attached to their bodies swam as much as 37 miles in just a few hours.

The professor further claims that highly adaptable pythons can feed on just about anything like dogs, hares, foxes, squirrels, cats, raccoons and alligators. The pythons are expanding at a rapid pace in the Florida peninsula, with about 30000 of them surviving in the marshland of “everglades” in Florida.

Professor Mazzotti further adds that female serpents are most likely to store sperms to produce them in the years to come. In addition, the professor asserts that a serpent weighing approximately 100 pounds or more can produce 60-80 eggs in just one year.

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It is reported that, rising sea levels due to global warming are sure to threaten the lives of Indian Ocean Islands. Scientists have said that the islands of Mafia and Zanzibar in Tanzania are most likely to disappear under sea waters due to global warming.

All the islands of Tanzania mainland coast could go under waters by 2100 following a disastrous rise in sea levels caused by the melting of polar ice, reported scientists who met in Arusha for the launch of the International Year of Planet Earth for Africa.

Adding to it they said that the scenario is “very possible”, as there are number of islands that are submerged by the oceans in the past. Islands that are known to have been sunk in the past include Fungu la Nyani of the Rufiji River and estuary Maziwi, near Pangani in Tanga Region.

At present other islands such as Ras Nungwi located at the northern side of Zanzibar island which has already lost 100 meters of its beach to sea waters, Mbudya and Bongoyo islands near Dar- es- Salaam are under threat of global warming along with Indian Ocean Islands.

Scientists and expert have called for to undertake “bold measures” as the one and only way to save the beautiful islands that are the leading tourist destinations of the world.