Category Archives: Dolphin

Alarm clock appeals to your good nature to break your snoozing habit. We have a better idea

by SherriMcLean9 Posted on March 28, 2016

Alarm clock appeals to your good nature to break your snoozing habit. We have a better idea

By on 28 Mar 2016commentsShare

You awake to the roar of an African lion. Bleary-eyed, you grab your phone and hit snooze to silence the feline’s growls — and in doing so, donate $1 to a conservation fund.

That’s the premise of an app called Zooster, the world’s first “charitable alarm clock.” After the howl of a grey wolf or the squeak of a dolphin wakes you from your beauty sleep, you can either dismiss the alarm or hit snooze. If you do the latter, the app automatically donates your money to a charity that supports the animal whose wake-up call you ignored.

Sure, you might not be prepared to make informed monetary decisions in your state of morning grogginess — but at least it’s for a good cause, right? This leads us to the crucial problem with Zooster: Wouldn’t donating to a terrible cause get you up faster?

Introducing Eschewster: the app that will help you abstain from hitting snooze and donating a dollar. We brainstormed some ideas for the world’s second charitable alarm clock that’ll get you out from under those covers in a hurry:

Get up now or $1 goes to the NRA
Get up now or $1 goes to the travel budget of that dentist who killed Cecil
Get up now or $1 goes to the Rachel Dolezal Center For Diversity
Get up now or $1 goes to expanding George W. Bush’s personal Texas ranch
Get up now or $1 goes to a climate denial group of your choice
Get up now or $1 goes to developing toilet paper even thinner than one-ply
Get up now or $1 goes to Kanye West’s debt reduction fund
Get up now or $1 goes to the making of Paul Blart: Mall Cop 3
Get up now or $1 goes to the initiative to build an even bigger proposed pipeline, Keystone XXL

App developers, take note! Until Zooster’s official launch this fall, we could use some extra incentive to get up in the mornings. It’s not exactly the cock-a-doodle-do that served as the alarm for your agrarian ancestors, but the moral of the story is the same: If you snooze, you lose.

(That is, unless you end up snoozing and donating to Grist.)

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Alarm clock appeals to your good nature to break your snoozing habit. We have a better idea

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How Guantanamo Bay could be reborn as an ocean science powerhouse

by ManuelaRuth Posted on March 18, 2016

How Guantanamo Bay could be reborn as an ocean science powerhouse

By on 18 Mar 2016commentsShare

Guantanamo Bay may be better known as an infamous U.S. military camp, but as a mostly undisturbed, isolated area, its wildlife is thriving. Its coral reefs are still intact, untouched by the normal wear and tear of the fishing industry. Cuba’s shores are home to some of the world’s richest biodiversity: sharks, migrating dolphins and whales, and infinite schools of fish that rely on these reefs. The Caribbean’s tropical dry forests, mangroves, and seagrass beds support a diverse array of life — exactly what makes Guantanamo so attractive to scientists.

What do you do with a camp that bears the scars of more than a decade of distressing history? Joe Roman, a conservation biologist at the University of Vermont, and James Kraska, professor of law at the U.S. Naval War College, suggest a novel plan: Turn the camp into a protected marine reserve and research station. They argue the research center would give Cuba and the U.S. the opportunity to unite under the banner of mutually beneficial scientific research, as “a state-of-the-art marine research institution and peace park.”

In a Friday op-ed for the journal Science, the pair outline their proposal, envisioning that the center could reach the scale of New England’s famous ocean research powerhouse:

A parcel of the land, perhaps on the developed southeastern side of the base, could become a “Woods Hole of the Caribbean,” housing research and educational facilities dedicated to addressing climate change, ocean conservation, and biodiversity loss. With genetics laboratories, geographic information systems laboratories, videoconference rooms — even art, music, and design studios — scientists, scholars, and artists from Cuba, the United States, and around the world could gather and study. The new facilities could strive to be carbon neutral, with four 80-meter wind turbines having been installed on the base in 2005, and designed to minimize ecological damage to the surrounding marine and terrestrial ecosystems.

In their plan, Cuba and the United States would together study the challenges of climate change, mass extinction, and declining coral reefs.

It’s no easy feat to create an enormous marine institution and protected area from scratch, particularly in a place with a history as complex as it is controversial. According to the New Yorker’s Elizabeth Kolbert, U.S. originally took control of the bay during the chaos that followed the end of the Spanish-American War. The U.S. paid the $4,885 rent check for its 45 acres on the large harbor at the southeastern end of Cuba until 1959, when Cuban leader Fidel Castro ordered officials to stop cashing the checks, saying that the land rightfully belonged to Cuba.

But the U.S. did not return the land, instead using it to house detainees, amid rampant reports of torture, sex abuse, and inhumane conditions.

President Barack Obama has been trying in vain to close the prison for years. In February, as the administration began to reestablish diplomatic and political ties with Cuba, Obama released his latest plan to close the detention center on Guantanamo Bay. On the eve of Obama’s historic visit to Cuba next week, now’s as good time as any to reimagine what will be done Guantanamo’s aging infrastructure — buildings that just so happen to be sitting in the middle of what Roman called an “unparalleled” environmental Eden.

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5 Great Environmental Documentaries

by JamaalLanier Posted on February 28, 2016

The Academy Awards shine a spotlight on the best movies made in any given year. Here’s a list of five of the best environmental documentaries made in 2015.

The Human Experiment
This documentary tells the stories of three families who believe their health has been seriously compromised by toxic chemicals circulating willy-nilly in our environment. Produced and narrated by Academy Award-winner Sean Penn, the filmexamines what we know (and dont know) about the connection betweenskyrocketing rates of cancer, autism, infertility, asthma, and other diseases and the chemicals we encounter in such common household items as plastic baby and water bottles, fragrances in perfumes and cosmetics, and chemicals in shampoos, deodorant and cleaning products.

Companies that produce and use toxic chemicals do not need to prove they dont pose a human health risk. That’s because the federal Toxic Substances Control Act, called TSCA, places the burden of proof on the consumer, not the company producing the product. The film makes a powerful argument for strengthening federal laws to get dangerous compounds off the market and away from the people they can hurt. You can read the full review on Care2 here.

Stink
Stink also examines the impact toxic chemicals can have on our lives, but from the point of view of a father who is shocked when the new pajamas he buys for his two daughters stink so badly from the flame retardants they’ve been doused in that the girls can’t wear them. The father, who is the filmmaker Jon Whelan, goes on a quest to figure out why so many toxic chemicals are allowed into our world. He also tries to figure out whether his wife’s death from breast cancer could somehow be connected to chemicals she was exposed to. The film is gripping, even devastating in parts, but also lights a fire under the viewer, as the filmmaker makes it clear that we citizens must support stronger legislation to reduce toxic exposures.

Mislead: America’s Secret Epidemic
Tamara Rubin founded the Lead Safe America Foundation when she realized her own children were lead poisoned. Then she decided to make a movie about the lead poisoning crisis that is making so many people, specifically children, sick. The resulting documentary, titled MisLEAD: America’s Secret Epidemic, makes a powerful case that lead poisoning is dangerous, pervasive and must be stopped.

Tamara and her crew highlight 17 different families, all of whom are trying to help children already lead poisoned while preventing the situation from getting worse. The documentary draws a direct line between the “sudden, alarming” rise in the number of American children suffering from ADD, ADHD, Autism Spectrum symptoms and similar neurological disorders and children’s exposure to lead. These disabilities cost society more than $50 billion annually, says Lead Safe America. Especially in light of the terrible crisis facing the families living in Flint, Michigan whose children have been poisoned by lead in drinking water, the film couldn’t be more timely.

National Parks Adventure 3D
For a completely different kind of film, don’t missMacGillivray Freeman’s National Parks Adventure in 3D. Narrated by Academy Award winner Robert Redford, the movie takes you on an IMAX adventure into what Redford calls the “most awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping places that belong to us all.”

Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Everglades, the Redwoods, the Grand Canyon, Arches and Canyonlands are among the nation’s crown jewels featured in this film, all perfectly suited to the giant-screen cinematographic adventure IMAX provides. If you liked some ofMacGillivray Freeman’s other Great Adventure Films including “Everest,” “Dolphins,” “Journey Into Amazing Caves” and “Grand Canyon Adventure” you’ll probably love this one, too.

Short of visiting a national park yourself, this may be one of the best ways to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the creation of the national park system, which occurs on August 25, 2016.

My Life as a Turkey
Writer and naturalist Joe Hutto quite unexpectedly found himself raising 13endangered wild turkeys in the flatlands of Florida from the moment they hatched. Hutton told the talefirst in his book “Illumination in the Flatwoods.” Now , he brings it to life in this poignant film, and it’s not one you want to miss.

“Day after day, for over a year, I saw no one – except my family,” he says as the movie opens, Joe walkingshrouded in mist and surrounded by his feathered youngsters. “It was a family like none you know. But I’m a mother, it seems, and these are my children.”

Hutto spent each day amblingdeep into the Everglades with these birds, roosting with them, taking them foraging and even learning to speak their “language.” In the process, he says, “they revealed their charming curiosity and surprising intellect.”

The day came for Hutto the way it comes for all parents, and he had to let his brood go off on their own. Keep some tissues handy when you watch this sweet, lovely film.

For more film options, check out the offerings at the D.C. Environmental Film Festivalor the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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5 Great Environmental Documentaries

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Is Man-Made Noise Messing Up the Oceans?

by KatrinaSandover Posted on February 5, 2016

Mother Jones

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We may imagine the bottom of the deep blue sea as a peaceful, quiet place—certainly compared with the blaring horns and chit-chattering radios of rush-hour traffic. But the ocean is filled with the sounds of undulating waves, marine animals calling out to one another, and, increasingly, the ceaseless din of human commercial activity. Over the past 60 years, our contribution to the undersea cacophony has doubled every decade, and much of that noise is generated close to the shore. Roughly 40 percent of the world’s population lives within 100 kilometers—or 62 miles—of the coast.

A new study in the journal Nature finds that all the racket from our ships and construction activities penetrates deep beneath the surface, not merely messing with the communications of undersea mammals but changing the very nature of life at the bottom. The researchers found that bottom-dwellers such as small clams and lobsters, which are crucial to the underwater ecosystem, alter their behavior when exposed to man-made noise. To put it simply, they don’t move around as much.

Here’s why it matters: These creatures are responsible for churning up sediment when they burrow into the seabed, thus increasing oxygen levels and distributing nutrients. Their waning activity, the study’s authors say, may impact seabed productivity, sediment biodiversity, and even fisheries production. “There has been much discussion over the last decade of the extent to which whales, dolphins and fish stocks, might be disturbed by the sounds from shipping, wind farms, and their construction,” co-author Tim Leighton, an expert in underwater acoustics at the University of Southampton in England, noted in a statement accompanying the paper. “However, one set of ocean denizens has until now been ignored…These are the bottom feeders, such as crabs, shellfish and invertebrates similar to the ones in our study, which are crucial to healthy and commercially successful oceans because they form the bottom of the food chain.”

And these kinds of creatures, unlike fish and dolphins, can’t simply relocate to escape the noise. To maintain healthy oceans, we humans might simply have to keep it down.

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Is Man-Made Noise Messing Up the Oceans?

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Are There Toxic Chemicals Lurking in Your North Face Jacket?

by Grady6963359742 Posted on January 27, 2016

It may come as a surpriseor perhaps not surprising at allthat a variety of toxic chemicals have been used to makeoutdoor gear like jackets, shoes, tents, backpacks, and even sleeping bags.

A new report by Greenpeace Germany has documented that “hazardous and persistent chemicals, dangerous to human health and the environment, have been found in the products of leading outdoor brands.”

Greenpeace tested 40 products purchased in 19 different countries and regions. Among the companies whose products were found to be tainted are The North Face, Patagonia, Mammut, Columbia and Haglofs.

The chemicals found embedded in the fabrics of the products these companies make are calledpoly- and per-fluoronated compounds, or PFCs. PFCs are synthetic chemical compounds that do not exist in nature. They are used by the outdoor gear industry to make products waterproof and dirt-repellent.

As effective as they may be, PFCs have serious human health and environmental impacts. These compounds can cause harm to reproduction, promote the growth of tumors, and affect the hormone system. The National Institute for Environmental Health Science reports that in animal studies PFCs also “reduce immune function; cause adverse effects on multiple organs, including the liver and pancreas; and cause developmental problems in rodent offspring exposed in the womb.”

The Minnesota Department of Health notes that PFCs “are extremely resistant to breakdown in the environment,” so once they are released, they persist for a very long time. They can get into the food chain of animals far from their source. PFCs have been found in animals like dolphins, in polar bear livers, and in human blood. They have also shown up in drinking water and in fish near textile factories in China where much of the clothing and gear is produced.

The gear is not believed to threaten you if you wear it. However, because we all live on one planet, and because once the chemicals are released they circulate all over the world, you could be exposed to themwhether you’ve bought the gear or are basically an innocent bystander. Certainly polar bears never wear Polar-tec, yet the chemicals have shown up in their bodies.

What Can You Do?

1) Ask the manufacturer of your gear whether they use PFC compounds for water proofing and repelling dirt. There’s not really much you can do if you already own the gear, other than return the gear to the manufacturer when you’re finished with it, but that’s better than tossing it in the trash.

2) Buy used gear. Since a big source of PFC pollution comesduring manufacturing, you can reduce the amount of new products manufactured – and new chemicals emitted – by buying gently used equipment and clothing.

3) Likewise, sell your used gear on EBay or Craig’s List, donate it, or take it to a thrift shop rather than throwing it away. Extend its life as long as possible.

4) Buy gear from companies that have pledged zero discharge of hazardous chemicals into the environment. There aren’t many of them, but one to look at is Paramo, which has issued a “Detox Commitment” that hopefully will inspire its competitors.

RELATED

Big-Brand Clothing Found Laced with Toxic Chemicals
Why You Should Wash Your Clothes Before You Wear Them

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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Are There Toxic Chemicals Lurking in Your North Face Jacket?

Posted in alo, Dolphin, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, PUR, Radius, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Are There Toxic Chemicals Lurking in Your North Face Jacket?

What We Won and What We Didn’t in 2015

by Freddie9132 Posted on January 1, 2016

As 2015 comes to a close, what environmental gains did we make, and what still needs to get done in the year ahead?

What Didn’t Get Done?

* Protect the coastal plain of America’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge provides habitat for polar bears, musk oxen, Arctic foxes and hundreds of species of birds. It’s also where the Porcupine Caribou go to birth their young. These wild lands have been in the sights of the oil industry for years, but thus far, the efforts of Alaska Wilderness League and many other environmental groups have helped keep oil drilling on the coastal plain at bay. President Obama has recommended that the region be designated as wilderness, which ensure it staysoff limits to industrial development permanently. The next session of Congress shouldmake that happen.

* Pass strong legislation to reform the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) – Given the tens of thousands of unregulated chemicals that are loose in the environment, strengthening the Toxic Substances Control Act is of paramount importance. The Senate did pass a reform bill as 2015 was coming to a close. However, as Andy Igrjas of Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families notes here, it did not go nearly far enough. On the plus side, the legislation lets EPA order companies to test a chemical, rather than go through a formal (and long) rulemaking process. It also helps protect many existing state laws, including those that are stronger than the federal law. On the other hand, it makes it harder for EPA to intercept a dangerous chemical when it enters the country as part of an imported product. It also prevents states from taking new actions against toxic chemicals if EPA is also assessing them, a measure that could delay needed health interventions for years. The House has already passed its own version of TSCA reform. The next step will be to mesh the two bills and come up with final legislation that hopefully is stronger than either the House or the Senate version. Read a more thorough analysis of the issue at SaferChemicals.org.

* Prevent mass animal extinction – The killing of Cecil the Lion in July 2015 spawned international outrage and helped highlight the threats animals worldwide face, not just from hunting, but from issues like overdevelopment and climate change as well. Fifty Democrats in the House of Representatives have asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the lion as an endangered species, which would limit trophy hunting. But, that may be too little, too late. The Center for Biological Diversity reports that natural extinction rates are about one to five species per year. Now, “scientists estimate we’re now losing species at 1,000 to 10,000 times” that rate, “with literally dozens going extinct every day,” a crisis caused almost entirely by humans. An astonishing “99 percent of currently threatened species are at risk from human activities, primarily those driving habitat loss, introduction of exotic species, and global warming.”

* Improve food safety – As 2015 comes to a close, Chipotle Restaurants are still under scrutiny for the E.coli outbreaks that have sickened over 50 people in their restaurants. But that’s just the tip of the food poisoned iceberg. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that “One in six Americans will get sick from foodborne diseases.” “That amounts to nearly 50 million people, resulting in approximately 128,000 hospitalizations, and, tragically, 3,000 deaths,” says Consumer Reports.The Food Safety Modernization Act was passed to create a safer, healthier food supply. But, Congress hasn’t funded the U.S. Food and Drug Administration with nearly enough money to implement the Act. Organizations ranging from the American Public Health Association to the Center for Science in the Public Interest to the Trust for America’s Health continue to urge both the House and the Senate to boost funding so FDAcan “build the systems it needs to implement the law” and make our food supply truly safe.

What Did Get Done?

* Get international agreement to stop climate change – In a feat no one expected would happen, leaders of nearly 200 countries went to Paris and left with a plan in place to try to bring climate change to a halt. While most people agree that the plan doesn’t go far enough, and others criticize its mostly voluntary measures, it still cannot be denied that climate change finally became an international priority that many countries, including the United States, acknowledge they can no longer ignore.

* Cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline – After years of pressure from focused and motivated activists, President Obama finally canceled the Keystone XL Pipeline. The pipeline would have transported dirty tar sands oil from Canada across the U.S. to the Gulf of Mexico for oil refining. Activists argued that the oil should stay in the ground rather than be burned as a way to combat climate change as well as air pollution. (This Care2 article highlights 5 ways the pipeline could make people sick.)

* Ban plastic microbeads – This is a big one! Pres. Obama signed into law a bill that will phase out plastic microbeads in face wash, toothpaste and shampoo. Manufacturing of these products must cease by July 1, 2017, and all sales of products on the shelf that contain the plastic pellets must end by July 1, 2018. The ban came after increasing research showed that micro-plastic does not biodegrade and is building up in the ocean at alarming rates. It followed the passage of a similar law in California.

* Convincefurniture companies to ban the use of fire retardants – Furniture manufacturers have long treated their furniture with toxic flame retardant chemicals. The Natural Resources Defense Council called it a “stupid use of a chemical: they are ineffective in preventing furniture fires and are linked to serious health effects.” In 2015, Ashley Furniture, the largest manufacturer and retailer of furniture in the country, bowed to consumer demand and said it would ban toxic flame retardant chemicals in all of their furniture. Ethan Allen, Restoration Hardware and Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams have all said their furiture is free of toxic flame retardants. Crate and Barrel, Room & Board, and Williams-Sonoma, which includes Pottery Barn and West Elm, say they have mostly eliminated the chemicals from their products. IKEA and Wal-Mart have told their vendors to stop adding flame retardants to their furniture as well.

* Protect whales from military vessels – The U.S. Navy has had a deafening, blinding impact on whales – literally. Naval vessels use intense, high-volume and far-ranging sound waves to detect submarines and other objects beneath the earth’s surface. Because whales and dolphins “see” with their ears, the noise disrupts the ability of these animals to reproduce and thrive. In one documented case, 17 whales beached themselves and died, an action that was attributed to mid-frequency sonar emitted by the Navy. Happily, a federal court agreement reached between the Natural Resources Defense Council and the U.S. Navy will force the Navy to silence its sonar in areas around Southern California and Hawaii during certain periods of the year when marine mammal populations are most vulnerable. The agreement runs until the end of 2018, reports NRDC’s onearth.org, when the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service will issue neCecil environmental impact statements and authorizations regarding military exercises in sensitive water.

Activists, of course, made the difference in just about all of these victories, reports Moms Clean Air Force, who credits their Naptime Activism program for making it easy to sign petitions to elected officials. And, of course, all of the petitions circulated across Care2.com helped, as well.

Formore good news about the Earth, stop byGrist.org.

What do you consider a major environmental victory for 2015? And what tops your agenda for 2016? Please share!

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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What We Won and What We Didn’t in 2015

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Here’s What You Need to Know About the West Coast’s Toxic Crabs

by Dee71Xtzgwsbaf Posted on November 5, 2015

Mother Jones

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Fisherman from across the West coast are flocking to California, where the start of crabbing season is just days away. Or not: Health officials are warning that rock and Dungeness crabs along the state coast are contaminated by high levels of domoic acid, a known neurotoxin. State authorities are expected to decide this week whether or not to delay the opening of the Dungeness season—which yields one of the biggest harvests in the nation—and temporarily halt the harvest of rock crabs, which is permitted all year. In the meantime, here’s what you need to know:

How do I know whether that crab on I ordered last week was contaminated? Commercial seafood is regularly tested, so while there may be less Dungeness crab, you don’t have to freak out too much about consuming neurotoxins with the crab you ate at a restaurant or bought at a store. West Coasters should avoid eating recreationally caught shellfish (more details here). If domoic acid is ingested, it can cause vomiting, seizures, and in extreme situations, death. There haven’t been any reported hospitalizations or deaths from domoic acid poisoning since the late 1980’s, when three deaths and multiple hospitalizations spurred increased regulation.

Besides Dungeness crabs, are any other marine creatures are affected? Yes, lots. according to a NOAA report released Tuesday, domoic acid is showing up at potentially lethal levels among a record number of animals, including dolphins, whales, sea lions, and seabirds, and causing seizures among the latter two. Washington closed some areas to crabbing and clam digging earlier this year, Oregon has indefinitely postponed the start of its razor clam season, and California health officials have warned against eating recreationally caught shellfish in some regions.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

What’s this going to do the West Coast’s robust crabbing industry? California, Oregon, and Washington are the top producers of Dungeness crab in the United States; in California alone, commercial crabbing boats brought in 17 million pounds of the crab in 2014, worth nearly $60 million. Some fishermen make half of their income from the California Dungeness crab harvest, and the bloom is particularly ill-timed since Dungeness crabs are in highest demand between Thanksgiving and New Years. “These are incredibly important fisheries to our coastal economies and fresh crab is highly anticipated and widely enjoyed this time of year,” said the state Fish and Wildlife regional manager Craig Shuman. “But public health and safety is our top priority.”

Where is the domoic acid coming from? The acid is coming from a toxic phytoplankton, or algae, species that thrives in warm waters and makes its way into the food web as it’s consumed by anchovies, sardines, and shellfish. This year, thanks to a combination of El Niño and a large stretch of warm water off the west coast dubbed “the blob,” the algae has bloomed at record-setting levels, forming a ribbon up to 40 miles wide snaking up the West coast.

Is climate change causing this problem? Scientists are reluctant to attribute any one event solely to climate change, but warmer waters are certainly playing a role—and ocean temperatures are expected to continue warming with climate change. “The toxins are commonly present in the food web but this year, with this unprecedented bloom, they’re likely having a bigger impact than ever before,” said Kathi Lefebvre, a biologist at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center. “Our concern is that there does appear to be a link between warm water and bigger blooms, so what does this tell us about future years with warmer conditions?”

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Here’s What You Need to Know About the West Coast’s Toxic Crabs

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These Bats Look Exactly Like Teddy Bears and Cute Little Piggies

by RudolphMott Posted on October 30, 2015

Mother Jones

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Despite the fact that Dr. Merlin Tuttle, 74, has saved millions of bats around the world through his research and advocacy, and has taken hundreds of thousands of pictures of bats (sometimes shampooing them beforehand), he won’t judge you if you are afraid of them.

He won’t even get mad if you’ve tried to hurt one. In his more than fifty-year-long career, Tuttle has encountered just about every sort of reaction one could have toward a bat, and witnessed every horrible thing you could do to one. His reaction? To try to be understanding and then calmly list, as he did with me below, all the ways bats are amazing critters who will, in fact, make your life better.

Since he first discovered bats as a teenager in a cave close to his house in Tennessee, he has devoted his life to them, founding Bat Conservation International, the world’s leading bat advocacy group (which he has since left to found Merlin Tuttle’s Bat Conservation); publishing more than 50 research articles on bats; and lending his work to several National Geographic features. Last week, he a released a charming memoir: The Secret Lives of Bats: My Adventures with the World’s Most Misunderstood Mammals. In it he recounts his amazing adventures saving the stigmatized species from moonshiners in Tennessee caves, poachers in Thailand, politicians in Austin, Texas, and on and on.

He recently talked to Mother Jones about what makes bats so important, how he started photographing them, and why he is optimistic for their future despite the continuing threats facing the species.

On why people fear bats: It’s human nature and animal nature that we fear most what we understand least, and bats, because they are active at night, dart around unpredictably, it’s easy to fear them. But the more we learn about them the easier it is to like them. And most people are just amazed when they find out that there is this incredible variety and that they have highly sophisticated social systems, similar to those of primates and dolphins, and then they find out how valuable they are and probably most importantly learn that the bats just don’t go around attacking people and looking for trouble—even a sick bat is extremely unlikely to ever attack anyone. We all love our dogs and yet dogs are vastly more dangerous in terms of human mortality than bats are. Bats have one of the finest records of living safely with people of any animal in our planet.

In 55 years of studying bats on every continent where they exist, dealing with hundreds of species, sometimes surrounded by thousands, even millions at a time in caves, I’ve never once been attacked by a bat, I’ve never seen an aggressive bats, and I’ve never contracted any disease from a bat.

On why bats are valuable to humans: Bats contribute billions of dollars annually in protecting farmers against crops pests, reducing the need for pesticides that already threaten nearly every aspect of our lives. If you go to a tropical fruit market you’ll find that some 70 percent of the fruit on sale are pollinated or seed dispersed by bats. The whole tequila liquor industry is based on agave that is highly dependent on bats for pollination. Many of our most valued timber trees are dependent on bats for pollination or seed dispersal. If you go to the East African savannas, the famous baobab tree is highly dependent on bats for pollination. You go to Southeast Asia and the durian is so dependent on bats for pollination that you can’t even grow it in an orchard without bats to pollinate the flowers. And take the banana: all commercial bananas come form wild ancestors that continue to rely heavily on bats for pollination.

On the change in attitude towards bats since he started studying them decades ago: When I began devoting my life fulltime to bats back in 1982, just about everybody knew that bats were just ugly, dirty, rabid vermin that were dangerous, and now that is improved rather dramatically. At that time the most frequent call zoos got about bats was ‘Oh my god, I saw a bat in my yard last night, I’ve got children, what can I do,’ thinking that the bat was going to attack their children. And yet today those same institutions report that they are much more likely to get a call asking how to put up a bat house and attract bats to the yard. In fact, since the three decades since I introduced the idea of bat houses to North America there are now hundreds of thousands of bats living in people’s bat houses.

On how he got into bat photography: Back in 1978, because of my research on bats, National Geographic asked me to write a chapter in their new book Wild Animals of North America on bats. I worked real hard to write a chapter explaining to people that they didn’t have to be afraid of bats, that bats were actually quite valuable to have around. And then I went to Washington DC to meet with the editors and see the layout for my chapter in their book. All the pictures were just horrible! They were bats that were caught and tormented into snarling, and then photographed with their teeth bared.

I was rather shocked to find that after all my efforts to get people over their fear, they were going to put that kind of picture with my story. They agreed that that wasn’t a good thing and sent one of their staff photographers to go to the field for month with me to get some good picture of bats to go with the chapter. But bat photography is difficult, it’s definitely not easy. And in that month he just got three pictures that were really useful for the chapter, and by that time he realized there was as much involved with knowing bats as with knowing photography, and while he was with me I had hardly let him rest for a moment without asking him how and why he was doing what he was doing. So when he left he said look, you know what I know about photographing animals now, I’ve got some spare leftover film, let me leave it with you and why don’t you go out and buy yourself a little bit more equipment and see what you can contribute for the book. And I ended up being the second most used photographer in the book.

On the power of photographs to convince people of bats’ value: I began my photography strictly out defense of bats. It dawned on me that these pictures were incredibly powerful at changing people’s perception and so I got excited about photography. Without photography there would have been no real conservation progress in my opinion.

It’s so easy to change people’s minds about bats when you are armed with pictures. For kids that love dinosaurs, the dinosaurs all died out, there are bats still alive that are just as fascinatingly strange as any dinosaur, and yet if you like panda bears or something else that’s cute, there are bats that’ll run them stiff competition, too.

On other methods he used to convince people of bat’s benefit: I asked a Tennessee farmer one time for permission to go in his cave to study bats, and he said ‘Oh yeah, you’re very welcome, and just kill all you can while you’re there.’ He just assumed if i was a scientist i knew bats were bad and I would try to kill them. I came out and I said, ‘You know i really appreciate your letting me go in and look at your bats, I’m interested in learning exactly what all they are eating. You ever seen anything like these beetles?’ And he looks and goes, ‘Oh my god them suckas eat potato bugs?’ I said, ‘Well a colony the size of yours can probably ear 100 pounds in a night.’

I came back a month later to do some more research and he on his own decided each of his bats was worth 5 bucks and by George, anyone got near to doing anything bad to his bats was going to have a big problem with him.

That’s how it works, being able to listen to people no matter how crazy their fears are and trying to stand where they’re coming from, and then instead of getting upset when they tell you they’ve been killing them all their lives, just point out that we’ve all made mistakes in the past and that I’m not worried about what they’ve done in that past, but I assume that now that they understand bats, they’ll probably have a different attitude toward bats in the future.

On white-nose syndrome, the fungal disease that’s wiped out nearly 6 million bats in North America: There is no question that the fungus has had terrible consequences, particularly in the Northeast. We definitely need to help them rebuild. We probably never needed conservation action more than we do right now for bats. But the good side of this story is that because of this calamity, millions of people have learned about the value of bats, and learned to care about bats who didn’t know anything about them previously. Now, because of the spread of white-nose syndrome, I’m seeing programs starting up all over the country to monitor the status not just of a few endangered species in a few select locations, but to monitor bats in general and to track them as we do birds, and that’s a very, very important step in the right direction because white nose-syndrome is not the only thing we have to worry about. We can do a whole lot better at protecting bats in the future because of what we’ve learned through white-nose syndrome, and I’m optimistic in that regard.

Link:  

These Bats Look Exactly Like Teddy Bears and Cute Little Piggies

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