Tag: wildlife

Prominent LGBT activist faces humiliating reality check over suggestion that various animals are ‘biologically trans’

Aprominent LGBT activist took to X Sunday with the bold claim that there are at least 18 species of “biologically trans” animals. Australian leftist Peter Tatchell may have grown accustomed to passing off many of his radical views in the current political climate, but this particular suggestion died on arrival.

Tatchell has been roundly ridiculed over his post, which was also slapped with multiple community notes.

A history of bad takes

Tatchell has long courted controversy with his extreme views on sexuality. In the late 1990s, he argued that the United Kingdom should reduce the age of consent to 14.

The Critic reported that Tatchell wrote a letter to the Guardian in 1997, noting, “Ros Coward thinks that it is ‘shocking’ that Gay Men’s Press has published a book, ‘Dare to Speak,’ which challenges the assumption that all sex involving children and adults is abusive. I think it is courageous.”

Tatchell went on to reference “societies where consenting inter-generational sex is considered normal, beneficial and enjoyable by old and young alike.”

Later in the letter, Tatchell reportedly noted, “Several of my friends gay and straight male and female had sex with adults from the ages of 9 to 14. None feel they were abused.”

The activist apparently concluded the letter writing, “Whilst it may be impossible to condone paedophilia, it is time society acknowledged the truth that not all sex involving children is unwanted, abusive and harmful.”

In recent years, Tatchell has called for schools to teach kids “the whole truth about every kind of sex and relationship – including sexual practices that some people find distasteful, such as anal intercourse and sadomasochism” and to deny parents the ability to opt their kids out of such lessons.

Tatchell has also made clear he is not a single-issue leftist, having championed abortion; derided conservative lawmakers; embraced the Russian Collusion hoax; recommended a pause on eating meat; pushed climate alarmism; accused the monarchy of racism; and celebrated porn consumption.

There was an attempt in 2021 to rehabilitate Tatchell’s image in the form of Christopher Amos’ film, “Hating Peter Tatchell,” which stars Ian McKellan and counts Elton John as one of its executive producers. He may soon need a new Netflix special.

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Fukushima Area Overrun by Radioactive Wild Boars

Japanese farmers living near the Fukushima nuclear power plant are struggling to overcome an unexpected outcome from the disaster: a surge in radioactive wild boars!

In the last five years, the population of contaminated creatures has been inadvertently left to flourish in the area near the power plant that the Japanese government deemed to be an ‘exclusion zone.’

As such, experts say that their numbers have grown from a mere 3,000 to a whopping 13,000 wild boars.

And, as their numbers swell, the boars have begun expanding beyond the exclusion zone and into nearby farms, leading to devastation as the insatiable animals feast on the food found there.

The cruel irony of the problem is that the boars would normally be a fantastic food source, but the radioactivity of the area has rendered them completely inedible and, thus, an enormous nuisance.

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Dam removal in CA to save salmon causes mass fish die-off as eco-activists pursue similar projects

Environmental groups are celebrating extensive efforts to remove dams across the United States, some of which produce carbon-free electricity. According to American Rivers, an anti-dam advocacy group, 65 dams were removed in 2022, and another 80 were removed in 2023.

Groups like American Rivers argue the dams are killing salmon and steelhead trout populations, encroaching on indigenous cultures, and harming water quality for people and wildlife.

Eyes wide open

The largest dam removal project in the history of the U.S. began on Northern California’s Klamath River last summer, with the removal of Copco No. 2, the first of four hydroelectric dams to be removed, also called “breaching” or “drawdowns.”

In January, the state began draining reservoirs behind the three remaining dams. The draining is not going well, especially for the fish the projects are supposed to be protecting.

Large amounts of salmon have been stranded on mud that is also trapping deer, Oregon Public Broadcasting reports. Officials are warning people not to try to walk through it, as it can be very dangerous. According to California Globe, a two mile sediment plume extends into the Pacific Ocean.

“We’ve been told we’re the experiment,” Siskiyou County Supervisor Ray Haupt told Just The News. “Eyes wide open. It’s coming to a neighborhood near you.”

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Mutant wolves exposed to Chernobyl disaster have evolved a new superpower, scientists discover

Mutant wolves roaming the wasteland of Chernobyl have developed a new superpower that could have life-saving implications for humans. 

A team of researchers found the animals in the Chernobyl Evacuation Zone (CEZ) have genetically altered immune systems that show a resilience to cancer.

These findings gave researchers hope that the results can be used to find cures for human cancer patients.

Since the powerplant explosion in 1986, humans were evacuated from Chernobyl and the surrounding areas to avoid the extreme levels of radiation. 

The absence of humans allowed wildlife to flourish and thrive in the CEZ, which contains 11.28 millirem of radiation – six times the allowed exposure amount for human workers.

Grizzly bears and bison stroll among the trees, lynx and fox slink through the long grass. 

Beavers, boar, elk, deer, raccoons and more than 200 species of bird call the area home. 

In 2014, Cara Love, an evolutionary biologist at Princeton University, set out with a team of researchers to understand how animals have been able to survive the cancer-causing radiation.

Love and her team took blood samples from the wolves and placed GPS collars with radiation dosimeters on them to get real-time measurements of where they were and their radiation exposure levels.

‘We get real-time measurements of where they are and how much [radiation] they are exposed to,’ said Love.

The researchers examined the genetic differences between the DNA of mutated wolves in the 1,000-square-mile radius of the CEZ and those outside it.

The results showed that, despite receiving potentially deadly daily radiation doses, the wolves appeared remarkably resilient against its effects. 

Analysis showed that a number of their genes which are linked to cancer had new  mutations to them, suggesting they had evolved to protect against the radiation.

It is hoped that the discovery could pave the way for experts to identify mutations in humans that reduce the risk of cancer.

The new research was presented last month at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology’s Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington. 

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Research Exposes Wind Projects Cause Approx. 70% of Animals to Become Displaced

Numerous issues have been identified with wind turbines installed on land as well as offshore – economic (see 1, 2, 3, 4), environmental (see 1, 2), health, and safety.  In regard to the environment, last month, a court in France ordered the dismantling of a wind farm because of its adverse impact on local birds.  More recently scientists concurred again that wind turbines have a negative effect on wildlife.

The transition to renewable energy is central to our efforts to build a low-carbon future. But it is not without its own environmental downsides, as highlighted by a new review showing that the majority of birds and mammals studied to date are displaced from their habitats by wind-power developments.

Wildlife and wind turbines are an uncomfortable mix. Rotating turbine blades can make short work of anything unlucky enough to collide with them, but direct mortality is only part of the story. Having reviewed the available evidence from around the world, biologists in Finland have found that 63 per cent of bird species, 72 per cent of bats and 67 per cent of terrestrial mammals are displaced from areas where turbines are installed.

Some of the most pronounced effects were found among owls, cranes and reindeer, which were displaced an average of 5km from wind-power developments.

Anne Tolvanen of the Natural Resources Institute Finland, a co-author of the study published in the journal Biological Conservation, says that more data on more species is required if the impacts of new wind farms on the most vulnerable species are to be minimised. “The problem is that the research always comes a bit too late,” she says.

Some of the most pronounced effects were found among owls, cranes and reindeer, which were displaced an average of 5km from wind-power developments.

According to Will Cresswell, professor of biology at the University of St Andrews, who was not involved in the work, the paper “shows the profound effects” of wind-power developments on natural habitats. But he suggests that such impacts can be mitigated. “In short, put turbines in the right place,” he says. “Agricultural land – already compromised in terms of biodiversity and with high disturbance – is ideal, producing both energy and food from the same loss of natural habitat more or less.

“But then the real issue with onshore turbines presents itself, at least in the UK: ‘not in my back yard,’” adds Cresswell. “This is of course another classic disturbance/avoidance effect, but at least humans, being rational, can see the logic of ‘better in my back yard, than in the national park or nature reserve.’”

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Federal Agency Says Offshore Wind Farm Will Likely “adversely affect” Whales and Other Marine Mammals

Opposition to offshore wind projects is increasing worldwide and not only because dead whales and other marine life keep washing up on beaches (see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).  While some still don’t believe that whales and other marine life are being affected by offshore wind development, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently confirmed that they are – just not that badly.

The lone remaining offshore wind project in New Jersey with preliminary approval is likely to “adversely affect” whales and other marine mammals, but its construction, operation and eventual dismantling will not seriously harm or kill them, a federal scientific agency said.

In a biological opinion issued Monday night, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the Atlantic Shores project, to be built off the state’s southern coast, is not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any species of endangered whales, sea turtles, or fish.

Nor is it anticipated to destroy or adversely modify any designated critical habitat, the agency said.

Jennifer Daniels, the company’s development director, called NOAA’s decision “the next step forward” for the project.

It’s “a testament to the five years and 40-plus environmental assessments completed to ensure we are delivering safe, reliable, renewable power in a way that prioritizes responsible ocean development,” Daniels wrote.

The ruling is nearly identical to one the agency issued in April for the now-canceled Ocean Wind I and II projects, which would have been built in the same general area.

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‘I’ve never seen anything like this’: Japan says reason behind 1,200 tonnes of fish washing ashore is unknown

Officials in Japan have admitted they are struggling to determine why hundreds of tonnes of fish have washed ashore in recent days.

Earlier this month, an estimated 1,200 tonnes of sardines and mackerel were found floating on the surface of the sea off the fishing port of Hakodate in Hokkaido, forming a silver blanket stretching for more than a kilometre.

On Wednesday, officials in Nakiri, a town on the Pacific coast hundreds of miles south of Hokkaido, were confronted with 30 to 40 tonnes of Japanese scaled sardines, or sappa, which had been observed in the area a couple of days earlier.

Local fishers scrambled to collect the fish, fearing their carcasses would lower the oxygen content of the water as they decompose and damage the marine environment.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” a fisher who has worked in the area for 25 years told the Mainichi Shimbun. “It was only around last year that we began to catch sappa in Nakiri. It makes me wonder if the marine ecosystem is changing.”

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Thousands of tons of dead fish wash ashore in Japan – three months after the nation released treated Fukushima radioactive water into the sea

Thousands of tons of dead fish have washed up on a beach in northern Japan, prompting speculation that the release of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant has wrought havoc on local ecosystems. 

The sardines and some mackerel washed ashore in Hakodate on Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido on Thursday morning, creating an unsettling sliver blanket that covered almost a mile of shoreline. 

Officials could not come up with an explanation for the phenomenon, but Takashi Fujioka, a Hakodate Fisheries Research Institute researcher, posited a number of theories as to why the fish could have died en-masse.

He said they may have become exhausted due to a lack of oxygen while moving in a densely packed school in shallow waters, or may have suddenly entered cold waters during their migration and succumbed to shock.

There have been several recorded cases of similar phenomena springing up on several parts of Japan’s coastline.

But this particular phenomenon occurred just three months after Japanese authorities began releasing treated radioactive water back into the sea – a move which angered its neighbours including China and South Korea.

China has since banned Japanese seafood and criticised the country as being ‘extremely selfish and irresponsible’, with the Chinese Communist Party’s flagship newspaper The Global Times writing it could open ‘Pandora’s box’ and trigger fears of a ‘real-life Godzilla’. 

South Korean protestors also attempted to enter the Japanese embassy in Seoul carrying banners which read ‘The sea is not Japan’s trash bin’.

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More Than A Hundred Bird Species About To Be Renamed Because … Racism

More than a hundred bird species are about to be renamed because their monikers have been deemed “offensive” and “exclusionary” by some due to their connection to the “racist” pasts of the people who the birds were named after.

The American Ornithological Society, an organization responsible for standardizing English bird names across the Americas, announced on Wednesday that dozens of birds in U.S. and Canada will be renamed because birds who were named in honor of people can be upsetting to some, The New York Times reported.

“There is power in a name, and some English bird names have associations with the past that continue to be exclusionary and harmful today,” Colleen Handel, the society’s president and a research wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Alaska, said.

“We need a much more inclusive and engaging scientific process that focuses attention on the unique features and beauty of the birds themselves,” she added. “Everyone who loves and cares about birds should be able to enjoy and study them freely—and birds need our help now more than ever.”

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Nuclear Weapons Turned Wild Boars Into an Irradiated Menace, Study Finds

Nuclear weapons tests that took place in the mid-20th century are still a major source of radioactivity in Germany’s wild boars, accounting for anywhere from 10 to 68 percent of contamination in meat samples from these animals, reports a new study. 

The discovery could help to explain why wild boars have remained so much more radioactive than other species in their ecosystems, which is a longstanding problem known as the “wild boar paradox.” Previously, scientists assumed this radiation was almost entirely produced by the catastrophic meltdown of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in 1986, but the new research shows that weapons tests are also a substantial and long-lived source of environmental contamination, a finding that is particularly ominous in light of Russia’s nuclear saber-rattling during its invasion of Ukraine.

Nuclear fallout produces radioactive particles, including isotopes of the element cesium, which can still be found in ecosystems today. Radiocesium has a half-life of 30 years, meaning that half of it decays in that time period, so it makes sense that concentrations of the contaminant have been gradually receding in Europe over time. 

Wild boars are the bizarre exception to this rule. Radiocesium levels in these animals have remained constant, a puzzling fact that has rendered them unsafe to eat and has thus contributed to a rampant overpopulation of boars across Europe as demand for their meat has plummeted.

Now, scientists co-led by Georg Steinhauser and Bin Feng, who are radiochemists at the Vienna University of Technology, have discovered that much of this persistent contamination can be traced back to nuclear weapons testing. 

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