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What Myths About the Anthropocene Get Wrong

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Thursday, April 18, 2024

Jan A. Zalasiewicz, Scott L. Wing and the Anthropocene Working Group The concept of the Anthropocene epoch was born in February 2000 out of a moment of spontaneity. Chemist and Nobel Prize winner Paul Crutzen had been listening to a narrative emerging at an international convening of scientists in Mexico. All day, scientists had presented data that showed how the human-caused changes in climate, chemical cycles and biology of recent decades were jarringly different from the relative stability of the Holocene, the geological epoch that began 11,700 years prior. They kept referring to the remarkably rapid environmental changes of the late Holocene. Exasperated, Crutzen finally broke into the discussion: “We aren’t in the Holocene anymore, we’re in … the Anthropocene!” The improvised term quickly caught fire as a foundational concept among earth scientists, and in the last decade the word has proliferated through other sciences, the arts, humanities and popular culture. Along the way, “Anthropocene” gained many meanings and implications unrelated to—or even opposing—Crutzen’s original concept, blurring and sometimes wholly obscuring its original meaning. But what did Crutzen intend by the Anthropocene, a concept since enhanced and refined by years of scientific study? It’s absurdly simple. The shift from the Holocene to the Anthropocene epoch hits like a brick wall when looking at graphs that show changes in three major greenhouse gases and in global temperature during the last 30 millennia. All four of these critical planetary parameters shift from near-horizontal to near-vertical lines in the last 70 years or so. The graphs are simple, but they show changes in atmospheric chemistry and—lagging a little behind—temperature, that affect the habitability of the planet for all its organisms, including humans. On a time scale of millennia, the shifts don’t resemble a hockey stick as much as a stair step. Furthermore, these changes affect the whole atmosphere and ocean, so they are essentially irreversible on any human time scale. Our distant descendants will still be living with the planetary changes that humans have wrought in a single lifetime. The stunning effect of humans on the atmosphere can be seen in the concentration of three important greenhouse gases: nitrous oxide, methane and carbon dioxide. These gases have increased far more in the last 70 years than in the previous 30,000 years or more. Global temperature has begun to spike as a result, and it will continue to rise as the full effect of higher greenhouse gas concentration is felt. Martin Head If we zoom in on the time axis to look at just the last 300 years, ten human generations, we see remarkably large and rapid change in a whole range of factors that mark the effect of humans at a global scale: not just carbon emissions, but also production of metals, plastics, fertilizers, concrete and farm animals, and even a giant increase in the ultimate geological currency: sediment. The amount of sediment moved every year by humans now exceeds the amount moved by non-human processes by a factor of 15. Cropping the time frame tightly in this way, we see that the global shifts are most rapid beginning in the mid-20th century. The Anthropocene Working Group, a body of 34 scientists from 14 countries constituted in 2009 by the International Commission on Stratigraphy, proposed placing the beginning of a new Anthropocene Epoch in 1952, when sediments are marked globally by the first major increase in the element plutonium, derived from the earliest tests of thermonuclear weapons. Scientists proposed recognizing a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene, marked by rapid changes beginning in the mid-20th century. Sediments deposited in the last 70 years are marked by abundant artificial materials including concrete, metals, plastics and fertilizer. Ecosystems have also been transformed by the great increases in fertilizer production (ammonia) and raising livestock (meat production). Humans are also prodigious producers of sediment. Colin Waters By proposing a formal, geologically defined Anthropocene epoch, the working group intended to provide a precise definition for this recent, large, permanent and rapid transition in Earth’s physical, chemical and biological systems. The proposal was rejected by the international hierarchy of stratigraphy—of which the International Commission on Stratigraphy is a part—without citing substantive reasons, but most public criticisms of the Anthropocene stem from a range of sources: from within the heart of geology, to well outside it, among the social sciences and humanities. Tourists look down at the Hoover Dam. The amount of sediment settled behind the world’s thousands of big dams would cover all of California to a depth of five meters. Robert Nickelsberg / Getty Images Across a spectrum of disciplines, the Anthropocene touched—and often jabbed—a nerve: sometimes as a gut response to a disturbing new idea and sometimes with discomfort at unfamiliar sociopolitical implications. For whatever reasons, the Anthropocene came under fire. But the barrage of criticism has often focused on what the Anthropocene isn’t rather than what it is. Fundamental misconceptions have come to surround this concept and to cloud its meaning. Here we debunk ten common myths about the Anthropocene. 1. The Anthropocene fails to represent all human impacts. This is true enough—but it misses the point entirely. Recognizing an Anthropocene epoch does not at all underplay the impacts that humans have caused for many millennia by hunting, by farming, and by building cities and trade networks. But those early impacts were not global, were not synchronous around the planet and did not shift the global environment permanently. The reason for naming a new geological epoch, both in Crutzen’s original formulation and in the highly detailed proposal of the working group, is to mark the departure of the Earth and its inhabitants from the stable planetary system of the Holocene. The Anthropocene epoch was never meant to encompass all anthropogenic impacts. 2. The Anthropocene is too short to be a geological epoch—just one human lifetime. The Anthropocene’s duration is short, true—so far. But it’s the Holocene that shows the greatest change in duration from other epochs: nearly three orders of magnitude (0.0117 million years versus 2.57 million years for the Pleistocene epoch that precedes it). The difference in duration between Holocene and Anthropocene epochs is proportionately less, and the Anthropocene represents far more significant and enduring change to the planet than does the Holocene. 3. The Anthropocene is just a blip in Earth history. Or, as the New York Times writes, a senior member of the geological time-scale hierarchy calls it “a blip of a blip of a blip.” What this point of view misunderstands is that these approximately 70 years have altered the planet fundamentally and set it on a new trajectory. Already, many geological signals are sharper than, and as pronounced as, the sudden carbon release and global warming that initiated the Eocene epoch 56 million years ago. Take just the climate impacts from burning fossil fuels, of which 90 percent have been burned in the last 70 years. These impacts will roll across the planet for at least many thousands of years. We and many generations to come are locked into a climate unlike that of the Holocene. Carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere will make the Earth hotter than it has been for at least 3 million years. Many of the biological changes of the last 70 years are permanent, too: extinctions, of course, but also the spread of many species through the intended and unintended assistance of humans, making fauna and flora more homogeneous worldwide. The biosphere has been changed forever. This is no blip. 4. Anthropocene strata are “minimal” or “negligible.” That’s a very geological objection—but it’s wrong. Humans have, since the mid-20th century, been prodigious reshapers of the landscape and movers of rock and sediment (now, by more than an order of magnitude than natural sediment movers such as glaciers and rivers.) The amount of sediment settled behind the world’s thousands of big dams would cover all of California to a depth of five meters, and such sediments are full of distinctive markers, like pesticide residues, metals, microplastics and the fossils of invasive species. To define a time period formally, geologists must identify distinctive signals in sediments or rocks that can be correlated around the globe, and the presence of such markers is ubiquitous. The geology is real. Plastic debris collects after a rainstorm near Culver City, California. Microplastics that result from such debris can often be found in sediment. Citizen of the Planet / UIG via Getty Images 5. The geological record is too complex and gradational to draw one single boundary for the Anthropocene. All of history (of Earth and of humans) is complex, is gradational and varies through time and across space. Nevertheless, geologists define epochs because such time units are useful, indeed indispensable to their work. In geology, each time unit is precisely defined by a “golden spike”—a specified level in a sedimentary succession at a specified location that is chosen because it can be correlated to other sedimentary sequences around the globe. This golden spike identifies a global time plane, but the planetary transition that motivates the placement of a golden spike can be anything but simple. The last ice age of the Pleistocene gave way to Holocene interglacial conditions over the course of about 13,000 years—and took a different course between Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Yet the defined Holocene boundary within that transition, at 11,700 years ago, is accepted and used without complaint. The Holocene-Anthropocene transition is much sharper and more globally synchronous, and so is easier to define and recognize. 6. Other animals have affected the environment and caused geological change, so there’s nothing special about the Anthropocene. Other animals have indeed changed the environment, but that can help rather than hinder the recognition of geological time intervals. For instance, the rise of mobile, muscular animals that could burrow through sediment serves as the basis for defining the Cambrian Period. But none of those previous changes has swept across all environments on the planet so quickly—or been triggered by an animal conscious of the changes it was making. This consciousness, we note, is yet to be effectively translated into action to ward off the worst consequences of these changes. Too many still pursue economic and industrial development without considering the long-term cost to planetary health. 7. The Anthropocene blames all humans equally for the global environmental crises. The Anthropocene assigns neither blame nor credit; it simply recognizes a great, abrupt and more or less permanent change to the course of Earth history. There is no doubt that some humans, societies, institutions and nation-states have driven far more change than others, and that the benefits and costs of change have been and are unevenly distributed. The societal value of the Anthropocene epoch is that it announces the unambiguous scientific evidence showing that humans have permanently changed the global environment. And it might encourage us to recognize that we all must deal with the rapid, permanent, global changes that are underway. 8. The Anthropocene signals defeat in our efforts to mitigate environmental change. The first step in solving problems is to diagnose them. We cannot return the Earth to the conditions in which our grandparents or any other Holocene generation lived. But we can make wiser decisions about the future that will ameliorate and mitigate change. That’s realism, not defeatism. 9. Naming the Anthropocene after humans is hubristic. The planetary transformation that ushered in the Anthropocene epoch was caused by humans. It could have been called a lot of things, but Anthropocene caught the imagination of many because its meaning is evident and accurate. If only that were true. Accepting that we are no longer living in a Holocene world is a first step in addressing the issues facing humans and non-humans in the immediate future. These myths have persisted in the scientific community despite being systematically refuted in scientific papers by the Anthropocene Working Group and others. This suggests that, like all myths, they are reactions based on ideology, conviction or personal philosophy rather than evidence. These misconceptions lie at the heart, too, of the recent formal rejection of the Anthropocene epoch by the hierarchy of international stratigraphy. Why has the Anthropocene been misunderstood and mythologized in so many ways? Probably because it’s deeply uncomfortable to many. It’s very brief (so far). It includes smelly landfill sites as strata to “foul up” a geological time scale that is sacrosanct to many geologists. And it raises the specter that the calm abstractions of geological time have come up against the tough predicaments we face in the present and future. Change is hard, and the Anthropocene is an uncomfortable concept. It is hard to accept that we as a society have gained so much power to change the Earth and have thought so little about how to use that power. Scientific knowledge can transform our perspectives (think of heliocentrism and evolution)—so it’s not surprising that the Anthropocene is hard to accept. But, recognizing our role in suddenly, recently driving the Earth towards a new future is a necessary first step to engaging with the planetary changes we have set in train. Get the latest on what's happening At the Smithsonian in your inbox.

These ten misconceptions underplay how much we have altered the global environment and undermine the new perspective we need to deal with a drastically changed world

Jan A. Zalasiewicz, Scott L. Wing and the Anthropocene Working Group

The concept of the Anthropocene epoch was born in February 2000 out of a moment of spontaneity. Chemist and Nobel Prize winner Paul Crutzen had been listening to a narrative emerging at an international convening of scientists in Mexico.

All day, scientists had presented data that showed how the human-caused changes in climate, chemical cycles and biology of recent decades were jarringly different from the relative stability of the Holocene, the geological epoch that began 11,700 years prior. They kept referring to the remarkably rapid environmental changes of the late Holocene.

Exasperated, Crutzen finally broke into the discussion: “We aren’t in the Holocene anymore, we’re in … the Anthropocene!” The improvised term quickly caught fire as a foundational concept among earth scientists, and in the last decade the word has proliferated through other sciences, the arts, humanities and popular culture.

Along the way, “Anthropocene” gained many meanings and implications unrelated to—or even opposing—Crutzen’s original concept, blurring and sometimes wholly obscuring its original meaning. But what did Crutzen intend by the Anthropocene, a concept since enhanced and refined by years of scientific study?

It’s absurdly simple. The shift from the Holocene to the Anthropocene epoch hits like a brick wall when looking at graphs that show changes in three major greenhouse gases and in global temperature during the last 30 millennia. All four of these critical planetary parameters shift from near-horizontal to near-vertical lines in the last 70 years or so. The graphs are simple, but they show changes in atmospheric chemistry and—lagging a little behind—temperature, that affect the habitability of the planet for all its organisms, including humans. On a time scale of millennia, the shifts don’t resemble a hockey stick as much as a stair step. Furthermore, these changes affect the whole atmosphere and ocean, so they are essentially irreversible on any human time scale. Our distant descendants will still be living with the planetary changes that humans have wrought in a single lifetime.

Greenhouse Gases Graphic
The stunning effect of humans on the atmosphere can be seen in the concentration of three important greenhouse gases: nitrous oxide, methane and carbon dioxide. These gases have increased far more in the last 70 years than in the previous 30,000 years or more. Global temperature has begun to spike as a result, and it will continue to rise as the full effect of higher greenhouse gas concentration is felt. Martin Head

If we zoom in on the time axis to look at just the last 300 years, ten human generations, we see remarkably large and rapid change in a whole range of factors that mark the effect of humans at a global scale: not just carbon emissions, but also production of metals, plastics, fertilizers, concrete and farm animals, and even a giant increase in the ultimate geological currency: sediment. The amount of sediment moved every year by humans now exceeds the amount moved by non-human processes by a factor of 15.

Cropping the time frame tightly in this way, we see that the global shifts are most rapid beginning in the mid-20th century. The Anthropocene Working Group, a body of 34 scientists from 14 countries constituted in 2009 by the International Commission on Stratigraphy, proposed placing the beginning of a new Anthropocene Epoch in 1952, when sediments are marked globally by the first major increase in the element plutonium, derived from the earliest tests of thermonuclear weapons.

Anthropocene Graphic
Scientists proposed recognizing a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene, marked by rapid changes beginning in the mid-20th century. Sediments deposited in the last 70 years are marked by abundant artificial materials including concrete, metals, plastics and fertilizer. Ecosystems have also been transformed by the great increases in fertilizer production (ammonia) and raising livestock (meat production). Humans are also prodigious producers of sediment. Colin Waters

By proposing a formal, geologically defined Anthropocene epoch, the working group intended to provide a precise definition for this recent, large, permanent and rapid transition in Earth’s physical, chemical and biological systems.

The proposal was rejected by the international hierarchy of stratigraphy—of which the International Commission on Stratigraphy is a part—without citing substantive reasons, but most public criticisms of the Anthropocene stem from a range of sources: from within the heart of geology, to well outside it, among the social sciences and humanities.

Hoover Dam
Tourists look down at the Hoover Dam. The amount of sediment settled behind the world’s thousands of big dams would cover all of California to a depth of five meters. Robert Nickelsberg / Getty Images

Across a spectrum of disciplines, the Anthropocene touched—and often jabbed—a nerve: sometimes as a gut response to a disturbing new idea and sometimes with discomfort at unfamiliar sociopolitical implications. For whatever reasons, the Anthropocene came under fire.

But the barrage of criticism has often focused on what the Anthropocene isn’t rather than what it is. Fundamental misconceptions have come to surround this concept and to cloud its meaning. Here we debunk ten common myths about the Anthropocene.

1. The Anthropocene fails to represent all human impacts.

This is true enough—but it misses the point entirely. Recognizing an Anthropocene epoch does not at all underplay the impacts that humans have caused for many millennia by hunting, by farming, and by building cities and trade networks. But those early impacts were not global, were not synchronous around the planet and did not shift the global environment permanently. The reason for naming a new geological epoch, both in Crutzen’s original formulation and in the highly detailed proposal of the working group, is to mark the departure of the Earth and its inhabitants from the stable planetary system of the Holocene. The Anthropocene epoch was never meant to encompass all anthropogenic impacts.

2. The Anthropocene is too short to be a geological epoch—just one human lifetime.

The Anthropocene’s duration is short, true—so far. But it’s the Holocene that shows the greatest change in duration from other epochs: nearly three orders of magnitude (0.0117 million years versus 2.57 million years for the Pleistocene epoch that precedes it). The difference in duration between Holocene and Anthropocene epochs is proportionately less, and the Anthropocene represents far more significant and enduring change to the planet than does the Holocene.

3. The Anthropocene is just a blip in Earth history.

Or, as the New York Times writes, a senior member of the geological time-scale hierarchy calls it “a blip of a blip of a blip.” What this point of view misunderstands is that these approximately 70 years have altered the planet fundamentally and set it on a new trajectory. Already, many geological signals are sharper than, and as pronounced as, the sudden carbon release and global warming that initiated the Eocene epoch 56 million years ago.

Take just the climate impacts from burning fossil fuels, of which 90 percent have been burned in the last 70 years. These impacts will roll across the planet for at least many thousands of years. We and many generations to come are locked into a climate unlike that of the Holocene. Carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere will make the Earth hotter than it has been for at least 3 million years. Many of the biological changes of the last 70 years are permanent, too: extinctions, of course, but also the spread of many species through the intended and unintended assistance of humans, making fauna and flora more homogeneous worldwide. The biosphere has been changed forever. This is no blip.

4. Anthropocene strata are “minimal” or “negligible.”

That’s a very geological objection—but it’s wrong. Humans have, since the mid-20th century, been prodigious reshapers of the landscape and movers of rock and sediment (now, by more than an order of magnitude than natural sediment movers such as glaciers and rivers.) The amount of sediment settled behind the world’s thousands of big dams would cover all of California to a depth of five meters, and such sediments are full of distinctive markers, like pesticide residues, metals, microplastics and the fossils of invasive species. To define a time period formally, geologists must identify distinctive signals in sediments or rocks that can be correlated around the globe, and the presence of such markers is ubiquitous. The geology is real.

Plastic Pollution in California
Plastic debris collects after a rainstorm near Culver City, California. Microplastics that result from such debris can often be found in sediment. Citizen of the Planet / UIG via Getty Images

5. The geological record is too complex and gradational to draw one single boundary for the Anthropocene.

All of history (of Earth and of humans) is complex, is gradational and varies through time and across space. Nevertheless, geologists define epochs because such time units are useful, indeed indispensable to their work. In geology, each time unit is precisely defined by a “golden spike”—a specified level in a sedimentary succession at a specified location that is chosen because it can be correlated to other sedimentary sequences around the globe. This golden spike identifies a global time plane, but the planetary transition that motivates the placement of a golden spike can be anything but simple.

The last ice age of the Pleistocene gave way to Holocene interglacial conditions over the course of about 13,000 years—and took a different course between Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Yet the defined Holocene boundary within that transition, at 11,700 years ago, is accepted and used without complaint. The Holocene-Anthropocene transition is much sharper and more globally synchronous, and so is easier to define and recognize.

6. Other animals have affected the environment and caused geological change, so there’s nothing special about the Anthropocene.

Other animals have indeed changed the environment, but that can help rather than hinder the recognition of geological time intervals. For instance, the rise of mobile, muscular animals that could burrow through sediment serves as the basis for defining the Cambrian Period. But none of those previous changes has swept across all environments on the planet so quickly—or been triggered by an animal conscious of the changes it was making. This consciousness, we note, is yet to be effectively translated into action to ward off the worst consequences of these changes. Too many still pursue economic and industrial development without considering the long-term cost to planetary health.

7. The Anthropocene blames all humans equally for the global environmental crises.

The Anthropocene assigns neither blame nor credit; it simply recognizes a great, abrupt and more or less permanent change to the course of Earth history. There is no doubt that some humans, societies, institutions and nation-states have driven far more change than others, and that the benefits and costs of change have been and are unevenly distributed. The societal value of the Anthropocene epoch is that it announces the unambiguous scientific evidence showing that humans have permanently changed the global environment. And it might encourage us to recognize that we all must deal with the rapid, permanent, global changes that are underway.

8. The Anthropocene signals defeat in our efforts to mitigate environmental change.

The first step in solving problems is to diagnose them. We cannot return the Earth to the conditions in which our grandparents or any other Holocene generation lived. But we can make wiser decisions about the future that will ameliorate and mitigate change. That’s realism, not defeatism.

9. Naming the Anthropocene after humans is hubristic.

The planetary transformation that ushered in the Anthropocene epoch was caused by humans. It could have been called a lot of things, but Anthropocene caught the imagination of many because its meaning is evident and accurate.

If only that were true. Accepting that we are no longer living in a Holocene world is a first step in addressing the issues facing humans and non-humans in the immediate future.

These myths have persisted in the scientific community despite being systematically refuted in scientific papers by the Anthropocene Working Group and others. This suggests that, like all myths, they are reactions based on ideology, conviction or personal philosophy rather than evidence. These misconceptions lie at the heart, too, of the recent formal rejection of the Anthropocene epoch by the hierarchy of international stratigraphy.

Why has the Anthropocene been misunderstood and mythologized in so many ways? Probably because it’s deeply uncomfortable to many. It’s very brief (so far). It includes smelly landfill sites as strata to “foul up” a geological time scale that is sacrosanct to many geologists. And it raises the specter that the calm abstractions of geological time have come up against the tough predicaments we face in the present and future.

Change is hard, and the Anthropocene is an uncomfortable concept. It is hard to accept that we as a society have gained so much power to change the Earth and have thought so little about how to use that power. Scientific knowledge can transform our perspectives (think of heliocentrism and evolution)—so it’s not surprising that the Anthropocene is hard to accept. But, recognizing our role in suddenly, recently driving the Earth towards a new future is a necessary first step to engaging with the planetary changes we have set in train.

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Lifesize herd of puppet animals begins climate action journey from Africa to Arctic Circle

The Herds project from the team behind Little Amal will travel 20,000km taking its message on environmental crisis across the worldHundreds of life-size animal puppets have begun a 20,000km (12,400 mile) journey from central Africa to the Arctic Circle as part of an ambitious project created by the team behind Little Amal, the giant puppet of a Syrian girl that travelled across the world.The public art initiative called The Herds, which has already visited Kinshasa and Lagos, will travel to 20 cities over four months to raise awareness of the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Hundreds of life-size animal puppets have begun a 20,000km (12,400 mile) journey from central Africa to the Arctic Circle as part of an ambitious project created by the team behind Little Amal, the giant puppet of a Syrian girl that travelled across the world.The public art initiative called The Herds, which has already visited Kinshasa and Lagos, will travel to 20 cities over four months to raise awareness of the climate crisis.It is the second major project from The Walk Productions, which introduced Little Amal, a 12-foot puppet, to the world in Gaziantep, near the Turkey-Syria border, in 2021. The award-winning project, co-founded by the Palestinian playwright and director Amir Nizar Zuabi, reached 2 million people in 17 countries as she travelled from Turkey to the UK.The Herds’ journey began in Kinshasa’s Botanical Gardens on 10 April, kicking off four days of events. It moved on to Lagos, Nigeria, the following week, where up to 5,000 people attended events performed by more than 60 puppeteers.On Friday the streets of Dakar in Senegal will be filled with more than 40 puppet zebras, wildebeest, monkeys, giraffes and baboons as they run through Médina, one of the busiest neighbourhoods, where they will encounter a creation by Fabrice Monteiro, a Belgium-born artist who lives in Senegal, and is known for his large-scale sculptures. On Saturday the puppets will be part of an event in the fishing village of Ngor.The Herds’ 20,000km journey began in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photograph: Berclaire/walk productionsThe first set of animal puppets was created by Ukwanda Puppetry and Designs Art Collective in Cape Town using recycled materials, but in each location local volunteers are taught how to make their own animals using prototypes provided by Ukwanda. The project has already attracted huge interest from people keen to get involved. In Dakar more than 300 artists applied for 80 roles as artists and puppet guides. About 2,000 people will be trained to make the puppets over the duration of the project.“The idea is that we’re migrating with an ever-evolving, growing group of animals,” Zuabi told the Guardian last year.Zuabi has spoken of The Herds as a continuation of Little Amal’s journey, which was inspired by refugees, who often cite climate disaster as a trigger for forced migration. The Herds will put the environmental emergency centre stage, and will encourage communities to launch their own events to discuss the significance of the project and get involved in climate activism.The puppets are created with recycled materials and local volunteers are taught how to make them in each location. Photograph: Ant Strack“The idea is to put in front of people that there is an emergency – not with scientific facts, but with emotions,” said The Herds’ Senegal producer, Sarah Desbois.She expects thousands of people to view the four events being staged over the weekend. “We don’t have a tradition of puppetry in Senegal. As soon as the project started, when people were shown pictures of the puppets, they were going crazy.”Little Amal, the puppet of a Syrian girl that has become a symbol of human rights, in Santiago, Chile on 3 January. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty ImagesGrowing as it moves, The Herds will make its way from Dakar to Morocco, then into Europe, including London and Paris, arriving in the Arctic Circle in early August.

Dead, sick pelicans turning up along Oregon coast

So far, no signs of bird flu but wildlife officials continue to test the birds.

Sick and dead pelicans are turning up on Oregon’s coast and state wildlife officials say they don’t yet know why. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife says it has collected several dead brown pelican carcasses for testing. Lab results from two pelicans found in Newport have come back negative for highly pathogenic avian influenza, also known as bird flu, the agency said. Avian influenza was detected in Oregon last fall and earlier this year in both domestic animals and wildlife – but not brown pelicans. Additional test results are pending to determine if another disease or domoic acid toxicity caused by harmful algal blooms may be involved, officials said. In recent months, domoic acid toxicity has sickened or killed dozens of brown pelicans and numerous other wildlife in California. The sport harvest for razor clams is currently closed in Oregon – from Cascade Head to the California border – due to high levels of domoic acid detected last fall.Brown pelicans – easily recognized by their large size, massive bill and brownish plumage – breed in Southern California and migrate north along the Oregon coast in spring. Younger birds sometimes rest on the journey and may just be tired, not sick, officials said. If you find a sick, resting or dead pelican, leave it alone and keep dogs leashed and away from wildlife. State wildlife biologists along the coast are aware of the situation and the public doesn’t need to report sick, resting or dead pelicans. — Gosia Wozniacka covers environmental justice, climate change, the clean energy transition and other environmental issues. Reach her at gwozniacka@oregonian.com or 971-421-3154.Our journalism needs your support. Subscribe today to OregonLive.com.

50-Million-Year-Old Footprints Open a 'Rare Window' Into the Behaviors of Extinct Animals That Once Roamed in Oregon

Scientists revisited tracks made by a shorebird, a lizard, a cat-like predator and some sort of large herbivore at what is now John Day Fossil Beds National Monument

50-Million-Year-Old Footprints Open a ‘Rare Window’ Into the Behaviors of Extinct Animals That Once Roamed in Oregon Scientists revisited tracks made by a shorebird, a lizard, a cat-like predator and some sort of large herbivore at what is now John Day Fossil Beds National Monument Sarah Kuta - Daily Correspondent April 24, 2025 4:59 p.m. Researchers took a closer look at fossilized footprints—including these cat-like tracks—found at John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in Oregon. National Park Service Between 29 million and 50 million years ago, Oregon was teeming with life. Shorebirds searched for food in shallow water, lizards dashed along lake beds and saber-toothed predators prowled the landscape. Now, scientists are learning more about these prehistoric creatures by studying their fossilized footprints. They describe some of these tracks, discovered at John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, in a paper published earlier this year in the journal Palaeontologia Electronica. John Day Fossil Beds National Monument is a nearly 14,000-acre, federally protected area in central and eastern Oregon. It’s a well-known site for “body fossils,” like teeth and bones. But, more recently, paleontologists have been focusing their attention on “trace fossils”—indirect evidence of animals, like worm burrows, footprints, beak marks and impressions of claws. Both are useful for understanding the extinct creatures that once roamed the environment, though they provide different kinds of information about the past. “Body fossils tell us a lot about the structure of an organism, but a trace fossil … tells us a lot about behaviors,” says lead author Conner Bennett, an Earth and environmental scientist at Utah Tech University, to Crystal Ligori, host of Oregon Public Broadcasting’s “All Things Considered.” Oregon's prehistoric shorebirds probed for food the same way modern shorebirds do, according to the researchers. Bennett et al., Palaeontologia Electronica, 2025 For the study, scientists revisited fossilized footprints discovered at the national monument decades ago. Some specimens had sat in museum storage since the 1980s. They analyzed the tracks using a technique known as photogrammetry, which involved taking thousands of photographs to produce 3D models. These models allowed researchers to piece together some long-gone scenes. Small footprints and beak marks were discovered near invertebrate trails, suggesting that ancient shorebirds were pecking around in search of a meal between 39 million and 50 million years ago. This prehistoric behavior is “strikingly similar” to that of today’s shorebirds, according to a statement from the National Park Service. “It’s fascinating,” says Bennett in the statement. “That is an incredibly long time for a species to exhibit the same foraging patterns as its ancestors.” Photogrammetry techniques allowed the researchers to make 3D models of the tracks. Bennett et al., Palaeontologia Electronica, 2025 Researchers also analyzed a footprint with splayed toes and claws. This rare fossil was likely made by a running lizard around 50 million years ago, according to the team. It’s one of the few known reptile tracks in North America from that period. An illustration of a nimravid, an extinct, cat-like predator NPS / Mural by Roger Witter They also found evidence of a cat-like predator dating to roughly 29 million years ago. A set of paw prints, discovered in a layer of volcanic ash, likely belonged to a bobcat-sized, saber-toothed predator resembling a cat—possibly a nimravid of the genus Hoplophoneus. Since researchers didn’t find any claw marks on the paw prints, they suspect the creature had retractable claws, just like modern cats do. A set of three-toed, rounded hoofprints indicate some sort of large herbivore was roaming around 29 million years ago, probably an ancient tapir or rhinoceros ancestor. Together, the fossil tracks open “a rare window into ancient ecosystems,” says study co-author Nicholas Famoso, paleontology program manager at the national monument, in the statement. “They add behavioral context to the body fossils we’ve collected over the years and help us better understand the climate and environmental conditions of prehistoric Oregon,” he adds. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Two teens and 5,000 ants: how a smuggling bust shed new light on a booming trade

Two Belgian 19-year-olds have pleaded guilty to wildlife piracy – part of a growing trend of trafficking ‘less conspicuous’ creatures for sale as exotic petsPoaching busts are familiar territory for the officers of Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), an armed force tasked with protecting the country’s iconic creatures. But what awaited guards when they descended in early April on a guesthouse in the west of the country was both larger and smaller in scale than the smuggling operations they typically encounter. There were more than 5,000 smuggled animals, caged in their own enclosures. Each one, however, was about the size of a little fingernail: 18-25mm.The cargo, which two Belgian teenagers had apparently intended to ship to exotic pet markets in Europe and Asia, was ants. Their enclosures were a mixture of test tubes and syringes containing cotton wool – environments that authorities say would keep the insects alive for weeks. Continue reading...

Poaching busts are familiar territory for the officers of Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), an armed force tasked with protecting the country’s iconic creatures. But what awaited guards when they descended in early April on a guesthouse in the west of the country was both larger and smaller in scale than the smuggling operations they typically encounter. There were more than 5,000 smuggled animals, caged in their own enclosures. Each one, however, was about the size of a little fingernail: 18-25mm.The samples of garden ants presented to the court. Photograph: Monicah Mwangi/ReutersThe cargo, which two Belgian teenagers had apparently intended to ship to exotic pet markets in Europe and Asia, was ants. Their enclosures were a mixture of test tubes and syringes containing cotton wool – environments that authorities say would keep the insects alive for weeks.“We did not come here to break any laws. By accident and stupidity we did,” says Lornoy David, one of the Belgian smugglers.David and Seppe Lodewijckx, both 19 years old, pleaded guilty after being charged last week with wildlife piracy, alongside two other men in a separate case who were caught smuggling 400 ants. The cases have shed new light on booming global ant trade – and what authorities say is a growing trend of trafficking “less conspicuous” creatures.These crimes represent “a shift in trafficking trends – from iconic large mammals to lesser-known yet ecologically critical species”, says a KWS statement.The unusual case has also trained a spotlight on the niche world of ant-keeping and collecting – a hobby that has boomed over the past decade. The seized species include Messor cephalotes, a large red harvester ant native to east Africa. Queens of the species grow to about 20-24mm long, and the ant sales website Ants R Us describes them as “many people’s dream species”, selling them for £99 per colony. The ants are prized by collectors for their unique behaviours and complex colony-building skills, “traits that make them popular in exotic pet circles, where they are kept in specialised habitats known as formicariums”, KWS says.Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx during the hearing. Photograph: Monicah Mwangi/ReutersOne online ant vendor, who asked not to be named, says the market is thriving, and there has been a growth in ant-keeping shows, where enthusiasts meet to compare housing and species details. “Sales volumes have grown almost every year. There are more ant vendors than before, and prices have become more competitive,” he says. “In today’s world, where most people live fast-paced, tech-driven lives, many are disconnected from themselves and their environment. Watching ants in a formicarium can be surprisingly therapeutic,” he says.David and Lodewijckx will remain in custody until the court considers a pre-sentencing report on 23 April. The ant seller says theirs is a “landmark case in the field”. “People travelling to other countries specifically to collect ants and then returning with them is virtually unheard of,” he says.A formicarium at a pet shop in Singapore. Photograph: Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty ImagesScientists have raised concerns that the burgeoning trade in exotic ants could pose a significant biodiversity risk. “Ants are traded as pets across the globe, but if introduced outside of their native ranges they could become invasive with dire environmental and economic consequences,” researchers conclude in a 2023 paper tracking the ant trade across China. “The most sought-after ants have higher invasive potential,” they write.Removing ants from their ecosystems could also be damaging. Illegal exportation “not only undermines Kenya’s sovereign rights over its biodiversity but also deprives local communities and research institutions of potential ecological and economic benefits”, says KWS. Dino Martins, an entomologist and evolutionary biologist in Kenya, says harvester ants are among the most important insects on the African savannah, and any trade in them is bound to have negative consequences for the ecology of the grasslands.A Kenyan official arranges the containers of ants at the court. Photograph: Kenya Wildlife Service/AP“Harvester ants are seed collectors, and they gather [the seeds] as food for themselves, storing these in their nests. A single large harvester ant colony can collect several kilos of seeds of various grasses a year. In the process of collecting grass seeds, the ants ‘drop’ a number … dispersing them through the grasslands,” says Martins.The insects also serve as food for various other species including aardvarks, pangolins and aardwolves.Martins says he is surprised to see that smugglers feeding the global “pet” trade are training their sights on Kenya, since “ants are among the most common and widespread of insects”.“Insect trade can actually be done more sustainably, through controlled rearing of the insects. This can support livelihoods in rural communities such as the Kipepeo Project which rears butterflies in Kenya,” he says. Locally, the main threats to ants come not from the illegal trade but poisoning from pesticides, habitat destruction and invasive species, says Martins.Philip Muruthi, a vice-president for conservation at the African Wildlife Foundation in Nairobi, says ants enrich soils, enabling germination and providing food for other species.“When you see a healthy forest … you don’t think about what is making it healthy. It is the relationships all the way from the bacteria to the ants to the bigger things,” he says.

Belgian Teenagers Found With 5,000 Ants to Be Sentenced in 2 Weeks

Two Belgian teenagers who were found with thousands of ants valued at $9,200 and allegedly destined for European and Asian markets will be sentenced in two weeks

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Two Belgian teenagers who were found with thousands of ants valued at $9,200 and allegedly destined for European and Asian markets will be sentenced in two weeks, a Kenyan magistrate said Wednesday.Magistrate Njeri Thuku, sitting at the court in Kenya’s main airport, said she would not rush the case but would take time to review environmental impact and psychological reports filed in court before passing sentence on May 7.Belgian nationals Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, both 19 years old, were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house. They were charged on April 15 with violating wildlife conservation laws.The teens have told the magistrate that they didn’t know that keeping the ants was illegal and were just having fun.The Kenya Wildlife Service had said the case represented “a shift in trafficking trends — from iconic large mammals to lesser-known yet ecologically critical species.”Kenya has in the past fought against the trafficking of body parts of larger wild animals such as elephants, rhinos and pangolins among others.The Belgian teens had entered the country on a tourist visa and were staying in a guest house in the western town of Naivasha, popular among tourists for its animal parks and lakes.Their lawyer, Halima Nyakinyua Magairo, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that her clients did not know what they were doing was illegal. She said she hoped the Belgian embassy in Kenya could “support them more in this judicial process.”In a separate but related case, Kenyan Dennis Ng’ang’a and Vietnamese Duh Hung Nguyen were charged after they were found in possession of 400 ants in their apartment in the capital, Nairobi.KWS had said all four suspects were involved in trafficking the ants to markets in Europe and Asia, and that the species included messor cephalotes, a distinctive, large and red-colored harvester ant native to East Africa.The ants are bought by people who keep them as pets and observe them in their colonies. Several websites in Europe have listed different species of ants for sale at varied prices.The 5,400 ants found with the four men are valued at 1.2 million Kenyan shillings ($9,200), according to KWS.Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See - Feb. 2025

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