Empowered youth are roots to sustainable change

About half of 11-17 year olds in the UK are worried about climate change, according to a recent survey by the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. A news report deemed this a surprisingly low percentage. Actually, that’s a lot of worried kids. But the biggest finding, to me, was that only 12 percent of the UK kids feel they’re capable of making an impact on the problem by changing how they live, consume, act. Look at it this way:  for every 50 kids who truly are alarmed by the future of the planet, 12 feel they can do something about it, while 38 see the problem and feel powerless.

Right now, there’s a lot of discussion about how to make more kids aware of global warming. That will grow the branches, but not the roots. The roots are the kids who know what to do about the problems they’re seeing. These kids are key to sustainable change.

You can surf the net and find signs of healthy roots in stories about kids who led volunteer cleanup projects. But what can be the tipping point that doubles or triples the “12” mentioned earlier? 

• It can include involving teens in a “quick win” on the environmental and biodiversity fronts. The best one I know of is Amphibian Ark, which in a few years, with the right help, can claim victory in averting the biggest mass extinction since the dinosaur. For every $100,000 raised, a threatened species is placed on the Ark — and saved.
• It can be a Google or Viacom, among others, using its information/entertainment power to tell stories of empowered kids to the rest of the teen nation.
• It has to include local organizations, like zoos and conservations groups, that set the table with creative, educational programs and activities for youth.

But those with the greatest influence are going to be those on the frontline — parents and teachers.

 

UN Global Environment Outlook report: amphibians worst off

Chilling news in today’s Global Environment Outlook announcement by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).  The sweeping report includes comment on the state of biodiversity. Unfortunately, amphibians once again are documented to be worst off. Excerpt from the UNEP Web site:

“Current biodiversity changes are the fastest in human history. Species are becoming extinct a hundred times faster than the rate shown in the fossil record. The Congo Basin’s bushmeat trade is thought to be six times the sustainable rate. Of the major vertebrate groups that have been assessed comprehensively, over 30 per cent of amphibians, 23 per cent of mammals and 12 per cent of birds are threatened.”

 

Will Froggy 101 step up and support Amphibian Ark?

(Note: I wrote this post months ago before the writers’ strike temporarily closed Dunder Mifflin. Funny to see so many of you coming to this page in the week leading up to The Office’s return. I understand. I can’t wait, either! Put your anticipation to work by heeding the plea below. And, just so you know, Froggy 101 hasn’t adopted this cause yet.)

Tonight is “The Office” night in my house. In the show, Dwight Shrute (whom I channeled in an earlier post which opined that a frog is superior to a feral cat on a beet farm) often sits next to a filing cabinet that bears the sticker of a real, Scranton radio station, Froggy 101. I emailed the station and asked them to become the flagship radio station for Amphibian Ark. That pairing seems predestined. Granted, NPR would have been a smarter choice, but they don’t do that sort of thing. And, humor can be very effective in getting people on board a new idea, like saving amphibians. I have not heard back from Froggy 101. Please encourage Froggy 101 to do the right thing, and get behind the fight to save endangered amphibians. Click here for the contact page on their Web site.  We’ll see what develops… 

 

What to feed them once they board Amphibian Ark?

If you read this blog, you know about the massive campaign by Amphibian Ark to place hundreds of amphibian species in biosecure facilities for captive breeding … before chytrid fungus, pollution, global warming, and habitat loss wipe them out. The global conservation community has declared 2008 “The Year of the Frog” to bring attention to the crisis.  This article from the University of Manchester (UK) talks about scientists trying to figure out what an individual species should be fed once contained.  In this case, it’s the leaf frog Cruziohyla calcarifer which lives in the rainforest canopy of Costa Rica.

 

It’s New Zealand Frog Week

New Zealand’s been on top of the amphibian crisis for a number of years — protecting its seven frog species — and this week provides a prologue for next year’s The Year of The Frog.  New Zealand Frog Week runs Oct. 21-27.

Good summary of New Zealand frog situation in this article from a very good Web site maintained by the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.  An excerpt:

“There are four species of native frogs and three species of introduced frogs in New Zealand. We really do not know how well New Zealand’s frogs are coping amid the many reports of global amphibian declines, but we have seen a dramatic decline in Archey’s frog over the last few years.  Although chytrid fungus has been identified in introduced frogs, its role in any of the declines of native frogs in our country, has yet to be determined. The conservation status of Archey’s frog and Hamilton’s frog are classified as Nationally Critical – the same level of protection as the kakapo.”

 

Nice stories in “The Hindu”, India’s national newspaper

The Amphibian Network of South Asia and Zoo Outreach Organisation (Z.O.O) continue to build awareness in India about the crisis and Amphibian Ark in this nice article on the amphibian crisis …and this one, too.

 

Good quote about captive breeding discussion

Got succinct bit of perspective from Kevin Zippel regarding some worries that captive breeding may render species unable to survive when returned to the wild: “After innumerable generations of captive breeding, the domestic pig, goat, rabbit, and cat do not seem to have any problems successfully repatriating to the wild the world over.” Here’s the original post about the captive breeding debate.

 

Smithsonian frog filmmaker’s encouraging words

Here’s Amphibian Ark’s news release about Kevin Zippel’s tip to the festival, which I wrote about a few days ago.  In it is an encouraging comment from Jen Grace, who’s working on  an upcoming Smithsonian film on amphibians: “I’m now convinced that the Amphibian Ark represents one of the most important conservation efforts today.  Judging from the reaction of my colleagues, we’re ready to join in and board the Ark.”

 

Hi, I’m Kevin, and I’m building an Ark

Have you heard the expression, “It’s like building an airplane while you’re taking off”? That’s a fitting metaphor for the Amphibian Ark. The looming mass extinction of amphibians, and the connection to chytrid, are relatively recent discoveries. You see the problem, you think really hard about what to do, you come up with an emergency plan to avert the disaster — and then you need to basically run for office to raise the money to implement the plan. By money, we’re talking $50-60 million.

So while there are too many heroes behind the story of Amphibian Ark to mention right now, there was one of them, Kevin Zippel, pressing the flesh last week at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival. Everybody recognizes that a huge call to action has to be made, to convince corporations, foundations, and governments to write the big checks needed to do the job. The wildlife documentary makers, and the networks that broadcast them, must be sirens for the cause. And to that particular crowd, the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival is their Sundance.

So, there was Kevin, the Amphibian Ark’s architect who goes by the title of program officer, meeting with gatekeepers for National Geographic, Smithsonian, Discovery, Animal Planet, Nature, and several international media organizations. Armed with a one-page overview of Amphibian Ark, Kevin stumped for frogs. His opening line? “Hi, I’m Kevin, and I’m building an ark.” If Kevin were single, I bet that would be a very effective pickup line.

Thankfully, there was a tremendous outpouring of support at Jackson Hole for what the Ark will do.

The big finale was when Kevin was one of just a handful of people invited to present their cause at the Global Environmental Summit event on Saturday. Reminiscent of Al Gore and his “Inconvenient Truth” presentation, Kevin provided a primer on the amphibian crisis supported by a simple PowerPoint slide show. We’re working with the incredibly generous executive director of the Festival, Lisa Samford, to soon offer a video podcast of Kevin’s presentation.

With the “almost Hollywood” experience behind him, Kevin’s back at work coordinating the logistics for what will be one of the largest conservation efforts ever.

 

Can we bring down the branch in time to save amphibians?

This morning, when driving into the country to pick up my daughter from Girl Scout camp, I was captivated by an interview on NPR. Krista Tippett was interviewing Sister Joan Chittister on the “Speaking of Faith” program.Chittister‘s an activist, a sister of Mount St. Benedict’s Monastery in Erie, Pennsylvania, a best-selling author, a columnist for the National Catholic Reporter — oh, she’s also the co-chair of the Global Peace Initiative of Women, an interfaith group. Tippett asked Chittister how she copes with the inevitably slow response to calls for change within a large organization. A portion of her answer could apply to any movement, including the Amphibian Ark campaign to avert the mass extinction of amphibians:

“It takes a long time for ideas to seep to the top, let alone to move the bottom, so you just realize that what is going on right now is simply the seeding of the question. It comes down to how many snowflakes does it take to break a branch — I don’t know but I want to be there to do my part, if I’m a snowflake.”

Walking away from the problem isn’t an option. “I am conscious, and therefore I am responsible,” she said.

The challenge, therefore, is to create armies of the conscious — a blizzard of big, heavy snowflakes — to bring down the branch in time. The branch, in our case, is raising the funds to put the 500 most threatened amphibian species on the Ark.

Want to be a big, heavy snowflake?

Visit the donations page on the Amphibian Ark Web site, for starters. Contact your government representatives to ask them to look into the problem and ways that your tax dollars can be put to use against the problem.  And just stay conscious.