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Stuart Dahne
02-03-2008, 10:24 AM
A study, published in the journal Nature, provides compelling evidence that climate change has already helped wipe out a slew of species and could spur more extinctions and the spread of diseases worldwide. It also helps solve the international mystery of why amphibians around the globe have been vanishing from their usual habitats over the past quarter-century -- as many as 112 species have disappeared since 1980.
Scientists have speculated that rising temperatures and changing weather patterns could endanger the survival of many species, but the new study documents for the first time a direct correlation between global warming and the disappearance of around 65 amphibian species in Central and South America.
The fate of amphibians -- whose permeable skin makes them sensitive to environmental changes -- is seen by scientists as a possible harbinger of global warming's effects. Rising temperatures are threatening the survival of flora and fauna worldwide, including coral reefs in the Caribbean, which serve as critical fish nurseries, and South African rhododendrons, which cannot move to a cooler climate.
J. Alan Pounds -- the resident scientist at the Tropical Science Center's Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve in Costa Rica and the study's lead author -- worked with 13 other researchers to pin down the link between rising tropical temperatures and the spread of the deadly chytrid fungus that has wiped out dozens of species of harlequin frogs in recent years.
"Disease is the bullet killing frogs, but climate change is pulling the trigger," Pounds said. "Global warming is wreaking havoc on amphibians and will cause staggering losses of biodiversity if we don't do something first."
Having read all of this, lets remember the words of our illustrious president as he spoke and attempted to justify that Global Warming is a natural cycle:
"Yet, the Academy's report tells us that we do not know how much effect natural fluctuations in climate may have had on warming. We do not know how much our climate could, or will change in the future. We do not know how fast change will occur, or even how some of our actions could impact it.
For example, our useful efforts to reduce sulfur emissions may have actually increased warming, because sulfate particles reflect sunlight, bouncing it back into space. And, finally, no one can say with any certainty what constitutes a dangerous level of warming, and therefore what level must be avoided. "
Thats right, "No one can say with any certainty what constitutes a dangerous level of warming, and therefore what level must be avoided, yet there is no denying the evidence that is right in front of us, Amphibians are the "Proverbial Canaries of the Coalmines", Lets not bury our heads in the sand, if we don't wake up soon we may all have something in common with the frogs...............croaking!

Mike Moats
02-03-2008, 08:26 PM
Hey Stuart, very interesting read. Great pose and nice details on the eyes. Well done.

Alfred Forns
02-04-2008, 02:54 PM
Stuart this could be a poster Frog !!!!!! Very appealing and I like it a lot !!! Direct eye contact is very good !!! Love it !!!

Jim Caldwell
02-05-2008, 11:44 AM
Great shot Stuart! I hope I can capture an image half this good on the trip I'm leading to Costa Rica next month. One of our lodges at Arenal has a red-eyed tree frog program. My friend and guide led an expedition a few years ago to try to find the golden toad near Monteverde which was very common 15 years ago. They were not successful and I believe the species is now listed as extinct.