Charlie, the Oldest Living Southern Sea Otter at Any Aquarium or Zoo, Dies at Age 22

BY GENEVIEVE SCARANO 04.23.2019 :: 11:50AM EDT

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Charlie, a 22-year-old animal who was the oldest living southern sea otter in an aquarium or zoo, passed away on April 22. (Photo Credit: Robin Riggs/Aquarium of the Pacific)

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Charlie, the oldest living southern sea otter at any aquarium or zoo worldwide, has died at the age of 22.

On Monday, April 22, the Aquarium of the Pacific announced Charlie’s passing, and it’s mourning the loss of the adorable sea otter, who lived at the aquarium for 21 years, said an Aquarium of the Pacific press release. Charlie was only the second sea otter on record to reach his age and was featured in a senior animals section in the Guinness Book of World Records: Wild Things edition released last year.

“It is with a heavy heart that we share the news that our sea otter Charlie passed away this morning,” the Aquarium of the Pacific wrote in an Instagram post. “Charlie turned 22 years old on March 2 and was the oldest living southern sea otter at any zoo or aquarium. Known for his intelligence and easy-going disposition, Charlie could often be seen sucking his paw while relaxing on exhibit.”

Charlie’s journey has been an interesting one: The sea otter was orphaned during the El Niño storms of 1997, and after some time at a sea otter rescue program, animal experts said that he couldn’t survive in the wild on his own and needed a new home. In 1998, Charlie arrived at the Aquarium of the Pacific before it opened to the public that year.

While he lived at the Aquarium of the Pacific, Charlie served as an animal ambassador and contributed to scientific research. According to the aquarium, Charlie was the first otter in the world to give a voluntary blood sample without being sedated, and from 2011 to 2013, he took part in a study on how sea otters perceive sound at the University of California, Santa Cruz’s Long Marine Lab. For the study, Charlie learned to enter a specialized acoustic testing environment, listen for sound signals, and notify researchers whether or not he heard the sound by touching his noise to a target spot or staying still.

California’s southern sea otters fall under the Endangered Species Act. Hunting in the 18th and 19th centuries nearly demolished the entire California southern sea otter population, and by 1938, only 50 remained. Thankfully, conservation efforts have grown California’s southern sea otter population to about 3,000 animals, but they still face many threats, including habitat loss and ocean pollution.

Charlie’s fans can pay tribute to him at the Aquarium of the Pacific on Sunday, April 28, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. PST. Aquarium visitors can fill out cards in Charlie’s memory that will be displayed at the Sea Otter Habitat all day. To make a donation in Charlie’s memory, visit Aquarium of the Pacific’s website here.

 @NASAWebb

In visible light, this galaxy looks like a jellyfish with blue "tentacles" of young stars dangling from its disk. In X-ray light, a giant tail of hot gas streams behind the galaxy. Infrared #NASAWebb will study this tail of gas & the stars forming in it. https://go.nasa.gov/2Gk4IDT 

 

10:09 AM - 17 Apr 2019

Study: Climate Change Affects Global Economic Inequality, Too



BY STEPHANIE MLOT 04.23.2019



The map on the left shows countries where per capita GDP increased or decreased as a result of global warming between 1961 and 2010. The map on the right shows the same information from 1991, after economic data became available for more countries (via Stanford University)

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Climate change affects more than just the environment: A Stanford University study shows global warming has increased economic inequality.

While temperature fluctuations have enriched cool countries like Norway and Sweden, warmer nations such as India and Nigeria are suffering.

“Our results show that most of the poorest countries on Earth are considerably poorer than they would have been without global warming,” lead study author and climate scientist Noah Diffenbaugh said in a statement. “At the same time, the majority of rich countries are richer than they would have been.”

Based on 50 years of annual temperature and gross domestic product (GDP) measurements for 165 countries, researchers demonstrated that growth during warmer-than-average years has accelerated in cool nations and slowed in warm ones.




Warming that has already happened has increased economic inequality around the world (via Stanford University)

“The historical data clearly shows that crops are more productive, people are healthier, and we are more productive at work when temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold,” according to study co-author Marshall Burke, a Stanford assistant professor of Earth system science.

“This means that in cold countries, a little bit of warming can help,” he said. “The opposite is true in places that are already hot.”

Using climate models to isolate how much each country warmed due to human-induced climate change, researchers were able to estimate a range of outcomes, suggesting what each nation’s economic output might have been had temperatures not increased.

“For most countries, whether global warming has helped or hurt economic growth is pretty certain,” Burke said, admitting that the data is less clear for countries in the middle latitudes, including the US, China, and Japan.

“A few of the largest economies are near the perfect temperature for economic output,” he continued. “Global warming hasn’t pushed them off the top of the hill, and in many cases, it has pushed them toward it.”

The gap between economic output of the world’s richest and poorest countries is 25 percent larger today than it would have been without global warming (via Stanford University)

Things won’t stay this way forever, though: A large amount of warming in the future would mean a severe drop in productivity.

Just ask Sudan, India, Nigeria, Indonesia, and Brazil, which saw a 25 to 36 percent decrease in per capita GDP from global warming between 1961 and 2010.

“The more these countries warm up, the more drag there’s going to be on their development,” Diffenbaugh warned, emphasizing the importance of increased sustainable energy access for poorer countries.

“Our finding that global warming has exacerbated economic inequality suggests that there is an added economic benefit of energy sources that don’t contribute to further warming,” he added.

The full study was published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

Global warming has increased global economic inequality
Noah S. Diffenbaugh and Marshall Burke
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2019/04/global-warming-has-increased-global.html
PNAS first published April 22, 2019 

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1816020116

US threatens to veto UN resolution on rape as weapon of war, officials say


Exclusive: US warns it will reject measure over language on sexual health in latest example of hardline abortion stance


Julian Borger in Washington


Mon 22 Apr 2019 

 

The United Nations headquarters in New York. Photograph: Valery Sharifulin/Tass


The US is threatening to veto a United Nations resolution on combatting the use of rape as a weapon of war because of its language on reproductive and sexual health, according to a senior UN official and European diplomats.


The German mission hopes the resolution will be adopted at a special UN security council session on Tuesday on sexual violence in conflict.


But the draft resolution has already been stripped of one of its most important elements, the establishment of a formal mechanism to monitor and report atrocities, because of opposition from the US, Russia and China, which opposed creating a new monitoring body.


Even after the formal monitoring mechanism was stripped from the resolution, the US was still threatening to veto the watered-down version, because it includes language on victims’ support from family planning clinics. In recent months, the Trump administration has taken a hard line, refusing to agree to any UN documents that refer to sexual or reproductive health, on grounds that such language implies support for abortions. It has also opposed the use of the word “gender”, seeing it as a cover for liberal promotion of transgender rights.


“We are not even sure whether we are having the resolution tomorrow, because of the threats of a veto from the US,” Pramila Patten, the UN special representative on sexual violence in conflict, told the Guardian.


In cases of disagreement in the security council, member states often fall back on previously agreed text, but the US has made it clear it would no longer accept language from a 2013 resolution on sexual violence.


“They are threatening to use their veto over this agreed language on comprehensive healthcare services including sexual and reproductive health. The language is being maintained for the time being and we’ll see over the next 24 hours how the situation evolves,” Patten said.


“It will be a huge contradiction that you are talking about a survivor-centered approach and you do not have language on sexual and reproductive healthcare services, which is for me the most critical.”






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In a draft of the resolution seen by the Guardian, the contentious phrase is only mentioned once, in a clause that “urges United Nations entities and donors to provide non-discriminatory and comprehensive health services, including sexual and reproductive health, psychosocial, legal and livelihood support and other multi-sectoral services for survivors of sexual violence, taking into account the specific needs of persons with disabilities.”

A spokeswoman for the US mission said it “does not comment on draft resolutions that are under active negotiation”.

European states, led by Germany, the UK and France, have been resisting abandoning the language on access to family planning and women’s health clinics, as they believe it would mean surrendering the gains of recent decades in terms of international recognition of women’s rights.

“If we let the Americans do this and take out this language, it will be watered down for a long time,” a European diplomat, who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the negotiations, said. “It is, at its heart, an attack on the progressive normative framework established over the past 25 years.”

“Until the Trump administration, we could always count on the Americans to help us defend it. Now the Americans have switched camp,” the diplomat said. “Now it’s an unholy alliance of the US, the Russians, the Holy See, the Saudis and the Bahrainis, chipping away at the progress that has been made.”

Diplomats at the security council expect a long night of negotiations on the wording.

The latest version of the draft resolution recognises the work of the informal expert group on women, peace and security, but Patten had argued that the current system does not provide a consistent channel to bring violations on sexual violence to the attention of the security council.

A formal mechanism, with a panel regularly assessing compliance and recommending sanctions, would have given her more leverage on states and non-state groups.

“In the current draft as it stands, the formal mechanism is gone,” she said. “It’s very, very weak.”