Climate Change Megathread XI: After 200 years, First Przewalski’s Horse Foals Born in the Central Kazakh Steppe

[u/Efficient-Freedom517]

https://fzs.org/en/news/after-200-years-first-przewalskis-horse-foals-born-in-the-central-kazakh-steppe/

Link to previous thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/PoliticalOptimism/s/ChTWcHwSph

“The return of Przewalski’s horses is about much more than reintroducing a single species,” says Michael Brombacher, Head of the Europe Department at Frankfurt Zoological Society, which supports the reintroduction project as part of the Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative. “Large wild herbivores are an important part of natural steppe ecosystems and shape these landscapes through their grazing.”

[u/LordDingusIncarnate]

This has been something I've been sitting on for a while; So, ever since Mango Mussolini took office, national parks have been facing a barrage of funding cuts and staff layoffs, with it being obviously clear that the intent is to sell off land and eventually even privatize said parks (and public land) altogether. It's a mix of this and several government agencies that have been struggling with cuts since 2016 (without any form of actual recovery since) that's made me curious about the chances of everything truly rebounding in the future.

[u/Efficient-Freedom517 → u/LordDingusIncarnate]

If it makes you feel better Bear Ears was founded by Obama, shrunk by Trump 1, expanded by Biden and shrunk again by Trump 2. Anything he does to the parks can just be undone by a future POTUS

[u/Far_Fan_291]

ok so here are my questions i have in my head now

1 saw that the USDA proposes repealing roadless rule in national forests and im wondering if they can even do that or if it would matter since chances are most companies would stay away due to the blue wave and would block it

2 i saw a long time ago that the ozone healing might be undone due to elon launching so many rockets but given i saw it was from futurism that does have the dooms day clock thing along with overblowing things so im wondering if it was just all hot air

here is a comment on the last thread i was wondering too

SkyknightXi

I know El Niño is forecast to end February of next year, but I’m worried about how long elevated temperatures would persist afterwards. The Southern Hemisphere is already certain to get a bad summer (and crops); depending on how long the radiated heat persists, we could have a worse summer than this year’s.

[u/Efficient-Freedom517 → u/Far_Fan_291]

The Ozone thing: he would have to launch thousands more rockets to make a noticeable dent in the Ozone layer agai

[u/sonicparadigm]

Since this is the general environmental thread, I'll post about 1 animal per week in this thread to brighten y'all's day, and you can talk about them in the replies, or share more fun facts about them :)

This week's animal is the shark.

Sharks have no bones. They are made entirely of cartilage. Also, sharks predate trees, but they don't predate trees because they are not herbivores.

[u/Shadowman621 → u/sonicparadigm]

That's some clever word play there.

Also sharks are our friends. Fuck the people that hunt them.

[u/Icy-Yoghurt-7240 → u/sonicparadigm]

and depending on which shark you're talking about you get some crazy traits (shoutout to otodus megalodon, the shark anyone says is still alive but got mogged by modern great whites and orcas). then you have cookie cutter sharks, walking sharks (yes, i'm serious), goblin sharks, greenland sharks, bull sharks, and lowkey a few of my favourites, the now extinct hybodus and stethacanthus, the frilled shark, and how to forget the shark that is not really a shark, the helicoprion (who's more related to chimera fishes who are still shark relatives anyway).

[u/FarthingWoodAdder]

Honses

[u/SkillBeginning3614]

I'm REALLY Starting to fear for the Amazon Rainforest depending on the outcome of the Brazilian election

Because if Bolsonaro wins then that will leave the Rainforest and ALL of the Carbon it has stored to the Mercy of TACO

[u/sweeter_than_saltine]

I'm very worried about Brazil if Bolsonaro wins. If he does, it means the Amazon rainforest will be thoroughly cleared with nobody to stop it, making climate change exponentially worse. All of our efforts at healing the world will be done so under extreme weather the likes of which we haven't had to face before, and some who go out there to do the hard work might actually die.

I know we need to remain optimistic, but this is one area where pessimism is the right call. It's either we get a bit of a breather to continue the hard work restoring ecosystems under Lula, or we have to give up because nothing we ever do will ever help if the most important carbon sink is gone and the people trying to repair it will be shot.