This Is Cool.

From reptiles, the conservation status of the world's snakes

Demand for ivory in Asian markets is driving illegal elephant poaching, with China posing the greatest threat.

According to the National Climatic Data Center, the average global temperature for 2012 made it the 10th warmest year on record since record keeping began in 1880. It also marked the 36th consecutive year with a global temperature above the 20th century average. The last below-average annual temperature was 1976.

The map shows 2012 temperatre anomalies, with red indicating higher than average temperatures and blue lower. Looking at the United States,2012 was the warmest year on record.

Effectively combating rhino poaching means dealing with both supply and demand on a global level.

Forest cover on Borneo over time, projected to 2020. Deforestation, driven mostly by clearing land to produce palm oil plantations, means less habitat for species such as orangutans, and more carbon emissions from disturbed peat lands.

“About 3 billion people around the world  — mostly in Africa and Asia, and mostly very poor — don't have access to modern energy and still cook and heat their homes by burning coal, charcoal, dung, wood, or plant residue indoors. These homes often have poor ventilation, and the smoke can cause a horrible array of respiratory diseases, including lung cancer... Indoor air pollution gets surprisingly little attention for such a lethal public health problem. It kills more people each year than HIV/AIDS and malaria combined, but few countries treat it as a crisis on the same level.” - Vox

Conservation status of reptiles, which include snakes, lizards, turtles & tortoises, tuataras and the crocodilians

Good read by Brad Plumer on the recent drop in China’s CO2 emissions.

Let's look at the false choice too often portrayed in the media and by politicians of jobs vs. the environment in the context of mountaintop removal mining (MTR). Coal companies claim that any efforts to stop or restrict MTR will cost jobs and devastate economies in Appalachia. Yet, the graph above shows that as coal production has increased, employment of coal miners has decreased. This is because MTR replaces coal miners with big machinery and explosives. The reason coal companies like it is because it increases profits, in part by decreasing labor costs. Thus, it is MTR, not efforts to protect the environment by restricting MTR, that is destroying jobs in the mountains of Appalachia