NatGeo News Watch

Obama continues Thanksgiving turkey pardon tradition

2009-11-25T19:56:13Z

By James G. Robertson

The day was dark and dreary in Washington, D.C., as men in dark suits guarded the prisoner awaiting his fate. Bleachers were set up for the public to watch the scene unfold. Then a voice boomed over the loudspeaker: "Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States."

The mood turned lighthearted as President Obama came out of the White House with his daughters, Sasha and Malia, and addressed the crowd gathered to watch him save "Courage," a 45-pound (20 kilogram) turkey from Goldsboro, North Carolina, from becoming someone's Thanksgiving dinner.

"That's a good lookin' bird," Obama said.

White House video

The National Turkey Federation provided the Obamas with the turkey, which the organization has done for Presidents since they gave Harry Truman a Thanksgiving turkey in 1947.

President Truman with his Thanksgiving turkey. Courtesy National Archives.

Truman reportedly ate his turkey. So did Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Lyndon B. Johnson. But President John F. Kennedy did not, despite a sign around his turkey's neck attesting to the bird's deliciousness, Obama said .

The National Turkey Federation's tradition of giving turkeys to Presidents for dinner has become confused with the practice of pardoning them. While there are anecdotes of Presidents as far back as Abraham Lincoln pardoning turkeys, the official pardon actually began 20 years ago with President George H.W. Bush, and it has become a tradition for Presidents since then.

"Courage" will be Grand Marshal of the Thanksgiving parade in Disneyland, California, Obama said. If he is not able to fulfill his duties, a turkey named "Carolina" will fill in.

The Obamas will be donating two dressed turkeys to a Washington, D.C., homeless shelter. Described by President Obama as "less fortunate brethren" of the pardoned bird, they will be among the millions of turkeys consumed by Americans observing the Thanksgiving holiday.

The White House also produced a trailer previewing today's turkey pardoning ceremony, which you can watch below:

Greenhouse gas curbs would make us healthier, study finds

2009-11-25T18:08:55Z

If you require still more evidence about the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, here's another finding to consider: Cutting emissions will have a beneficial impact on human health, medical experts say.

Researchers say cost savings realized from improving health will offset the cost of addressing climate change and, therefore, should be considered as part of all policy discussions related to climate change, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) said in a statement today.

NIEHS pointed to case studies on four climate change topics--household energy, transportation, electricity generation, and agricultural food production--published in the medical journal The Lancet.

"Each study in the series examines the health implications of actions in high- and low-income countries designed to reduce the release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Climate change due to emission of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel energy sources causes air pollution by increasing ground-level ozone and concentrations of fine particulate matter," NIEHS explained.

Here are the results of the investigations:

The household energy research shows that introducing low-emission stove technology, specifically replacing biomass stoves in India, could improve respiratory health. The study says the technology is one of the most cost-effective climate-health linkages, given that indoor air pollution from inefficient cooking stoves increases respiratory infections in children and chronic heart disease in adults.
The transportation study shows that cutting emissions by reducing motor vehicle use and increasing walking and cycling would bring substantial health gains by reducing heart disease and stroke by 10-20 percent, dementia by 8 percent, and depression by 5 percent.
The electricity study demonstrates that changing methods of generation to reduce carbon dioxide, such as using wind turbines, would reduce particulate air pollution and yield the greatest potential for health-related cost savings in China and India.
The food production study shows that the food and agriculture sector contributes about 20 percent of the global greenhouse gas emissions, and that a 30 percent reduction in consumption of saturated fats from animal sources would reduce heart disease by about 15 percent while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"Climate change threatens us all, but its impact will likely be greatest on the poorest communities in every country," said Kirk R. Smith, of the University of California, Berkeley, and author on several of the papers. "Carefully choosing how we reduce greenhouse gas emissions will have the added benefit of reducing global health inequities."

"We are learning that the health of our planet and the health of our people are tied together. It's difficult for one to thrive without the other," said U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. "Climate change is not a problem that one country or one organization can solve on its own. It's a problem that affects us all.

"If we work to reduce pollution," Sebelius added. "We will also reduce deaths from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases."

"These papers demonstrate there are clear and substantive improvements for health if we choose the right mitigation strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions," said Linda Birnbaum, director of the NIEHS and National Toxicology Program. "We now have real-life examples of how we can save the environment, reduce air pollution and decrease related health effects; it's really a win-win situation for everyone."

The studies were commissioned to help inform discussions at the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen in December 2009. Funding was provided by the NIEHS, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and British partners including the Academy of Medical Sciences, the British Department of Health, the Economic and Social Research Council, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the National Institute for Health Research, the Royal College of Physicians, and the Wellcome Trust.

Obama offers 17% cut in U.S. emissions by 2020

2009-11-25T17:43:12Z

President Obama is prepared to put on the table a U.S. emissions reduction target in the range of 17 percent below 2005 levels in 2020, the White House said in a statement today.

The White House also announced today that Obama will travel to Copenhagen on December 9 to participate in the United Nations Climate Change Conference, "where he is eager to work with the international community to drive progress toward a comprehensive and operational Copenhagen accord."

The President has worked steadily on behalf of a positive outcome in Copenhagen throughout the year, the White House said. "Based on the President's work on climate change over the past 10 months--in the Major Economies Forum, the G20, bilateral discussions and multilateral consultations--and based on progress made in recent, constructive discussions with China and India's Leaders, the President believes it is possible to reach a meaningful agreement in Copenhagen.

"The President's decision to go is a sign of his continuing commitment and leadership to find a global solution to the global threat of climate change, and to lay the foundation for a new, sustainable and prosperous clean energy future."

The offer of a 17 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 202o was made "in the context of an overall deal in Copenhagen that includes robust mitigation contributions from China and the other emerging economies," the White House statement said.

"In light of the President's goal to reduce emissions 83% by 2050, the expected pathway set forth in this pending legislation would entail a 30% reduction below 2005 levels in 2025 and a 42% reduction below 2005 in 2030. This provisional target is in line with current legislation in both chambers of Congress and demonstrates a significant contribution to a problem that the U.S. has neglected for too long."

With less than two weeks to go until the beginning of the Copenhagen conference, it is essential that the countries of the world, led by the major economies, do what it takes to produce a strong, operational agreement that will both launch us on a concerted effort to combat climate change and serve as a stepping stone to a legally binding treaty, the White House added. "The President is working closely with Congress to pass energy and climate legislation as soon as possible."

Siberian tigers in steep decline, survey sample suggests

2009-11-25T04:28:31Z

The last remaining population of Siberian tigers has likely declined significantly due to poaching and habitat loss, The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) said today.

A report released by the Siberian Tiger Monitoring Program, which is coordinated by WCS in association with Russian governmental and non-governmental organizations, suggests a 40 percent decline in the cat's numbers from a 12-year average.

A Siberian tiger and her cubs in the snow, Govaron, Siberia, Russia.

NGS stock photo by Michael Nichols.

Annual tiger surveys are conducted at 16 monitoring sites scattered across tiger range to act as an early warning system to detect changes in the tiger population, WCS said. "The monitoring area, which covers 9,000 square miles (23,555 square kilometers), represents 15-18 percent of the existing tiger habitat in Russia. Only 56 tigers were counted at these monitoring sites. Deep snows this past winter may have forced tigers to reduce the amount they traveled, making them less detectable, but the report notes a 4-year trend of decreasing numbers of tigers."

The total number of Siberian tigers across their entire range was estimated at approximately 500 individuals in 2005, having recovered from less than 30 animals in the late 1940s.

Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) in the snow.

NGS stock photo by Michael Nichols.

"The sobering results are a wake-up call that current conservation efforts are not going far enough to protect Siberian tigers," said Dr. Dale Miquelle, of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Russian Far East Program. "The good news is that we believe this trend can be reversed if immediate action is taken."

"Working with our Russian partners we are hopeful and confident that we can save the Siberian tiger," said John G. Robinson, WCS Executive Vice President for Conservation and Science. "The Siberian tiger is a living symbol for the people of Russia."

The authors of the report say the decline is due primarily to increased poaching of both tigers and their prey species in the region, coupled with a series of reforms in Russia, which reduced the number of enforcement personnel in key tiger areas.

Russian scientists and non-government organizations are recommending changes in law enforcement regulations, improvements in habitat protection, and a strengthening of the protected areas network to reverse the downward trend, WCS said.

"While the results are indeed bad news in the short term, we believe the overall picture for Siberian tigers remains positive," said Colin Poole, director of Asia Programs for the Wildlife Conservation Society. "There is an enormous amount of good will for saving Siberian tigers. We just need to translate this into action."

Brazil's major victory in reducing greenhouse gas emissions

2009-11-24T17:44:41Z

As part of its target to cut emissions from land-use changes by 80 percent by 2020, Brazil aimed to reduce annual deforestation in the Amazon to no more than 7,000 square kilometres by 2013. Environment Minister Carlos Minc explained today that his country is four years ahead of schedule with that plan.

By Stuart L. Pimm
Special Contributor to NatGeo News Watch

The flight from anywhere in the eastern USA to Rio de Janeiro is about to become very different--at least for those of us who look out of the window. Much of it is over the Amazon. That's a landscape that for hours can be unbroken forest and huge winding rivers--but one that for many years has simply been obscured--by smoke.

This year, the view was very much better. Earlier today, Brazil's Environment Minister Carlos Minc explained why.

The forest "year" runs from August to August. August is literally the burning season, when the forest is driest and easiest to put to the torch. In a conference call with international media today, which I joined, Minister Minc announced with "great joy" that Brazil had reduced Amazon deforestation to about 7,000 square kilometers (2,700 square miles) last year--down from an average of two to three times that in recent years.

Photo of Carlos Minc courtesy of Brazil's Environment Ministry

Fires are the main way forest is cleared--and most of the cleared land goes to cattle ranching. Much of the land clearing is illegal. And the majority of the logs extracted from the Amazon are likely cut illegally.

August is a bad month for Amazon deforestation and over 17,000 square kilometers (6,500 square miles) of forest was cleared in 1999. This image is roughly 1,200 km (750 miles) from east to west. Large areas of the Amazon are covered in smoke, with some smoke plumes from eastern Pará state stretching hundreds of kilometers to the west. Smoke appears brownish in this image, whereas clouds are white.

NASA satellite image

Brazil has been one of the world's top contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, not from it its cars or industry, but because of its forest losses.

Stopping the burning of 20,000 square kilometers of forest (Brazil lost 27,000 square kilometers of forest in 2004 alone) allows a quick calculation. There's at least 10,000 tons of carbon in the trees in each square kilometer. So that's 200 million tons of carbon--and well over half a billion tons of carbon dioxide--that didn't go into the atmosphere this year.

Data from INPE show individual satellite "tiles" across the Brazilian Amazon. Each tile is 170 x 170 km (roughly 100 miles x 100 miles) and the area of the Brazilian Amazon is about half the size of the USA. INPE has estimated how much deforestation occurred in each tile--ranging from less than 30 square kilometers to over 400 (see scale).

Graphic courtesy of Stuart L. Pimm

I asked Minister Minc, "What mechanisms have been most effective in slowing the deforestation?"

His first answer was, in effect, good science. Brazil's National Institute for Space Research, INPE keeps excellent records on changes in forest cover--and has done so for decades. Minister Minc credited the agency for its work. Being able to monitor what's going on on the ground, even on such a massive scale as Brazil's forests, is the first step necessary to gain control of the situation.

The data are impressive. Compared to the 2007-2008 year, when there was extensive deforestation in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, the 2008-2009 year shows a significant reduction.

Indeed, Minister Minc pointed to Mato Grosso when I asked him where the greatest reduction in deforestation had taken place.

There was still a lot of deforestation in the eastern Amazon, in the state of Pará, however--and the data from INPE shows that Pará now has more deforestation than any other state.

Pará has the reputation for being a dangerous place.

That brought the Minister to his second answer. "Federal Police are now fighting crime--illegal timber cutting and illegal ranching--so that people will not get wealthy from crime," he said in response to my questions.

"It's a matter of tracking cattle...making sure that they are not raised in illegal areas, such as national parks...and working with supermarkets to make sure they are not selling illegal beef," he said.

Brazil's Environment Minister Carlos Minc at a logging operation.

Photo courtesy of Brazilian Environment Ministry

The reductions are a considerable achievement, involving dozens of different ministries and other agencies in Brazil. And Minister Minc also stressed the importance of working with different sectors--including mining and soy farmers to bring down the deforestation rates.

International help will be important, too, with a $U.S. one billion contribution from Norway. I talked about such mechanisms that involved REDD -- Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation--in an earlier blog.

REDD is by far the cheapest way of reducing carbon emissions. And, as the Minister also noted, it helps protect the livelihoods of traditional communities, including rubber tappers and indigenous groups.

Brazil has protected substantial areas of the Amazon by giving title to indigenous peoples. Research from my group has shown that such reserves have very many fewer fires than comparable areas not so protected.

Like other South American countries, the Amazon is important for biodiversity, but other areas are even more important. Like Colombia, Brazil has a second rain forest--the Mata Atlântica--which stretches along Brazil's Atlantic coast.

Brazil has much drier areas, too, the Cerrado of central Brazil, and the Caatinga. These areas are filled with species that live nowhere else. Minister Minc mentioned these areas explicitly--they too have targets for reduced emissions.

Like other nations, Brazil stands to be harmed by climate change. In particular, the northeast of the country is dry and poor. Climate change threatens to reduce the economy in that region by a third. Brazil's leadership on climate change issues recognizes the massive social and economic hardship that will disproportionately fall on its poorest people.

Professor Stuart L. Pimm is a conservation biologist at Duke University, North Carolina. A former member of the National Geographic Committee for Research and Exploration, Pimm is the author of dozens of books and research papers, including the book "The World According to Pimm: A Scientist Audits the Earth."

Read earlier blog posts by Stuart Pimm>>

Brazil grasps the nettle of climate mitigation

2009-11-24T17:30:05Z

Listening to Brazil's Environment Minister, Carlos Minc, on a conference call with the international media today (see the write-up about it by blogger colleague Stuart Pimm), I started to appreciate the magnitude of Brazil's struggle to adapt to climate change. And then I saw the opportunities.

We tend to think of this country as the home of the world's largest equatorial rain forest, the Amazon. We know that Brazil has found it challenging to slow the aggressive deforestation of the Amazon in recent years--the major focus of today's news conference call.

But what may not be as well appreciated is the impact of a warming world on a country so vast that it straddles many ecosystems that are packed with biodiversity.

In Brazil's northeast, Minc said today, there is a history of suffering from drought. A two-degree rise in global average temperatures would imply that a third of that region's economy would be lost, he said. So Brazil is already planning and preparing for this scenario by building ponds and reservoirs, to prepare for even drier conditions.

On the other hand, Minc continued, Brazil was experiencing flooding on its coasts, exposing the coastal population to "environmental and social vulnerabilities." Brazil's mitigation efforts for this consequence of climate change includes building drainage, relocating the most vulnerable communities, and planting trees.

It's no wonder that Brazil is stepping so boldly forward to lead the world in setting aggressive targets to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are raising temperatures and disrupting the planet's climate with abnormal droughts and floods.

Carlos Minc, Brazil's Environment Minister

Photo courtesy of Brazil's Ministry of Environment

In Brazil's case the strategy to throttle back on the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere focuses on slowing deforestation in all biomes (not only the Amazon, Minc said). Deforestation is the source of much of the country's carbon emissions. But the mitigation strategy also includes working on energy efficiency, biofuels (Brazil is already a world leader in the use of ethanol), and sustainable harvesting/agriculture.

Some of Brazil's adaptation to climate change is being funded by a tax on the profits of the fossil fuel industry. It is the first country to do this, Minc said.

Brazil also sees economic opportunities in programs that enable the more developed countries to offset their carbon emissions by investing in the conservation and revitalization of Brazil's forests. To prepare itself for this, Brazil is addressing issues such as monitoring, law enforcement, accountability, protecting biodiversity, and sustainable use of the forests by local, and especially indigenous, communities. It's a compelling concept--Brazil's forests and biodiversity belong to the planet as a whole and we all have a vital interest in, and share the responsibility for, their conservation.

By aiming at aggressive targets to cut its emissions through a multi-pronged approach--Brazil recently announced it would like to achieve a reduction of at least 36 percent on its carbon emissions by the year 2020--Brazil is showing the way for other nations. Already South Africa and India have followed its example by proposing targets for their emission reductions.

China and the U.S., the biggest emitters, are reluctant to suggest targets for themselves at next month's climate talks in Copenhagen. But the example being set by Brazil and others may be having an impact, Minc suggested. "We have been observing that they have been taking a few steps back from their position," Minc said today. "So it's important to keep the debate going."

Chameleon snatched from jaws of snake is a new species

2009-11-24T16:02:32Z

By James G. Robertson

Andrew Marshall was surveying monkeys in the Magombera Forest in Tanzania as a conservation researcher when he disturbed a snake along his path. The snake was snacking on a chameleon at the time, and hastily left its lunch sitting in front of him.

Photo: Andrew Marshall/African Journal of Herpetology

Marshall took a snapshot of the chameleon, and when he showed it to local experts they told him they had never seen one like it. They went out and found more specimens and named the new species after the forest where it was found--Kinyongia magomberae, or the Magombera chameleon.

"It's terribly exciting to be part of this discovery, it's not actually part of the work that I do," said Marshall in a statement. "Of course being a conservation researcher it's a wonderful thing to find a new species for the aim of conservation. The forest I work in is very threatened and by finding a new species and naming it after the forest where we're working, it really helps us to emphasize the importance of the place."

If the snake had finished its lunch, perhaps the new chameleon may never have been discovered because of its threatened environment. Marshall was not the only one to get lucky that day. Maybe the Magombera chameleons got lucky too.

Marshall's conservation work is part of a joint project between University of York in England and the Flamingo Land zoo and theme park.

Human encroachment threatens thousands of gorillas in African swamp

2009-11-24T14:18:05Z

More than 125,000 western lowland gorillas discovered last year in a large swamp in the Republic of Congo are becoming increasingly threatened by human activity, the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society said today.

A study commissioned by WCS recommends protection of the swamp forests adjacent to the southwest border of Lac Télé Community Reserve after recent surveys confirmed that high densities of the great apes still exist in the remote location, WCS said in a statement today.

The swamp also supports large numbers of chimpanzees, red colobus monkeys, elephants, and other rain forest species, WCS added.

WCS researchers recently surveyed the Raphia swamp forests in the Republic of Congo and found higher gorilla densities than expected. The study site is the dark polygon to the southeast of Lac Télé Community Reserve.

Courtesy of the Wildlife Conservation Society

"According to the study, imminent threats to the swamp include new logging operations, oil exploration, an influx of refugees from neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, and, resulting from these developments, an increase in the human population, construction of roads and other infrastructure, and the escalation of the illegal bushmeat trade."

"We implore both the Government of the Republic of Congo and the international community to begin the groundwork for the creation of a new protected area to safeguard these gorillas and their unique environment for the benefit of future generations," said James Deutsch, WCS Director for Africa Programs. "Losing gorillas in this region after all the attention from their discovery would be a sad coda on an otherwise great story."

"The world was electrified at the discovery of more than 125,000 western lowland gorillas still in existence in the heart of Africa's rain forests, which include the recently surveyed gorillas just outside of Lac Télé," said WCS researcher Hugo Rainey, the paper's lead author. "Now that the thrill is gone, we can't forget about the most important part of wildlife surveys: protecting what we find."

Western lowland gorillas recently surveyed in forest swamps (and part of last year's discovery of more than 125,000 gorillas in the Republic of Congo) are now in need of protection from human activities.

Photo by Thomas Breuer/Wildlife Conservation Society
--Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

Using methodologies based on counting the nests constructed by gorillas and the decay rates of these temporary structures, the researchers calculated that the study area (measuring 1,029 square kilometers, or 379 square miles, in size) contained an estimated population of 5,042 gorillas, more in fact than previous estimates for the site. The result is one of the highest density estimates ever calculated for gorillas--more than five gorillas per square kilometer (more than 13 gorillas per square mile).

The study site was the easternmost part of the gorilla census announced last year that produced a jaw-dropping estimate of more than 125,000 western lowland gorillas for the region.

The findings and recommendations appear in the November issue of the journal Oryx. The study's authors include: Hugo Rainey, Emma Stokes, Fiona Maisels, Samantha Strindberg, Fortuné Iyenguet, Guy-Aimé Malanda, and Bola Madzoké from the Wildlife Conservation Society: and Domingos Dos Santos from the Republic of Congo Minstère de l'Economie Forestière.

Funders for the surveys and project include the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the USAID-Central Africa Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE).

Evolution Webcast: Celebrating 150 Years of Origin of Species

2009-11-24T05:49:43Z

On the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species, today, November 24, Charles Darwin's revolutionary, evolutionary ideas are still shaping modern science as it moves into the future. In a lecture tonight, Webcast for the global audience, leading minds Terrence Deacon (anthropology), Gerald Edelman (neurobiology) and Paul Ekman (psychology) celebrate Darwin and explain how cutting-edge advances in their fields are still made by standing firmly on his scientific shoulders.

By Brian Handwerk
Special contributor to NatGeo News Watch

It was 150 years ago today that Charles Darwin first published On the Origin of Species. Even a century and a half later, the ideas described in that Earth-shaking volume are of far more than historical interest.

Darwin's musings continue to guide cutting-edge thought in many of today's sciences, including psychology, neurobiology, and linguistics.

NGS illustration of Charles Darwin and the variety of life that intrigued him
by Ned M. Seidler

On Origin's anniversary The New York Academy of Sciences will gather top minds in each of those fields to toast Darwin's achievements and discuss how their current thoughts and theories would be both familiar and fascinating to the father of evolution.

Noted psychologist Paul Ekman, whose work is the basis for the FOX television show "Lie to Me," put together a presentation that includes anthropologist Terrence Deacon and neurobiologist Gerald Edelman.

"I thought we'd get three very different views of the influence of Darwin on the contemporary world," said Ekman.

The 6 p.m. ET live event is sold out, but great seating is still available in front of your own computer screen via the live Webinar.

Listen to the lecture >>

Compassionate Darwinism

Speaking from a psychological perspective, Ekman will describe Darwin's fascinating views on human compassion and morality--which are little known and often misunderstood.

"Most people and even most scientists, when they think of Darwin, think of his theory as having offered an explanation for a kind of ruthless selfishness and competitiveness," he explained.

But in the The Descent of Man, Ekman said, Darwin devotes several chapters to the subject of compassion in evolution.

"Darwin believed compassion was selected for in societies," he said. "Since we are social animals and by and large have to work together on major tasks, those societies in which compassion flourished, to use the Buddhist term, could produce more viable offspring."

Ekman noted that this concept is in some ways a forbearer of the group selection theory, a once almost-universally dismissed concept that some scientists are considering anew.

A look at different types of compassion, Ekman explained, also poses interesting questions which are quite relevant to the 21st century.

"We increasingly live in a world where the kind of rugged individualism that ran the country in the 19th and early 20th centuries is, in the opinion of some, getting us into trouble on issues like climate change or hunger where you need a more global perspective."

Darwin was also concerned with the concept of morality, explained Ekman, whose latest book Emotional Awareness was co-authored with the Dalai Lama.

In Darwin's day morality was sorely tested by the practice of slavery, which he abhorred.

In The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals Darwin argued that the universality of human expressions (think of smiles or facial displays of disgust) show the unity of humankind.

"That didn't prove evolution," Ekman said. "If we had all descended from Adam and Eve we'd all have the same expressions. But Darwin was directly challenging the idea that whites had descended from a more advanced [lineage]."

The birth of modern brains and language

UC Berkeley anthropologist Terrence Deacon studies the nexus of evolutionary biology and neuroscience to learn how human cognition evolved over the ages.

With respect to Darwin's work, he'll discuss tonight how the evolution of the brain influenced the development of language--and vice versa--an argument he explored in The Symbolic Species: The Co-Evolution of Language and the Brain.}

Humankind's complex languages and linguistic concepts evolved from simple predecessors, and the human brain concurrently evolved for the features and abilities to support such languages, Deacon asserts.

That two-million-year synergy produced a unique human lineage, evolutionarily equipped with a power of language lacking in all other species.

Neurobiologist and Nobel Laureate Gerald Edelman, director of The Neurosciences Institute, will also discuss evolution in the human brain and ponder the emergence of consciousness.

He told me that Darwin's theories on the topic were especially remarkable because so little was known in his day about the science of the human brain or discipline of genetics, which explains the actual mechanisms responsible for natural selection.

"Darwin certainly had it right that the mind and brain of humans evolved by natural selection," he said. "That may not seem like a big deal, but if it hadn't happened that way you wouldn't [have the cognitive abilities to] even make that statement."

Darwin live on the Web

Celebrating 150 years of On the Origin of Species is one of several webcast lectures in which some of the world's top scientific minds tackled evolutionary topics.

The first lecture, Everett Mendelsohn on The World Before Darwin, is archived here.

The second lecture, Jonathan Weiner On Variation, can be heard here.

In the third lecture, Sean Carroll explained how DNA holds a living record of the specific adaptations in each species' evolutionary journey. His November 4th lecture was entitled "Darwin, DNA, and the Making of the Fittest".

The series was presented by a group of volunteer Darwin devotees who also hope to rally 1,000,000 users to a Facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53320310123) celebrating this year's 150th anniversary of "On the Origin of Species."

Darwin Facebook campaign

Darwin Devotees Make "Father of Evolution" Facebook Superstar
Hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life joined a Facebook group devoted to the celebration of this year's 200th anniversary of the birth of the "Father of Evolution," Charles Darwin. Now the organizers of the Facebook group are hoping hundreds of thousands more will sign up to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publishing of Darwin's famous book, On the Origin of Species.

The World Before Darwin
Travel back in time to visit "The World Before Darwin," courtesy of a free webcast lecture with Everett Mendelsohn, emeritus professor at Harvard University. Mendelsohn explored the milieu in which Darwin published "On the Origin of Species" 150 years ago, reveal its other evolutionary thinkers, and shed light on skeptics from the worlds of religion and science.
See the lecture here.

Darwin on Variation
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Columbia University professor Jonathan Weiner delved into Darwin's evolutionary theories in the webcast lecture "On Variation."
Weiner tracked Darwin's footsteps to reveal how the Father of Evolution deduced that many species are descended from common ancestors, and that the variation among them evidences their evolutionary journeys of natural selection.
Hear the podcast here.

Darwin, DNA, and The Making of the Fittest
Explore evolution in a way Charles Darwin couldn't imagine--by delving into the DNA evidence of each species' unique evolutionary journey. Geneticist and author Sean B. Carroll explained how DNA holds a living record of the evolutionary adaptations that allow species to evolve and thrive in diverse environments all over the Earth.

Darwin resources:

Darwin's First Clues (National Geographic Magazine)

Was Darwin Wrong? (National Geographic Magazine)

PHOTOS: 7 Major "Missing Links" Since Darwin (National Geographic News)

"Instant" Evolution Seen in Darwin's Finches, Study Says (National Geographic News)

Darwin's Secret Notebooks (National Geographic Channel)

PHOTOS: How Do Species Evolve? (National Geographic News)

The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online

Darwin Correspondence Project

Darwin Digital Library of Evolution

The Charles Darwin Trust

Presented By:

2009-11-24T05:49:43Z

Sniffer dogs help survey Vietnam's elusive rhino population

2009-11-23T20:52:15Z

We've all observed the intensity with which dogs sniff poop, and how they often stick their noses into where poop is excreted. Apparently their powerfully sensitive noses gather much useful information from whatever fragrances exude from scat, and presumably this tells them a lot about the individual who dropped it.

Now conservationists are putting this canine talent to good use to locate the dung of what might be the rarest large mammal on the planet--the seldom-seen Javan rhino of Vietnam. Analysis of droppings enables scientists to determine how many individual rhinos survive in the deep forests, their overall health, and if they are breeding--but only if the researchers can find the droppings in the first place.

Drawing of a Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus). Only ten individuals of the Vietnam subspecies may survive.

Two sniffer dogs from the United States are helping conservationists determine the population status of the Javan rhino in the Southeast Asian country, WWF-Vietnam said in a recent statement.

WWF researchers have teamed up with national park rangers to determine the population status of the rhinos in the forests of southern Vietnam, home to one of the world's last two remaining populations of the species, the conservation charity said.

Poop Patrol: Simon Mahood, member of the WWF rhino project in Vietnam, with dog "Chevy," who is trained to detect dung of the rare Javan rhino in the forests of Vietnam.

The Javan rhino is Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Three different subspecies of Javan rhino are recognized.

The most abundant subspecies (R. sondaicus sondaicus) lives only in Ujung Kulon National Park, Java, with approximately 40 to 60 individuals remaining.

The subspecies once found in Bengal, Assam, and Myanmar (R. sondicus inermis) is now extinct.

The third subspecies (R. sondaicus annamiticus) survives only in Vietnam, and is the subject of this population survey.

Javan Vietnamese rhinoceros caught by a camera trap in the forests of southern Vietnam. Researchers need to get their hands on the rhino dung, however, in order to track different individuals, their gender, and reproductive status.

Rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticus was thought to be extinct on mainland Southeast Asia until hunters in Vietnam killed an individual in 1988, WWF said. It is believed less than ten remain, but no conclusive survey has ever been conducted to verify this.

"The Javan rhino is possibly the rarest large mammal on Earth," said Sarah Brook, leader of the WWF rhino project in Vietnam. "This field survey aims to reveal the secrets of Vietnam's little known Javan rhino population in an effort to save it from extinction."

Dung of a Javan Vietnamese rhinoceros sniffed out by dogs.The two dogs brought in to sniff out rhino dung in the forest found seven piles after only five days.

Samples of rhino dung located by the dogs will be sent to Queen's University in Canada where DNA analysis will detect the sex and number of animals. The Zoological Society of London will carry out a hormone analysis to show the animal's breeding capability.

Sniffer dog "'Pepper," who is trained to detect dung of the rare Javan rhino in the forests of Vietnam as part of a WWF Greater Mekong rhino project.

Sniffer dog "Chevy."

Dogs find dung

After just five days of surveying the area, seven rhino dung samples were found, WWF said. "These specimens have given the project team confidence that they will be able to gather all the necessary scientific information. The results of these analyses will be used to formulate an urgent rhino conservation plan."

"If we lose the rhino the future does not look good for Vietnam's other rare and endemic species."

"The rhino is not only a rare animal unique to this country, but protecting the rhino is a flagship for conservation efforts in Vietnam," said Hien Tran Minh, country director for WWF-Vietnam. "If we lose the rhino the future does not look good for Vietnam's other rare and endemic species."

The Javan rhino is a highly valued commodity in the illegal wildlife trade, with the rhino horn, skin and feces used for medicinal purposes, WWF said. "Habitat encroachment from agricultural expansion and planned hydropower development also pose increasing threats to this small population."

Rhinomania, a blog written by the WWF team, is publishing updates on the rhino survey as well as on life in the national park. Check out the entries on leeches!

Where do you stand (sit) on World Toilet Day?

2009-11-19T22:52:57Z

Today is World Toilet Day.

Yes, that's right, there's a special day for toilets. But while it may be fodder for scatalogical jokes, for the many millions of people who do not have access to toilets it's no laughing matter.

Imagine what it would be like if we weren't able to flush away the vast amounts of human waste we generate in our cities. Apart from the stench and vermin, disease would flourish, as it does in many of the world's informal settlements.

Poor sanitation kills 1.8 million people a year--mostly children and primarily through diarrheal diseases, reports colleague Tasha Eichenseher today on National Geographic's Green Guide blog.

Read more about this intolerable situation and learn what a privilege it is to have access to a toilet.

Nat Geo photographer Paul Nicklen shares secrets of polar wildlife pictures

2009-11-19T21:18:23Z

National Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen's YouTube video "Face-Off With a Deadly Predator," an account of his scary encounter with a leopard seal in the Antarctic, has been downloaded more than a million times.

In this subsequent video interview with NatGeo News Watch, below, Nicklen shares his thoughts about leopard seals--and other polar predators he has studied since he was a boy growing up in a small Inuit community in the Canadian Arctic.

He talks about the patience and time needed to make the photographs of polar predators for ten National Geographic Magazine articles and for his new National Geographic book, Polar Obsession.

Video by David Braun

A large female leopard seal greets photographer Göran Ehlmé. Anvers Island, Antarctica (p. 161 of Paul Nicklen's new book, Polar Obsession.)

A leopard seal feeds Paul Nicklen a penguin. Antarctic Peninsula (p. 36)

Growing up in the Arctic, Nicklen said, "We didn't have a television...telephone...radio...so all of my entertainment came in the form of playing outside, and that meant being around animals...seeing my first polar bear when I was five years old.

"So you really learn from the time you are young how these animals work, what makes them tick. You learn about social hierarchy, and then most of all, the best thing you learn is their connection to the ecosystem," he said.

Looking towards an uncertain future, a huge male bear triggers a camera trap, taking his own picture. Leifdefjorden, Spitsbergen, Norway (p.239)

All this information plus a college degree in marine biology taught Nicklen how to approach and get up close to animals, to use body language to communicate with them, and devote many hours to get them used to his presence before getting into the water with them.

A large bull walrus returns to the shores of Prins Karl Forland after diving and feeding on clams. Svalbard, Norway (p. 150)

What people don't realize when they see his pictures, Nicklen says, is the sometimes days, weeks or months he needed to get the animals to care less about his presence.

Narwhals dive deep under the ice to feed on Arctic cod, then return to the surface to breathe and raise their tusks high in the air. Lancaster Sound, Nunavut, Canada (p. 103)

"The narwhals story...a chapter in the book, took me 15 years to try to figure it out," Nicklen said. The project involved working with the Inuit, buying an ultralight plane, flying out to the remote pack ice in the Arctic, "and finally, in one day, getting all those images for that narwhal story. It's just time and patience."

Polar Obsession (National Geographic Books; November, 2009; $50; hardcover) is a showcase of Nicklen's best pictures and an opportunity for him to share important insights into animal behavior, the fragile polar environment and climate change that threatens the ice and its inhabitants.

In the Arctic spring, meltwater channels drain toward and down a seal hole, returning to the sea. (p. 71)

"The polar regions are disappearing quickly, and I want my photo essays to stand as a reminder of what is at stake. It is my mission to bring the rare, remote and threatened to caring people who can enjoy and help protect these lands and creatures," Nicklen writes in his introduction.

The book includes 150 of Nicklen's most spectacular images from the polar regions. Elephant seals, leopard seals, whales, walruses, narwhals, polar bears, penguins, albatrosses, petrels, arctic cod, and krill, are among the cast of characters he captures through his lens. To make these photos took many years of thinking and planning and sometimes many hours of waiting in difficult conditions for the right moment.

A kittiwake soars in front of a large iceberg. Svalbard, Norway (p. 29)

In essays introducing each chapter, Nicklen describes the ice fields, floes and frozen seas that are the backdrop to his images.

A young polar bear leaps between ice floes. Barents Sea, Svalbard, Norway (p.16). Click on the feature "Ice Paradise" for more photos from Nicklen's Svalbard assignment for National Geographic Magazine.

"Nicklen has risked his life many times in the 20 years he has been documenting the polar regions," says the National Geographic news release about this book. "He has crashed his ultralight airplane, fallen through the sea ice, been lost in blizzards, bitten by fur seals, attacked by a walrus and an 8,000-pound elephant seal, charged by a grizzly bear and sniffed through the thin fabric wall of a tent by a polar bear."

A gentoo penguin chick peeks, checking for patrolling leopard seals before tempting fate. Port Lockroy, Antarctic Peninsula (p. 166)

"If I really want people to care about polar species, my images have to be wild and raw," he writes. "I want people to feel what it's like to be in the water, swimming three feet from a polar bear. I want them to experience what it's like to be offered a penguin as food by a leopard seal. Only then will they really care about that habitat and that species."

Paul Nicklen emerges numb from the cold after an hour under the ice. Admiralty Inlet, Nunavut, Canada (p. 15)

Mother bear and two-year-old cub drift on glacier ice. Hudson Strait, Nunavut, Canada (p. 77)

Included in the book is a gear list detailing the enormous amount of equipment that accompanies Nicklen on his assignments, "likely more equipment than any other natural history photographer on the planet," because Nicklen shoots above and below water.

He usually travels with 14 to 20 cases and hockey duffel bags weighing between 60 pounds and 70 pounds each. "Getting to and from location with all the gear is often the worst and hardest part of the assignment," he writes. A list of some of the equipment Nicklen is currently using can also be found on his Web site.

Paul Nicklen on assignment. Lewes Lake, Yukon Territory, Canada. (not in book)

Terra cotta warriors go to Washington

2009-11-18T00:50:51Z

Even in his wildest dreams, China's first emperor, Qin Shihuangdi (Chin She-hwong-dee), could never have imagined that terra cotta warriors made to guard his tomb in the afterlife would travel the world as ambassadors of friendship between nations.

Those were the thoughts today of Xie Feng, minister and deputy chief of mission of the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. He made the observation at the official opening at the National Geographic Museum of the exhibition "Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China's First Emperor."

Caption: Terra cotta figures on exhibition at the National Geographic Museum, Washington, D.C. The average terra cotta warrior is 6 feet tall and weighs 300-400 lbs. Craftsmen sculpted individual facial features for each figure by hand. Many of the faces are thought to resemble the artists themselves or some real person or military figure. It is believed that no two faces are identical.

Photo by David Braun

Auspicious sign

Minister Xie also observed that while President Obama was in Beijing today, visiting the Forbidden City and holding talks with China's President Hu Jintao, the terra cotta warriors were in Washington--a coincidence that was "an auspicious sign" of the improving relationship between the two countries.

Caption: President Obama at the Forbidden City today. The Forbidden City was the official residence of many of China's emperors.

White House photo by Pete Souza.

The National Geographic Museum is the final venue of the terra cotta warriors' four-city U.S. tour. The largest number of terra cotta figures ever to travel to the United States for a single exhibition includes more than 100 artifacts from the tomb of Qin Shihuangdi, who ruled from 221 B.C. to 210 B.C.

Caption: A view of reconstructed warriors, on exhibition in China. Originally, the soldiers were painted with pigments made from minerals mixed with either egg white or animal blood.

Photo by Wang Da Gang

"The First Emperor's magnificent terra cotta army is one of the great wonders of the ancient world," said Terry Garcia, National Geographic's executive vice president for Mission Programs. "Visitors to the National Geographic Museum will have the rare opportunity to experience one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the 20th century as they stand face-to-face with the terra cotta warriors," he added.

Caption: Portrait of the First Emperor of China as it appears in the exhibition "Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China's First Emperor." It is how Qin Shihuangdi is imagined in an 18th-century album of portraits of 86 emperors of China.

Born in 259 B.C., Ying Zheng became king of the state of Qin at age 13. In 239 B.C. the king began to rule in his own name and shortly thereafter he sent his armies to conquer the surrounding states. By 221 B.C. a vast empire was under his control. He renamed himself Qin Shihuangdi, First Emperor of the Qin.

Portrait © The British Library Board

Level 1 artifacts

More than 96,000 tickets have been purchased in advance for the Washington venue of the exhibition, which offers an in-depth look at the First Emperor's enormous tomb complex that contained thousands of terra cotta warriors intended to protect him in the afterlife. The exhibition showcases the life-size terra cotta figures and other objects, including 20 "Level 1" artifacts--China's highest possible ranking in terms of rarity and importance.

Caption: Albert E. Dien, Ph.D., professor emeritus, Stanford University, is guest curator for the "Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China's First Emperor" exhibition. In this video he explains why the terra cotta warriors are the "Eighth Wonder of the World."

Video by David Braun

Secrets of the Qin

Discovered after being buried for more than 2,000 years, the terra cotta warriors reveal secrets of the Qin dynasty, a National Geographic statement about the exhibition explains.

"The warriors were found in 1974 by a group of farmers digging a well near Xi'an in China's Shaanxi province. When archaeologists began excavating the area, they uncovered a subterranean vault containing fragments of thousands of terra cotta figures in four pits."

Caption: Terra cotta warriors and horses found in the tomb of China's first emperor Qin Shihuang, located north of Xi'an in China.

Photo by Wang Da Gang

Caption: There are four pits of varying sizes, three of which contain warriors, filled with an estimated 7,000 figures along with hundreds of horses, chariots and weapons. Pit 1 (in the illustration above) is the largest at 203 feet x 755 feet, roughly the size of two and two-thirds football fields, and was the first to be discovered. Ranks of terra cotta warriors, horses and chariots were placed in formation throughout this space.

"More than 1,000 life-size figures have been unearthed as part of the site's ongoing excavation, with estimates of 6,000 more remaining in the known underground pits," National Geographic's statement says.

"Construction of Qin Shihuangdi's tomb took 36 years to complete, and the tomb complex is estimated to extend more than 19 square miles."

Caption: An illustration of what Qin Shihuangdi's actual tomb might look like. While the location of the tomb is known, there are no plans to open it. By one account the emperor is buried in an extraordinary chamber that contains many artifacts and even rivers made out of mercury. Soil tests in the vicinity of the tomb have been found to contain concentrated traces of mercury.

NGS illustration by Hsien-Min Yang

Warrior assembly line

"The terra cotta figures were created in assembly-line fashion, and molds were used to mass-produce hands, heads and ears. Craftsmen sculpted individual armor details and facial features by hand. It is believed that no two faces are alike," National Geographic said.

The 15 terra cotta figures in "Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China's First Emperor" consist of nine warriors--two infantrymen, a chariot driver, two officers, an armored warrior, two archers and a cavalryman--as well as two musicians, a strongman, a court official, a stable attendant and a horse. The exhibition showcases 100 sets of artifacts, including weapons, stone armor, coins, jade ornaments, roof tiles and decorative bricks, and a bronze crane and swan.

Two replica bronze chariots are also on display.

Caption: One of the replica bronze chariots on exhibition at the National Geographic Museum. All figures are life-size.

Photo by David Braun

Caption: National Geographic Museum Director Susan Norton and her staff worked for more than two years to bring "Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China's First Emperor" to Washington, D.C. In this video she talks about the planning and challenges of moving and exhibiting 2,200-year-old artifacts.

Video by David Braun

The objects in the exhibition are drawn from 11 different collections in and near Xi'an, including the Museum of the First Emperor's Terra Cotta Army and Horses, Shaanxi Provincial Institute for Archaeological Research, the Zhouzhi Museum, Baoji Museum, Xianyang Museum, Lintong Museum, Fengxiang Museum, Chencang Museum, Xi'an Institute for Archaeological Research and Protection, Baoji Archaeological Excavation Team and Xianyang Institute for Archaeological Research.

Caption: Terra cotta figures on display at the National Geographic Museum.

Photo by David Braun

The Washington exhibition is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with extended hours on Wednesdays until 9 p.m. The National Geographic Museum is closed on December 25. The exhibition will be open to the public from November 19, 2009 until March 31, 2010.

Tickets are timed and dated and can be purchased online at the Buy Tickets page of the exhibition Web site www.warriorsdc.org, by phone at (202) 857-7700 and at the National Geographic Museum ticket booth located at the exhibition's entrance or at the National Geographic ticket office, 1600 M Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.

Caption: A standing archer. The warriors' hands are positioned to hold weapons, many of which were stolen during the rebellions that followed the emperor's death.

Photo by Wang Da Gang

Caption: A detailed look at one of the terra cotta warriors found in the tomb of China's first emperor Qin Shihuang, located north of Xi'an in China.

Photo by Wang Da Gang

Caption: Warrior armor on exhibition at the National Geographic Museum.

Photo by David Braun

The exhibition is co-organized by the Bowers Museum, Houston Museum of Natural Science and the National Geographic Museum, and is guest curated by Dr. Albert E. Dien, professor emeritus, Stanford University.Support for the exhibition was given by American Airlines; Amtrak; Washington, D.C.'s Loews Madison Hotel; P.F. Chang's China Bistro; The PIMCO Foundation; UPS; Viking River Cruises; and WTOP.

Terra Cotta Warriors Exhibition Fact Sheet

Emperor Qin Shihuangdi

In the long history of China, the First Emperor of the Qin dynasty stands out for his accomplishments and the controversy that surrounds his rule. He ruled a unified China for only 11 years, but many of his reforms have lasted as long as his warriors have stood guard -- more than 2,200 years.

The emperor instituted a series of ambitious reforms, creating a centralized administration to consolidate his power. He is credited with unifying seven warring states; building an extensive network of roads; standardizing weights, currency and measures; establishing Qin writing as the official language, which became the basis of the written script now known as Simplified Chinese; beginning construction on the Great Wall of China; and pioneering the use of mass production.

In 210 B.C. Emperor Qin fell ill and died unexpectedly. He is believed to have been interred beneath a large man-made hill in an elaborate chamber that has not yet been excavated.

Records written nearly 100 years after Emperor Qin's death show that succeeding dynasties defined the Qin period as a time of draconian enforcement of harsh laws. However, recent discoveries of Qin laws indicate a less severe administration than previously imagined, and the emperor's reputation is being reevaluated. Regardless of how his legacy is ultimately judged, the impact of his rule and the grandeur of his tomb set a standard that has not been surpassed.

The tomb complex and pits

Photo by Wang Da Gang

As was customary, Emperor Qin began work on his tomb complex when he ascended the throne at age 13. After conquering the neighboring states, he expanded the plans in keeping with his new title of First Emperor. The tomb complex covers 19 square miles and includes a man-made earthen mound rising above his underground burial chamber.

Providing for the emperor in the afterlife meant filling his tomb complex with a wide range of items to serve his needs. The emperor's tomb mound sits at the center of what was once a walled area. Outside the walled tomb area in pits three-quarters of a mile to the east are the warriors, standing ready to defend the emperor.

Photo by Wang Da Gang

The army faced east, towards a pass in the mountains through which enemies might approach.

There are four pits of varying sizes, three of which contain warriors, filled with an estimated 7,000 figures along with hundreds of horses, chariots and weapons.

Photo by Wang Da Gang

Pit 1 is the largest at 203 feet x 755 feet, roughly the size of two and two-thirds football fields, and was the first to be discovered. Ranks of terra cotta warriors, horses and chariots were placed in formation throughout this space.

Pit 1 was dug to a depth of about 15 feet, with walls of pounded earth dividing the interior into 11 corridors. The floors were paved with bricks. A framework of wooden pillars and beams covered with planks, matting and a plaster shell formed the roof. The whole area was covered with earth mounded about 6 feet above the original ground surface. Pits 2 and 3 were constructed in similar fashion.

Photo by Wang Da Gang

The figures contained in the smaller Pit 2 are more varied. The ranks include cavalrymen, chariots and 160 standing and kneeling archers.

Pit 3 is even smaller and is the only one to be completely excavated. This pit was meant to serve as a command center for the underground army. It contains just 68 soldiers, most of them guards with a few officers stationed behind a single chariot, perhaps meant for the supreme commander.

Pit 4 is incomplete and contains no figures, suggesting that work ceased in the rebellions following the death of Qin Shihuangdi.

The warriors

Photo by Wang Da Gang

The average warrior is 6 feet tall and weighs 300-400 lbs.

Craftsmen sculpted individual facial features for each figure by hand. Many of the faces are thought to resemble the artists themselves or some real person or military figure. It is believed that no two faces are identical.

Originally, the soldiers were painted with pigments made from minerals mixed with either egg white or animal blood.

The legs and feet of each warrior are solid clay to support the weight of the figure. To create the torso, artisans built up coils of clay; the hands, arms and head were molded separately and then attached.

Photo by Wang Da Gang

When a figure was complete, a layer of fine clay was applied to the entire sculpture so individual details could be incised by hand. After this was completed, the statues were fired at high temperatures.

The warriors' hands are positioned to hold weapons, many of which were stolen during the rebellions that followed the emperor's death.

The warriors were discovered in March 1974 by a group of men digging a well along the Wei River near the city of Xi'an. The tomb complex of the First Emperor has since been dubbed the Eighth Wonder of the World.

To date, only 1,000 figures have been excavated and restored.

All information is drawn from exhibition text and the "Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China's First Emperor" exhibition e-Guide, available for download at www.warriorsdc.org

More photos from the the Terra Cotta Warriors exhibition at the National Geographic Museum:

Photos by David Braun

Intelligent Travel: Sneak Peek--Terra Cotta Warriors at NG

BlogWild: Terra Cotta Countdown

National Geographic Magazine: Treasures from Ancient China

Finding orchids in Colombia's other rainforest

2009-11-17T19:15:59Z

Colombia has made impressive progress in declaring a large part of its Amazon rain forest protected for conservation. But there's another rain forest in Colombia, the Chocó, on the Pacific side of the country. This forest teems with even more species than in the Amazon forest, but it is not as well protected. Conservation biologist Stuart Pimm recently visited the region to see the biodiversity for himself.

By Stuart L. Pimm
Special contributor to NatGeo News Watch

Ten days ago I was in Colombia with my Colombian graduate student German Forero Medina, about to give a keynote address on REDD--Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation -- the subject now uppermost in the minds of those of us who care about biodiversity. (Read about REDD on my earlier blog on NatGeo News Watch.)

I wasn't going to go that far without taking time to visit one of the most diverse rain forests on Earth--the Chocó, along the country's Pacific Slope.

Colombia has more than one rain forest. The most familiar is the Amazon.

This has been a good few weeks for the Amazon, so that news first.

Just over a week ago, Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced that only 7,000 square kilometres (2,700 square miles) of the Brazilian Amazon were cleared in the 12 months to August 2009. [NatGeo News Watch: Amazon deforestation slows as Brazil tightens prevention.]

That's by far the lowest rate since the country's National Institute for Space Research started using satellite imagery to monitor forest losses.

Neighbouring Colombia has much less of the Amazon compared to Brazil, but it too has been losing forest cover.

At the International Forum on Biodiversity and Climate Change on the November 6, Environment Minister Carlos Costa told his audience in Bogotá: "It is important for the world to know that the Colombian Amazon is for conservation only." I was in the audience.

The Colombian government was making more than bold statements. At the Protected Areas Conference and on the Biodiversity Forum two weeks earlier (October 26, also in Bogotá), the country announced the creation of the Yaigoyé Apaporis National Par --an area of over 1,000,000 hectares (4,000 square miles) in the Amazon close to the equator.

Even before that addition, Colombia had exceeded the targets for conservation it had agreed to meet by signing the Convention on Biological Diversity. Signers agreed to set aside 10 percent of their land for protected areas by 2010.

With this latest addition, Colombia has protected 12.5 million hectares of its country--about 49,000 square miles, or 11 percent of the country-- an area a little smaller than the State of Florida. Some 70 percent of the protected land is in the Amazon.

Here's the problem that had me at the second meeting--and German Forero Medina at both meetings: Colombia is spectacularly rich in biodiversity. (Ask any birdwatcher. Colombia has nearly 1,900 species, more than any other country and 19 percent of the world's total. It has a similar excess of mammals and amphibians.)

But rich in species though the Amazon might be, it's Colombia's other forests that have even more species--and they are not been given the same protection. German and I were in Colombia to argue for more reserves outside Colombia's Amazon.

Chocó rain forest

Conservation biologist Stuart L. Pimm visits Colombia's Chocó rain forest. There Jorge Orejuela, director of the Cali Botanic Garden and an expert on the Chocó's birds and orchids, tells Pimm about the remarkable orchids and other species in one of Earth's biodiversity "hotspots."

Video by Stuart L. Pimm

One of those regions, the Chocó was where I headed after the meeting. The old road from Cali to Buenaventura is "the best area in the world for seeing a rich diversity of birds," according to Steven Hilty and William Brown, authors of the Birds of Colombia.

How could I resist? This is one of 25 "biodiversity hotspots"--places that my Duke University colleague Professor Norman Myers and colleagues showed contained half of all the variety of life on Earth--in about 10 percent of the land surface. By definition, hotspots are also places where there's been large losses of habitats.

22 feet of rain a year

Resist? Well, easily, it happens. Dripping wet mountain forest, some areas getting 7 metres (22 feet) of rain each year sounds wonderful, but tragically, it's been a war zone. Coca grows well here. The consequence of U.S. citizens being unable to "just say no" to cocaine have played havoc with Colombia and scarred the lives of millions of its people. Armed conflict and anti-government guerrillas had been active in the Chocó.

But all my Colombian friends were cautiously optimistic about the reduction in violence in the last few years. So I set off with Jorge Orejuela, an old friend with whom I shared a house in graduate school decades ago.

Jorge won the prestigious National Geographic/Buffett Award for Leadership in Conservation in 2007. He's the director of the Cali Botanic Garden and an expert on the Chocó's birds and orchids. And he won the prize for his efforts to protect the Chocó's forest.

Photo of orchid Dracula wallisii by Luis Mazariegos

In the rain, our 4x4 slipped and slid down the narrow dirt road, from Cali to the coast. Then we turned into the watershed of a large reservoir, showing our permits to the Colombian military who guard the area.

The next morning the rain let up. Jorge spotted orchids everywhere--many were small and I missed them. Close up, they were lovely.

"Here's a branch covered with orchids." Jorge pointed them out. "There's an orchid in the genus Pleurothallis--perhaps it's a new species...There are a hundred or more new species being described every couple of years from this genus in Colombia and Ecuador."

Sobrailia orchid

Video still by Stuart L. Pimm

Later, standing in the middle of a small river, looking at its bank covered in showy Sobralia orchids, Jorge continued, "Biodiversity here is unbelievable. Along this gradient from the Andes to the lowlands, we may have 1,500 species of butterflies and 800 bird species." (That's half as many again as birds that nest in all of Europe and North Africa.) "Orchids--perhaps 1,000 species."

"There's high human pressure on this area. My work that was highlighted by National Geographic was protecting areas that, had they been destroyed, the endemic species--those that we found only within them--would have been lost for ever."

Photo of orchid D. syndactyla by Luis Mazariegos

Just how many species are found only in these areas, I wondered. "And how many species are still unknown to science here," I asked Jorge.

"It's hard to tell," he said. "In one area, not knowing anything about orchids, we collected 400 species--and that was not the only thing I had to do. This was in an area of only 30 square kilometres." (About 12 square miles).

"Easily 20 percent of those species were new to science...Many of those are endangered--they are rare and found only in those particular places."

Read earlier blog posts by Stuart Pimm>>

From powwow to Mardi Gras, America's essence is in its festivals

2009-11-16T23:05:40Z

In an age of strip malls, fast food chains, and big-box stores, every small town in America looks the same. Or so it would seem if you roll down any interstate highway.

But linger and ask about local festivals, and soon you will find that the U.S. is a richly diverse country that celebrates cultures of every kind. The melting pot is chock-full of spicy ingredients.

That was the experience of two adventurous photographers, Ross McDermott and Andrew Owen, who set out to discover and document America's small, hidden, and bizarre festivals.

McDermott (left) and Owen shooting from a crane lift in Apache Junction, Arizona.

Forty thousand miles and forty festivals later, they have thirty thousand pictures and many hours of video that showcase the many ways Americans celebrate.

"We discovered that what may have started as small local festivals have become in some cases national and even international events, thanks in large part to the Internet," Owen said in an interview. "These festivals are attracting people with a shared passion or interest, and so they have become global experiences with a local flavor."

The World Beard and Mustache Competition attracts contestants from every corner of the world. In the past few years, the competition has been attended by more Americans than any other country. See more photos on The American Festivals Project's World Beard and Mustache Competition Web page.

Photo by Ross McDermott and Andrew Owen

McDermott (27) and Owen (28) are from Charlottesville, Virginia, where they met through a mutual friend. The idea to document American festivals is McDermott's, who was inspired by the cultural festivals he photographed while teaching English in Japan.

"I wondered if American festivals would be as culturally relevant as those in Japan. If I documented them, would I discover that they said something about American culture," he said.

Funded in part by the National Geographic Young Explorers Grants program, McDermott launched the "American Festivals Project."

In a truck converted to run on used vegetable oil they scrounged along the way from fast food restaurants and universities, the duo hit the festival circuit.

McDermott pumping vegetable oil from the back of a local diner in Ainsworth, Nebraska. The truck could hold 80 gallons of veggie oil and allow the team to drive over 1,000 miles before another fill-up.

"I thought we would look for the most bizarre festivals and those that were dying out. But what we found is that in most cases the festivals are alive and doing well," McDermott said. "Their dynamic has changed with the influx of many visitors, but they are doing well."

The photographers sought out festivals that seemed to focus on the more peculiar facets of the American way of life.

And so they headed for the Machine Gun Shootout, Wooly Worm Festival, Cajun Mardi Gras, Rattlesnake Roundup, Xtreme Cheerleading, Middle of Nowhere Celebration, Rainbow Gathering, Okie Noodling Competition, Lumberjack Championships, Pine Ridge Pow Wow, Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, Hick Festival, and Pole Dancing competition. What could be more American than festivals like those?

Xtreme Dance and Cheer Competition, Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. See more photos and read about this at The American Festivals Project's Xtreme Cheerleading Web page.

Photo by Ross McDermott and Andrew Owen

Okie Noodling Festival from American Festivals Project on Vimeo.

World's Largest Rattlesnake Roundup, Sweetwater, Texas. See more photos and read about this at The American Festivals Project's World's Largest Rattlesnake Roundup Web page.

Photo by Ross McDermott and Andrew Owen

Rainbow Gathering, Sante Fe National Forest, New Mexico. See more photos and read about this at The American Festivals Project's Rainbow Gathering Web page.

Photo by Ross McDermott and Andrew Owen

Rainbow Gathering 2009 from American Festivals Project on Vimeo.

Pine Ridge Pow Wow, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota. See more photos and read about this at The American Festivals Project's Pine Ridge Pow Wow Web page.

Photo by Ross McDermott and Andrew Owen

Pine Ridge Pow Wow from American Festivals Project on Vimeo.

"The Machine Gun Shootout in Kentucky was an example of what we thought were going to be eccentric people shooting their guns," McDermott said. "Instead, we found people passionate about their collections, and owning and firing machine guns in a safe and educational manner."

Machine Gun Shootout in Kentucky. See more photos and read about this at The American Festivals Project's Knob Creek Machine Gun Shootout Web page.

Photos by Ross McDermott and Andrew Owen

Every festival gave them the same impression. The participants they met were passionate people with compelling reasons for doing what they were doing, and who were very good at it.

"We discovered that we were not photographing one-off events so much as sub-cultures. The Machine Gun Shootout is a festival for the machine gun sub-culture across the U.S. And the same can be said for the other festivals," McDermott said. "These festivals are sub-cultures within the homogenous American culture."

"The Cajun Mardi Gras is not only for the local people," Owen added. "It draws old-time musicians like fiddlers, from everywhere. It's really like a gathering of tribes. These festivals are focused human gatherings."

Cajun Mardi Gras, rural Louisiana. See more photos and read about this at The American Festivals Project's Cajun Mardi Gras Web page.

Photo by Ross McDermott and Andrew Owen

"There are strong family traditions in some of these festivals," McDermott said. "For many participants, such as at the Lumberjack Championships, there is real pride in what's been passed down through the generations, and an opportunity to show that off."

World Lumberjack Championships, Hayward, Wisconsin. See more photos and read about this at The American Festivals Project's World Lumberjack Championships Web page.

Photo by Ross McDermott and Andrew Owen

2009 World Lumberjack Competition from American Festivals Project on Vimeo.

It sounds like an idyllic vacation, traveling across America, visiting interesting festivals, meeting colorful people. But from a photographer's point of view it had challenges and was very hard work.

"Unlike photographers who have the privilege of revisiting an event to rework shots that they might have missed, we were working on a very short notice, and often had a one or two-day window to gather all our material. We would arrive and start shooting, sometimes from sunrise to dusk, in all kinds of weather and without really knowing what the event would offer," McDermott said.

They would sometimes have to spend hours looking for veggie fuel for their truck. Driving from one festival to the next could involve long overnight journeys.

Sleep happened whenever the guys had a chance. In Oklahoma, it was so hot inside the tent that McDermott decided to sleep on the concrete picnic table.

"We attended a festival in Louisiana on one day and another in Wisconsin the very next day," Owen said. "That meant we had to drive through the night. We started shooting the second we arrived, and didn't stop for 12 hours."

McDermott and Owen are mulling over several uses of their collection of images and video. They are busy with talks and planning an exhibit in Charlottesville on January 9th at The Bridge--Progressive Arts Initiative.

Are there any plans to photograph the festivals of Europe or Asia?

"Not right now," McDermott said, "we're still trying to absorb what happened to us in America."

To see more of the 30,000 photos made by Ross McDermott and Andrw Owen, please visit The American Festivals Project Web site. Prints of the photos can be be ordered.

Support the AFP! from American Festivals Project on Vimeo.