Not a happy frog
Not a happy frog at all to read this story about a new study that links a deadly fungal disease in frogs to climate change.
Won’t somebody please think of the frogs!?
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14 Responses to “Not a happy frog”
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October 27th, 2006 at 5:22 pm
Oh NO !!
October 28th, 2006 at 8:12 am
Wait… is this climate change causing a deadly fungal disease or deadly fungal disease causing climate change?
October 28th, 2006 at 8:37 am
This epidemic amongst some frog colonies does sound serious.
Would someone please inform me about what vital place frogs and their cousins play in our global ecosystems? Joy.
October 28th, 2006 at 12:31 pm
Frogs have long been helpful environmental health sensors… Not that it makes pollution any more tolerable for them.
Maybe they need to check into a chytrid fungus health spa as reported by Washington Post during the week (via Grist mag.
Dont worry Frog, a life of luxury may be coming. But sorry, many of your buddies wont make it.
October 29th, 2006 at 10:23 pm
The loss of biodiversity that this disease accelerates is a major concern.
For Joy:
frogs are part of the balancing act that controls the levels of their prey, mostly small flying things that sting (mosquitoes, flies, etc), and help to keep our waterways from clogging up with fly larvae. They are nature’s pest reduction programme, and far friendlier on the sensitive eyes and noses of our children than any amount of pesticieds sprayed from handy cans bought in the supermarket. (carefully not naming brands there…)
On this account, I also like spiders
Not the first case of climate change causing decreased biodiversity - and we don’t have to look as far as Spain, why right here in NZ we have State Coal and Doc insisting that a few snails in the fridge is ok, and a carnivorous snail isn’t that much of a curiosity for them to make extra efforts to keep the species viable.
http://www.savehappyvalley.org.nz/augustus_action will tell you a bit more about that story; the world’s first case of state-sponsored species extinction.
Climate Change denial is inexcusable; how will we face future generations when they ask us why we didn’t stop this in it’s tracks?
Only one small sector of the economy is going to win out of this battle, and the other 95% who aren’t in the top 5% richest corporations in the world, will pay for the greed of the capitalist paradigm.
October 30th, 2006 at 9:35 am
If the government/ plebs are going to get serious about climate change they wil have to start with the travel industry which is one of the country’s largest employers. One of the implications of Peak oil/ energy shortage is a sort of rationalisation of economic sectors into cores such as farming, and outer fluff such as tourism, “as seen on TV!”, etc.. We will all head back to the welcoming gate and old oak tree at the family farm…ha!ha!
In biology some animals (arthropods) go into a hunker down position, (not metamorphosis). We need to develop that concept here based around (eg energy)
[That horrid Lindsay Mitchell is on Natrad at the moment…}
Henry
October 30th, 2006 at 11:52 am
On a very basic human level, without frogs, mosquitos become even more of a nuisance.
We used to have these huge frog choruses, en masse singing in the evenings and sometimes through the day - but it’s dropped off over the last few years, very noticeably. I’ve missed it.
This year, we’ve had a wet spring and the ditches and troughs are full of frogs again and we hear them singing - so not all is yet lost. These are the green Australian ones - native ones are much rarer.
Apparently, there has been a shortage of frogs in India over the last few years as they have been caught for export to France. This industry alone has left fewer breeding frogs and with that and climate change, it is becoming a real problem especially for insect control.
Frogs are more important than it may seem!
October 30th, 2006 at 3:03 pm
Oh no! It infects toads too.
October 30th, 2006 at 7:26 pm
Janine says: “Frogs are more important than it may seem!”
They seem VERY important around here!
October 31st, 2006 at 10:14 am
gosh - environment stories are filling up our newspapers, tele screens, even making the front page of the Dom Post this morning - you’d think it’d be a great opportunity for new blog postings… and new and more debate and comments from the supporters and otherwise out there in cyberspace hungry for some new info.
i’m getting bored of frog nowadays, what a shame.
October 31st, 2006 at 10:26 am
Yes - eg recent news about a UK report that estimates huge economic impact of climate change. (Perhaps frog is working on a comment as we speak?) Or proposed coal conveyor to Marsden B through a nature reserve.
October 31st, 2006 at 10:40 am
I’ve summarised the current climate change happenings (in terms of news sources) if you’re interested Prim…
October 31st, 2006 at 10:47 am
Apologies folks - I was indeed working on a post, which is now up. Naturevision - sorry you’re finding the blog boring. Following the recent feedback exercise we’ve got something new happening very soon which will hopefully liven things up a bit - more details soon.
Cheers,
frog
October 31st, 2006 at 11:53 am
Had to share this rather strange and hilarious story about my cousin toad. Thanks to Conor for alerting me to it!