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ogy have launched a competition with hundreds of other engineering students at colleges around the globe, including India and China, to produce the first plug-in electric hybrid that gets 200 miles per gallon within three years. And Silicon Valley upstart Tesla Motors has plans to start selling its fully electric, $95,000 roadster early next year. Actors George Clooney and Matt Damon have each already reserved one.
But what of those who foresee no future in driving at any miles per gallon? These are the stalwart bike activists who pedal to work or the store or school, and this August, the Bush administration gave them a swift quick in the spokes. The secretary of transportation declared that bike paths and trails are not legitimate forms of transportation, as she attempted to blame the tragic Minneapolis bridge collapse, which killed 13 people and injured 100 more, on money being diverted from shoring up the nation's bridges to building paths and trails. That's right. According to Mary Peters, bike paths kill.
This year, the drumbeat of extinction grew louder, as traditional threats like habitat loss and poaching met the newfangled menace of global warming, putting stress on many critters already under pressure. "We previously assumed that if the land is protected, then the plants and animals living there will persist," said Sandy Andelman, an ecologist with Conservation International. "That may be wishful thinking."
No nature preserve, however well protected, can reliably shelter its resident plants, insects, birds and primates from the vagaries of changes to the Earth's atmosphere. More than half of the world's protected areas, such as national parks and forest reserves, are likely to be negatively impacted by global warming, even in a best-case scenario, according to a new study from scientists with Conservation International, the University of Maryland and the University of Wisconsin.
Already, almost a third of bird species in the U.S. need help to avoid going the way of the dodo, according to a new report from the Audubon Society and the American Bird Conservancy released in November. That followed the news that 16,306 species are now on the brink of extinction around the globe, according to the latest IUCN Red List. And a third of primate species, humans' closest living relatives, are also staring down extinction, with the 25 most endangered species barely able to fill a ballpark. "If you took all of the remaining individuals of those 25 species that are on the list, and you gave each one a seat in a football stadium, you probably couldn't fill the stadium," says Russell Mittermeier, president of Conservation International, who is chairman of the IUCN's Species Survival Commission's Primate Specialist Group.
Yet, efforts to curb global warming could save tropical rain forest habitat, home to many of the world's threatened flora and fauna. Forests are like giant carbon sinks, as the leaves of trees and plants suck up carbon dioxide in the atmosphere through photosynthesis, converting it into wood and other biomass. When a forest is cleared or burned for agriculture or ranching, much of that carbon dioxide is released back into the atmosphere. That's why deforestation accounts for some 20 percent of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions.
"We'll never solve the climate challenge unless we address the loss of tropical forests, which puts out as much carbon dioxide as all the planes, trains and cars worldwide," said Stephanie Meeks, acting CEO and president of the Nature Conservancy, at a news conference at the Bali climate talks.
The Nature Conservancy is helping the World Bank create incentives to preserve rain forests. An effort called Cool Earth, which has won the support of former British prime minister Tony Blair, among others, is also raising money to preserve forests in the name of climate protection. At the Bali conference, saving rain forests in developing countries became a priority for the next international climate treaty. It's a good start to 2008.
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