Pollution can trigger swarms of jellyfish production because it is carried into the oceans both by weather which carries it in as rain and as run off from sewage systems. Pollution stresses nomura jellyfish and causes them to repopulate as fast as they can as the environment is what triggers their reproductive cycles
In the Danakil Desert of East Africa, sandstorms which occur become so large that they envelop all of North Africa, carry across the Atlantic Ocean and end up settling into South America, acting as the perfect fertilizer for the Amazon rainforest
China is one of the only countries in which recently acquired ivory can be sold legally, and because it is in such high demand, China’s insatiable thirst for ivory is devastating elephant populations around the world. 80% of the Chinese middle class own one or more pieces of ivory and 84% of those people intend to purchase more in the future. Trade between Africa and China between 2003 and 2013 has jumped from $6,000,000,000 ($6 billion) to over $100,000,000,000 ($100 billion). China has been investing in Africa, building roads and shipping ports as a way to streamline the trading process. Some of the most popular goods traded include turtles which are eaten, shark fins which are also ingested, rhinoceros horn which is ground up and consumed, and elephant ivory which is carved into decorations. 60,000 shipping containers enter Chinese ports each day, with less than 1% being searched, making Chinese ports a smugglers paradise. Only 16% of ivory sold in China is legally traded and can be verified to have been sourced from legally acquired sources. Kenya has achieved success with elephant protection due to private philanthropy which funds the ability to patrol Kenyan parks via helicopter and land vehicles with armed security personnel, trained guards who have been authorized to shoot to kill when poachers have been identified actively poaching or attempting to poach
When Charles Darwin created the phrase “survival of the fittest”, he did so before the term “ecosystem” was commonly used within the English vernacular. Darwin originally intended to state that the species or organism which fit in best with its environment, would have the most probable chance of survival. It is a common misconception that Darwin was referring to physical attributes like strength, speed, and fight or flight endurance
200 years ago, the world had approximately 1,000,000,000 (1 billion) people. Today there are more than 7,000,000,000 (7 billion) people worldwide. By the end of the century, it has been predicted that Earth will have approximately 10,000,000,000 (10 billion) people. The majority, but not all, of the world’s population increase is due to impoverished third world countries as the governments of these nations are not meeting the same standards of industrialized countries in terms of educating their populous regarding sexual activity and birth control as well as affording free or subsidized birth control interventions. It is estimated that the world will not exceed 12,000,000,000 (12 billion) people as many countries, both industrialized and non-industrialized are now declining in their birth rates, due to conscious efforts made by governments to educate the general public in respect to sexual health
130 species go extinct each day. 99% of all life which has ever lived upon Earth, is now extinct. Most species of mammals only survive 1,000,000 (1 million) years before going extinct. Modern human beings have existed for 200,000 years, but the most distant related ancestors of human beings, creatures more apelike than human but still bipedal and using tools, date back 3,000,000 (3 million) years with that particular ancestor being named “Australopithecus afarensis”
Life on Earth varies from the massively large as is the case with trees which reach heights of 100 meters and have a mass of 1000 tonnes, to the incredibly small as is with bacterium which are less than 1,000,000th (1 millionth) of a millimeter with a mass less than 10,000,000,000,000th (10 trillionth) of a gram. These differences span over 22 orders of magnitude in mass