How to Help Amphibians on Save the Frogs Day: Kerry Kriger and Jon Entine Weigh In
Today, 29 April 2011, is the third annual world-wide “Save the Frogs Day”, instituted to create awareness about the plight of amphibians facing extinction.
According to savethefrogs.com: “Nearly one-third of the world’s 6,644 amphibian species are in danger of extinction and up to 200 species have completely disappeared in the last 30 years.”
The website’s founder, Dr. Kerry Kriger, wrote the following message:
It is my honor to be able to wish you a very happy Save The Frogs Day! Three years ago SAVE THE FROGS! did not even exist, but today our supporters will hold at least 118 events in 24 states and 20 countries, making this the largest day of amphibian education and conservation action in the planet’s history. The US Environmental Protection Agency knows about Save The Frogs Day; we’re making international news; and other nonprofits are promoting our efforts to their millions of members.
Today more than ever before I am sure that we are saving the frogs! Thanks to all those who are taking a stand, today and every day, against pesticides, dissections, the frog legs trade, habitat destruction and climate change, and thanks to all those who are helping us promote a society that respects and appreciates nature and wildlife.
However, Jon Entine writes at Huffpost Green that pesticides are not, as Save the Frogs and FrogTV will have you believe, the real cause of the frog deaths and it certainly doesn’t forebode a similar fate for humans as FrogTV implies. Although Entine agrees that frogs face extinction, he says the overwhelming cause is chytrid fungus, which coats a frog’s porous skin, cuts off its water supply and limits its oxygen. Other causes include climate change and habitat loss.
It’s not a good time to be a frog. The dodo was just one species of bird when it went the way of T-Rex. But according to some conservation scientists, we may be in an early stage of the extinction of an entire class of animals — amphibians, including frogs, toads and salamanders.
More to the point, say anti-pesticide campaigners mixing animal metaphors, amphibians are canaries in the mine. Big Agriculture, they say, is polluting the world with chemicals, slaying our helpless aqua buddies. Humans, you’re next.
To learn more about these exceptional creatures from a reliable source, take a look at Vincent Carruthers and Louis du Preez’s Frogs and Frogging.
Book details
- Frogs and Frogging in South Africa by Vincent Carruthers, Louis du Preez
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EAN: 9781770079144
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