To my dear visitors and commenters

Hi, everybody! I've noticed with lots of joy and happiness, that thousands of comments have been written in my posts. It's wonderful that so may people around the world appreciate my work. Therefore, I want to thank you for that and ,at the same time I want to ask you to be this blog's followers. It's fast and easy! Make it be even more visited and spread all over the world! I'm a woman, a teacher of English in Portugal, and I've been away for quite a long time because of my father's health. Unfortunately he died from Covid19 a few months ago. Now I felt it was time to restart my activity in this and other blogs I owe. I've recently created a new one in a partnership with a street photographer, Mr. Daniel Antunes. He's fabulous! https://pandpbydandd.blogspot.com I'd like you to visit it and, who knows, become our followers. The poems, chronicles and thoughts are all mine. Thank you so much! Kisses :-)

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Saturday, January 24, 2015

The Great Barrier Reef- Australia

locator map of Queensland

The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,300 kilometres (1,400 mi) over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres (133,000 sq mi). The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, Australia.



The Great Barrier Reef can be seen from outer space and is the world's biggest single structure made by living organisms. This reef structure is composed of and built by billions of tiny organisms, known as coral polyps. It supports a wide diversity of life and was selected as a World Heritage Site in 1981. CNN labeled it one of the seven natural wonders of the world. The Queensland National Trust named it a state icon of Queensland.


A large part of the reef is protected by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, which helps to limit the impact of human use, such as fishing and tourism. Other environmental pressures on the reef and its ecosystem include runoff, climate change accompanied by mass coral bleaching, and cyclic population outbreaks of thecrown-of-thorns starfish. According to a study published in October 2012 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the reef has lost more than half its coral cover since 1985.
The Great Barrier Reef has long been known to and used by the Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and is an important part of local groups' cultures and spirituality. The reef is a very popular destination for tourists, especially in the Whitsunday Islands and Cairns regions. Tourism is an important economic activity for the region, generating over $3 billion per year.
In November 2014, Google launched Google Underwater Street View in 3D of the Great Barrier Reef.
In Wikipedia

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Protecting Great Barrier Reef 'needs A$785m' fund

Australia's Great Barrier Reef needs an investment of at least A$785m ($643m, £426m) over five years to protect it from pollution, a report says.

Great Barrier Reef
Scientists have long been warning of threats to the unique wildlife in the Great Barrier Reef

Climate change and water pollution were acting as a "double whammy" on the reef's health, said the report compiled by natural resource management groups.
The report called for co-operation from farmers and rigorous coastal planning.
The reef, a major tourist destination and a rich marine habitat, faces many threats to its eco-system.
Rising sea temperatures and pollution from agriculture are believed to be among the biggest dangers.
Among other threats, the latest report highlighted the destruction of coral by outbreaks of Crown of Thorns starfish, which were caused by nitrogen run-offs from farms.
Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef
The Reef Regions Investment Plan, prepared by six natural resource management groups operating in the state of Queensland, found that floodplains, their wetlands, and estuaries and their habitats were the most degraded parts of the reef's eco-system.
"Managing, repairing and protecting the reef is not a start-stop-restart activity," said the authors of the report.
They called for secure investment, as well as five-yearly progress reviews and the "readjustment of priorities and investment profile in the context of review findings".
The report also reviewed the Australian government's plan to protect the reef, the Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan.
It suggested that many of the targets in the plan are ambitious, especially without further investment.
The reef's environment is expected to come under further strain with the proposed expansion of ports to export coal.
From BBC News

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

India's tiger population sees 30% increase

India says it now has almost a third more tigers than it did four years ago.


A Royal Bengal Tiger pauses in a jungle clearing in Kaziranga National Park, east of Guwahati, India - 21 December 2014
India said it was willing to donate tiger cubs to the international community to help conservation efforts
Presenting the findings of the latest tiger census, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said the tiger population had risen from 1,706 in 2011 to 2,226 in 2014.
He said a number of government initiatives to streamline tiger conservation were behind the increase.
India is estimated to be home to around 70% of the world's tigers.
Mr Javadekar described the results of the census as a "huge success story".
'Great news'
"Never before has such an exercise been taken on such a massive scale where we have unique photographs of 80% of India's tigers," he told journalists in New Delhi.

"While the tiger population is falling in the world, it is rising in India. This is great news," he added.
Tiger conservation practices that had proved successful in India could be adopted elsewhere, he suggested.
He also said India was willing to donate tiger cubs to the international community and play a key role in global tiger conservation.
Wildlife campaigners had been expressing concerns over dwindling numbers of tigers for some time.
The Times of India says that as recently as 2008, census figures showed a tiger population of just 1,411.
From BBC news

Wikipedia

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