An Adventure in Sound - AudioBooks, ReadAlongs and Online Stories.

Giant Sponge Returns!!

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 11:03:52 +0000

We're glad to report that a bathtub-sized marine sponge rediscovered after a century of extinction.

Not found alive for over a century the evocatively named Neptune's cup sponge (Cliona patera) has been rediscovered off the shores of Singapore. Researchers with the environmental consulting DHI Group found the species during a routine dive. Although the specimen they found was small, the goblet-shaped sponge can reach nearly 5 feet (1.5 meters) high and the same in diameter.

"When we came across the sponge, we knew immediately that this was something very different," marine biologist Karenne Tun from DHI said in a press release.

First described in 1822, full-grown Neptune cups were used as bathtubs for children. Overharvesting for the magnificent organism, however, led to its near extinction. The sponge was last sighted in 1908 in Indonesian waters and believed to be extinct since then. However, dead Neptune's cups were found in dredge samples from northern Australia in the 1990s, providing hope that the species was still around.

"Basically, little is known about the Neptune's Cup, as it was never found alive," adds Tun. "Now we have the opportunity to study the biology and ecology of this impressive sponge and learn about its life cycle. [...] We've already had the first surprise: The Neptune's cup was thought to be a very slow growing species. However, between our last visits in April and August, respectively, it had grown several centimeters."

Evolving over 150 million years ago, sponges anchor themselves to the marine floor, feeding on plankton and other small marine animals as water passes through their filtering bodies.

This story originally appeared in mongabay.com

The Sharks have a Secret

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 16:31:04 +0000

Noticed a report in the Daily Mail about how an antibiotic found in sharks could be used as drug to treat human viruses and revolutionise medicine.

Anyone who's listened to Rockford's Rock Opera audio book and apps will know that 'Creatures Secrets' are fundamental to our story; how losing creatures to extinction is ridding the world of potentially world changing discoveries. Perhaps now, at last, we'll begin to see sharks not a killers, but life savers?

More about sharks' secrets.

The compound, found in the liver of sharks, could be used as a new type of drug to treat a broad spectrum of diseases from dengue and yellow fever to hepatitis B, C and D.
The antibiotic, squalamine, is already known to be safe for use in humans as an antiviral agent.

Breakthrough: A compound found in sharks could protect humans from a range of diseases
Dr Michael Zasloff, from Georgetown University who led the study, said: 'To realise that squalamine potentially has broad antiviral properties is immensely exciting, especially since we already know so much from ongoing studies about its behaviour in people.'

They found that in both lab and animal experiments squalamine produced antiviral activity against the human pathogens found in the diseases such as some forms of hepatitis which cannot currently be treated.

Along with offering medical advances this discovery may solve the mystery of how sharks with primitive immune systems can so effectively fight viruses that plague all living creatures.
Dr Zasloff said: 'I believe squalamine is one of a family of related compounds that protects sharks and some other "primitive" ocean vertebrates, such as the sea lamprey, from viruses.
'Squalamine appears to protect against viruses that attack the liver and blood tissues, and other similar compounds that we know exist in the shark likely protect against respiratory viral infections, and so on.
'We may be able to harness the shark's novel immune system to turn all of these antiviral compounds into agents that protect humans against a wide variety of viruses.
'That would be revolutionary. While many antibacterial agents exist, doctors have few antiviral drugs to help their patients, and few of those are broadly active.'
Dr Zasloff discovered squalamine in 1993 and it has already been used in clinical trials to treat cancer and several eye disorders.
'I was interested in sharks because of their seemingly primitive but effective immune system. No one could explain why the shark was so hardy,' he said.

Water interesting discovery: The study may solve the mystery of how sharks with primitive immune systems can so effectively fight viruses that plague all living creatures
When he started to 'play' with the compound he found that it inhibited the growth of rapidly growing blood vessels, such as those found in tumour growth and certain retinal diseases.
Since 1995 it has been synthesised in the laboratory rather than taking any natural shark tissue.
Dr Zasloff remained interested in how the natural cholesterol type molecule, which has a net positive electrical charge, acted as an immune agent in sharks.
When it enters cells, and it can only access certain cells including those in blood vessels, capillaries and the liver, squalamine 'kicks off' positively-charged proteins that are bound to the negatively charged surface of the cells inner membrane.
Some of these displaced proteins are used by viruses to replicate and without the protein a virus's life cycle is disrupted, the microbe is rendered inert and the cell containing it is destroyed.
This means that squalamine seems to be designed to fight certain viral infections, Dr Zasloff claimed.
He said: 'To me, the key to squalamine is that once in the body it times its action to match the life cycle of most viruses.
'Most viruses take hours to complete their life cycle, the same time period that squalamine renders tissues and organs viral resistant after administration.
'In addition, it acts fast to stop viral replication, clearing the body of these predators within hours.
'Furthermore, because squalamine acts by making the host's tissues less receptive for infection, rather than by targeting a specific viral protein, the emergence of viral resistance would not be anticipated.'
In tissue culture studies squalamine was shown to inhibit the infection of human blood vessel cells by the dengue virus and human liver cells infected with hepatitis B and D, which can cause liver failure and cancer.
In animal studies, scientists from across the USA discovered that squalamine controlled infections of yellow fever, Eastern equine encephalitis virus, and murine cytomegalovirus, and in some cases cured the animals.
The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition online.

Original Story: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2039323/An-antibiotic-liver-sharks-revolutionise-human-medicine.html#ixzz1YVV2cXMa

The Creatures Have A Secret

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:09:00 +0000

This story, reported by the BBC and many others, highlights a recent report regarding the Earth's species and, highly relevantly to Rockford's Rock Opera - the ecological musical audio book - it states that many species may become extinct before we even discover them. Poor us....

Here's the story.

The natural world contains about 8.7 million species, according to a new estimate described by scientists as the most accurate ever.

But the vast majority have not been identified - and cataloguing them all could take more than 1,000 years.

The number comes from studying relationships between the branches and leaves of the "family tree of life".

The team warns in the journal PLoS Biology that many species will become extinct before they can be studied.

Although the number of species on the planet might seem an obvious figure to know, a way to calculate it with confidence has been elusive.

In a commentary also carried in PLoS Biology, former Royal Society president Lord (Robert) May observes: "It is a remarkable testament to humanity's narcissism that we know the number of books in the US Library of Congress on 1 February 2011 was 22,194,656, but cannot tell you - to within an order of magnitude - how many distinct species of plants and animals we share our world with."

Now, it appears, we can.

"We've been thinking about this for several years now - we've had a look at a number of different approaches, and didn't have any success," one of the research team, Derek Tittensor, told BBC News.

"So this was basically our last chance, the last thing we tried, and it seems to work."

Dr Tittensor, who is based at the UN Environment Programme's World Conservation Monitoring Centre (Unep-WCMC) and Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK, worked on the project alongside peers from Dalhousie University in Canada and the University of Hawaii.

The vast majority of the 8.7 million are animals, with progressively smaller numbers of fungi, plants, protozoa (a group of single-celled organisms) and chromists (algae and other micro-organisms).

The figure excludes bacteria and some other types of micro-organism.

Linnaean steps
About 1.2 million species have been formally described, the vast majority from the land rather than the oceans.

Continue reading the main story
The natural world in numbers

Animals: 7.77 million (12% described)
Fungi: 0.61 million (7% described)
Plants: 0.30 million (70% described)
Protozoa: 0.04 million (22% described)
Chromists: 0.03 million (50% described)
The trick this team used was to look at the relationship between species and the broader groupings to which they belong.

In 1758, Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus developed a comprehensive system of taxonomy, as the field is known, which is still - with modifications - in use today.

Groups of closely related species belong to the same genus, which in turn are clustered into families, then orders, then classes, then phyla, and finally into kingdoms (such as the animal kingdom).

The higher up this hierarchical tree of life you look, the rarer new discoveries become - hardly surprising, as a discovery of a new species will be much more common than the discovery of a totally new phylum or class.

The researchers quantified the relationship between the discovery of new species and the discovery of new higher groups such as phyla and orders, and then used it to predict how many species there are likely to be.

"We discovered that, using numbers from the higher taxonomic groups, we can predict the number of species," said Dalhousie researcher Sina Adl.

"The approach accurately predicted the number of species in several well-studied groups such as mammals, fishes and birds, providing confidence in the method."

And the number came out as 8.7 million - plus or minus about a million.

Muddied waters
If this is correct, then only 14% of the world's species have yet been identified - and only 9% of those in the oceans.

The rate of species discovery has remained about even ever since Haeckel compiled his Kunstformen der Natur (Art Forms of Nature) a century ago
"The rest are primarily going to be smaller organisms, and a large proportion of them will be dwelling in places that are hard to reach or hard to sample, like the deep oceans," said Dr Tittensor.

"When we think of species we tend to think of mammals or birds, which are pretty well known.

"But when you go to a tropical rainforest, it's easy to find new insects, and when you go to the deep sea and pull up a trawl, 90% of what you get can be undiscovered species."

At current rates of discovery, completing the catalogue would take over 1,000 years - but new techniques such as DNA bar-coding could speed things up.

The scientists say they do not expect their calculations to mark the end of this line of inquiry, and are looking to peers to refine methods and conclusions.

One who has already looked through the paper is Professor Jonathan Baillie, director of conservation programmes at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).

"I think it's definitely a creative and innovative approach, but like every other method there are potential biases and I think it's probably a conservative figure," he told BBC News.

"But it's such a high figure that it wouldn't really matter if it's out by one or two million either way.

"It is really picking up this point that we know very little about the species with which we share the planet; and we are converting the Earth's natural landscapes so quickly, with total ignorance of our impact on the life in them."

Celebrating 500 Facebook Audiobook Fans

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 18:22:40 +0000

If you haven't joined us already, please 'like' Rockford's Rock Opera on Facebook. We've just hit 500 fans. Thanks everyone and please do stop by and say hello.

Here!! :-)

A Great Children's Audio Book Review from a Brilliant Children's Blog

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 13:06:20 +0000

Here's a lovely Review of Rockford's Rock Opera from Inside the Wendy House - a lovely blog for children and parents:

This is what they said :-)

Music is a fundamental part of life Inside the Wendy House. From my own teenaged songstress, to my guitar playing husband to my all singing, all dancing little ones, not a moment goes by where our love of music does not figure in some way.

So when I was offered the chance to review Rockford's Rock Opera I was only too happy to be able to introduce something new into my home for my music loving family to enjoy. I'm so glad I did.

Created by Sweetapple and written by comedian Steve Punt, it is an adventure like no other. An amazing story where sound effects, narration, fantastic characters and wonderful songs combine to create a unique adventure in sound. The central character is Rockford the dog.

The story tells us about the far, away Sea of Tranquility where the Island of Infinity lies. Here is home to the last one of every extinct animal species, the world's lost creatures. And they have a secret for the world!

The Rockford's Rock Opera is a triple CD pack. The complete story of Rockford's Rock Opera is told in three parts. Each enhanced CD features an animated video bringing the story to life and comes with a 24 page illustrated booklet featuring the song lyrics.

The Rockford's Rock Opera is like an audio book which tells a beautiful story with great songs. It is quite dark in parts but is ultimately about hope. At two and a half hours long it is perfect for a long car journey (which is how we first listened to it!) It is an entertaining tale with memorable tunes, fantastical creatures and great music. "The Cocklebur Ick" song has become a family favourite with its catchy chorus!

The most powerful thing about this Rock Opera is the message contained within the songs. The idea that we can learn so much from the world and its vast array of inhabitants, many of which have been around for millions of years. It reminds us of the tragedy of extinction. It teaches us to respect our world, to listen, to look, to learn. The power to save the planet is here...we just have to find it! In these times when children are so clued up on the environment, this comes as a real breath of fresh air and food for thought about the future of our planet (albeit in a fictional, fantastical way!)

For more details, sample music and to buy a copy, check out their website. For just £15.99 you could own this stunning piece of musical storytelling!

A big THANK YOU for such a lovely review! For more like this please subscribe to Inside the Wendy House

Dinosaurs become extinct... again!

Wed, 18 May 2011 17:36:04 +0000

Spotted this sorry and thought I should share it with fans of Rockford's Rock Opera!

Certain dinosaurs may soon go extinct from the record books because they are duplicates of animals already on the books.

John Horner, a paleontologist at Montana State University in the USA, and others suspect that at least 50 dinosaurs on the record books now have been incorrectly identified.

Paleontologist Michael J. Benton at the University of Bristol in the UK said that up to 51.7% of all dinosaur species are mis-categorised.

H This means that more than half the species of dinosaurs ever named were in error!

Horner added that at present, "new" dinosaurs are discovered and named at a rate of one every two weeks. Thousands of dinosaurs are now on record, with many of them probably being duplicates of animals already on the books.

Horner, who has two dinosaurs named after him, is proposing that paleontologists follow a rigorous set of procedures known as the Unified Frame of Reference (UFR) when attempting to identify fossils.

The UFR will take into account microscopic analysis of the fossils, which uses technologies not available in the past.

It will also require detailed analysis of where the remains were found, how they appeared when first observed pre-excavation, how they compare to existing species, and more.

"The proposals by Horner are very important as a reminder of a problem paleontologists are aware of, but we still don't know if it will provide a 100% watertight solution that means we will never make mistakes about dinosaur species ever again," said Benton.

The study was reported in Science journal.

Rockford's Rock Opera introduces Audiobook App Part Three

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 15:29:03 +0000

Part 3 of Rockford's Rock Opera - the award winning ecological audio book for all ages - has now been released as a iPhone / iPod Touch / iPad App!

And Android versions will be ready soon!

So there are now THREE Rockford's Rock Opera Apple Apps available:

Part One (over an hour of pictures, music, story and animation) is FREE!!!

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/id345554761?mt=8

Part Two (40 minutes with lots more) £2.99 / $4.99

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/id396897529?mt=8

Part Three (The best yet!) £2.99 / $4.99

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/id429178855?mt=8

And Part Four is on its way soon.

We do hope you enjoy them! Perfect for the holidays!!

It's great to hear from you so, please join us on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/rockfordsrockopera

That's it for the moment.

An Audio Book for Earth Hour

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 16:52:01 +0000

As you may know, at Rockford's Rock Opera, we're supporters of the work of the World Wildlife fund. And one of the WWF's biggest annual events is Earth Hour - a chance to switch off for an hour.

Now, as the globe prepares to switch off for Earth Hour, cities across the world are leading the drive to take Earth Hour 2011 beyond the hour by committing to lasting environmental actions including:

• Sydney, Australia where actions include switching to LED lights in parks and streets
• Medellin, Colombia where long term water protection and tree planting initiatives form part of a commitment that goes "beyond 60 minutes"
• Shenyang, China where 38,000 hectares of land will be reforested
• And a race among Sweden's cities to be named the Earth Hour capital.

Earth Hour is well worth supporting and knowing more about. For more information visit earthhour.org

Rockford's Rock Opera Children's App hits Top 10!

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 18:12:01 +0000

Rockford's Rock Opera, the award winning ecological musical App for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, has hit the Top 10 of the App Book Charts.

At time of writing, Rockford's Rock Opera (Part 2) - £2.99 from the Apple App Store - is No 9 in the App Book Charts, beating other classic children's brands such as Mickey Mouse and The Three Little Pigs! And Rockford's Rock Opera (Part 1), which is free, is now at No 20 in the free charts.

Importantly, these chart positions have been achieved with no promotion on behalf of Rockford's creators. Word of mouth among children and parents has been the key.

With two further Parts now nearing completion, these are exciting times for Rockford's Rock Opera which recently passed another milestone, 1,000,000 story downloads from the www.RockfordsRockOpera.com website.

With a mixture of great music, clear narration, songs, animation and illustrations, together with information about the facts behind the story, Rockford's Rock Opera is the perfect app for all ages.

About Rockford's Rock Opera

Writing in The Times newspaper, children's audiobook reviewer, Christina Hardyment said:

"Rockford's Rock Opera is an amazing mix of story, songs and sound effects. It has a freshness that makes you smile as you listen and could become a cult favourite as beloved as Wallace and Gromit.

Created by Sweetapple and featuring and scripted by respected BBC writer and performer, Steve Punt, this is also a story is a story with an original ecological message - a unique 'take' on the threat of extinction and the effect man is having upon life on earth. The Rockford's Rock Opera website is full of fascinating information about the story and the facts behind the fiction.

To discover Rockford's Rock Opera, take a look at our website or search Rockford's Rock Opera in the Apple App store

The Best Children's Audio Books 2010

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 15:32:34 +0000

Rockford's Rock Opera is the perfect Christmas audio book for all ages. Children and adults alike. Not only its there a Christmas, wintery feel to the story, complete with snow and magical happenings, it's an ecological tale of hope for all ages.

Here's the Guardian's Christmas audiobook review:

"For years I've distributed Christmas presents of Peter and the Wolf to small children starting flute/clarinet/piano lessons. This year I'm breaking new ground with this thoroughly modern musical for kids about a boy called Moog and a dog called Rockford...

Ingenious story, foot-tapping music and three booklets containing not just the lyrics so you can all sing along, but lots of quirky pictures of strange animals, sci-fi scenery, Battersea power station and other stuff that children think about while practising arpeggios."
Sue Arnold (The Guardian)

Of course, Rockford's Rock Opera isn't just for children learning music. Another who loves a good Christmas audio story and great music at Christmas will enjoy the adventure.

As The Times Best Kids Audiobooks for Christmas review said:

"Rockford's Rock Opera is an amazing mix of story, songs and sound effects. It has a freshness that makes you smile as you listen and could become a cult favourite as beloved as Wallace and Gromit."
Christina Hardyment (The Times)

But, as the Observer Review of the Best Audiobooks pointed out, the great thing about Rockford's Rock Opera is that you can sample an hour of the story free for Christmas. It's a free Christmas story online for everyone to enjoy this festive season.

Happy Christmas and welcome to Rockford's Rock Opera the best free children's audio book for Xmas!

The Award WInning Children's Audio Book App

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 15:17:58 +0000

Rockford's Rock Opera, the award winning ecological musical for children and adults, has announced the launch of a new children's audio book app for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

Rockford's Rock Opera (Part One) was launched as an app in January 2010 and swiftly became the most popular children's audio book in the App Store.

Now, with the launch of Part Two of the story as a paid for App, fans can enjoy the next amazing instalment in the musical story which recently won the prestigious iParenting Media Award.

With a mixture of great music, clear narration, songs, animation and illustrations, together with information about the facts behind the story, Rockford's Rock Opera on the iPhone is the perfect app for all ages. Great for keeping children quiet with a safe, thought provoking ecological tale. Visit the App store, read our reviews, and download Rockford's Rock Opera (Part One) FREE and then buy Rockford's Rock Opera (Part Two) for just £4.99

Parts Three and Four of Rockford's Rock Opera (making up the whole story) will be launched as iPhone/iPod Touch Apps soon but, if you can't wait to know what happens, visit the website http://www.rockfordsrockopera.com and buy the audiobook on CD, as story downloads or as an online read along book.

More about Rockford's Rock Opera

Rockford's Rock Opera has now been downloaded or streamed on the web by over 1,000,000 people - in fact, it's the world's most popular enhanced audio book.

Writing in The Times, audiobook reviewer, Christina Hardyment said:

"Rockford's Rock Opera is an amazing mix of story, songs and sound effects. It has a freshness that makes you smile as you listen and could become a cult favourite as beloved as Wallace and Gromit.

Rockford's Rock Opera a new breed of 21^st century, ipod friendly, audio entertainment; think of 'Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' crossed with 'Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds', or 'Jungle Book' meets 'Jurassic Park' via Sgt. Pepper.

But really, it's not like anything else - a funny, sad, psychedelic, spell binding, thought provoking 21^st Century adventure.

Rockford's Rock Opera is NOT the creation of a global entertainment company. It is the work of award winning alternative entrepreneurs, 'Sweetapple', (www.sweetapple.co.uk) and a handful of dedicated people working for the love of this amazing, original story. The project was created in an attic in Barnet, North London, and is entirely self produced and financed.

Featuring and scripted by respected BBC writer and performer, Steve Punt, this is also a story is a story with an original ecological message - a unique 'take' on the threat of extinction and the effect man is having upon life on earth. The Rockford's Rock Opera website is full of fascinating information about the story and the facts behind the fiction.

As a result, the project has been acclaimed by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Rockford's Rock Opera stage show is going live across the UK in 2010.

So what's the Story about?

Far away in the Sea of Tranquillity lies the Island of Infinity, home to the last one of every extinct species.

Infinity has a secret for the world but Moog, a boy from Battersea in London, and Rockford his dog, are the only one who can deliver its message. Travelling to Infinity Moog and Rockford get drawn into an adventure in sound that threatens the entire human race.

Matthew Sweetapple, co creator of Rockford's Rock Opera, explains:

"It's great to see how popular Rockford's Rock Opera had become on the App store. As an enhanced App audio book, the story works really well. It's a bit like a 21^st century Jackernory. Great for travelling and, with more and more iPhones being used to keep the kids happy, we're confident it'll prove increasingly popular with harassed parents!"

Rockford's Rock Opera is not a traditional 'stage musical' with hammy songs, its diverse musical inspiration can be found in The Beatles, The Small Faces,
(early) Genesis, XTC and works such as Roger Glover's 'Butterfly Ball', and Harry Nilssen's 'The Point'.

http://www.rockfordsrockopera.com/home

About Sweetapple

www.sweetapple.co.uk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweetapple

Husband and wife team, Matthew and Elaine Sweetapple (Sweetapple) create original ideas, campaigns, products and promotions for charitable causes and for the benefit of society as a whole. Sweetapple ideas are now being adopted by not-for-profit organisations and campaigners around the world at no cost whatsoever to the charities whatsoever.

Some recent award winning Sweetapple campaigns included Peeball, an idea created for The Prostate Cancer Charity (see http://www.peeball.com/), Remember Me, the weeping flower roadside memorial sign to raise the profile of the road accident victim's charity, RoadPeace.

Stephen Hawking on Extinction

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 13:38:29 +0000

I spotted this story today and, since a version of this famous scientist appears in Rockford's Rock Opera, ecological musical audio book I felt I should share it.

According to astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, author of A Brief History of Time, the human species faces the ever-growing threat of extinction unless efforts are made to successfully colonise outer space within the next 200 years.

During an interview with website Big Think, Professor Hawking cited the 1963 Cuban missile crisis - when Russia and the United States teetered on the verge of nuclear war - as a prime example of the sort of self-destructive danger we face as a species.

He also said the frequency of such perilous threats is only likely to increase in the future and, as a race, humans will need to seek "great care and judgement" in order to dodge complete extinction.

"It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand or million," he warned. "Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain inward looking on planet Earth, but to spread out into space."

"But I'm an optimist," he added during the interview. "If we can avoid disaster for the next two centuries, our species should be safe, as we spread into space."

Adding to the weight of his convictions, Professor Hawking said Earth's finite resources and mankind's booming population growth are making life on the planet increasingly dangerous - potentially destructive issues that can only be quelled by seeking out other inhabitable worlds within our own galaxy.

While glitzy Hollywood sci-fi might suggest galactic colonisation is well within mankind's grasp, scientists will first need to significantly increase propulsion capabilities if escaping extinction is to be achieved.

Specifically, the nearest neighbouring star to our own sun is Proxima Centauri, which would take 4.2 years to reach if travelling at the speed of light (almost 300 thousand kilometres per second). If we were to travel there with current rocket technology, the journey would likely take somewhere in the region of 50,000 years.

UN 'agrees' with Rockford's Rock Opera Audio Book

Sun, 04 Jul 2010 15:36:42 +0000

A yet to be published UN report says that the case for saving species is 'more powerful than climate change'

It goes on to say that goods and services from the natural world should be factored into the global economic system.

In relation to our audio story, Rockford's Rock Opera, this same message is encapsulated in our video:

http://www.rockfordsrockopera.com/video/distant-generation.asp

So, as you see, this is what we've been saying and what, via Rockford's Rock Opera, 100,000s children all over the world now know!!

From the Guardian, here's more information about the story:

The economic case for global action to stop the destruction of the natural world is even more powerful than the argument for tackling climate change, a major report for the United Nations will declare this summer.

The Stern report on climate change [http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2006/oct/30/economy.uk" title="], which was prepared for the UK Treasury and published in 2007, famously claimed that the cost of limiting climate change would be around 1%-2% of annual global wealth, but the longer-term economic benefits would be 5-20 times that figure.

The UN's biodiversity report ? dubbed the Stern for Nature ? is expected to say that the value of saving "natural goods and services", such as pollination, medicines, fertile soils, clean air and water, will be even higher ? between 10 and 100 times the cost of saving the habitats and species which provide them.

To mark the UN's International Day for Biological Diversity [http://www.cbd.int/idb/" title="] tomorrow, hundreds of British companies, charities and other organisations have backed an open letter from the Natural History Museum's director Michael Dixon warning that "the diversity of life, so crucial to our security, health, wealth and wellbeing is being eroded".

The UN report's authors go further with their warning on biodiversity, by saying if the goods and services provided by the natural world are not valued and factored into the global economic system, the environment will become more fragile and less resilient to shocks, risking human lives, livelihoods and the global economy.

"We need a sea-change in human thinking and attitudes towards nature: not as something to be vanquished, conquered, but rather something to be cherished and lived within," said the report's author, the economist Pavan Sukhdev.

The changes will involve a wholesale revolution in the way humans do business, consume, and think about their lives, Sukhdev, told The Guardian. He referred to the damage currently being inflicted on the natural world as "a landscape of market failures".

The report will advocate massive changes to the way the global economy is run so that it factors in the value of the natural world. In future, it says, communities should be paid for conserving nature rather than using it; companies given stricter limits on what they can take from the environment and fined or taxed more to limit over-exploitation; subsidies worth more than US$1tn (?696.5bn) a year for industries like agriculture, fisheries, energy and transport reformed; and businesses and national governments asked to publish accounts for their use of natural and human capital alongside their financial results.

And the potential economic benefits are huge. Setting up and running a comprehensive network of protected areas would cost $45bn a year globally, according to one estimate, but the benefits of preserving the species richness within these zones would be worth $4-5tn a year.

The report follows a series of recent studies showing that the world is in the grip of a mass extinction event as pollution, climate change, development and hunting destroys habitats of all types, from rainforests and wetlands to coastal mangroves and open heathland. However, only two of the world's 100 biggest companies believe reducing biodiversity is a strategic threat to their business, according to another report released tomorrow by PricewaterhouseCoopers, which is advising the team compiling the UN report.

"Sometimes people describe Earth's economy as a spaceship economy because we are basically isolated, we do have limits to how much we can extract, and why and where," said Sukhdev, who visited the UK WHEN as a guest of science research and education charity, the Earthwatch Institute [http://www.earthwatch.org/europe/" title="]..

The TEEB report shows that on average one third of Earth's habitats have been damaged by humans ? but the problem ranges from zero percent of ice, rock and polar lands to 85% of seas and oceans and more than 70% of Mediterranean shrubland. It also warns that in spite of growing awareness of the dangers, destruction of nature will "still continue on a large scale". The International Union for the Conservation of Nature has previously estimated that species are becoming extinct at a rate 1,000 and 10,000 times higher than it would naturally be without humans.

More Species on the Brink

Sun, 04 Jul 2010 15:30:11 +0000

Yet another species, sadly perhaps destined to appear in a future episode of Rockford's Rock Opera musical story for the iPod Touch, iPhone and now, the iPad.

A new survey has revealed that finless porpoises, a rare type of toothed whale living in the coastal waters of Asia, are more endangered than previously thought.

Scientists say there are two species of the creature in Asia and that they rarely intermingle, the BBC reported.

They have also warned that the ones living in the freshwater of China's Yangtze river are genetically unique and should be protected from extinction.

"The most surprising finding of this study is that the Yangtze finless porpoise represents a distinct genetic grouping, which is distinct from marine porpoises," Professor Guang Yang of China's Nanjing Normal University said.

According to the study published in the journal of Marine Biology, each population of finless porpoise is distinct with significant implications for their conservation and survival.

A group of Chinese and British researchers found that freshwater porpoises should be especially managed and conserved separately.

"The freshwater nature of this population makes it unique," Yang explained.

Scientists, however, are not sure whether the Yangtze finless porpoise should be granted species status.

"The most recent field survey conducted in 2006 suggested that there were around 1,000 individuals in the Yangtze River," Yang said.

"This is much smaller than previous estimates, suggesting a significant population decline in the past two decades."

The Yangtze River is the site of the first recorded extinction of a cetacean (whale, dolphins and porpoises), including the Baiji, a species of river dolphin.

Lizards getting too Hot... for our audio book

Fri, 14 May 2010 21:31:55 +0000

I noticed this recent report and, since we're now working on Part Two of Rockford's Rock Opera audio book, featuring some scaly characters, I thought I ought to mention it...

One-fifth of the world's lizard species, including iguanas, geckos, skinks and snakes, could disappear in a few decades unless steps are taken to curb global warming, an international team of scientists has warned.

The biologists, led by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Ohio University, say they've already recorded alarming die-offs of lizards in Mexico, France and Madagascar.

The weather in these regions, including Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, has become too hot for many lizards to handle, said Donald Miles, an OU evolutionary biologist.

Stressed by the heat, the lizards spend too much time seeking shelter instead of food. The heat also might affect their ability to reproduce, Miles said.

"What's surprising is how rapidly this can occur," Miles said. "In France, we've seen the decline of common lizard populations in the span of a decade."

The study puts lizards, including some in Ohio, on a growing list of animals and plants threatened by climate change. Biologists warn that each species plays a role, and that losing even one animal or plant carries unknown consequences.

Federal officials declared polar bears "threatened" in May 2008 because of the rapid loss of Arctic sea ice. Rising mountain temperatures also have made whitebark pines vulnerable to parasite beetles, which might wipe out the tree species, said Andrew Wetzler, director of wildlife programs for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

"As the world warms and the temperature rises, many animals' habitat essentially shrinks," Wetzler said. "It also means that other animals are showing up in places where they've never been before, and that can be particularly alarming."

UC-Santa Cruz biologist Barry Sinervo developed a model that ties lizard die-offs to rising temperatures and predicts where extinctions are most likely to occur.

The study is based in part on a new survey of 48 species of spiny lizards at 200 sites in Mexico that other researchers studied and reported on from 1975 to 1995. Sinervo and Miles found that 12 percent of the species at those sites had gone extinct.

The team reports that 6 percent of lizard species will disappear by 2050 and, if nothing is done, 20 percent will die out by 2080.

Their research, published today in the journal Science, accurately predicted vanishing populations of lizards recorded by biologists in North and South America, Europe, Africa and Australia.

"It is truly global and includes all the families of lizards," Sinervo wrote in an e-mail. "It is bad no matter where you look."

Miles said global warming could kill off the eastern fence lizard, Sceloporus undulatus, a 5-inch reptile found in southern Ohio forests. Timber rattlesnakes and northern copperhead snakes also could disappear.

Though people may not shed a tear over the loss of a lizard or venomous snake, each species is an integral part of Ohio's wildlife and ecology, said Peter Niewiarowski, a University of Akron evolutionary biologist.

Fence lizards, for example, prey on insects such as beetles, flies, grasshoppers and moths, many of which are considered pests. Snakes feed on mice and other rodents.

Lizards and snakes often are food for eagles, hawks and other predators. Their loss could create consequences that are impossible to predict, Niewiarowski said.

"You can't be concerned about lizards in isolation from other animals," he said. "They are critical to the overall functioning of the food web."