Karcher,+Samuel

Nov. 9 (#1)

__**West African Giraffes Escape Extinction**__
The giraffes in West Africa were nearing extinction, but now they have managed to quadruple their numbers in the last 13 years. In 1996, the numbers of this certain sub-species, specific to Western Africa were only 50, now they are up to more than 200. On a larger scale, about 10 years ago more than 140,000 giraffes were in Africa, now there is estimated to be less than 100,000. There were two main reasons for the near extinction and massive decline in the population of giraffes. The first is poachers, and the second reason is habitat loss. Now, though, hunting the West African giraffes in illegal and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of many times the average yearly wage of a farmer. Conservationists and the Nigerian government have also been trying to rebuild the giraffes lost habitat. Over the last 10 or so years, the number of giraffes has gone up, but also the number of giraffes than people can see. They are getting very used to humans, and are forced to go close to humans to look for food as a result of habitat loss. Niger is taking advantage of this increase in giraffes and visibility of giraffes to attract tourism.

MSNBC article [] BBC article []

The two articles were from BBC World Service and MSNBC World News. The NBC article was three pages, while the BBC article was only one page. The NBC article definitely had more information in it. Also, they both had the same picture, except the picture on the BBC article was a lot smaller and did not have the photographers name on it. The NBC article went into detail about all of the issues with the West African giraffes. It talked about poachers, habitat loss, and the ways people are trying to save the giraffes, tourism, and some other things. The BBC article talked about most of those things but only very briefly. If I just had to pick one article, it would definitely be the NBC article. The BBC article was written more in note-taking format with single-sentence paragraphs stating one fact about giraffes. However, the NBC article was a little bit hard to understand at times.

I think it is great that both the government and conservationists and trying to save the giraffes, and that they are succeeding. It’s always sad to hear about another species going extinct or even hearing about species that are already extinct. The NBC article said that in a way, poachers were indirectly helping the giraffes by killing off all the lions and leopards that killed the young giraffes. But that is two more species that are now endangered or extinct.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Nov. 9 (#2)

**Lake** **Makgadikgadi** **Stone Artifacts**
Researchers at Oxford University have recently found 4 giant (30cm) stone axes on the bottom of the dried up Lake Makgadikgadi in Botswana. The discovery of these stone tools helped explain how humans dealt with climate change up to 150,000 years ago. Thousands of other stone artifacts have been found in the Makgadikgadi lake bed. The tools coincide with the last European Ice Age. According to Professor David Thomas of Oxford “Many of the tools were found on the dry lake floor, not around its edge, which challenges the view that big lakes were only attractive to humans when they were full of water.” He goes on to say that when the lake levels were low, animals gathered in the middle where the water was and that’s where the early Africans hunted. The research team also found the remains of very old sand dunes suggesting that the area was once a lot drier and windier than it is now. Professor David Thomas also says that the interior of Southern Africa did not have very many archaeological artifacts, except in the Makgadikgadi where they found thousands of Stone Age artifacts.

BBC Article [] Thaindian Article []

My two news sources were BBC and Thaindian News. The BBC article was very short, only five paragraphs and the Thaindian article was about 4 times longer. The BBC article did have a picture but the caption sort of contradicts what the article is saying. The article says that the “discovered artefacts that explain how humans adapted to changes in their environment up to 150,000 years ago.” But then the caption says that “The unwieldy giant stone artefacts puzzled Professor Thomas's team”. The BBC article was also very vague, and did not provide very much information. The Thaindian article had a lot more information and went into a lot more detail and the finds and what they mean and the history of the Makgadikgadi. It also had a lot of quotes from Professor Thomas, while the BBC article didn’t have any direct quotes.

I think it’s really cool that scientists and researchers are finding very old artifacts that help tell history. One thing that I like the most about them finding these artifacts is that they can find out how Stone Age Africans coped with climate change, and that they did cope with it at all. Hopefully some people will be able to learn something about climate change and how to deal with it from these discoveries.

I didn’t like the BBC article very much. It seemed a bit like an afterthought, and they just wanted to get something written about the finds. There were no direct quotes, which make me think they didn’t spend any time trying to get the facts, and instead half of the article was not facts at all.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Nov. 18 (#3) The ice on Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, is melting rapidly. From 1912 to 2007, 95 years, 85 percent of the ice had melted. And just in seven years from 2000 to 2007, a quarter of the remaining ice had melted. Scientists are saying that the ice may not be around much longer. Lonnie Thompson, a paleoclimatologist at Ohio State University, says global warming can be partly to blame. But not all researchers are saying that global warming is the cause. The ice fields are shrinking, and thinning. In the same seven year period, the north ice fields have thinned by 6.2 feet and the south ice fields have thinned by 16.7 feet. Thompson also said that similar ice field shrinkage has been happening in other places in Africa, as well as South America, Indonesia and the Himalayas.
 * __ Mount Kilimanjaro’s Melting Ice __**
 * 1) []
 * 2) []

I think it’s sad that the ice caps are melting. Especially since most of the ice has melted in that past century, probably mostly because of humans. Hopefully there is something that we can do, and even if it is possible, we shouldn’t completely stop the ice melting because a lot of it is probably natural. If we stop all the ice from melting, it might be interfering with the natural cycle of the climate, and that might be just as bad.

The New York Times article had a little more writing in it, but the Seattle Time article had more numbers, which in this case, I felt were more helpful. They were both a little unclear about what was causing it, but at least the NY Times article said that researchers “reached no consensus on whether the melting could be attributed mainly to humanity’s role in warming the global climate.”

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Nov. 21, 2009 (#4) Somali judge, Mohamed Abdi Aware, was shot and killed on Wednesday. He was the judge who had sentenced Somali pirates to long jail terms. Gunmen shot hit multiple times in the head and chest as he left his mosque in Bossaso, part of Somalis Puntland region. Aware had jailed many members of the gangs and traffickers that are in the Puntland region. Ibrahim Elmi Warsame was also killed on Wednesday in Putland’s capital. He is a local member of parliament. Police are investigating both the killing, but are unsure if the two are connected. [] []
 * __ Gunmen Kill Somali Judge __**

Both articles were pretty short, but the NY Times article did not have anything about Ibrahim Elmi Warsame in it. The Aljazeera article also had other facts about Somalia and Putland. The NY Times article was the only article to have a quote, which was from Aware’s cousin, Abdulahi Jama.

I think that what happened is really bad, and that there should be a lot more to stop it from happening again. I agree with what Abdulahi Jama said, that “These gangs hate him for his justice. We suspect on of them may have had something to do with his assassination.” Neither article had anything about what the pirates were doing that made them get sentenced, and I might feel slightly different if I know what they were doing and why. But still, it doesn’t make it ok to kill someone.