| | | | | Welcome. This week, plastic-foam-eating bugs and an ominous milestone. But first, a turtle rescue. This is a shorter newsletter for the holiday, but I'll see you next week. Happy Thanksgiving. | | A mass abduction on an idyllic beach in Costa Rica has come with happy endings — 736 of them. Poachers snatched hundreds of sea turtle eggs from nests along Costa Rica's southern coast, a crucial refuge for olive ridley, green, hawksbill and other critically endangered sea turtles. The nest raiders planned to sell them as "bar snacks" before the eggs were recovered by Costa Rica's national coast guard, according to the country's Ministry of Public Security. Turtles eggs are often (and erroneously) regarded as aphrodisiacs. Nearly 200 eggs were returned to nests along the beaches of Punta Banco, and more than half the eggs had already hatched, according to local news media. The newborn turtles made it into the ocean Saturday. |  | | Costa Rica has pioneered sea turtle conservation since the 1950s, declaring key nesting beaches protected areas as well as retraining former poachers as tour guides and researchers. Five of the world's seven species of sea turtles return to lay eggs on Costa Rica's beaches, according to the Oceanic Society. In Punta Banco, conservationists, the coast guard and local residents have collaborated since 2004 to provide 24-hour protection to prevent eggs from reaching the black market, local news media report. One of the most promising developments has come from neighboring Panama. The Central American country granted sea turtles the legal right to thrive in a healthy environment, part of a growing movement to award animals legal protections typically reserved for humans. Advocates have used this legal leverage to push for greater safeguards at a time when many species face major environmental threats. Extending the most basic rights we normally think of as "human" to other beings in this world may be the only way we're going to continue sharing the planet with them. Dee Boersma, an ornithologist at the University of Washington who has been studying a colony of Magellanic penguins in Argentina for 40 years, has watched as the population declines. "My view is that the penguins have a right to exist," Boersma told the New York Times. Have questions for my next column? Write climatecoach@washpost.com. I read all your emails. |  |  | | Paul Hanrahan snapped this beautiful shot of the Dark Hedges in Northern Ireland. Planted in the 1700s, the avenue of beech trees has become one of the most photographed natural attractions in the United Kingdom. If you're thinking of planting a tree, the best time is centuries ago. But now is the next-best time. Send me your photos and stories at climatecoach@washpost.com. | | Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here to get The Climate Coach in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday. See you next Tuesday, Michael Coren, Climate Coach | | | | | | | | |
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