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astronomy

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"China May Be Earth's First Nation to Detect Alien Life" --Poised to Flip 'ON' Switch of World's Largest, Most Powerful Radio Telescope

China is ready to put on the "ear phones" and flip the "ON" switch for the world's largest, most powerful radio telescope, that is nearing completion in a vast, bowl-shaped valley in the mountainous southwestern province of Guizhou by the end of September, accompanied by regulations to protect the facility. Its unrivaled precision will allow astronomers to survey the Milky Way and other galaxies and detect faint pulsars, and work as a powerful ground station for future space missions.

"A radio telescope is like a sensitive ear, listening to tell meaningful radio messages from white noise in the universe," said Nan Rendong, chief scientist of the FAST project. He told Xinhua that the huge dish will enable much more accurate detection. "It is like identifying the sound of cicadas in a thunderstorm."

"Having a more sensitive telescope, we can receive weaker and more distant radio messages," Wu Xiangping, director-general of the Chinese Astronomical Society, "It will help us to search for intelligent life outside of the galaxy and explore the origins of the universe," he added underscoring the China's race to be the first nation to discover the existence of an advanced alien civilization.

The construction of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST, has entered its final phase. With a dish the size of 30 football fields, FAST, which measures 500 meters in diameter, dwarfs Puerto Rico's 300-meter Arecibo Observatory. Under the regulation, FAST requires radio silence within a 10-kilometer radius.

The Chinese government hopes that a more subtle benefit of the behemoth eye on the cosmos will entice some of the some of the brightest minds in science or astronomy studying abroad to return home to China. China is the leading nation in the world in the number of students it sends students abroad, especially for majors such as science or engineering.

FAST is the world's largest single-aperture telescope, overtaking the Arecibo Observatory in the US territory of Puerto Rico, which is 305 meters (1000 feet) in diameter. The dish will have a perimeter of about 1.6 kilometers, Xinhua said, and there are no towns within five kilometers, giving it ideal surroundings to listen for signals from space.

According to chief scientist from China's National Astronomical Observations, Li Di, FAST will be able to scan up to twice more areas of the sky than Arecibo shown above, and it will have between three to five times the sensitivity. It's in their hopes that if there is indeed alien life, this gargantuan will find it.

The region's karst topography -- a landscape of porous rock fissured with deep crevasses and underground caves and streams -- is ideal for draining rainwater and protecting the reflector. Unfortuately, citizens actually living in the area where the radio telescope will be built are being relocated. Some 2,000 families residing near the Pingtang and Luodian counties will be given $1,800 per individual for the forced relocation.

For years Chinese scientists have relied on "second hand" data collected by others in their research and the new telescope is expected to "greatly enhance" the country's capacity to observe outer space, Xinhua said. Beijing is accelerating its military-run multi-billion-dollar space exploration program, which it sees as a symbol of the country's progress. It has plans for a permanent orbiting station by 2020 and eventually to send a human to the moon.

Construction on the telescope started in March 2011.

The Daily Galaxy via AFP/Beijing

China Building World's Largest Radio Telescope--"Will Search for Intelligent Life Outside of Milky Way"

Unique Population of Galaxies Discovered

Is 21st-Century Technology Too Primitive to Detect Advanced Extraterrestrial Life? (Weekend Feature) - The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel

Outer Edges of Milky Way Orbited by Invisible Galaxies (Today's Most Popular) - The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel

"100,000 Galaxies Fail to Yield Signs of Advanced Technological Civilizations" --NASA's WISE Orbiting Observatory

StarTalk With Neil deGrasse Tyson --"Cosmic Queries" From Alien Plant Life to Jupiter's Ocean Moon (LISTEN)

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Massive, Mysterious Ice Avalanche in Tibet Observed From Space --"Scientists Baffled"

On July 17, 2016, a huge stream of ice and rock tumbled down a narrow valley in the Aru Range of Tibet. When the ice stopped moving, it had spread a pile of debris that was up to 30 meters (98 feet) thick across 10 square kilometers (4 square miles). The massive debris field makes this one of the largest ice avalanches ever recorded. The only event of a comparable size was a 2002 avalanche from Kolka Glacier in in the Caucasus , explained Andreas Kääb, a glaciologist at the University of Oslo.

A multispectral imager on the European Space Agency's Sentinel-2 satellite captured an image of the debris field on July 21, 2016. The Operational Land Imager, a similar instrument on Landsat 8, acquired an image on June 24, 2016, that shows the same area before the avalanche.

The cause of the avalanche is unclear. "This is new territory scientifically," said Kääb. "It is unknown why an entire glacier tongue would shear off like this. We would not have thought this was even possible before Kolka happened." Nine people, 350 sheep, and 110 yaks in the remote village of Dungru were killed during the avalanche.

Kääb's preliminary analysis of satellite imagery indicates that the glacier showed signs of change weeks before the avalanche happened. Normally, such signs would be clues the glacier might be in the process of surging, but surging glaciers typically flow at a fairly slow rate rather than collapsing violently in an avalanche.

After inspecting the satellite imagery, University of Arizona glaciologist Jeffrey Kargel agreed that a surging glacier could not be the cause. "The form is completely wrong," he said. "It must be a high-energy mass flow. Maybe liquid water lubrication at the base played some role," he said.

Tian Lide, a glaciologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, visited the site in August and described the avalanche as "baffling" because the area where the ice collapse began is rather flat. "We failed to reach the upper part of the glacier for safety reasons," he said in an email, "but we will go the upper part [later] to see if we can find some more hints about what caused the glacier disaster."

The Daily Galaxy via NASA

First Stars Younger Than Thought --"May Impact Understanding Dark Components of the Universe"

NASA News: Observes an Erupting Black Hole With an Orbiting Sun-Like Star

The Milky Way's Monster Black Hole Awakes! Fired Out a Massive Flare 300 Years Ago (Weekend Feature) - The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel

Image of the Day: Tharsis Tholus --Mar's Spectacular 4 Billion-Year-Old Volcano - The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel

The Day the World's Astronomers Zoomed in On a Distant Galaxy

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Cosmic Danger Zones: Star Cluster Discovered to Harbor Several Hundred Black Holes --"A Phenomenon Thought Impossible"

New research by the University of Surrey published today in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society has shone light on a globular cluster of stars that could host several hundred black holes, a phenomenon that until recently was thought impossible.

Globular clusters are spherical collections of stars which orbit around a galactic centre such as our Milky-way galaxy. Using advanced computer simulations, the team at the University of Surrey were able to see the un-see-able by mapping a globular cluster known as NGC 6101, from which the existence of black holes within the system was deduced.

These black holes are a few times larger than the Sun, and form in the gravitational collapse of massive stars at the end of their lives. It was previously thought that these black holes would almost all be expelled from their parent cluster due to the effects of supernova explosion, during the death of a star.

"Due to their nature, black holes are impossible to see with a telescope, because no photons can escape", explained lead author Miklos Peuten of the University of Surrey. "In order to find them we look for their gravitational effect on their surroundings. Using observations and simulations we are able to spot the distinctive clues to their whereabouts and therefore effectively 'see' the un-seeable".

It is only as recently as 2013 that astrophysicists found individual black holes in globular clusters via rare phenomena in which a companion star donates material to the black hole. This work, which was supported by the European Research Council (ERC), has shown that in NGC 6101 there could be several hundred black holes, overturning old theories as to how black holes form.

Co-author Professor Mark Gieles, University of Surrey continued, "Our work is intended to help answer fundamental questions related to dynamics of stars and black holes, and the recently observed gravitational waves. These are emitted when two black holes merge, and if our interpretation is right, the cores of some globular clusters may be where black hole mergers take place."

The researchers chose to map this particular ancient globular cluster due to its recently found distinctive makeup, which suggested that it could be different to other clusters. Compared to other globular clusters NGC 6101 appears dynamically young in contrast to the ages of the individual stars. Also the cluster appears inflated, with the core being under-populated by observable stars.

Using computer simulation, the team recreated every individual star and black hole in the cluster and their behavior. Over the whole lifetime of thirteen billion years the simulation demonstrated how NGC 6101 has evolved. It was possible to see the effects of large numbers of black holes on the visible stars, and to reproduce what was observed for NGC6101. From this, the researchers showed that the unexplainable dynamical apparent youth is an effect of the large black hole population.

"This research is exciting as we were able to theoretically observe the spectacle of an entire population of black holes using computer simulations. The results show that globular clusters like NGC 6101, which were always considered boring are in fact the most interesting ones, possibly each harboring hundreds of black holes. This will help us to find more black holes in other globular clusters in the Universe. " concluded Peuten.

The Daily Galaxy via University of Surrey

"There Could be At Least Two Unknown Planets Hidden Well Beyond Pluto"

"Earth May Have Experienced Dark-Matter Triggered Extinction Events" (Today's Most Popular)

"Gigantic Compared to Our Solar System" --Two Massive Holes Caused by Dark Matter Observed Just Outside Milky Way" - The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel

Alien Invaders of the Milky Way - The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel

"Our Solar System's Milky-Way Orbit Through Dark Matter Impacts Life on Earth"

Star Devoured By a Supermassive Black Hole --"Captured By a Planet-Sized Radio Telescope"

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Tiger releases stationery range designed by David Shrigley

Artist David Shrigley has released a series of 30 designs for Danish retail chain, Flying Tiger Copenhagen.

Formerly known as Tiger, the brand commissioned Shrigley to design a number of products based on the theme of Strong Messages, featuring his trademark humorous drawings and messages.

The collection includes a set of drawing pencils covered in messages scrawled in Shrigley's own handwriting; including “words are boring”, “make art not friends” and “I'm illiterate”.

The words “Coloured pencils for making nice drawings of cats, flowers, etc.” feature on a specially designed pencil case that is also adorned with a drawing of a cat.

Shower curtains, trays, socks and bags

Phone and tablet cases include the instruction “kill the computer”, and other products such as shower curtains, trays, socks and bags are all adorned with artworks by Shrigley.

The artist has also released a miniature version of his Really Good statue, which is set to be unveiled at The Fourth Plinth in London later this month.

Concept developer at Flying Tiger Copenhagen, Mai Due Brinch, says: “We want to make art more accessible by making it a part of people's everyday life. Shrigley's works are humorous, dark, delightfully absurd and bizarre, and the emphasis is on the message rather than on technique.”

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The post Tiger releases stationery range designed by David Shrigley appeared first on Design Week.

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Stand.earth Asks Federal Court Asked to Dismiss Logging Company's Intimidation Lawsuit
School is back in session across the country - and right now in some classroom somewhere in the US children are being educated not on math, science or history, but briefly, and importantly, on bullying. There has been, at long last, a revolution in our schools around teaching kids how to deal with bullies, what kids should do if they see it happening, steps for teachers to take to stop it from occurring again. It is a gross practice, a thing done out of fear, anger and insecurity, and it is heartening to see progress on this issue in our schools.

Unfortunately, no such instruction exists for CEOs. Since May 31, Stand.earth has been fighting off an intimidation lawsuit filed by Canada's largest logging company, Resolute Forest Products (NYSE: RFP) (TSX: RFP). Intimidation lawsuits, called Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation ("SLAPP" suits), are often filed by large companies against much smaller nonprofits, usually with negligible hope of success on the merits. But with an army of expensive lawyers the goal is to cost the nonprofit so much in time, money and effort that the huge company wins by waging a war of attrition. This is a tactic only a bully would pursue.

Does Resolute fit this description? The company has more revenue in the first twelve hours of the year than Stand.earth does in 365 days. That can buy a lot of lawyers. Resolute wants us to stop criticizing their destructive logging practices in the Boreal Forest, rather than actually changing what they do, how they treat forests, and how they impact the people and wildlife that depend upon these forests.

Resolute's New York law firm has come up with quite a few outlandish legal theories, including that Stand.earth and Greenpeace operate just like an organized crime syndicate and should be prosecuted under RICO, a set of laws designed to root out organized crime. In other words, a legal theory not very likely to win on substance, but designed it seems to cost a lot of time, money, and effort to defend. Resolute also filed the lawsuit in seemingly the most expensive and least convenient (for us) venue it could find: the Southern District of Georgia where Stand.earth has never had an office, where we have less than 1% of our supporters and revenue and where I have never been. Sounds a lot like a SLAPP suit.

All of which is why today we are filing a motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed against us. These early motions are rarely granted, but we believe ours clearly has merit. Resolute won't easily learn that bullying doesn't work but losing quickly would be a start. We hope that happens -- and not just for ourselves. We need to send a signal to all giant corporations that being a bully doesn't pay.

We have a First Amendment to prevent exactly this kind of abuse. If you agree - join us by signing our letter to Resolute CEO Richard Garneau today.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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30 Days, 30 Rivers: A Kayaker's Quest for Adventure & Science

My organization, Adventure Scientists, enlists the help of adventurers around the world to collect water samples for our Global Microplastics Initiative. This May, Microplastic Adventure Scientists Gerrit Egnew and Kirra Paulus embarked on a month-long expedition to sample and paddle 30 rivers in 30 days. Their resulting video and story are a call to action to paddlers everywhere to help protect the rivers that give them so much. Words by Gerrit Egnew.

30 Days 30 Rivers from Kirra Kirra on Vimeo.

George and I looked upstream at Skyscraper, a rapid halfway down South Silver Creek, in the mountains near Placerville, CA. Beneath us was an undercut cave; we had been there for a while, scouting and fretting and rationalizing. Kirra scrambled down to us and asked if we planned to run it. I looked at George: “I sure wish someone would come down from behind us and, like, run it. Or set safety. So that we know it's okay.”

Ten minutes later, as we walked back to our boats, a group of six Kiwis materialized from the white roar. “Want to set safety with us on the Teacups?” one asked. Providence.

We ran it. It was beautiful, terrifying, perfect. At the end, stripping off our wet gear, elated, we discovered myriad connections: Two of them had worked in Banks, ID, near where I live. Another had guided on the Middle Fork, where I guide. We shared many friends and although we were from different parts of the world, and neither they nor us had been to California, our camaraderie was instant.

"skyscraper" — Gerrit Egnew in skyscraper rapid on South Silver Creek, CA. Photo: Kirra Paulus

The river community is small, but it is tightly knit. If you meet a kayaker anywhere in the world, it's likely you have a mutual friend. At the end of our California trip, I was driving over the Yuba Gap (CA) on my way back to the Middle Fork. I passed a van with kayaks on top and waved. Later, after fueling up, I passed it again near Winnemucca, NV. That evening I pulled into the Canyons warehouse (ID); as I caught up with the team, that same van pulled into the parking lot. Out jumped Chris and Britt, two of our guides.

"wind — Natural hot-springs midway down the Wind River, WA. Photo: Kirra Paulus

Unfortunately, this close community is sometimes insular. (When your activity is the coolest ever, what else matters?) But there is such vivid, exultant energy in the kayaking community; how can it be directed to tangible issues? Kayakers are driven to explore, travel, and experience new rivers, but what do we do to help conserve them?

Adventure Scientists has a compelling solution. Gregg Treinish, founder of Adventure Scientists, realized that scientific research requires travel in extreme or inaccessible environments and training researchers to manage these situations safely is time-consuming and expensive. But there is already a group of people in these environments: outdoor sports enthusiasts. Particularly, kayakers travel worldwide to remote creeks and rivers. Adventure Scientists' Microplastics project organizes kayakers and other adventurers to take water samples wherever they may be in the world. Researchers can get much more data by partnering with people who already have the skills and motivation to get into the places being studied.

Kirra and I stumbled by chance into the Gallatin Microplastics Initiative. A friend sent me a link and we signed up for it because it sounded neat and fit our skill set. But as we learned more and took samples, the importance of the issue grew on us. Our interests, as they exist now, can be useful for research that seeks to understand the resource we depend on.

"lower — George Milheim on the lower teacups of South Silver Creek, CA. Photo: Kirra Paulus

Kirra graduated in the spring, and I'm taking time off. We both river guide and had been planning a trip in May before rafting season started. Influenced by Adventure Scientists, that trip suddenly seemed like an opportunity to gather data for the Global Microplastics Initiative. We had a month. Well, we had to take finals in the first week of May. So, a month minus five days of caffeinated stress. That's kind of like thirty days. (Although May has thirty-one; I haven't taken calculus in a year.)

First, right before finals, we jetted to the Lochsa Rendezvous. Then after our last exam, Kirra and I got on the road. Over the next few weeks, in a haze of exhaustion, river noise, shuttle complications, and Cold Snacks, we kayaked and sampled the following rivers:

•   Lochsa River, ID
•   Fish Creek, ID
•   Clark Fork River, MT
•   Fish Creek, MT
•   Kootenai Creek, MT
•   South Fork Clearwater River, ID
•   North Fork Payette River, ID
•   Lake Fork Creek, ID
•   South Fork Payette River, ID
•   Main Payette River, ID
•   South Fork Salmon River, ID
•   Main Salmon River, ID
•   Selway River, ID
•   Bear Creek, ID
•   White Salmon River, WA
•   Hood River, OR
•   Wind River, WA
•   Little White Salmon River, WA
•   Klamath River, CA
•   California Salmon River, CA
•   South Silver Creek, CA
•   Stanislaus River, CA
•   Tuolumne River, CA
•   Merced River, CA
•   South Fork American River, CA
•   Swan River, MT
•   Gallatin River, MT

"banks — Relaxing on the banks of the Selway River, ID. Photo: Kirra Paulus

Joining us for various sections were George Milheim, Kathryn Egnew, Bridger Dunnagan, Mark Rockwell, Spencer Lawley, and Jessie Bohn. The trip was less about paddling stouts (although we scared ourselves more than once) and more about going to new places. We wanted to expand our experience of the river world and add to its scientific knowledge base. Adventure and science need not be mutually exclusive. Small groups of citizen scientists, operating in areas they know well, can do powerful work for environmental science. We've become activate and engaged in our community on a new level. You can too.

Read more about Kirra and Gerrit's adventures on the Bozeman Swim Team blog and Kirra's Instagram. Learn about our Global Microplastics Project and other Adventure Scientists projects on our website, the Field Notes blog, and by following us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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In A Changing Climate, We Need Nature To Save Us From Ourselves
If you lived in Honolulu and suddenly relocated to Minneapolis, it's fair to say you would need to make a few lifestyle adjustments. You would have to buy warmer clothes, learn how to drive in icy conditions, and perhaps even trade in your surfboard for cross-country skis. In short, you would have to adapt to an unfamiliar climate.

Places like Madagascar are experiencing stronger cyclones. Forests can help prevent soil erosion in the country's steep hillsides. Photo Credit: © Shaun Martin

These days, you don't need to move somewhere far away to experience a different climate: a new climate is moving to you. In today's warming world, adapting to climate change is a necessity facing every family, community, industry and nation. Climate change is already affecting where and how we grow our food, how much water we have to drink, and which places are safest to build our homes. We must rethink all of the implications climate change has on our daily lives and if we're equipped to manage situations we haven't experienced before. For example, how will we fight longer and more intense forest fire seasons, manage outbreaks of new diseases and repair homes and property continually damaged by increasingly frequent extreme weather events?

Adapting to climate change is perhaps the greatest test that humankind has ever faced. And, we must use every tool at our disposal to address this global challenge.

One tool that's getting lots of attention here at the IUCN World Conservation Congress is called "ecosystem-based adaptation," or the use of nature to help people adapt to the adverse consequences of climate change. The concept is simple. Anyone who has sought refuge from the heat under a shady tree understands that living things around us can make us more comfortable and safer under unpleasant or threatening circumstances. Similarly, it stands to reason then as we prepare more frequent and intense heat waves, cities might consider increasing green spaces with lots of trees to protect people from exposure to dangerously high temperatures. This simple idea is what ecosystem-based adaptation might look like.

Wherever we look, nature can play an important role in preparing us for a changing climate.

If your community is subject to more frequent flooding, wetlands can provide a natural buffer to absorb excess water that would otherwise damage homes and infrastructure. Coastal communities benefit from mangroves that provide protection from storm surges associated with hurricanes and typhoons. And wild plants that are well-suited to hot and dry climates may become more valuable as we seek new sources of food and medicine.

And yet, despite the value these natural systems provide for our health, welfare and public safety, too often we destroy them for short-term gain. We clear forests for agricultural plantations, cut down mangroves for coastal development, dam rivers and drain wetlands. When we degrade these natural systems, not only do we erode nature's ability to sustain itself, these actions increase our own vulnerability to the effects of climate change. In fact, the greatest irony is that the very plantations, coastal development and dams we are creating are themselves at greater risk of failure due to climate change, particularly when nature is no longer available to protect them.

The moral of this tale is simple: protecting nature helps us protect ourselves from the changing climate. Ecosystem-based adaptation is a promising yet largely untapped innovation that can help people prepare for an uncertain future. We can no longer afford to willfully destroy the natural world at a time when we need it more than ever. Nature is our best hope for the future.

This post is part of a series on the World Conservation Congress taking place this week. Held every four years, it brings together about 6,000 people, including heads of state, government officials, business leaders, representatives from indigenous groups, scientists, academics, influencers, educators, artists and NGOs, from all over the world to discuss and decide on solutions to the world's most pressing environmental challenges.

Homes like these in Belize could benefit from the protection of mangrove ecosystems, which help reduce damage from storm surge and strong waves. Photo Credit: © Shaun Martin

The threat of climate change looms large over countries like Madagascar. Nature can help reduce the vulnerability of its people. Photo Credit: © Shaun Martin

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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The Customer Isn't Always Right: How Consumers Drive Wildlife Crime
Consumers around the globe are helping fuel a booming illegal wildlife trade that's estimated to be valued at as much as $10 billion per year. In recent years, it's grown to the point that wildlife trafficking is now in the top five illicit activities worldwide - up there with counterfeiting and drugs.

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WWF's successful 'Chor Chang Campaign' elicited a significant response from the Thai public. The letter in the Thai alphabet called 'Chor' is the same first letter of the word for elephant, 'Chang'. The campaign asked people to remove the letter 'Chor' from their names to demonstrate what a life without elephants would be, and many responded via social media with their names missing that particular letter. Photo Credit: © WWF-Thailand

Whether naively or deliberately, global consumers are snapping up everything from high-end luxury goods to tourists' trinkets made from elephant ivory, illegally sourced reptile skin and endangered sea turtle shells.

Elephant ivory, for instance, is so coveted in some markets that it's driving a poaching crisis in Africa on an unprecedented scale. As many as 30,000 African elephants are killed every year to supply the illegal ivory market globally, including in the United States.

Fortunately, there is hope. If consumer desire for products like ivory can be changed - and the multibillion-dollar advertising and marketing industry would not exist if consumers couldn't be influenced - then the black market driving elephant poaching dries up. And key governments alarmed at the growth of this wildlife crime have recently made public policy changes that open up important opportunities to change consumer buying.

In one of the biggest wins for elephants, the presidents of China and the United States agreed last year to enact near-total bans on ivory sales in each country. This was an enormous step by two of the world's biggest consumer markets for wildlife products. And other international leaders soon followed suit. Officials from Hong Kong and Singapore joined the global roster of ivory markets committed to ending their domestic trade. Shutting down the legal supply in this way will immediately end some consumer purchasing; to address the rest, it's critical that efforts to influence lingering consumption are ramped up.

The conservation community, including WWF and our partners, as well as funders and governments, are increasing investments in consumer "demand reduction" efforts to do just that. This work is an essential complement to our anti-poaching and anti-trafficking programs. By combining consumer outreach with public policy advocacy, these initiatives are engaging both the general public and targeted consumer groups (from fashion-conscious middle-class buyers in Thailand to high-end investors in China) through increasingly sophisticated approaches to educate and change consumer behavior. A workshop at the IUCN World Conservation Congress on Sept. 4 will explore some of the new approaches being used by conservation organizations to reduce consumers' desire for illegal and unsustainable wildlife products.

Demand reduction is one of the most innovative, creative areas of conservation at the moment. It taps into new-to-this-space psychosocial approaches, adopting commercial marketing techniques and working with consumer research firms to identify attitudes and motivations of buyers. WWF and other groups are deploying digital outreach and advocacy, connecting with consumers at key points like airports and tourist markets, and recruiting influencers from an array of spectrums, from respected business leaders in China to revered Buddhist monks in Thailand.

In Thailand, which until last year had the world's largest unregulated ivory market, WWF combined public policy advocacy - pushing for strengthened laws and enforcement - with public outreach. We launched a campaign that tapped into Thai people's affinity for their national animal to show what a world without elephants would look like. It kicked off a public dialogue for the first time in that country about the connection between buying ivory and poached elephants. At the same time, we worked to amend national legislation to address black market ivory sales. While Thailand still has a way to go - ivory sales are still allowed, unfortunately - its market is no longer completely unfettered.

Today's wildlife trafficking crisis is fueled by consumer choices. The solution can be too.

This post is part of a series on the World Conservation Congress taking place this week. Held every four years, it brings together about 6,000 people, including heads of state, government officials, business leaders, representatives from indigenous groups, scientists, academics, influencers, educators, artists and NGOs, from all over the world to discuss and decide on solutions to the world's most pressing environmental challenges. To read all the posts in this series click here.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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The Crossroads of Conservation in Latin America
Saying Latin America and conservation together evokes abundance of wealth and beauty. But all that magnificence also comes with a unique set of risks, threats and challenges.

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Photo Credit: Y.-J. Rey-Millet / WWF

I live in Quito, and only a few kilometers -- or few hours -- away, I can appreciate landscapes of immense natural and cultural value. I encounter compact forests that hold hundreds of thousands of species of known and unknown flora and fauna, running water, clean air, living oceans and an environment with a strong heartbeat. And it's not just Quito. So many Latin American cities have similar relationships with nature. In some, you may find it closer to the center of urban life, and in others, you may have to get further away, but the result will almost always be the same.

However, just like you can appreciate the richness of these areas, the risks and threats are also in plain sight, along with the poverty that stems from them. These risks are front and center here at the 2016 World Conservation Congress in Hawaii this week. Our planet is truly at a crossroads and Latin America is no stranger to this condition.

WWF's Living Planet Report highlights the challenges facing Latin America. This part of our planet has had the most dramatic decline in populations of tropical species, a staggering 83 percent. One of eight people lacks access to drinking water. We are the most urbanized region in the world, with 80 percent of Latin Americans living in cities. Changes in consumption patterns and the population growth in the region are causing us to increase our footprint. And, trafficking and illegal trade of wildlife species continues to grow, affecting key ecosystems, water supplies, and other vital natural resources.

At the same time, we are fortunate: regional leaders are accelerating their efforts to ensure development happens sustainably. Many national and local governments understand that their commitment to sustainability can have a positive impact on the economy, quality of life and the efficient and rational use of resources. There are countless companies that are innovating, changing their usual pattern of business and taking risks of opening new fronts to produce and commercialize sustainable and environmentally responsible products and services.

We are strengthening cross-border collaboration on trans-boundary national parks in different places of Latin America. Some financial institutions from the region and abroad are working to adopt more ambitious environmental regulations, while others are initiating their exploration towards a sustainable banking system.

For me, as well as for WWF, my colleagues and other organizations in Latin America, leaving this crossroad implies an enormous challenge. And only if we accelerate the process of conservation and reduce our footprint, we will have the necessary tools to face it.

We must rise to the conservation challenge. We need to ensure clean water, healthy oceans, resilient forests, and economic well-being to fulfill our vision as a vibrant society.

Water unites and brings dynamism to societies. It is at the center of development and the backbone of conservation. Oceans and forests are our pantries, they provide for millions of people and are the habitat of hundreds of thousands of species of flora and fauna. Economic growth is linked to the exploitation of resources like water, and access to resources provided by our oceans and forests. If tapped unsustainably, there will be impacts on the socio-political stability of the region.

The crossroad where we find ourselves, the one that can either make a way to a healthy and sustainable Latin America or pave the way to an unsustainable one, depends on our knowledge of the different visions of conservation within our region. We need our ability to relate the conservation of nature with the agreements of the COP21 in Paris and the goals for sustainable development; and our capacity to communicate with civil society, governments and the corporate sector with a language that resonates, becomes relevant, and motivates everyone to act. We need to make it happen jointly, because juntos es posible.

This post is part of a series on the World Conservation Congress taking place this week. Held every four years, it brings together about 6,000 people, including heads of state, government officials, business leaders, representatives from indigenous groups, scientists, academics, influencers, educators, artists and NGOs, from all over the world to discuss and decide on solutions to the world's most pressing environmental challenges. To read all the posts in this series click here.

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