Select Page

Endangered Species 2050

Help Us STOP the Inevitable

“The earth is the zoo and we are the keepers”
– Carmen Traub

 

Adopt an AnimalMake a Donation

Hurricane Ian

Ground Zero Eco Clean-up

(ABOVE: Photo of STYROFOAM inside of the Wildflower Preserve, Englewood Florida)
One of the most destructive hurricanes in American History hit Florida, September 28, 2022.

AFTER IAN
The first priority was the rescue of people and animals.
Second was moving the rubble aside for safety.
Third was trying to get our homes together.
Fourth, catch our breath and comfort each other.
And finally fifth, focus on the environmental disaster aftermath, as building materials have been blown into the mangroves and waterways. 

After the first couple of weeks after Ian, neighborhood rubble and building materials from yards and streets eventually began moving to roadsides for pickup. For homes that had eater leaks, but were still standing, were gutted as mold quickly spread throughout the drywall and attics. Piles of drywall and fiberglass were added to roadside rubbish. There they sit, week after week through rain and winds. Unfortunately, resources for pickup crews are lacking, and understandably so! Emergency crew resources have rightly been on urgent home recovery since Ian! People have genuinely been devastated and left in great need. Trailer parks were decimated. People lost everything. 

Consequently, there have not been enough resources to remove the rubble along roadsides throughout the worst hit neigborhoods. 

A SECOND HIT
Then, what everyone feared, happened. Hurricane Nicole hit November 10, 2022 before full recovery! Luckily the winds and rain only reached Tropical Storm category in this area, BUT, the winds and rain further damaged half-renovated homes! It was like starting over for some poeple. And many people had to put in another  More workers were and still are needed to help.

The tropical winds blew the piles of roadside debri further into the environment.

It’s now November 21st, 2022 and the roadside piles of debri are still lining the streets. (BELOW: Placida Road, Englwood Fl.) 

Some litter and building materials are heavy and are staying in place until pick-up arrives. But other building materials are causing havoc that will not be recovered fully. STYROFOAM is one of the worst offenders.

The founders of Endangered Species 2050 are putting their focus on STYROFOAM cleanup. Carmen & Benny are also members of the Lemon Creek Conservancy, and have made Wildflower Preserve the focus of their clean up effort.

Unbelievable amounts of STYROFOAM has been blown into the mangroves and bushes surrounding the preserve lakes and ponds. Broken chunks and tiny pieces have been dispersed throughout the grasslands and shorlines. Impossible to get it all. Tough to pick up as well, because the tiny pieces break off in your hands if you are not gentle.

BELOW: Left: Roadside loose pile waiting pickup, mostly STYROFOAM.  Middle: STYROFOAM on pond shoreline and on the water.  Right: STYROFOAM floating on water & packed into bushes.

BELOW PHOTOS: Left: Carmen bagging STYROFOAM from a waterway. Right: Carmen removing strips of roofing from mangroves so she can get to the piles of STYROFOAM deep inside the bushes. 

carmen traub styrofoam eco cleanup

EndangeredSpecies2050 is donating large 95-gallon clear plastic bags to help secure the loose debris.

BELOW: Left: Carmen with clear bag

CLEANUP TIPS: Top priority is to secure the loads of loose roadside STYROFOAM before the next storm hits. Recovered STYROFOAM from the lakes and bush need to be bagged so that they are not reblown into the groves. NEXT get it all out of the waterways and mangroves! Styrofoam can waterlog and sink. The teeny tiny pieces can be scooped with a leaf pool scoop, and gently swept up and raked from the dirt and bagged. 

If you are in the area and want to help, that would be great!! You can do STYROFOAM pickup and bagging all along Gasperilla Pines BLVD. any time! Start at the cross road of Placida Road and Gasperilla Pines road. Work your way down. For cleaning inside of the Wildflower Preserve, there are restrictions for members only to enter alone. So, if you are not a member of the Lemon Creek Conservation, and want to help, please come on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:00 am to 10:00 am. If you have any questions, please reach out to the staff of the Wildflower Preserve via their website. Their site says: “Volunteers are needed! If you would like to help with debris pickup and removal, volunteers are meeting most mornings at 8:00 AM at the preserve parking area Tuesdays & Thursdays. We welcome all the help we can get.”

Here is their contact page.

Thank you in advance!!!!!

 

we’re not helpless

Welcome to Endangered Species 2050

BASIC RESPONSIBILITY

Our humble goal is to help facilitate the last effort to save endangered species that are headed for extinction by the year 2050.

According to the IUCN Red list, which lists all known species (both plant and animal), 37,400 are on the brink of extinction. It’s a wake up call.

FACTS

“Scientists estimate that 150-200 species of plant, insect, bird and mammal become extinct every 24 hours. This is nearly 1,000 times the “natural” or “background” rate and, say many biologists, is greater than anything the world has experienced since the vanishing of the dinosaurs nearly 65m years ago.”
Written by Huffington Post in 2010.
Imagine the state of our planet now!


What Drives Us

We are EXCITED

The water is not improving. The air is not improving. Animal and plant species actually become extinct every year! Gone for good. While you read this, it’s happening. So how could we be excited? Well…YOU are here and thinking about this. More people are aware and care about our environment than any time in history. There is hope. And that is truly exciting.

We are not worried about natural selection. We are worried, however, about accidental and intentional poisoning of our home, our earth. When we say ‘ours’, we mean all creatures, great and small. Animal extinction is the face of what we have done, without regard for the outcome. It is the visible sign of our actions that cannot be ignored. Most people care about people first, so even though endangeredspecies2050.com is sounding the alarm on behalf of the animals, its also our intention is to save the human species. We drink the same water and breathe the same air as all living creatures, so saving one species, saves another.

Tree hugging and saving the whales is back in fashion. Only this time, nobody is mocking them. They were the wisest people in the world, but nobody understood their foresight.

Vaquita still alive (maybe)

Gallons of oil spilled 2019

Trillion pieces of garbage in the ocean

Cross River Gorilla alive (maybe)

FEATURED ENDANGERED SPECIES

Pengolin

Used for medicine

VAQUITA

Worlds rarest, smallest porpoise

KEMPS RIDLEY SEA TURTLE

Word’s smallest sea turtle

Short Tailed Albatross

Almost extinct, now recovering

FEATURED ENDANGERED PLANTS

FERNS

Essential family, with endangered members

Pteridophyte

Vascular and disperses spores, not seeds

Podocarpus Nakaii

Species of conifer, endemic to Taiwan

JEANETTE EDWARDS

Featured Rescuer:
JEANETTE EDWARDS

Founder of ‘Friends of the Pelicans’

We love Jeanette Edwards! She embodies the spirit of a Seabird Rescue Super Hero! She started doing rescues when she was out exploring where the local pelicans roost. She was shocked to see one after another, hanging in the trees, strung up and entangled in fishing line and hooks. That’s when she started climbing trees…as an adult (we should ask if she was a tree climber as a child). One by one, she would detangle and rehabilitate the survivors.

Rescuing birds in the Florida mangroves is NOT for the faint of heart, and Jeanette will do it all by herself if she has to. And she often does. BUT, in 2014, she started an amazing group called ‘Friends of the Pelican’, and everyone who has joined are now great friends of Jeanette too! So her team has been growing, and she and her team now train other bird rescue enthusiasts around Florida.

Janet has important plans on helping to encourage the local Florida fishermen to be more responsible with their fishing lines. Florida has A  LOT of people who love fishing, and if they can just be more careful with their lines, there would be a lot less carnage for the wildlife. It’s not just the birds that get entangled.  To find out more about this amazing woman, visit her website and follow her on Facebook for up-to-date activities!

 

GET INVOLVED HERE

Be a Contributor to This Website 

ANIMAL RESCUE

We would love to post your rescue story, or feature you and your non-profit facility. (Bugs & all creatures are in this category)

FAUNA RESCUE

Animals are usually the focus of endangered species, but all plant rescue is just as vital. We want to feature you.

SONGS

We want to feature your song about animals, the earth, the environment.

MUSIC VIDEO

If you have a video of your original song about animals or the environment, we want to feature it! (Copyright free footage.)

We Are Looking For Writers!

If you are passionate about the subject of Endangered Species, and want to contribute to this website as a featured writer, we would LOVE to consider you! You can write about your favorite mammal, insect, plant, whatever! As long as it is endangered. It can be filled with scientific facts, or just your own thoughts and experiences with a particualar endangered species. 

Upcoming Events

TBA

TBA 

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Featured Articles

The Pangolin & Coronavirus

Written by
Thomas Bell

WHAT CAN I DO?

You can start saving species NOW, and NOT by donating money!

If everyone picks just one animal (sea, land or sky) or one plant (sea or land plant) that is critically endangered and makes it their LIFE MISSION to save it from further destruction, I know we will turn the tide together 

STEP #1

Pick your endangered species from IUCN Redlist of Threatened Species.

Wikipedia has list of critically endangered plants and is a great place to start your search for your plant species. They get their info from IUCN Redlist, but it’s easier to see a compiled list on Wikipedia. But IUCN Redlist has a search bar if you already know exactly what you are looking for.

Once you pick your animal (all land, air, and water creatures) or plants, them come back here and do STEP #2

STEP #2

!Welcome back! Below are some suggestions to help get you started saving your species!

TAKE OWNERSHIP OF THAT SPECIES!

You’ve picked your endangered species. If you can emotionally bond, and mentally commit to doing whatever you can to save your species, it will help you to make this important endeavor part of your life’s mission. It’s always been our job to take care of the earth and its creatures. Take your job seriously (said with love :)).

BECOME A SUPER HERO!

Your endangered species is literally about to die, and is waiting for a hero to save the day! That is you! Do whatever you can think of to try to help it.

SEARCH ONLINE FOR A GROUP THAT IS ALREADY HELPING YOUR SPECIES!

If a group has already started the mission of saving your species and you like their method, you can reach out to them and ask how you can help? If all they want is money, and you aren’t comfortable with that, no worries, go on to #4.

START A WEBPAGE OR BLOG OR...

… whatever creative way you can think of to bring attention to your species. On your webpage, you can post links to groups that are already in motion that you want to support. You can start your own groups. If you want to help a species where you live, get a community based group together. If your species is abroad, gather people online and join voices and ideas for action.

GET HANDS-ON

If your endangered species is literally where you live, find out what you can do to help it. Find out what is threatening the species, and discover what needs to be done to stop the damage. From there, you will know what you can do. For example, if you live near a cove where a threatened bird species is known to land and breed, and they are threatened by plastic garbage that they feed to their chicks, you can take action by cleaning up the shores (by yourself, or gather a group).

LOOK AT THE BIG PICTURE.

Once you begin to research what is threatening your species, you will see the bigger picture. Here is an example: If your endangered species is a rainforest plant, you may come to realize that the plant is dying because a particular bird that eats it’s seeds and distributes it throughout the forest by leaving its droppings is critically endangered. As you research why the bird is threatened, you may find out that it is because of illegal poaching. THEN, you will want the poaching to stop! And that will lead you to finding out how to motivate governments or other higher powers to take stricter actions against poaching.

BREAK FREE AND GET CREATIVE!

This is where you can have lots of fun and use your awesome gifts! Write songs, write poems, make t-shirts, write a book, take eco courses, go on great eco trips to visit your species and make a photo journal, make a youtube show all about your species, make a movie (short or a feature), make a music video, paint/draw and hold an art show on your species (invite us!), create a theatrical play about your species (invite us to that too!), create a fantastic puppet show (invite us!). There are no limits! Your gift is literally one of kind, and only you can express your voice the way you do. We need your personal input to inspire us! I CAN’T WAIT!

Thank You for Visiting

We hope you’ve been inspired! If you have recently decided that you want to start helping endangered species, we want to encourage you to pace yourself. It’s a long journey, and can be frustrating when some of the bigger issues in the world seem unsurmountable. The small actions still matter. Thank you for anything you can do to help save as many species as we can before 2050. Let us know what you are doing to help our earth and it’s creatures!