Cook was pretty successful at keeping his own men free from diseases, and at the end of his second voyage the Royal Society gave him their highest award, the Copley medal, for his work for seamen’s health. Life at sea in the 18th century was tough and unbelievably unhealthy. On a long voyage, the captain [...]
But also travelling on Endeavour had been a keen gentleman botanist, Joseph Banks, who later became President of the Royal Society; a well-known Swedish botanist, Carl Solander, a landscape artist known as Alexander Buchan, and an artist, Sydney Parkinson, who was to record all the flora and fauna they encountered on the voyage. Between them, [...]
Cook’s fame, nevertheless, rests on the achievements of his last 10 years, the years of Pacific exploration. When he died, the map of the globe, which had shown such extraordinary gaps prior to, was in general outline as we know it today. Cook had charted, with phenomenal accuracy and detail, a massive number of islands [...]
On 24 January 1769 the Endeavour rounded Cape Horn and its captain, James Cook, entered the Pacific for the first time. His explorations of that ocean were to change life for the peoples of the Pacific forever.
Plenty of Europeans had been towards the Pacific before, of course. After the Portuguese circumnavigation led by Magellan in [...]
As much as we like to distance ourselves from other organisms, the truth is that we too are entangled within the ecosystems and communities which are being destroyed. We are not so much shooting ourselves in the foot, as committing suicide. The entire world’s genetic engineers, molecular biologists and conjurers can’t replace the variety of [...]
The fishing industry is a prime instance. In the North Sea numerous species of fish have been successively over-exploited, until they no longer provide a sufficient catch to make them economically worth targeting. A new species is then selected and harvested in this excessive way.
There are 17 major fisheries around the world, and only four [...]
By crossing oceans, deserts and mountain ranges, humans have colonized new land, and introduced with them new species (unique or alien species). The introduction of a unique species frequently upsets the balance of nature, and can have fatal effects on native varieties. Commonly, the unique species has no natural enemies within the new land but [...]
One of the most famous and well studied examples from the effects human pollution can have on wildlife was the use from the insecticide DDT, created throughout World War II. It was found to be extremely efficient, and was broadly utilized all more than the world. During this time a serious decline was also noted [...]
Most with the natural habitats still remaining are divided into several smaller sections. Habitat fragmentation can be caused by roads, paths, fences, railways and so on. Although this may not seem too damaging at first, it is now accepted that any barrier to the normal movements of wildlife and plant seeds will result in species [...]
Other natural habitats are also being destroyed. Wetlands (for example mires, mangrove swamps and saltmarshes), tropical dry forests, chalk grassland and heathland are all of ecological importance. These tend to have a higher number of endemic species (species discovered only in a specific area). The amount of land turning into desert, by a process known [...]
