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As Florida temperatures drop, iguanas start dropping from the trees.
iStockphoto/Thinkstock
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Welcome to the Planet 100 for February 8, 2010. Here's what we're covering today:
WATCH VIDEO: The top environmental stories of the day in 100 seconds or less.
Kamikaze Iguanas
The so-called kamikaze iguanas were urban legends among Floridians, but one of the coldest winters in decades has brought with it the spectacle of frozen iguanas falling from trees.
Iguanas go into hibernation when temperatures drop below 48 degrees Fahrenheit with all bodily functions, except for the heart, switching off. This causes them to lose their grip on trees and plunge to the ground. While zoologists are hopeful the iguanas will wake up once it warms up, farmers are not.
The lizards, which can grow up to five feet long, are an invasive species, considered by many in Florida to be a pest. With temperatures expected to fall even lower, there's a good chance the kamikaze iguana will perish.
Via: The Telegraph
Extinction Prophylactic
Save the animals, wear a condom—that's the message from the Center for Biological Diversity, the brains behind a racy new campaign.
While much has been written about the connection between population growth and climate change, the link between population and endangered species extinction is less well known. Our current exploding human population, now 6.8 billion—is driving the biggest mass extinction of animals since the dinosaur age.
Enter the Endangered Species Condom Project—all month long the organization will be handing out condoms featuring a series of six original artworks of endangered animals.
Via: Treehugger
Big Island Paper Crusade
A couple of years ago, legislators in Hawaii set out to tackle a single issue—paper waste. The Hawaiian Senate just reported a two-year savings of more than $1.2 million dollars—nearly eight million pages, or the equivalent of over 800 trees.
Via: The New York Times
Photos Credits:
Iguana ? ©iStockphoto/Thinkstock
Large iguana ? ©Hemera/Thinkstock
Orange tree ? ©T. O'Keefe/PhotoLink/Getty Images
Condoms ? © Medioimages/Photodisc/Thinkstock
Crowded city ? ©Goodshoot/Thinkstock
Tiger ? ©Comstock Images/Thinkstock
Paper ? ©Ballyscanlon/Getty Images
Extinction graph: The Center of Biological Diversity
