Four thousand five hundred gray-headed flying foxes perished in Victoria, Australia in 2019, fifteen percent of the colony's population of around thirty thousand, while babies of several thousands of flying foxes died late 2019 to early 2020 in Adelaide, with the flying foxes at risk of losing their entire generation born in 2019.
In June 2022, at least 2,000 cattle died in the southwest part of Kansas in the United States, some of their carcass lining the side of a farm, the cattle suffering from respiratory illnesses more susceptible to death.
Last week, hundreds of thousands of fish died in the southern Vietnam's Dong Mai Province, with fishermen wading through and gathering the dead fish that stayed in the 300-hectare reservoir where the incident happened.
Nowadays, animal die-offs seem to be the norm, with thousands of animals perishing within a twinkle of an eye, from sea lions in Chile to antelopes in central Kazakhstan, from freshwater mussels in the United States to hundreds, if not thousands, of African savanna elephants in Botswana's Okavango Delta, from elephants in Zimbabwe to salmon in Norway.
A heat wave in Kansas drove temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit in June 2022, the heat propelled from a moderate high of 79.9 degrees Fahrenheit to a scalding 101.1 degrees Fahrenheit within two days, the momentum continuing over three more days, leading to the decimation of thousands of cattle.
A heat wave in Australia sent temperatures above 110 degrees Fahrenheit in 2019, forcing flying foxes to become victims of death, even as the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) declared the species vulnerable to extinction.
A heat wave in Vietnam caused temperatures to soar to nearly 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), making fish to perish in layers, unable to survive because the water in the abode they stayed in became too low from a lack of rainfall for weeks.
It always comes to climate change as largely responsible for the die-offs, because it brings about the heat wave that sends temperatures soaring to unimaginable limits, and thousands of cattle in Kansas, flying foxes in Australia, fish in Vietnam, freshwater mussels in Ohio, elephants in Botswana and Zimbabwe, and salmon in Norway end up dying.
The cattle die-off in Kansas worsens the crisis in that part of the United States, because a number of species barely survive the threat to their existence, with 52 species of birds highly or moderately vulnerable to global warming, at the risk of losing 50 percent of their habitat and disappearing through extinction.
The die-off of flying foxes in Australia intensifies the biodiversity crisis in Australia, especially since the population of foxes crashed by 75 percent in around 15 years, with more than 1,900 of other species and ecological communities threatened or at the risk of extinction.
The fish die-off in Vietnam exacerbates the biodiversity crisis in that country, because a number of fish species already face the threat of extinction, with a fifth of fish in for example the Mekong river, the lifeblood of southeast Asia, standing on the verge of this sad state, while at least 18 endangered species inhabit this part of the world.
The die-off of antelopes in central Kazakhstan, the freshwater mussels at Darby Creek, the African savannah elephants in Zimbabwe, the salmon in Norway, sea lions in Chile, and others also escalates the biodiversity crisis on a global basis, with 41,000 species under the threat of extinction.
Oil consumption increased by 2.9 million barrels per day into 97.3 million barrels per day in 2022, but with the use of renewable energy, the consumption of fossil fuel could experience a decline, slowing down the heating up of the planet, as well as the pace of climate change.
With this in place, the die-offs of thousands of creatures may be slowed in the short term, with the cattle, flying foxes, fish, sea lions, antelopes, freshwater mussels, elephants, salmon and the rest of the 41,000 species under the threat of extinction improving their condition.
What to Eat
Vegan diet from Australia, Credit, Sportsdietitians com
I'd pushed all this down somewhere. It's horrible to be reminded, but I also don't want to forget. Millions of fish dead in the Murray River. Twice. Where are the moths? Where are the moths? The flying foxes have been persecuted for so long, refugees within their own country. Then the heat. This week, I saw the first Flying Fox flyout I'd seen in years. Suddenly the world I had just left - the vet - and the world I was going to (home to make dinner) vanished. All that existed was the deep orange purple twilight, and the rivers of near silent wings, hundreds, then thousands. For at least 20 minutes my heart soared a little higher, bound for somewhere I couldn't see.