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Animals, Videos & Documentaries, Weird & Wonderful, Wildlife & Flora, May 22nd, 2012,
I stumbled upon this amazing video while ‘YouTubing’ last night in search of funny and fascinating animal clips. After watching a few old favorites including the stylish interior decorating skills of the bowerbird and the lyrebird, which can imitate all the other birds in the forest as well as camera noises, chainsaws and car alarms with near perfection, I found a story about a bird that dances like Michael Jackson. In my opinion, he dances more like James brown than MJ, shuffling back and forth and sliding sideways down the branch, but far be it from me to quibble over…
Tags: bird, dance, manakin, video
Animals, Weird & Wonderful, May 21st, 2012,
People love to gawk at exotic animals in zoos, aquariums and wildlife parks. Some self-important individuals even like to collect tigers, pythons and monkeys so they can show them off to friends or impress strangers. Remember the private animal collector in Ohio who released his collection of 56 exotic animals – including tigers, bears, lions and a baboon – and then killed himself? The police ended up killing nearly all the animals. That was an extreme example of what can go wrong, but honest mistakes also happen with results ranging from tragic to amusing. An escaped penguin swimming in Tokyo…
Tags: animals, escaped, exotic, penguin, Tokyo
Natural disasters, Nature, Videos & Documentaries, May 20th, 2012,
4 people have been reported dead and around 50 injured due to an earthquake that struck northern Italy in the early hours of the morning. The quake struck just 4am, just 35km (22mi) north of Bologna, at the relatively shallow depth of about 10km below the surface. Several historical sites were damaged, including churches and a medieval castle. From BBC News: It was felt across a large swathe of northern Italy, including the cities of Bologna, Ferrara, Verona and Mantua and as far away as Milan and Venice. See the following Al Jazeera English video report for more: Meanwhile…
Tags: earthquake, Guatemala, Italy, video, volcano
Climate & Change, Politics, Pollution, May 16th, 2012,
Ready for some doom and gloom, alarmist and generally pessimistic news that will either make you want to not care at all (the current favorite option) or join the Dark Mountain Project? Talking about the environment and pretending to be eco-friendly by wearing a ‘Kiss me, I’m Green’ button has apparently not saved the Earth from going to Hell in a proverbial hand basket. Ready for some shocking, but (honestly) to be expected, figures from the new ‘Living Planet’ report compiled by the WWF, the Zoological Society of London and the Global Footprint Network? Let’s get on with the ecocide…
Tags: Living Planet, report, WWF
Animals, Nature, Pollution, May 15th, 2012,
Fishermen in Germany are blaming swimmers for peeing in a lake near Hamburg, resulting in the deaths of some 500 fish. The fishermen contend that the large amount of phosphates contained in urine have caused large amounts of algae to grow, suffocating many fish. Though there may be a scientific basis to the fishermen’s anti-bathers claims, Hamburg’s Urban Development and Environment Authority (BSU) contends that it’s ice skaters who are at fault. From The Local: The ice-skaters make a noise that wakes the fish out of hibernation. Then they can’t breathe and freeze. That’s a very common phenomenon. –BSU spokeswoman…
Tags: deaths, fish, Hamburg, lake, pee
Animals, Nature, Wildlife & Flora, May 14th, 2012,
A couple of months ago California’s only wild wolf went back to Oregon, leaving the Golden State effectively wolfless. But now he’s back in Cali and the paparazzi have caught him on film. Actually, OR7′s – or as he is sometimes referred to, Journey’s – photo was snapped by an employee of the California Department of Fish and Game From the Los Angeles Times: For the last couple of months he has wandered back and forth across the state border, most recently spending time in Modoc County. Tuesday, state fish and game staff were visiting ranchers, advising them that the…
Tags: California, coyote, journey, OR7, Oregon, wolf
Climate & Change, green living, Science & Technology, Sustainable living, sustainable living, ,
A lot of people have heard about the importance of switching out Thomas Edison’s old incandescent light bulbs for energy saving bulbs such as LED or CFL. The same goes for replacing your old fossil fuel based car with one that runs on electricity. Energy efficiency and energy conservation is becoming increasingly important and people are starting to realize that everyone can contribute. In this article we are taking a closer look at something that takes up a few hours of your time, but potentially have a significant impact on saving the environment – not to mention your energy bill!…
Tags: energy efficienty, green living, insulation techniques, leaking roof, roof insulation
Conservation, Nature, Weird & Wonderful, Wildlife & Flora, ,
Species: Greater adjutant (Leptoptilos dubius) Status: Endangered (EN) Interesting fact: The greater adjutant is named after an adjutant (military officer) because of its stately manner and habit of standing motionless for long periods of time. With its naked pink head, very thick yellow bill and low-hanging neck pouch, the greater adjutant is a rather eye-catching stork. Colonies of greater adjutants can be seen gathering in India and Cambodia at the start of the dry season in October. Large nests are constructed on tall trees, and eggs are laid between November and January. These hatch after about a month of incubation….
Tags: ARKive.org, endangered birds, endangered species, Greater adjutant, Leptoptilos dubius
Climate & Change, Conservation, Politics, May 13th, 2012,
Join Brazilian environmental and human rights organizations, along with the WWF and Greenpeace to stop Brazil’s new ‘forest code’. Sign this petition to urge Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff to veto the proposed law that would open up new areas to deforestation and provide amnesty to landowners who have previously cleared forestland illegally. This new law could result in the destruction of an area of Amazon rainforest equivalent to the size of France and the UK put together. Patrick Cunningham of the Indigenous People’s Cultural Support Trust is quoted in the Guardian: The changes will overturn a law which even Brazil’s…
Tags: amazon, Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, Forest code, petition, veto
Business, Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, ,
Gold rushes in developing countries mean riches for a few and crumbs, death and ecocide for the poor and the environment. But never mind all that, there’s money to be made. Gold in Peru is booming. According to Australia’s 9MSN, Gold is now Peru’s number one export, with countries like Switzerland, Canada and the US as major buyers. The article also briefly mentions the conflicts and environmental damage caused by Peru’s goldmines without going into any detail. Here are some details: Gold mining is destroying the Peruvian Amazon rainforest through deforestation, digging, and mercury, oil and hydrocarbon contamination, which is…
Tags: amazon, gold, gold rush, mercury, mining, Peru
Climate & Change, Politics, Science & Technology, May 10th, 2012,
By Michael D. Lemonick It’s just two weeks since a paper in Nature flagged an ominous thinning of ice shelves along parts of the Antarctic coast lying due south of the Pacific Ocean. The ice appears to be melting from below, as changing ocean currents are bringing relatively warm water to bathe the shelves’ undersides — and as the ice shelves lose mass, they also lose their ability to slow land-based ice in its slide toward the sea. Now there’s something new to worry about. A pair of brand-new studies published today, one in Nature and one in its sister…
Tags: Antarctica, climate change, climate science, climatecentral.org, global warming, ice melting
Climate & Change, Politics, Pollution, May 8th, 2012,
The chairman of the UK’s environment agency, Lord Smith, has voiced public support for the controversial natural gas and petroleum technique known as hydraulic fracturing or ‘fracking’ with the argument that it will provide a secure and domestic source of energy. Fracking was linked to minor earthquakes when shale gas extraction was tried in the area around Blackpool, England. There are also concerns about groundwater contamination, methane leaks and the industrialization of the countryside, as has been experienced in large parts of the US, including government protected, publicly owned lands. From The Ecologist: Lord Smith’s backing follows pressure on the…
Tags: fracking, hydraulic fracturing, lord smith, nuclear
Pollution, May 7th, 2012,
On Sunday 12 people were killed and 129 injured in a fire at a chemical plant in eastern Thailand, reports Pakistan’s Daily Times. Just over two years ago I posted about Thailand’s Map Ta Phut industrial port in Rayong province and the environmental pollution the Thai petrochemical hub has wrought on the local population. This latest deadly incident at Map Ta Phut caused hundreds of residents to evacuate the area, though loud rains prevented many people from hearing the calls to leave. This prompted Thailand’s industrial minister to call for an upgrade of Map Ta Phut’s warning systems. From the…
Tags: chemical, explosion, fire, Map Ta Phut, plant, Thailand
Animals, Wildlife & Flora, ,
The northern coast of Peru has seen the deaths of huge numbers of pelicans and dolphins in the last few weeks, prompting government warnings to stay away from certain beaches. The Peruvian government’s health alert follows discoveries of some 1,200 dead birds (mostly pelicans) and over 800 dead dolphins. What is causing the deaths of these animals is unknown. One possibility is that warming ocean temperatures have forced anchovies into other waters where the young birds can’t find them, meaning that the birds are dying due to starvation. Some 15 years ago El Niño was blamed for a mass pelican…
Tags: beaches, deaths, dolphins, pelicans, Peru
Animals, Conservation, Nature, Videos & Documentaries, Weird & Wonderful, Wildlife & Flora, ,
White-tailed Eagle is one of the largest birds of prey in the world. It weighs up to 6 kilograms, with a 2.5 metre wingspan. “During the period 1800-1970, White-tailed Eagles in most of Europe, underwent dramatic declines, and became extinct in many regions of Western, central, and Southern Europe. While Norway, Germany, Poland, and Iceland harboured the largest surviving populations, pockets of reproducing pairs remained in several other countries” – according to Wikipedia. The White-Tailed Eagle (Polish: Bielik, plural Bieliki) is considered Poland’s national symbol and it is believed that it’s this noble bird that appears on the Coat of…
Tags: babies, chick, eggs, live transmission, nest, nestling, Poland, while-tail eagle
Conservation, Nature, Weird & Wonderful, Wildlife & Flora, ,
Species: Coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) Status: Critically Endangered (CR) Interesting Fact: The coelacanth is a member of an ancient lineage that has been around for over 360 million years. It may be the closest living relative to the first creature to walk on land! The enigmatic coelacanth was believed to have gone extinct with the dinosaurs until its remarkable rediscovery in 1938. Fossils have been found all over the world except for Antarctica. Living coelacanths have been found in deep submarine caverns, reefs and slopes in a number of locations off the coast of Africa. Unlike any other living animal, coelacanths…
Tags: archive.org, Coelacanth, critically endangered, Latimeria chalumnae, oceans
Nature, Science & Technology, Videos & Documentaries, Weird & Wonderful, May 6th, 2012,
Around the globe people have been marveling at the appearance of a perigree moon, also known as a supermoon. The supermoon phenomenon occurs when a full Moon coincides with the closest distance the Moon comes to the Earth during its orbit. During this phenomenon the Moon can appear 14% larger and 30% brighter than normal. Saturday night photographers around the world captured striking images of the supermoon, many with the moon behind iconic backdrops, such as the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and the Temple of Poseidon in Athens, Greece. From the Guardian: Amateur photographers were…
Tags: moon, perigree moon, supermoon
Climate & Change, Sustainable living, Videos & Documentaries, ,
A lot of money and resources go into making our homes warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. How can we minimize the amount of power we use for climate control? For example, 1/3 of all energy consumed in Germany is used to heat or cool homes. This can be quite an expense and is a significant source of climate change driving greenhouse gases. People have been insulating their homes for thousands of years with grass, mud and other natural materials. Now we use fiberglass, foam insulation, special glass in more developed areas, while houses in poorer, hotter…
Tags: climate, energy, home, house, insulation
Politics, Pollution, May 4th, 2012,
Up to one thousand locations in England and Wales may be contaminated with radioactive waste from military bases and factories. According to a new UK government report, a quarter of these places have been already confirmed to be contaminated. These figures surprised the British people, all the more, because only in December 2011, the Ministry of Defence cleared about 15 landfills of nuclear waste in the entire country. It leads the experts to one of two conclusions: either the authorities hid the real number of contaminated areas, or they did not realise the scale of the problem themselves. “In…
Tags: contamination, nuclear waste, radioactive
Animals, Weird & Wonderful, Wildlife & Flora, ,
Most of us associate wildlife with the countryside rather than with cities, unless you count cockroaches, rats and pigeons as wildlife (and why not, they are alive and not domesticated). However, urban environments can be unlikely havens for certain species that thrive or at least hang on to tiny remnants of their original habitats. Larger animals can pose complications, such as the exploding deer population in Washington, DC. And by exploding, I was referring to their numbers, not the actual deer. That would really be a problem. Then there are the UK’s urban foxes – loved, hated or even feared…
Tags: foxes, urban wildlife
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