Some good news

Aspen Trees In Yellowstone Are Flourishing For the First Time In 80 Years — Thanks To Gray Wolves

More bad news on the environmental front

Microplastics Found In Cave System Closed To Humans For 30 Years

This is...beyond terrible

Never mind that it's one apple slice but labelled 'slices': it's a terrible way to pollute the Earth's oceans.

McDonald’s sparks outrage with new ‘The Little Mermaid’ food packaging: ‘Surprised nobody has sued them’

The original post: "One apple slice in this plastic baggie, advertising a movie about the ocean..."

--sjdjenen

These apple slice packs are standard in Happy Meals. McDonald’s sells 4.1 million Happy Meals a day. Imagine 4.1 million of these wrappers in a pile.”

--Outside_the_Walls

I sometimes struggle with my faith in humanity

You know, people have been saying this since the 1970s and even before that, that climate change is real, and that human lives are at great risk unless we make changes. Now we have all the climate change deniers who want to keep their heads in the sand as tornadoes, droughts, hurricanes, wildfires, and all sorts of extreme weather hit those in vulnerable areas. It's not an 'act of God' anymore. It's a direct result of humankind's unmitigated destruction of key oecosystems, reliance on fossil fuels, and more. (And that's not counting forever chemicals or plastics). And let me tell you, when people die, and it will be in great numbers, 'thoughts and prayers' will do nothing as the seas rise and the grain belts become deserts. And then, after all our hubris, as poor 'stewards of the Earth', we [as a species] will deserve everything we get. Those who sounded the alarm decades ago to now are trying; others are listening, and one action can lead to great things, but one of the greatest threats to our civilisation isn't aliens, or an asteroid, or even nuclear war (although that's stepping up to the plate). It's denying that our actions have very real effects on the very home we live in, and the flora and fauna and all the other parts of our habitat.) Those effects can be for good or ill, but the very first thing is to recognise the problem and educate ourselves about it...and so many people are rejecting education itself (that's a whole other rant).

Oh, and read it to the end.

Climate Crisis Is on Track to Push One-Third of Humanity Out of Its Most Livable Environment

Disturbing

Humanity Has Already Used An Entire Earth's Worth Of Resources This Year

Humans have, in fewer than eight months, already used up one year’s worth of the planet's resources. This is based on an analysis of the demand that the human population is putting on the Earth, through various actions such as pumping carbon into the atmosphere and scouring the sea of fish, and the rate at which the planet can replenish these resources.

At that rate, it's clear at some point we'll become environmentally bankrupt, and then where will we be? Oh, yeah. Dead. Mort. Extinct.

This just about sums it up, don't you think?

This makes a very valid point

Credit to Max Temkin at maxistentialism.com via I F*cking Love Science's Facebook Page.

'Unless...'

Remember the end of The Lorax, by Dr Seuss, when the Lorax takes his leave and flies away, leaving the word 'Unless' carved in a stone for the Once-ler to ponder upon? Unless we care about the environment enough to do something about it, things will not get better. Where went the Brown Bar-ba-loots, Swomee Swans and Humming Fish as the Truffula trees were harvested, we all could go.

I was reminded of this by an memorial article about the fall of the once numerous passenger pigeon:

Louis Agassiz Fuertes - Birds of New York (New York State Museum. Memoir 12), Albany: University of the State of New York. Plates by Fuertes later reproduced in Birds of America (1917?) by Thomas Gilbert Pearson (1873-1943) et al.

Dearly Beloved: 100 Years Ago the Last Passenger Pigeon Died

A hundred years ago, Martha died. At 1 p.m. on September 1, 1914, the last individual of a wild blue dove whose flocks once numbered billions and blackened the American skies for days fell over dead in her Cincinnati zoo cage.

With the magnitude of her race's extinction, the American story - which is particularly the story of people on the land - ripped deeper into loss.

Almost no part of early American life went untouched by the passenger pigeon. Nearly 40 percent of all North American birds were passenger pigeons. The fact that most people today never heard of them shows how quickly we get accustomed to poverty.

Not confused with the city pigeon (an invasive species from England), the passenger pigeon was our continent's blue-winged exclamation - sleek, larger than a mourning dove, incredibly beautiful with an hourglass neck, iridescent blue body, apple breast, and white underside. In their billions - and they needed huge numbers to survive - they migrated north and south, creating their own wind and weather.

I don't want to see our world poorer for the loss of species after species, some relegated to spend their last gasps in zoos only to become extinct like the passenger pigeon. There are so many species of animals on the verge of extinction and while there has been some success with conservation and breeding programmes, there is the problem of small gene pools and rapid loss of environment. What we may find is that as we meld our world into some sort of convenience for ourselves, we lose the beauty of the natural world, and the diversity. Even our food is less diverse than it was a hundred years ago, thanks to companies like Monsanto and practices such as genetic modification of crops. In our race for 'progress' and 'the future', we may find that in actuality, we have shortchanged not only the planet but also our future upon it. The Earth will turn until the Sun expands and envelops it, many aeons into the future. We talk about the end of days, but it is not the Earth that will end, but our time on it. Through our manipulation of the environment, we may find that the world ends not in the bang of nuclear war or in the fury of powerful weapons, but rather in the proverbial whimper of starvation and loss of, yes, environment.

For more about the wholesale slaughter of these birds that went on for so long, you may want to check out a book called A Feathered River Across the Sky by Joel Greenberg, reviewed in a Guardian article.

Hmmm...

Nature to Get Legal Rights in Bolivia

After decades of exile to environmentalism’s legal fringes, the notion that natural systems could have legal rights is receiving serious attention.

Bolivia’s Law of Mother Earth is set to pass. On Wednesday the United Nations will discuss a proposed treaty based on the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth (.pdf), which was drafted by environmentalists last year. Both mandate legal recognition of ecosystems’ right to exist.

It’s highly unlikely that the United Nations would pass any such treaty in the foreseeable future, and the discussion has been criticized as a time-wasting political maneuver. But the intellectual argument for nature’s rights isn’t necessarily a patchouli-soaked Gaia fantasy translated into legalese. Some say it’s a practical extension of ecological insight.

If I had $25,000-$32,000 to spend

I think I might just spend it on this...

The Nissan Leaf--100% electric; no emissions no tailpipe, even.

(I'm not putting this here as an actual commercial for Nissan; it just intrigues me, and I found the commercial concept interesting (although highly unbelievable--but if you want to know how they did it, there's a video for that, too, and I like how they did it).

Here's an actual review:

What a mess

Sea creatures flee spill, gather near shore: Scientists say phenomena may signal polluted habitat, loss of fish

This is probably the single most devastating oecological disaster of my lifetime so far--maybe bigger and far reaching than Chernobyl--(and may there be none worse); unfortunately, so much of it is 'hidden' by being in the deep ocean that we may never truly understand its impact.

I feel for the people of the Gulf, but states such as Louisiana are reaping some of what they sowed by giving oil companies access to their mineral reserves. In the Shreveport area where I grew up, the petrochemical business was huge, and any dip in it meant recession in general for everyone.

They're not alone in this, of course. Here in Kentucky, people have given away their mineral rights for pittances for over a century, allowing strip mining and deep mining of resources. Not surprisingly, both Louisiana and Kentucky have a history of dirty politics.

And of course we all rely on oil, coal, and other non-renewable resources of energy to heat our homes, run our cars, etc. So we're all at fault, in a way, for what's happening to the creatures of the Gulf, the environment, and to those whose livelihoods depend upon them. This dependence on non-renewable energy must change; we need to put more resources into energy that will eventually be less costly (in so many ways) than petroleum and coal.

I grew up in Louisiana

albeit in the northern part, not the south, but it breaks my heart to see so much oil heading for the coast in what could easily be the worst spill ever. The damage to wildlife could be incalculable, and in an area barely recovering from hurricane Katrina, this could mean the end to many people's livelihoods (shrimpers, for example). As one man put it:

"A hurricane is like closing your bank account for a few days, but this here has the capacity to destroy our bank accounts," said Byron Marinovitch, 47.

Birds under threat as oil hits La. shore: Spill may prompt rethink of Obama’s coastal drilling plans

I remember the Exxon Valdez spill and how devastating that was. (Did you know that ship is still in service?) Even now, the coast there shows signs of oil. This is set to be far worse, since the oil is continuously pumping out and is much more than any single tanker could contain. May they be able to do everything they can to minimise the damage to the Gulf Coast.

How do you clean up an oil spill?

PHOTO: (Black Turnstone (Arenaria melanocephala) in mating plumage foraging on rocks near Crescent City, California)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alanvernon/ / CC BY 2.0

Rapid environmental change can have noticeable effects on species

American songbirds evolve with forests

Eastern North American songbirds are a pretty adaptable bunch, says a scientist who discovered some remarkable changes in their wings over the last 100 years.

A close look at museum collections of 851 songbird specimens belonging to 21 species shows that most of the birds evolved pointier wings after their forests were fragmented by clear-cutting. Others in re-foresting areas evolved less-pointy wings. The reason for the wing changes: nothing less than the drive to procreate.

Pointier wings can help birds who are long-distance commuters fly more efficiently. More rounded wings, however, are better over short distances.

A sad case of environmental loss

'Freezer plan' bid to save coral

The prospects of saving the world's coral reefs now appear so bleak that plans are being made to freeze samples to preserve them for the future.

Tackling poverty and environmental issues

Meeting India's tree planting guru

An Indian civil servant, SM Raju, has come up with a novel way of providing employment to millions of poor in the eastern state of Bihar.

His campaign to encourage people to plant trees effectively addresses two burning issues of the world: global warming and shrinking job opportunities.

Evidence of Mr Raju's success could clearly be seen on 30 August, when he organised 300,000 villagers from over 7,500 villages in northern Bihar to engage in a mass tree planting ceremony.

In doing so the agriculture graduate from Bangalore has provided "sustainable employment" to people living below the poverty line in Bihar.

Really troubling

YKWIA told me about this:

AP Probe Finds Drugs in Drinking Water

There's growing concern in the scientific community, meanwhile, that certain drugs — or combinations of drugs — may harm humans over decades because water, unlike most specific foods, is consumed in sizable amounts every day.

Our bodies may shrug off a relatively big one-time dose, yet suffer from a smaller amount delivered continuously over a half century, perhaps subtly stirring allergies or nerve damage. Pregnant women, the elderly and the very ill might be more sensitive.

Many concerns about chronic low-level exposure focus on certain drug classes: chemotherapy that can act as a powerful poison; hormones that can hamper reproduction or development; medicines for depression and epilepsy that can damage the brain or change behavior; antibiotics that can allow human germs to mutate into more dangerous forms; pain relievers and blood-pressure diuretics.

Some research shows that the chlorine in treated water could increase toxicity. Fish, earthworms, and other 'simpler' animals are showing signs of contamination. What are they doing to us and to our environment?

There are times

I think humans are a virus upon the planet. Not all the time, mind you, but I do find stories like this somewhat troubling--that we've become so widespread, so numerous, and so adept at affecting our environment (one of our main adaptations that led us to the supposed exalted position we enjoy today) that there is no region left of the sea that has not been touched by humans.

No Pristine Oceans Left, New Map Shows

But how much damage has already been done?

Congress Earmarks $3 Million to Reopen EPA Libraries

Of course, it's a little late in the game, with several collections and facilities jettisoned; now they'll have to spend more money than originally budgeted to recover collections, all overseen by the same people who closed the libraries in the first place in the name of saving money.

And selling $40,000 worth of fixtures for less than $350, a figure quoted by PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility)--which has been following the saga, sounds just like our government in action.

What would Aristotle do?

The lines are blurring between animal, vegetable, and mineral with transgenic creations. Witness the latest, poplars with rabbit genes to help pull poisons for the environment. It's a good cause of course, and years from field testing, but what happens when these products make it out into the world? How will they affect wild and cultivated varieties? Do you really want to eat food that's been tinkered with?

Mutants or saviors? Rabbit genes create trees that eat poisons

And let's not forget spider goats and glowing bunnies (the latter of which died young and never really glowed with the colour or intensity of published photographs, which were enhanced by an artist--and only the body would have glowed, not the hair, which is dead tissue).

Thanks to YKWIA, who over the years has regaled me with stories of spider goats, glowing bunnies, and now bunny trees.

Last thing

72 % responsible purchasing, 62 % responsible consumption, 66% social awareness, 54 % social action

If you're above 50% in any category, not bad. They were tough questions. We all have areas of growth and we're all in this together. Here's the thing: time is running out. Do something.

Recommended: New York Times (free email delivery!); National Public Radio; Lies My Teacher Told Me (Loewen); A Theory of Everything (Ken Wilber); The Ethics of What We Eat: Why our Food Choices Matter (Peter Singer)

Link: The Social Responsibility Test written by evolve72 on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test