Random thoughts

[rbkwp]

relevant info on life as you possibly never realised ha

It’s Thursday, May 17, and your fridge is defrosting the environment, but we’re trying to fix that.

Grist / CSA Plastock / Getty Images

Refrigerators used to contain chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons which kept food icy cold but gnawed a hole through a liiiitle something called the planet’s ozone layer. Y’know, that thing that shields us from the sun’s fiery wrath.

Now, your fridge contains hydroflourocarbons, which don’t riddle the ozone layer like swiss cheese but most definitely leak into the atmosphere and trap a ton of heat — they’re stronger than CO2 by many thousands-fold. In 2016, a bunch of countries decided to phase out HFCs, recognizing the risk they pose to the planet. But the process could take decades, and we don’t have that kind of time.

Here’s the good news. In his book Drawdown, Paul Hawken ranks refrigerant management as the #1 solution to global climate change. And it’s not as politically fraught as, say, taxing carbon. Fridge manufacturers are trying to figure out ways to keep food fresh without turning the planet into a parched nightmare.

One company may have had a big breakthrough. Phononics, Inc., has built a new fridge that doesn’t utilize refrigerants at all. The North Carolina company uses something called thermoelectricity. The thermoelectric effect relies on electrical currents to pull heat away. These new fridges use less energy, make less noise, and are smaller than conventional refrigerators.

Here’s the catch: This new tech is inefficient and prohibitively expensive. But Phononics got a grant from the Department of Energy to make their thermoelectric coolers more efficient. If all goes well, you might be eating food that’s been chilled by electrical currents in the future.

THE SMOG
Need-to-know basis

Justin Trudeau has found himself in a bit of a political pickle. The Canadian prime minister has tried to convince B.C. that the Trans Mountain Pipeline is in the best interest of the Canadian people, but they’re just not going for it. Kinder Morgan has considered scrapping the project over the delays in the Pacific coast province, so now, the government announced it will cover any losses the company might face as a result.

 

[rbkwp]

YES SMILE

How to Protect Your Local Pollinators in Ten Easy Ways
As the first annual World Bee Day looms, insect and garden lovers are abuzz with excitement

A very happy World Bee Day to you. Let’s talk pollinators. (James Gagliardi)
By Ryan P. Smith
SMITHSONIAN.COM MAY 17, 2018 2:08PM
waggle dance for the first annual World Bee Day on May 20, proposed via an official United Nations resolution put forward by the Balkan nation of Slovenia. A historical mecca for beekeeping (not many countries can boast a robust “apitourism” industry), Slovenia pitched the celebration as a means of calling attention to the importance of conserving bee life worldwide.

Smithsonian horticulturalist James Gagliardi, who will be flying to Slovenia under the aegis of the U.S. State Department as an ambassador of American conservation efforts, is eager to contribute to the festivities and to raise awareness both internationally and at home of the significant role that bees play in our everyday existence. One project he will be promoting is the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge, whose website reminds visitors that fully one in three bites of food that humans eat each day is the result of pollinators’ interactions with plants, and invites them to register their own pollinator gardens in a race toward one million.

Those who rise to the challenge receive the satisfaction of seeing a dot of their own added to the existing global map of registered pollinator gardens (nearly 700,000 and counting); those without the wherewithal to found a garden are asked to encourage their local public gardens to register, and to raise awareness of the campaign in their communities.

Biodiversity in plant and insect life is the hallmark of the Smithsonian’s vivid Pollinator Garden. (James Gagliardi)
1. Grow more gardens, fewer lawns

The sprawling bright green lawn has long been a fixture in the dream of American suburban utopia, but when it comes to supporting bees and their pollinating brethren, plain old grass is effectively a waste of space. “A lot of the time, lawns are food deserts for insects,” says Holly Walker. “If you can carve out more niches for flowering plants—particularly pollen-producing plants—that’s such a big deal.”


image: https://thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com/ASni...b81618e-4cae-4d60-8db2-ca970e11c79e/bees5.jpg

Coneflowers are one example of a pollinator-friendly East Coast native. (Diego Delso, delso.photo, License CC-BY-SA, Wikimedia Commons)
2. Plant native flowers

Planting locally indigenous plant species in your garden is win-win: you get to show off your hometown pride while simultaneously looking out for all the authentically American bees and other insects that are too often overshadowed by the ubiquitous nonnative honeybee. Oftentimes, flowering plants and pollinators evolve in tandem to optimize their mutualistic relationships. This means that introducing native plants to your garden will lead to a boost in pollinator efficiency, and will help perpetuate species diversity across the board.



“It really is neat to see local bees and native bees doing what they do best on the local and native plants,” says Walker—especially since many of the native species out there bear little to no resemblance to the honeybees and bumblebees we picture when someone mentions bees. “A lot of them are very small little guys,” Walker says, “and they’re very metallic-looking in some cases. Some of them are racecar green.” Walker is enthused about the idea of getting gardeners on friendlier terms with bees of all shapes and sizes. “They’re not what comes to mind, but they’re doing an important job too, and they’re very efficient.”

image: https://thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com/V9FF...52a8256e-952d-4f5c-b04c-9b37abd62203/bee6.jpg

A garden filled with diverse flowers will make an outsize positive impact on the environment. (Jin Zan, Wikimedia Commons)
3. Diversify your gardens in size, shape and color


image: https://thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com/iULZ...4464da47-2b4c-4ade-8d50-bafee5e17db0/bee7.jpg

Be sure to plant late-blooming flowers like dahlias to get as much
mage: https://thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com/JNHo...b83fd32-81d3-42f6-9a49-7a8ff49812c1/bees8.jpg

Plasterer bees and many other varieties make their homes in the earth, not in the hives we generally picture. (Gail Hampshire, Wikimedia Commons)
5. Create habitats for nesting bees

The idea of redefining garden beauty standards extends beyond winter. All throughout the year, pollinators are looking for habitats to call home, and you can help provide those if you make a little extra effort and embrace the wilder look Gagliardi advocates.

Holly Walker notes that many species of bees reside not in hives, but rather underground. “You should leave a little bit of bare ground,” she says, “ or even make little sandy areas for them, because that’s what they like to burrow into.” By a similar token, it’s easy to cater to the needs of wood-tunneling pollinators by leaving old hollow stems and other accommodating bits of wood out for their use. Walker thinks this a fulfilling exercise for any gardener looking to sustain animal life. “You’re creating habitat for these guys,” she stresses. “You’re being involved with it.”
mage: https://thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com/qRBH...3e5f08aa-ba0c-442e-be3b-36191a2d4ada/bee9.jpg

Like most animals, bees need ample hydration to survive. Draw them to you by installing water features in your garden. (Bartosz Kosiorek, Wikimedia Commons)


https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smit...pJobID=1282017091&spReportId=MTI4MjAxNzA5MQS2

 

[rbkwp]

Pesticides will banish valuable pollinators from your garden. Consider instead introducing additional insects, such as the assassin bug (pictured), to keep pests in check. (Ozwildlife, Wikimedia Commons)
8. Avoid pesticides

Spraying pesticides liberally may seem like a quick and easy solution to keeping garden maintenance hassle-free, but doing so can come at a severe cost. “When researchers go in and do surveys of beehives and honey,” Holly Walker says, “they’re finding traces of fungicides, herbicides and pesticides in there.” In other words, bees are picking up harmful substances in gardens and bringing those substances back to their homes—sometimes with disastrous results.

How can you keep those pesky aphids and mealybugs in check without pesticides? Counterintuitively, Walker says the best solution is adding more insect species to the mix rather than removing existing ones. “If you allow other insects, natural enemies—ladybugs, praying mantises, parasitic wasps and predatory mites—into your garden,” she says, “they actually do a very good job of controlling the ones you don’t want.” She’s put this philosophy into practice at the Smithsonian’s Pollinator Garden, and has been delighted with the results. “I’m constantly releasing more insects into our garden,” she says. “I love putting more insects out.”
mage: https://thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com/Yab-...e71265c-18d6-4dbd-8466-eae365346eef/bee12.jpg

If you want your garden to be a hotbed of biodiversity (and you totally should), you’ll need to accept a few “imperfections” here and there. (Toby Hudson, Wikimedia Commons)
9. Learn to love imperfection

Welcoming bees into your garden, while certain to enliven and strengthen it, will also force you to abandon the ideal of visually pristine leaves and soil. For James Gagliardi, the trick is to recognize that “imperfections” in your plants are in actuality something to take pride in, for they indicate that the resources you’ve cultivated are not going to waste.

“We want to see damage on a leaf,” he says, “because, as we know, the hungry caterpillar needs to eat to turn into the beautiful butterfly. If every leaf is perfect and not eaten away, that process is not coming along.” Sylvia Schmeichel agrees that a shift in perspective is what’s needed more than anything. “Even if it’s a ‘bad bug’ that’s chewing on your plant, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing in the end,” she says. “What we teach is: figure out what it is, and see if you can leave it be.”

image: https://thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com/yLmC...7e56096-915a-4a26-97ff-dc8bbdca6ce2/bee13.jpg

Remember, pollinators come in all shapes and sizes. (Pollinator, Wikimedia Commons)
10. Bees are awesome, but so are other pollinators

Smithsonian garden gurus are excited bees will be getting their moment in the spotlight this weekend, but they are also quick to point out that bees aren’t the only pollinators we should be looking out for. “Most people think of bees,” says Gagliardi, “but we want to promote moths and flies and beetles and all those good things too.” Insects tend to be stigmatized as icky and invasive, but all over the world, they are doing the quiet small-scale work needed to keep the biosphere on track.

If we fail to look out for our pollinators, Schmeichel says, the consequences are clear. “Our diet would not be as rich, and our world would not be as beautiful and diverse, if we did not have them.”


Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smit...-ten-east-ways-180969111/#8DqWT0OuCMoyyWdQ.99

 

[MickeyLee]

Somebody help! I've been sucked into a Pinterest Pitbull Vortex!
I can't handle the cuteness.

 

[LaFemme]

Somebody help! I've been sucked into a Pinterest Pitbull Vortex!
I can't handle the cuteness.

There is no help! See you in 4 hours.

 

[rbkwp]

ENDANGERED SPECIES DAY
To save species, limit global warming
In the battle to save threatened species from extinction, a new study has found that keeping climate change under 1.5 degrees Celsius could be key. Global warming will hit hardest those animals we depend upon most.

The Red List of threatened species is getting longer every year.

Currently, the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists 5,583 species as critically endangered, including subspecies of animals and plants.

Another 20,000 species are classified as endangered or vulnerable.

Pangolins could get extinct within 10 years

Polar bears are by far not the only living creatures to suffer in a warming world

Small temperature changes will result in large strides to save species, the study found

The black rhinoceros is hit by climate change as well as poaching

• 
  
  ALL ABOUT THE BIRDS AND THE BEES...

• 
  RED LIST: HUMAN ACTIVITY THREATENS THOUSANDS OF SPECIES WITH EXTINCTION

http://www.dw.com/en/to-save-specie...tter_en_around_the_globe-5663-html-newsletter

 

[rbkwp]

COOL !

am sure for some reason it has nothing to do with PM Trudeau

The new parks were announced in 2012, but only formally established this week, according to Emma Graney of the Edmonton Journal. The plan was finally put into action thanks to a unique collaboration between conservationists, Indigenous communities, government groups and one of the largest producers of crude oil from Canada’s oil sands.

MAY 18, 2018 1:48PM
4221018
More than half of Canada’s landmass is comprised of boreal forest—a vast and tree-filled region that extends across the country. To help conserve the forest, the province of Alberta has designated four new protected parks in its northeastern region, reports David Thurton of the CBC. When added to other contiguous conserved lands in Alberta, the new parks make up the largest stretch of protected boreal forests on the planet.

Logging and other industrial activities, like oil sands development, will not be permitted in the new parks, which have been named Kazan, Richardson, Dillon River and Birch River. As part of its conservation efforts, Alberta will also expand the existing Birch Mountains Wildland Provincial Park.
Canada Is Now Home to the World’s Largest Stretch of Protected Boreal Forests
The province of Alberta has announced the creation of four new protected parks

image: https://thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com/vwDQ...by_fort_mcmurray_photo_by_michel_rapinski.jpg

(Michel Rapinski)
By Brigit Katz
SMITHSONIAN.COM MAY 18, 2018 1:48PM
boreal forest—a vast and tree-filled region that extends across the country. To help conserve the forest, the province of Alberta has designated four new protected parks in its northeastern region, reports David Thurton of the CBC. When added to other contiguous conserved lands in Alberta, the new parks make up the largest stretch of protected boreal forests on the planet.

Logging and other industrial activities, like oil sands development, will not be permitted in the new parks, which have been named Kazan, Richardson, Dillon River and Birch River. As part of its conservation efforts, Alberta will also expand the existing Birch Mountains Wildland Provincial Park.

With the exception of Dillon River, all of these lands border the Wood Buffalo National Park, a Unesco World Heritage Site that hosts the largest wild bison population in North America. And taken together, the protected areas span more than 67,700 square kilometers (about 26,140 square miles)—“an area twice the size of Belgium,” as Hamdi Issawi of the StarMetro Edmonton points out.

The new parks were announced in 2012, but only formally established this week, according to Emma Graney of the Edmonton Journal. The plan was finally put into action thanks to a unique collaboration between conservationists, Indigenous communities, government groups and one of the largest producers of crude oil from Canada’s oil sands.

The Tallcree First Nation played an important role in the negotiations. The group’s tribal government agreed to relinquish a timber quota in the area, which was purchased by the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) for $2.8 million. The majority of the funding, according to an NCC press release, was provided by the oil company Syncrude Canada, which hopes the creation of new protected land will offset some of the disturbances caused by its industrial activity.

As Issawi reports, the Tallcree subsequently gave the $2.8 million to the Alberta government for the creation of the Birch River park.

“I believe there should be a balance between developing economic opportunities and protecting our land, so that it is not depleted of all the resources that it gives, allowing us to live our traditional lives of hunting, fishing, trapping and harvesting medicine,” Chief Rupert Meneen of the Tallcree tribal government said at a press conference this week, according to Issawi.

The Alberta government is planning to establish an Indigenous Guardian Program, which will appoint First Nations and Métis people to maintain the new parks and offer education to visitors.

Canada’s boreal forest is vital to the health of the planet. These lush lands provide us with clean air and water. They also offer a home to migratory birds and other species—including threatened animals like the peregrine falcon, wood bison and woodland caribou. What’s more, Canada’s boreal forest area is an important carbon sink, meaning that it absorbs more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases. And by keeping carbon out of the atmosphere, the forest can prevent climate change from getting worse.

“The impact of this conservation project reaches well beyond the region, the province of Alberta or even Canada,” John Lounds, President and CEO of the NCC, explains in the organization’s statement. “This is conservation on a global scale. Nature can only benefit when people work together.”


Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smar...boreal-forests-180969123/#ihDSQ4WvbjDbVMOh.99

 

[rbkwp]

"Great Grey Owl" Photo by Harry Collin

Submit Your Photo to Our 2018 Photo Contest >>

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/phot...pJobID=1282131647&spReportId=MTI4MjEzMTY0NwS2

Thanks to Tessa Montague, a molecular biologist who just finished her PhD at Harvard, we now know.

The tardigrade measures 0.008 inches in length. Its feces -- made mostly of digested lichen -- measure about a third of its total body length. You can watch the full video on Twitter or YouTube.

 

[rbkwp]

Sifaka Lemurs Listed as 'Critically Endangered' Amid Mysterious Die-Off

as bad as ..
year 2000 onwards now, isent it

BRED TO SUFFER
Inside the Barbaric U.S. Industry of Dog Experimentation


Dog experimentation is pervasive
The number of dogs used for experimentation in the U.S. has generally declined some over the past several decades — though it rose again last year — but still remains remarkably high. The most common animals used for testing — mice, fish, and birds — are not covered by any federal regulations or reporting requirements, and thus no precise numbers are known, but estimates vary from 20 million to as many as 100 million.

Cages of “research dogs” stacked on top of each other at Ridglan Farms Inc.

Photo: DxE

https://theintercept.com/2018/05/17...il&utm_term=0_e00a5122d3-14f5612be5-131556697

 

[rbkwp]

just sayin
my wods exactly
well, not my words but ya'all know what im suggesting
but
not my wedding and i am super pleased everyone remained HAPPY thruout and beyond

Never was the difference between two cultures more apparent.

Royal wedding: Reverend Bishop Michael Curry upstages Meghan Markle with impassioned sermon
By Annabel Crabb
Posted May 20, 2018 06:32:36

PHOTO: From the outset, it was clear that Reverend Michael Curry was not going to deliver a standard Church of England sermon. (AP: Owen Humphreys)
RELATED STORY: 'I will': Prince Harry and Meghan Markle marry in St George's Chapel
RELATED STORY: Gallery: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding

MAP: United Kingdom

Behind any Royal wedding pulses — among its hordes of fretful planners — is the atavistic fear that the bride will be upstaged by someone.

Maybe it'll be a precocious pageboy. Or perhaps a bridesmaid's shapely derriere.

It's a funny old wedding, however, in which the bride is upstaged by the clergy.

And yet that is exactly what happened.

It began as a largely routine Royal wedding, remarkable only for the extra wattage in its star turnout.

The weather was perfect, the crowds gathered and the Queen disembarked from her Rolls Royce dressed in a shade that no other nonagenarian in the world would be self-possessed enough to attempt.

PHOTO: Queen Elizabeth II arrives at the wedding in her Rolls Royce. (Reuters: Gareth Fuller)

The invited guests took their seats with that slightly entitled air common among people who have had to be instructed on the invitations to wear hats but not swords please.

The published order of proceedings (which still included the bride's father, a moment of thrift having precluded the printing of a fresh set) was at once over-detailed and somehow dull, like the persistent whisperings of an extremely reliable equerry.

At 11.45am the Mother of the Bride, Ms Doria Ragland, arrives at the Galilee Porch and is received by the Dean of Windsor and is conducted to her seat in the Quire.

At 11.52am Her Majesty The Queen arrives at the Galilee Porch and is received by the Dean of Windsor who presents the Canons of Windsor and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Those in the Quire stand as Her Majesty is conducted to her place in the Quire. A fanfare will sound.

And then the Reverend Michael Curry spoke.


Media player: "Space" to play, "M" to mute, "left" and "right" to seek.


VIDEO: Reverend Curry's wedding sermon (ABC News)


From the outset, it was clear that this was not going to be a standard Church of England sermon, which tradition dictates should be delivered in the tone of a very shy person asking the way to the train station.

A copy of Reverend Curry's address was distributed in advance, but he immediately went off script, barely glancing at the tablet in front of him on which his prepared words blinked patiently.

He started with the Reverend Martin Luther King, then into an energetic reverie about love.

"Now the power of love is demonstrated by the fact that we are all here," he enthused, hands flying.

"Two young people fell in love, and we all showed up. But it's not just for and about a young couple who we rejoice with. It's more than that."

At this point, guests began to exchange glances.

Princess Beatrice (fresh from disappointing the gathered crowds by failing to wear a hat that looked as if she were attempting to establish contact with a distant galaxy) assumed an expression of goggle-eyed amusement.

External Link: Tweet: Shane Morgan: The exact moment Princess Beatrice thinks to herself, "I'm so booking Michael Curry for my wedding. Boom!"

"I am talking about some power. Real power," the visiting churchman continued, his delivery building to a rhetorical peak, prepared text receding in the speech's rear-vision mirror.

"Power to change the world! If you don't believe me, well, there were some old slaves in America's Antebellum South who explained the dynamic power of love, and why it has the power to transform.

"They explained it this way. They sang a spiritual, even in the midst of their captivity. It's the one that says there is a balm in Gilead — a healing balm."

Elton John, in his pink plastic glasses, frowned in puzzlement as the guest in front of him stifled a smile.

External Link: Tweet: @RaiReyj80: Thoughts on Reverend Michael Curry's speech? Couldn't help but notice Elton's face. #royalwedding


The Queen was seen to shrug slightly in resignation. Prince Charles looked exceedingly awkward. Zara Tindall gave a long glance of disbelief that was later described as "side-eye".

External Link: @Ecclesalllade: "Love Zara Tindall's Joanna Lumley impression"

Martin Luther King! Slaves! Now, England didn't have an elaborate formalised slave-owning racket the way America did, but one could very confidently say that among the 600 assembled there would be plenty whose vast inherited fortunes were boosted at some point by the blood, sweat and tears of fellow humans who were not paid for their trouble.

So the Reverend's words were … bold. And loud. And fuelled by a passion and showmanship that — while by Episcopalian standards the preacher was barely tapping his foot on the accelerator — made many of the Royal guests either look at their shoes or giggle.

He mentioned "love" 58 times; this might explain the discomfiture of Prince Charles, who at the time of his first marriage expressed some difficulty with the concept.

External Link: @niamhlet21: "Prince Charles and Camilla embracing the power of love during Rev Curry's Oscar-worthy sermon"


But there was one woman who looked entirely comfortable, nodding along contentedly to the words of the visiting bishop.

And it was the woman who otherwise had the most reason to feel ill at ease — the woman who only two days earlier had flown from California to London to meet the Queen, say hello to her only daughter, then head to a castle built one millennium ago by William the Conqueror to see that daughter marry a prince in front of a global television audience of 20 million or so.

Doria Ragland — whose own ancestors were slaves, and who was unaccompanied at the ceremony, quietly wiping tears from her cheeks as she watched her daughter — was quite at ease with the soaring rhetoric, and didn't seem to notice the bubble of nervous hysteria building among the congregation.

Never was the difference between two cultures more apparent.

PHOTO: Doria Ragland is a proud mum. (Reuters: Dominic Lipinski)

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-...tm_content=ABCNewsmail_topstories_articlelink

 

[rbkwp]

S2

Annals of Gastronomy
How to Eat Candy Like a Swedish Person
Scandinavia, in general, is crazy for candy, but no one eats more than the Swedes.

By Hannah Goldfield

mmmm and/or huh

Daily Shouts
How to Find Yourself

Let’s start with the basics. Have you checked your pantry?
haha we need it

By Aleichia Williams

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/a...pJobID=1401839841&spReportId=MTQwMTgzOTg0MQS2

 

[rbkwp]

GOOD JOB
we the world have to find ways to clean up ourr own mess
bet the govts of the world wont decrease there military spending for such huh
they will find the money??

Osaka rubbish incinerator Maishima looks like Disneyland but is part of Japan's waste strategy
By North Asia correspondent Jake Sturmer
Posted May 21, 2018 06:09:26

Media player: "Space" to play, "M" to mute, "left" and "right" to seek.

VIDEO: The Maishima Incineration Plant looks like a theme park, but plays an important waste management role (ABC News)
RELATED STORY: This Japanese town has 45 different recycling bins

MAP: Japan
It's been mistaken for a theme park, attracts thousands of tourists every year and even has its own TripAdvisor page.

But this strange Japanese building hides a dirty secret.

This is actually the Maishima Incineration Plant, where 900 tonnes of rubbish is hauled in from around Osaka and burnt every day.

It's a critical piece of infrastructure for managing the waste produced by the 2.6 million residents in Japan's third-biggest city.

On the Maishima plant's TripAdvisor page, tourists marvel at the sheer wackiness of the architectural facade.

PHOTO: The Maishima Incineration Plant in Osaka processes 900 tonnes of rubbish each day in Japan's third-largest city.(ABC News: Yumi Asada)

"Just when you think Japan can not shock you anymore … think again," reads one review.

"Only Japan could make a waste disposal plant look like Disneyland."

In Japan, where land is a scarce resource, just 1 per cent of council waste ends up in landfill, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Much of Japan's waste is burnt at one of the 1,000-plus incinerators dotted around the country.

In Australia, since the 1970s, backyard incineration and open burning at landfills has declined sharply due to health concerns.

PHOTO: The Maishima plant is often mistaken for the nearby Universal Studios theme park. (ABC News: Jake Sturmer)


But burning is now back on the agenda in the wake of China's recyclables ban.

Osaka's Maishima plant cost $730.5 million and handles a quarter of Osaka's rubbish.

The facility's manager said while the cost may seem expensive, the plant provided value to the community by reducing waste and generating electricity.

When it first opened in 2001, sightseers used to mistake it for the nearby Universal Studios theme park.

At the Osaka facility, an elderly couple is taking photos and admiring the building — they are fans of its designer, Viennese artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser.

PHOTO: The plant cost $730 million to build and was designed by Austria's Friedensreich Hundertwasser.(ABC News: Jake Sturmer)

His intentions were to symbolise the harmony of technology, ecology and art by creating a structure with roots in the local area.

"Since straight lines and identical objects do not exist in nature, Hundertwasser incorporated curved lines into each shape and encompassed the buildings in green as a symbol of harmony with nature," the plant's glossy pamphlet proclaims.

Burning a big part of Japan's waste management
In Tokyo, the world's largest metropolis, there are now 21 high-tech incineration facilities within its 23 wards.

While not as architecturally interesting, it's not had to spot the smoke stacks which stick out even among the megacity's towering skyline.

The fleet of incinerators are burning rubbish constantly.

PHOTO: The Toshima Incineration Plant in northern Tokyo is one of 21 incinerators in the world's largest metropolis.(ABC News: Yumi Asada)


"Now there is only one landfill site left in central Tokyo area," Wataru Sasaki, manager of the Toshima Incineration Plant in northern Tokyo, said.

"We need to reduce the amount of landfill so our future generation can keep using it — rubbish becomes one-twentieth of [its size] when it's incinerated.

"Furthermore, you can recycle some of it into slag and use it as cement."

That cement is used as asphalt and bricks that pave some of the streets and paths of Tokyo.

The heat from the Toshima plant is also used to warm nearby pools and the facility generates enough electricity to power itself and sell excess capacity back into the grid.

PHOTO: The rubbish is burned and then turned into cement which is used to pave Tokyo's streets. (ABC News: Yumi Asada)


Incineration plants have prompted health concerns and Japan implemented extremely strict laws in the early 2000s to alleviate fears.

"At the same time, all of the small size incinerators which were not able to burn at high temperature were shut down as they generated dioxins," waste economist Shusaku Yamaya said.

"Japan now has large-scale incinerators which cover big areas and cleared the dioxin problem.

"But it cost a huge amount of money to build incinerators so it was inevitable that the waste management cost went up."

PHOTO: Toshima manager Wataru Sasaki says the incineration plants mean there is only one landfill site in Tokyo.(ABC News: Yumi Asada)


An imperfect solution for Australia
Waste-to-energy projects may be expanded to help tackle the growing recycling crisis in Australia, according to Minister for Energy and Environment Josh Frydenberg.

But Professor Yamaya warns the capital costs of incineration plants are significant and said it was an imperfect solution for Australia.

"I think it's most important to think about waste prevention," he said.

"[Australia] should build the minimum number of incineration facilities and not burn in large scale.

"[But they are useful because] the waste becomes [a fraction] of its size after burning and I think it'll have a significant effect as it can also extend the life of the final landfill sites.

"Also it's essential to build a high-level incineration facility which can reuse the energy as much as possible."

PHOTO: While it works for Japan, a waste economist said it may not fully suit Australia. (ABC News: Yumi Asada)


His advice is to implement a user-pays system, where you have to pay per bag of rubbish.

"The biggest effect of paying for rubbish is it will improve separation of waste," Professor Yamaya said.

"[The system] only charges for rubbish that needs to be processed — it's free if you separate them.

"In Japan it has reduced about 20 per cent of burnable rubbish and about 15 per cent of the total amount of rubbish including burnable and recyclables."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-...tm_content=ABCNewsmail_topstories_articlelink

 

[creek47]

Bacon is always a solution!

 

[rbkwp]

BEAUTFUL
people of the supposed lessor countries teach us wealth hungry westerners how to live
they dont need no wars no land grabs
well maybe internal domestic squabbling as per usual with everyone?

HOW THE GAMBIA LEARNED TO GROW BOTH FORESTS AND FOOD
BY ANNA PUJOL MAZZINI • APR 11 2018

Why You Should Care
Because as the need to feed more people grows, forests are often the first victim.

Along the Atlantic coast at the southwestern tip of the Gambia, the local stewards of Konoto forest had to take drastic measures to ensure the survival of their woodlands. Last year, they agreed to a two-year moratorium: no logging, wood harvesting, cattle grazing or visiting without authorization. The strict rules were meant to protect the new trees they had planted to regenerate the forest.

The Konoto and the community that depends on it are representative of a struggle that will occur in much of the developing world over the next decades: how to feed a growing population with limited space? In many places, the answer is simple: replace forests with fields. Currently, agriculture is responsible for more than three-quarters of global deforestation, according to a 2016 report, “State of the World’s Forests,” from the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

But the Gambia is a rare country that is managing to do both: produce more food and grow more forests. How so? Since 1990, the government has progressively transferred ownership of forests to more than 500 local communities that now manage around 10 percent of the country’s forests. And that’s working wonders, according to that 2016 FAO report:

OVER THE PAST 25 YEARS, THE GAMBIA HAS EXPANDED WOODLANDS BY 10 PERCENT WHILE INCREASING CROPLAND AND HALVING THE NUMBER OF UNDERNOURISHED PEOPLE.
“It is one of the first countries that has slowed and reversed deforestation rates,” says Dominique Reeb, who works on forestry at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, which tracks forests in the Gambia and elsewhere.

“When communities have the ownership of a forest, they protect it,” adds Saikou Janko, president of the All Gambia Forestry Platform, which coordinates community forest groups. Around the world, research shows that deforestation rates are two to three times lower in forests owned by indigenous groups and local communities.

Certainly, the people living around Konoto are highly motivated to protect their critical asset. It provides logs and charcoal for cooking, palm fruits for making oil, nutritious bush fruits such askabba and folley, and a place for beekeeping. Villagers use money earned from selling these sustainable products to cushion unexpected financial blows. “Before we go to the bank, we use that cash for any emergency — rushing somebody to hospital [or helping] a child being driven from school because of fees,” Buba Touray, the community group’s secretary general, tells OZY.

Yet challenges remain. The transfer of ownership has not spread evenly to all regions of the Gambia, so there are still places that face deforestation and forest degradation. And the process of handing a forest over to a community is long and arduous: It can take years for the government to train local groups to manage forests sustainably.

Teaching often-illiterate rural communities about science can be a “major challenge,” agrees Alagie Manjang, an official at the Ministry of Environment. Because of degrading agricultural land, deforestation cannot be stopped without a shift to sustainable agriculture, as forests will keep being cleared to grow food otherwise, he says.

While the 1990s marked the start of community forestry in the Gambia and an increase in forest cover, progress stalled in the next decade, when the policy was all but stopped by dictatorialPresident Yahya Jammeh. The new government, elected in late 2016, plans to increase the forest areas owned by communities to 15 percent of the total woodlands. “With the change of regime, there’s hope they’ll move much faster now,” says the FAO’s Reeb.

In Konoto, managing the local forest hasn’t put an end to all the villagers’ troubles. They struggle to pay the 60-odd people who patrol the woodlands day in and day out to thwart intruders. And their next fight: a Gambian sand-mining company that locals say now threatens the survival of the forest.

https://www.ozy.com/acumen/how-the-...018&variable=2a7c7073d11b33ec576dc49ca0852af6



PICTURE STORIES

Who Do You See in These Chickens?

Photograph by Tamara Staples
Photographer Tamara Staples fell first fell in love with chickens while attending a poultry show and has been smitten ever since. Her latest series, called “Cocky,” features oval cameos of the chickens against backdrops of various hues. People see their human relatives in the cameos, says Staples. “They’re really connecting with the birds,” she says. “They say ‘that’s my mom’ or ‘that’s my aunt’ or ‘that’s my uncle.’ They buy them in pairs and are like ‘this is our family tree.’”

LOOK CLOSER +

 

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Why Photographing Pandas Is More Challenging Than You Might Think
Photojournalist Ami Vitale describes her years of work capturing the lovable furballs

Don’t be fooled by this roly-poly furball. These mischevious creatures need constant attention and round-the-clock care. (Copyright Ami Vitale*)


amazing incredible story of the pervation of the RHINO

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/scie...pJobID=1282428153&spReportId=MTI4MjQyODE1MwS2

The Dangerous Work of Relocating 5,000-Pound Rhinos
The race is on to save the species: Ride along with an armed convoy deep into the Okavango Delta

image: https://thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com/perm...4715-85e0-9693fd9914f8/jun2018_j05_rhinos.jpg

“Game abundant, especially rhinoceros,” explorer Henry Morton Stanley noted in the 1870s. Today is different. This blindfolded calf awaits transport. (Jason Florio)
49
As the sun drifted down on the rolling hills of South Africa’s Free State province, Manie Van Niekerk wore a mournful look. The 52-year-old farmer and rancher, whose short hair is dark on top and gray on the sides, has a sturdy, solid frame formed by decades of physical work. He looks like a man who is hard to shake. And yet, talking about his 32 rhinoceroses, which at that moment he was preparing to give away, he was visibly moved. “You fall in love with the rhino,” he told me. “You get a lot of joy looking at them. They are dinosaurs. You can look at them and imagine the world before. People think they’re clumsy, but they’re actually very graceful. Like ballerinas.”

He makes his living growing maize and potatoes on his family’s 57,000-acre farm, but he’d always loved game, and in 2009 acquired an additional 12,300 acres to collect African antelopes—sable, kudu and eland. In 2013, he added rhinos. By then, the poachers’ war on the rhino was in full fury, topping 1,000 animal deaths a year for the first time. The thieves were hunting mostly in Kruger National Park and the areas around South Africa’s eastern border with Mozambique. But as anti-poaching measures there improved and the price of rhino horn kept soaring, to tens of thousands of dollars a kilogram, the poachers began expanding into new territory.

They first hit Van Niekerk’s place, deep in the interior, in January 2017, came again the next month, and a third time that April. They killed six rhinos, left four with gunshot wounds and orphaned two calves. They would wait for a full moon, a pattern so set it has become known as a “poachers moon,” and Van Niekerk’s well-being waxed and waned with the lunar cycle. He’d lay awake, waiting for his phone to ring or feeling haunted by gruesome memories of an 18-year-old female that had been mutilated with an ax. Her 3-month-old calf burrowed into her side. “It was five or six hours before we could take him to a rehabilitation center,” Van Niekerk said. “He just lay next to his mommy, moaning, and didn’t move. It was pathetic.”

The poachers came again that June, but this time Van Niekerk’s security guards were there. A firefight broke out, and they wounded two poachers, who left a trail of blood for the guards to follow. The guards eventually captured five out of the seven poachers and handed them over to the police. But Van Niekerk had had enough.

image: https://public-media.smithsonianmag...4d73-afc6-81598aafc58b/jun2018_j03_rhinos.jpg

The armed caravan with Van Niekerk’s rhinos passes into the Okavango Delta, a near pristine wetland ecosystem sometimes called Africa’s “last Eden.” (Jason Florio)

image: https://public-media.smithsonianmag...441e-87fb-4b9e87637d3b/jun2018_j02_rhinos.jpg

Van Niekerk’s rhinos at the end of the road and the start of a new life. By fall, all of the 40 animals slated for relocation had arrived at the delta. (Jason Florio)

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/scie...pJobID=1282428153&spReportId=MTI4MjQyODE1MwS2

 

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public service announcement

beelieve very much in the neccessity of this and obviously food pollination
we are lucky to have this free service of nature

then you have those chemical corporate b.....ds selling there insecticide/pesticides with the killer instinct of making that almighty dollar

why dont they spend billions on R ad D,to develop a non harmful organic alternative to prevent the wanton killing of bees

NZ has that Bee Varroa mite now btw,hence prrohibeted from export
we ued to prior of course
maybe only 5 years ago,geustimate


Our other live exports have a sting in the tail
You won't bee-lieve how many bees Australia has exported to Canada in the past four years.

Email
Chart of the day: 45 million Aussie bees buzz off to new Canadian home
Interactive Digital Storytelling team
By Joshua Byrd
Updated May 22, 2018 14:26:28


MAP: Australia
Pollination lovers around the world celebrated the first ever World Bee Day on the weekend, drawing attention to the central role bees play in ecosystems everywhere.

There has been growing discussion around Australia's live export industry and even calls to ban the live export of sheep from Australian shores. But did you know that Australia also sends live bees abroad?

With much of the world experiencing a global bee crisis, Australia remains one of the only countries free from the Varroa destructor mite.

According to the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources over the past four years Australia has exported more than 45 million bees to Canada to help revive its population and to help keep crops pollinated.

INFOGRAPHIC: Australia has exported over 45 million live bees to Canada in the past 4 years


External Link: Chart of the day: 45 million Aussie bees buzz off to new Canadian home


What should I read next?

• Colony collapse: 10 years after the crisis began, what is happening to the world's bees?
• EU ban on neonicotinoids triggers call for a similar ban in Australia to protect bees
• Bees are starting to evolve to survive destructive varroa mite, researcher says
• Brisbane researchers discover bees can be left or right-handed
• Man drives 65 kilometres with 3,000 bees loose in truck cab

Want more charts?
This is part of a new daily series featuring charts which tell a story. If you know of some data that fits the bill,we'd love to hear about it.

• Were The Simpsons on an escalator to nowhere?
• The most manly (and womanly) jobs in Australia
• For three decades Australia's income tax has been getting progressively less progressive
• More...

Topics: trade, ecology, pests, beekeeping, australia, canada

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-...tm_content=ABCNewsmail_topstories_articlelink

 

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NYT may have beaten NG with this gem ha

Is This the World’s Most Diverse National Park?

Bringing the numbers to life for the jewel in Bolivia’s conservation crown.

Mileniusz Spanowicz/Wildlife Conservation Society
Is This the World’s Most Diverse National Park?
By JAMES GORMAN
Bringing the numbers to life for the jewel in Bolivia’s conservation crown.

Amazon kingfisherRob Wallace/Wildlife Conservation Society

Northern viscacha

Mileniusz Spanowicz/Wildlife Conservation Society

Mileniusz Spanowicz/Wildlife Conservation Society

etc etc etc

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/22/...lid=64436595emc=edit_sc_20180522&ref=img&te=1

 

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oh, how nice is that huh

In just nine months, sensor-equipped seals collected 10,000 observations on ocean conditions in the Amundsen Sea. (Lars Boehme/SMRU)
Antarctic seals recruited to climate science
A squad of seals living off the coast of West Antarctica have gathered data that could help to improve estimates of future sea-level rise. Sensors on the animals’ heads measured temperature and salinity in the Amundsen Sea. Scientists think that this patch of ocean could be accelerating the melt of the West Antarctic ice sheet, but collecting year-round data has been tricky because of Antarctica’s harsh conditions. Data collected by the seals reveals that a deep-water current circling Antarctica is bigger, warmer and saltier in winter than summer. This information will help to hone climate-model predictions on how quickly the ice sheet will melt.

Nature | 3 min read
Reference: Geophysical Research Letters paper

then there is this human criminal activity
who the hell do we think we are,killimg humans and animals
we dont deserve our existence on the planet


Wildlife
Humans just 0.01% of all life but have destroyed 83% of wild mammals – study
Groundbreaking assessment of all life on Earth reveals humanity’s surprisingly tiny part in it as well as our disproportionate impact

Humans have wiped out 83% of wild mammals
Humans make up just 0.01% of all life but have caused the loss of 83% of all wild mammals and half of plants, says the first comprehensive estimate of the biomass of every class of living creature. Farmed poultry now makes up 70% of all birds and livestock makes up 60% of all mammals. Over one third of mammals are people and just 4% are wild animals. “It is definitely striking, our disproportionate place on Earth,” says systems biologist Ron Milo. “When I do a puzzle with my daughters, there is usually an elephant next to a giraffe next to a rhino. But if I was trying to give them a more realistic sense of the world, it would be a cow next to a cow next to a cow and then a chicken.”.

The Guardian | 8 min read
Reference: PNAS paper

do admit i love beef tho

A cattle farm in Mato Grosso, Brazil. 60% of all mammals on Earth are livestock. Photograph: Daniel Beltra/Greenpeace

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...t-has-destroyed-over-80-of-wild-mammals-study

 

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Because Food and People Are Terrible Things to Waste

A sustainable, equitable food model brings farmers and chefs together to address food shortages in Los Angeles.

READ

uuuhhhmmm an FYI
if you knew how they were going about asking for a donation, you may agree ha
its actually a very good informative site
but no one likes perceived unreasonable demands huh
consider only 1 week passed before this
well i think it was to early/brash

Like what you see in our newsletters? Keep green journalism humming by donating today. Your dollars will help us fight for a planet that doesn't burn and a future that doesn't suck. DONATE NOW.

Officials tried to censor a report on...site name deleted to be fair ... reader.s Here’s what was in it.

actually DONT LIKE your Trumplike attitude of trying desperately to get/SOLICIT donations
when there are many sites JUST AS GOOD some may say better

you will change your donation request i feel,until then i will reserve my donation

name signed,for what its worth,dont expect to hear back

 

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Elements
Deep in the Honduran Rain Forest, an Ecological SWAT Team Explores a Lost World


By Douglas Preston

May 21, 2018

Sachatamia albomaculata. The inner organs of glass frogs are visible through their translucent bodies.

Photograph by Trond Larsen / Conservation International

Alittle more than three years ago, I joined a team of archeologists on an expedition to La Mosquitia, a remote mountain wilderness in eastern Honduras. For centuries, the region had been rumored to contain a lost city, known as the City of the Monkey God or the White City, and now, thanks to a combination of luck and modern technology, an ancient settlement had been found. Although it was probably not the lost city of legend, it was a very real place, built by a mysterious civilization that flourished long before Columbus arrived in the Americas. Hidden in a densely forested valley, it had never been explored. We helicoptered in, set up a base camp, and spent the next nine days slowly uncovering the city’s remains—large plazas, geometric mounds, irrigation systems, extensive terracing. At the base of a small pyramid, we discovered a cache of ceremonial stone sculptures that, when excavated, in 2016 and 2017, amounted to almost five hundred pieces. Many of them are now on display at a newly opened museum and archeological laboratory, Centro de Investigación Ciudad Blanca, near Catacamas, the closest large city to the ruins.

The valley held other surprises. When we arrived, we found that the animals there appeared never to have seen people before. Spider monkeys gathered in the trees above us, hanging by their tails, screeching their displeasure, shaking branches and bombarding us with flowers. Large cats prowled through our camp at night, purring and cracking branches. A tapir and peccaries wandered about, seemingly unafraid, and the area was overrun with venomous snakes. Here was a pristine ecosystem, as obscure to human knowledge as the lost city itself.


When the discovery of this apparently forgotten world was first reported, Conservation International, one of the world’s leading environmental organizations, sent a team of twelve biologists into the valley to do a “rapid assessment” of its ecology. Most of the biologists were from Honduras or Nicaragua, and many had done research in the Mosquitia region before. The expedition’s leader, Trond Larsen, described it as an “ecological swat team.” The group’s goal, he explained, was “to quickly assess as much of the area’s biodiversity as we could in a ten-day blitz.”

Using the old base camp as a reference point, Larsen and his colleagues cut four miles of trail in each of the four cardinal directions. As they slashed their way through the jungle with machetes, wading rivers and climbing slippery mountains, they documented, photographed, and collected specimens of the local flora and fauna. Along streams and animal trails, they also set up twenty-two motion-activated camera traps, which took ten-second videos or series of pictures when creatures passed by.

“Our team was astounded,” Larsen told me. The ecology of the valley was indeed pristine, showing little evidence of human entry for a very long time, perhaps centuries. Species that are rare and even thought extinct outside the valley were found in abundance inside, including varieties of butterflies, birds, bats, snakes, and big mammals, as well as critically endangered plants. The spider monkeys showed an unusual color pattern, suggesting that they might belong to a new subspecies.

The biologists were particularly surprised by the density of cats in the valley—jaguars, pumas, ocelots, jaguarundis, and margays. They saw signs of them everywhere. One night, Larsen decided to take a quick hike upstream from base camp to look for glass frogs. He reached a point where the river narrowed in a canyon and was joined by a stream. “I turned around to take a piss,” he recalled. “I looked up and saw these eyes crossing the stream. They paused when they saw me and slowly started moving toward me.” Because Larsen’s headlamp was running out of power, at first he could see only the glowing eyes. As the animal crept closer, the feeble circle of light illuminated the golden, muscled form of a puma. “It came forward very low on its haunches,” he said. “It was maybe about eight feet away when it stopped.” It crouched, as if ready to pounce. “It was obviously curious, but there may also have been some concept in its mind of, Is this something I could eat?” Larsen said.

Panthera onca. The jaguar is the king of neotropical forests, where it is the largest of the cats. Its presence at the White City indicates an extensive, thriving ecosystem.

© Washington State University, Panthera, Wildlife Conservation Society, Zamorano University, Honduran Forest Conservation Institute, Travis King, John Polisar, Manfredo Turcios
As the two apex predators—human and cat—took each other’s measure, it seemed to Larsen that time was suspended. Then the puma turned and disappeared into the night. Only afterward did Larsen feel his hair begin to stand up with fear. He flashed the light about, looking for the shine of the cat’s eyes, feeling very alone and concerned that the puma might be waiting in ambush. He walked “rather briskly” back to camp, nervously probing the forest with his light beam. When he arrived and the adrenaline rush subsided, he realized that his zipper was still open.

The camera traps collected images for six months. Last September, a Honduran biologist named Manfredo Turcios Casco returned to the valley to retrieve the cameras for Conservation International. He nearly perished in the effort. The rivers were swollen from torrential rains, and Turcios was swept away several times trying to cross them, losing some of his gear in the process. He was assaulted by disease-bearing insects, including sand flies carrying leishmaniasis. He battled an eye infection and went without food for two days when the helicopter was delayed by bad weather. “When you are alone there, it is like someone or something is watching you,” he told me. “You can feel eyes, or a force, following you. There is like a guardian in that place. That is very scary.” Even so, it was an inspiring experience. “This is the most incredible record of species I’ve ever seen,” he said. While collecting the camera traps, he and the Honduran Special Forces soldier with him, a Miskito Indian from the region, spied a most unusual animal that neither had seen before. It “had the head of a giant rodent,” Turcios recalled, “with a hairy tail” and was about two and a half feet long. With the help of an artist, Turcios worked up a drawing of the mysterious creature immediately after his return. Whether the animal is a mammal unknown to science (something almost unheard of), a variant or mutant, or a species outside its normal range, are all open questions.

Bothriechis schlegelii. The eyelash viper is highly venomous and is often hard to see where it blends in with moss at the base of a tree. Sharp scales above the eyes give the appearance of eyelashes.

Photograph by Trond Larsen / Conservation International
Turcios was able to recover nineteen of the twenty-two camera traps, containing fourteen thousand photographs and video clips. They are currently being reviewed by biologists at Conservation International. The organization shared a selection of these images with The New Yorker, most published with this article for the first time.

C.I.’s goal was to gather biological information about the valley to help the Honduran government make decisions about its protection, and to justify the benefits of conservation. Illegal clear-cuts for cattle grazing reach within ten miles of the valley’s entrance. Now, with the area established as an “extraordinary, globally significant ecological and cultural treasure,” Larsen said, there’s a chance to halt the deforestation. After the discovery of the lost city, the President of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, took steps to protect the valley. “C.I. can help the government accomplish that,” Virgilio Paredes, the Honduran official who coördinated the expeditions, told me. “We need international support.”

https://www.newyorker.com/science/e...pJobID=1402016632&spReportId=MTQwMjAxNjYzMgS2