Author: Organikos

Precipicial Parks

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Associated Press. Services will be reduced at places like the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park if automatic cuts in the federal budget take effect next Friday.

Associated Press. Services will be reduced at places like the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park if automatic cuts in the federal budget take effect next Friday.

Wilderness areas are among the innocent victims of dreary political gamesmanship in a country with some of the most spectacular, and vulnerable, protected areas in the world:

Unless Congress can reach a budget agreement by March 1, the country’s national parks will be hit by a $110 million budget cut, resulting in shuttered campgrounds, shorter seasons, road closings and reduced emergency services, a parks advocacy group reports. Continue reading →

Herbivores, Unite

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Eric Post/Pennsylvania State UniversityGrazing and biodiversity: an adult male caribou in Greenland.

Eric Post/Pennsylvania State University
Grazing and biodiversity: an adult male caribou in Greenland. 

Thank you, Green Blog:

In the unending quest for effective ways of adapting to climate change, it seems that musk ox and caribou may have some of the answers.

According to a study published this week, the large herbivores that inhabit Greenland and other regions in the far north can play an important role in maintaining biodiversity in a warming climate. Continue reading →

Aliens In Europe

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A red swamp crayfish. 'Alien' species cost the European economy €12bn a year, a study shows. Photograph: FLPA/Alamy

A red swamp crayfish. ‘Alien’ species cost the European economy €12bn a year, a study shows. Photograph: FLPA/Alamy

The Everglades are not the only location where invasive introduced species are causing harm:

Animals and plants brought to Europe from other parts of the world are a bigger-than-expected threat to health and the environment costing at least €12bn (£10bn) a year, according to a study published on Thursday. Continue reading →

Happy Mother Language Day

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Ruth Fremson/The New York Times. A sign in Bangla language in the front window of a shop in Astoria, Queens, in this March 7, 2001, file photo.

Ruth Fremson/The New York Times. A sign in Bangla language in the front window of a shop in Astoria, Queens, in this March 7, 2001, file photo.

From our friends at India Ink:

I take pride in the fact that despite being born and raised in New York City, I speak Bangla fluently. I credit this mostly to my Bangladeshi parents for being brutal in their approach to teaching my younger sister and me a language that that was so violently fought for. Feb. 21 is recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as International Mother Language Day in honor of linguistic diversity, Continue reading →

Fisheries And European Responsibility

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Laura Leon for The International Herald TribuneGovernment inspectors, left, check out a fishing vessel off the Spanish port of Cádiz.

Laura Leon for The International Herald Tribune
Government inspectors, left, check out a fishing vessel off the Spanish port of Cádiz.

Thanks to Green Blog:

Two weeks ago, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to require that the 27-nation bloc’s fisheries be managed on a sustainable basis within a few years. Continue reading →

Mumbai In Gotham Perspective

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Sometime in recent months we discovered a blog on the New York Times website called India Ink.  It is meant to keep the readers of that newspaper apprised of important information from the world’s largest democracy (and the world’s largest English-speaking country).  Most days, for those of us living and working in India, we have already seen that news in the newspapers here.  Also, most days most of the posts on that blog tend to the dark side of India’s news–always important news but not enough of the positive, vibrant stuff we see each day here. We tend to pass on 90% of the posts, but the other 10% are always worth a look.  Today’s keeper is here:

Continue reading →

See Sea Shepherd’s Saves

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The Sea Shepherd vessel Bob Barker tries to stop a from being whale loaded on to the Nisshin Maru. Photograph: Glenn Lockitch / Sea Shepherd Australia

The Sea Shepherd vessel Bob Barker tries to stop a whale from being loaded on to the Nisshin Maru. Photograph: Glenn Lockitch / Sea Shepherd Australia

From the Guardian’s ongoing coverage of some of our favorite activists (click the image above to go to the story):

I don’t think that there is a more isolated, more remote, or more forbidding place on this planet than where we find ourselves at this moment.

Draw a line due south from Sri Lanka for 4,404 nautical miles and it will bring you to Prdyz Bay, deep in the Cooperation Sea, close to the massive Amory ice shelf. Continue reading →

Good Conservation Personified

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DougTompkins

Doug Tompkins, Co-Founder, North Face

Click the image to the left for a podcast interview worth listening to. If you are a fan of this man, chances are you are also a fan of this man, who has carried out more tangible action for deep ecology than anyone, perhaps ever:

Entrepreneur, conservation philanthropist, and documentary filmmaker are some of the titles that Doug Tompkins has possessed over his career. Doug’s love of mountaineering led him to start North Face, the outdoor apparel company. He then cofounded the international clothing giant, Esprit, which he later sold. Doug has spent the last few decades focusing his energies on sustainable farming, land conservation and biodiversity preservation in Chile and Argentina. With the purchase of more than 2 million acres of land in South America, Doug has pioneered one of the largest private conservation efforts in the world.

Doug speaks to Jessica about his journey from selling dresses out of a van to conserving South America’s natural environment, from scratch.

The Tate Modern Happens To Be In Kochi

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Only 24 Days left for the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2012.

Nada Raza, writer and curator currently working at the Tate Modern in London, speaks about the site-specificity of the works and how history and culture plays a huge part in the works exhibited at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale.

Take her advice and be there!

Good Entrepreneurship Personified

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We recently discovered this podcast about entrepreneurship, and a few of the interviewees are among our most admired. For example, click the image to the left to go to the interview with our all time favorite:

Yvon Chouinard

Founder, Patagonia Continue reading →

If You Happen To Be In Washington, DC

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Protest

Click the image above to go to Sierra Club’s website for more information. At minimum it is a learning opportunity, a chance to participate or to just observe. Lend your presence and your voice:

Rally Speakers

  • Michael Brune; Sierra Club Executive Director
  • Bill McKibben; 350.org President, Scholar at Middlebury College
  • Continue reading →

Getting All Green In Western Australia

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An article that, like the graph above, defines the BAU scenario, is worth reading just to get those three letters fixed in our mind’s eye.  The Greens of Western Australia will not leave it to your imagination; rather they’ll wonk you into submission to the facts and into action politically to resist BAU:

The Greens Party has unveiled an ambitious new document that outlines possible pathways to turn Western Australia – one of the most energy-intensive states in the world – into one where its stationary energy needs are powered 100 per cent by renewable energy sources in less than two decades. Continue reading →

Figuring Out What Is Important

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A wall in the studio of artist Ellsworth Kelly. Photo by Alex Majoli and Daria Birang/Magnum

A wall in the studio of artist Ellsworth Kelly. Photo by Alex Majoli and Daria Birang/Magnum

From Aeon, which we continue to enjoy each time we visit (yes we will eventually stop being so explicit in suggesting you visit that site, but for now we cannot resist the recommendation):

Sparks will fly

Infatuated by celebrity, stuck in dreary work, addicted to consumerism. Only a creator culture can save us from ourselves

by Damien Walter

I arrived in Leicester in the late ‘90s as a student, a year after losing my mother to cancer. Having little support, I worked my way through university as a street sweeper, a factory worker, a waiter, a barman, a door-to-door salesman, a cleaner, recycling operative and grill chef. I wanted to be a writer but that seemed like an unattainable dream at the time. A few years later I began working for Leicester’s library service as a literature development worker. Continue reading →

Sticky Explanations

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Pea aphid on alfalfa

Pea aphid on alfalfa

Thank you, Ed.  Thank you, National Geographic. A smart fellow who communicates clearly, a great publication with a long history of communicating important information with good writing and excellent photography; now we have an explanation for:

How Falling Aphids Land on Their Feet Like Cats

by Ed Yong

Cats are famous for landing on their feet after a fall, but they aren’t the only animals that do so. The tiny pea aphid can also right itself in mid-air, and it does so in a way that’s far simpler than a falling feline. Continue reading →

Tracking Fracking

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For reasons we never fully understand, an old post suddenly gets a large number of views.  It happened yesterday with this one. Okay, we get that people are interested in understanding as much as possible about environmental issues such as fracking and they pursue as many sources of information as possible to stay apprised.  Search engine algorithms connect them on occasion to items our cabinet of curiosities. The news stories, photos and videos and personal accounts collected on this blog–are meant to add up to something, but we do not fret about the calculus. We just keep on looking, gathering, posting and expect the points to make themselves.  It may be the occasional coincidences that fuel our commitment to this improvisational approach.

Continue reading →

Shine A Light

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chipata-blog480

Green Blog shares this news about a significant innovation at the intersection of crowdfunding, renewables and community welfare in Africa and Asia:

By visiting Web sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, you can give money to any number of causes. These Web sites collect small amounts from many individuals in what is known as crowdfunding to finance everything from business start-ups to charitable causes to art projects.

While online crowdfunding is still relatively new, it has already demonstrated that many small contributions can add up. Deloitte, the accounting and consulting firm, estimates that the largest 30 crowdfunding sites raised more than $1.5 billion over the last five years, and expects that in 2013 alone the number could be $3 billion.

Continue reading →

Camera Traps, Unite

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Sharing technology, data, knowhow.  Pooling resources in the common interest across regions of the tropical world for the sake of biodiversity conservation.  Take a look at what TEAM is doing. A six minute video appears on the Guardian‘s website, providing much-appreciated coverage:

One million images of wildlife in 16 tropical forests around the world have been captured by the Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring (TEAM) Network. Since it began its work in 2008 to monitor changes in wildlife, vegetation and climate, cameras in the the Americas, Africa and Asia have photographed more than 370 different species including elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees, large cats, honey badgers, tapirs and tropical birds Continue reading →

For Valentine’s Day 2013 Skip Roses, Get Greener

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If these are not available where you live, try a homecrafted version of the same using this organization’s schematic plans:

What Is A Windowfarm?

A Windowfarm is a vertical, indoor garden that allows for year-round growing in almost any window. It lets plants use natural window light, the climate control of your living space, and organic “liquid soil.”

In the hydroponic system, nutrient-spiked water is pumped up from a reservoir at the base of the system and trickles down from bottle to bottle, bathing the roots along the way. Water and nutrients that are not absorbed collect in the reservoir and will be pumped through again at the next interval. Continue reading →

Katrina, Come To Kerala!

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Thanks to this book review in the New York Times we see Katrina in a light similar to that of several other remarkable people we have strongly urged to visit our neck of the woods.  Katrina’s work is illustrated above and in these images from her website.

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From the description of her new book we would find some of this work challenging (as anatomical renderings can sometimes be), but from an artistic, craft/technical and scientific point of view, phenomenal:

There is more to a bird than simply feathers. And just because birds evolved from a single flying ancestor, doesn’t mean they are structurally all the same. With over 300 stunning drawings representing 200 species, The Unfeathered Bird is the most richly illustrated book on bird anatomy ever produced and offers a refreshingly original insight into what goes on beneath the surface. Continue reading →