Keoladeo National Park, Rajasthan
Fin Whales Doing Well Down South
Some gatherings were so large that spray from the whales’ blowholes resembled a fog on the ocean surface. Dan Beecham
Happy whale news is not easy to come by. Winston Choi-Schagrin, a reporter covering climate and the environment for the New York Times, shares some:
A Whale Feeding Frenzy in Antarctica Signals a Conservation Success
Once hunted to the brink of extinction, fin whales in the Southern Ocean have rebounded and returned to their historic feeding grounds, according to a new survey.
From a distance, it looked like thick fog across the horizon. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Eastern Towhee
Thrall, Texas
How Important Is Plant-Based Meat?
Guardian graphic | Source: Boston Consulting Group
We were already convinced by testing (our own and others) that this product category would be important, but this study shows the importance to be practically off the charts in terms of reduced carbon footprint per dollar invested. Our thanks to Damian Carrington, the Guardian’s Environment editor, for bringing this to our attention:
Malte Clausen, a partner at BCG: ‘Widespread adoption of alternative proteins can play a critical role tackling climate change.’ Photograph: Nathaniel Noir/Alamy
Plant-based meat by far the best climate investment, report finds
Exclusive: Non-animal proteins can play critical role tackling climate crisis, says Boston Consulting Group
Investments in plant-based alternatives to meat lead to far greater cuts in climate-heating emissions than other green investments, according to one of the world’s biggest consultancy firms.
The report from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) found that, for each dollar, investment in improving and scaling up the production of meat and dairy alternatives resulted in three times more greenhouse gas reductions Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Middle American Screech-Owl
Parque Nacional Sierra Lacandona, Peten Guatemala
The Parthenon Marbles, Back Where They Belong
The Parthenon in 1875. Interfoto/Alamy
The Elgin Room of the British Museum in an undated photograph taken during the Victorian era. Keasbury-Gordon Photograph Archive, via Alamy
The original Parthenon marbles belong back in Athens, in the museum built for them. With all due respect to my British friends, my opinion is informed partly by my mother being from Greece, but mostly by an impartial logic.
That logic is expressed in the article below, which also happens to lay out an interesting sideshow:
Robots at the Marmi di Carra marble workshop in Italy carved a replica of a horse head, the original of which sits in the British Museum in London.
The Robot Guerrilla Campaign to Recreate the Elgin Marbles
Few cultural disputes inflame British passions more than the disposition of the Parthenon Marbles. Public debate about the statuary has raged since the early 1800s, when the sculptures and bas-reliefs, which date from 447 B.C. to 432 B.C., were stripped from the Parthenon and other Classical Greek temples on the Acropolis of Athens by agents of Thomas Bruce, a Scottish statesman and seventh earl of Elgin. The marbles were purchased — some say looted — by Elgin during his time as ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, the occupying power; they have resided in the British Museum since 1817. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Brown-hooded Parrot
Boca Tapada, Costa Rica
New World Rewilding
Mexican gray wolves have been reintroduced to Arizona and New Mexico over the last two decades. JIM CLARK / U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE
We have been posting about rewilding for nearly a decade, and it sees fair to say that the idea has developed traction worldwide:
T0GFFN Bison or Bufalo within prairie and pasture in protected natural area. Rancho el Uno, a space dedicated to the conservation of this species in Janos, Chihuahua. This fishery was reintroduced by the organization The Nature Conservancy, TNC. Janos Biosphere Reserve
(© Photo: LuisGutierrez / NortePhoto.comBringing Back the Beasts: Global Rewilding Plans Take Shape
With a growing number of studies demonstrating the importance of large mammals to healthy ecosystems, scientists are proposing concrete plans to reintroduce these animals to the wild. The return of just 20 species to native habitats, they say, could be a boon to biodiversity.
A jaguar guards its prey, a white-lipped peccary, in Goiás, Brazil. OCTAVIO CAMPOS SALLES / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
For thousands of years, bison herds thundered freely throughout the Chihuahuan Desert on both sides of what is now the U.S.-Mexico border. In November 2009, after three frantic months of chasing down the required permits, Rurik List and Nélida Barajas watched as 23 bison from Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota arrived by tractor-trailer at the Santa Teresa international cattle crossing in southeastern New Mexico.
The animals, 20 females and three males, galloped through the dusty stockyards, across the border, and into the state of Chihuahua. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Mexican Whip-poor-will
Davis Mountain Preserve, Texas
Alt-Leather, Vegan & Otherwise
Innovative vegan leather belt made from mycelium fiber, fungal spores and plant fibers. los_angela / iStock / Getty Images Plus
Our thanks to Linnea Harris for the latest news in alt-leather, which is best when vegan, except for when it is not:
The Future of Leather: How Pineapple Leaves, Cacti, and Mycelium Are Revolutionizing the Industry
Leather is everywhere – in our shoes, our purses and luggage, our winter jackets and stylish furniture – but its effect is seen globally.
To create the leather for our clothing, homewares, and other purposes, billions of cows are slaughtered each year. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Tropical Kingbird
El Paredon, Guatemala
McKibben On The Supreme Court’s EPA Ruling
Photographs by Mitch Epstein
When you have found an explainer reliably clear on complicated but important issues, keep reading their essays:
The Supreme Court Tries to Overrule the Climate
A destructive decision in West Virginia v. E.P.A.
Credit where due: the Supreme Court’s 6–3 ruling in West Virginia v. E.P.A. is the culmination of a five-decade effort to make sure that the federal government won’t threaten the business status quo. Lewis Powell’s famous memo, written in 1971, before he joined the Supreme Court—between the enactment of a strong Clean Air Act and a strong Clean Water Act, each with huge popular support—called on “businessmen” to stand up to the tide of voices “from the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and sciences, and from politicians” calling for progressive change. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Buffy-crowned Wood-Partridge
Puerta del Cielo, Huehuetenango, Guatemala
215 Pounds Of Burmese Python
The Conservancy of Southwest Florida, which tracks and studies invasive Burmese pythons harming the state’s native ecosystem, said the nearly 18-foot female python was the largest to have been found in the Everglades. Jc Findley/Conservancy of Southwest Florida, via Associated Press
Since reading and sharing one article about invasive species we have been particularly attentive to the challenges of pythons introduced in the Everglades. We have linked to plenty of stories about the creative approaches to solving this problem.
But we never tire of the theme.
This article
Ian Easterling, left, and Ian Bartoszek, both biologists, removing a 14-foot female Burmese python captured in March in a mangrove in Southwest Florida. Conservancy of Southwest Florida, via Associated Press
To Catch a Snake: Largest Python Found in Everglades Signals a Threat
The Burmese python caught by a team of trackers breaks a record and shows the invasive species surviving in Florida’s ecosystem despite efforts to remove those snakes.
A team searching under dense vegetation in the pine flatwoods of the Everglades late last year came upon a slithering sight, the likes of which no one had found before in those parts: 215 pounds of snake. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Finn’s Weaver
Justice For Dom & Bruno
Dom Phillips (center), seen here taking notes as he talks with Indigenous people, reported regularly for the Guardian. Photograph by Joao Laet / AFP / Getty
Only one article by Dom Phillips in our pages, and not a single mention of Bruno Pereira seems wrong, to say the least. As a rule obituaries are not our thing in these pages, but we have made exceptions.
Bruno Pereira was among the many senior officials and veteran experts at FUNAI who had gained a reputation for a robust defense of the agency’s guidelines in the Javari. Photograph by Daniel Marenco
The disappearance of Dom Phillips and Bruno Araújo Pereira, and the crisis created by Jair Bolsonaro’s policies.
From the moment that Dom Phillips and Bruno Araújo Pereira vanished, on June 5th, in the Brazilian Amazon, there were suspicions of foul play. Phillips was a British freelance journalist dedicated to environmental issues, and Pereira, his friend and guide, was a prominent Brazilian Indigenous-affairs expert.
Photograph by Nelson Almeida / AFP / Getty
He was assisting Phillips with research for a book, tentatively titled “How to Save the Amazon.” Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Black-necked Stilt
Mad Island Marsh Preserve, TX
Agrivoltaics Advancing
Solar panels on Paul Knowlton’s farm in Grafton, Mass. Cattle will graze below the panels, which rise to 14 feet above the ground. Tony Cenicola/The New York Times
The concept of agrivoltaics has been an occasional topic in our pages over the years, most recently as we have prepared to plant thousands of coffee saplings. Ellen Rosen focuses our attention on how the advances in technology, and entrepreneurship in this space, are addressing the challenges:
Can Dual-Use Solar Panels Provide Power and Share Space With Crops?
Companies like BlueWave are betting on it. But the technology has its critics.
Mr. Knowlton preparing the soil between the panels before he plants butternut squash and lettuce. Tony Cenicola/The New York Times
In its 150-year history, Paul Knowlton’s farm in Grafton, Mass., has produced vegetables, dairy products and, most recently, hay. The evolution of the farm’s use turned on changing markets and a variable climate. Recently, however, Mr. Knowlton added a new type of cash crop: solar power. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Collared Forest Falcon
Guatemala City, Guatemala
Clever Climate Work Perk
(Adam Maida / The Atlantic ; CSA Images / Getty)
If you have not been reading Robinson Meyer’s excellent newsletter, take a look at this week’s and you might want to sign up over at The Atlantic:
Corporate Climate Action Is an Employee Perk
In February, Bank of America offered its employees a notable perk: If they had worked at the bank for at least three years, and made less than $250,000, then it would give them $4,000 to buy a new electric car. (Employees interested in merely leasing an EV could claim $2,000.) The move, attached to a company-wide round of salary increases, wasn’t the first time that the bank had made the offer; it had made a similar one in 2015, and again in 2020, although those incentives had also applied to gas-electric hybrids. Continue reading
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