Varca Beach, Goa
Bird of the Day: White-breasted Waterhen
Varca Beach, Goa
Climate Policies To Cheer On
(Washington Post illustration; Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post; iStock)
I am heading to Ithaca tomorrow for family reasons, so the third item described in the story that follows is of particular interest. But every one of the items is worth reflecting on, in a news world without enough such stories. Our thanks to the Washington Post Staff who put this list together:
10 recent climate policies that could make a difference
Stories from the past six months that show what local and national policy change can look like
The most recent IPCC report makes it clear: There is no one silver bullet that can address global warming. Instead, nations, businesses, communities and individuals all have a role to play in helping to create a safer and more sustainable future. But without action from the world’s wealthiest countries, the nations and people who are least at fault for fueling climate change will be the ones who suffer the most, the scientists behind the report warn. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Clay-colored Thrush
Yigüirro – the National Bird of Costa Rica
Tarcoles, Costa Rica
Tidal Power
An impression of a £1.3bn tidal lagoon project, which the government refused to back in 2018. Photograph: Tidal Lagoon Power/PA
Most of our attention to ocean water is focused on the climate, and the few renewable energy stories with oceans featured have been about offshore wind projects. Today’s news corrects the deficit of attention to the power of tidal waves:
Could Anglesey’s tidal energy project drive a new energy revolution?
Experts say Wales has huge potential for generating renewable marine power, yet, so far, ambitious schemes have been ignored
South Stack lighthouse on Holy Island, north Wales: construction on the island’s tidal stream project has just begun. Photograph: Getty Images
On the stunning and craggy coastline of Holy Island in north Wales, work has started on a construction project to generate energy from one of the world’s greatest untapped energy resources: tidal power.
The Morlais project, on the small island off the west of Anglesey has benefited from £31m in what is likely to be the last large grant for Wales from the European Union’s regional funding programme. It will install turbines at what will be one of the largest tidal stream energy sites in the world, covering 13 square miles of the seabed. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Ruddy Kingfisher
Port Blair, South Andaman Island
Just Because
No commentary needed, as far as we are concerned.
Bird of the Day: Orange-collared Manakin
Carara National Park, Costa Rica
Old Growth Forest Protection Schemes
Caryssa Rouser, a propagation specialist with Archangel Ancient Tree Archive, plants a sequoia tree in October, 2021, in Sequoia Crest, California. Noah Berger/AP
Old growth forests matter for so many reasons. Not least, biophilic reasons. But at this moment, we rightly pay more attention to their value with regard to urgent climate issues. Maddie Oatman makes a good case in this Mother Jones essay:
Why Old-Growth Forests Matter So Much in the Fight Against Climate Change
Biden’s executive order to preserve ancient trees is a big deal—but it could have gone further.
Few experiences have rendered me as awestruck as the winter morning I spent wandering through a grove of ancient sequoias, their sienna bark glowing against the snowy ground. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Golden-fronted Leafbird
Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand
Mosquito GMO News
Biotechnology firm Oxitec ran the first open-air test of genetically modified mosquitoes in the United States by placing boxes of its eggs in selected spots in the Florida Keys. Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty
Genetically modified this and that have been concerns of ours for most of the time we have been posting on environmental issues and nature news. This news below may be the best test of how tolerant one might become about a technology that is inherently full of danger–of the unintended consequences variety more than the known in advance variety–and yet could tame some of the greatest natural pests that mankind suffers from:
Biotech firm announces results from first US trial of genetically modified mosquitoes
Oxitec reports that its insects behaved as planned — but a larger trial is needed to learn whether they can reduce wild mosquito populations.
Researchers have completed the first open-air study of genetically engineered mosquitoes in the United States. The results, according to the biotechnology firm running the experiment, are positive. But larger tests are still needed to determine whether the insects can achieve the ultimate goal of suppressing a wild population of potentially virus-carrying mosquitoes. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Horned Guan
San Marcos, Guatemala
Plant-based Diet Enhanced By The Sea
Seaweed ecologist Dr Sophie Steinhagen inspects the crop at the seafarm in the Koster archipelago in Sweden.
Three months into a beef-free diet, with no temptation to lapse, I am aware that other animal protein is so far a saving grace. When I switch entirely to alternative creatures such as crickets, and to plants including seaweed, I will know the transformation is complete.
Seaweed farming in Sweden could be a vital component of the shift away from eating meat for protein.
Meanwhile, thanks to the Guardian for Richard Orange’s reporting from Malmö on Sea-farmed supercrop: how seaweed could transform the way we live.
From high-protein food to plastics and fuel, Swedish scientists are attempting to tap the marine plant’s huge potential
Steinhagen inspects the tanks in her “seaweed kindergarten”.
You can just see the buoys of the seafarm,” Dr Sophie Steinhagen yells over the high whine of the boat as it approaches the small islands of Sweden’s Koster archipelago. The engine drops to a sputter, and Steinhagen heaves up a rope to reveal the harvest hanging beneath: strand after strand of sea lettuce, translucent and emerald green. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Rufous-throated Wren-Babbler
India
More On Seed Banks
We have featured these banks before, but they are worthy of a more detailed inside look.
So, thanks to by Salomé Gómez-Upegui, Rita Liu and the Guardian. Their article, Seed banks: the last line of defense against a threatening global food crisis is full of images and written descriptions that put these banks in better perspective:
As climate breakdown and worldwide conflict continue to place the food system at risk, seed banks from the Arctic to Lebanon try to safeguard
As the risks from the climate crisis and global conflict increase, seed banks are increasingly considered a priceless resource that could one day prevent a worldwide food crisis. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Hoffman’s Woodpecker
Cerro Lodge, Puntarenas, Costa Rica
Building Buildings With Wood
At a warehouse in Moelv, Norway, glulam—short for “glued laminated timber”—an engineered product in which pieces of lumber are bound together with water-resistant adhesives, is manufactured at industrial scale.
The re-emergence of building at large scale with wood has challenged my intuition in recent years. It is not only the carbon logic that needs explanation, but the structural engineering and fire-safety. In this article Rebecca Mead does the math, in elegant prose, and quite convincingly:
Transforming Trees Into Skyscrapers
In Scandinavia, ecologically minded architects are building towers with pillars of pine and spruce.
The timber for Mjøstårnet was harvested from the forests that blanket about a third of Norway’s landmass.
Brumunddal, a small municipality on the northeastern shore of Lake Mjøsa, in Norway, has for most of its history had little to recommend it to the passing visitor. There are no picturesque streets with cafés and boutiques, as there are in the ski resort of Lillehammer, some thirty miles to the north. Industrial buildings, mostly for the lumber industry, occupy the area closest to the lake, and the waterfront is cut off by a highway. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Great Blue Heron
El Paredon, Guatemala
Cold Brew Coffee, 2022
Cold brew coffee experimentation, April 2020
Two years ago, when the pandemic had shut down the airports in Costa Rica and we had no clue how long that would last, we wondered how the artisans and the farmers who supplied our recently opened Authentica shops would fare. We had to ask ourselves what we were going to do with the roughly 7,000 pounds of coffee beans we had contracted to buy from that year’s harvest. The most obvious move was to start roasting in the USA, so we could deliver to customers who had bought from us in Costa Rica and wanted to continue buying.
Cold brew coffee was a brief experiment at the time, but with sufficiently robust results to convince us that when travelers returned we would offer samples. The time has come.
Bird of the Day: Aplomado Falcon
Parque Nacional Laguna del Tigre, Petén, Guatemala
Convivial Conservation
Click on this image to go to the page where the illustrative video about convivial conservation is embedded
New to me, but not new, is this pairing of words that have a magical ring to them when said together:
Convivial Conservation
Convivial (literally: ‘living with’) conservation offers a new and integrated approach to understanding and practicing environmental conservation. It is a Whole Earth vision that responds to the major ecological, social and political-economic challenges facing people and biodiversity in the 21st century
Click on the image above to watch a short video introducing the concept, and click to the right to read more about the book. Click here to read more about ongoing research on this topic. Anyone following our posts on this platform for the last decade+ will have seen a different pair of words frequently used–sometimes related to biodiversity and other times related to culture. Now that I have let this other word pairing have some space in my day, I expect to see the words more frequently in these pages.
Organikos 