Reclamation, Restoration & Biodiversity

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Overgrown agricultural machinery on a vacant farm near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. OKLA MICHEL / CTK VIA AP

Thanks to Fred Pearce, as always:

Abandoned Lands: A Hidden Resource for Restoring Biodiversity

Abandoned farmland has been increasing, with a billion acres — an area half the size of Australia — lost globally. Ecologists are increasingly pointing to the potential of these lands and of degraded forests as neglected resources for rewilding and for capturing carbon.

Gergana Daskalova was nine months old when she was taken in by her grandparents in their small village in Bulgaria. It was soon after the fall of the Iron Curtain, and her parents had left for the city after the closure of the village’s state-run collective farm. Continue reading →

Really, Kiel?

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We are surprised that his employer cannot appreciate his decision:

Dr Gianluca Grimalda. Photograph: Institute for World Economy – Kiel

Climate scientist faces sack for refusing to fly to Germany from Solomon Islands archipelago

Dr Gianluca Grimalda told by Kiel Institute for World Economy he must be at his desk on Monday after finishing fieldwork

A climate researcher has been threatened with the sack by his employer after refusing to fly back to Germany at short notice after finishing fieldwork on Bougainvillein the Solomon Islands archipelago. Continue reading →

What’s New With Wind Propelled Ships

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Thank you as always, Cara Buckley. The topic today is wind power, again, this time more on its use propelling ships:

More ships are running on wind power, as the global industry tries to fight climate change. One concept has backing from Abba, the Swedish pop stars.

The Pyxis Ocean began its first wind-assisted voyage in August. Cargill and BAR Technologies

One ship was pulled across the sea with the help of an enormous sail that looked as if it belonged to a kite-surfing giant. Another navigated the oceans between China and Brazil this summer with steel and composite-glass sails as high as three telephone poles. Continue reading →

Corn & Other English Words, Then & Now

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View in the “Cross Timbers,” Texas, by George Catlin, c. 1832. Smithsonian American Art Museum, gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr.

Lapham’s Quarterly, judged here only by the rare occasions when we have linked to their work, offers gem quality items of interest, such as this essay by Rosemarie Ostler:

Corn pitcher, c. 1855. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sansbury-Mills Fund, 2014.

Corn pitcher, Southern Porcelain Company, c. 1855. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sansbury-Mills Fund, 2014.

The Early Days of American English

How English words evolved on a foreign continent.

English settlers faced with unfamiliar landscapes and previously unknown plants and animals in the Americas had to find terms to name and describe them. They sometimes borrowed words from Native American languages. They also repurposed existing English words and invented new terms, as well as keeping words that had become archaic in British English. As non-English-speaking immigrants began to arrive during the eighteenth century, they accepted words from those languages as well. By the time of the American Revolution, English had been evolving separately in England and America for nearly two hundred years, and the trickle of new words had become a flood. Continue reading →

The Cutting Edge Of Wind Turbine Technology

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Bats need protection; these clever engineers and scientists will surely figure out how to, considering what they have already accomplished:

Spinning Wind Turbines Kill Nearly a Million Bats a Year. Researchers Aim to Find Out Why

Land-based wind turbines kill as many as 880,000 bats a year, wiping out so many threatened bats that at least one species could soon become endangered without preventative action, according to a recent study.

Bat conservation experts and scientists say they currently do not know how to stop turbine collisions. Continue reading →

Dear AI Overlords, Reviewed

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Virginia Heffernan has appeared in our pages only once before, also reviewing a book. She is one of the great writers in the English language, but often on topics not connected to our themes here. While we mostly are interested in topics related to the natural world, and we know that this topic is a whole other realm, we can guess that AI’s impact on the natural world is part of what the title of this issue of Wired will mean to us pretty soon:

What If the Robots Were Very Nice While They Took Over the World?

First it was chess and Go. Now AI can beat us at Diplomacy, the most human of board games. The way it wins offers hope that maybe AI will be a delight.

THE MORRISSEY HAD the right melodrama in his limbs, and his voice was strong and pained. I was at Gramercy Theatre in Manhattan to see a Smiths tribute band. I tried to get Morrissey’s acid yodel in my throat, to sing along. I am human and I need to be loved / just like everybody else does. But it didn’t feel right to copy a copy. Continue reading →

Green Capitalism Reconsidered

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We shared an interview with the author of this book a few months ago, but missed the numerous reviews when her book was published last year. Thanks again to a Dutch biologist named Leon at the Inquisitive Biologist for this book review now:

BOOK REVIEW – THE VALUE OF A WHALE: ON THE ILLUSIONS OF GREEN CAPITALISM

In an attempt to address climate change and other environmental problems, governments are increasingly turning to economic solutions. The underlying message is clear: capitalism might have created the problem, but capitalism can solve it. Adrienne Buller, a Senior Fellow with progressive think tank Common Wealth, is, to put it mildly, sceptical of this. From carbon credits to biodiversity offsets, she unmasks these policies for the greenwashing that they are. The Value of a Whale is a necessary corrective that is as eye-opening as it is shocking. Continue reading →

Travel Takeaways

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Illustration by Igor Bastidas

We have ideas on what to take away if you are visiting Costa Rica. Yesterday, Joshua Hunt made this unexpected recommendation on travel takeaways:

Want a Vacation Souvenir? Buy Toothpaste.

The quotidian joys of this pocket-size keepsake.

Six weeks after my first trip to Italy, the fresh mozzarella I brought home is long gone, and so is the hard salami and pistachio-flavored chocolate. To squeeze a bit more from my Mediterranean experience, I can rely a little while longer on the tube of Elmex-brand toothpaste I used to brush away all that food. Continue reading →

Stories from the Field: Birding with Clement Francis

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My childhood days were idyllically spent not too far from Lake Hesaraghatta, Karnataka.  The reservoir was 12 kms from home as the crow flies, and almost the same distance to reach through fields and narrow walking paths. During the 70s, Bangalore was known as the ‘pensioners paradise’.  The city had perfect weather, and was nostalgically attractive.  There were birds all around Hesaraghatta, and I never paid attention to any of them. Cycling down, finding a place to unpack a loaf of bread and spreading ketchup and jam mash-up was a very interesting activity. Never noticed the birds.

Tawny Eagle

Fast forward to June of 2012, when I started scouting for birds in the grasslands. Clement Francis showed me the birds of Hesaraghatta. Clement is a topnotch bird photographer. I was amazed at his skills. He could identify every bird there and explained their features and behaviour. We roamed around the grasslands in our car and upon sighting a raptor on the ground, Clement would approach the bird from the car, going around it in wide circles, gradually reducing the distance from the bird. As I sat on the passenger seat with my lens rested on the car door, Clement whispered to me not to make eye contact with the bird, or make any large movements while he parked the car at the comfort-distance and with the sunlight behind us. He approached the bird with such skill that it never felt threatened as he mumbled the ideal camera settings for perfect photographs under his breath. He gave me very valuable lessons in approaching the various species of the grasslands, while advising on the ideal light conditions and inculcated patience in making handsome pictures. Continue reading →