Showing posts with label NATURE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NATURE. Show all posts

15/11/2022

Tawai - a voice from the forest - full feature


Tawai is a word the nomadic hunter gatherers of Borneo use to describe the connection they feel to their forest home. In this dreamy, philosophical and sociological look at life, Bruce Parry (of the BBC's Tribe, Amazon & Arctic) embarks on an immersive odyssey to explore the different ways that humans relate to nature and how this influences the way we create our societies. From the forests of the Amazon and Borneo to the River Ganges and Isle of Skye, Tawai is a quest for reconnection, providing a powerful voice from the heart of the forest itself.

08/05/2022

Global bird populations steadily declining

Staggering declines in bird populations are taking place around the world. So concludes a study from scientists at multiple institutions, published today in the journal Annual Review of Environment and Resources. Loss and degradation of natural habitats and direct overexploitation of many species are cited as the key threats to avian biodiversity. Climate change is identified as an emerging driver of bird population declines.

"We are now witnessing the first signs of a new wave of extinctions of continentally distributed bird species," says lead author Alexander Lees, senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom and also a research associate at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. "Avian diversity peaks globally in the tropics and it is there that we also find the highest number of threatened species."

28/03/2022

Microplastics found in human blood

Scientists have discovered microplastics in human blood for the first time, warning that the ubiquitous particles could also be making their way into organs.

The tiny pieces of mostly invisible plastic have already been found almost everywhere else on Earth, from the deepest oceans to the highest mountains as well as in the air, soil and food chain.

A Dutch study published in the Environment International journal on Thursday examined blood samples from 22 anonymous, healthy volunteers and found microplastics in nearly 80 percent of them.

Half of the blood samples showed traces of PET plastic, widely used to make drink bottles, while more than a third had polystyrene, used for disposable food containers and many other products.

08/03/2022

75% of Amazon rainforest shows signs of loss, a 'tipping point' of dieback, study shows

https://www.sott.net/article/465197-75-of-Amazon-rainforest-shows-signs-of-loss-a-tipping-point-of-dieback-study-shows

The Amazon rainforest may be nearing a "tipping point" of dieback, the point where rainforest will turn to savanna, a new study shows.

Signs of loss have been found in more than 75% of the rainforest since the early 2000s, according to research that outlines this troubling trend.

"Deforestation and climate change are likely the main drivers of this decline," said study co-author Niklas Boers, a professor at the Technical University of Munich.

Using satellite remote sensing data, researchers found what they call "resilience" — the ability to recover from events such as droughts or fires — has declined consistently in the vast majority of the Amazon rainforest.

Loss of resilience is most prominent in areas that are closer to human activity, as well as in those that receive less rainfall, the study said.

Overall, the Amazon rainforest is becoming much less resilient — raising the risk of widespread dieback, the research shows. "The rainforest can look more or less the same, yet it can be losing resilience — making it slower to recover from a major event like a drought," said study co-author Tim Lenton of the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom.

The study was published Monday in the peer-reviewed British journal Nature Climate Change.

Experts believe the Amazon could soon reach a critical line, the crossing of which would trigger dieback and turn much of the forest to savanna. That would have major consequences for biodiversity, global carbon storage and climate change.

It is not clear when that point could be reached, but the study said the loss of resilience is "consistent" with an approaching watershed moment.

"The Amazon rainforest is a highly complex system, so it's very difficult to predict if and when a tipping point could be reached," said study lead author Chris Boulton, also of the University of Exeter.

"Many researchers have theorized that a tipping point could be reached, but our study provides vital empirical evidence that we are approaching that threshold," Boers said. "Many interlinked factors — including droughts, fires, deforestation, degradation and climate change — could combine to reduce resilience and trigger the crossing of a tipping point in the Amazon."

Tropical forests such as the Amazon play a crucial role in climate regulation, experts say.

The Amazon rainforest is biologically the richest region on Earth, hosting about 25% of global biodiversity, and it is a major contributor to the natural cycles required for the functioning of the planet, according to the environmental group Panthera.

"The Amazon is the largest tract of continuous rainforest on the planet, and it plays a critical role in the (Earth's) climate system," Laura Schneider, a geographer at Rutgers University, said in 2019, when devastating wildfires were scorching the forest.

One crucial role is absorbing carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas that's a significant cause of global warming.

"With nearly 100 billion tons of carbon stored in its trees, it keeps nearly 400 billion tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere," said Daniel Nepstad, director of the Earth Innovation Institute, an organization that works to promote low-emission rural development.

Reference: Pronounced loss of Amazon rainforest resilience since the early 2000s

10/02/2022

When despair for the world grows in me

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Wendell Berry


from New Collected Poems (Counterpoint, 2012)

Copyright (c) 2012 by Wendell Berry, reproduced by permission of Counterpoint

30/01/2022

Alien Octopus Hypothesis

Could one of Earth’s most intelligent species be an alien, ‘seeded’ on the planet by an interstellar genetic code? Scientists speculate that the clue might be found in the ancient precursor to life, RNA.

04/11/2021

Climate doom pantomime at Glasgow

Think of Glasgow as a costume party for the Uber rich and it all makes sense.
Everyone gets to hobnob, dress up in a Superhero prophet-of-doom outfit and pretend to save the world.

When the richest people in the world turn up, with PM's and Presidents, and even the Royals do live photo tweets — you know the dry UN science conference has turned into the unmissable Olympics of Social Events. Just being there is the fashion statement of the year.


comment by Winternights3 · about 11 hours ago

The pathway of tomorrow is already mapped out and in their hands.

It amounts to the dismantling of our rights, laws and beliefs of yesterday and the introduction of the new concept of tomorrow.

The financial institutions are spearheading this change and soon your money will be a distant memory and credit scoring will rule and govern the land.

What was once yours, will become a means of disciplining you for noncompliance and degrading you to the lowest of the low.

Those who have gathered in Glasgow almost certainly know this already, their as smug as smug can be and frankly they don't give a shit about what you think. Their parasitic, they feed endlessly off our good nature and enjoy watching you squirm.

To ensure that there can be NO rapprochement, those ultimately in control placed puppets in high authority and these gleefully bunch of idiots are now in Glasgow.

There are many agenda's, Covid was only the start of this torrid journey, Climate change will help them cement further changes that will shape our future.

There's worse to come, the dismantling of all natural processes like farming so that the food that we eat is controlled by the food chemical and pharmaceutical industries, they'll feed us their concoctions and further increase their profits whilst controlling what we eat to their own ends.

I was once called a conspiracist, no doubt that the way forward in ensuring the truth is deemed nonsensical and ridiculed.

Well those who called me that, can now eat their own words, along with the rest of the shit found on the supermarket shelves today.

17/10/2021

Headwind"21 [Documentary]

                                        
Former London banker Alexander Pohl worked for years for one of the world's greenest banks. Idealistically driven he financed big wind and solar farms genuinely convinced he was making the world a better place. Gradually he woke up to the fact that today's green is a broken system. He gave up banking and emigrated with his family to his little forest paradise in remote, northern Sweden. The dream was to get back to Nature, start an eco-farm and put as much distance as he could between his family and the industrialization of nature. Until….. A wind park was planned at the gates of his paradise garden.

30/09/2021

227 environmental activists were murdered last year, a new report found - more than 4 people per week

The number is likely an undercount. Global Witness compiles its database using information that's publicly available online. But many cases likely go unreported, especially in countries with heavy suppression of media or with ongoing conflicts that make it difficult to parse out particular incidents.
For that reason, the report emphasizes that its figures are "only a partial picture" of these killings.

Killings are often linked to resource extraction

The largest number of murders (65 of them) happened in Colombia, followed by Mexico (30) and the Philippines (29). Those three countries together accounted for more than half of the killings in the report.

In cases where a perpetrator could be identified, hitmen carried out the most murders, killing a total of 89 activists. Militia or guerrilla groups were linked to 30 deaths, armed forces to 18, and police to 12.

Nearly 30% of the killings recorded had links to resource extraction like logging, mining, large-scale agriculture, and hydroelectric dams. Logging was linked to the most cases in the report — 23 deaths.

The report recommends that governments implement regulations to protect environmental activists, and that the United Nations "formally recognize the human right to a safe, healthy, and sustainable environment." It also implored businesses to evaluate their supply chains and operations in order to ensure they're not contributing to human-rights violations.

But Global Witness expects these death tolls to continue rising in the years to come as the climate crisis accelerates.

21/09/2021

When they have nothing you want they have no power.

"Them: You won't be able to attend a concert or football games

Me: I don't mind

Them: You can't go to a large shopping mall

Me: I'll survive

Them: You can't drink at the pub

Me: I no longer drink

Them: You can't enter night clubs

Me: I don't go out at night

Them: We'll tell your employer

Me: I don't have one

Them: We'll take it from your salary

Me: I don't have a salary

Them: You can't go to your job

Me: I don't have or want your job

Them: You can't be in the city

Me: I prefer living out in nature

Them: You can't go to McDonald's or Burger King

Me: I haven't in years anyway

Them: You can't eat at restaurants

Me: I'll order takeaway

Them: You can't shop at large grocery stores

Me: I grow my own food and buy from local farmers

Them: You can't be part of society

Me: I already checked out

Them: Your kids can't come to school

Me: I'll homeschool

Them: You'll be on your own

Me: I'm surrounded by my family and tribe and all the people reaching the same conclusion all over the world

Them: You can't choose for yourself

Me: I just did

Them: What can we tempt you with?

Me: Nothing

***

When they have nothing you want they have no power.

And that's when power comes to the people."

- Pierce Love

26/08/2021

Chemical Farming & The Loss of Human Health - Dr. Zach Bush

Knowledge of medicinal plants at risk as languages die out

Loss of linguistic diversity may lead to disappearance of age-old remedies unknown to science, study warns

The areas with languages most at risk were in north-west Amazonia, where 100% of this unique knowledge was supported by threatened languages, and in North America, where the figure was 86%. In New Guinea 31% of languages were at risk. The anticipated loss of linguistic diversity would “substantially compromise humanity’s capacity for medicinal discovery”, according to the paper, published in PNAS.

03/07/2021

When we work consciously with the higher power, we become co-agents in the great universal work.

"There is only one Force in the universe, but it bifurcates itself, and then bifurcates itself again, and still again, and so on, until it shows itself in the form of many apparently different forces; but trace them back to their original source, and they are found finally to be one.

People call this God, the Creator. It dwells hidden back of all other forces. When a man can humble himself sufficiently to acknowledge his spiritual ignorance, his emotional weaknesses, and his mental limitations, when he can do all this in the right spirit, he is making himself ready for the divine visitation.

You will consciously contact this power by becoming its instrument; you will intelligently cooperate with it. You cannot use the divine power, but it will use you. That power is able to manifest in every possible form and on every possible plane.

Working through you, it makes you a conscious constructive part of the great elemental creation of Nature so that you no longer act by your own personal understanding and strength alone, but as its agent.

You become literally conscious of this higher power acting through you, sensing a Force which is beyond and above that known by the vast majority of men. In the sequence you will see miracles happen before your eyes, whether they be material, mental, or spiritual, because that power has no limitations, no bounds.

When we understand the purpose of incarnation and the purpose of evolution, and when we work consciously with the higher power, we become co-agents in the great universal work which Nature is trying to accomplish. Then our own power becomes sublime and immense.

That power becomes your reward when you permit it to work through you. No one can dictate to it. You must submit and surrender, and then let it work as it wishes."

- Paul Brunton, The Inner Reality, 1939