Environmental News

Discussion in 'Environmental Discussion' started by tochatihu, Oct 22, 2015.

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  1. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    When I first looked at that article, one of the additional links at the bottom of the page was to this story:

    Leitrim farmer wins forestry award
    "The RDS Teagasc farm forestry award category recognises working farmers who use a total-farm planning approach in order to successfully integrate their farm and forestry companies and promote farming sustainability."

    This seems quite at odds with what Thoreau was describing.

    His and others' observations have been helping shape science -- and farming too, along with other fields -- for several generations now.

    The passage of time has very significantly altered the situation regarding the passage I quoted, such that today's circumstances are quite different than when he was writing 170 years. While the problems have not been cured, the context now is most certainly not "unaltered by the passage of time".
     
    #2041 fuzzy1, Jun 15, 2023
  2. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    #2042 tochatihu, Jun 18, 2023
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  3. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    Gizmodo drives today's entry:

    3M Agrees to $10.3 Billion Settlement Over Forever Chemicals

    Carbon-fluorine bonds are rare in nature, so it is not surprising that microbial enzymes (that decompose everything-the-heck else) are also rare. Fluorocarbons have gained the title 'forever chemicals', but not quite justly. As early as 2013 the topic was reviewed. I wrote a review on microbial degradation of polymers last year and missed that. Ooops. There are more recent studies of fluorocarbon degradation involving UV light (one of our best frenemies). So let us say 'extremely persistent' and not 'forever'. More to the point is 3M's large payout agreement. Article also mentions other manufacturers working toward$ $ettlement$ (but not all are :) )

    ==
    Two People in New Mexico Have Died From Hantavirus This Year

    Rodent-borne hantavirus is clicky because if you get it you are about 1/3 dead already. But there are many other rodent-borne diseases with wider swathes. In general they (and their poops) are bad news. So, a public-service announcement. Little poops with white dots on one end come from lizards. Those not dotted come from mice or similar. I and grad students (er, kids) go to field stations where little poops are commonly observed. Do whatever you want to 'clean up' the dotted ones. For non-dotted ones, use water, put on the face mask you have been carrying around, and wash up after real good. This is not to say that lizards pose no health risks, but mighty mouse leads by a mile.
     
    #2043 tochatihu, Jun 23, 2023
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  4. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    #2044 bisco, Jun 24, 2023
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  5. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    I naïvely and hastily pitched from my attic a squirrel nest a couple decades ago (and then put hardware cloth over the gable vents, so I haven't had to do that again).

    Do they, maybe, like to avoid pooping in their nest areas, or did I just happen to get away lucky?
     
    #2045 ChapmanF, Jun 24, 2023
  6. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    #2046 tochatihu, Jun 30, 2023
  7. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    #2047 tochatihu, Jun 30, 2023
  8. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    that's pretty cool, nice wood too
     
    #2048 bisco, Jun 30, 2023
  9. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    Human protein consumption (and one might say joy) come from eating animal flesh produced from large agricultural (food-source) areas. It is a big thing and has limited possibilities for expansion, and ag areas have other competing demands.

    Many ways to work around that involve plant proteins, fungal proteins, cultured animal cells, and insect proteins as direct substitutes, Today's issue of Nature (journal) has two explainer articles:

    https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02096-5
    https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02095-6

    They do not include more use of insects as animal feed, which is now the largest alternative 'pathway'. It is also the least transformative pathway as it does not decrease sizes of cow, pig or chicken populations.
     
    #2049 tochatihu, Jul 5, 2023
  10. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    It may seen that a lot of global high-level conferences occur to explore topics like this:

    Global science leaders herald new era of grou | EurekAlert!

    I could not dispute that impression. This one involves an organization I am not familiar with. Their bingo card lacks few environmental buzzwords. That sounds disrespectful. Maybe I'm simply sad for not being invited. The real point is that good things do come out of such meetings, but that press releases do not provide much insight into those activities.

    Behind the scenes. Vegan sausage making and so forth.
     
    #2050 tochatihu, Jul 5, 2023
  11. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    The Biologist Blowing Our Minds
    Michael Levin is uncovering the incredible, latent abilities of living things.
    The Biologist Blowing Our Minds - Nautilus

    There is talk about frogs, flat worms, and slime molds there.
     
    #2051 Trollbait, Jul 7, 2023
  12. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    Orchids especially their flowers are pleasing to look at. All the ways they deceive pollinators to 'do it' add spice to the stories:

    Sex lives of orchids reads like science ficti | EurekAlert!

    ==
    As did most other flowering plants, orchids found a way to bounce back after a particularly bad day about 66 million years ago. There is hope to be found in that.
     
    #2052 tochatihu, Jul 12, 2023
  13. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    O to be a flowering plant.
     
    #2053 ChapmanF, Jul 12, 2023
  14. Zythryn

    Zythryn Senior Member

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    Fascinating piece on CBS Sunday Morning today.
    It looks at the success in GB of ‘rewilding’.
     
    #2054 Zythryn, Jul 23, 2023
  15. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    A plant based meat substitute company is doing poorly:

    Beyond Meat earnings drop 30% with falling demand | CNN Business

    If readers would say how they feel about this topic, we could start a separate discussion. There are good reasons to not run animal fleets for human food.

    Have I mentioned before that Earth's 'average human' has 1/6 of a cow and 1/6 of a car? Probably have.
     
    #2055 tochatihu, Aug 8, 2023
  16. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    I was fond of a local tavern's black bean burger, until they dropped it from the menu in favor of Beyond™ burgers.

    I've been buying those (for more money) and they're not bad or anything, but I won't shed a tear if the bean burger has to come back.
     
    #2056 ChapmanF, Aug 8, 2023
  17. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i've never tasted one. i'm always leery of 'new foods'

    we've been eating turkey burgers for a long time, and even that is only once a month or so.

    when dining out, a beef burger is a splurge.

    my problem is chicken, we have it with everything. that can't be good.
     
    #2057 bisco, Aug 8, 2023
  18. Zythryn

    Zythryn Senior Member

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    I don’t eat a lot of red meat. When I do, it is the ‘impossible’ variety.

    For protein, it is mainly chicken. While it is still a ways off, I am very encouraged by the first steps of the lab grown chicken.
    Much lower carbon footprint, and much lower misery.
     
    #2058 Zythryn, Aug 8, 2023
  19. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    #2059 tochatihu, Aug 8, 2023
  20. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    <MEGA SIGH>
    I remember reading about CO2 runaway and Venus surface temperatures in the 1960s. In the 2000s, I was more interested in cost of driving. So I was surprised that driving a Prius meant being accused of 'being green'.

    Curious about this accusation, I took an online course on climate change that gave me technical details but didn't really change my global warming opinion. For a while, I tracked polar ice but that seems redundant now:
    [​IMG]
    Alaska glacier melting fast enough to flood a river and collapse the bank ... two days ago.

    Bob Wilson
     
    #2060 bwilson4web, Aug 8, 2023
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