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Stop Being Ridiculous: We Agree On Animal Alternatives  
While watching the games of 2016 -- not the Olympics, the U.S. presidential election -- I am reminded of the stare-down between drug companies and animal rights activists. Of this mounting conflict, you'd think the answer is simple -- that animals can and should eventually make their exit from so many labs and testing facilities. Alternatives are in the wings, if even in their earliest days.



But as in politics, neither side is listening, and declaring moral victory seems more important than making progress. Like convention delegates, each side is being ridiculous. Here are a few reasons why:

ABSOLUTISM Animal rights activists don't tolerate ambiguity. The ethics behind captive orcas for theme park profits is somehow equivalent to, say, the use of macaque monkeys to develop life-saving vaccines. For this lack of clarity, they earn the wrath of serious scientists and are slapped with extremist and absolutist labels.

RATIONALISM By the same token, researchers who use animals to advance their work are imbued with an intellectual bias that conveys as conceit and a dismissal of pain and suffering. For this, they are packaged by activists as genocidal monsters. This is not an overstatement.

ENTERTAINMENT What activists NGOs, particularly The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), understand so well is that entertainment is core to their cause. They know, for example, that researchers are largely incapable of rebuttal in terms that are anything less than boring. I'm a scientist, not a media whore, their targets complain. They also know that inside corporations it's the legal department that trumps communications -- hence, the tone-deaf verbiage that accentuates the appearance of guilt. At BioDrug Corp we are committed to humane animal welfare... But you can't be committed when so much of the public sees you as disingenuous. And you can't credibly claim to be humane when your otherwise healthy animals don't fare so well.

INFORMATION Consumed by regulations and allergic to negative media, those of the pro-research persuasion embrace an out-dated model to push their point of view and best practices: Social Education. But because media are drawn first to fire and second to Smokey The Bear, the defenses that pharmas and their surrogates mount are ignored, out-flanked or exploited for their wooden corporate-speak. Despite their lobbying and support of biomedical research associations, animal research and testing is out-gunned, easily ten to one by my estimates. The odds might be evened were it not for the consistent refusals of the super association PhRMA to snuff out the long fuse that is sparking toward its pharmaceutical member companies.

Indeed, national surveys confirm that activism works and activists are winning. For almost a decade, public approval of animal research and testing has dropped year-to-year, all to suggest that critical species will leave the labs, beginning with chimpanzees then others that society judges most cuddly and dear. It's a win for idealism and a disaster for commerce and healthcare.



Looking for answers, pharmas and universities have hit the panic button. After all, taking animals out of the equation is a seismic shift that threatens vital pipelines and requisite profits. Their first instinct has been to call on law firms and PR agencies to defend their freedom to operate and mollify the rising public upset. This is not to keep bunnies in lipstick labs; this is to preserve compelling and life-saving work that contributes to the cures, therapies and vaccines of ravaging disorders and diseases. Think polio, epilepsy, HIV, hepatitis. The list is long and an awesome demonstration of applied science, not only for humans but also animals.

You might think the status quo, habit or laziness are what keeps mice, rats, dogs, cats, rabbits, lambs, pigs, primates and other species in air conditioned vivariums. But the costs to breed or buy, house and feed happy and healthy animals -- a necessity for sound research -- is exorbitant and a natural inhibitor to their use. What binds pharmas, academia and their networks of contract research houses to animals is the sheer effectiveness of non-human testing and, in recognition of this fact, the many legal requirements to use animals in drug discovery and trials. Consider the example of oversight committees, called IACUCSs, required in virtually every modern animal testing facility. By law, researchers and testers are mandated to apply and prove among other things a Three Rs standard to animal use -- Replace, Reduce and Refine. It's a logistical and costly requirement that ensures best practices and moves us incrementally toward animal-alternative research.



Having stormed us with stunts -- some violent, even fatal to researchers -- activists are craftily now turning to supply chains and decision trees. They have easily gained the sympathies of shippers, particularly airlines on which researchers rely for safe delivery of their animals, and soft-hearted lawmakers who have produced what researchers regard as draconian, innovation-killing regulations.

Out of this handiwork have emerged two modes of strategy response by scientists and their employers:

-- Defensive, the default mode. This is the social education model, to inform and disseminate facts: Educate the public. Get into the classrooms. Issue PSAs. It's also the evasion strategy: Get to the legislatures. Find the work-arounds. Use trucks instead of planes. Start breeding. Start outsourcing. Start offshoring. And so it goes. But none of this is secret to activists who, again, are manifestly better mobilized, relatively unregulated, more focused, and simply better entertainers and storytellers. They are already lobbying, expertly. They are at work in China. And their cameras are everywhere.

-- Offensive, the counter-intuitive option. This requires vision, some courage and competitive instinct: Invest in alternatives. Ramp up synthetics (e.g., organs on chips). Focus on less sentient species (e.g., zebra fish). Tap big data and cloud computing to simulate outcomes. Partner with or fund in vitro and virtual medicine start-ups. It all sounds good, but ask any clear-eyed animal researcher and they'll tell you soberly that real progress to virtual testing and research is a lifetime away. Animals, they insist, will always be needed in some capacity and, besides, the human body is simply too sophisticated to ever accurately mimic.

But science surprises itself with unexpected regularity, particularly when pressure is applied or incentive is offered. Pick up your smart phone or take your morning pills for proof. My rebuttal, then, to the DVMs, PhDs and VPs who say we can't move that fast is this: You won't know until you really start trying.

Out of duty, I have detailed policies and competitive strategies that defend the forts of animal research and testing. But these are prophylactic, even unnecessary, because what underlies the animal research-versus-animal rights rivalry is in fact a shared value and vision: Quality of Life. Researchers are driven by curiosity and a unique delight in explaining and taming what is life-limiting. Activists are driven by compassion and a dream for a higher standard of humanity. In my experience, no researcher would rather probe than pet an animal. And no activist would rather lose their child to a disease than spare the mice and monkeys that help cure it.

PERFECT STORM, PERFECT OPPORTUNITY

Still, animal research and testing is treated as a crisis, never yet in my experience as an opportunity. It needn't be, because we all agree that the future in biomedical research is not in animals but in actual humans. Virtual humans, to be precise.

If activists and scientists agree that animal research and testing should go the way of strip mining and whaling, then why are corporations and institutions resisting the call? The answer lies in reputation, profits and pride, perhaps not in that order. Corporations have to perform, always to the satisfaction of investors. Investments to replace so-called animal models are expensive and their returns can only be trusted through experience and success. In the mean time, activists are determined to alienate customers from the brands whose benefits are ensured by lab animals. They test bunnies! They murder monkeys! The consequences are policies that manage and mitigate (mode 1 as described above) instead of lead and innovate (mode 2).

Like liberals and conservatives, each side is lead by a point of view that is inarguable because it's based on a world view. It goes to philosophy and a life's purpose. So when one party is framed as a Frankenstein, or Pollyanna as the case may be, the natural reaction is to recoil and resist the impolite accuser. Because no one is wrong, no one can be right.



I describe the phenomenon as a battle for the back row and total anonymity. And as a prescription, I argue for a lock-step advancement of sheepish pharmas to mount a collective defense. No one need stick out their neck if they shuffle ahead together.

But this is an incremental play, and it only slows the progress of both activists and their targeted corporations. Again, the irony is that both sides want the same thing, but what they seem to value more than results is to progress on their own terms and most especially without the goading advice of their disdained detractors. As with party politics, they want to be the winner and the other guy the loser.

Inside this perfect business storm is in fact a perfect competitive opportunity. With drugmakers uniformly obscuring their animal research and testing activities, there is an obvious but counter-intuitive option to bolt the party. The risk is only temporary because while the pharma that steps out might draw activist fire it can simultaneously pledge its support of activists, declare a moon shot to produce animal-free drugs, and challenge others to follow. The pharma that flees the flock can become a darling of PETA and HSUS, not an enemy. And even better, it can gain a significant advantage over its cowering competitors.

By degrees, and particularly with our much-loved chimps and other self-aware species, a few pharmaceuticals have made this move though in far too tentative steps to exploit and disrupt the norm. Novartis is notable, so too is GSK, but on the whole the progress toward animal alternatives is halting and inhibited by the extreme caution and considerable fear of CEOs and their risk-averse legal and communications chiefs.

What has been treated as a problem by the businesses, institutions and associations that participate in and defend animal research and testing is, in fact, a chance to do great things. If we approach it more as a potential for innovation than an exercise in risk mitigation, we can step out of the back row and advance a kind of discovery that propels our collective success and defines a higher form of humanity. It's a way to be reasonable instead of ridiculous.


Photo credits: Trailers From Hell, Shawn the Sheep

Graphics credit: Gallup

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Underwater Clarity  


By Drs. David Niesel and Norbert Herzog

Have you ever opened your eyes while diving in the ocean without a mask and realized that you really can't see very well? Well, the children among a nomadic sea faring people known as the Moken can see underwater with total clarity, but what is really interesting is that other children can acquire this ability too in just a matter of weeks.

The Moken people have historically been totally dependent upon the ocean surrounding the Mergui Archipelago, a group of 800 small islands off the southwestern coast of Myanmar. The Moken people are Austronesians who are thought to have migrated from southern China about 4000 years ago. For 8 to 9 months of the year, the Moken live aboard their boats, known as kabang, living on land in temporary camps only during the monsoon season. They live on what they can harvest from the sea and the beaches and by trading the sea life they gather with Chinese and Malay neighbors. There may be as few as 1000 Moken still living the traditional way.

Moken children spend much of their time in the water and participate in the gathering of seafood starting at an early age. As opposed to most of us, the Moken children see everything with perfect clarity when diving underwater. A Swedish scientist, Anna Gislen, has been studying the Moken for two decades to learn how this is possible. She measured how clear the underwater vision of 17 Moken children was and compared that with 18 European children all aged 7 to 13 years old. The Moken children had more than twice the visual acuity compared with European children.

Gislen hypothesized that part of the reason they can see more clearly under water is their ability to constrict their pupils. Just like with a camera lens, if you constrict the pupil, you increase the depth of field. That is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects that will be in focus. Measurements proved that Moken children constricted their pupils underwater to the maximum known limit for a human. However, there had to be more to this, somehow, either consciously or unconsciously, Moken children had to also be changing the shape of the lenses of their eyes to improve the focus of an object, called accommodating their lenses. This is exactly what she found. This ability is retained into adolescence. What is fascinating is that European children could be taught to make these same changes to their eyes to improve vision underwater. After 11 training sessions over one month, they developed the same visual acuity as Moken children. How long this took was different for each child, but their vision would suddenly improve. Interestingly, seals and dolphins have similar abilities to adapt their eyes.

The traditional Moken culture is rapidly disappearing as a result in part from a 2004 tsunami that destroyed much of the Moken homeland. Governments are relocating them further inland for their safety and providing other employment. Sadly, the life of these sea nomads, as they are also known, is changing and their children may not develop "dolphin eyes" because they will not be spending so much time diving. However, this is a remarkable example of how adaptable the human body can be.

Medical Discovery News is hosted by professors Norbert Herzog at Quinnipiac University, and David Niesel of the University of Texas Medical Branch. Learn more at www.medicaldiscoverynews.com.

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Recognizing The Value Of Food To Stop Waste  
From watermelon and berries to sun-ripened tomatoes and peaches, summer is when we most enjoy local fruits and vegetables, so fresh and plentiful just now. Produce defines summertime picnics; like many of you, I savor these foods because they're in-season, local and readily available.

However, in America, we don't always balance or value our bounty. We actually experience a food glut, daily, along with a resulting situation of horrible waste.

According to U.S. Department of Agriculture 2015 figures, a shocking 31 percent of all U.S. produced food goes uneaten; each American discards more than 36 pounds of groceries every month. The USDA further found that a typical American throws out 40 percent of all the fresh fish, 23 percent of the eggs, and 20 percent of the milk that they buy.

Imagine what that means for the 800 million people who suffer from starvation across the globe. Waste actually encourages a self-perpetuating cycle, driving the specious argument that we need to grow more food and use chemicals that promise increased yields. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, globally we waste 2.9 trillion pounds of food annually, enough to feed those 800 million people twice over, with millions of pounds to spare.

Why does this happen? In a way, the problem is too much food. Immense quantities of grain, dairy, meat and produce are reaching U.S. stores - but retailers' policies and consumer behavior translate into immense waste. By design, retail chains discard tons of fresh produce because it is "unattractive," and dispose of food nearing sell-by dates, even though it's still fresh. Consumers are encouraged to stock up on on-sale foods, but how many of us have thrown away food we thought we might eat, but never got around to cooking?

In the developing world, most losses occur further down the supply chain. Inadequate infrastructure, storage, refrigeration, transportation and similar, mean that most wasted food simply never makes it to the people waiting for it.

These impacts resonate. When food is wasted, the resources that it took to produce, process and transport it are also wasted. Massive amounts of chemicals, fertilizer and fuel; acres of land; and -- in the U.S. -- 25 percent of all freshwater used, go to produce food that is, incredibly, thrown away. Uneaten food ends up in landfills, where its decomposition accounts for nearly 25 percent of U.S. emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas more than 20 times more harmful than CO2, according to the EPA.

We have to be smarter about getting food to where it needs to be. It requires communication, policy revision and a different mindset.

• Firstly, greater coordination will be needed between farmers, wholesalers and retailers. Developing farmer-buyer agreements will be critical, as well as raising awareness among industries, retailers and consumers to the problem and challenges of food waste.

• We need to stop wasteful retail policies that dispose of imperfect looking produce, and need to work with sellers and consumers to rethink their idea of what's acceptable. Perceptions can change: heirloom tomatoes taste wonderful, but two decades ago, no one would have bought tomatoes that were not perfect.

• We also need to make good use of food that is presently thrown away, in addition to instituting industry practices to decrease the staggering levels of waste and municipal and Federal laws that indemnify donors, such as the U.S.'s Bill Emmerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act.

There's a common thread in these solutions, and that takes us back to our summertime picnic. It all comes down to value and respect. We value the food we are eating because we know its perishable. And, we respect the food we eat, and the resources it represents, by bringing a limited amount -- only what we can actually eat and share with friends. If we respect food, we aren't tempted to waste it, and that is what we need to recognize and rekindle.

The culture of mass consumption and production without respect to nature further distances us from our food. Through Natural Agriculture and organic production, respect for food is changing. As consumers, we should remember what goes into growing and distribution. By supporting smaller-scale, local agriculture and markets, buying what we can actually eat, respecting food and changing the way we produce, consume and distribute food, we will go a long way to correcting the epidemic of waste in our lives and in the lives of others around the world.

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Moth takes advantage of defensive compounds in Physalis fruits  
Researchers found that the specialist moth Heliothis subflexa benefits from secondary plant components by turning the original defensive function of these compounds into its own advantage. Withanolides, which are present in Physalis plants, usually act as immune suppressants and feeding deterrents in insects. Surprisingly, Heliothis subflexa uses these plant defenses as immune-system boosters. Moreover, withanolides protect the moth from harmful effects caused by pathogenic bacteria. The new study demonstrates a unique benefit to host-plant specialization.  
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SpaceX Dragon capsule lands in Pacific carrying 12 moustronauts  

NASA to watch Musketeer relatives carefully

The SpaceX team has successfully recovered its Dragon capsule which was sent back to Earth by the International Space Station.…

 
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Obama's Expansion of a Vast Pacific Reserve, Built on a Bush Foundation  
President Obama's expansion of a vast marine monument near Hawaii builds on Bush-era moves spurred by passionate ocean communicators.  
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Asthetically nothing in it...  

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Camera set for hunting the skies for morning flights, just noticed this through the eye piece and there was something in the morning light which I couldn't resist...

 
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Thames sunrise  

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Looking over the Thames early one morning; Tower Bridge and City Hall either side of the Tower Pier.

 
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Lost in translation  

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Photos of the Week: 8/20-8/26 (35 photos)  

Lenin underwater, a penguin weigh-in, monsoon flooding in India, an earthquake in central Italy, a deep blue lake in El Salvador, American partiers blown into Canada on the St. Clair River, towed back across the border by the Canadian Coast Guard, and much more.

 
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Syria à la Carte: Turkish Invasion Highlights Rapidly Shifting Alliances  
The Turkish advance into northern Syria marks a turning point in the Syrian conflict. Its nominal target was Islamic State, but with large powers reconsidering their alliances in the region, the Kurds stand to lose the most.  
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This EpiPen News Is Part of A Disturbing Trend  

The TV was on as we sat waiting to be called in for our check up.  My son, who is 11, turned his head as he heard the anchor use the word “EpiPen”. He is in tune since he has a life threatening peanut allergy and the EpiPen has saved his life.  His face was full of emotion as he listened to the anchor talk about how some people could no longer afford this life saving device. He shook his head and said “mom that can't be right, they can't be right, can they, everyone who needs an EpiPen should have one.”  

The media has exploded as word spread of some parents paying well over 600 dollars for this necessary life saving device. Headlines abound about big pharmacy greed and patients forced to pay outrageous prices, and this issue has enraged everyone.  I am heartened to see food allergies being taken seriously in the mainstream media.  As my son stated, everyone who needs an Epipen should have access to one.  But food allergies are a topic that is underreported. Even when we are armed with our EpiPens, we have a long way to go in getting the public to recognize the real challenges of living in a world where respect for food allergies as a potential life threatening disease is lacking.

As founder of the No Nut Traveler, I collect the testimonials of food allergic passengers traveling on commercial airlines. Shockingly, many food allergic passengers are being ridiculed, spoken to rudely by the airline staff and most egregiously, sometimes asked to leave the airplane when disclosing a food allergy.   

Last month, a food allergy mom sent me a testimonial via FaceBook with a heart-breaking photo of her child, as her family was asked to leave the plane by the pilot for disclosing her child's food allergy.  She informed me that she had notified the airline ahead of time of her daughter's allergies. She brought their own food and a supply of medication. She said “We did everything humanly possible on our part. I do not know what else we could have done to prevent such a situation from happening”.  She went on to tell me “a supervisor from JFK was called on board and he took our passports and boarding passes. We were then escorted out of the plane under the threat of calling security on us. We were publicly humiliated as we walked through the full airplane. My daughter was brought to tears.  On the same airline the next day, a different pilot let our family fly.  I find this kind of inconsistency and rudeness unacceptable.

Later in the month, a 22-year-old girl from New Jersey shared another disturbing encounter with me.  She asserted that after asking for an announcement for her severe nut allergy, and asking for the surrounding rows to please refrain from eating nuts, the pilot told her that she was an inconvenience to have on-board, and that her thought process was selfish.  She further asserted that the pilot said to her “You should be thankful to be allowed on this flight due to the huge risk and inconvenience you may cause to other passengers”. Her aunt, who was traveling with her, then asked what they would do if they had someone with a disability on the airplane and the pilot said they would accommodate them. She then asked why not her niece and he responded because a food allergy is not a disability.

When you receive the diagnosis of a life threatening food allergy, your life is irrevocably altered.   Failure to treat a food-induced anaphylaxis quickly (i.e. within minutes) with epinephrine substantially increases the risk of death.  No one asks to have this condition.  There is the false perception that once you have your EpiPen, everything will be fine.  But the truth is that sometimes the EpiPen can only buy you time.  That is one of the reasons why you need to carry more than one-a reaction can require multiple EpiPens, and you always need to go to the ER to be monitored after using one.  

There is no ER in the air and that is why, as allergic passengers, we ask for reasonable accommodations to make flying safer.  Being able to pre-board, to clean the area from the last occupant, informing those around us to be cautious and asking politely not to consume what is deadly to us, and educating the airline staff of this potentially fatal disability, are reasonable requests for a legitimate medical condition. My greatest fear is that it will take a death in the air for meaningful change to occur.  

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Defenders of Wildlife: Protecting and Recovering Wolves  
This has been a tough week for wolves and those of us who are committed to their recovery. Wildlife officials in Washington state have made the decision to kill the Profanity Peak wolf pack due to repeated depredations since July 8.

This is a point we never wanted to come to. In our vision for wolves, lethal removal would never have to be used. Defenders of Wildlife has been working for decades to help avoid conflicts with wolves, specifically because of the deadly results these conflicts often end up having for them.

When we lose wolves, it is devastating for those who advocate for their recovery, as we have for decades at Defenders. It can be easy to feel that we are losing ground when decisions like this one are made. But as a biologist and president and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife, I want to let you know that as gut-wrenching as this loss is, the work we do every day is creating a safer landscape for wolves.

The Incredible Return

Gray wolves once roamed freely throughout much of North America, possibly numbering in the hundreds of thousands. But government sponsored programs to hunt, trap and poison wolves almost wiped them off the map in the continental U.S. by the 1930s.

Today the gray wolf is the true "comeback kid." It is slowly but surely returning to some of its former habitat in several states, including Washington, as a result of strong conservation efforts throughout the years - conservation efforts in which Defenders played a major role.

Defenders' Leadership on Wolves

Defenders has been at the forefront of wolf recovery for more than 20 years. We were the first conservation group to introduce the idea of bringing wolves back to Yellowstone. We understood that for wolf recovery to succeed it was vital that we worked with the ranching community. The ranchers of today have never ranched in wolf country so while we look at recovery as a natural restoration of the landscape, ranchers look at it as a new hurdle they have to jump to make a living. This might be hard for some wolf advocates to digest, but the reality is that without the cooperation of ranchers, wolves don't have a chance on the landscape.

Defenders was on the ground supporting the reintroduction: paving the way by working with ranchers through an innovative compensation program for ranchers who experienced depredations. The federal and some state governments now manage and support this same program.

We also put our own staff on the ground to help ranchers and save wolves. We provided resources and technical expertise. Our experts explored coexistence efforts from other countries to bring ranchers the best tools to live with wolves. And it has paid off for the wolves.

Now, thanks to these cooperative efforts, a large and growing number of ranchers and rural communities are finding ways to successfully coexist with wolves, taking proactive steps to minimize the chance of a conflict - which is a win for them and wolves. The prevailing attitude of ranchers 20 years ago was total opposition to wolves. We were - and still are -- trying to change an entire culture, one that was built on the absence of wolves over the span of decades. Now we hear, "The wolves are here to stay so we have to learn to live with them."

Our approach in the Yellowstone and Northern Rockies region is the best way to secure a real future for wolves in Washington.

Wolf Recovery in the Northwest

Because of our expertise in wolf recovery and coexistence, Defenders of Wildlife has a seat at the table once more, this time on Washington's Wolf Advisory Group (WAG). The WAG is a cross-section of organizations and individuals that work together to provide guidance to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife on how to implement the state's wolf management plan.

Each member of the WAG has different priorities -- ours being wolf recovery. As national leaders in coexistence, Defenders provides recommendations on how the state can handle conflicts between wolves and livestock. Working with the other stakeholders on the WAG, we have been able to negotiate a far better deal for Washington's wolves.

It cannot be overstated how big a difference the new protocols have made for Washington wolves. In just the past two years, the number of livestock producers in Washington that are participating in conflict prevention plans with WDFW has tripled -- a striking indication of how attitudes are changing across the landscape.

A Brighter Future for Wolves

While the authorized removal of the Profanity Peak wolf pack is a distressing loss to process for all of us, we strongly believe that this tragic situation will not undermine our overall goal of achieving wolf recovery in Washington state.

As the leader of the group that helped bring back wolves to Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies, I know we will be able to recover wolves in Washington and ensure their safe passage on suitable lands where they can rightfully roam freely in the wild.

There is tough work ahead. Together we can all make our vision for wolf recovery a reality.

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They Won't Feed the Bears at This Birthday Bash  
The National Park Service is celebrating its 100th birthday this week but it is not an untarnished history.
We have 59 national parks - from the steamy tropical Everglades in Florida to the alpine majesty of Denali in Alaska - that have been selected for their spectacular natural qualities. Congress in 1916 told the park service that its first and foremost responsibility was to conserve "the scenery and the natural and historic objects and wild life."
Yet at times park managers over the last century have engaged in such contrary actions as exploiting wildlife, running carnival-like spectacles, allowing wholesale development and even permitting massive destruction of what makes the parks so special.
One of the most egregious examples was at Olympic National Park in the Pacific Northwest, a majestic region dominated by forests of Douglas fir, red cedar, western hemlock and the iconic Sitka spruce. Loggers were upset when the Olympics were first set aside as a national park but they were appeased during and after World War II when top park officials quietly initiated regular timber sales.
The logging was only supposed to remove scrap and bug-infested trees, but it did generate significant revenue for park improvements. It was also illegal.
Some of the park's seasonal naturalists were so upset by these actions that they gathered evidence of the crimes. This included photos of stumps that had once held Douglas firs five feet in diameter, and fields that had been clear-cut. Working with national conservation leaders, they forced a showdown with park officials at a 1955 meeting in Seattle.
Conrad Wirth, who ran the Park Service and appears to have been aware of the logging, was faced with such overwhelming evidence that he had to agree it was wrong and that the timber sales would cease. Afterwards he began to hedge, until he was confronted with a transcript based on a secret tape recording. Many of the part-time naturalists, however, never worked in the park system again.
Park officials also liked to entertain tourists by feeding bears at the park dump. Yosemite constructed a platform that was illuminated at night to watch the bears feed. Sequoia and Yellowstone built bleachers at the dump. There is a photo of Horace Albright, then Yellowstone Park superintendent and later chief of the entire system, depicted picnicking at a table with several bears.
Such carnival tricks were commonly employed to lure visitors to the park in order to boost popularity and revenues. Yosemite valley featured tennis courts, a swimming pool, and nightly dancing capped by a spectacle called firefall. About 9 p.m. a large bundle of live embers and burning logs were tossed over a 900-foot cliff, a display that could be seen throughout the valley.
The parks at times were less sanctuaries and more as high-end resorts with high class hotels, restaurants and touring cars. And we are especially fortunate about some of the proposals that never got off the drawing boards, including dams that would have flooded the Grand Canyon, tramways up Mount Rainier, and a hotel at the foot of Mount Denali, just as starters.
What changed?
After World War II park officials realized they no longer had to find ways to lure visitors to the parks - visitors literally began to flood the parks. That's a dilemma that remains today, with attendance now topping 300 million a year.
At first park officials responded to this influx by building more roads to more priceless but fragile assets. Eventually a combination of more science-based naturalists who joined the park service along with a cadre of conservationists and environmentalists such as Ansel Adams, David Brower and Howard Zahniser, began to make a difference.
Some of the stupidity - such as feeding bears - became obvious. Stunts such as firefall went only with intense resistance. Today the park service has pretty much fully embraced the idea that they are stewards and not showmen of the national parks.
That's why when we celebrate history - as hundreds of millions of us will this summer - and why it is important to keep in mind that these priceless wonders are not here just for us to enjoy, but for future generations.
One need only visit the dining room 750 feet underground at Carlsbad National Park to find that old tendencies can be tough to eradicate. Or witness the recent controversies at Grand Canyon where new proposed developments - from gondolas to uranium mines - threaten the canyon's integrity.
We need to keep in mind that threats to alter this rich inheritance never end.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Monster slugs are devouring defenceless baby birds in nests  
Nestlings are sitting ducks for giant slugs some of them invasive ­ that have been recorded feeding on the chicks of several birds species  
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Op-Ed Contributor: What's So Special About Another Earth?  
We're excited about the latest exoplanet because of what it says about our own celestial home.  
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The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) says the scale of... https://t.co/uG9hli0DhP 
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The planned city of La Plata, the capital city of the Province...  

The planned city of La Plata, the capital city of the Province of Buenos Aires, is characterized by its strict grid pattern. At the 1889 World's Fair in Paris, the new city was awarded two gold medals for the “City of the Future” and “Better performance built.” /// This is the fifth post in our week focused on urban planning. ///

34°55′16″S 57°57′16″W

Instagram: http://bit.ly/2bMr6IM

 
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Photos of the Day: Aug. 26, 2016  

Explore the news of the day with these images from around the world.  
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Corals Clash on the Ocean Floor  
They may seem stationary to us, but corals are dynamic animals. In this film, researchers use time-lapse video to watch corals move along the ocean floor, unearth themselves when buried, and even...

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com  
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Ramen Noodles Are Now The Prison Currency Of Choice  

Ramen will buy anything from smuggled fruit to laundry services from fellow inmates, a study at one prison finds. It's not just that ramen is tasty: Prisoners say they're not getting enough food.

 
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Nobel laureate James Cronin dies at 84  
Particle-physics pioneer co-discovered CP-symmetry violation in decaying K mesons  
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Tragedy and Destruction: Italian Quake Is a Test for Goverment in Rome  
This week's devastating earthquake in Italy, with more than 260 deaths, will be a leadership test for Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. The state's failures after the 2009 catastrophe in L'Aquila have not been forgotten.  
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Republicans Against Trump: Bush Advisor Wolfowitz Says He'll Likely Vote for Clinton  
In an interview, Paul Wolfowitz, 72, an advisor to former President Bush, discusses the dangers of a Donald Trump presidency, why he will likely vote for the Democrat's candidate this year and mistakes made during the Iraq war.  
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Big Oil's Scary New World  
"This was retail politics, and oil lost," was how Adrienne Alvord of UCS summed up the stunning environmental victory Tuesday in the California legislature, a victory which cemented the state's commitment to a 40% reduction in climate pollution by 2030.

Only a few weeks ago there was a strong consensus that the oil industry, by spending millions of dollars on behalf of a cadre of moderate Democrats in the Assembly, had blocked just such a doubling down on the state's existing 2020 goals. For the oil industry, victory was an existential necessity. Only by holding future climate commitments hostage could the industry hope to get Governor Brown to abandon the state's existing mandate that by 2020 the carbon content of fuels be cut by 10%. As a practical matter, the requirement means roughly 20% of California's more vehicles will be driving on something other than oil - electricity, natural gas or biofuels.

And oil knows it cannot withstand a competitive transportation fuels market. Once California creates such a market, and builds businesses that can produce low carbon fuels at scale, fuels competition will go global, and oil's empire will wither. But it looked like oil had survived to fight another day. Governor Brown had signaled his next move by forming a ballot committee for a (high-risk) initiative for the fall of 2018. But a small group of climate and environmental justice advocates refused to let the Assembly moderates off the hook. Demanding a vote, they re-energized their broad coalition of main-line businesses, EJ advocates, labor, climate greens, the faith community, clean tech and clean fuels businesses, local government and public health advocates.

Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon told them he would give them a vote once they had the votes - and on Tuesday he pulled the trigger, giving the oil industry, which thought it had won, only 24 hours to regroup. It wasn't enough, and the Assembly passed SB32 by 47 votes, a six vote margin over the 41 needed. The California Nurses Association was heard from, but so was Ebay. Governor Brown and the White House weighed in, but a lone Republican, Assemblywoman Catherine Baker joined them in supporting progress. Wednesday the Senate concurred, and the bill, linked to an environmental justice focused companion bill, went to the Governor for his signature.

Why the victory? Quite simply, retail politics. Clean energy now provides far more stimulus and creates far more jobs than fossil fuels. Clean power is seen by the public as the linch-pin of the state's economic future. Jobs on the ground trump oil industry ads on the screen. It's not accidental that states providing climate leadership are the states with the biggest clean energy sectors - California, Washington, Nevada, Oregon - and Iowa, with its nation leading wind sector and a public utility, Mid-America, that is planning to shortly hit 85% renewables and go on to 100%.

And it's cheaper.

The oil industry is in a state of shock. Their press release bizarrely asserted that Rendon had scheduled the vote to "cover up" the fact that the state's latest auction for carbon emission permits had attracted few buyers - a result oil called "terrible." The auction simply reflected the fact that emitters, uncertain if the law would be extended past 2020, did not know how many permits they needed to buy. The oil industry conceded as much, saying "Today's miserable auction result reflects the market's lack of certainty." But it is revealing that oil called it "terrible" and "miserable" that the cost of carbon permits was low - demonstrating again that what they fear is not that decarbonizing will cost too much and hurt the economy, but that it will prove irresistibly cheap and strand them. Also revealing --- SB32 was written precisely to provide the certainty whose absence the oil industry allegedly deplores!

(In fact, the legislature is going home next week, and Rendon had to bring the bill up more or less when he did. The short notice was tactical - but hardly conspiratorial.)

Ideological, right-wing opponents of climate progress and clean energy stayed more on message, releasing a poll purporting to show that the public, all the other evidence to the contrary, didn't really favor tougher clean-up of carbon pollution or California climate leadership after all.

Read carefully, however, the poll says something quite different. It confirms that most Californians want to move forward on clean energy and climate, believe that such progress is good for California even if others do not lead, and want action. Even California Republicans are part of this consensus. 62% of California Republican voters think that climate change is either a very serious or somewhat serious threat to the state. Again, of Republicans, 67% expect the changes resulting from global warming to occur in their lifetimes. A majority favor the state's current climate goals, and a plurality favor the longer-term, more ambitious goals just passed.

It is true that, if nudged to believe that after such action, "hundreds of local manufacturing facilities would be shut down and thousands of middle-class jobs would be lost in California" large majorities of Republicans, AND Democrats and Independents, lose their appetite. But if you said to the same sample that ambitious climate progress would mean "continued economic growth, an end to air pollution, cheaper gas, and billions of dollars of new exports for California industries" the supportive numbers among Republicans would probably jump from a plurality to a super-majority. The latter statement is the true one, it turns out - and, more or less, it is what most California voters are experiencing - which explains why, un-manipulated, even Republicans are happy that the state continues to move forward.

But California is not the only arena where oil's long regime is coming to an end. Investors are watching warily as the majors - Chevron, Exxon, BP and Shell have now accumulated an unprecedented $184 billion in debt, fallen far short ($40 billion short in the first half of 2016) of their promised goals of paying their dividends from profits, not borrowing. Shell, Chevron, Exxon and BP have all seen their previous platinum grade credit ratings cut a notch. To placate investors, the majors pledge that they have new (but far from transparent) business plans to someday make money again - if only oil will stay at some magic level. For BP it's $50-55/barrel. Unfortunately, it has not been in that range since 2014.

Many of the independent oil producers, of course, have gone bankrupt. Oil remains stubbornly below $50. Most independent analysts believe that for the oil majors, prices in the $75 range are required to compete with Persian Gulf and other OPEC members in the long term. And those prices, unequivocally, require one thing: a continuation of oil's monopoly in transportation fuel.

California this week called the question. That monopoly is going away. Oil has lost before, but never because the retail politics of its competitors proved more compelling. This was no decisive battle. There may be none, just as there is no moment when the fate of the Roman Empire was sealed.

But the sands of time are running. Oil's empire is in its decline and fall.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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What American Women Who Wear Hijab Want You to Know  

In the short film Hijabi World, two Rutgers University students, Hamna Saleem and Dina Sayedahmed, filmed their friends—Muslim women who observe hijab—talking about the day-to-day challenges of wearing a headscarf. “Sometimes you itch in your own skin,” says one woman named Halima. These are the heartening testimonies of a handful of Muslim women about why they decided to wear the scarf and how it impacts their lives and religiosity.

This film appears in the second issue of Newest Americans, a collaboration between Rutgers University-Newark, Talking Eyes, and VII Photo centered around America's changing demographics. More information can be found on the Facebook page and Twitter account. This short film is part of an ongoing series on The Atlantic from Talking Eyes Media about movement, location, and identity called State of Migration.

 
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How to Procrastinate Productively  

Procrastination is a habit; it happens mindlessly and unwittingly. However, breaks are necessary when moving through life—so, what's the best way to waste time? The Atlantic's Olga Khazan took to the streets of Washington, D.C., to interview people about their procrastination habits. In this video, she explains a technique called “simplified habit reversal,” which is a therapy that can help replace mindless procrastination habits with something more productive.

 
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Proxima Centauri b: Earth-sized? Earth-like? Or Habitable?  
Finally after decades of hope and hard work, astronomers finally discovered a planet orbiting the nearest star to our sun: Proxima Centauri. Describing it in human terms leads to some interesting problems!

The Alpha Centauri trinary star system, at a distance of 4.3 light years as the crow flies, has beckoned would-be interstellar travelers for decades with its golden sun-like star Alpha Centauri A, its orange star companion Alpha Centauri B, and the little red dwarf: Alpha Centauri C or 'Proxima'. Proxima, discovered in 1915, orbits A and B at a distance 300 times farther that Pluto orbits our sun, taking hundreds of thousands of years to complete its journey. Yet, despite its closeness to Earth, Alpha Centauri AB seem to be a celestial fizzle so far as planets are concerned despite decades of searches.

But suddenly things have changed.

For a long time the available data seemed to show there were no Neptune-sized or larger planets orbiting Proxima. It seemed doomed to be just as barren as its two brighter and more famous stellar companions. Then in 2013, astronomer Mikko Tuomi of the University of Hertfordshire uncovered a hint that Proxima was wobbling slightly as it traveled through space. Today we have the announcement by a team of ESO astronomers that this wobbling has been confirmed, and it is caused by an orbiting planet with a minimum mass about 30 percent larger than our Earth. It was also in an orbit that kept it comfortably in the red dwarf's liquid water zone. With an 11-day orbit and at a distance 20 times closer to Proxima than our Earth is to the sun, the view from its surface would be spectacular, although the planet would be gravitationally locked so that it only shows the same hemisphere to its star for eons at a time. Now comes a problem. How do we describe this world compared to Earth?



Artist's impression of the exoplanet Proxima Centauri b. The Alpha Centauri binary system can be seen in the background. (Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser)

Semantics problems.

The terms Earth-sized, Earth-like and habitable might sound very similar, but in fact they are not, and they are also not astronomically precise terms.

Earth-sized. Astronomers can certainly confirm that Proxima b has a mass slightly larger than Earth from the way that it wiggles the motion of its star. That is a mathematically precise statement. If we assume it is a rocky body similar to our Earth and the inner planets of our solar system, we can deduce that it probably has a radius about 10 percent larger than our Earth, and on its surface, gravity would be about 10 percent more, so a 150-pound person would weight 165 pounds. Again, the term Earth-sized can apply either to describe the mass of the planet or its radius. No problem so far. In fact, today we know of over 600 Earth-sized planets.

Habitable: To be habitable is more restrictive than to be merely Earth-sized. The presumption is that some kind of organic life has to be able to survive on its surface. Astronomers usually calculate for a star the size of the zone surrounding it where the temperature of a bare planetary surface can support liquid water. This is often called the liquid water-zone or the habitable zone (abbreviated 'HZ'). Being in The Zone, however, does not guarantee that liquid can exist on the surface if the planet actually has no atmosphere. Our moon is in the habitable zone of our sun but nothing can live there! So, to really be habitable, the planet needs to have an atmosphere that provides enough pressure to keep water in a liquid state. But when you look around our solar system, atmospheres can be anything from pure hydrogen and helium (Jupiter) to pure carbon dioxide (Venus, Mars). Too much atmospheric carbon dioxide or water vapor would turn even Mars and Earth into uninhabitable planets in the 'habitable zone' of our sun. A habitable planet has to toe a very narrow line by being in the right place, with the right mass/size, and the right amount of atmosphere so that something like extremophile bacteria could survive on their surface, though not necessarily a human. Today, we have identified 12 planets that are close in size to our Earth, and in their habitable zones.



The atmosphere of the Jupiter-sized planet WASP-39b showing water vapor, carbon monoxide, potassium and sodium.(Credit: WASP Planets )

Earth-like: This is the most restrictive classification of them all. It means that not only is the planet Earth-sized and in its habitable zone, but its atmosphere has just enough greenhouse gases to keep the temperature in the liquid-water state and at a pressure close to what we experience at sea level. But there is more. If you were to visit this Earth-like world, would you expect to be able to walk its surface without breathing gear? Would a truly Earth-like world force you to live out your entire life inside a sealed habitat? To be Earth-like seems to mean that you could walk around without a cumbersome suit and your habitat need not be sealed. But this is only possible if the planet has oxygen in its atmosphere. Oxygen is a product of living organisms, so any Earth-like planet will already have a living biosphere and a recognizable oxygen-rich atmosphere.

Although we have discovered Earth-sized and habitable planets (at least survivable on their surface with spacesuits and sealed habitats), we have yet to discover an Earth-like planet. For now, the terms habitable and Earth-like remain interchangeable without any penalty. You will see this yourself in the many articles to follow the announcement of Proxima b.

But in not too many years we may actually discover our first Earth-like world. When that happens, we will have even more cause to celebrate, and no semantic problems at all!

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Hedgehog  

davids pix posted a photo:

Hedgehogs have been rather thin on the ground in recent years, even in our semi-rural area of Gloucestershire. Seeing one waddle acrossthe garden today in broad daylight was a surprise. When I caught him/her on camera it was evident that it was, sadly, not in good condition. Nature will no doubt take its course....

 
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Proxima b's star could be blasting away the planet's atmosphere  
We've just found a potentially habitable exoplanet nearby, but monthly violent outbursts from the star Proxima Centauri could be bad news for life  
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Outdoor Retailers Love the Arctic Refuge!  


Here we are at the Outdoor Retailer Show with Sutra the amazing motorized polar bear

I'm back from an amazing Outdoor Retailer Summer Show in Salt Lake City -- invigorated by everyone's Arctic Refuge passion found throughout the Giant Salt Palace and across the street at KEENfest! The best part of the show was the energy building for the We Are The Arctic Campaign, working side by side with our partners and our combined efforts to protect our Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, located in the northernmost corner of the state of Alaska.

Our partner organizations were doing great things at the Outdoor Retailer Show - getting attendees excited about the Arctic Refuge through presentations like OutdoorAfro Rue Mapp's plenary speech about her trip and experience in the Arctic Refuge. And, also like conservation photographer Florian Schulz's presentation, sponsored by Conservation Alliance, that brought the Arctic Refuge to life through both video and photographs - capturing truly wild places and also the essence of the Arctic Refuge. Florian said of a recent trip to Arctic Village, "Why do I do this? For me, it's because my kids will get to see this in the future...My kids were just with me in Arctic Village picking blueberries with the Gwich'in people that live off the land, live off the caribou - it was a very beautiful circle for me, doing this for future generations."

And, through the amazing energy of 27 participating partners (check out the ad) that gave away We Are The Arctic books and helped us get thousands of signed postcards asking for the strongest possible protections for the Arctic Refuge. Check out Clif Bar's beautiful postcard collection box that they made for the show. They found rocks to carry on the rocks from the photo of the Arctic Refuge on our box!

What's more, KEEN hosted Sutra the motorized polar bear in their outside adult playground also known as KEENfest. Sutra was a super friendly and photogenic Arctic Advocate. Everyone, young and old climbed on top of Sutra and shared their #WeAretheArctic post! All the KEENfest employees helped us hand out books and encouraged everyone to fill out a postcard to President Obama and to be entered into a sweepstakes for a trip to the Refuge. Drum roll: Sarah Yeakel from Keen was our winner! Congrats to Sarah.

More than 4,000 cards were filled out and more than 2,500 books have new homes. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM) posed by Sutra proudly wearing his Alaska Wilderness League hat!



Truly, the We Are The Arctic Campaign is moving full speed ahead with this momentum gained from our retail partners.

While at the show, we also spoke to many retailers about joining our letter to President Obama. More than 100 businesses have signed our letter to the president to say - now is the time to protect the Arctic Refuge once and for all!

There are many, many people and organizations that I need to thank for their energy, time and dedication to getting out the word at the show! Top of the list is the "Arctic Braintrust" who have been instrumental throughout this multi-year Arctic campaign: Conservation Alliance, Patagonia, KEEN and our very own Board members Gareth Martin and Steve Barker.

In fact, check out the amazing thank you video that we shot at the event AND check out our new amazing partner Sutra the polar bear that encouraged folks in in very un-Arctic temperatures to protect the Arctic Refuge!

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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West London Sunset  

Ronald Hackston posted a photo:

 
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Little London Eye  

Nuzulu posted a photo:

Wasn't too sure about this one, as I think the focus might be better if placed on the ring itself, or with just a little bit extra DOF.

Camera: Nikon DF
Lens: Nikkor AF-S 14-24 ƒ/2.8 @ 24mm
Exif: ƒ/11 | ISO 250 @ 1/160th sec

Comments and criticism welcome.

You can follow me further on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (Nuzulu).

 
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A familiar ruin. by David Uzochukwu  

A familiar ruin. by David Uzochukwu

It's been a while since I've been active on here! Hey to all you new faces. Self portrait for The Photographic Journal, 2015. Facebook | Website

David Uzochukwu: Photos

 
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Alyssa Hockey by Dana Clausing  

Alyssa Hockey by Dana Clausing

Daughter, ready for hockey season.

Dana Clausing: Photos

 
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2F500px.com%2Fphoto%2F169518835%2Fsugar-rush-by-antonett-ewan&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Sugar Rush by Antonett Ewan  

Sugar Rush by Antonett Ewan

Heavily influenced by my favourite photographer, Andrew B Myers

Antonett Ewan: Photos

 
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fgo.theregister.com%2Ffeed%2Fwww.theregister.co.uk%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2Fgo_forth_spitzer_to_infinity_and_beyond%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Go forth Spitzer! To infinity and....  

Telescope to enter new "Beyond" phase

NASA's trusty Spitzer Space Telescope is set to enter the next stage of its mission which has been dubbed “Beyond” in October.…

 
science  

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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fadam-m-roberts%2Fchronic-killers_b_11697110.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dgreen%26ir%3DGreen&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Chronic Killers...  
It is already a challenging start to the day when I watch the news and hear the latest details of our vapid presidential politics, the tragic flooding in Louisiana, and a literally life-shaking earthquake in Italy. But then, what scrolls across the bottom of the screen? The added horror that a pack of 11 wolves in Washington State has received a death sentence as a result of their predation on livestock.

Six adults and five pups to be killed. Challenging. Sad. Confusing. Maddening.

We humans find so many ways to kill animals, don't we? We capture them and torture them; we trap them and shoot them; we slice their throats and pierce them with arrows; and we kill them after we've experimented on them long enough. We humans find so many excuses for why we kill animals, don't we? There are too many of them; they are here for our benefit; it's sporting; it makes us money; we need to eat; we need to find cures for what ails us; and, well, they are just in our way.

It would be too easy to simply say that we should never blame predatory animals for killing prey because they are hard-wired to do so. Too easy to say that we should never kill animals for predating on livestock because it is we who encroach on their habitat. Too easy to say that we have to focus on non-lethal options and not resort to shooting from helicopters. We simply have to think harder about how to co-exist with wildlife.

It's all true.

And, beyond that, it happens everywhere. This is not a uniquely American phenomenon. Elephants trample crops in Africa. One of the reasons the ivory trade was reopened in 1997 was the carefully manufactured and presented images of deprived African children whose family farms were allegedly trodden upon by elephants. Tigers kill humans in the dense wooded havens between human communities and protected forest areas in India, especially when villagers venture into these buffer zones to collect firewood. Lions kill livestock in Kenya, resulting in gruesome retaliatory poisoning of Africa's majestic big cats.

So, we have an ever-expanding human population that rapaciously yearns for more and more habitat, and devours as much of the natural world as we can and as we "need" -- and then we react with shock and anger when there is conflict.

The lion kills the cow in Africa because the lion is occupying 8 percent of its historic range on the continent. The lion kills the cow because bushmeat hunters continue to take the lion's prey animals. The lion kills the cow because we keep moving closer and closer into the lion's habitat, exposing ourselves to -- well, lions!

Humans, however, kill because we can. It's convenient.

There is an estimated population of only 90 wolves in 19 packs in Washington State, up from just two confirmed packs in 2008. This mirrors the grey wolf's remarkable recovery in large swaths of its historic range since it was listed as an endangered species in 1978. But, the question needs to be asked: do we want wolves to completely recover in America after the crippling, deadly, historic onslaught nearly drove them to extinction? If so, removing 12 percent of Washington's population will not get us there. This is, without a doubt, a complex and challenging issue -- but I admit I seriously wrestle with the concept that we bring animals back from the brink of extinction only to have conflict that results in their wholesale slaughter.

Lethal slaughter, especially for the pups, is insane to me. Are there really no alternatives? Stronger cattle protection? Enhanced mitigation? Live-capture the pups and re-home them to a sanctuary that can provide them lifetime care in a humane setting? It's especially hard for me to think about the slaughter of wolves, who are in many ways so similar to our companion canines -- yet still so wild.

I go around and around in my head of the "whys" of killing, and it's ironic. We have ranching to raise cattle to slaughter for the human palate; wild wolves kill a handful of these cows because they are held in areas near wolf habitat; and we kill the wolves. So, the cows lose and the wolves lose. It's neither fair nor sensible. It's certainly not necessary.

I am not naive in all of this. From recent news reports, it seems that measures have been put in place to mitigate this deadly conflict. Still, I keep coming back to this concept of raising cattle near wolves, and then multiple deaths inevitably ensue. There has to be a better way.

One rancher's organization recently referred to this wolf pack as "chronic killers" of livestock and wants them removed. Really? It seems to me that humans are the chronic killers of livestock, and of wildlife, too.

It's time for a wholesale re-evaluation of the way we relate to wild animals in this country, the way we exploit animals for human indulgence, and the protection we give to all animals.

It's time to pursue chronic compassion, not chronic killing.

Keep Wildlife in the Wild,

Adam

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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We Have To Get These Girls Out  
It took us an entire day to load the elephants. Stiff resistance from the circus, hostile mobs, and agitated elephants made it nearly impossible to edge them toward the waiting trucks, let alone get them to climb in. The circus dogs and horses had long since been loaded onto their vehicles and were well on their way to rescue centers in the state, but the elephants -- shackled by heavy chains and blocked and antagonized by an ever-growing angry crowd of circus folk -- were proving much more difficult.



We weren't leaving without them. There was a near-stampede, multiple confrontations, a smashed truck, and a full night of camping outside the circus (if the circus didn't get us, we thought the mosquitoes would) with a horde of riot police. But we were still there the next morning, directing in a new lot of trucks and building a new ramp to load the girls. None of us could remember the last time we'd eaten, but we weren't really thinking about it. We have to get these girls out.

And so we did. After a lifetime in the circus, laboring under terrible conditions of abuse and neglect, four elephants named Goldie, Sylvie, Ruby, and Pearl found themselves travelling in a pair of trucks to a temporary transit facility in Pune.

During transit, a care and management plan was drawn up and implemented. A large shade shelter was set up; a pond was dug and filled with water; and orders were placed for a range of healthy, nutritious foods for the new girls. Our Wildlife SOS veterinarians pre-ordered de-worming tablets and nutritional supplements to be administered as soon as the girls were in our care and comfortable. Feeding and treatment registers were started to keep a record of their care and management.

A government veterinarian was called in to assess the elephants' health, and confirmed via four detailed health reports the truly depressing condition of these four beautiful animals. Our vets were eager to get started on treatment and get these elephants on the road to recovery.

Initially a little nervous about the new environment, the girls settled down quickly, their curiosity driving them to explore the area. They tried out their new pond and took naps in the shade of their shed. Trees fascinated them, and baths meant gleeful spraying of water on everyone -- drenched T-shirts and thrilled faces all around. They gorged on the fresh fruit and vegetables that arrived every day with their fodder. And because special fruit treats like mangoes made the veterinary treatment possible, the girls began getting medicated foot-soaks for their debilitated feet, and disinfection and treatment for the wounds and scars they'd incurred over their years in captivity.



For a little over a month, the elephants lived in our care, with access to fresh food, water, shade, and veterinary treatment -- as well as the freedom to interact with each other and behave normally, never forced to do anything that hurt them or didn't come naturally. We watched them constantly, awed by their personalities, slowly learning their personal characteristics and preferences, falling in love with these amazing animals that were now so much part of our family. At night, when the keepers got into bed, the four girls would lie down and sleep -- a luxury the short chains at the circus would never have allowed them -- their soft rumblings reassuring us that they were finally comfortable enough around us to let their guard down.

But just as the elephants settled into their new lives, the circus challenged our rescue in court, seeking custody of them and the other animals. In response, we provided the court with health reports and statements that detailed the detrimental conditions the four had been made to live in, the unnatural and uncomfortable acts they had been made to perform, and the awful physical and mental condition it had all left them in. We also made the court aware that the circus had been forcing these elephants to perform illegally, and had been violating several guidelines and orders of the authorities.

Yet, in an astonishing decision, the court granted custody back to the circus, ordering all four elephants back to their previous owners. The court based this decision on a procedural flaw committed by the enforcement authorities prior to the elephants' confiscation, and chose to ignore all evidence of cruelty and mismanagement put forward by those with the animals' best interests at heart. Disregarding Goldie's advanced age and blindness, Ruby's painfully neglected feet, Pearl's incessant stereotyping (i.e., behavior indicative of intense mental and psychological stress), and the scars left by chains on the backs of Sylvie's legs, these four girls were handed right back to the circus -- a setback not just for the girl's recovery and our work, but for progress of animal welfare in the country.

What followed was a nearly nine-hour standoff with a hostile mob from the circus. We found our hearts breaking as Ruby, Pearl, Goldie, and Sylvie were dragged back to the very place from which they'd been rescued. We are still shocked and still reeling from the loss, but we are seeking legal recourse, and we've also launched a petition to garner support for the elephants, educate the public about the cruelty inflicted on performing animals, and emphasize to the authorities how essential it is that these elephants be granted the freedom they need and deserve. There's a huge hole in our lives now; their feeding and treatment registers lie half-empty; their happiness and indeed their very lives are at stake. We have to get these girls out.

A link to the petition can be found here.

Please sign it, share it, and use your voice to say that after all these years of suffering, it is only right that the girls be given the freedom, care, and life they deserve -- which they got a brief, all-too-fleeting taste of just after their rescue.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Italy to test earthquake predictor to reduce deaths and damage  
A national earthquake forecasting system combined with data on building vulnerability may help communicate risk of shocks happening but uncertainties remain  
gaia  

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http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/space-station-view-of-grand-canyon-national-park  
Space Station View of Grand Canyon National Park  
To celebrate the centennial of the U.S National Park Service, Expedition 48 Commander Jeff Williams of NASA has taken hundreds of images of national parks from his vantage point in low Earth orbit, aboard the International Space Station. Here, a series of Williams' photographs are assembled into this composite image of the Grand Canyon.  
astronomy  

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How To Get A First Class Upgrade Every Time  
Even if you're a frequent flier, you can no longer rely on a free first class upgrade. But you can beat the system. Here's how.  
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Nathan Watson in Black Light by Markus Berger  

Nathan Watson in Black Light by Markus Berger

Nathan Watson in Black Light

Markus Berger: Photos

 
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2F500px.com%2Fphoto%2F169516897%2Fbrighton-beach-by-jon-stockford&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Brighton Beach by Jon Stockford  

Brighton Beach by Jon Stockford

New York, 2016

Jon Stockford: Photos

 
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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2F500px.com%2Fphoto%2F169514525%2Fsweet-little-soul-by-lizzy-gadd&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Sweet Little Soul by Lizzy Gadd  

Sweet Little Soul by Lizzy Gadd

A refreshing throwback to this moment a couple winters ago. I can feel tingles of excitement creeping up on me as my very favourite fall and winter seasons are slowly approaching... but first, gotta enjoy every last drop of summer. :)

Lizzy Gadd: Photos

 
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ADAM / A(ffordable) D(ream) A(bout) M(ankind) by Dan Susa  

ADAM / A(ffordable) D(ream) A(bout) M(ankind) by Dan Susa

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Dan Susa: Photos

 
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Interactive Globe: How Germans Travel  
What are Germans' top travel destinations? And what countries spend the most money on their vacation trips? Test your knowledge with our interactive globe.  
general  

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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Flindahall.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F149507385520&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Antoine Lavoisier Scientist of the Day Antoine Lavoisier, a...  

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:Labo-Lavoisier-IMG_0501.jpg




http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/436106


http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/earththeory/id/20056

Antoine Lavoisier Scientist of the Day

Antoine Lavoisier, a French chemist, was born Aug. 26, 1743.

read more…

 
science  

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https://www.pinterest.com/pin/354095589436084299/  
Limoniid crane fly (  

Limoniid crane fly (Molophilus pubipennis) collected in Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Nova Scotia, Canada, and photographed at the Centre for Biodiversity Genomics (sample ID: BIOUG10516-C10; specimen record: http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Public_RecordView?processid=CNBRG271-14; BIN: http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Public_BarcodeCluster?clusteruri=BOLD:ACA9620)

 
pin-gaia  

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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160825102322.htm  
Unexpected trove of gas discovered around larger stars  
Astronomers using ALMA surveyed dozens of young stars -- some Sun-like and others approximately double that size -- and discovered that the larger variety have surprisingly rich reservoirs of carbon monoxide gas in their debris disks. In contrast, the lower-mass, Sun-like stars have debris disks that are virtually gas-free.  
astronomy  

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http://thenextweb.com/apple/2016/08/26/apple-could-add-tap-to-pay-support-to-iphone-7-in-japan-but-its-not-nfc/  
Apple could add tap-to-pay support to iPhone 7 in Japan, but it's not NFC  

Apple might be looking to introduce a new tap-to-pay feature to its upcoming line of iPhones exclusively for customers living in Japan, Bloomberg reports. Instead of using NFC  similarly to its Apple Pay service in North America, Europe and Australia the iPhone maker will opt for a Sony-built technology called FeliCa that currently dominates the mobile tap-to-pay market in Japan. With this move, Apple is looking to offer customers in Japan a quick and easy way of using their iPhones for public transport payments. The feature will also be widely supported at various vending machines, convenient stores and retailers across the country. Ditching NFC in favor of FeliCa makes sense.…

This story continues at The Next Web  
technology  

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http://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/08/26/stanford-speech-recognition-study-suggests-you-should-try-using-dictation-apps-more-often/  
Stanford speech recognition study suggests you should give dictation apps a chance  

Even though voice recognition is now available on more apps and devices than ever, I rarely find myself using the feature to dictate text or issue commands. I've certainly noticed improvements in the past few years, but it can still be awkward and inaccurate. A new study conducted by researchers at Stanford University, the University of Washington and Chinese search firm Baidu suggests that I should probably try it more often. According to the paper (PDF), which was published earlier this week, speech recognition tools have been found to be three times faster than typing for English and Mandarin text…

This story continues at The Next Web  
technology  

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http://thenextweb.com/apple/2016/08/26/apple-issues-critical-update-to-thwart-pegasus-malware/  
Apple issues critical iOS update to thwart ‘Pegasus' malware  

Security researchers have identified a three-headed monster that could be used to record sounds, collect passwords, read text messages, record calls and track users. All iOS versions 9.3.4 and below are vulnerable. The attack utilizes a mobile spyware product, ‘Pegasus,' created by NSO Group — an Israeli cyber warfare company — designed to attack high-value targets. Using one of three known iOS 9.3.4 security vulnerabilities — dubbed ‘Trident' — the exploit is capable of hijacking an iPhone or iPad with a single click. According to Mike Murray, VP of Security Research and Response at cyber security firm Lookout: The Trident vulnerability chain is the first…

This story continues at The Next Web  
technology  

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http://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/08/26/dominos-is-now-testing-a-drone-delivery-program-that-drops-pizza-from-the-heavens/  
Domino's is now testing a drone delivery program that drops pizza from the heavens  

Joining a growing list of companies that aspire to deliver consumer products by drone, Domino's today launched its commercial drone delivery service in New Zealand. The project is a partnership between Domino's and Flirtey — a drone delivery startup — and it's set to launch later this year in test markets. Not every pizza will be delivered by drone, however. Domino's is committed to testing the service alongside traditional deliveries via car or scooter, at least for now. Not all menu items will be eligible for drone delivery and those that are will only be delivered by sky if they'll decrease…

This story continues at The Next Web  
technology  

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http://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/08/25/assange-wikileaks-will-reveal-thousands-clinton-documents-election/  
Assange: WikiLeaks will reveal ‘thousands' more Clinton documents before the election  

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange promised he's not done leaking information that could be damaging to Hillary Clinton. During an interview yesterday with Fox's Megyn Kelly he said the documents would be “significant” in perhaps turning the tide of the 2016 election by giving voters a better understanding who they're electing. According to Assange: We have a lot of pages of material, thousands of pages of material. I don't want to give the game away, but it's a variety of different types of documents from different institutions that are associated with the election campaign. There are some unexpected angles that are…

This story continues at The Next Web  
technology  

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http://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/08/25/ex-pornstar-just-dropped-a-ridiculous-lawsuit-on-facebooks-doorstep/  
Ex-pornstar just dropped a ridiculous lawsuit on Facebook's doorstep  

A former pornstar, Paree La'Tiejira (aka Lady Paree) is suing Facebook after alleging founder Mark Zuckerberg and Co. conspired to ruin her porn career. In the suit, Paree claims Zuckerberg did nothing to stop the rumor that she was born a man from spreading on Facebook, thus ending her ability to find work. After receiving death threats on the platform and trying fruitlessly to stop the rumor mill, Paree is seeking $1 billion in federal court, accusing the social media site and its CEO of libel and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Paree has a history of this sort of behavior. In 2009…

This story continues at The Next Web  
technology  

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http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2016/08/25/bombarding-pc-malware-adware/  
This is what happens if you bombard a PC with malware and adware  

This is something we don't have to tell our readers, but it's recommended for everyone — especially those with a Windows PC — to have a virus scanner installed. Luckily the world isn't devoid of heroes just yet. Every so often, security researcher Andrew Brandt gets one of his testbed computers and throws as much malware and adware on it as he can get his hands on. The tweetstorm he put on his account explains the different things the mass of horrible software on his computer is doing to it. Among other things, the software secretly installed a bitcoin miner…

This story continues at The Next Web  
technology  

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http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2016/08/25/twitters-new-message-button-lets-people-dm-site/  
Twitter's new Message button lets people DM you from your site  

Twitter has launched a new embeddable button that you can place on your site to allow visitors to send you a direct message negating the need for them to first visit your profile or look up your handle on the social network. That should make it easier for businesses to offer another channel for customer support, and for public figures to accept private messages from their fans with less friction than before. Announcing our new Message button. Now people can easily slide into your DMs from your website. Get yours now! https://t.co/ash9ouvgzu — TwitterDev (@TwitterDev) August 24, 2016 To…

This story continues at The Next Web  
technology  

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http://99u.com/videos/54280/tristan-walker-dont-overthink-your-world-changing-idea/  
Tristan Walker: Don't Overthink Your World-Changing Idea  

Walker & Co. Founder and CEO, Tristan Walker didn't always see himself trying to build a health and beauty products company. In fact, he tried to cure childhood obesity, start a bank, and build a freight truck fixing company first, which were very big, very complicated ventures he knew little about before he created Bevel, that directly related to a familiar problem. However, when it came time for investments, he received more “no's” than he thought possible, but managed to push himself even harder. “I knew it wasn't a bad idea because I felt no one could work this thing better than we could,” Walker says. 

In this interview, Walker takes us through the journey of starting his company, shares how he overcame his toughest trials, and why hiring the same kind of people may even be a good thing. 

Walker is Founder and CEO of Walker & Co. Brands, a company that makes health and beauty simple for people of color. Its flagship brand, Bevel, is the first and only shaving system clinically proven to reduce and prevent razor bumps and irritation. Tristan is also the Founder and Chairman of CODE2040, a program that matches high performing black and latino undergraduate and graduate coders and software engineering students with Silicon Valley start-ups for summer internships.

Walker & Co

Bevel

@tristanwalker

 
culture  

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http://www.designboom.com/art/luzinterruptus-interactive-rain-canopy-taiwan-2500-illuminated-condoms-08-26-2016/  
luzinterruptus forms interactive rain canopy in taiwan with 2,500 illuminated condoms  

the anonymous artistic group has suspended 2,500 illuminated condoms from a structural grid, forming large, luminous 'droplets' that surround visitors.

The post luzinterruptus forms interactive rain canopy in taiwan with 2,500 illuminated condoms appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

 
art  

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http://www.designboom.com/art/peace-inflatable-sculpture-slow-studio-designboom-08-26-2016/  
peace negates violence in inflatable sculpture by slow studio  

a narrow vertical opening breaks beyond the violent exterior, allowing entrance into the womb-like interior, a place of comfort, tranquility, and peace.

The post peace negates violence in inflatable sculpture by slow studio appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

 
art  

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http://www.designboom.com/art/mosaic-sushi-japanese-food-instagram-trend-08-26-2016/  
mosaic sushi culinary craze turns japanese meals into artistic arrangements  

various ingredients from cucumbers to corn comprise colorful displays of carefully-cut pieces, forming an entirely edible artwork.

The post mosaic sushi culinary craze turns japanese meals into artistic arrangements appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

 
art  

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http://heptagram.co/post/149486207223  
respectabledenofiniquity: A submerged statue of the Hindu Lord...  

respectabledenofiniquity:

A submerged statue of the Hindu Lord Shiva stands amid the flooded waters of river Ganges at Rishikesh in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, India, June 17, 2013.

Photo: Reuters

I remember being in Uttarakhand when this happened… Absolutely terrifying.

 
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http://heptagram.co/post/149481595138  
Photo  


 
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http://www.designboom.com/art/solar-powered-pipe-2016-land-art-generator-initiative-khalili-engineers-08-25-2016/  
solar-powered ‘pipe' sculpture generates 4.5 billion liters of drinkable water from the ocean  

khalili engineers' proposal for the 2016 land art generator initiative could generate billions of liters of drinking water for santa monica.

The post solar-powered ‘pipe' sculpture generates 4.5 billion liters of drinkable water from the ocean appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

 
art  

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http://www.designboom.com/art/zuk-club-skatepark-moscow-tuborg-festival-08-25-2016/  
zuk club paints skatepark in moscow with giant op-art graphic  

the vibrant and dynamic graphic spans the sports area with an op-art-themed print that blends patterns and illustration.

The post zuk club paints skatepark in moscow with giant op-art graphic appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

 
art  

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https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2016/aug/25/grimm-fairytales-the-singing-bones-by-shaun-tan-sculptures-in-pictures  
Grimm fairytales you can touch: The Singing Bones by Shaun Tan in pictures  

Writer-illustrator Shaun Tan turned sculptor for his new book, The Singing Bones, which collects images of the 75 miniature tableaux he made of the Brothers Grimm's immortal collection of dark, disturbing fairytales

• Bloodbaths and bad dreams: Shaun Tan's fairytale sculptures

Continue reading...  
art  

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https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/aug/25/bloodbaths-and-bad-dreams-shaun-tans-fairytale-sculptures  
Bloodbaths and bad dreams: Shaun Tan's fairytale sculptures  

The writer-illustrator made his name with dark, unsettling picture books such as The Rabbits. Now he's swapped his pencil for clay to make miniature nightmares based on the stories of the Brothers Grimm

Two centuries and a world apart, the Brothers Grimm and Shaun Tan share an ability to confound those who attempt to categorise them. When the German Grimm siblings released the first edition of their tales in 1812, it was under the name Kinder-und Hausmärchen, or Children's and Household Tales, a title that belied the incest, infanticide and cannibalism found within. It didn't sell. Even after they spent 45 years making increasingly child-friendly revisions over seven editions, their tales of princesses and princes, step-mothers and witches remained controversial; after the second world war, allied forces briefly banned the publication of the Grimm tales in Germany, believing that their violence and nationalism had fuelled Nazi savagery, while around the same time, Disney was hijacking them for saccharine retellings of Cinderella (featuring less eye-plucking) and Snow White (less death by dancing).

Tan also ostensibly writes books for children, but has a history of confusing adults with his surreal, often political picture books. The Australian artist quickly became famous for his intricately illustrated and laconic stories. He picked at the scabs of Australian history in books including The Rabbits (1998), a surreal allegory about colonisation, and The Arrival (2006), an entirely wordless graphic novel about refugees, and he pulled apart mental illness and depression in picture book The Red Tree (2001). Tan was dismissed by some on Australia's right for producing “politically correct propaganda”; for those who loved him, the greatest criticism could be that his books “would almost rather be looked at than read”, as the New York Times once wrote.

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https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/aug/25/spacecraft-makes-contact-after-months-silence-spacewatch  
Lost Nasa spacecraft breaks silence after 22 months  

Persistence pays off after messages finally get through to drifting solar observatory

A lost Nasa spacecraft “phoned home” after 22 months of silence this week. Stereo-B (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) is a twin to Stereo-A, and together they have been studying the Sun since 2006.

Although planned to last just two years, the mission had been working so well that ground controllers and scientists kept the spacecraft going. The data returned has given unprecedented insights into solar storms, which can threaten the electrical systems of satellites around Earth.

Related: Esa's Solar Orbiter mission passes crucial milestone

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March 2015 Solar Eclipse  

NASA Goddard Photo and Video posted a photo:

Within the penumbra, the eclipse is partial (left), but within the umbra, the Moon completely covers the Sun (right).

 
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ESO's Discovery of 'Mystery Planet' Orbiting Nearby Star Proxima Centauri --"Could Prove to Be Twice the Age of Earth and Harbor Intelligent Life"  
 
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Obscure Cosmic Radio Phenomenon --"May Unveil Unexplained Existence of Dark Matter"  
 
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Sand pattern made by  
Sand pattern made by a pufferfish near Amami Ōshima, Kagoshima, Japan (© Yoji Okata/Minden Pictures) 2016-08-26 [www.bing.com/search]  
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Daily Dozen — Photos  
Daily Dozen — Photos -- National Geographic Your Shot  
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Daily Dozen — Photos  
Daily Dozen — Photos -- National Geographic Your Shot  
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Daily Design Inspira  
Daily Design Inspiration | Abduzeedo  
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Great Sand Dunes Nat  
Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, Colorado (© Ian Shive/Tandem Stills + Motion) 2016-08-25 [www.bing.com/search]  
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http://www.notimpossiblenow.com/the-latest/robotsintheworkplace  
Robots in the Workplace The Role of Robotics and AI  
Robots and artificial intelligence (AI) will soon be coming to a workplace near you, and people have mixed feelings about it.The World Economic Forum (WEF) says technologies that blur “the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres” are ushering in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. ...

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Introducing Shaper Origin, the worlds first handheld CNC  

Introducing Shaper Origin, the worlds first handheld CNC

 
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A New Regime for the High Seas  
©TrevorScouten/WildscreenExchange

Late last year, nearly 200 nations came together in Paris to reach a critical global climate agreement. The Paris climate agreement demonstrated that the international community can come together and successfully tackle a grave environmental problem of global scope.

It is now time for the international community to act on another grave global problem - the increasing degradation of the world's oceans.

Most people don't realize that managing almost two thirds of the globe's oceans requires international cooperation. This area of international waters is known as the "high seas." The high seas cover nearly half the surface of the planet and support fisheries and other resources of enormous importance to humanity.

This global commons is out of sight and out of mind, and we have collectively proven to be poor stewards of it. Declining fish stocks, rampant pollution, massive gyres of plastic waste, and species of whales and other sea life facing serious threats, are proof of our neglect.

Our dismal record of stewardship is in part due to the outdated international legal regime governing activities in oceans beyond our national borders. The high seas lack basic modern management tools the U.S. and other countries have deployed in our own waters for many decades. They include fully protected "marine parks," where we allow ocean life to thrive, undisturbed by industrial fishing, mining and other industrial activity. And uniform rules on how to assess and manage human activities in the ocean to prevent significant damage. Tools like these can go far to making our beleaguered seas more resilient.

Next week, the United Nations will resume negotiating a new treaty aimed at overhauling the antiquated high seas legal regime. Key issues under discussion include the scope of the new treaty and the timing of negotiations. Some nations prefer the status quo, with few restrictions on activities in international waters. They will likely try to stall the process, or exempt key big industries like fishing.

We can't let them succeed.

The climate agreement reached in Paris last December will start to bend the curve of a trajectory that was heading us toward climate disaster.

We can bend the curve heading toward disaster for our oceans as well. But we need collective international action to forge a strong agreement that requires large scale fully protected marine reserves, assessment and management of damaging human activities, and other modern management tools to address the increasing depletion, pollution and degradation of our ocean.

The oceans, and all of us, depend on the success of this endeavor. There isn't a moment to lose.

This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post in partnership with Ocean Unite, an initiative to unite and activate powerful voices for ocean-conservation action. The series is being produced to coincide with the UN's Preparatory Committee Meeting (Aug 26-Sept 9) on an internal legally binding instrument on marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction and is a part of HuffPost's "What's Working" initiative, putting a spotlight on initiatives around the world that are solutions oriented. To read all the posts in the series, read here.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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What is the point of raising a child?  

The standard ways of thinking about morality don't apply well to parenthood

Why is taking care of children worthwhile? It's hard work, badly paid if paid at all, and full of uncertainty, guilt and heavy lifting. And yet, at least to most of us, it seems like an absolutely fundamental, profoundly valuable project. If you asked most parents about their deepest moral commitments, and most agonising moral dilemmas, about what gives their lives meaning, they would talk about their children. But caring for a child is very different from any other human relationship, and the standard ways of thinking about morality and meaning don't apply very well to being a parent.

Caring for children is deeply paradoxical. There's a profound tension between dependence and independence. Parents and other caregivers must take complete responsibility for that most utterly dependent of creatures, the human baby. But they must also transform that utterly dependent creature into a completely independent and autonomous adult. We start out feeding and changing and physically holding our children most of the day, and doing all this with surprising satisfaction and even happiness. We end up, if we're lucky, with the occasional affectionate text message from a distant city. A marriage or friendship that was like that would be peculiar, if not downright pathological.

We feel the welfare of our children is more important than any­thing else, even that of other children or our happiness

People can care deeply for their own children, but be relatively indifferent to children in general

Related: The Gardener and the Carpenter by Alison Gopnik review modern parenting is all wrong

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Any Time  

Nigel Morton posted a photo:

The edge of Queens Wood in north London. It's just a ten minute walk from my home. When I'm suffering from PWS* it's good to be close to a place that I can explore at the drop of a hat. Living so close to the centre of town it's something I'm very fortunate to have.

Thanks for looking.

*Photography Withdrawal Symptoms

 
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Planned Parenthood Joins Campaign To Rid Miami Neighborhoods Of Zika  

The organization is going door to door in some of the city's poorest neighborhoods. The goal: Reach 25,000 households in six weeks with information about Zika prevention and family planning services.

 
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Sunset at the Common. #uk #london #Wimbledon #wimbledoncommon #sunset #colours #dogs #dogslover #sky #summer #canon #instagood #photography #love  

Matias Serrano Redonnet posted a photo:

 
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Robot babies fail in role as teenage sex deterrents  

'Infant simulators' that cry and go Code Brown don't stop girls from having actual kids

Robot babies have been found to be an ineffective educational tool for those hoping to prevent teenaged pregnancies.…

 
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Proxima b  

Full Text:

An international team of astronomers has found clear evidence of a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri. The new world, designated Proxima b, orbits its parent star every 11 days and has a temperature suitable for liquid water to exist on its surface, if it were present. This artist's impression shows a view of the surface of the planet Proxima b orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the solar system. The double star Alpha Centauri AB also appears in the image to the upper-right of Proxima b itself. Proxima b is a little more massive than the Earth and orbits in the habitable zone around Proxima Centauri, where the temperature is suitable for liquid water to exist on its surface.

Image credit: Image is courtesy of ESO/M. Kornmesser

 
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Towers In The Mist III  

www.paulshearsphotography.com posted a photo:

All pictures in my photostream are Copyrighted © Paul Shears All Rights Reserved

Best seen on black, so hit the "L" key

The Citi tower and HSBC tower to the left with the Barclays and a small part of 25 Churchill Place towers sitting high above the fog as the suns light washes over the horizon.

Equipment:
. Canon EOS 6D
. Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM
. Lenskirt

Exposure:
. Handheld
. 16mm @ f/8 ISO 400 & 1/40 Second

 
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Sun Struck HMS Belfast  

Nuzulu posted a photo:

As the sun went down after a glorious day in London, i caught this shot from Tower Bridge as the last light lit the side of the HMS Belfast.

Camera: Nikon DF
Lens: Nikkor 85mm ƒ/1.8 AF-S
Exif: ƒ/11 | ISO 100 @ 1/250th sec

Comments and criticism welcome.

You can follow me further on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (Nuzulugram).

 
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The first autonomous, entirely soft robot  

Full Text:

A team of Harvard University researchers with expertise in 3-D printing, mechanical engineering, and microfluidics has demonstrated the first autonomous, untethered, entirely soft robot. This small, 3-D-printed robot -- nicknamed the octobot -- could pave the way for a new generation of completely soft, autonomous machines. Soft robotics could revolutionize how humans interact with machines. But researchers have struggled to build entirely compliant robots. Electric power and control systems -- such as batteries and circuit boards -- are rigid and until now, soft-bodied robots have been either tethered to an off-board system or rigged with hard components.

Image credit: Lori Sanders, Ryan Truby, Michael Wehner, Robert Wood and Jennifer Lewis/Harvard University

 
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I fart in your general direction! Comet 67P lets rip on Europe's Rosetta probe  

Your mother was a punch card reader and your father smelt of static C libraries

Pic Scientists at the European Space Agency (ESA) got lucky when the Rosetta probe, currently orbiting Comet 67P, picked up a massive outgassing from the frozen body.…

 
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http://twitter.com/TravelVentureFR/status/769060521777725440 
@crocfarmbiosphe Thanks for following. Great work you do protecting #endangered #endemic #species #fauna #flora #Madagascar. @CITES @WWF 
http://ifttt.com/missing_link?1472193525 

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Juno probe to graze Jupiter on Saturday  

Closest encounter with gas giant will see craft close to just 4,200km from cloud-tops

Strap in for a bumpy ride, Earthlings: the Juno probe will make its closest approach to Jupiter on Saturday when it comes within just 4,200km of the gas giant's uppermost clouds.…

 
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The Atheist Bringing God to the Streets  
Born to a family of comic book illustrators, this artist was always going to create things. But he's transcended the limitations of mere books.  
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How The Private Prison Industry Is Adjusting To Its Extinct ion  
They've highjacked the language of reform — but for them, it's still business as usual.  
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'Green News Report' - August 25, 2016  
The Green News Report is also available via...





IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: More than 300 dead, 6 million displaced by flooding in India; President Obama pledges Louisiana flood victims will not be forgotten; Very bad news for wolves in Washington state; PLUS: Celebrating the 100th birthday of the National Park Service... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Listen online here, or Download MP3 (6 mins)...

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Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Standing Rock Sioux Chairman: Dakota Access Pipeline "Is Threatening the Lives of My Tribe"; Texas Vowed 34 Years Ago to Track Oilfield Waste in Aquifers. It Didn't; EPA: North Texas Earthquakes Likely Linked to Oil and Gas Drilling; Ex-FERC Commissioner's Rulings Favored Companies His Wife Lobbied For... PLUS: Most Cities Too Hot to Host Summer Olympics by 2085... and much, MUCH more! ...

'Green News Report' is heard on many fine radio stations around the country. For additional info on stories we covered today, plus today's 'Green News Extra', please click right here to listen!

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Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen: 'Green News Report' - August 25, 2016  
The Green News Report is also available via...

IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: More than 300 dead, 6 million displaced by flooding in India; President O...

Read more: Barack Obama, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Climate Change Denial, Energy, Environment, Extreme Weather, Floods, Fossil Fuels, Global Warming, Global Warming Deniers, Green, Green News, Green News Report, Native Americans, Renewable Energy, Video, North Dakota, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Pipeline, Oil Spill, India, Louisiana, Fema, National Parks, National Park Service, Public Lands, Wolves, Washington State, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Drilling, National Security, Montana, Yellowstone, Green News

 
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Next Stop.....  

rapacinho5 posted a photo:

 
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Sunsets in the city  

Life of a Sultana posted a photo:

 
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Sunsets in the city  

Life of a Sultana posted a photo:

 
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Dairy Industry Suckles From Federal Teat  
Imagine the following CNN headline: "Government Buys $20 Million in Surplus Pepsi as Demand Plummets." The fictional article informs readers that tax dollars will soon be buying millions of unwanted cola cans, all as a favor to the flailing soda industry, which just kept producing drinks no one wanted.

As outrageous as such a government handout to the soda industry would be, that's exactly what the U.S. Department of Agriculture is doing for the industrial dairy industry. As CNN reports, "sluggish demand and shifting consumption habits have helped to create the huge cheese reserve, pushing the surplus to a 30-year high." And as a result, at the request of the dairy industry, an industry dominated by factory farmers, our government's buying up $20 million of the unwanted cheese with taxpayer dollars.

Given our multi-trillion dollar national debt, $20 million may not be the biggest chunk of cheese, but put into bigger context, it's just the latest example the federal government bailing out animal agribusiness at the expense of the American tax payer.

People just aren't consuming as much dairy as the industry is producing, and rather than allowing typical supply-and-demand economics to work in the market, the USDA is using taxpayer dollars to prop up the dairy industry. That's right: though you didn't want to spend your money on cheese, the government's using it to do just that anyway.

In fact, milk consumption has been declining for years in the US, while consumption of dairy alternatives like soy and almond milk is rapidly growing.

And the dairy industry isn't alone. Whether it's the pork industry's constant clamor for well, federal pork, or the chicken industry's truly foul dependence on government purchases of its surplus meat, the trend is clear. The USDA views itself as an integral player in the market, helping to prop up industries that rely primarily on factory farming even when customers aren't buying as much as they're producing.

It's these same factory farmers and big agribusiness companies that are often the first to protest any federal involvement in their business. Whether on environmental protections, animal welfare rules or food safety regulations -- their mantra is typically libertarian. But as soon as they irresponsibly produce more than their customers want, their professed love for libertarianism is abandoned in favor of stark socialism. At that point, they come to Uncle Sam with outstretched arms and cupped palms, seeking to defy the normal laws of economics that other businesses must navigate, such as a decrease in product demand.

There may indeed be times when federal intervention to save an industry might be warranted. Consider for example the auto industry bailout of 2009. But when the auto industry got its federal bailout, serious strings were attached, like improving fuel efficiency and eliminating corporate jet budgets. And of course, importantly, they had to pay the money back. But when the government subsidizes dairy producers, for some reason they don't have to pay taxpayers back, nor promise reforms of any kind.

It's quite the sweet -- or in the case of cheese, fatty -- deal.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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A mammoth undertaking: Can de-extinction be ecologically responsible?  
Can the woolly mammoth be brought back from the dead? Scientists say it's only a matter of time. A conservation ecologist and colleagues have examined ecologically responsible de-extinction, and what it means for science.  
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IMG_7416  

Hi Eric! posted a photo:

 
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New Virus Breaks The Rules Of Infection  

A virus is generally like a little ball with a few genes. Now scientists have found one that's broken up into five little balls — as if it were dismembered.

 
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Can Biotech Companies Save The Rhinos?  
To help stem the tide of rhino poaching, some biotech companies such as Pembient are seeking to develop and manufacture synthetic horns that are biologically identical to the real thing. The thinking behind this is that the availability of bio-identical fake horns at a substantially lower price than wild horns would cause demand to shift towards the synthetic substitutes, which would reduce people's incentives to poach rhinos.

I have argued previously that--from the perspective of what would be most effective in curbing poaching--the synthetic horns should not be made to be perfect fakes, i.e., bio-identical. Instead, the synthetic horns should be engineered to be (i) difficult to distinguish from wild horns but (ii) undesirable or unappealing in some respect so that buyers would place little value on them. This proposal makes use of a phenomenon in economics known as adverse selection, which occurs when buyers in a market are unable to distinguish between high- and low-quality products, and their lack of information drives down demand--and, hence, prices--enough that high-quality products (which would be wild horns in the context of rhino horns) cease to be supplied by sellers.

For conservationists and others who are concerned about the fate of the rhinos, it is critical to understand why biotech companies would prefer making bio-identical synthetic horns--rather than undesirable fakes--because of the implications this has for conservation policies. Simply put, it would be more profitable to produce and sell perfect fakes rather than synthetic horns that would be considered undesirable. All else being equal, putting out undesirable fakes that buyers cannot distinguish from the real ones, by reducing demand for horns, would lead to lower prices in the horn market compared to the case with bio-identical synthetic horns. This, of course, would generate less revenue for the producers of synthetic horns.

Proponents of making perfect fakes could argue that bio-identical synthetics would be no less effective than undesirable fakes in bringing about adverse selection in the horn market and driving out sellers of wild horns. This is true if buyers view bio-identical synthetic horns to be significantly inferior to wild horns. However, as reported in The Guardian last year, Pembient's market research in Vietnam--one of the biggest markets for rhino horn trading--found that nearly half of the survey respondents who consume rhino horn for medicinal purposes would consider bio-identical synthetic horns to be suitable substitutes for wild horns. Moreover, a co-founder of Pembient suggested in the same article that perfect fakes could actually be better than wild horns due to their lack of contaminants. Therefore, bio-identical synthetic horns may not be undesirable or unappealing enough to drive out wild horn suppliers through adverse selection. In fact, if buyers consider perfect fakes to be more desirable than wild horns, the availability of synthetic horns could actually encourage more rhino poaching by driving up horn prices.

Advocates of making perfect fakes could also point out that--even if buyers do not consider bio-identical synthetics to be substantially inferior to wild horns--as long as there are enough bio-identical synthetic horns in the market, horn prices would be driven down to the point where wild horn sellers would be forced from the market. A rigorous theoretical analysis of this issue shows that it is not necessarily in the financial interest of synthetic horn producers to drive out all wild horn sellers; instead, they may prefer to prop up horn prices by keeping the production of synthetic horns at a relatively low level.

Rhino poaching numbers are climbing, and rising income levels in China and Southeast Asia--where demand for rhino horns is strongest--will almost certainly make matters worse in the near future if no significant changes occur. Economic principles tell us the availability of synthetic horns can decrease the supply of wild horns and reduce the amount of poaching. Since the development of undesirable fake horns or flooding the market with perfect fakes is incongruent with the profit motive, the real issue is just how big the effect of synthetic horns on poaching would be if the companies developing them are interested in profiting off of their products.

What policies can governments or conservation groups implement to ensure that the impact on poaching numbers is maximized when the biotech industry is ready to roll out bio-identical substitutes? To drive out wild horn suppliers using synthetic horns, the key would be to depress horn prices sufficiently. Here are a few suggestions for doing that. One is to subsidize the companies that produce synthetic horns--this would incentivize them to increase production and thereby drive down prices. Another option is to promote competition on the production side of synthetic horns. Financial incentives or policies that encourage more firms to enter the synthetic horn market would also put downward pressure on prices by raising the market supply. A third possibility is to make it easier or less costly for a non-profit organization to invest in or acquire the technology for producing synthetic horns since the non-profit entity could try to shut down the rhino horn market through adverse selection by making undesirable fakes.

The science and technology to produce high quality synthetic horns are within our grasp. Let us not, however, assume that the biotech companies with these capabilities, in pursuit of their own interests, would necessarily solve the rhino poaching problem. Let us keep in mind that steps may need to be taken to structure the market for rhino horns so as to fully realize the potential of synthetic horns to save the rhinos.

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Can Biotech Companies Save The Rhinos?  
To help stem the tide of rhino poaching, some biotech companies such as Pembient are seeking to develop and manufacture synthetic horns that are biologically identical to the real thing. The thinking behind this is that the availability of bio-identical fake horns at a substantially lower price than wild horns would cause demand to shift towards the synthetic substitutes, which would reduce people's incentives to poach rhinos.

I have argued previously that--from the perspective of what would be most effective in curbing poaching--the synthetic horns should not be made to be perfect fakes, i.e., bio-identical. Instead, the synthetic horns should be engineered to be (i) difficult to distinguish from wild horns but (ii) undesirable or unappealing in some respect so that buyers would place little value on them. This proposal makes use of a phenomenon in economics known as adverse selection, which occurs when buyers in a market are unable to distinguish between high- and low-quality products, and their lack of information drives down demand--and, hence, prices--enough that high-quality products (which would be wild horns in the context of rhino horns) cease to be supplied by sellers.

For conservationists and others who are concerned about the fate of the rhinos, it is critical to understand why biotech companies would prefer making bio-identical synthetic horns--rather than undesirable fakes--because of the implications this has for conservation policies. Simply put, it would be more profitable to produce and sell perfect fakes rather than synthetic horns that would be considered undesirable. All else being equal, putting out undesirable fakes that buyers cannot distinguish from the real ones, by reducing demand for horns, would lead to lower prices in the horn market compared to the case with bio-identical synthetic horns. This, of course, would generate less revenue for the producers of synthetic horns.

Proponents of making perfect fakes could argue that bio-identical synthetics would be no less effective than undesirable fakes in bringing about adverse selection in the horn market and driving out sellers of wild horns. This is true if buyers view bio-identical synthetic horns to be significantly inferior to wild horns. However, as reported in The Guardian last year, Pembient's market research in Vietnam--one of the biggest markets for rhino horn trading--found that nearly half of the survey respondents who consume rhino horn for medicinal purposes would consider bio-identical synthetic horns to be suitable substitutes for wild horns. Moreover, a co-founder of Pembient suggested in the same article that perfect fakes could actually be better than wild horns due to their lack of contaminants. Therefore, bio-identical synthetic horns may not be undesirable or unappealing enough to drive out wild horn suppliers through adverse selection. In fact, if buyers consider perfect fakes to be more desirable than wild horns, the availability of synthetic horns could actually encourage more rhino poaching by driving up horn prices.

Advocates of making perfect fakes could also point out that--even if buyers do not consider bio-identical synthetics to be substantially inferior to wild horns--as long as there are enough bio-identical synthetic horns in the market, horn prices would be driven down to the point where wild horn sellers would be forced from the market. A rigorous theoretical analysis of this issue shows that it is not necessarily in the financial interest of synthetic horn producers to drive out all wild horn sellers; instead, they may prefer to prop up horn prices by keeping the production of synthetic horns at a relatively low level.

Rhino poaching numbers are climbing, and rising income levels in China and Southeast Asia--where demand for rhino horns is strongest--will almost certainly make matters worse in the near future if no significant changes occur. Economic principles tell us the availability of synthetic horns can decrease the supply of wild horns and reduce the amount of poaching. Since the development of undesirable fake horns or flooding the market with perfect fakes is incongruent with the profit motive, the real issue is just how big the effect of synthetic horns on poaching would be if the companies developing them are interested in profiting off of their products.

What policies can governments or conservation groups implement to ensure that the impact on poaching numbers is maximized when the biotech industry is ready to roll out bio-identical substitutes? To drive out wild horn suppliers using synthetic horns, the key would be to depress horn prices sufficiently. Here are a few suggestions for doing that. One is to subsidize the companies that produce synthetic horns--this would incentivize them to increase production and thereby drive down prices. Another option is to promote competition on the production side of synthetic horns. Financial incentives or policies that encourage more firms to enter the synthetic horn market would also put downward pressure on prices by raising the market supply. A third possibility is to make it easier or less costly for a non-profit organization to invest in or acquire the technology for producing synthetic horns since the non-profit entity could try to shut down the rhino horn market through adverse selection by making undesirable fakes.

The science and technology to produce high quality synthetic horns are within our grasp. Let us not, however, assume that the biotech companies with these capabilities, in pursuit of their own interests, would necessarily solve the rhino poaching problem. Let us keep in mind that steps may need to be taken to structure the market for rhino horns so as to fully realize the potential of synthetic horns to save the rhinos.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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The Paradox Of Renewable Energy  

Several months ago, I had the wonderful opportunity to explore Iceland and learn about its unique energy policy through an 8-day Adventure Program on Renewable Energy and Sustainability offered through the GREEN Program. Although it was only eight days long, we were able to attend lectures from professors at the Iceland School of Energy in Reykjavik University, tour geothermal and hydropower plants, and see amazing landscapes as well.

The Appeal: Why renewable energy?

Before going on this trip, I had considered renewable energy to be a part of this utopian vision for an environmentally friendly future, with solar panels and wind turbines everywhere and all the plants, animals, and humans living in harmony. It may sound silly; however, having always heard of renewable energies in the context of climate change, they were and are often portrayed as a magic solution. They often come with a narrative that boasts about their potential to solve our world's major problems, namely:

1. Saving the Environment: Renewables don't pollute (as much).

Electricity production takes up the largest percentage of greenhouse gas emissions in the world. If we can switch our electricity production from fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and petroleum) to renewables (solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower, etc.), we will be able to drastically reduce our carbon footprint and hopefully prevent or considerably slow climate change.

2. Securing our Energy Supply: Renewables are (theoretically) replenishable.

The current issue that the world is often scared to face is that fossil fuels and other nonrenewable sources of energy are finite. Like we learn after every oil shock, the world is extremely dependent on an ever depleting resource. This makes the idea of a source of energy that can be "renewed" infinitely or used without depletion quite alluring.

The Leader: Iceland

Iceland, a small, isolated island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, is home to a population of about 330,000. Beyond their beautiful glaciers, volcanoes, and landscapes, what makes this tiny country stand out is its leadership with renewable energy.

In 2014, 99.9% of Iceland's electricity production came from renewable sources, a combination of geothermal and hydropower. Not to mention the 90% of geothermal energy which was used for space heating (heating up buildings/homes).

Despite being such a small country, Iceland stands out as a major leader in this sector, showing the world how to be resourceful with the geography and resources you have.

The Culture Shock

Needless to say, when I first learned about Iceland's leadership with renewables, I was ecstatic. When I landed, I half-expected a land of progressive, climate conscious, environmentalists thriving in an area rich with renewable energy sources. I was in for a quite a shock.

Instead, what I saw was a culture of energy consumption. Everyone was driving oil-based vehicles. Swimming pools and outdoor hot tubs - with fresh water from the glaciers, heated using geothermal heat transfer  - were a common tourist attraction that you could find almost everywhere. Highways were lit up with light posts every few feet, which even the taxi driver admitted was fairly excessive. Many of the roads in the city had pipes running geothermal-heated water underneath the pavement in order to melt the snow. While touring a geothermal plant, we learned that aluminum smelting factories, a very electricity-heavy industry, were flocking towards Iceland for its cheap energy costs. We visited one of several greenhouses that grow massive amounts of tomatoes, using electricity to power lights for the plants throughout the entire year, for twenty-four hours, every single day. Even in the university, rather than turning down the heat using a thermostat, the professors would simply open the window if it was getting too hot.

In this state of disbelief, I soon learned that while Iceland was a leader in the field of renewable energy, it was also a leader in energy consumption. With an energy use of 16,679 kg of oil equivalent per capita (as of 2013), Iceland has the highest amount of energy use per capita in the world - and by a long shot. According to the World Bank, Iceland's runner up, Luxembourg, lags behind at less than half the amount, with a mere 7,327 kg.

The Paradox: More Renewables = More Consumption? 

After learning about Iceland's energy use, my immediate response was - why is their energy consumption so high?

There are many ways to answer this question (check out this video), but from what I contemplated and learned, the core of the answer lies in the very reasons we love renewables to begin with:

1. Saving the Environment: Renewables don't pollute (as much).

Translation: It's "guilt-free." To paraphrase my city tour guide, since all the electricity comes from renewables, you can use as much as you'd like! Go ahead, turn on the TV, take a trip to Spain, and come back a week later - no worries, no guilt - you're not harming the environment.

2. Securing our Energy Supply: Renewables are (theoretically) replenishable.

Translation: It's "infinite." There's no need to worry about using too much heat or water, we aren't going to be losing our energy sources anytime soon.

Lesson #1: Renewable energy is not synonymous with sustainability.

The first thing that learning about this paradox helped me do was check my assumptions. I realized that, up until that point, I had always seen renewable energy as the "magic solution" which would become the sustainable future (remember the happy plants, animals, and humans living in harmony?). However, what I realize is that while any sustainable solution to our problems would almost definitely include renewable energy as a major part of it, producing renewable energy doesn't necessarily mean that you have created a sustainable solution.

The way I see it, sustainability is a culture, a way of life, while renewable energy is a type of resource.

You can replace all of our fossil fuel-driven electricity plants with solar panels, wind turbines, biofuels, geothermal bore holes, and hydropower dams, and we can rejoice in the idea that we have plenty of clean energy that we can theoretically keep harnessing forever. However, what this ignores is the blatant environmental damage and unforeseen consequences that inevitably come with creating millions of solar panels, taking up miles of space to put up turbines, blocking the flow of rivers, and more. A switch to renewables alone is unable to create sustainability, or a way of life that would be able to support the planet and all of its beauty, inhabitants, and resources.

Lesson #2: We need to adjust our way of thinking.

It is not enough to simply replace the role of nonrenewable energy with renewable energy. While it is a better alternative, renewables are not the complete solution - adjusting our culture of consumption can be. Yes, you can excuse this whole paradox of consumption by simply waving your hand and saying "it's inevitable, it's economics - supply and demand." Sure, we are more likely to consume when we have more, and driven to conserve more when our resources are scarce.

However, it is the future and well-being of our planet that is at stake! If we want a better future, we must adjust our thinking and work to change our consumption. Simply because we can produce so much energy does not mean we should. And simply because we have more energy does not mean we need to use more of it.

We need to take a step back and understand that there is more to our problem than simply clean energy production. We can perfect the entire energy production process, and yet, that overlooks the entire waste process and the multitude of other side effects that come with our consumption. For example, the aluminum smelting industry, a major consumer of electricity in Iceland, has started showing signs of fluoride pollution in surrounding areas. In the United States, high water consumption combined with droughts are placing more stress upon our water supply and treatment systems. The more we consume, the more we waste, the more mess we make, and inevitably, the more problems we face. Therefore, we have all the more reason to focus on reducing our individual consumption whether or not our resources are seemingly abundant in the short-term.

Conclusion?

While it is important to be creative and innovative in the way we approach the environmental problems of our time, one should be weary of solutions that are too narrowly-focused. Renewable energy is a promising answer to a specific question, but only a part of a much-needed multifaceted solution.

Many of our environmental issues are deeply rooted in a culture of consumption that often arises when we are presented with periods of abundance. At the end of the day, even with the best technological solutions, we are the ones who can make a huge difference by curbing our consumption on all levels. Either we can choose to adapt and shift this culture - or Nature will choose for us.

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