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Discovery one-ups Tatooine, finds twin stars hosting three giant exoplanets  
Scientists have discovered three giant planets in a binary star system composed of stellar 'twins' that are also effectively siblings of our Sun. One star hosts two planets and the other hosts the third. The system represents the smallest-separation binary in which both stars host planets that has ever been observed. The findings may help explain the influence that giant planets like Jupiter have over a solar system's architecture.  
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The genesis project: New life on exoplanets  
Can life be brought to celestial bodies outside our solar system which are not permanently inhabitable? This is the question with which experts are dealing in a recent essay.  
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Watch: How autonomous cars could completely eliminate traffic jams  

Humans, as it turns out, are pretty crappy drivers. Of course, we knew this already. What you might not have known is, we're also directly responsible for most of the traffic problems we face on roadways. While we blame congestion, traffic lights and other cars for our traffic woes, as this video shows: it's mostly us. Unlike machines, humans are reactionary drivers. When a red light turns green, we react to the car in front of us moving, not the light itself. If each of us — even several cars back at a stoplight — reacted at the same time,…

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There's nothing ‘outrageous' about Jessica Alba's inclusion in ‘Planet of the Apps'  

The shortage of women in tech is troubling. What's more troubling is a woman, in tech, trying to keep women out of tech. Sadly, that's exactly what Gizmodo's Sophie Kleeman did with her recent piece titled ‘Apple's Decision to Cast Jessica Alba in Its Reality Show Is an Outrage.' The piece pines over the admittedly-odd casting decision while completely ignoring several bigger picture scenarios. According to Kleeman: But now, as other fine minds in tech blogging point out, the people in charge have gone and ruined it by casting Jessica Alba as a mentor to app developers. You know, Jessica Alba? That…

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Bill Nye is bringing his bow tie to Netflix  

Once known as ‘The Science Guy' Bill Nye is now here to ‘Save the World.' His new talkshow, according to Netflix, sounds a bit like Comedy Central's ‘The Daily Show' with Nye subbing for Trevor Noah and science taking the focus away from politics and pop culture. Each episode will tackle a topic from a scientific point of view, dispelling myths, and refuting anti-scientific claims that may be espoused by politicians, religious leaders or titans of industry. So, basically the opposite of a Trump speech. Nye, you may remember, starred in a PBS-syndicated educational program called ‘Bill Nye the Science Guy'…

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Transmission is living up to its name by spreading nasty malware (again)  

For the second time in under a year, security researchers have spotted a particularly nasty bit of malware in popular Mac BitTorrent client, ‘Transmission.' The discovery came just five months after its last brush with malware — the first viable ransomware ever found on the Mac. Security researchers at ESET discovered the newest bug, called OSX/Keydnap. Apparently, the malware was being spread through a recompiled version of Transmission that was temporarily distributed through its own website. OSX/Keydnap executes in a similar fashion to Transmission's last malware infection, KeRanger, in that it adds a malicious block of code to the core…

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Sony is betting the Xperia XZ and X Compact on an unconvincing camera  

I know it's true of every modern phone, but it's especially true of Sony's new pair of Xperia handsets: the camera will be the most important factor in deciding the fortunes of the Xperia XZ and Xperia X Compact. Introduced at IFA 2016 in Berlin today, Sony's Xperia XZ triples down on camera technology with a new laser autofocus, RGBC-IR white balance sensor, and its traditionally strong 23-megapixel imaging sensor. The Japanese company's new flagship even has a dedicated shutter button. And the Xperia X Compact is a smaller, less powerful vessel for that same upgraded camera system.

One of the reasons the camera is going to be so pivotal is that the rest of the specs are not all that impressive: the Xperia XZ has the Snapdragon 820,...

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Ocean Expeditions: News from The Ocean Cleanup and Oceanographer Julia Reisser  
By Julia TraversIn just a few years, The Ocean Cleanup has come a long way. It was four years ago that then teenager Boyan Slat introduced his soon-to-be viral ocean cleanup concept during a TEDx Talk, and in 2013 The Ocean Cleanup was founded. Below, read about a few of their incredible recent ...

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Thames Light  

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How GMOs Cut The Use Of Pesticides — And Perhaps Boosted It Again  

There's new and detailed data on the impact of genetically modified crops on pesticide use. Those crops replaced insecticides, and, at first, some herbicides. But herbicide use has rebounded.

 
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The Next Agriculture Revolution Is Under Our Feet  


By Justin Adams, Global Managing Director of Lands at The Nature Conservancy, and Bianca Moebius-Clune, Ph.D., Director at the Soil Health Division, USDA-NRCS

At the core of agriculture is innovation. Advancements in agricultural technology throughout the past century have allowed farmers to feed a population that has grown from less than 2 billion people to more than 7 billion today.

But, as demand for food continues to grow, our lands are stretched to their limits and crop yields struggle to keep up the pace, the world will need farmers to make another leap. By just 2050, global agricultural production must increase by 60 percent, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Some previous agricultural breakthroughs, though, have come with serious environmental costs to both people and nature. With a changing climate exacerbating today's challenges, it is clear the next agriculture revolution will require solutions that not only increase food production, but also sustain the health of our communities, our land and water, and our climate.

The next revolution

One such solution lies with the soil under our feet. About 70 percent of fresh water worldwide is used to produce food, and 95 percent of food is produced on land. Although historically there has been insufficient attention to the value of healthy soils, the data and case examples are clear: healthy soil is critical for long-term agricultural production.

Perhaps Franklin Delano Roosevelt put it best, as the devastating Dust Bowl swept across the U.S. Midwest in the 1930s: "A nation that destroys its soil destroys itself." We have greatly reduced soil erosion in the United States since the time of the Dust Bowl. But we are still losing soil faster than nature can replace it in many places on the planet, and losing its ability to function biologically and physically. According to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, every year we lose around 24 billion tons of fertile soil globally (about 2 billion tons/year in the United States, by estimates in the 2012 Natural Resources Inventory), and it takes roughly 2,000 years to generate 10 centimeters or not quite four inches of topsoil. In order to achieve global long-term food security while better protecting our communities and our environment, we must take soil health more seriously.

The good news is that while it may take hundreds of years to geologically build soil, farmers have demonstrated that they can increase organic matter and improve soil function in just a few years, through soil health management systems. This represents the hope in healthy soil -- the potential of regenerative agriculture.

Recently, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization identified soil organic carbon, soil erosion and soil nutrient imbalance as the top three threats to global soil health. These three elements are intimately related. Increase organic carbon, for example, and the others can improve too.



From nutrient management to carbon storage

Poor nutrient management costs everyone. When farmers pay for improperly planned application or overuse of fertilizers and other soil amendments (and the labor, and fuel to apply them), or when needed nutrients are lost to the environment due to poor soil physical and biological functioning, consumers see higher prices in supermarkets and restaurants.

The environment takes a hit, too: nutrients enter water systems instead of growing food. They stimulate algal blooms that contaminate drinking water and suffocate aquatic life. We saw this on the Ohio River in the summer of 2015, and we see it every summer with the Gulf of Mexico's dead zone, which has been averaging an area the size of Connecticut for the past few years--caused largely by excess nutrient loss from agricultural soils.

Likewise, better nutrient management coupled with other soil health practices have far-reaching positive impacts. For example, a resilient, well structured, healthy soil that drains well after extreme rainfall events, along with better nutrient (nitrogen) management can reduce emissions of the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide -- strengthening the significant opportunity for farmers to be a part of the global climate solution. Producers can increase soil carbon stocks and sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, while also improving the soil's ability to retain nutrients through many strategies: such as decreasing disturbance, growing diverse crops and cover crops to maximize the time each year that living roots are building soils, keeping the soil surface protected, and adding amendments such as biochar or compost. And strategic crop rotations and nitrogen-fixing cover crops can also improve nutrient use efficiency, while limiting erosion and increasing soil carbon sequestration. (Paustian et al., 2016)

Better soil health management can often achieve these environmental benefits at a lower cost than other approaches -- and for farmers there is real profit potential. Improving infiltration and water-holding capacity, for example, can significantly reduce irrigation water needs, lessen dust pollution, and improve nutrient uptake by plants, which can reduce input costs, and reduce plant stress, disease and pest pressure. Over time, these practices reduce the risk of yield loss due to these stressors, and can bring about a material increase in crop yields and quality. Importantly, we must work with the agricultural industry to find the right policies and business models that unlock this sort of economic potential for both the land owners as well as the farmers who are often tenants on the land.

Better soil health starts with collaboration

With farming and ranching occurring in all 50 of the United States and on roughly 40 percent of land around the world, there is global opportunity to continue building on the success of our soil conservation work and to share and learn from new experience. It starts with collaboration.



One example is the long-standing collaboration between The Nature Conservancy and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) team at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). We've worked jointly with influential farmers like Tim Smith, who was recognized for his leadership in sustainable agriculture by being selected as a 2015 Champion for Change. We recently visited Tim in Iowa to learn how he is focusing on soil health and what is working well.

"Soil health is an awareness," Tim told us. "There's more going on than having [particular] chemical properties ... We're also thinking about the biological properties that exist in the soil that really make the soil work."

Being on Tim's farm let us feel the effect of healthier soil. He contrasted "square and bare" fields that had been traditionally tilled with those that had cover crops. We saw how the fields that had cover crops absorbed water more quickly and kept it in the soil longer. Tim emphasized that these fields are producing more food with less water on the same amount of land.

"Conservation is very important to me," Tim said. "It deals with the land, the soil -- something we cannot replace. This farm has been in the family for 135 years. And a lot of times, I ask other farmers, 'Because of the way we farm and the practices we use, what's our soil going to be like in another 125 or 130 years? Are we going to have the same soils that we have now?'"

As part of his efforts, Tim is involved with the Soil Health Partnership, which is a farmer-led project focused on testing and sharing new approaches to improving soil health. Led by the National Corn Growers Association, both The Nature Conservancy and NRCS are active in the partnership. (See videos on what The Nature Conservancy is doing regarding soil health here).

Cross-sector action

Soil health might not grab the headlines, but it might just be the most important agricultural conservation endeavor of our lifetime. If we want to meet the growing demand for food while strengthening the health of our communities, our land and water, and our climate, we need to support innovation in soil health and ensure farmers have broad access to the practices and incentives that can shift the paradigm. Part of this is working with businesses and other stakeholders to create new service offerings and innovative finance approaches coordinated with this transition.

There is emerging collaboration in the public sector as well, such as the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy's new soil science interagency working group that will receive input from 15 different federal departments and agencies. The working group to be co-led by USDA, USDI and NASA, will contribute to finding innovative ways of protecting America's soil.

This is an opportunity to take responsibility -- together -- for the land that feeds us and our children. We invite farmers, ranchers, and consumers alike to join in collaboration in this next agricultural revolution -- a revolution that starts under our feet.

Image credits: 1) Soil sampling a wetland in First State National Park. Photo © The Nature Conservancy (Devan King); 2) Soybeans grow through a dense blanket of diverse cover crop residue in this Nebraska field. Photo © Ron Nichols/USDA-NRCS; 3) Tim Smith. Photo © Joseph Murphy/Iowa Soybean Association.

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Taking A Stand For Washington's Wolves  
It's been a sickening week in the Pacific Northwest.

Snipers, including gunners in helicopters, have snuffed out half of Washington state's Profanity Peak wolf pack and have put the rest of the pack in the crosshairs. This wolf family has been shattered by the loss of the breeding alpha female and five other members. All that's left is an adult male and a few 4-month-old pups.

By the time you read this, the pack could be wiped out -- 12 percent of the state's fledgling wolf population in just a few days.

Sadly it's another reminder that although we've come a long way in terms of tolerating predators like wolves and grizzly bears on our landscapes -- there's still much more to be done.

The situation with the Profanity Peak pack highlights much of what's wrong with how we manage conflicts between recovering wolf populations and livestock grazing. Rather than ensure ranchers are using proven non-lethal measures to the fullest extent to avoid losses, we instead blame wolves for doing what wolves have always done, namely preying on ungulates, and kill them whenever cattle are lost.

In the case of the Profanity Peak pack, the cows were being grazed on public lands in a high risk area, and few deterrence measures were being utilized. According to Dr. Robert Wielgus of the large carnivore lab at Washington State University, the rancher in question, Len McIrvin, refused to enter into a "cooperative damage prevention agreement" to work with state wolf researchers to avoid conflicts and was grazing his cows over a known den site, leading Dr. Wielgus to conclude in the Seattle Times that loss of cows was "predictable and avoidable."

Adding insult to injury, we've been here before. In 2012 the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the same agency currently targeting the Profanity Peak pack, killed seven members of the Wedge pack in response to cattle losses by the same rancher.

This highlights a fundamental problem with killing wolves to protect cows. If non-lethal measures are not used to reduce the risk of losing cattle in the first place, than the whole vicious cycle is likely to repeat itself once more wolves move back in. And what incentives do ranchers have to change their practices if the state comes in and kills wolves at taxpayer expense every time they start losing cows?

Earlier this year, the state agency did enact a protocol whereby it will not kill wolves until there has been loss or injury of four cows in a calendar year and unless the rancher who lost cattle is removing dead cows that may attract wolves to the area and carrying out at least one deterrence measure.

Although a step in the right direction, there are a number of problems with this approach. First and foremost, simply requiring a rancher to do any single measure fails to ensure that non-lethal deterrence measures that are likely to be effective are being utilized. Indeed, the one measure Mr. McIrvin apparently took was to delay release of cow calf pairs until the calves were big enough to hopefully avoid attracting wolves. After cows were already lost, he also apparently added a range rider to unsuccessfully deter further losses. Given that he was grazing his cows over a known den site, however, these measures had little chance of success.

A better approach and one utilized in Oregon is to require ranchers to work with the state to develop a conflict deterrence plan for the specific grazing allotment and enact measures with a high likelihood of success.

The second problem with the approach is that it fails to build in enough tolerance for minor losses of cattle to wolves. The approach of killing wolves in response to cattle losses is based on the fundamentally flawed idea that once wolves start preying on cows, they will switch to singularly focusing on them and the situation will quickly escalate, but this is often not the case.

In reality, wolves are a coursing predator that move through large territories searching for opportunities to take ungulate prey with little risk. If cattle overlap with their territory and the risk is low because of a lack of non-lethal deterrence, they will prey on them when they're in that portion of their territory, but then often move on.

We saw this at work in Oregon. In 2011, the Center for Biological Diversity and our allies stopped the state of Oregon from killing wolves in the Imnaha pack. The state insisted that the pack was chronically depredating cattle and that the situation would only get worse, but after we worked out a strong protocol with the state requiring tolerance of some cattle loss and utilization of non-lethal measures, only a small number of depredations occurred over the next several years and the pack stuck mostly to native prey.

Predators, including wolves, typically cause a small fraction of cattle losses with disease, accidents and even lightning causing many more deaths. In many cases, wolves with cattle in their territories may end up taking a couple cows in addition to native ungulates, but particularly if non-lethal deterrence measures are effectively used, such events will be infrequent and should be a normal part of ranching.

But by only requiring four injuries or losses in an entire year, which could happen in a single depredation event, Washington's protocol does not allow this process to play out before the state steps in and tragically starts killing wolves at taxpayer expense.

This is particularly problematic on public lands, where the American public has a right to expect that a beloved species like the wolf -- which was nearly wiped out for the benefit of ranchers but for which we have now expended substantial resources to recover -- will be treated with tolerance and respect. Instead, the state of Washington for the second time has stepped in to kill wolves for the benefit of a rancher who has shown considerable resistance to taking common sense measures to protect his cows on land we all own. This is a travesty and one that should not be allowed to occur again.

-- 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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NASA: Planet Warming At Fastest Pace In 1,000 Years  
The planet is warming at an unprecedented pace not experienced in the past 1000 years. That's according to NASA.

That means that it is "very unlikely" that global warming will stay within the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit set by nations last December. Gavin Schmidt director of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies said:

In the last 30 years we've really moved into exceptional territory. Maintaining temperatures below the 1.5C guardrail requires significant and very rapid cuts in carbon dioxide emissions or co-ordinated geo-engineering. That is very unlikely. We are not even yet making emissions cuts commensurate with keeping warming below 2C.

The news comes two days after experts declared that man's carbon impact on the planet is now so profound that a new geological epoch -- the Anthropocene -- needs to be declared. This would formally mark end of the Holocene era characterized by 12,000 years of stable climate when all of human civilisation developed.

Prof Chris Rapley, a climate scientist at University College London says:

Since the planet is our life support system -- we are essentially the crew of a largish spaceship -- interference with its functioning at this level and on this scale is highly significant. If you or I were crew on a smaller spacecraft, it would be unthinkable to interfere with the systems that provide us with air, water, fodder and climate control. But the shift into the Anthropocene tells us that we are playing with fire, a potentially reckless mode of behaviour which we are likely to come to regret unless we get a grip on the situation

And, although a 2C temperature rise may not sound like much, the World Bank says that it is enough to push millions of people into poverty as basic resources such as food and water slip out of reach. It expects conflicts over both commodities to erupt over the next couple of years.

According to James Hansen, Nasa's former top climate scientist often dubbed as the grandfather of climate science, global warming will usher in a 2 to 5 meter sea level rise by the end of this century:

Social disruption and economic consequences of such large sea level rise could be devastating. It is not difficult to imagine that conflicts arising from forced migrations and economic collapse might make the planet ungovernable, threatening the very fabric of civilization.

The current conflict in Syria, exacerbated by widespread drought, may be a mere harbinger of things to come. And given the assumed accelerated pace of melting, all this could happen just decades from now, not centuries.

The news comes as monthly temperatures continue to smash records. July was the hottest July since records began over 130 tears ago. And, 2016 is expected to be the warmest year in history, following a record 2015 and 2014:

"It's the long-term trend we have to worry about though and there's no evidence it's going away and lots of reasons to think it's here to stay," says Schmidt, "This is a chronic problem for society for the next 100 years."

According to the United Nations, world temperatures are expected to race past the 4C mark before the turn of this century. Such a temperature change will bring about changes not seen since the last Ice Age, ushering in a mass extinction event.

"In a rational world, this is what every presidential debate would focus on. Forget the mythical flood of immigrants -- concentrate on the actual flooding," writes climate activist Bill McKibben.

Although last year's Paris climate deal was hailed as a historic turning point after over 20 years of failed negotiations, nine months after that accord was inked, only 23 nations representing just 1.1 percent of global emissions have formally ratified it.

That list includes no G20 nation thus far. In order to become enshrined in law, at least 55 nations representing 55 percent of global emissions must sign up.

It requires all nations to create zero emissions by the second half of this century. The zero part is important as carbon emissions remain trapped in the atmosphere for centuries, meaning that even if all emissions stopped tomorrow, world temperatures would continue to march upwards for decades to come.

Last week, a coalition of investors managing some 13 trillion in assets called on the G20 to ratify the deal by the end of this year. The groups two largest members, the U.S. and China have promised to do so before December, but together they only account for 40 percent of global emissions.

Moreover, Donald Trump, the Republican Party's presidential nominee has vowed to scrap the deal if elected this November. And, whilst no country can single handedly cancel the accord, the former star of the Apprentice could undermine the emission cuts promised by the Obama administration, and weaken the resolve of other leaders skeptical about the deal.

Although renewable energy is fast catching up with fossil fuels as a legitimate source of power, according to Microsoft founder Bill Gates, "we need an energy miracle" on par with the the "personal computer. The internet. The polio vaccine."

Much like the abolition of slavery, the end of apartheid and the spread of universal suffrage, radical change can happen when brave people stand up and demand to be heard: In the words of Leonardo DiCaprio:

Climate change is real; it is happening right now. It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating.

-- 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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Where will we find the first telltale signs of the Anthropocene?  
The Anthropocene is the proposed geological period dominated by human influence on the environment. Now the task is to find one spot that bears its hallmarks  
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Planning For A Healthy New York Seascape  
Imagine arriving home one day, excited to see how work is going on the beautiful new deck you're installing. But the contractor's in a snit because there's a truck in the driveway blocking his way. That would be the electrician your husband hired to fix that old faulty wiring in the kitchen. You knew he was coming but you didn't know it was today. And now the repair man can't access the fuse box because your son's emo band Strawberry Slo-Jam has taken over the basement.

What the heck is going on? Everyone in the family needs to access the house, but there's a little coordination problem. Here in the city of islands, we have a similar challenge with our own home waters. The rich, diverse ocean wilderness that is New Yorkers' heritage and responsibility is an incredible place to fish, swim, and play. Its amazing wildlife includes everything from sharks, sea turtles, and shorebirds to whales, dolphins, and deep sea coral.


A humpback whale feeding offshore near New York City. Image: Julie Larson Maher/WCS.

But this beautiful seascape - which contributes $22 billion to the state's GDP, supports more than 313,000 jobs, and offers countless recreational, cultural, and spiritual benefits - can also be crowded, noisy, and unpredictable. And it gets worse every day. A patchwork of more than 140 laws and 20 federal authorities currently govern the ocean, coasts, and lakes enjoyed by 20 million people.

Offshore wind installations are likely coming with the announcement of a proposed lease sale of 81,130 acres off of Long Island. Traffic at our already-busy port continues to increase while giant cargo ships grow ever larger thanks to maritime advances like the recent Panama Canal expansion. Rising sea levels and extreme weather events associated with climate change are reshaping our shores and threatening coastal communities.

Protecting the integrity of our ocean backyard requires us to understand how to accommodate all these uses. No one wants to wade through Strawberry Slo-Jam to get to their fuse box. That's where ocean planning comes in. Building on several years of work, New York and five of our neighboring states - together with federal agencies, tribes, and regional fisheries managers - have come together to create the first draft of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Ocean Action Plan.


Canyon Lobster. Image courtesy of Deepwater Canyons 2013 Expedition, NOAA-OER/BOEM/USGS.


To do so, they worked with stakeholders and scientists to gather the most up-to-date information on ocean use by humans and wildlife to produce a document that provides a framework for sustainable economic development while conserving our vulnerable marine ecosystems. But if this plan is going to work, it needs the support of all who care about our ocean habitat.

This draft of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Ocean Action Plan is a great first step, but it's not perfect. To maintain commitment to the plan's Healthy Ocean Ecosystem goal, the plan needs to set December 2016 as a deadline for identifying habitat critical for the health of our area's fish, sea turtles, whales, and other marine life, and commit agencies to conserving areas of high biodiversity.

Better understanding these areas will enable us to more thoughtfully balance decisions on ocean development with ecological impacts, while also allowing for appropriate human activities to continue. The plan should also make certain that agencies identify a set of objective indicators of ocean health to enable regular evaluation of the plan's effectiveness in achieving its goals throughout the Mid-Atlantic.

Here at the Wildlife Conservation Society's New York Aquarium, and across all WCS's zoos in New York City, education staff and high school volunteer docents are engaging kids in songs about sea life and playing a newly developed ocean planning board game with visitors to raise awareness about these issues. We are encouraging visitors to compose letters and drawings and sign a petition in support of smarter marine planning that WCS will submit to the Regional Planning Body (RPB).


New York Aquarium staff fitting an acoustic tag on a sand tiger shark off the coast of Long Island. Image: Julie Larsen Maher/WCS.


In the meantime, the federal and state agencies that created the Mid-Atlantic Regional Ocean Action Plan are intent on collaboration and transparent dialogue among those who manage the uses of the ocean, and to give the public a chance to discuss present and emerging issues with decision-makers. WCS's New York Aquarium and zoos have engaged visitors to join in that conversation. The plan is available for review and comment through September 6.

Take the time to add your voice to those who realize the value in promoting ocean health and coordinating multiple human uses of our busy ocean. If we act together, we can gain control of the situation; plan for responsible, long-term use of our resources; and protect our beautiful ocean home. There's no reason we can't have our beautiful deck and some long-overdue rewiring at the same time. Okay...and maybe a little Strawberry Slo-Jam, too.

-- 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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Tomás Insua: The Pope, The Patriarch And The Christian World Are Praying For Climate Justice Today - G20 Leaders Should Take Note  
Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, in a prayer service on the Greek island of L...

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Edward Flattau: A Post Trump World  
Given Donald Trump's denial of human-influenced climate change, what kind of world awaits us environmentally if he should get his way?

Here is the so...

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Dr. Mariappan Jawaharlal: What A Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousins by Jonathan Balcombe  
When my first daughter was about six years old, I took her fishing for the first time in a small pond near Amherst, Massachusetts. I bought two fishin...

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Noah Greenwald: Taking A Stand For Washington's Wolves  
It's been a sickening week in the Pacific Northwest.

Snipers, including gunners in helicopters, have snuffed out half of Washington state's Profanity...

Read more: Endangered Species, Gray Wolves, Teen Impact, Ecology, Vegetarianism, Green News

 
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Deers with friends  

Miroslaw Tran posted a photo:

 
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Rare Footage of Pallas's Cat Cubs in Mongolia's Zoolon Mountains  

By Matthias Fiechter

The Pallas's cat is a small, little known wild cat species living in the steppes and mountains of Central Asia. Through a new research initiative “PICA” (Pallas's Cat International Conservation Alliance) launched earlier this year, conservationists are hoping to better understand this feline. The project is still in its early stages, but it has already produced some outstanding, rare footage of Pallas's cats, including video of wild cubs.

The footage (featured at the top of this post) was taken by a set of remote-sensor research cameras stationed in the Zoolon Mountains, in Mongolia's Gobi Gurvan Saikhan National Park. One sequence, shot during the night, shows three Pallas' cat cubs curiously examining the camera, while another snippet features an adult cat in broad daylight looking for signs of other animals.

First Footage of Pallas's Cat Cubs in This Part of Mongolia?

“This is the first footage of Pallas's cat cubs taken in this part of Mongolia as far as we know and is a valuable discovery from our project partners Snow Leopard Trust”, says David Barclay, Cat Conservation Officer at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS).

The cameras are part of the new international Pallas's cat conservation project, PICA, founded by the RZSS, Nordens Ark, a Swedish breeding center and zoo Nordens Ark, and U.S.-based conservation organization Snow Leopard Trust that aims to gather more information on the Pallas's cat, one of the world's least-studied felines.

“If we're hoping to conserve this mysterious cat, we need to first understand it, and we're hoping this study will bring valuable new insights.” — Emma Nygren, Nordens Ark

“We still don't know much about the Pallas's cat's behavior, or even it's true range,” says Emma Nygren, a conservation biologist at Nordens Ark who coordinates the research project. “If we're hoping to conserve this mysterious cat, we need to first understand it, and we're hoping this study will bring valuable new insights.”

The Snow Leopard Trust, which has been working in this part of Mongolia for more than a decade, is a technical and logistical partner in the project. “We're surveying these mountains for snow leopards anyway. The Pallas's cat shares the same habitat and is equally elusive, so it's a logical extension of our work to also look at them,” says Gustaf Samelius, Assistant Director of Science at the Snow Leopard Trust.

The study, which was made possible by the generous support of Fondation Segré, will continue for at least three years.

Matthias Fiechter is the Communications Manager for the Snow Leopard Trust, a Seattle, Washington-based charity with a mission to conserve the snow leopard and its mountain ecosystem through a balanced approach that considers the needs of local people and the environment.

More about the Pallas's Cat (IUCN Red List assessment and profile)

The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland was founded by visionary lawyer Thomas Gillespie in 1909 ‘to promote, facilitate and encourage the study of zoology and kindred subjects and to foster and develop amongst the people an interest in and knowledge of animal life'. The Society still exists to connect people with nature and safeguard species from extinction. Please visit here for information on all our conservation projects.

Nordens Ark  is a Swedish non-profit foundation working to protect endangered species through conservation breeding and reintroduction programs as well as through research, field conservations programs and education. Nordens Ark was founded in 1989 and focus on applied conservation actions in Sweden as well as abroad. The foundation works with a wide range of species from snow leopards and Pallas's cats to Lesser White-fronted Geese and Lemur-leaf frogs.

The Snow Leopard Trust, based in Seattle, Washington, is a world leader in conservation of the endangered snow leopard, conducting pioneering research and partnering with communities as well as authorities in snow leopard habitat to protect the cat. Please go to www.snowleopard.org for more information about our research and conservation programs.

Big Cats Conservation

The National Geographic Big Cats Initiative funds research to save snow leopards and other big cats in the wild: Saving Snow Leopards in Upper Mustang, Nepal, by Predator-Proofing Livestock Corrals

 
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Peter Neill: Where Does Water Come From?  
Where does water come from? It seems such a simple question, and the answer is known from our earliest science lessons when we are introduced to the w...

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DOD Tests Environmentally Friendly Motor Oil  

By Sarah Martin and Annie Reisewitz

The Department of Defense is taking action to be an environmental leader at defense facilities across the U.S.

Currently, the DOD, headed by the Defense Logistics Agency, is testing the use of biosynthetic motor oils on their non-tactical vehicle fleets. Several environmentally friendly lubricants companies have supplied bio-based motor oil to the DOD for demonstration projects across the U.S., including at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana. With nearly 40% of pollution in waterways coming from used motor oil, this is welcome news to help advance a new technology that need wider acceptance by large motor oil consumers.

Every year 10 billion gallons of liquid petroleum hydrocarbon, in the form of motor oil and other industrial lubricants, are released into the environment due to human activity. The majority of this coming in the form of silent oil spills, leaks from cars, and improper disposal of used oil—all contributing to the degradation of our environment and our water supply.

Almost all of the motor oils on the market today are made from refined petroleum. For years, the use of biosynthetic oils has been promoted as an environmentally friendly alternative but was long thought of as a “wouldn't that be nice” pie-in-the-sky idea that wouldn't work on a large scale in part due to the difficulty of using vegetable oils in high heat conditions like automotive engines. However, recent scientific advancements, including by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, have made this petroleum alternative dream very much a reality.

If the tests by the DOD shows that biosynthetic oils perform just as well, if not better, than the current oil being used, the switch to biosynthetic oils may be made Air Force and possibly DOD wide for use in their fleet of 200,000 vehicles in the future.

Increased availability of bio-based lubricant fluids would provide product source diversity; create additional options for government and commercial users as well as the average consumer; reduce dependence on oil imports; and decrease pollution in rivers and oceans.

Environmental as well as usability performance has become important to consumers and regulators. Today, these motor oils and lubricants made from non-toxic, environmentally friendly plant-based oils can protect us, and our environment and they are comparable to or better than petroleum oil when it comes to performance.

In the past, environmentally friendly lubricants have faced performance questions. But extensive testing has proven that biosynthetic oils not only exceed the most challenging environmental standards but also provide performance benefits not attainable with petroleum-based products alone.

This is just the beginning. Other federal agencies, such as the Department of Homeland Security's Law Enforcement Training School, are to begin testing biosynthetic oil later this year.

This large-scale change by the DOD would have widespread positive implications for our environment. While their testing will continue for the next 12-18 months there are steps that you can take to help reduce your environmental footprint. Ask your mechanic for a bio-based alternative the next time you go in for an oil change. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, just one gallon of motor oil can contaminate one million gallons of fresh water, so your small changes add up to a better environment.

About the authors:

Annie Reisewitz is a communications and marketing consultant for environmental and green technology initiatives. She manages the Silent Oil Spills public awareness campaign.

Sarah Martin has worked in environmental communications for the past several years. She works on the Silent Oil Spills campaign.

 
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Super low tide in London, Houses of Parliament and the Eye - 31.8.2016 (evening of bday)  

Christine's Observations posted a photo:

London's famous houses of parliament and the London Eye as seen from the Thames shore. Today was a magical day in London. Although the sky wasn't orange or pink, it was a subtle blue. Beautiful for pictures.

 
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NORTH AMERICAN ENDANGERED & PROTECTED SPECIES 80 CITES 1995 Leather Limited 2500 https://t.co/mfMqjIa9kv https://t.co/iZs1n5p6sN 
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Francis Aston Scientist of the DayFrancis William Aston, an...  

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Francis Aston Scientist of the Day

Francis William Aston, an English chemist turned physicist, was born Sep. 1, 1877.

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Red Panda  

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Spoiler alert: Why strange signals are never really from aliens  
Given the wealth of planets in our universe, aliens must be dwelling somewhere, right? Maybe. But we're never going to get our sci-fi moment, says Jacob Aron  
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DSC_5639  

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Thames

 
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What the River Knows: Amstel River at Amsterdam, Netherlands  

Photographs by Basia Irland

My name, Amstel, is derived from the old Dutch, Aeme-stelle, which means “water area.” In the 13^th Century, a small fishing village, Amstelredam, was constructed near my mouth beside a dam. Today we know that town as Amsterdam. As early as the 11^th Century, farmers began building dikes to try and keep me from flooding these low lands. In 1936 my mouth was filled in and sealed shut, so that today I end at Muntplein Square, although I remain connected to a body of water called the IJ by flowing underground through pipes. The IJ (an ancient Dutch word for water) used to be a bay, but currently is considered more of a lake. During the Dutch Golden Age in the 1600's Amsterdam was the wealthiest city in the world and one of the most important ports. My extensive system of canals, built during this time, is now on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Looking along a canal toward the Zuiderke Church, built in 1611 (and once painted by Monet).

I flow south to north through this flat and low-lying city, which is the capital of the Netherlands. Parts of me are below sea level, and some of the land around me was reclaimed from the nearby sea or marshes. Dutch children must learn to swim at an early age and receive diplomas for that effort. Some dive from houseboats and swim in my water, careful to dodge the variety of boats that are found day and night, moving upon my body.

A boy dives into the Amstel River.

All kinds of boats ply the river and canals.

I have a beer named after me! The Amstel Brewery is located along my shore, as are other breweries, and my water is sometimes used in the production of these beers. Renowned artists have painted my portrait including Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), Willim Witsen (1860-1923), and Piet Mondrian (1872-1944).

With the flat terrain, the inconvenience of driving a car, and over 400 kilometers (249 miles) of bike paths in Amsterdam, humans prefer to get around by bicycle. With well over a million bikes, it is no wonder so many two-wheelers are dredged out of my stomach each year.

Amsterdam is located on approximately ninety islands and linked by over 1,400 bridges that cross back and forth. Some of these bridges are especially wonderful at night, when their lights reflect on my dark water. One in particular, the Magere Brug, uses an Old Dutch design called a ‘double swipe'. In earlier times it was opened by hand, but now an electronic mechanism raises its two sections to let boats pass underneath to enter one of the many canals that traverse Amsterdam.

Magere Brug with the full moon.

Any visitor to this city will notice a lot of plastic trash floating on my surface, and there are currently attempts to clean up my 100 kilometers (60 miles) of canals. One such venture, Plastic Whale, is a company that fishes plastic bottles and other debris from my water and transforms the trash into material to make a boat that will be used to fish for more plastic. Boat Number Seven is constructed from over seven thousand plastic bottles that might otherwise have found their way out to sea.

Someone else who recycles trash from the canals is my dear friend, the meerkoet. These waterfowl use floating debris to create their unkempt nests, which are seen everywhere wedged amongst the houseboats. The meerkoet live on my surface, and enjoy tickling my ribs when they dive down to feed on plants. The monogamous pairs also eat aquatic insects, seeds, grass, and small animals, and they are one of my favorite playmates as I flow through Amsterdam.

A meerkoet and its nest in a boat tire.

A meerkoet nest built from river debris.

Fulbright Scholar, Basia Irland is an author, poet, sculptor, installation artist, and activist who creates global water projects. She is Professor Emerita, Department of Art and Art History, University of New Mexico, where she established the Arts and Ecology Program. Irland works with scholars from diverse disciplines building rainwater harvesting systems; connecting communities and fostering dialogue along the entire length of rivers; filming and producing water documentaries; and creating waterborne disease projects around the world. She lectures and exhibits internationally and is regularly commissioned to do artistic river restoration projects. Check out her work at basiairland.com

 
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Beach Sunset - New London Pride  

ampphirephotography posted a photo:

Ampphire Photography 2016.
New London Pride - August 27th 2016.

 
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Want To Make Better Predictions? Researchers Explore How  

Analyzing an event by breaking it down into details might seem like a good way to predict the outcome, but social science research suggests that when most of us do it, we make worse predictions.

 
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In a world of 7 billion people, how can we protect endangered species ? https://t.co/yBGOY0dyQC @CITES @John_CITES https://t.co/M425JoycV4 
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German Caution, French Decisiveness: How Brexit Affects EU Defense Policy  
What's next for the European Union after Brexit? When it comes to defense policy, Germany and France need to step up to the plate. For Germany this will mean greater spending -- and more foreign deployments.  
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Kilauea lava flows to the ocean  

Full Text:

Rivers of lava from the volcano Kilauea leave a lava tube at a bench of new land at the Ka`ili`ili sea entry. The steam in the background is right at sea level and is caused by the boiling hot lava meeting the cool ocean water. With each wave, parts of these flows are covered by water, generating a blinding cloud of hot steam. Kilauea is the youngest and southeastern-most volcano on the big island of Hawaii. Topographically Kilauea, which is located on the southernmost flank of Mauna Loa, was thought to be an extension of its giant neighbor. However, research over the past few decades clearly shows that Kilauea has its own magma-plumbing system, extending to the surface from more than 60 kilometers deep in the Earth.

Image credit: ©Tom Pfeiffer

 
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Tasmanian devils evolve to resist deadly cancer  

Full Text:

Tasmanian devils are evolving in response to a highly lethal and contagious form of cancer. A National Science Foundation-funded researcher and an international team of scientists discovered that two regions in the genomes of Australia's iconic marsupials are changing in response to the rapid spread of devil facial tumor disease (DFTD), a nearly 100 percent fatal and transmissible cancer first detected in 1996. The Washington University study suggests some Tasmanian devil populations are evolving genetic resistance to DFTD that could help the species avoid extinction. Additionally, the genomic data will support future medical research exploring how animals evolve rapidly in response to cancer and other pathogens.

Image credit: Menna Jones, University of Tasmania

 
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@CITES (Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species) is not working it for these #animals WHY? https://t.co/8ubBnIaBnX 
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In a world of 7 billion people how can we protect wildlife? #conservation #wildlife #CITES https://t.co/ps9RWvYLEi 
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Zipline Divide  

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POLL: Most Americans Want Congress To Make Zika Funding A High Priority  

That's what 76 percent said in a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey. Half the respondents also said they'd be uncomfortable traveling to places in Florida where mosquitoes are spreading Zika.

 
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Shrinking Violets by Joe Moran review how to understand shyness  

Is being shy a boon or a burden? Should it be fought against? This sparkling cultural history ranges from Jane Austen to Silicon Valley

Joe Moran, like many of us, is shy. He is hopeless at small talk and feels he “should probably wear a badge that says: ‘Please do not expect sparkling conversation'”. Like most shy people, he has a dread of being boring. Thankfully Shrinking Violets, his “field guide” to shyness, exhibits all the sparkle and fluency on the page he might lack when chatting to strangers. Though he touches on his own experience, it's not a memoir, full of shaming revelations (of course it isn't): Moran says he prefers to hide “behind the human shield of people more interestingly and idiosyncratically shy than me”.

So he investigates the fifth Duke of Portland (1800-1879), who was so shy he communicated by posting notes into letter boxes inside his house, and asked the workers on his Welbeck Estate “to pass him as if he were a tree”. The duke is notable for spending a chunk of his vast fortune excavating grand, illuminated tunnels beneath his land so that when taking a walk he would never risk a meeting.

In the 80s, cardigan-wearing indie kids embraced the idea of being shy "as a personal and political philosophy"

As Hilary Mantel has said, the condition began to be regarded as "a pathology, not just an inconvenient character trait"

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Every breath we take  
Research from a cinema in Germany shows how the breath of a crowd can reflect how they're feeling, as Stephen Ornes reports  
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Every breath we take  
Research from a cinema in Germany shows how the breath of a crowd can reflect how they're feeling, as Stephen Ornes reports  
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Gentle giants: on the frontline of the battle to save Africa's elephants  

Across Africa, elephant poaching is happening on an industrial scale. Though elephant killing is down in Kenya and conservationists are hopeful, the battle to save the largest animals on the Earth is far from being won

In the Samburu National Reserve in northern Kenya, when the fierce heat of the sun has softened into a gentle evening glow, David Daballen and I climb into a jeep to find some elephants.

As we drive through the savannah, Daballen, a conservationist at Save the Elephants, points out family groups and individuals within them. “These are the Butterflies, this group is Storms, here are the Spices,” he says. We have been looking out for Cinnamon, the Spices' matriarch, and suddenly there she is: around 50 years old, huge and tuskless, having been born without any precious ivory. Close to her is Habiba, who was orphaned along with seven siblings when poachers killed their mother in 2011. The orphans were adopted by Cinnamon and the rest of the Spices.

They are a crucial part of the ecosystem, and an iconic species. Can you imagine them no longer existing?

Related: Elephants on the path to extinction - the facts

The rangers could hear the bull making death sounds a loud rumble

It's not like the battle has been won the threat is still very real but it's not on the scale of a few years ago

Elephants have a humbling effect on humans; they make us realise that perhaps we are not the masters of the universe

Related: Why the Guardian is spending a year reporting on the plight of elephants

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First test of oral rabies vaccine brings hope to the world's rarest canid  
A new study reports on field trials of the oral vaccine SAG2 in Ethiopian wolves, Africa's most threatened carnivore and the world's rarest canid. The trials are the first ever conducted in wild populations of an endangered carnivore.  
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.@John_CITES: “In the right circumstances, trade can be an incentive for managing wildlife sustainably” https://t.co/HMa5GplLmX 
https://t.co/HMa5GplLmX 

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In These Video Games, You Care for Badger Babies and Wolf Pups  
Swedish video game studio Might and Delight is making the fur fly.  
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Limousine Confessions: Inside the Car with a Celebrity Chauffeur  
"There are a lot of fringe benefits - I've had clients autograph certain things for me without my asking."  
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Bird bugs shed new light on malaria infection  
A study into bird malaria could provide important clues about the causes of parasite co-infections in animals, including people, report investigators. They found that not only the bird's habitat but also the interactions between parasites can impact a bird's risk of malaria infection.  
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RC-135 Taxiing At RAF Mildenhall  

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A USAF RC-135 Rivet Joint Taxiing at RAF Mildenhall during sunset

 
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August Sun over the Thames  

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Gorgeous August sunset over the Thames River in London, Ontario.

 
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New London Pride  

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Ampphire Photography 2016.
New London Pride - August 27th 2016.

 
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Boardwalk - New London Pride  

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Ampphire Photography 2016.
New London Pride - August 27th 2016.

 
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Boardwalk - New London Pride  

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Ampphire Photography 2016.
New London Pride - August 27th 2016.

 
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Boardwalk - New London Pride  

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Ampphire Photography 2016.
New London Pride - August 27th 2016.

 
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Boardwalk - New London Pride  

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Ampphire Photography 2016.
New London Pride - August 27th 2016.

 
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Sunset Beach - New London Pride  

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Ampphire Photography 2016.
New London Pride - August 27th 2016.

 
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Sunset Beach - New London Pride  

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Ampphire Photography 2016.
New London Pride - August 27th 2016.

 
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Sunset Beach - New London Pride  

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Ampphire Photography 2016.
New London Pride - August 27th 2016.

 
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Sunset Beach - New London Pride  

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Ampphire Photography 2016.
New London Pride - August 27th 2016.

 
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Sunset Beach - New London Pride  

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Ampphire Photography 2016.
New London Pride - August 27th 2016.

 
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Sunset Beach - New London Pride  

ampphirephotography posted a photo:

Ampphire Photography 2016.
New London Pride - August 27th 2016.

 
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Beach Sunset - New London Pride  

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Ampphire Photography 2016.
New London Pride - August 27th 2016.

 
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Beach Sunset - New London Pride  

ampphirephotography posted a photo:

Ampphire Photography 2016.
New London Pride - August 27th 2016.

 
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Beach Sunset - New London Pride  

ampphirephotography posted a photo:

Ampphire Photography 2016.
New London Pride - August 27th 2016.

 
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Beach Sunset - New London Pride  

ampphirephotography posted a photo:

Ampphire Photography 2016.
New London Pride - August 27th 2016.

 
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Beach Sunset - New London Pride  

ampphirephotography posted a photo:

Ampphire Photography 2016.
New London Pride - August 27th 2016.

 
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Beach Sunset - New London Pride  

ampphirephotography posted a photo:

Ampphire Photography 2016.
New London Pride - August 27th 2016.

 
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Beach Sunset - New London Pride  

ampphirephotography posted a photo:

Ampphire Photography 2016.
New London Pride - August 27th 2016.

 
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http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/08/31/491947946/how-an-edible-battery-could-power-medical-robots-you-swallow?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=technology  
How An Edible Battery Could Power Medical Robots You Swallow  

Tiny devices sent into the human body for diagnosing and treating diseases run on batteries that may contain toxic materials. Researchers have come up with a safer battery made of natural pigments.

 
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http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/08/31/491817890/how-snapchat-became-a-virtual-confessional-for-sexual-assault-victims?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=technology  
How Snapchat Became A Virtual Confessional For Sexual Assault Victims  

A journalist wanted to tell the stories of two rape victims while protecting their identities. How would he do it?

 
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http://www.npr.org/2016/08/31/492057152/fbi-warns-state-election-offices-to-be-wary-of-hackers?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=technology  
FBI Warns State Election Offices To Be Wary Of Hackers  

The FBI and other government security agencies are protecting against cyberattacks that might affect the elections. Hackers tried to gain access to two state voter registration databases this summer.

 
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http://www.npr.org/2016/08/31/492057159/how-1-video-game-is-trying-to-make-the-leap-to-esport?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=technology  
How Video Game 'Overwatch' Is Trying To Make The Leap To eSport  

There's lots of money to be made by turning a video game into a competitive sport, or eSport. There are millions of fans watching video game athletes compete for millions of dollars in prize money.

 
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http://www.npr.org/2016/08/30/491984291/facebook-faces-trending-news-problems-after-firing-curators?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=technology  
Facebook Faces Trending News Problems After Firing Curators  

On Friday, news site Quartz reported that Facebook fired its "news curators" and replaced them with algorithms to compile the news that ends up on Facebook's "Trending" news section. Many users took note when a fake article about Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly was trending.

 
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http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/08/30/491925278/-ifafricawasaschool-who-would-be-the-nerd-jock-most-popular?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=technology  
#IfAfricaWasASchool, Who Would Be The Nerd? Jock? Most Popular?  

A trending hashtag on Twitter invites people to personify countries in Africa with various schoolyard archetypes.

 
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Super low tide in London, Houses of Parliament and the Wheel  

Christine's Observations posted a photo:

London's famous houses of parliament and the London Eye as seen from the Thames shore. Today was a magical day in London. Although the sky wasn't orange or pink, it was a subtle blue. Beautiful for pictures.

 
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5 Things I Learned In My First Year As A Vegan  

A photo posted by nzinga young (@veganzinga) on Jun 17, 2016 at 6:14pm PDT

Going vegan has been a learning process.

Learning the atrocities of the meat and dairy industries and living more ethically are part of it, but here are other things I learned during my first year as an ethical vegan.

Exploitation is everywhere.

I was on vacation when I realized the $5 I paid to take a picture with a python was supporting its captivity. Colored candies I bought for my niece seemed vegan at the time, but were probably dyed with bug juice. Getting my sunscreen and multivitamins right was hard enough, but every few months I learned something new.

I didn't realize how pervasive animal exploitation is in our culture.

I didn't realize how pervasive animal exploitation is in our culture until I had to become more mindful. I'm a lot better now, but I'm sure there are a few more "uh oh" moments left in me.

Vegans are nicer in person.

My experiences with vegans online and offline have been very different.

Some online vegans can be pretty intense. Honest questions from aspiring vegans and differing views from well-meaning people are subject to brutal criticism in Facebook groups. There are more great vegans on social media than unnecessarily judgmental ones, but I have yet to meet a rude vegan offline.

The people I've met have been lovely. We can discuss differing opinions without raising our voices. We may not always agree, but we honor and respect each other for being different parts of the same fight.

I'm not sure if the anonymity of the internet makes people bolder or if I'm not in the right circles, but my view of vegans changed for the better when I started connecting in person.

A photo posted by nzinga young (@veganzinga) on Jul 20, 2016 at 6:35pm PDT

Activists are trying their best.

If you maintain a consistent argument and fight for full liberation, you're called a rigid abolitionist who's too stuck in your ways.

If you work for incremental change and improved conditions for farm animals, you're called a dirty welfarist who's doing more harm than good.

And let's not get started on vegans who urge us to consider the human rights issues tied into animal exploitation.

As a new vegan, I started to believe these reviews of vegan thought leaders, but I have yet to meet anyone from differing camps who wasn't passionate about animal liberation. The methods may differ from person to person, but the ultimate goal of freedom for all animals seems to be the same.

Connecting with vegans helped me formulate my own opinion about the biggest names in the movement. I may still disagree with their tactics -- especially ones that disrespect other social justice movements -- but everyone seems to be making an impact the best way they know how.

Intersectionality matters.

With a situation as dire as systematic murder, it's easy to focus solely on what's best for non-human animals. That's why it's important to have vegan organizations with a broader perspective. Groups that understand all oppression is intertwined and remind us that fighting for animals doesn't mean disregarding other injustices.

Collectively Free protests the forced impregnation of dairy cows and the underpaid Ethiopian workers that keep your favorite coffee shop in business.

Food Empowerment Project reminds us that the factory farm employees we often vilify are also being exploited.

Veganism is certainly about animals, but it doesn't mean we disrespect our own species along the way.

Veganism is certainly about animals, but it doesn't mean we disrespect our own species along the way.

I should be doing more.

I spent a lot of this year buying vegan without being vegan. I was caught up in vegan consumerism without doing anything to inspire change. I hope my latest initiative helps vegans everywhere get those closest to them to understand the importance of a vegan lifestyle.

My goal is to have a bigger impact during my second year of veganism. For more on my initiative to get our friends and family to go vegan, visit Wanyama Box.

-- 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 Write Questions: Advice From The Wrong Side Of The Lens  

Photo by Rhododendrites (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

I am unashamed to admit it: I am terribly proud of my people.

To what "people" am I referring here? To doctors? To scientists? To astronauts and aspiring astronaut-types? I'm surely proud of all those people. Today, I'm referring to another group to which I belong; to something I've done on and off for more than half my life; to one of the most important things I've ever done, as well as one of the most important things that occurs in a truly free and democratic society. I am referring, of course, to the press.

My people - journalists - are amazing. We bust in doors behind which lie nefarious activities that undermine the basic tenets of our civil liberties. We point the spotlight on violations of human rights. We call "foul" when justice isn't being served and, in that sense, are our own sort of justice. Therein lies the agony and the ecstasy of the media: with words, sounds, and images, we convene trials, summon the accused, calls witnesses, and cause judgments to be made. Like an outstanding attorney, an excellent journalist solicits input from relevant experts and arranges concrete evidence in such a way that the jury - our audience - can make an informed decision. In outstanding journalism - not editorial, just plain ol' features about life and the people who live it - there's no need to prosecute or to defend. The facts, well-presented, do that for themselves. The facts, poorly presented or not presented at all, twist and maul the truth and raze our ability as professionals to educate, empower, and vouchsafe civilization.



Photo By Txbeaker [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons


These days, both facts and the way in which they are presented are more malleable than ever. When I first got into the field, it wasn't so. Back then, I inked an honest-to-god press. The thing was a behemoth - a giant born from the black depths of global mechanization. You basically had to wrestle it in order to get your paper out. Every word you fed into that thing you thought about. Then you thought about it twice and twice again, because lord knows you didn't want to go more rounds with that infernal machine than was absolutely necessary. My summer at The Otter Valley News and Views is witnessed by the ink particles still embedded deep within the lining of my lungs.

Photography used to follow a similar plodding, dedicated to-the-point-of-cultish course. At The Daily Californian, we photographers rolled our own black-and-white film, ran up and down at sporting events at nearly the same pace as the players, and worshiped the smell of fixer in the morning- or at least pretended to, because what we sweated (and sometimes bled) for mattered. Our shots were a critical part of the process. They provided more than just meaning and context. Photographs printed on paper drew people in: they gave the words our colleagues penned the opportunity to inform readers and transform the world for the better. That was before I graduated from college, before I built something that flew into space, before I ever laid hands on a patient. Long before I ever saved someone's life, through journalism, I was able to have a significant, positive impact on the lives of my fellow human beings. And also: really great calves.

So here I am, 18 years and several degrees later, dealing first-hand with journalism from the far side of the lens. A lot has changed. For one, the cameras are now in my face, not hanging about my neck as they ought to be. The questions will be coming my way. In 48 hours, my exit from "Mars" will be attended by 55 members of the media (and my brother, who has promised to heckle me "like a reporter"). On either side of me will be five very nice, very smart, very tired innocent bystanders: my crewmates, who have born a ceaseless onslaught of media for the last 12 months with an impressive amount of grace.

In return for our patience, we've had some outstanding coverage. My most sincere thanks to VICE, The History Channel, The Surge, BBC Stargazer, The University of Rhode Island, The British Journal of Medicine, Radio New Zealand, Voices from L5 and many others for your thoughtful, thorough, and accurate pieces. We've also had our share of "What the heck is this? We don't play xBox! No one has actually been chosen to go to Mars! As for sending robots ahead of time to build our shelters for us... it's a cool idea, but not, as some people would have you think, "a done deal." Those last two informational travesties resulted from what increasingly passes for reporting: taking a story written by someone else, distilling it (badly), sprinkling it with Googled facts, and passing it off as news.*

Here we arrive at something else that's changed since that fateful day when I talked my way into a job shooting mayoral candidates, house-fires, extra softball innings, and other natural disasters for a living: As much good journalism as there is (more than ever, really), really bad media abounds.

What's the disparity between good journalism and...not? Here's my view: a journalist gathers and contextualizes information such that readers can imbue it with social relevance and personal meaning. Making up facts, distilling other peoples' articles without adding value, and lifting quotes from blogs posts rather than conducting interviews is not journalism. It takes up space in news feeds, but it isn't news. Predigested and filling, it lacks mentally nutritional value while giving readers a serious case of brain gas.

True, there's always been fluff out there. Also true: like the scarlet letter, sensationalism used to be highly visible from a distance (and for the same reason). Clearly marked by cheap newsprint yellowing before it even hit the stands or by super-glossy covers with garish titles, these tabloids practically glowed when held against a dark background. If you wanted news, you had to pluck off your doorstep or out of a metal box at a busy intersection.

These days, good journalists and bad media are jammed into the same space. No books, no covers: just the great equalizer of pixels on a screen. In the digital age, the friendly labeling we once counted on to help us discriminate between medicine and poison - between information and aggrandizement - has faded away. A text from your mother and a text from a scammer claiming that your mother is in the hospital and needs $10,000 for a procedure appear exactly the same way on your phone's LCD. An opinion piece written on an iPad on the way home from work may look as, or more, legitimate than a Pulitzer-winning piece of investigative reporting. On the surface, these two often appear the same.

That's one major change since I got into this business in 1996. The other is that properly trained, properly-paid journalists are vastly outnumbered by people under deadline to write click-bait.

So: what's a simulated astronaut to do?

Fundamentally, my job, whether I'm an astronaut or a reporter or a doctor, is to make things work: to take the limited resources at hand and deliver a victory for the home team. Ship me anywhere in the 'verse. Make the delay 20 minutes, 200 hours, or 40 days and 40 nights. Whatever the apparent barriers, I won't abandon my people - many of whom are or could be good writers who aren't given the time or training to make their product what it rightfully should be. I can't change that right now, but I can help even the odds stacked against us all by expediency, mediocrity, and inertia.

On 8/28 you will be able to ask us any question in the world. To help even the odds, here's a list of questions we've already answered many, many times:

• What have you learned?
• 
  
• What do you miss?
• 
  
• What did you eat?
• 
  
• Have you seen The Martian?
• 
  
• How did it feel to not have the Sun and the wind in your face for a year?
• 
  
• What's the first thing you're going to do?
• 
  
• What's been the biggest challenge about being on Mars?
• 
  
• Do you guys argue? How do you deal with conflict?
• 
  
• What do you do if someone gets sick?
• 
  
• Have there been any disasters during the mission?
• 
  
• Do you really want to go to Mars?
• 
  
• Did this mission - do any simulations - help pave the way for the human exploration of Mars?
• 
  
• How is this simulation different from Mars?
• 
  
• How did your families react to your decision to go into isolation?
• 
  
• Did you always want to be an astronaut?
• 
  
• Have you ever felt like quitting?
• 
  
• What will be the hardest part about coming back to Earth?
• 
  
• Would you do it again?
• 
  
• Are any of you signed up for the one-way trip?

We're very glad that people are curious enough about our mission to ask any question that comes to mind. At the same time, anyone locked in a box with no direct access to the outside world, no fresh food except the small amount that they can grow in whatever space they aren't sleeping on, and only five flatmates can easily imagine what they are going to miss: more friends, family, sunshine, wind, flowers, pineapple, sushi, long walks in the woods, and tailgating at Cal games (go Bears!). If "What do you miss?" was a mystery, thanks to the power of Reddit, six crew blogs, and countless news articles, that mystery has been solved.

To my fellow journalists out there: there are much better questions to be asked and answered. For the record, the questions that were truly mysterious until I arrived on "Mars" and have never/rarely been asked by the media are:

1. What turned out to be replaceable? What foods were replaceable, or even better/easier to make? What new favorite food took the place of the old one that you can't have?
   
   
2. You can't talk directly to your family - how well do the other things that you can do compensate for that? And how well does your new family, your crew, compensate for it?
   
   
3. While nothing can replace sunshine and wind, how well do the new adventures that you get to have compensate for their temporary loss? How well does the new filter between you and the world function to give you a sense of peace and the ability to accomplish things that you would struggle to accomplish otherwise, with the world knocking at your door?
   
   
4. Now that you have been there for a year, what message do you have for the people of Earth about their planet?
   
   
5. What message do you have for the folks designing the human Mars missions?
   
   
6. Name one total disaster - suits, radios, experiments, food recipes - and how, if you were able to salvage something from it, you did.
   
   
7. Name an epic win and how you accomplished it.
   
   
8. How is human society going to have to change to survive and thrive on Mars?
   
   
9. What do you expect will be extremely challenging for you when you return to Earth and what's your plan for overcoming that challenge?
   
   
10. What do you think will be the thing that you remember most - the dreaded memory and the cherished memory?
    
    
11. What's the weakness that could have torn this mission apart? What's the strength, or strengths, that saved it?
    
    
12. Did you find all the media attention flattering or annoying? How weird is it to be a journalist inside a Mars mission?
    
    
13. Did any of you get sick or get hurt? If that had happened on Mars would you have been alright?
    
    
14. Do you think that six people will be enough - or too many?
    
    
15. Did you get enough support from the people of Earth? What else could we have done to help this mission?
    
    
16. Do you plan to drive right away, or will you be re-integrating back into the operation of heavy machinery slowly?
    
    
17. What advice do you have for choosing the next crew?
    
    
18. Would you have tried to vote from space? How do you think that future Mars crews should handle the political process?
    
    
19. We talk a lot about the science of these missions - what the role of art, music, entertainment during these long voyages?
    
    
20. In a place where there's no money and nothing to buy, what do you value?

When we ask the right questions, we get people thinking, challenging assumptions, and pushing the boundaries of what ought to come next. These are free from me to you. Go to!

We Martians are ready to meet the press. We've been getting ready all year. All that we ask in return for the time that we're giving you the minute we hit dirt - I have to let you photograph me before I can so much as hug my husband - is this: be journalists. Be the truth-advocates who held this country together for hundreds of years. Adventurers like us are always good for a story. We scientists have been keeping things interesting for the last few centuries. Astronauts - bright and shiny! - are the new kids on the block when it comes to popular coverage, and deservedly so. We've faced dangers and made sacrifices for twelve long months, and we thank you for your attention. So please, come one and come all to the show. And when you come, bring the right questions. When the hatch opens and we finally present ourselves to you, that's the signal: It's YOUR turn to be the hero. To write our way into the future. To find the facts, solicit the opinions, and frame the stories that will make the last year - our lives in service to science and Earth and all of humankind - meaningful. To make the fact that I waited 366 days PLUS 10 minutes to hug my husband worthwhile. So let's do this, people. We scienced the heck out of this. Now, let's write the heck out of this.

You ask. We'll answer. Make me proud.


Courtesy of Wikimedia commons, public domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=197374

*Corrections were requested to all of these articles.

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science  

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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fquora%2Fare-dogs-really-that-diff_b_11794770.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dscience%26ir%3DScience&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Are Dogs Really That Different From Wolves?  
How are dogs and wolves similar and different? originally appeared on Quora - the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights.

Answer by Oliver Starr, wolf handler, wilderness advocate, on Quora:

How are dogs and wolves similar and different? In a word? Intensity. Take any behavior exhibited by even the most uninhibited dog, then turn it up to thirty-seven and you've got that same behavior in a wolf.

Put another way, dogs dig holes; wolves dig mines. Dogs might rip up your sofa, a wolf will reduce one to feathers,splinters, springs and bits of fabric no more than a one-inch square.

I like to call wolves "raw dogs", "proto-dogs", or "the blueprint". Even with captive bred wolves, they exhibit a broader and more complex range of behavior than what I've experienced with dogs.

Even primitive dog breeds (more "wolf like" dogs) seem to be less adept at solving problems and more inclined to look towards a human for help.

Wolves have around 33% more gray matter than a comparably sized domestic dog. In general, I've witnessed the ability among wolves and high content wolfdogs to solve problems quickly that stymy dogs until they give up.

Aqutaq [my wolf], for example is incredibly adept with a lead line. She fully understands the concept of the line and that it connects us in such a way that we must be on the same side of any tall obstacle. She might be sixteen feet in front of me and on the wrong side of a tree, yet she'll anticipate this issue, and alter course such that she moves to pass the tree on the side that matches mine.

If she becomes entangled while moving through brush, she also understands to retrace the path of the line to unwind it.

Physically, they're very similar, although domestic dogs can eat foods that contain many more carbohydrates as a result of their long-term association with people. Wolves are also only reproductively active once a year, whereas dogs can cycle multiple times. Pound for pound wolves are stronger, have better endurance, have a much greater bite force, and are faster than all but a very select few breeds of dog.

For those that are curious, in my life I've had many different breeds of domestic dogs including:

• 
  
• Malamutes
• 
  
• Shepherd-Collies
• 
  
• Border collies
• 
  
• Dachshunds
• 
  
• Pomeranians
• 
  
• Heinz-57 mutts
• 
  
• Varying wolfdog mixes
• 
  
• Selectively bred high-content wolf dogs
• 
  
• Wild-caught wolves (the one that ate me)
• 
  
• Offspring of same wild caught wolf
• 
  
• Offspring of lower-content wolfdogs
• 
  

This question originally appeared on Quora. - the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.



More questions:​

• 
  
• Wolves: What should I do if I see a wolf in the wild?
• 
  
• Bears: What should I do if I encounter a bear in the wild?
• 
  
• Predators: Is it possible for humans to live safely alongside predators?
• 
  

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science  

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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fthembile-joyini%2Fhigh-seas-biodiversity-ag_b_11771196.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dscience%26ir%3DScience&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
High Seas Biodiversity Agreement: the importance of sustainable access and benefit sharing  
As African States, we are fully cognisant of the contribution of oceans and seas to our development. In this regard, the far-reaching positive implications as well as the benefits of the BBNJ process will be understood and appreciated even more, now that we are standing at a juncture where ocean-based economic development is at the top of the agenda for many Governments.

©James Warwick/Wildscreen

We welcome and appreciate the fact that the process towards the negotiation and adoption of an Internationally Legally Binding Instrument under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is potentially one of the most significant in international environmental law-making in the twenty-first century. It promises to address legal, governance and regulatory gaps in UNCLOS, including the issues identified in the package agreed in 2011, namely the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, in particular, marine genetic resources and questions on the sharing of benefits; measures such as area-based management tools, including marine protected areas; environmental impact assessments; capacity building and transfer of marine technology.

We are also of the view that the application of the common heritage of mankind principle in the new treaty would serve both to promote a sustainable access regime and ensure a benefit-sharing regime. The sharing of benefits is the key element for which the common heritage of mankind is best known. As John Noyes observes, benefit sharing reflects the idea of the need to promote the development of developing countries--an idea that is reflected in a multitude of international law instruments. The rationale for a benefit-sharing element of the common heritage of mankind is captured in the famous statement of the then Permanent Representative of Malta to the United Nations, Ambassador Pardo, warning against the failure to implement the common heritage of mankind principle. Ambassador Pardo warned that, "There would be intolerable injustice that would reserve the plurality of the world's resources for the exclusive benefit of less than a handful of nations. The strong would get stronger, the richer would get richer, and among the rich themselves there would arise an increasing and insuperable differentiation between two or three and the remainder." Ambassador Pardo's argument, and, indeed, the foundation of the common heritage of mankind principle's benefit-sharing component, is based on the pursuit of a more equitable framework.

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.

 
science  

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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fjohn-w-traphagan%2Fis-signal-from-hd164595-e_b_11775266.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dscience%26ir%3DScience&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Is Signal From HD164595 Evidence Of Aliens Or Just Another False Alarm?  
Social media and news outlets the past few days have been abuzz with the prospects of a strong signal apparently coming from the star unromantically known at HD 164595, which is about 94 light years from Earth. Reading news reports, one would think that the signal was intercepted last week, but actually it was picked up over a year ago in May of 2015.

Indeed, the buzz is reminiscent of extensive news coverage that surrounded KIC 8462852, now known as Tabby's Star, last year when it was suggested by Penn State astronomer Jason Wright that the star's odd dimming behavior might be the result of an alien civilization building a mega-structure blocking the star's light. We've also seen recent fascination with the discovery of a rocky planet orbiting inside the habitable zone around Proxima Centauri, which is quite near (by galactic standards) Earth at a little over 4 light years distant. It's our next-door neighbor.

Scientists have been careful in expressing optimism over these unusual discoveries, noting that neither of the candidates for extraterrestrial civilizations are anything more than interesting at this point. There is no evidence right now that something artificial is going on either around KIC 8462852 or HD 164595 and it's not even certain that the signal under discussion now came from HD 164595.

Both METI International, using the Boquete Optical SETI Observatory in Panama, and the SETI Institute, using the Allen Telescope Array in California, have plans to train their observational equipment on HD 164595 to see if anything interesting might emerge that supports, or discounts, the idea that the signal was artificial. Perhaps something intriguing will show up.

However, SETI astronomer Seth Shostak makes several good points about the problems with HD 164595 being a signal from a civilization. For example, it would have required a great deal of power to generate the signal we received -- either the equivalent of all of humanity's power usage on Earth if it were aimed directly at us or the equivalent of the entire power output of the Sun if the broadcast was omnidirectional.

Neither of these conditions are impossible, but they should raise eyebrows. Oddly enough, it's the argument for the lower level of power usage that should raise significant questions. If the signal were a beacon aimed at Earth, we are forced to ask, why? At 94 light years away, as Shostak notes, our television and other signals have not yet had time to reach HD 164595. How would they know we are here? Of course, 94 years ago they may have had technology that would allow them to detect our presence, even if we were not sending out much in the way of signals at that time. But it's difficult to imagine how they would pick up the presence of Earth civilization as it existed in 1920. And if they were somehow able to do this, why would they send a message to a civilization that didn't look as though it could respond?

Perhaps they are both prescient and very patient. They knew that a century later, humans would have the capacity to send out signals at the speed of light, so they anticipated that. And they are patient enough to wait two centuries for an answer.

This explanation is possible, but if that alien civilization were anything like us, it would seem pretty unlikely. It's best to expect other explanations will work better for this signal until we have more evidence. Of course, if the signal doesn't appear again, it may be little more than another fascinating data point like the WOW! Signal, that showed up once leaving little more than a tantalizing mystery.

The public and news media should keep in mind that science is a system of organized skepticism. And it's that way for a good reason; skepticism keeps us from drawing unwarranted conclusions from what we observe. When it comes to SETI, we should avoid getting too excited about possible signals of artificial and extraterrestrial origin, because usually there is a better explanation than little green men from Alpha Centauri, whether or not it's a beautiful place that we ought to see.

-- 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.

 
science  

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http://twitter.com/zooinspectors/status/771114254036561921 
@CITES Convention International Trade in @endangered Species notprotecting #elephants see @BFFoundation Ivorytrade https://t.co/aTZMN4MvXN 
https://t.co/aTZMN4MvXN 

%feed  
http://twitter.com/ProtectWild/status/771108663239008256 
In a world of 7 billion people how can we protect wildlife? Article by @John_CITES #IUCNCongress #CoP17 @UNDP @CITES https://t.co/alMbd2jZcF 
https://t.co/alMbd2jZcF 

%feed  
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Fsculptorlil%2F29335861026%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Sunrise 31 Aug 2016  

Sculptor Lil posted a photo:

 
images  

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London Eye  

prrobinson81 posted a photo:

I'd already got a couple of shots of the Eye on my walk around, however I realised the light had changed and managed to get back just in time to grab this shot in between the commuters who use the area.

 
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Tireless  

Andrew H-W posted a photo:

Olympus digital camera

 
images  

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Tower Bridge  

tvrdypavel posted a photo:

Tower Bridge in London on a beautiful sunny day

 
images  

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Big Ben  

tvrdypavel posted a photo:

Big Ben and Houses of parliament at dusk, London, UK

 
images  

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Big Ben  

tvrdypavel posted a photo:

Big Ben and Houses of parliament at dusk, London, UK

 
images  

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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fgo.theregister.com%2Ffeed%2Fwww.theregister.co.uk%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2Fobject_dents_sentinel1a_satellite%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Drama in orbit: Brazen UFO attacks Earth's Sentinel-1A satellite  

Plucky climate-change probe fends off cosmic intruder

The European Space Agency's Sentinel-1A satellite has been hit by an unidentified flying object while in orbit. Panic not: the probe remains fully operational.…

 
science  

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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fworld%2F2016%2Faug%2F31%2Fsea-otters-killed-california-santa-cruz-beaches&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Shooting deaths of sea otters in California prompt investigation  

Bodies of four male sea otters, a federally protected animal whose killing can be punishable with jail time, washed up on beaches over course of eight days

Federal and state officials are investigating the shooting deaths of California sea otters, after the bodies of four male otters were found washed up on beaches near Santa Cruz.

On Monday, the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced a $10,000 reward for information that will lead to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for fatally shooting three sea otters that were found between 12-19 August.

Continue reading...  
gaia  

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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fcarol-browner%2Fthe-game-changer-new-york_b_11803042.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dgreen%26ir%3DGreen&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
The Game Changer: New York's Clean Energy Standard and Nuclear Energy  
For years, I've said that when it comes to the challenge of fighting climate change, we will need every tool available to reduce carbon pollution and create opportunities for new clean energy technology.

Yet, despite a world that demands more carbon-free energy - not less - public policies have left some of the tools in the toolbox. Until now.

Last month, with the help of Governor Andrew Cuomo's leadership, the New York State PSC took unprecedented action in passing a Clean Energy Standard that, in addition to ensuring ample opportunity for more wind, solar, and energy efficiency, recognizes the important role of existing carbon-free nuclear power. This is a game-changer: never before has nuclear received economic credit for its environmental benefits.

New York State is now the first government to include nuclear in its clean energy policy, providing a mechanism that will help keep New York's nuclear energy plants open. In the wake of an energy market that did not previously adequately value this power, the state faced the very real prospect of having these plants shut down.

The consequences of these shutdowns would have been dire, as New York's existing nuclear power plants provide the majority of its carbon-free power. In fact, New York's nuclear plants provide 61 percent of the state's emission-free electricity and avoid 26 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, equating to a societal value of almost $1.2 billion annually based on federal estimates.

Not only does New York recognize that meeting its own carbon reduction targets would be impossible without nuclear, achieving the carbon pollution reductions set forth in the federal Clean Power Plan would become virtually impossible in the near term. Any premature nuclear plant shutdown would represent a setback in the state reaching its clean energy goals.

The same goes for states across the country, where nuclear is the source of the bulk of our carbon-free power today. For example, in the case of the closure of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in late 2014, the plant's output was replaced by natural gas-fired generators, which produced an additional 3.1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in New England in 2015.

And, a recent report issued by Bloomberg New Energy Finance found that if currently unprofitable nuclear energy plants were to shut down and were replaced with gas-fired generators, there would be an increase of 200 million tons of carbon pollution from power plants every year.

Across the country, a number of other states face the prospects of premature nuclear plant shutdowns, threatening our position as a clean energy leader. The timing couldn't be worse. The ten hottest years on record have all occurred since 1998. More carbon pollution will only exacerbate the problem.

Now more than ever, states should look to New York as a model as to how they can fairly value all forms of clean energy for their carbon free attributes.

Last month's news represents a meaningful step in the fight against climate change that will impact our energy policy outlook for decades to come. This is a worthwhile cause that Governor Cuomo should be acknowledged for undertaking, not only for the sake of cleaner air, but for establishing a common sense and fair policy of recognition for nuclear that ensures that nuclear power remains a vital component of our clean energy strategy for years to come.

-- 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.

 
gaia  

%feed  
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fcarol-browner%2Fthe-game-changer-new-york_b_11802988.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dgreen%26ir%3DGreen&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
The Game Changer: New York's Clean Energy Standard and Nuclear Energy  
For years, I've said that when it comes to the challenge of fighting climate change, we will need every tool available to reduce carbon pollution and create opportunities for new clean energy technology.

Yet, despite a world that demands more carbon-free energy - not less - public policies have left some of the tools in the toolbox. Until now.

In August, with the help of Governor Andrew Cuomo's leadership, the New York State PSC took unprecedented action in passing a Clean Energy Standard that, in addition to ensuring ample opportunity for more wind, solar, and energy efficiency, recognizes the important role of existing carbon-free nuclear power. This is a game-changer: never before has nuclear received economic credit for its environmental benefits.

New York State is now the first government to include nuclear in its clean energy policy, providing a mechanism that will help keep New York's nuclear energy plants open. In the wake of an energy market that did not previously adequately value this power, the state faced the very real prospect of having these plants shut down.

The consequences of these shutdowns would have been dire, as New York's existing nuclear power plants provide the majority of its carbon-free power. In fact, New York's nuclear plants provide 61 percent of the state's emission-free electricity and avoid 26 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, equating to a societal value of almost $1.2 billion annually based on federal estimates.

Not only does New York recognize that meeting its own carbon reduction targets would be impossible without nuclear, achieving the carbon pollution reductions set forth in the federal Clean Power Plan would become virtually impossible in the near term. Any premature nuclear plant shutdown would represent a setback in the state reaching its clean energy goals.

The same goes for states across the country, where nuclear is the source of the bulk of our carbon-free power today. For example, in the case of the closure of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in late 2014, the plant's output was replaced by natural gas-fired generators, which produced an additional 3.1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in New England in 2015.

And, a recent report issued by Bloomberg New Energy Finance found that if currently unprofitable nuclear energy plants were to shut down and were replaced with gas-fired generators, there would be an increase of 200 million tons of carbon pollution from power plants every year.

Across the country, a number of other states face the prospects of premature nuclear plant shutdowns, threatening our position as a clean energy leader. The timing couldn't be worse. The ten hottest years on record have all occurred since 1998. More carbon pollution will only exacerbate the problem.

Now more than ever, states should look to New York as a model as to how they can fairly value all forms of clean energy for their carbon free attributes.

Last month's news represents a meaningful step in the fight against climate change that will impact our energy policy outlook for decades to come. This is a worthwhile cause that Governor Cuomo should be acknowledged for undertaking, not only for the sake of cleaner air, but for establishing a common sense and fair policy of recognition for nuclear that ensures that nuclear power remains a vital component of our clean energy strategy for years to come.

-- 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.

 
gaia  

%feed  
http://twitter.com/BrettWHowell/status/771091207669878784 
In a world of 7B people how can we protect #wildlife? #iucncongress #COP17 #CITES @conservationx @perctweets https://t.co/MfjRvWYnGN 
https://t.co/MfjRvWYnGN 

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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theatlantic.com%2Fvideo%2Findex%2F497933%2Fadapting-to-hearing-loss-in-old-age%2F%3Futm_source%3Dfeed&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Adapting to Hearing Loss in Old Age  

The slow decline of hearing in old age is frustrating and alienating. Tyler Trumbo's short documentary, The Sound Inside, follows three elderly people who are taking a lip-reading class to mitigate the effects that hearing loss will have on their lives. The film focuses heavily on sound design and mirrors the silence and muffled noises that have become these characters' realities. “When you can't hear, you don't know what you can't hear,” says one woman. “Without the hearing aid, suddenly I feel like I've dropped in a black hole. All I hear is the noise in my head.”

 
general  

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http://twitter.com/katzyna/status/771086545667313665 
In a world of 7 billion people how can we protect wildlife? @John_CITES https://t.co/TKCU72elwc #caviar #cacti #rosewood #orchids #CoP17 
https://t.co/TKCU72elwc 

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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Fchearn73%2F29081227340%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
This is London  

chearn73 posted a photo:

Yup. It's London, UK.

 
images  

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Pylon powered sunset. #pylon #sunset #cloudporn #beautyeverywhere #urban #urbannature #nature #grateful #streetphotography #streettogs #power #glow #london #peephole #metal #clouds #sky #powerlines #cranes #gentrification #geometry  

jophipps1 posted a photo:

 
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Big Ben  

tvrdypavel posted a photo:

Big Ben and Houses of parliament at dusk, London, UK

 
images  

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Big Ben  

tvrdypavel posted a photo:

Big Ben and Houses of parliament at dusk, London, UK

 
images  

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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPhysicsWorld%2F%7E3%2Fn70n7EAoTrc%2Fus-board-gives-student-assistants-unionization-rights&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
US board gives student assistants unionization rights  
Decision overturns a 2004 ruling, but university representatives disagree with verdict  
science  

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Why use silicon qubits for quantum computing?  
Andrea Morello believes that classical computing might hold the key to quantum computing  
science  

%feed  
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fhung-vo%2Fthe-world-is-completely_b_11786892.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dgreen%26ir%3DGreen&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
The World Is Completely Urbanized  
In 2008, the United Nations declared that the world passed an unprecedented, but silent, benchmark: for the first time in history, the world is more urban than it is rural. This event had been anticipated for some time and was subject to constant academic reference in support of an "urban age" thesis. This conceptualization has been used in support of "city growth" and to justify the dominance of the city -- simultaneously conceptualized as the urban -- over other geographies and settlement types. In more recent years, this topic has been revisited by critical urban theorist Neil Brenner, Professor of Urban Theory at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Contrary to popular beliefs, Brenner argues that the world has been completely urbanized and warns of the danger in fetishizing "cityness."

Brenner and his colleague, Christian Schmid, have already deconstructed the flawed methodologies deployed by United Nations demographers to quantify the global urban population in an earlier publication. These demographers rely on UN Member States to individually report data on its population, which vary greatly by country. Mexico and China could have different urban populations depending on which official methods were used. Meanwhile, in India, an urban area has to satisfy these requirements:

i. A minimum population of 5,000
ii. At least 75 percent of the male main working population engaged in non-agricultural pursuits;
iii. A density of population of at least 400 persons per sq. km.

Not considering these practices, the natural inconsistency of UN Member States' reporting also raises questions over the accuracy of our urban age. UN reports could use data from Member States that can be nearly a decade old. If this is the case, what use does this narrative have in framing our decision-making at the local, state and global level, when the data is epistemologically and methodologically flawed in a way that makes international comparisons meaningless? Meanwhile, equating "urban" with "city" is problematic because it suggests that once a city's administrative boundary ends, the area is suddenly non-urban. This is only useful for planners to demarcate a line where services to a city's electricity, plumbing, water and the like become unavailable to developers wanting to build outside this border.

In his new piece titled "The Hinterland, Urbanised?", Brenner contends that the "capitalist form of urbanization continues to produce contextually specific patterns of agglomeration, but it also relentlessly transforms non-city spaces into zones of high-intensity, large-scale industrial infrastructure -- operational landscape." Because these landscapes lie outside our commonly perceived "urban" and beyond our immediate view in a conceptual "outside" or "blind field", it has subsequently evaded our attention and critical inspection. These sites range from deforested areas in Mato Grosso, Brazil, to phosphate mining pits in central Florida, to desert-agro-industrial infrastructures in Saudi Arabia. Brenner says "spaces of the non-city have been continuously operationalised in support of city-building processes throughout the global history of capitalist uneven development." These urban areas, which can be found throughout the world, even in "extreme territories", reflect a global or planetary urban phenomenon.


Image of a phosphate mining pit in Florida in 2011. USGS snapshot.

Brenner's investigation of contemporary urban conditions raises critical questions about the nature of our urban world from epistemological, pedagogical, and practical dimensions. If the entire world is urbanized in varying scales across the globe, how can planners and decision-makers respond to these changing geographies and develop comprehensive action plans? Surely the roles and responsibilities of managing these operational landscapes do not end with a city's administrative boundaries. Are state and national governments equipped with the professional knowledge and are in a position to ethically manage these sites?

The recent protests organized by the Sioux tribe to halt the construction of a $3.8 billion crude oil pipeline project in North Dakota clearly demonstrates the need for new forms of collaborative and participatory governance to curve the negative impacts of capitalist urbanization. The severity of the urban condition could be ascertained through taking a brief glance at the following map representing the various oil and gas pipelines in the United States. If complex and dense infrastructures are commonly associated with urban areas, wouldn't these expensive pipelines constitute those structures, too, and suggest large-scale "urban-ness"? This is just one of the many visualizations of our extensive urban framework--think about the effects when multiple layers of infrastructures and conditions, such as air pollution, are layered upon one another.


Image of gas transmission and hazardous liquid pipelines in the US. NPMS

It is clear that the world is more urban than commonly understood, or even completely in varying degrees. Decision-makers and planners must work in an open, democratic, and participatory manner to engage citizens in the development and management of these operational landscapes; otherwise, we will continue to allow "the silent violence of accumulation by dispossession and environmental destruction in the world's hinterlands and operational landscape." For aspiring planners (broadly defined) like myself, how can we re-imagine or fantasize about an alternate, more equitable and sustainable reality for these landscapes?

With the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) just around the corner, the urban--as more narrowly conceived by the global community--is entering the forefront of national and international agendas. The international community needs to leverage this opportunity to more critically examine our existing and emergent urban conditions in an effort to ameliorate the urban condition and honor the spirit and commitment of Agenda 2030, by "transforming our world".

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A New Book Called 'Cat Wars' Calls For Killing Free-Ranging Cats  

Cat Wars calls for a massive assault on all free-ranging cats

“From a conservation ecology perspective, the most desirable solution seems clear—remove all free-ranging cats from the landscape by any means necessary.” (Cat Wars, pp. 152-153)

In the process of writing about an on-going war on wolves (please see, for example, “Defenders of Wildlife Supports Killing Wolves: Livestock Win,” “Defenders of Wildlife = Defenders of Livestock? Why Do They Support Killing Wolves in Washington?”, and links therein), I received a new book by bird advocate Dr. Peter Marra, head of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, and writer Chris Santella, called Cat Wars: The Devastating Consequences of a Cuddly Killer.

Along with numerous other people, I've been wondering when killing “in the name of conservation” is going to stop. Some people think it's simply business as usual, and there aren't any workable non-lethal humane alternatives. Killing members of one species to save others of their species, or killing individuals of one species to save individuals of another species, is all well and good and that's the way it is. Some people say they don't like the killing but don't do much to stop it. Our human-dominated world presents numerous frustrating and complicated challenges. We're living in an epoch called the Anthropocene, the “age of humanity.” We're all over the place ― here, there, and everywhere ― and we're the cause for the unprecedented loss of other animals, their homes, and destructive climate change. Actually, we're living in the “rage of inhumanity” because there are far too many of us and we think we're the only show in town. 

The move from wolves to cats was dishearteningly seamless. Simply put, the authors of Cat Wars are confirmed bird advocates and activists and foes of all free-ranging cats. To wit, their book calls for a no holds barred, one-sided war on cats, in which the authors conclude, “From a conservation ecology perspective, the most desirable solution seems clear—remove all free-ranging cats from the landscape by any means necessary.” (pp. 152-153; please click here for information on the phrase “by any means necessary”). The authors use the phrase “free-ranging” to refer to feral, outdoor, and community cats.

Many of the topics they consider need to be discussed under the general umbrella centering on the ethics of pet keeping, a topic considered in detail by Psychology Today writer Dr. Jessica Pierce in her book called Run, Spot, Run: The Ethics of Keeping Pets (for an interview with Dr. Pierce please see “Are You Ready to Give Another Animal the Best Life Possible?). 

Clearly, the authors are not advocating removing free-ranging cats softly, nor are they advocating any form of euthanasia or mercy killing. Rather, they are advocating outright and unregulated removal “by any means necessary.” When I asked some people what this meant to them, answers ranged from trapping, snaring, poisoning, bludgeoning, and shooting. A number of people feared we would see violence “in the name of science.”

Lest anyone say that these are hysterical responses, one only has to read the very words that Marra and Santella wrote. It's not asking too much from people to write what they mean, and although the authors surely read through their manuscript many times as did reviewers and editors, the phrase “by any means necessary” remains. Cats are vilified and no attention is paid to the emotional lives of these sentient beings. 

Even those who endorsed this book can't agree on what it's actually all about. The comments on the back cover range all over the place. For example, Jonathan Franzen calls the book a “compassionate handling of a highly fraught issue,” Ted Williams sees it as a “dispassionate examination of America's free-ranging cat debacle,” whereas Scott Weidensaul claims the authors offer “commonsense solutions to one of the most polarizing issues in avian conservation.” It seems as if they didn't read the same book. In my opinion, this book is thoroughly dispassionate, and I shudder when I think that the call for an all out war on free-ranging cats “by any means necessary” could refer to anything that could possibly be called “compassionate handling” or “commonsense solutions.”

Collateral damage: In addition, the authors don't seem to care much about what's called “collateral damage,” the harming and killing of non-target species. Some of the methods of removing they sanction are incredibly non-selective and it will not only be free-ranging cats who are harmed and killed. I'm sure dogs and as well as other animals, including cats who escape the confines of their home, will be among the slaughtered. 

What Cat Wars is all about

The phrase “by any means necessary” is among the most reprehensible statements I've ever seen, and of course, in addition to it being morally repugnant, it is not based on science and it won't work. And, think about the horrific lesson it offers to youngsters. The authors totally ignore the cognitive and emotional lives of cats, and view them as mere disposable objects. I'm glad I'm not their dog, and I'm surely glad I'm not their cat. The suggestion to wage war on free-ranging cats essentially lays out what this sensationalist, fear-mongering, and one-sided book is all about. I suppose one might congratulate the authors for being so transparent about their dismissive attitude.

The description for Cat Wars, published by a prestigious university press, reads:

In 1894, a lighthouse keeper named David Lyall arrived on Stephens Island off New Zealand with a cat named Tibbles. In just over a year, the Stephens Island Wren, a rare bird endemic to the island, was rendered extinct. Mounting scientific evidence confirms what many conservationists have suspected for some time―that in the United States alone, free-ranging cats are killing birds and other animals by the billions. Equally alarming are the little-known but potentially devastating public health consequences of rabies and parasitic Toxoplasma passing from cats to humans at rising rates. Cat Wars tells the story of the threats free-ranging cats pose to biodiversity and public health throughout the world, and sheds new light on the controversies surrounding the management of the explosion of these cat populations.

This compelling book traces the historical and cultural ties between humans and cats from early domestication to the current boom in pet ownership, along the way accessibly explaining the science of extinction, population modeling, and feline diseases. It charts the developments that have led to our present impasse―from Stan Temple's breakthrough studies on cat predation in Wisconsin to cat-eradication programs underway in Australia today. It describes how a small but vocal minority of cat advocates has campaigned successfully for no action in much the same way that special interest groups have stymied attempts to curtail smoking and climate change. 

Cat Wars paints a revealing picture of a complex global problem―and proposes solutions that foresee a time when wildlife and humans are no longer vulnerable to the impacts of free-ranging cats. 

It's difficult for me to figure out why Princeton University Press would publish this book, not because it calls for a repulsive and outright war on cats, but rather because it lacks the scientific rigor that characterizes numerous other books they've published.

“Cat people” versus “bird people”: A false dichotomy

Early in Cat Wars there is a rather insidious attack on pro-cat people as not caring about the environment and wildlife, which is most likely completely untrue. On page 28 we read, “More and more people are valuing birds and swelling the ranks of bird-watchers. Likewise, there are more cat owners in America now than at any time in history. But far fewer people, it seems, can summon affection for both cats and wildlife—and empathy for those they perceive to be on the ‘other side.' As each side has swelled in numbers, the stage has been set for ‘bird people and ‘cat people' to square off, forgetting, perhaps, that they are all animal lovers in the first place.” 

It's hard to imagine that people who favor removing free-ranging cats “by any means necessary” truly love them. When I hear this I always say, “I'm glad they don't love me.” Yet, in another essay, we're told that Dr. Marra claims to like cats.

Along these lines, the third chapter of this book is called “The Rise of Bird Lovers and Cat Lovers: The Perfect Storm.” This chapter is the authors' interpretation (read: “skewed”) of the history of “bird lovers” and “cat lovers.” It concludes by saying that “Many cat advocates will aggressively contest the damage that free-ranging felines inflict upon bird populations. They will likewise deny the diseases that free-ranging cats spread to other mammals and even humans. But their hearsay and denials pale in the light of evidence of cat impacts on islands and the emerging hard science on their impacts on mainlands.” Again, the myth is repeated and developed that cat advocates are misguided, dangerous, and delusional people. 

In chapter 4, titled “The Science of Decline,” the authors write, “After forty-five years of bird population decline, it seems obvious that our currently available legal instruments are failing.” (p. 55) It recognizes that human activities are “largely responsible for the declines of bird species” (p. 56) and it is “difficult to identify with any precision the relative impact of a mortality factor, such as the free-ranging cat, to all birds that make these journeys over such large spatial areas and wide expanses of time—and most bird species (>75 percent) in North America migrate!” (my emphasis; p. 57) This comment hardly supports the authors' thesis that cats are responsible for a significant number of bird deaths.

The authors then go on to write about cats as dangerous vectors for disease (Chapter 5 is called “The Zombie Maker: Cats as Agents of Disease”), and they conclude, “Free-ranging cats clearly pose a significant threat to a number of wild animals … [the] solution is to remove them—once and for all—from the landscape.” (p. 94)

They also completely discount the use of Trap-Neuter Return (TNR) programs in their chapter 6 called “Trap-Neuter-Return: A Palatable Solution That Is No Solution At All.” For more on TNR programs please see “Key Scientific Studies on Trap-Neuter-Return” and “Evaluation of the effect of a long-term trap-neuter-return and adoption program on a free-roaming cat population” in which it is concluded, “A comprehensive long-term program of neutering followed by adoption or return to the resident colony can result in reduction of free-roaming cat populations in urban areas.”

Is the public really “blissfully unaware?”

In chapter 8 titled “A Landscape with Fewer Free-Ranging Cats: Better for Cats, Better for Birds, Better for People” we read, “From a conservation ecology perspective, the most desirable solution seems clear—remove all free-ranging cats from the landscape by any means necessary.” (p. 152-153) Any means possible, of course, opens the door for killing cats using incredibly brutal methods. In addition, the public is blamed for being “blissfully unaware” of the significance of the problems at hand (p. 153). 

In this chapter we also read, “Perhaps the greatest obstacle to convincing humans to take greater responsibility for their pets and act more responsibly on behalf of their environment and the health of the greater society is the growing ignorance and indifference about the natural world.” (p. 166) This is a most insulting charge for which these authors offer absolutely no scientific support at all. It's just more blaming a public that is supposedly “blissfully unaware.” 

Here are a few more snippets:

“It is abundantly clear that free-ranging cats are not the primary threat to the future of birds and other wildlife. Habitat destruction, climate change, and pollution all come to bear on the well-being of wildlife populations; if we as a society hope to maintain these species for future generations, we need to act on all fronts to stem the tide. In the same light, we must act on many different fronts to reduce the populations of free-ranging cats and reduce their impact on native animal populations, both as predators and as vectors of disease. No one solution will prove a silver bullet; only a multipronged strategy will begin to reduce the number of free-ranging cats in the wild. A landscape with no (or at least fewer) free-ranging cats is the only hope for mitigating the toll these animals take on native wildlife and diminishing the spread of disease from cats to human populations.” (p. 145-146)

“Perhaps the owners did not view the birds and mammals that fall prey to domestic cats as sentient beings but instead as playthings for their beloved companions.” (p. 149)

“There is little question that free-ranging cats—both the unowned and the owned pets allowed to roam freely outside—pose a pending ecological and public-health disaster.” (p. 170)

Note that the authors recognize the victims of cat attacks as sentient beings, but feel it's totally fine to kill other sentient beings such as the cats and other nonhumans who will fall prey to efforts to kill all free-ranging cats. 

There will be blood: A conservation problem from hell

In a previous essay called “Thousands of Cormorants to be Killed: There Will be Blood” I wrote about an excellent piece by science writer Warren Cornwall called “There Will Be Blood,” and noted it is a must read for anyone interested in keeping up with current discussions and debates about the supposed need to kill animals of one species to save those of another species. At the beginning of his essay Mr. Cornwall writes, “The pressure to reach for a gun to help save one animal from another is stronger than ever. And it has triggered a conservation problem from hell.” He's right. Mr. Cornwall also notes that the history of conservation is “tinged with blood.” For example, noted conservationists John Audubon and Aldo Leopold were quite comfortable killing members of one species to save members of another species, and so too are many conservationists nowadays.

If some people, even very few, choose to follow Marra and Santella's advice to wage war on all free-ranging cats, there will indeed be blood, and an incredible amount of pain, suffering, and death. 

What should the future of conservation look like? When will the killing stop?

Should we kill for conservation? Open discussions and debates about the vexing and daunting question that centers on asking if we should kill for conservation are much-needed as we head into a future where more and more species will become imperiled and endangered because of what we are doing to them and to their dwindling habitats. We choose to destroy their homes and then we choose to destroy them. There is something very wrong, disheartening, and disingenuous about this course of action and the ways in which we decide who lives and who dies. 

We're going to have to make difficult choices in the future, and choosing not to kill in the name of conservation is a viable option that is now on the table. Do we really want to continue the bloody history of conservation strategies? Time will tell, but times truly are changing. However, you wouldn't know this from Cat Wars. I suppose teachers could use this book as an example of “conservation gone bad” and how not to solve the problems at hand.

Important lessons from compassionate conservation

While the authors briefly mention the rapidly growing international field of compassionate conservation that can reshape conservation ethics in the Anthropocene, they totally ignore its basic tenets, namely, “First do not harm” and the life of every individual animal matters (please also see “Compassionate Conservation Meets Cecil the Slain Lion,” “Compassionate Conservation: More than “Welfarism Gone Wild”,” and “Compassionate Conservation: A Discussion from the Frontlines With Dr. Marc Bekoff”). By paying careful attention to the ways in which other conflicts have been solved without harming and killing the animals, humane and non-lethal solutions will emerge to the satisfaction of all stakeholders. An excellent place to begin to look for such examples is on the homepage for The Centre for Compassionate Conservation. 

Harness anger  into positive action: The killing of all free-ranging cats truly is a murderous experiment, is ethically indefensible, and likely won't work. Even if it did work, it's morally repugnant and shouldn't be pursued. All in all, I don't see how Cat Wars will change anyone's mind about cats, because it is so sensationalist, one-sided, and so utterly anti-cat. My brief discussion here is only the tip of the iceberg of what is covered in this misleading and sensationalist book. If you disagree, please harness your anger into positive action. 

Killing cats “in the name of science”: Readers and cats beware

On the one hand, really I didn't want to write this essay and surely didn't want to call attention to this unveiled diatribe against cats. On the other hand, I'm sure that with the title it has it will attract a good deal of attention. I hope people who choose to read Cat Wars will do so very carefully. It's sickening and disheartening in far too many places, but that's the price of admission. If you're looking for a fair and balanced account of the situation of hand, this is not the book to read. Even if you don't especially like cats, this book surely isn't “the cat's meow.” Indeed, if taken seriously, this book will lead to the loss of the wide range of vocalizations for which cats are well known as well of the lives of many other hapless and innocent individuals who are caught in the crossfire. 

Returning to the authors' stance on all free-ranging cats, please keep in mind that the authors advocate removing cats “by any means necessary” ostensibly “in the name of science.” This is a thoroughly heartless conclusion that will undoubtedly lead to horrific pain, suffering, and death not only for cats, but also for other animals, because some people surely will appeal to science and say something like, “Scientists said it's ok to do this.” It is not. 

Marc Bekoff's latest books are Jasper's Story: Saving Moon Bears (with Jill Robinson), Ignoring Nature No More: The Case for Compassionate Conservation, Why Dogs Hump and Bees Get Depressed: The Fascinating Science of Animal Intelligence, Emotions, Friendship, and Conservation, Rewilding Our Hearts: Building Pathways of Compassion and Coexistence, and The Jane Effect: Celebrating Jane Goodall (edited with Dale Peterson). The Animals' Agenda: Freedom, Compassion, and Coexistence in the Human Age (with Jessica Pierce) will be published in early 2017. 

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