This week in birds - #646
A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:
*~*~*~*
So, the idea of a border wall between the United States and Mexico is on the table again and is just as stupid and destructive to the environment as ever.
*~*~*~*
In other terrible news for the environment, the Environmental Protection Agency is proposing that pollution limits be revoked. What will the nation's environment look like after four years of this?
*~*~*~*
The bane of my childhood summers were the little red bugs known as chiggers. They are still out there, burrowing into the skin of another generation and making life miserable for their victims.
*~*~*~*
The world's supply of water is threatened and that is a very bad thing.
*~*~*~*
When did you become a birder? (I'm assuming, of course, that you are.) For me, it was as a teenager; for others, it may come a bit later and the motives may be different, but the passion is the same.
*~*~*~*
A treasure trove of fossils from the Cambrian Period has been uncovered in the Grand Canyon.
*~*~*~*
Aspen trees are beginning to flourish again in northern Yellowstone Park, and that is thanks, in large part, to the reintroduction of wolves into the park.
*~*~*~*
Why are female raptors larger than male raptors?
*~*~*~*
If you are one of those people who go into the ocean, how worried should you be about being attacked by a shark?
*~*~*~*
In Montana, the concern is not sharks but grizzly bears, but bear dogs are helping to keep the animals at bay.
*~*~*~*
There's a new scheme afoot that may help to cool the water around the Great Barrier Reef and thus help to save the reef.
*~*~*~*
There was a big earthquake in Russia this week but it did not produce the expected giant wave.
*~*~*~*
It seems that the human brain is naturally wired by evolution to see biodiversity in the world around it; no expertise or additional training required.
*~*~*~*
It's the fifteenth anniversary of the big oil spill into the Kalamazoo River and environmental groups are using the anniversary to try to raise awareness of the potential for another disastrous spill.
*~*~*~*
A new DNA monitoring tool allows scientists to identify specific animals by their feces.
*~*~*~*
Rooftop solar is a promising source of solar power and this administration, a champion of fossil fuel, is throwing roadblocks in its way to becoming widely available.
*~*~*~*
Have you heard of "Earth Overshoot Day?" It's the day when the human demand for materials obtained from Nature exceeds what Earth can naturally regenerate in one year. This year that day came earlier than ever before - July 24.
*~*~*~*
Studying the ice caps of Antarctica is helping scientists to search for alien life in the solar system.
*~*~*~*
Some ancient dinosaurs had voice boxes similar to birds and may have sounded like them.
*~*~*~*
The sacred ballgame of the ancient Mayas is being revived by their modern descendants.
I don't suppose many people think about the world running out of water. It seems inconceivable. We have always accepted that some parts of the world periodically suffer drought, but have never fully appreciated where our fresh water comes from. It's shocking.
ReplyDeleteGood morning, Dorothy. Thank you for the roundup. Water is the next major global issue. Wars will be fought over it. It is amazing to those of us in the rest of the world that an elected government can pursue a plan of actually reversing progressive environmental regulations. It would be a tragedy not to forge ahead with more of them, but to deliberately go back is true folly. Earth Overshoot a day has been getting earlier for several years now, and the pace is unlikely to be reversed. After all, in the next twenty-five years we are expecting to add another three billion humans to make more demands on already sparse resources. We have gone mad! All the best - David
ReplyDelete