Hey everyone. I know I am late to the party as they say on a lot of posts, but as I work my way through the backlog of fellow posters whose content I love, Jill again made a post I want to share. Even if everyone already seen it, the cartoons are so spot on, Jill’s post deserves another viewing. Hugs
Lots of people want to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and plastics have a huge impact on ocean environments. But marine wildlife are already adapting to our plastic waste, which means cleaning it up isn’t as simple as just… cleaning it up.
Envision a place overwhelmed by 80 million tons of waste – this was the state of Latin America’s largest landfill in Rio de Janeiro. A decade later, this very site has evolved into an impressive mangrove forest. The incredible change has not just given a new home to native species like crabs, birds, and fish, but has also showcased the enduring strength of nature.
The landfill faced years of continuous pollution since its inception in 1968. Efforts to curb the pollution took a serious turn in 1996 until finally the landfill was closed for good in 2012.
Photo Credit: AP Photo/Bruna Prado
Mangroves: Nature’s Healing Touch
The mangroves play a central role in this ecological restoration saga. As efforts were made to cover the landfill with clay and introduce a drainage system, the planting of these resilient trees began. Mangroves possess a unique attribute, making them perfect candidates for environmental rehabilitation projects: they flourish even in harsh environments.
These trees are climate champions, adept at capturing and storing immense amounts of carbon dioxide. They are even more efficient than tropical rainforests, making them invaluable when it comes to climate change solutions.
Challenges on the Path to Recovery
However, reviving the mangroves wasn’t without challenges. To protect them from waste from nearby communities, a barrier of clay fences was constructed around them. These barriers, though effective, demand consistent upkeep due to occasional damage.
Even as the landfill remains sealed, leachate – a hazardous byproduct from decomposing trash – continues to seep out. Proactive measures are in place to collect and treat this leachate, ensuring the restored environment remains safeguarded.
Photo Credit: AP Photo/Bruna Prado
Looking Ahead with Optimism
This success story stands as a beacon of hope, sharing the potential of collective efforts in environmental restoration. It’s a wonderful reminder that with commitment, collaboration, and a touch of nature’s magic, even the bleakest landscapes can witness a rebirth.
My thanks to Ten Bears for posting this. I think this is a very important subject that is not getting enough attention. More people want to talk about their next meal more than the fact the health of the Antarctic sea ice is seriously going to effect not only us selfish humans but every living thing starting with the ocean life. When I watch this I want to run screaming out into my neighborhood, grab people and scream do you understand not only will our homes be underwater but we won’t have anything to eat !!!! But then Ron gives me a cool drink and reminds me there are laws against that grabbing of neighbors enforced on the not republicans all the time.
I am taking this from Ten Bears’ blog / website (I never do know what is the proper term now) without his permissions.
And from what I have read on his site, he doesn’t respond well to anyone just thinking they can grab anything of his and run away, and I am not just talking on the webs. I do hope he might just give me a little grace on this one.
For those hearing impaired, do not worry. The main speaker talks fast. I used to talk that fast, but over thirty years in Florida I don’t even type fast anymore. The Closed Caption is very good, they either do it themselves or pay for it. Again well worth the 8+ minutes to understand the threat to our habitat and lives. Hugs
Antarctic sea ice is behaving very, very weirdly right now. In the same year we saw a record minimum extent, we’re now seeing a record slow freeze-up, leaving a widening gap between observations and what we expect for the time of year.
A lot of people have tried to put a number on exactly how rare the event we’re witnessing is, and come up with some insane numbers. So what’s going on? Is this really the kind of event we should only see once in 7.5 million years??
Big thanks to Zack Labe for talking to me for this video, you can check out his fantastic visualisations on his website here: http://www.zacklabe.com and follow him on socials @ZLabe.
Thank you Ten Bears. Seriously important information in an easy to hear and understand format delivered by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse. Damn well worth listening to the entire 9 minutes, because we are damning ourselves by what we are doing. Hugs
Video: It’s so hot in Arizona that beehives are melting
CNN —
As deadly, unrelenting heat scorches Arizona, some entomologists are growing concerned about theincreasing number of dead honeybees – a species vital to our ecosystem, especiallyfood production.
Temperatures in Phoenix hit 110-plus degrees for a record-breaking 31 consecutive days from June 30 to July 30, part of what was the hottest month on record for anyUS city.
This unprecedented heat has bee experts across Arizona sounding the alarm bell.
“It’s a very major concern,” Shaku Nair, an entomologist with the University of Arizona, told CNN, “Honeybees can forage up to 113 degrees. As of July, we’ve had many days over 113 degrees, so bees are taking a bad hit right now.”
This month is the planet’s hottest on record by far — and hottest in around 120,000 years, scientists say
Phoenix-based beekeeper Cricket Aldridge, who now spends many of her days saving bees from the heat, told CNN “bees’ homes are being melted” and “other bee colonies are attacking honeybee colonies due to food scarcity.”
According to Dan Winter, President of the American Beekeeping Federation, it requires very extreme heat and no water for beehives to melt because they use evaporation to cool down.
Arizona honeybees battle the relentless heat by using water and their wings to cool down the hive, Nair explained, and to keep the brood alive, they must maintain a hive temperature between 92 and 104 degrees. However, with temperatures so high, there’s only so much they can do.
“We are seeing dead bees around hives,” Nair says, “That is because of the heat – it’s too hot in the hives and bees won’t let[other bees] back in.”
Cricket Aldridg
A bee colony being moved in Arizona.
When honeybees leave the hive to forage for food, options are scarce, according to Nair. Weeks of nonstop heat in Phoenix have wilted flowers and killed saguaro cactuses, important food sources for honeybees.
Nair warns that humans could see the impacts of more dead honeybees for many years to come, and a drop in pollination could lead to a disruption in food production. Foods like melons, citrus fruits, zucchini, coffee and chocolate all depend on bees.
Phoenix’s record heat is killing off cactuses
Unfortunately, heat is just another added stress on honeybee populations that are already in danger. Last year, beekeepers in the US lost an estimated 48% of their managed honeybee colonies, according to Beeinformed.org.
Winter said bee populations are on the decline due to rising threats from pests and threats to their nutrition and habitat. Winter told CNN that humans have put bee habitats in jeopardy with monoculture, which “is a big problem because it doesn’t leave a lot of nutrition for bees.”
Bee experts have a message for regions dealing with extreme heat – put out water for bees and maintain more native plant species. “Bees usually do well as long as they have water,” Winter said.
If I read the map right, this badly affects the food growing regions of the US. But a large segment of the US doesn’t think climate change is harmful to them. Food wars anyone? Hunger games mean anything? Hugs
These white men won’t quit until the US is a Christian theocracy policed by Christian Taliban moral police thugs. Some important quotes that show their mindset. Regardless of the legislative strategy, the panelists agreed changing the culture of America to take on a Christian biblical worldview, which will require all pastors to take the same position on abortion as their own. Also week-long series of events hosted by Operation Save America, an anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ and anti-Muslim religious group that wants all Americans to follow “God’s law” and their interpretation of the Christian gospel. The panel was part of a week-long series of events hosted by Operation Save America, an anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ and anti-Muslim religious group that wants all Americans to follow “God’s law” and their interpretation of the Christian gospel. The moderator of the panel, Derin Stidd, opened by asking, “Why do you all hate women?” to which the men laughed. Hugs
Florida's new African American history standards include a requirement that middle schoolers learn "how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit." @goni_lessanhttps://t.co/DCjauBVLbV
Enslavers defended slavery by claiming it was a “positive good” for Black people. Today Florida’s Board of Education approved new Black history standards that note enslaved Black people developed skills that “could be applied for their personal benefit.”https://t.co/xNEIZoK4o3
^ That captures it in a nutshell. The education of slaves was to benefit the people holding them in bondage as property.
Some of his fans are disappointed they don’t get to see him in action.
So DeSantis and his followers trash talk and urge boycotts against a company in which the trust fund HE oversees invests; and when his followers boycott the company and crash the sales, he threatens to sue the company. What a maroon.https://t.co/UcBeyANmTL
If I’m understanding this correctly, DeSantis praised the Bud Light boycott, claimed he’d never drink the beer again, and now wants to sue because … the boycott he endorsed and engaged in had consequences? https://t.co/cKJyHkvZVB
It seems entirely premature, but the looming Oct. 1 deadline for state parties to submit delegate changes to the RNC has the Trump team moving to lock down their support now—and know where they might stand if there’s a 2nd ballot on the floor. https://t.co/E4LE7i5we6
Texas A&M University said on Friday that its president would retire “immediately” after fallout surrounding political pushback of a new director of its journalism program because of her work promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.
Germany’s 1933 civil service law applied to university professors as well as elementary and secondary-school teachers. … Scholars who were Jewish or supported left-leaning parties struggled to find research and teaching positions in public, government-supported German universities and often worked in private ones instead. With the passage of the new law, the Nazis attempted to root out any dissent to their policies and ideology that remained in German higher education.
They call it other things, like “Protecting Children” or “Academic Freedom”. None of which is their actual goal, but it’s just bigotry and racism repackaged to make it more palatable.
Honestly, who would be against diversity? Racists… that’s who.
🚨BREAKING: Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signs new congressional map that does NOT contain the second majority-Black district that the U.S. Supreme Court required.
Ten Bears post is really good and seriously important. This is something that everyone needs to understand. The big money and fossil fuel industry desperately wants to rake every last dollar they can, no matter the cost to the world, before their deep investments in a vanishing substance is worthless. It is another example of the way the wealthy have been forcing the US government using greedy politicians to fuck over the public, the people, the environment, other public needs, basically the entire country to gain more wealth. Please go to Ten Bears post and read it.
Not to distract from that but again WordPress decided to fuck up something that worked really well. When reblogging someone’s content you got a comment box to add your thoughts. That would post your comment to the person’s blog and sent the comment plus a snippet of the other post with their title to your blog, so your readers would know what it was about and click on it to read the person’s post on their site. It worked so well! It was so simple. It did so many functions automatically.
So of course WordPress screwed with it, changed it, and made it harder. They made it the same as their “press this” button. Now you get a new window with a snippet in the body box, you need to add a title, add your comment, and more stuff. Then add your comment to the original post! Just how in the many layers of hell that WordPress inhabits makes this an improvement? It is just making the reblog button the same as the press this button, which people were not using. Hugs
If the @HouseGOP took away earmarks from the NAACP or the Urban League because they serve the Black community, they'd rightfully be called racist bigots.
Stripping funding from LGBTQI+ groups, however, is just another day in Congress for these extremists.
On the chopping block is funding for housing for queer seniors and homeless youth. Not even $2M in total but that's still too much for the avowed Christians. https://t.co/TZqHqKyFhY
WTF. These people are not coming to hurt anyone, they are not coming to destroy the US, but to share the dream of a wonderful country. Abbott is proving to be the destroyer and despicable person, as is anyone who would follow these orders. Hey think how we look at the guards at concentration camps, Texas will be thought of in the same way. Scottie
This week Rep. Angie King and I introduced a bill that would ban adult performances that are obscene from public parks, parades and other places children are present. When this bill becomes law it will be unlawful, and potentially a felony. Protect OHIO.🇺🇸 https://t.co/NPHbV6UAVg
— JoshWilliamsForOhio (@Williams4ohio) July 18, 2023
— Northwest Ohio Trans Advocacy (@OHTransAdvocacy) June 25, 2023
Drag performances in Ohio could be banned from public parks, parades and other places children might be if a bill introduced by House Republicans becomes law. House Bill 245 expands the definition of adult cabaret performers from strippers and topless dancers to include “entertainers who exhibit a gender identity that is different from the performer’s or entertainer’s gender assigned at birth.”
Diversity or diversity and inclusion programs are just words for let others than white males have a seat at the table. Seriously, this is what the republicans and MG are fighting. Why would they want to block others than whites / at one time only white males, from having a chance to be included? Racism and misogyny.
NEW: Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch is demanding access to information about Mississippi residents who obtain abortions or gender-affirming care in other states.
She and 18 other GOP AGs say investigators need it to enforce their states' laws.https://t.co/r31ix6rnjr
The decision comes less than a week after the Republican-controlled Legislature passed new abortion restrictions during a special session.https://t.co/gcSyMJuyyL
Dear Media: There's no such thing as a fetal heartbeat at six weeks. Fetuses don't have hearts at 6 weeks.
Stop calling it a "fetal heartbeat bill." Stop spreading their narrative. Stop calling pols who who fight against the *actual* teachings of Jesus "Christian."
Prison rights advocates and lawmakers urge Gov. Abbott to call a special session to install air conditioning in Texas prisons amid a deadly heatwave. https://t.co/6XEZDBNJ0D
Texans are being cooked alive in our prisons! They were NOT sentenced to death & should not be subject to #Cruel&UnusualPunishment. Staff and incarcerated individuals are dying and suffering daily. It is not about comfort, but life or death. #TXPrisons#TXLegepic.twitter.com/bfLtOCg6G2
— Representative Ana-Maria Ramos (@Ramos4Texas) July 18, 2023
This time tomorrow, I will be stepping into a mock prison cell on the Capitol grounds to experience just a fraction of what the people living and working in Texas jails and prisons go through daily. Join me on the grounds or watch online at 12 noon! #txlege#85tostayalivepic.twitter.com/m1Kh7mvlXA
"In Texas, the Republican-controlled House this year proposed spending $545 million to install air-conditioning in the majority of state prisons that do not have it…The bill died in the [Republican-controlled State Senate]." https://t.co/pyjdZLKSwH
01:32 – Source: CNNVideo: It’s so hot in Arizona that beehives are meltingCNN —
Scottie's Playtime 