The mind-bending probability of our existence | Sean B. Carroll: Full Interview

 It could have gone very differently...

The mind-bending probability of our existence | Sean B. Carroll: Full Interview | Big Think

What if your existence hinged on a single cosmic accident that took place millions of years ago? Biologist Sean B. Carroll examines the chain of events that made humanity’s domination as a species possible.

From the specific chemistry of an asteroid to Earth’s shifting atmosphere, Carroll unpacks how a series of fortunate events made our planet the perfect cradle for mammals.

...and, as for your individual existence once humans exist? You are one it 70 trillion!

00:00:00 Part 1: The role of chance in the creation of life

00:00:16 What are the odds that life exists on any given planet?

00:00:48 What developments led to life on Earth?

00:01:58 Where do you begin our origin story?

00:04:51 What is unique about the last 3 million years on Earth?

00:06:04 What mass extinctions has Earth faced?

00:07:33 What events allowed humans to flourish?

00:15:37 Why was the K-Pg asteroid so devastating?

00:18:25 How did life on Earth rebound from the K-Pg asteroid?

00:19:57 How much have we evolved since the age of hunter-gatherers?

00:24:16 Are we lucky to be here?

00:27:20 Part 2: The resilience of nature.

00:27:30 Would nature heal itself if humans ceased to exist?

00:29:36 How much of an impact have humans had on Earth?

00:33:16 Can we think of Earth as an organism?

00:37:16 What are the “Serengeti rules?”

00:39:48 What is the leading cause of biodiversity loss?

00:46:56 How resilient is nature?

00:51:12 What did COVID teach us about nature’s ability to rebound?

00:53:09 Why is biodiversity critical to human flourishing?

00:54:04 What can we do to protect both us and the planet?

01:00:39 Is there time for the planet to rebound?

01:04:42 PART 3: The evolution of human experience.

01:04:52 Has the quality of human life improved over time?

01:06:27 What impact has medical science had on humanity?

01:08:23 How have agricultural advances changed lives?

01:10:12 Why is it important to understand the rules of life?

01:09:14 How are our bodies regulated?

#environment #nature #biodiversity #ecology

Climate: A New Story | Charles Eisenstein

Flipping the script on climate change, Eisenstein makes a case for a wholesale reimagining of the framing, tactics, and goals we employ in our journey to heal from ecological destruction

With research and insight, Charles Eisenstein details how the quantification of the natural world leads to a lack of integration and our “fight” mentality. With an entire chapter unpacking the climate change denier’s point of view, he advocates for expanding our exclusive focus on carbon emissions to see the broader picture beyond our short-sighted and incomplete approach. The rivers, forests, and creatures of the natural and material world are sacred and valuable in their own right, not simply for carbon credits or preventing the extinction of one species versus another. After all, when you ask someone why they first became an environmentalist, they’re likely to point to the river they played in, the ocean they visited, the wild animals they observed, or the trees they climbed when they were a kid. This refocusing away from impending catastrophe and our inevitable doom cultivates meaningful emotional and psychological connections and provides real, actionable steps to caring for the earth. Freeing ourselves from a war mentality and seeing the bigger picture of how everything from prison reform to saving the whales can contribute to our planetary ecological health, we resist reflexive postures of solution and blame and reach toward the deep place where commitment lives.

The print version is available on Amazon or from the publisher directly. Other online booksellers, such as IndieBound carry the book as well. Or better yet, ask for it at your local bookstore.

Climate: A New Story | Charles Eisenstein

14 wolves were released into a park - No one expected the miracle that the wolves would bring! 🐺

14 wolves were released into a park - No one expected the miracle that the wolves would bring! 🐺
video on Facebook
via Appreciate

Save the Grouse! Tell Sec. Zinke to Protect the Bird, the Herd, and the West. | Help Wildlife, Protect the Environment, Support Nature Conservation, Save the Planet

The sage grouse is an "indicator species" -- thriving sage grouse populations signal a healthy habitat for the 350 species that call the sagebrush home. But Sec. Zinke wants to dismantle plans to protect it.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Some people find it majestic; others think it’s funny-looking. But across the West, the iconic sage grouse is also known as an "indicator species": a thriving sage grouse population is a sign of a healthy sagebrush habitat. In recent years, the sage grouse was careening towards extinction -- until ranchers, conservationists, and industry workers reached a compromise to protect it.

It was a historic conservation success story. In 2015, Western stakeholders reached a bipartisan, win-win agreement that strengthened protections for the bird and the 350 other species that also rely on its habitat. The plan minimized the risk of wildfires and gave ranchers and landowners incentives to preserve sagebrush habitat.

Now Interior Secretary Zinke wants to gut that plan to please his buddies in the oil and mining industries -- and he’s only giving the public three weeks to comment on his plans.

Zinke is treating the sage grouse the same way he’s approaching national monuments like Bears Ears -- he’s ignoring public opinion and throwing out years of hard work, all to benefit the oil, gas, and mining industries.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is accepting comments from now until December 1st. Add yours to speak up for the sage grouse and its habitat.

SIGN THE PETITION: Save the Grouse! Tell Sec. Zinke to Protect the Bird, the Herd, and the West. | Help Wildlife, Protect the Environment, Support Nature Conservation, Save the Planet

Trump's EPA Chooses Foreign Mining Interests Over Critical Alaska Watershed | Common Dreams

"If the Trump administration's strategy is to put a foreign mining company first—and America's greatest wild salmon fishery dead last—then sadly it's succeeding"

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under President Donald Trump has shelved a lawsuit against a proposed Canadian gold and copper mine that would endanger Alaska's Bristol Bay watershed, allowing the mining company to revive the controversial Pebble Mine project.

"If the Trump administration's strategy is to put a foreign mining company first—and America's greatest wild salmon fishery dead last—then sadly it's succeeding," wrote the NRDC's (Natural Resources Defense Council) Taryn Kiekow Heimer.

The legal settlement was reached late Thursday, the Washington Post reported, and reverses an Obama-era determination that Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. could not apply to a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers for the project because Pebble Mine would cause "significant near- and long-term risk to salmon, wildlife, and Native Alaska cultures" in the region. The EPA's 2014 decision has now been removed from its website.

Alannah Hurley, executive director of the United Tribes of Bristol Bay, told the WashingtonPost that local Alaskans who have spent years opposing the mine "are outraged that this is happening…"

more: Trump's EPA Chooses Foreign Mining Interests Over Critical Alaska Watershed | Common Dreams

WILDLIFE CONSERVATION AGENDA for the next adminstration 2017-2021 (PDF)

DEFENDERS OF WILDLIFE
Defenders’ expectations for the incoming Trump administration’s environmental priorities.

A CALL TO ACTION

Defenders of Wildlife believes we all share a common interest in the protection of America’s spectacular wildlife and our great systems of public lands that offer endless opportunities for hiking, fishing, wildlife watching and other pursuits Americans value.

We will seek to work with the new administration to:
1. Protect and restore our endangered and threatened plants and wildlife.
2. Defend and responsibly manage our federal public lands.
3. Invest in responsible renewable energy development that minimizes impacts to wildlife.
4. Protect wildlife from the impacts of climate change.
5. Encourage initiatives by private landowners, states and tribes to conserve imperiled species and habitats.
6. Strengthen our role as an international leader in imperiled species conservation.
7. Help our youth and diverse and changing communities connect with our federal public lands and wildlife conservation heritage.
8. Maintain our commitment to conservation based on sound science.

These eight priorities are the core of the conservation agenda we propose to the next administration. Working together, we can prevent species extinction, safeguard and restore our wildlife and public lands and proudly uphold our conservation legacy for future generations.

WILDLIFE CONSERVATION AGENDA for the next adminstration 2017-2021 (PDF)

#JoinThePack :: Wolves Need A Good Lawyer, Now More Than Ever Before.

We howled for art celebrating wolves and received over 150 submissions to our #JoinThePack art campaign. Vote now: http://ejus.tc/2dHvz1Z 

– THE INCREDIBLE COMEBACK OF THE GRAY WOLF in the Northern Rockies signaled the resolve of a society strong enough to embrace a world ensured not just for us, but for all species. Today, the future of wolves remains under threat—from hostile state management plans to anti-wildlife politicians. Earthjustice enforces the rule of law to preserve our irreplaceable wildlife and wild places. And we hold accountable those who harm them.

A Look Into The Fight For Wolves
Earthjustice advocates on behalf of wolf populations throughout the country alongside our partners and clients. Our current legal and policy work...

Wolves Need A Good Lawyer | Earthjustice

SIGN THESE PETITIONS –

• Save this incredibly rare subspecies of wolf - Earthjustice

A sub-species of the gray wolf known as the lobo is one of the most endangered mammals in North America.

• Protect wolves from congressional attacks - Earthjustice

Some of the toughest fights for wolves lie in Congress. Politicians are attempting to sidestep the Endangered Species Act and remove protections from wolves through legislative edict.

Bees added to US endangered species list for the first time | Environment | The Guardian

Seven types of bees once found in abundance in Hawaii have become the first bees to be added to the US federal list of endangered and threatened species.

Placing yellow-faced bees under federal safeguards comes just over a week since the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed adding the imperilled rusty patched bumble bee, a prized but vanishing pollinator once found in the upper midwest and north-eastern United States, to the endangered and threatened species list.

One of several wild bee species seen declining over the past two decades, the rusty patched bumble bee is the first in the continental United States formally proposed for protections.

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...The listing decision, published on Friday in the Federal Register, classifies seven varieties of yellow-faced or masked bees as endangered, due to such factors as habitat loss, wildfires and the invasion of non-native plants and insects...

...The bees faced a variety of threats including “feral pigs, invasive ants, loss of native habitat due to invasive plants, fire, as well as development, especially in some for the coastal areas”, Jepson told Associated Press...

...Hawaii-based entomologist Karl Magnacca said the bees “tend to favor the more dominant trees and shrubs we have here”, he said. “People tend to focus on the rare plants, and those are important, that’s a big part of the diversity. But the other side is maintaining the common ones as common. (The bees) help maintain the structure of the whole forest.”

The bees were critical for maintaining the health of plants and other animals across the islands, said Gregory Koob, conservation and restoration team manager for the Fish and Wildlife Service in Honolulu.

“Those plants are not only food and nesting habitat for the bees, but they also provide habitat for other animals,” he said. “It’s the web of life.”

complete article: Bees added to US endangered species list for the first time | Environment | The Guardian

Te Urewera national park has been granted legal personhood, meaning nobody owns it, and it has the same rights and powers as a citizen

Te Urewera national park has been granted legal personhood, meaning nobody owns it. The park has the same rights and powers as a citizen. The ruling could set a new precedent for land rights and conservation around the world.


original post on Facebook:

The Guardian

September 3 at 2:20am 

Protecting cold water is essential for conserving wild, native fish | Wenatchee Watershed Cold Water Campaign

Protecting cold water is essential for conserving wild, native fish. Check out our Wenatchee Watershed Cold Water Campaign to learn how you can support this grassroots effort to conserve cold water in Washington's Wenatchee River. #coldwater #wildsalmon #wildsteelhead #riverstewards

original post on Facebook

Report: 86% of North America's Bird Species Struggling or in Crisis - 33% Facing Extinction - EnviroNews | The Environmental News Specialists

(EnviroNews Nature) — One in three North American bird species are of “high concern” to conservationists with an additional 50% struggling badly, according to the North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI). The group’s annual report The State of North America’s Birds 2016 makes for grim reading by suggesting a mere 14% of bird species in the USA, Canada and Mexico are doing well. Sea birds are the biggest losers according to the study, which covers 1,154 species and contains contributions from over 40 conservation groups. More than half of the continent’s 54 sea species are “in crisis” with bird numbers declining by more than 70% since the 1950s. The research concludes that already-small sea populations are “severely threatened” by invasive predators on nesting islands as well as “accidental bycatch” by commercial fishing vessels. Pollution and climate change are also cited as contributory factors...

more: Report: 86% of North America's Bird Species Struggling or in Crisis - 33% Facing Extinction - EnviroNews | The Environmental News Specialists

Vanishing Act: What’s Causing Sharp Decline in Insects and Why It Matters by Christian Schwägerl: Yale Environment 360

Insect populations are declining dramatically in many parts of the world, recent studies show. Researchers say various factors, from monoculture farming to habitat loss, are to blame for the plight of insects, which are essential to agriculture and ecosystems.

Vanishing Act: What’s Causing Sharp Decline in Insects and Why It Matters by Christian Schwägerl: Yale Environment 360

Illustration by Luisa Rivera