I'd read some research-result release that said there is a specific virus-fungus combination that all colony-collapse hives had both of ( & their immune-systems were essentially non-functional: they were infected with EVERYTHING ),
vs colonies which had 0 or 1 of the 2.
I don't remember the names of either the virus or the fungus.
When we keep importing/exporting contaminated bits of wildlife, there are consequences.
This is one of those “don’t let perfect be the enemy of good” situations. The article is full of statements about how all pollinators are in trouble. The headline is clickbait. If honeybees serve as a poster child for pollinator awareness, that’s a good thing.
Yeah, I despise the honey industry profiteering off of this, when they're even partially responsible for killing off proper pollinators, but if we stop using certain pesticides to protect the honey bees, that will likely benefit non-honey bees and other pollinators, too.
Laypeople don't make the distinction between bees. They want to "Save the bees", not save the honey bees. Of course the sentiment will be exploited by an industry.
A few corrections so your message doesn’t get picked apart by people arguing in bad faith:
You confused methane and methanol. Methanol is an alcohol that burns invisibly, methane is the main component of natural gas, the same that burns blue in gas stoves. Hard to see in broad daylight, but birds have much better vision than us. So why would they burn themselves? The burn happens at the base of the wide part of the flare, hiding it from view. The superheated column of coming out the stack is more than hot enough to cause the injuries, though.
In the end, the best thing we could do is twofold:
follow the 3Rs: reduce consumption to reduce trash generation, reuse and recycle to further reduce waste.
Thank you for catching the mistake with the methanol. I've removed that video link.
I'd be curious to know more about what the birds see. They could also be landing on stacks after they finish flaring. That would still be extremely hot, or if they're sitting there when the flare ignites.
It looks like there are new rules coming into effect now, as rules for flaring have been updated after 40 years.
The action follows a more comprehensive methane-reduction plan announced by the Environmental Protection Agency in December. The plan, announced at a global climate conference in the United Arab Emirates, targets emissions from existing oil and gas wells nationwide, rather than focusing only on new wells, as previous EPA regulations have done. It also regulates smaller wells that are now required to find and plug methane leaks.
It seems they are using the stick instead of the carrot to stop the venting as much as possible on new and existing sources.
The article says between 2010 and 2020, enough gas was wasted this way to power 675,000 homes.
I'm encouraged also by articles I've been seeing calling for producers of waste (plastic bottles, packaging, etc) to be now responsible for doing something with it instead of the responsibility being placed on consumers.
I'd love to see more reusable containers, like glass, but I get there are a number of issues with that, so maybe better quality aluminum containers.
I don’t know much about landfill flares, but I wouldn’t think they’d flare up high like the post picture.
Industrial flares need to be designed for the maximum load they could face, usually an emergency situation like an unplanned shutdown. In those scenarios, the flame goes up and burns out like the picture, and burns yellow due to lack of sufficient air.
Landfill continuously generate a low pressure, low flow stream of methane and other gases. The only way they’d flare up and down is if they are storing the gases then releasing. Which… why? Maybe there’s a reason for it, but I don’t see it.
I’m glad the EPA is finally doing something. The lack of environmental regulation in the US is near criminal. And you have to listen to temporarily vexed industrialists complain about the regulations that do exist.
Sadly, this magnificent tree is deteriorating, leaving researchers concerned that Pando's days and all the forest life it supports are numbered. Human activities, including clearing and slaughtering predators that keep down herbivore numbers, eat away at this ancient being.
All the more reason to listen to 'The Trembling Giant' while it can still share its secrets.
This is the conclusion to every nature documentary ever. And it has been for fifty years. It never got better.
We know we can get close to re-establishing disturbed ecosystem, but since no one has the money or time to measure over the very long term (multi-decadal scale) it's hard to see if our efforts will actually do anything meaningful. So far, measurements have conclusions like:
"Soil and veg are showing signs of recovery and some key spp (R-selectors, mostly) are returning. We hope this trend will continue and recovery to the desired ecosystems will be achieved"
While this article doesn't really show the long term recovery, it's really strong evidence that key conservation and recovery strategies are effective
I tried to keep it impartial while writing it, because it does seem to be an attempt to do something intended as a harm reduction measure, but there were some oversights in the implementation. Progressive improvements are a good thing, but until very recently I'd never even heard of flaring even though I'm in a big state for natural gas. I came across a hawk having its feathers grafted (called "imping") that taught me this was a thing and how dangerous it is to raptors especially.
Here's a post on imping with comments from someone who has done it themself if you'd like to learn about that. It's like temporary prosthesis for birds!
I like the graphic they linked showing the common birds and who wins in a competition for the feeder. I notice the blue Jay's and woodpeckers at my feeder often scare everything else away.
Looks like planting natives and providing appropriate sustenance for native species is the takeaway from this. Trying to avoid feeding the invasives that outcompete native birds.
Probably just general entropy. Life is energy organized and put to purpose which is basically the opposite of entropy. So if, entropy is the antithesis to life, wouldn't all life's ultimate goal be to overcome entropy?
“The fundamental concept of a living world is ancient,” says Ferris Jabr, a science journalist and author of the upcoming book Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life.
Jabr found in the years since Gaia was first introduced, scientists have uncovered more connections between biology, ecology, and geology, which make the boundaries between these disciplines appear even more fuzzy.
In reporting his book, Jabr comes to the conclusion that not only is the Earth indeed a living creature, but thinking about it in such a way might help inspire action in dealing with the climate crisis.
Brian Resnick spoke to Jabr for an episode of Unexplainable, Vox’s podcast that explores scientific mysteries, unanswered questions, and all the things we learn by diving into the unknown.
Life dramatically increases the planet’s capacity to absorb, store, and transform energy, to exchange gases, and to perform complex chemical reactions.
NASA has made these amazing videos and animations and they’ve literally called them “Earth breathing,” because you can see how the levels of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the atmosphere fluctuate with the seasons.
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There is no question in my mind that one hundred years from now we will look back at our treatment of animals in the same way we look back upon slavery.
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