Environmentally Responsible Toddler Pillow Choices
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends all babies be placed on their backs to sleep….
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Plan Ahead To Reduce Food Waste
Nearly 40% of food is wasted from farm to landfill in the U.S. Yet one…
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FortWhyte Alive Fosters Connection with Nature on Arctic Science Day
FortWhyte Alive is a 660-acre reclaimed urban green space situated on a former industrial site. It is a vibrant hub for nature exploration and environmental education in southwest Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The organization’s rich history of conservation and science education is a testament to its commitment to reconnecting people with the natural world.
This commitment is exemplified through their Arctic Science Day programming—a unique learning experience for grade 7-12 students to increase their understanding of the impacts of climate change in the Arctic and learn about careers in Arctic climate change research from environmental scientists themselves.
© FortWhyte Alive
In 2024, Nat Hab Philanthropy was proud to support FortWhyte Alive and the University of Manitoba Center for Earth Observation Science’s two Arctic Science Day events:
- A virtual Arctic science experience reached over 300 students and their teachers, including a number of participating classrooms in remote Northern Manitoba and
- The 16th Annual Arctic Science Day at FortWhyte Alive.
For the in-person event, nearly 140 students and their teachers learned about Arctic research, including:
- marine mammals
- ocean acidification
- contaminants such as mercury and oil spills
- sediment coring
- Arctic microbiology
- snow science
Arctic Science Day 2024 © FortWhyte Alive
FortWhyte Alive Arctic Science Day Activities
Arctic Science Day at FortWhyte Alive was brimming with educational adventures designed to immerse students in the study of polar science and environmental stewardship. The event featured a series of interactive activities that brought the Arctic’s unique ecosystems into focus through hands-on learning experiences.
Students had the opportunity to engage in simulated field research akin to that conducted by scientists in the Arctic. They participated in ice core drilling exercises, where they extracted samples from ice blocks and analyzed them to understand the historical climate data stored within them.
Another highlight was the wildlife tracking station, where students learned to identify animal tracks and understand the behaviors of Arctic fauna.
The climate change simulation booth uses augmented reality technology to allow students to witness the effects of global warming on polar ice caps. Traditional Inuit games provided a cultural perspective, teaching students about the indigenous peoples of the Arctic and their survival skills.
Arctic Science Day 2024 © FortWhyte Alive
One teacher reported, “Students have been talking about the impacts of climate change on the animals and Inuit communities ever since we’ve returned to school.”
Arctic Science Day activities were not only educational but also aimed to inspire a sense of wonder and responsibility. Hands-on learning opportunities offered a tangible connection to the science curriculum, making the concepts of climate change and conservation more relatable and impactful for students.
FortWhyte Alive’s Arctic Science Day was a testament to the power of experiential learning in nurturing the next generation of climate scientists and conservationists.
Another teacher shared: “The most valuable parts for my students included meeting scientists, seeing artifacts, participating in learning games and hands-on activities.”
Students said:
“I learned that marine mammals use echolocation and different calls to communicate.”
“I learned about taking sediment cores and the impact of pH on ocean life.”
“I learned that cold water absorbs carbon and warm water releases it. The more carbon in the water, the more acidic it gets. Ocean acidification has an impact on ocean animals.”
Arctic Science Day 2024 © FortWhyte Alive
Arctic Conservation Education
FortWhyte Alive’s educational goals emphasize hands-on learning and fostering a lifelong relationship with nature. After Arctic Science Day 2024, 92% of students stated they had a better understanding of the impact of climate change in the Arctic after the program, and the majority stated that learning about the impact was the most valuable part of the day.
The event’s success will be measured by inspiring future careers in science and environmental studies and encouraging students to consider their role in reducing human impact on our shared environment.
Thirty graduate students, faculty and researchers from the University of Manitoba, along with FortWhyte Alive Education Team staff, supported the program delivery for the day.
© FortWhyte Alive
Meeting graduate students and scientists seemed to have a particularly strong impact on younger students. They reported afterward:
“I learned how people recognize individual sea mammals and how they estimate the size of their populations.”
“I learned that there are lots of jobs you can do that involve Arctic science.”
“There are many technologies involved in studying marine mammals, like drones, planes and satellites.”
“There’s a bunch of jobs and careers related to Arctic science, and it is a very meaningful career for this generation.”
By bringing the mysteries of the Arctic closer to home, FortWhyte Alive not only educates but also inspires action toward preserving these critical habitats for generations to come.
© FortWhyte Alive
Conservation Education & The Future of the Arctic
Arctic Science Day serves as a platform for raising awareness about the importance of polar regions in our global ecosystem, engaging young minds through interactive science-based activities.
FortWhyte Alive offers other Arctic climate change-themed programs as a part of our offerings of School Programs:
- Due North: The Changing Arctic is targeted at Grade 4-5 students
- Arctic Experience is geared toward Grade 7-9 students
© FortWhyte Alive
During the programs, students learn about the impact of climate change on snow and ice, the Arctic Ocean food chain, and Inuit communities through grade-appropriate, engaging, hands-on activities. Students get to participate in a traditional blanket toss game as a group. We discuss ways that students can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pollution.
Teacher feedback includes:
- The program increased students’ awareness of actions to reduce pollution.
- The students say that the most fun was the blanket toss—they enjoyed learning about its cultural purpose for the Inuit, as well as enjoying that they were all working together.
In 2024, FortWhyte Alive hosted two schools for Due North programs for a total of 80 students. We hosted three schools for Arctic Experience, with an overall total of 115 students.
© FortWhyte Alive
Visit FortWhyte Alive
Would you like to visit FortWhyte Alive yourself? The urban reclaimed wildlife preserve, recreation area, and environmental education center in southwest Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, represents 20% of Winnipeg’s urban green space.
Nat Hab travelers on our polar bear adventures have a special opportunity to visit FortWhyte Alive and learn more about their educational initiatives when they opt to spend an Extra Day in Winnipeg.
© Nat Hab Expedition Leader Judy Wilson
Nat Hab Philanthropy is proud to partner with and sponsor FortWhyte Alive’s other conservation and nature-based educational programming, too. Over 100,000 visitors enjoy FortWhyte Alive’s many programs, trails and exhibits annually. FortWhyte offers curriculum-based educational programs in both French and English to around 30,000 K-12 school children each year. The FortWhyte Farms initiative introduces disadvantaged youth to urban agriculture-based, social and vocational skills training.
© FortWhyte Alive
About FortWhyte Alive
In 1888, the area was dubbed Fort Whyte after a top Canadian Pacific Railway official who battled to take control of the site from a rival railway.
Starting in 1907, The Canada Cement Company (now Lafarge) used much of what is now FortWhyte Alive to mine clay and gravel to make cement. By the 1950s, floods and other sources of clay made the Fort Whyte site obsolete.
The Wildlife Foundation of Manitoba saw the industrial site as a potential habitat and started reclamation work.
© FortWhyte Alive
By the 1980s, FortWhyte Alive’s focus shifted from wildlife conservation exclusively to include environmental education, with the establishment of the Fort Whyte Foundation and the opening of trails and an Interpretive Center.
Over the last 30 years, FortWhyte Alive has grown tremendously, adding prairie grassland to forest and wetland habitats and expanding volunteer opportunities, staff and environmental education programs.
Located on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, Ininiwak, Anisininewak, Dakota, and Dene peoples, as well as the National Homeland of the Red River Métis, today FortWhyte Alive serves as a prime example of how we can manage urban landscapes for sustainable development.
© FortWhyte Alive
Explore the Arctic Wilderness & WWF Arctic Program
If you are passionate about Arctic science, explore the Arctic wilderness with Nat Hab. Nothing compares to East Greenland for an epic Arctic expedition—and there’s no better way to experience it than from our wilderness Base Camp.
For more on Arctic conservation, WWF maintains a library of Arctic resources and news at WWF Global Arctic Program hub.
Photographed by Nat Hab Expedition Leader © Colby Brokvist
The post FortWhyte Alive Fosters Connection with Nature on Arctic Science Day first appeared on Good Nature Travel Blog.
Photo Essay: The Brown Bears and Salt Marshes of Chinitna Bay, Alaska
In late spring through midsummer, brown bears gather in high numbers in Chinitna Bay’s salt marshes to graze on the protein-rich sedges and other plants. ©Candice Gaukel Andrews
Alaska’s Chinitna Bay on Cook Inlet near Lake Clark National Park and Preserve is the very heart of coastal brown bear country, according to the National Park Service. And now, having visited it, I can say I wholeheartedly agree.
Here, in the estuaries where rivers flowing out of the mountains meet the sea, food is almost free for the taking from early spring until the bears return to their dens in the fall. I say “almost” because the bears do have to dig, fish or forage for it.
Salt marshes are among the most productive ecosystems in the world, and they are a prominent feature of Lake Clark National Park and Preserve’s coastline. They act as buffer zones between freshwater and saltwater, creating a brackish environment affected by tidal fluctuations. This makes these areas unique by harboring plant communities of salt-tolerant grasses and sedges that support a wide range of animals, including migratory birds, fish, intertidal invertebrates, moose, river otters, other small mammals, shorebirds, songbirds, waterfowl and a dense population of coastal brown bears.
Visitors flying to Chinitna Bay get an overview of the salt marshes that the bears graze in for much of the summer.
Coastal salt marshes are crucial for coastal brown bears
Coastal salt marshes comprise less than 1% of Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, yet they are critical for the survival of the park’s brown bears. Each spring, brown and black bears congregate in these marshes and meadows to graze on the fresh, green sedges after winter hibernation. With their fat reserves depleted and with young cubs to feed, bears emerge from their dens in need of high-protein nutrition. Young sedges in the salt marshes are a vital, early-season source of that needed nutrition.
During low tide, bears leave the salt marshes for the adjacent mudflats to dig razor clams and other bivalves. Tidal streams bisecting the salt marshes provide nursery habitat for a variety of juvenile fish. In late summer, salmon enter the salt marsh streams on their way to their spawning grounds. As these fish arrive, bears transition from sedges to salmon in preparation for the upcoming winter months.
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Coastal salt marshes are essential for the Earth
The salt marshes are important in protecting the vibrant ecosystem of Chinitna Bay by limiting coastal erosion caused by ice, water and wind; and by buffering wave action and trapping sediment. They also act as filters for water-quality improvement. As saltwater flows through a salt marsh, marsh grasses and peat (a spongy matrix of decomposing organic material, live roots and soil) act as enormous natural filters of pollutants—such as heavy metals and waste—as well as nutrients and sediments. These natural filters can be thought of as water filters that sift through impurities, resulting in clean drinking water; only in this case, these filters are holding onto key nutrients necessary to sustain life.
The coastal marshes of Lake Clark National Park and Preserve may represent a minor habitat by acreage in comparison with the vast, alpine interior, but their ecological value looms large when accounting for the species diversity that the habitat sustains. ©Candice Gaukel Andrews
In addition, coastal wetlands, such as these salt marshes, are effective carbon sinks, storing carbon within their plant communities and soil instead of releasing it into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. Plants act as sponges, soaking up carbon into their roots and the soil, effectively holding twice as much carbon as the atmosphere. Most soil carbon is derived from photosynthesis, which takes carbon from the plant material into dense root systems for storage, creating a cyclic carbon storehouse. Plants use energy from the sun to chemically combine carbon dioxide with hydrogen and oxygen from water to create sugar molecules.
Animals that eat plants digest these sugar molecules to obtain energy. Respiration, excretion and decomposition release the carbon back into the atmosphere or soil, thus continuing the cycle. Ultimately, then, salt marshes are important in helping to moderate global climate conditions at an early stage in the Earth’s complex carbon cycle.
Coastal salt marshes are “bear proof”
The coastal marshes of Lake Clark National Park and Preserve may represent a minor habitat by acreage, in comparison with the vast, alpine interior with its hundreds of lakes and waterways. However, the ecological value of coastal wetlands carries a lot of weight, when we consider the biodiversity that the habitat sustains.
All you have to do is look to the bears (see below) for proof.
Here’s to finding your true places and natural habitats,
Candy
Visit the brown bears and salt marshes of Lake Clark National Park and Preserve at our private Alaska Bear Camp!
Since it is so challenging to reach Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, it sees far fewer visitors than some other Alaskan parks. Most fly in by small, private plane. ©Candice Gaukel Andrews
Ninety-five percent of brown bears in the United States live in Alaska, and Lake Clark National Park and Preserve supports a healthy and stable population of them. ©Candice Gaukel Andrews
Red foxes are also found throughout Lake Clark National Park and Preserve—and much of Alaska. They can have many color phases, including black, red and silver. ©Candice Gaukel Andrews
“Brown” and “grizzly” are common names for the same species; the difference between the two is geographic location, which influences behavior, diet and size. Those that live in coastal areas are called brown bears, while inland bears that have limited or no access to marine-derived foods are called grizzlies. Both have the distinctive large shoulder hump; long, curved claws; and a wide head with a concave profile, often described as “dish-faced.” In Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, both coastal and inland bears belong to the subspecies “Ursus arctos horribilis”; and, generally, all are referred to as brown bears, although both terms are acceptable. ©Candice Gaukel Andrews
Coastal habitats are a critical, abundant “supermarket” of protein sources that the bears need after emerging from hibernation in the spring. ©Candice Gaukel Andrews
Lake Clark National Park and Preserve’s coast also provides brown bears with protein-rich sedges—such as “Carex ramenskii” and other salt-tolerant plants—that are necessary for a bear’s survival and for feeding young cubs. ©Candice Gaukel Andrews
Chinitna Bay is proof of the value of coastal wetlands: they give us a glimpse of the truly wild. ©Candice Gaukel Andrews
The post Photo Essay: The Brown Bears and Salt Marshes of Chinitna Bay, Alaska first appeared on Good Nature Travel Blog.
Vibrant Life Emanantes from Meggan Joy’s Magical Collaged Silhouettes
Thousands of individual flowers and plants grown in Meggan Joy’s Seattle garden form the contours of her ethereal figures. The artist (previously) collages perfectly trimmed photographs of each specimen into silhouettes lush with color and texture.
In her most recent body of work titled Fever Dream, Joy draws on fear, loss, and the immense potential for pain. “Wide and Wild,” for example, depicts a woman cradling a Eurasian Eagle Owl near her heart. “She’s a piece for when you find your person (whether that be a lover, friend, kids, whatever), and once you have them, you know that if they disappear in any way, you also will be gone,” the artist shares in a statement.
Others relate to bad decisions yielding positive experiences and how etermal bonds require patience and understanding. Each work, Joy shares, “whisper(s) the components of the stories that tested us and, instead of condemning our faults, reveal that those moments left us the most exciting scars.
Fever Dream is on view through September 25 at J. Rinehart Gallery. Follow Joy’s work on Instagram.
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Vibrant Life Emanantes from Meggan Joy’s Magical Collaged Silhouettes appeared first on Colossal.
4 Natural Ways To Tackle Carpet Stains
You can’t always avoid it. Your beautiful carpet is likely to get stains, no matter…
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Recycling Mystery: Disposing Of Herbicides And Packaging Safely
Properly disposing of herbicide packaging, including any leftover product, is one of the easiest and…
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Best of Earth911 Podcast: Dandelion Energy’s Kathy Hannun on the Promise of Residential Geothermal Heat Pumps
Kathy Hannun, president and cofounder of Dandelion Energy, introduces an untapped heating and cooling capacity…
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Wild Conservation Ideas: Currency Images and a Moon Vault
Animals have long been present on banknotes. The U.S. features a bald eagle on its $1 bill. China uses a dragon and a peacock, Ethiopia depicts an elephant, many Middle Eastern nations have falcons, Russia shows a bear and South Africa spotlights a springbok.
If you look at a U.S. $1 bill today, you’ll find an image of an eagle holding arrows in one talon and an olive branch in the other. On a U.S. buffalo nickel (minted between 1913 and 1938), an American bison—modeled on Black Diamond, a bison who, at the time, lived in New York’s Central Park Zoo—stands on a patch of ground. The nickel marked the first time that an animal that wasn’t an eagle appeared on a circulating American coin. The American bison kept its status as the only non-eagle animal on U.S. currency until the 50 State Quarters Program introduced more animals (and more bison) in 1999.
That makes me wonder: how many other nations have depicted wildlife on their currencies, and does such representation present a conservation opportunity? Recently, researchers investigated these very questions.
Today, as the story goes, we find ourselves having to conserve wildlife because our kind hasn’t traditionally done a very good job of respecting other species. Usually, we hear about how humans have harmed animals over the course of our tenure on Earth. But a new study shows that through the ages, the presence of humans has increased the complexity and heterogeneity of ecosystems and has often had a positive effect on their biodiversity. In fact, human cultural diversity is likely to have had an overall positive effect on ecosystem biodiversity. The relatively recent homogenization of human cultures may, therefore, be regarded as an important driver of the major extinction events going on in the Anthropocene.
Some scientists disagree with the notion that people negatively intervened in their ecosystems more than 10,000 years ago. They say that cultural diversity is likely to have had an overall positive effect on ecosystem biodiversity.
But what if despite our best efforts, a catastrophe occurs, and all our current conservation efforts fail? Here’s a really wild idea: store genetic samples of all the Earth’s current life-forms in a biorepository on the moon. Could it work?
Cash conservation
For many around the world, using cash is a part of every day, despite the increasing trend towards digital transactions. But do we pay any attention to the artwork and images that are used on our currencies?
To get a sense of the “value” that countries around the world might place on their native wildlife, a team of researchers from Griffith University in Queensland, Australia, explored what types of fauna nations around the globe choose to use on their currencies and the opportunities that doing so presents for conservation awareness and efforts.
A proposed plan aims to safeguard Earth’s imperiled biodiversity by cryogenically preserving biological material on the moon. It’s a fascinating—and futuristic—idea.
In a study published in the science journal People and Nature in July 2024, the researchers investigated the representation of native fauna on 4,541 banknotes from 207 countries between 1980 and 2017 to identify taxonomic patterns and determine whether endemic and threatened species were more present. They found that:
• native fauna was depicted on 15.2% of banknotes reviewed;
• 352 unique species—with a strong bias towards terrestrial species (89%)—were shown;
• bird and mammal species (83% combined) dominated;
• African banknotes had the highest numbers of mammal likenesses;
• birds were favored in South America; and
• worldwide, threatened species were commonly depicted on banknotes, with 30% of all imagery containing these species.
Given the global biodiversity crisis, this could denote a trend to showcase threatened species to highlight their plight and raise national awareness. The researchers believe that their study underscores the role that wildlife imagery on banknotes could play in shaping public perception and national identity of a nation’s biodiversity. By highlighting both celebrated and threatened species, currencies around the world can serve as a unique platform for promoting conservation awareness.
Researchers recently investigated how often wildlife—specifically, native animals—were depicted on different nations’ currencies. By highlighting both celebrated and threatened species, currencies around the world could serve as a unique platform to promote conservation awareness.
The Griffith University researchers recommended several avenues for further investigation to explore the relationships between wildlife representation and perceived value, including studies of how representation changes over time, the inclusion of images of flora and examining the decision-making processes governing wildlife imagery on banknotes.
Biodiversity boosters
In an article published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B in April 2024, archeologists from two German universities, the University of Cologne and the University of Tubingen, examined the role of humans in the control and evolution of biodiversity on our planet. They argue that the idea that humans had lived harmoniously with nature as hunter-gatherers mischaracterizes the history of human interactions with ecosystems.
The archeologists suggest that the relationship between humans and habitats has always been much more complex and complicated, and that—in addition to the negative effects—people have had positive effects on biodiversity through time. They state that although biodiversity loss occurs locally due to human activity, it is often strongly promoted elsewhere. This dynamic must, therefore, be placed in a wider context.
In the wild, ravens are opportunistic feeders, and their diets vary based on habitat and available food sources. Even in the last Ice Age, ravens benefited from their human neighbors, especially from the food options that hunter-gatherers provided.
The scientists’ research combines various case studies from the Late Pleistocene (approximately 129,000 to 11,700 years ago) and recent studies on Ice Age ravens, which show that the birds benefited from their human neighbors about 30,000 years ago—especially from the food options that hunter-gatherers provided.
Results of zooarchaeological and stable isotope analyses applied in the case of the ravens show that such processes can lead to an increase in biodiversity on a local level. This is because certain animals benefit from human influence and others that are excluded locally by humans, such as large predators, move to other areas. Overall, this increases the complexity and heterogeneity of such ecosystems, thereby often resulting in a positive effect on overall biodiversity.
Ultimately, say the archaeologists, biodiversity regimes cannot be separated from human influences and not all of these influences are negative. It also follows that increased diversity in humans probably has an overall positive effect on biodiversity as a whole and that a decisive driver of the biodiversity crisis in the Anthropocene is, in part, the homogenization of human cultures.
Cryopreservation is a process that preserves cells, organelles, tissues or any other biological constructs for a long time by cooling the samples to very low temperatures.
Lunar lockbox
Still, we can’t deny that today, biodiversity loss on Earth is rampant. To safeguard it, why don’t we cryogenically preserve biological material on the moon? It just so happens that the moon’s permanently shadowed craters are cold enough for cryogenic preservation without the need for electricity or liquid nitrogen.
That’s the idea proposed by scientists at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, and others in a paper published in the journal BioScience in July 2024. It outlines a road map for creating a lunar biorepository, with ideas for the types of biological material to be stored, governance and a plan for experiments to understand and address challenges, such as microgravity and radiation. The study also demonstrates the successful cryopreservation of skin samples from a fish, which are now stored at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
Initially, the lunar biorepository would target the most at-risk species on Earth today, but the ultimate goal would be to cryopreserve most species on Earth.
The moon’s permanently shadowed craters are cold enough for cryopreservation without the need for electricity or liquid nitrogen.
The proposal takes inspiration from the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway, which contains more than 1 million frozen seed varieties and functions as a backup for the world’s crop biodiversity in case of a global disaster. By virtue of its location in the Arctic nearly 400 feet underground, the vault was intended to be capable of keeping its seed collection frozen without electricity. However, in 2017, thawing permafrost threatened the collection with a flood of meltwater. The seed vault has since been waterproofed, but the incident showed that even in the Arctic, a subterranean bunker could be vulnerable to climate change.
Unlike seeds, animal cells require much lower storage temperatures for preservation (-320 degrees Fahrenheit). On Earth, cryopreservation of animal cells requires electricity, human staff and a supply of liquid nitrogen. Each of these three elements are potentially vulnerable to disruptions that could destroy an entire collection. To reduce these vulnerabilities, scientists needed a way to passively maintain cryopreservation storage temperatures. Since such cold temperatures do not naturally exist on Earth, the scientists looked to the moon.
The moon’s polar regions feature numerous craters that never receive sunlight due to their depth and orientation. These permanently shadowed regions can be -410 degrees Fahrenheit—more than cold enough for passive cryopreservation storage. To block out the DNA-damaging radiation present in space, samples could be stored underground or inside a structure with thick walls made of moon rocks.
The starry goby boasts a beautiful, star-spangled appearance with iridescent, blue spots that adorn a dusky, mottled body. In the wild, the fish is found from the Red Sea to Hawaii and from northern Japan to western Australia, where it inhabits shallow bays, coral reefs, lagoons and tidal estuaries.
At the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, the Smithsonian research team cryopreserved skin samples from a reef fish called the starry goby. The fins contain a type of skin cell called “fibroblasts,” the primary material stored in the National Museum of Natural History’s biorepository. When it comes to cryopreservation, fibroblasts have several advantages over other types of commonly cryopreserved cells, such as eggs, embryos and sperm. We still don’t have the scientific knowledge that’s required to reliably preserve the eggs, embryos and sperm of most wildlife species. However, for many species, fibroblasts can be cryopreserved easily. In addition, fibroblasts can be collected from an animal’s skin, which is simpler than harvesting eggs or sperm. For species that do not have skin, such as invertebrates, scientists could use a diversity of sample types, such as larvae and other reproductive materials.
The next steps are to begin a series of radiation exposure tests for the cryopreserved fibroblasts on Earth to help design packaging that could safely deliver samples to the moon. The team is actively seeking partners and support to conduct additional experiments on Earth and aboard the International Space Station. Such experiments would provide robust testing for the prototype packaging’s ability to withstand the microgravity and radiation associated with space travel and storage on the moon.
If this idea becomes a reality, the researchers envision the lunar biorepository as a public entity that will include private and public funders, scientific partners, countries and public representatives with mechanisms for cooperative governance akin to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
As wild as it sounds, some day in the future, there could be a place in the stars that remembers all of the rich life that once roamed Earth.
The scientists are quick to point out that the biorepository isn’t meant for a time when the Earth fails (after all, if the Earth is destroyed, the biorepository won’t matter), it’s intended to help offset natural disasters and, potentially, to augment space travel. Life, as far as we know, is rare in the universe. The lunar biorepository would provide another, parallel approach to conserving Earth’s precious biodiversity.
Warehouse of what-was
Cash and cultures; conservation and the cosmos. Perhaps, at times and in small ways, we did respect the rest of the beings who share the Earth with us by calling attention to their lives—through our depictions, our human habits and our scientific efforts to preserve their possibilities.
But should we reach that point where the unimaginable happens, it would be good to know that there’s a place in the stars that still remembers.
Here’s to finding your true places and natural habitats,
Candy
The post Wild Conservation Ideas: Currency Images and a Moon Vault first appeared on Good Nature Travel Blog.
Simple Steps To Recycle Your Own Paper
Eliminate some household waste – like junk mail, used printer paper or old wrapping paper – and create something unique and handmade at the same time.
The post Simple Steps To Recycle Your Own Paper appeared first on Earth911.