50 Best Photos From the Natural World

We live in a beautiful world. The best way to save biodiversity is to get to know the species we have around us near and far. These are the species we share the planet with, the ones we are both imperiling and trying to save. They are spectacular products of 3.7 billion years of evolution on Earth like we are. They gather and mate, they eat, look curiously at the world, nuzzle and make eye contact just like we do. Check out the Big Picture from Boston.com and see how these animals deserve our admiration and respect, as well as our protection.
(Hint: use the "j" and "k" keys to easily navigate down and up these terrific photos.)

Cool Biodiversity: The Mimic Octopus

We still know so little about the 1.8 million catalogued species that we share the planet with and our knowledge is especially incomplete when it comes to the oceans. The best way to halt the biodiversity crisis is to get to know these creatures better. The good people over at the 5 Gyres, whose mission is to end plastic pollution, no less, are starting a series about Cool Water Animals on their blog, kicking it off with the, ahem, inimitable, mimic octopus. Check out the video to see why they call this fantastic creature a magician. And, while you're at it, check in with the 5 Gyres:

Environmental Cartoons I: Crisis? What Crisis?

I was searching for environmental cartoons and found the work of Canadian Peter Ommundsen, who studied wildlife biology and worked for 32 years in environmental science at Selkirk College in British Columbia.

I'm going to feature some more in coming posts, but this first one reminds me of the 1975 album cover by Supertramp, Crisis? What Crisis?

I picture this guy as the one on the other end of the phone in the above cartoon...
If you find any good enviro-cartoons, send them to me or post a link in the comments.

Learning from Nature -- Alison Hawthorne Deming

What can we learn from our encounters from nature, particularly from the great animals like elephants? This is Alison Hawthorne Deming writing about being stuck in the mud on a safari in Africa: 

Being stuck is how any earth cel­ebrant might feel these days, con­fronted by the habitat-hogging reign of human culture over the planet.  But one of nature's little tricks is that our better intentions can be fueled by the simple contemplation of natural beauty.  Whether our empathy for other spe­cies is sufficient to motivate the level of care that the damaged world requires remains an open question.  But to feed one's wonder and love for the varieties of earth's self-expression is one of our better desires. You can read the entire essay from which this excerpt was extracted at the NRDC's 

OnEarth Magazine


As a bonus, listen to a podcast from OnEarth magazine in which Deming reads the essay 
and talks in more detail about what we can learn from nature. 

Poet Alison Hawthorne Deming on What Nature Teaches -- If We Listen | OnEarth Magazine

Also see an earlier post about the emotional life of elephants here. 

Leaping Ahead of Extinction

You've got to love a good ad-campaign. Especially when it's to raise awareness about threatened species around the world. Scientists have known for at least a decade now that amphibians have been suffering dramatic losses globally. This year, to celebrate Leap Day (February 29), zoos and nature parks around the world are joining forces to put on a program called, "Leaping Ahead of Extinction," to educate us all about the successful conservation programs for amphibians. It's about time we had some good news. There's no zoo in the Boston area featuring the program, but maybe there's one in yours?

Check out the Amphibian Ark for more news about our froggy friends.

Clever Animated Short

Well the Oscars are tomorrow and this one isn't nominated for anything (wrong year anyway), but you got to love a little film that so cleverly demonstrates what goes round comes round.

Tar Sands, Pipelines and the Future of the Land

 

Wade Davis, Canadian author, activist and National Geographic explorer-in-residence gives a passionate speech about the repercussions of routing the tar sands pipeline through British Columbia. Some great comments on how we view species and our land, how resource capitalism works, marketing, what it means to inherit the land from our ancestors and how to be good stewards, which makes it applicable viewing to all of us near and far from the proposed pipeline. Before you shy away and think that 30 minutes is too long, think about what short-term corporate profit and decisions without public consultation mean compared to long-term environmental damage.