The Last of a Rabbit Breed

Bryn the pygmy rabbit died in 2008, marking the end of her genetic line. This subpopulation lost its sagebrush habitat as the land was developed for agriculture. Key features of Bryn’s genetic material survive in hybrid pygmy rabbits; a breeding and reintroduction program holds out hope for her kind.

In an off-exhibit room at the Oregon Zoo, the staff was quiet, even reverent, as they brought in Bryn. She was one of two Columbia Basin pygmy rabbits left, and since both were old females, this was a solemn occasion.

A keeper placed her gently on my black velvet background, and I began to take photos. I stopped to watch her from time to time, but she didn’t move much. She wasn’t even scared. Nearly blind, missing half an ear, and with fur falling out onto the cloth, she seemed to have already given up.

The whole experience left me morose and extremely disappointed. We’d done it again, this time by converting sage habitat to agriculture in western Washington. Our photo session was one of the last chances Bryn had to be noticed. She died a few months later, and then Raphaela, the last of the breed, died as well. The Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit is now extinct, a passenger pigeon for the 21st century.

-Joel Sartore

Let's talk about Oral

For those who know the writer well, she's atrociously filthy. Sometimes, she defends her laziness with being "eco-friendly".  

The bunch of us who're used to waking up and brushing their teeth in darkness, you will, one day realise that your toothbrush ends up like like this very quickly: 

or worse... 

If one continues to brush their teeth with this damned toothbrush, your teeth will eventually have holes (like the writer) because screwed up toothbrushes with frayed bristles just can't reach places that a brand new toothbrush can. 

As a result, you throw the toothbrush away, adding to the already increasing pile of useless plastic trash. Plastics can be recycled and is cheaper than landfill disposal, but it also takes a significant amount of energy to do so. Might as well make your plastics last as long as they should. 

The lifespan of a toothbrush largely depends on methodology:

Less strength, more strokes.
Kurang kekuatan, lebih stroke!
少的力量，更招！
적은 힘이 더 스트로크!
少ない力、より多くのストローク！
Меньше силы, больше ударов!
Minna styrkur, fleiri högg!

Psychologically, one's teeth feel cleaner using strength. However, it's not necessary - your bristles part faster, reducing its durability and utility. Instead, dirt can be better removed from your teeth with increased, light repetition of strokes. 

Your toothbrush bristles can therefore last 5 times longer without compromising the cleanliness of your teeth.

---

Toothbrushes that are already dead and overstaying their welcome (aka useless for your mouth), don't throw them away just yet!

Use it for clearing up grime in crevices, hard-to-reach areas (eg: corners in your toilet shower)

Also use it to appease your little furry friends and remove loose fur. They love it (tested and proven) behind the ears, under the chin, around the neck. 

Toothbrushes are also good for grooming Spartan warriors.

Try it with your friends today!

Why we are important even as specks...

... and not rely on the big daddies to do everything.

Clearly from the previous post and many other examples, science, politics and finance do not work well with the environment. It's been like this for decades and will always be, until proven otherwise by our leaders, whoever they might be.

Like many other modern science discoveries, the ideologies are brilliant, eg: Biology 2.0, human genome mapping. We can say the same about geo-engineering. In the right hands, these solutions can work wonders. However...

It's not just about moral obligation or ethics to save the environment, it's about placing our total trust and leaving our Earth in the hands of obsessive scientists and greedy politicians/investors who really don't care for the betterment of our species and planet.

In the meantime, we can do our part as tiny specks to preserve and protect what we already have. 

The Earth's state is an exact mirror of humanity.

We can only hope the our future leaders and geoengineers will provide all due transparency to the public before they start treating our Earth as a massive lab experiment instead of appreciating it for what it is.

A shoutout to those who've been consciously making the effort to be more eco-friendly! You guys make a difference!  

Can carbon sequestration be an alternative?

My dear bald friend-with-awesome-boat-who-taught-me-alot-of-awesomesauce-stuff Shannon pointed out that the use of plastics and other non-biodegradable materials could eventually be a better way of controlled carbon capture as opposed to letting natural materials decompose in the open.

Stored carbon can thus be sent to coal plants for separation at a location close to natural spots which encourage conversion of CO2 to biomass (such as forests, oceans etc).

In summary, this solution of carbon sequestration does NOT reduce our carbon output, but mitigates large quantities of carbon to be converted by nature before it reaches the atmosphere. 

In comparison, this seems to be the simple way out of things as modern humans can consume as much as they do without guilt (SO LAZY), as opposed to meticulously cutting down on individual lifestyle choices which actively contribute to global warming.



ALAS! WHERE R TEH LOOPHOLES

1) These plants are incredibly expensive to run. 

2) In order to convert energy, water and oxygen (lolwut) is mixed with the coal to create CO and hydrogen. Hydrogen is used as fuel, and CO is converted to a concentrated stream of CO2. One quarter of the energy produced is used to run the plant itself.

3) Even more energy is required to compress CO2 into liquid to be injected to the ground and stored. This takes 20% of energy yielded.

So far, 45% of the energy produced from this method is used just from running the plant.

4) After injecting into the ground, the highly compressed CO2 and its surrounding terrain must be closely monitored to prevent deadly leakages which can kill thousands.

5) Earth's crust is not the best container for gases. This is not a long-term solution... even space under the crust will be exhausted before we know it.

6) There is so far, no proof for this method's potential. Urgent action is needed now to battle climate change yet it's moving on slowly...

7) Investors and government grants are pouring in money for this unproven technique. This is biased and prevents other viable energy methods from getting their fair share of funding for the betterment of our planet.

- source



I quote from Treehugger:

All this talk of carbon sequestration can basically be seen as a delaying tactic, as a way to get government support and to keep the operation and construction of coal power plants more socially acceptable. It's the equivalent of saying: "Don't bother us, we're working on it!"

"Sustainable technology" plans are great! But NOT an excuse to be an irresponsible consumer. True story, bro.

EcoZoo

http://ecodazoo.com/

Adorable flash website with cardboard popup bits and tips on being eco-friendly . Support!

菜贩打包!

Office workers scrimping on food and eating “菜贩” everyday for lunch have to take away their food to fight the lunchtime crowd.

Alas, the food is usually in foam boxes. My heart feels a little hurt for our dear planet Earth when I imagine the tens of thousands of foam boxes being disposed of everyday. Unlike plastic bags, foam boxes are measly and cannot be re-used for many things.

Bring similar-sized lunchboxes to take away your food instead! Been spreading this practice in my office and it's going on well. :) The initial step took a bit of courage (didn't want to hold up the queue, less complications for the auntie) but fortunately, the chicken rice uncle was thrilled and even gave me more chicken (I guess to compensate for the price of the foam box).

It's not tough at all; once this happens often enough, everyone will get used to this (so long we be responsible and get a box of same size).

Wash, re-use, we're good to go!

Plastic lunchbox: 1
Foam box: 0

Whales can save us all

Large whales such as blue whales and sperms whales excrete large amount of iron in their feces. These iron-rich feces in turn encourage growth of phytoplankton (microscopic plants) which actively photosynthesize.

Given the population of large whales way before people starting whaling, there could've been just enough phytoplankton to convert the entire China's industrial CO2 pollution to oxygen.