Technicolor Opalescence 💿💿

[depsidase]

[expressions-of-nature]

by Igor Svibilsky

[depsidase]

[1o9]

[opalgalaxies]

This 3.72ct Natural Dark Opal Heart is a showpiece of vibrant Australian fire. Mined from Lightning Ridge and expertly polished into a smooth heart cabochon, this opal bursts with radiant flashes of fiery red, orange, gold, green, and deep violet, shimmering across a dark body tone that enhances its depth and dimension.

https://opalgalaxy.com/3-72ct-natural-dark-opal-heart/

[captain-price-returns]

[hope-for-the-planet]

First-of-its-kind study definitively shows that conservation actions are effective at halting and reversing biodiversity loss

A new study published online today, April 25, in the scientific journal Science provides the strongest evidence to date that not only is nat

From the article:

“If you look only at the trend of species declines, it would be easy to think that we’re failing to protect biodiversity, but you would not be looking at the full picture,” said Penny Langhammer, lead author of the study and Executive Vice President of Re:wild. “What we show with this paper is that conservation is, in fact, working to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. It is clear that conservation must be prioritized and receive significant additional resources and political support globally, while we simultaneously address the systemic drivers of biodiversity loss, such as unsustainable consumption and production.”

This massive meta analysis (for those not familiar, a study analyzing the results of many studies on similar topics) found that the vast majority of conservation efforts show much much better results than doing nothing. In many cases, biodiversity loss was not only stopped but reversed.

This shows that conservation efforts really work and money invested is put to very good use. Legally protecting endangered species really works, restoring habitat really works, removing invasive species really works, returning land to Indigenous communities works. All of the blood, sweat, and tears being poured into protecting the natural world has been making a real, big, tangible, difference on a global scale.

[aetherograph]

We fixed it. We did fix it and we can fix it and we are fixing it and we WILL fix it!!!

Forty years ago there were zero condors in the wild.

There are over 300 condors now, free and wild and breeding by themselves without our help.

We did that. We did. Lots of people said "that's stupid, you won't succeed" but people made condor puppets and they said "fuck you we're gonna try anyway" and they fed the babies and raised them up wild and did their best with their big human brains and human cooperation and WE FIXED IT!!!!

YOU ARE NOT THE FIRST GENERATION TO CARE.

YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY PERSON WHO CARES.

IT IS NOT HOPELESS.

WE CAN FIX IT!!!!

[saturnfairyluv]

𝑭𝒂𝒊𝒓𝒚𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒆

[yiddishfisting]

great

[yiddishfisting]

this looks helpful at least

[hope-for-the-planet]

Green sea turtle no longer Endangered

These gentle, 400-pound giants are splashing back from the brink of extinction.

Green sea turtles have been an iconic endangered species since the 1980s, mostly due to bycatch in fishing nets and taking adults and eggs for food. I have core childhood memories of watching Steve Irwin talk about sea turtle conservation in front of a beach full of nesting green sea turtles.

After 45 years of conservation efforts, their population now meets the IUCN criteria for Least Concern rather than Endangered.

For a species with such a slow life history (it takes green sea turtles decades to reach sexual maturity) and a nearly global population, this is a Really Big Deal. This is the kind of long term conservation victory that many of the amazing humans who started working on green sea turtle conservation back in the 80s didn't live to see.

Just because something isn't fixed right away doesn't mean it won't ever be fixed. Just because the work is slow doesn't mean it isn't worth doing.

[unusual-suspects]

x

[amorphoussystem-deactivated2024]

How much longer until the utopic Solarpunk future where Capitalism is dead and we all live in ecologically sustainable high-tech forest cities? Asking for a friend.

[plantyhamchuk]

Until we make those ecologically sustainable high-tech forest cities ourselves. It’s going to take a lot of us to do it though, so best to spread the word (and gather native tree seeds).

[samiholloway]

And, like, get started now. Then our “weirdo houses” will be the only thing functioning when everything falls apart!

[plantyhamchuk]

The only reason why we don’t live in a solarpunk world right now is because no one has bothered to make it yet. 

We’ll have to make it ourselves, and we’ll have to help each other make it. That’s why it is solarpunk. 

Some resources to consider creating or joining or doing:

Repair cafes - create or join your local repair cafe! Repair stuff, learn how to repair stuff, teach others how to repair stuff.

Map of Makerspaces - make some things! learn how to make some things! teach others how to make some things!

Community Garden Map (note that this is US-only, and not a complete list) - join a local community garden

Support your local farmers / local economy (US only link)

Support or create a local Food Not Bombs chapter

Support or create a local Food Not Lawns chapter

Grow food in 5 gallon buckets

Volunteer for Habitat for Humanity (as a bonus you can learn extremely practical skills)

Volunteer via 350.org to help the environment / the planet / the place we live and depend on

Excellent-and-still-growing wiki from reddit’s awesome r/zerowaste community - great resource to learn how to live more lightly on the earth

Spread the word about solarpunk, especially to engineering students. Show them projects like Open Source Ecology - Global Village Construction Set and Bridges for Prosperity 

Learn how to Patch a Hole, Mend a Seam, and Fix a Hem

Learn how to repair a hole in the sole of a shoe

Learn some basics on passive solar design - clever use of the sun can create extremely energy efficient homes and buildings. You can use these principles to save on energy bills, even if you’re renting.

Free USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning, 2015 revision - cut down on personal food waste! Learn how to safely preserve food. Very useful if you suddenly harvest / purchase for crazy cheap in season / dumpster dive a ton of perishable food.

Donate to One Acre Fund, which provides training and capital to farmers (making them more productive and pulling them out of poverty) in various east African countries

Donate to Bridges to Prosperity, which provides technical expertise, money, and volunteers, to help local people build and maintain their own footbridges in extremely isolated rural areas 

joining r/solarpunk, and sharing links/ideas/art/music with the community. Also, upvoting stuff for greater visibility. There’s over 900 members!

[anarchopuppy]

Adding a few!

Replant scraps from your produce

Graft fruit-bearing branches onto ornamental trees in your area

Turn plastic waste into pretty much any plastic thing you need, in your garage, with machines built out of cheap and accessible parts

Make your own paper out of recycled paper or cardboard

Build a composter or a wormery

Harvest rainwater

Mod your toilet to flush gray water (used sink/shower water, or even that rainwater you’re harvesting)

Build a solar collector on the cheap

Build a wind turbine on the cheap

Build a hydroelectric water wheel on the cheap

Get internet access without going through cable companies using cheap, low-tech equipment

Make your own beer, cheese, soap, wine… really anything you can make rather than buy is a success!

And HELP YOUR NEIGHBORS! Don’t just build/grow/mod/repair your own stuff, help them do it too! Share it! Depend on each other! Work together and grow closer with your community!

[whyenn-reader]

''what if you regret it'' then you will expirience regret - a normal and unavoidable part of the human expirience.

[whyenn-reader]

the more you twist yourself into a pretzel to avoid regret the harder it will hit when it eventually catches up to you.

[wachinyeya]

Biotech Startup Breeds Blight Tolerant American Chestnut Without Any Genetic Defects https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/biotech-startup-breeds-blight-tolerant-american-chestnut-without-any-genetic-defects/

Biotech Startup Breeds Blight Tolerant American Chestnut Without Any Genetic Defects

By analyzing variance between plants, SilvaBio's models were able to predict which ones would stand the best chance of resisting the blight.

Jul 20, 2026

The company is inspired by saving American hardwoods that have been ravaged by an introduced fungal disease, and says their proprietary approach could be replicated to help save American elm, ash, and white oak trees as well.

North American timber is a $350 billion industry. Hardwood forests support habitats and biodiversity, and anchor some 15% of all American carbon. Yet between chestnut blight, the emerald ash borer, and Dutch elm disease, many native species have experienced catastrophic declines.

Several concepts for protecting or immunizing American chestnuts from the blight which landed on American shores in the early 1900s from East Asia have failed or are being tested. Along with his partner and aptly-named entrepreneur Michael Bloom, Serazin and SilvaBio have approached the challenge by combining sophisticated predictive methods and knowledge of the chestnut’s genomics with their “Lightspeed” breeding process that offers an enhanced form of propagation.

—

“A foreign pathogen took the American chestnut from our forests. As we approach our 250th, American innovation, science collaboration and stewardship are bringing it back. That is a story worthy of this anniversary,” said Jessica Bowron, National Park Service Acting Director, in a speech to mark the occasion.

Before Darling cultivars can be cultivated on mass, however, detailed regulatory science has to be conducted to ensure that focusing Natural Selection so pointedly to a single purpose does not compromise other aspects of the American chestnut’s biology.

For example, in December 2023, the American Chestnut Foundation withdrew its support for a genetically engineered chestnut that was decades in development, after multiple documented research errors revealed the tree to be genetically defective. Discouraging field performance rendered them, in the Foundation’s opinion, unsuitable as the basis for species restoration.

“Healthy forests depend on genetic diversity. Our goal is to develop dozens, and eventually many more, blight-tolerant, regionally adapted lines,” they wrote.

“In the United States alone, an estimated 41% of our live forest biomass is threatened by just 15 non-native insects and diseases. The American chestnut is functionally extinct. We’ve lost roughly 75% of our mature elm trees. Ash is being devastated by the emerald ash borer, while beech, white oak, and walnut face their own emerging threats.”

“The American chestnut is our first application, but the same approach can be extended to other species facing similar challenges. Each new species builds on the scientific knowledge, propagation capabilities, and restoration partnerships we’ve already established.”

[sab3rtooth]

Bengal tiger at the Jukani Wildlife Sanctuary in South Africa

[dreaminginholo]

It's my 14 year anniversary on Tumblr 🥳

[world-beauty]

Mercury on the Horizon

Credits: Juan Carlos Casado