Here’s an ANIMORPHS animation pitch I made last summer! Created it for a lot of different personal and professional reasons, but now I’m happy to share!
It's always amazing to have a conservation success story, and it's important to remember that they happen.
I wrote about this guy in the old version of my blog. At that point, they were still looking for a live one I signed off with "If I’m still blogging by then, I’ll be sure to give you an update."
So... I guess if anyone has been waiting with bated breath since... oh god, 2007, here's your update.
(The old blog is a hell of a time capsule. Explorers beware, it has been abandoned since 2014, so it contains dead links and pictures)
If you read ecology books printed in the 70s and 80s, they were absolutely convinced that whales and tigers would not survive the century. There's a whole plot in Star Trek about how whales are extinct actually. Here in Argentina, we were sure that yaguaretés would have gone extinct. It was thought that rainforests would be forever lost, because there was no way that such complex ecosystems would be restored.
Now, you can go to Península Valdés and find that the whale population there is growing year after year, people can see them from their windows. In Iberá, where yaguaretés were extinct for over 70 years, there's now a population of 35 and growing, after being reintroduced just five years ago. As for rainforests?
We've becoming very, very good on restoring them. Natural environments, when given space and time to heal, can return to that they were. And after all, all natural enviroments are managed by human societies. It is up to us to implement a good management, un buen gobierno.
I firmly believe our children and grandchildren will see a restoration of Earth like never before.
Millions of people are working on this. You can learn about it, perhaps even become one of them. Or be a pointless doomer in my ask box. Your choice.
if there are people who care, it's never a lost cause. at one point, kākāpō, a nocturnal flightless parrot species from aotearoa, were thought to be entirely extinct for decades. until 1977, where booming calls from males were heard on the small island of whenua hou. now, thanks to people who care so much they dedicated their lives to caring, kākāpō numbers are close to 300. despite the setbacks. despite the small gene pool causing infertility and health problems. people cared so fucking much that they survived. this is one of COUNTLESS, countless similar stories. I'm studying ecology so that I can go into conservation and all around me, every day, I see people who care enough to put years of their lives into learning about and solving environmental problems. I don't know man. hope isn't just some nebulous thing. it's tangible if you do something with it.
Tim Wong saw the decline of the pipeline swallowtail butterfly, and dedicated himself to providing habitat and raising babies, and it worked.
Spix's Macaws were extinct in the wild for 70 years, and now captive breeding and conservation groups have reintroduced a small population (with more on the way) and there are babies being successfully raised in the wild again.
And what else is there, but hope? We exist for the grace of hope. Those who have lost all hope don't stay here. If you are here to send an ask like this, it is not because you have given up, it's that you are hoping someone will show you that that hope is worth having.
It is!! It always is!!
There will be good things and if you cannot find them, make them! The time will pass anyway, you can choose what to do with it, and so many, many people are choosing to try to help.
We visited the newly renovated Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and were delighted to find that they kept one of their best easter eggs on display. (Here's a hint if you're having problems finding it.)
As we filmed this deep-sea octopus, Graneledone, gracefully walking along the seafloor over 1,500 meters (4,900 feet) beneath the waves, a rattail fish came in to hog the shot. Rattails, also known as grenadiers, are often attracted to the lights on our remotely operated vehicle (ROV). Rattails are very curious and will come to investigate any disturbance on or around the seafloor. Presumably, this helps them find food in the darkness of the deep sea.
“Humans are inherently selfish--" Then why do so many cultures value hospitality, to the point of dictating it in their religions? Why is it so common for hosts to offer their visitors their best food, and as much of it as they can? At some point, multiple cultures decided that they knew what it felt like to be alone and vulnerable, and promised each other to never let those who stay with them feel that way. That doesn't sound very "inherently selfish" to me.
For various reasons the scientific community is not inclined to expose live diplodocus to enough test subjects to determine whether or not it causes gonorrhoea.
i think we've done a great job expanding the view of what a child's favorite animal can be. kids these days can say they love axolotls or pangolins or coelecanths and their decision is respected. maybe their parents can even find them a stuffed animal of it if they know where to look. and i think that's beautiful
As a kid who loved axolotls and pangolins and coelocanths, I'm kinda jealous of kids these days for that reason. But also very happy for them!
As an adult who has multiple plush axolotls and pangolins and... actually I should get some coeocanths... it's nice to see so much more of the animal kingdom represented in plushie form.
This is what the apparent suspect looked like the same day at Starbucks.
Green/brown jacket and black back pack
Notice lack of unibrow.
Luigi day of arrest.
Unibrow present and stubble on face/neck.
Why is this important? Because Starbucks guy doesn't have those.
Which leads me to perp walk luigi.
"Oh they must have a great barber lmaooo" no. Stop joking for a second. No one gets this treatment so why him? Because they are trying to make him look like the Starbucks perp. They think we are dumb and will forget shooter Mcgee doesn't look anything like Starbuck boy.
Luigi said evidence was planted on him like the gun and the manifesto.
I believe this because the manifesto praises the efforts of the policemen on like page one. Like they couldn't even not suck their own dicks for 3 seconds to plant compelling evidence.
Do not let these people fool you. Luigi did not do this. Even though it's funny, even though he's hot even though <insert myriad of excuses I've heard here>. Do not let them get away with brainwashing you into believing he did it even if you agree with what happened.
I'm pro UHC shooter.
I'm pro luigi being released because hes innocent.
I also saw a post advocating for not referring to the UHC shooter by the name Luigi, even when you're making memes, because what that does is presume guilt and we're supposed to presume innocence.
We have already averted truly apocalyptic levels of global warming.
Yes, read that again. Let it sink in. This is what the science now says. We have already averted truly apocalyptic global warming.
To quote David Wallace-Wells, author of The Uninhabitable Earth, from his huge feature in the New York Times:
"Thanks to astonishing declines in the price of renewables, a truly global political mobilization, a clearer picture of the energy future and serious policy focus from world leaders, we have cut expected warming almost in half in just five years...
The window of possible climate futures is narrowing, and as a result, we are getting a clearer sense of what’s to come: a new world, full of disruption but also billions of people, well past climate normal and yet mercifully short of true climate apocalypse."
(New York Times, October 22, 2022. Unpaywalled here. Emphasis mine. And yes, this vision of the future is backed up by the current science on the issue, as he explains at length in the article.)
So we've already averted truly apocalyptic warming, and we've already cut expected warming IN HALF in just the past five years.
The pace of technology, of innovation, of prices, of feasibility, of discovery, of organizing, of grassroots movements, of movements in other countries around the world, have all picked up the pace so fast in the last five years.
Renewable technology and capacity are both increasing at an exponential rate. It's all S-curves, ones that look like this:
-via The Economist, June 20, 2024.
How much more will we manage in another five years? Another ten? Another twenty?
I know the US is about to fucking suck about the environment for the next four years. But the momentum of renewable energy is far too much to stop - both in the US (x) and around the world.
(Huge shoutouts to India, China, and Brazil for massive gains for the environment in renewables, and Brazil for massive progress against Amazon deforestation.)
Some real talk for the new year, about where we now stand, and what the next years are going to look like. (Still ends on a "be hopeful or else" kind of note, but definitely gets into some heavy truths about the meaning of recent events.)
Look, I'm not saying that the effects of warming aren't already bad, or won't get worse. I'm from California, I currently live in LA. My state's been on fire for half my life. Natural disasters starting amping up early here (and we're certainly in the middle of another historic number now).
But like I said, my state's been breaking horrible disaster records constantly for the past ten years. And you know what? Natural disasters have been getting more and more survivable for years, largely thanks to faster warnings and better mass communication (x).
Does it suck how many natural disasters there are now? Yeah. Are we going to need to organize and mobilize (both politically and especially community-wise) like never before to see as many people through these times as best as possible? Also yeah.
An unknown number of the most optimistic futures were foreclosed when Trump won the US election. That's painful but a reality.
But for twenty-ish of the past twenty-five years, the science said we weren't going to survive climate change at all.
For most of my life, we were worried that we had set Earth on a course to become like fucking Venus (which is, on average, well over 800 degrees Farenheit). Even if it didn't get that bad, we were so worried that global warming might wipe out all life on earth - except maybe the cockroaches. Literally, when I was a younger the kids at my church put on a play about that. It was like an adaptation of A Christmas Carol where the future only had talking cockroaches. I grew up so worried about this. (Yes it was very granola why do you ask.)
But starting a few years ago, studies have shown that there wasn't going to be a runaway greenhouse effect that could turn us into Venus; that earth is warming, yes, but we don't seem to be in danger of that.
Between that and the fact that the adoption of renewables globally is too fast to be stopped, and we do have the technology and environmental science knowledge to eventually re-lower global temperatures by getting to net negative carbon emissions (x), and most countries and at least 73% of people in all countries for which there is data (x) actually care very much about the climate, yeah, we have closed the door on the lava planet future.
And yeah, I do think that's worth celebrating.
That's a massive fucking victory.
Semi-relatedly, I also think that, given the loss of the US election, there's a really, really strong chance the developing world will be what saves us, and we'll just be lucky to be along for the ride.
Most people have no idea of the kinds of stories and statistics coming out of the developing world and Indigenous communities. The world is changing for the better on the environment, even as disasters (and the US) are getting worse. Solar power is going to revolutionize the fucking world, because it's going to grant humanity universal access to electricity, and that's going to revolutionize the world, especially the developing world (aka the global majority). And most people have no idea at all, much less how much it's going to change.
So, yeah, natural disasters are going to keep getting worse.
But there's a long, long long fucking way between "natural disasters are going to keep getting worse" and "the extinction of all of humanity and/or the vast majority of life on earth"
And yeah, I am going to celebrate that fucking difference.
Because for over twenty years, I was afraid I'd never get to.
Keep going. I know it's difficult; I know the despair is real. But so is the hope. So is the fact that in spite of the people trying to drag us down for profit, there are SO MANY MORE people who are actively trying to fix things! We don't always show up in the media because these quiet efforts don't always make for good headlines. But anyone who is educating others on climate (yes, sharing stuff on social media counts!), or who is working on habitat restoration (including as a volunteer, or a home gardener), or choosing to make a few small personal changes to lessen their impact, or yelling at major corporations and elected officials through email, Twitter, whatever--all that and more is a part of this.
You aren't alone. We aren't alone. Yes, the situation is still very real and very dire and we aren't at all out of danger yet. But. We have already kept it from being worse than it is! That's SO IMPORTANT! And I so appreciate all of you who care, even if you don't have the energy or time or other resources to be an active part. You remind me that I'm not alone, either. Thank you.
"ʻAlalā are found nowhere else on Earth, and their existence is essential in Hawaiʻi," conservation group said.
Source and more details below. Thanks for posting, OP!
"The rare ʻalalā Hawaiian crow was successfully reintroduced into the wild in Maui more than 20 years after being declared extinct [in the wild], officials announced Wednesday, December 4, 2024.
Why it matters: "ʻAlalā are found nowhere else on Earth, and their existence is essential in Hawaiʻi," per a statement from the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, which worked to reintroduce the crows. "As they fly from tree to tree, these corvids disperse seeds that help grow new trees and restore native forests."
ʻAlalā "also help provide food and shelter for other indigenous wildlife that share their island," according to the the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. "Their very presence supports and even propagates their ecosystem's rich biodiversity."
The big picture: The endangered ʻalalā are sacred in Hawaiian culture and regarded as spiritual family guardians, per the Hawaiin Department of Land and Natural Resources.
They went extinct in the wild in 2002 and earlier attempts to reintroduce these intelligent birds — one of only two corvid species known to use twigs as tools to reach food — were unsuccessful.
Conservationists have now declared the introduction of five Hawaiian crows to Maui's Kīpahulu Forest Reserve last month a success so far.
What they did: "To prepare, experts raised the two females and three males in a social group to strengthen their relationship-building skills," according to the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.
"This approach helped the ʻalalā practice how they'd depend on each other, giving them every opportunity to succeed in native habitats. Teams also worked closely on prerelease assessments, looking at how the birds were likely to respond to predators and how they'd seek native foods like insects and fruits."
The crows were then transferred from the Maui Bird Conservation Center to a temporary field aviary on the slopes of Haleakalā before being released.
Stunning stat: There were fewer than 20 ʻalalā in the late 1990s. Now, there are more than 110 individuals due to conservation efforts.
What we're watching: "The endgame is to get to a self-sustaining population on Hawaii Island," said Michelle Bogardus, a deputy field supervisor at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to the Washington Post. "The ʻalalā are part of the natural and cultural fabric of Hawaii Island, and they belong there.""
i wish ppl on this website, and within leftist circles in general, were a little less gung ho about making jokes or statements like "billionaires arent people" "nazis arent people" "police arent people"
there is no level of evil where a human stops being a human. if you decide to kill them for their crimes, then you are killing a human. and sometimes that is justified! oil execs and war profiteers have destroyed countless lives in service of their own sick greed, and given the chance to enact that same violence on them, id probably pop their heads like a pimple.
but it is important that we do not shy away from the reality of that choice. it is a human life that is being ended. a person with interiority, feelings, family.
if we stop considering any group as people, even a group defined by their own evil actions, then we are drawing a line to divide society into persons and non-persons, and stating that those non-persons do not deserve to live.
i hope i dont need to explain why that is a dangerous position to take.
these people and all of their evil, their greed, their hatred, are just as much a part of humanity as art, culture, language, food. they are a part of us that has grown malignant and cancerous, and like a cancer, they must be excised for the sake of the whole--but they are still a part of us, made of the same stuff as us, down to their cores.
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