Posts tagged world

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First part of a 4-episode documentary about “The Age We Made”: a new geological era because we are having such a gigantic impact on the earth’s athmosphere, biodiversity, and future, that it can be compared with the biggest of all geological changes (like the impact of the meteorite that caused mass extinction (including the dinosaurs)). 

The other 3 parts can be listened through iTunes or the BBC Discovery website. 

Humanity’s impact on the Earth is so profound that we’re creating a new geological time period. Geologists have named the age we’re making the Anthropocene. The changes we’re making to the atmosphere, oceans, landscape and living things will leap out of the rocks forming today to Earth scientists of the far future, as clearly as the giant meteorite that ended the Age of the Dinosaurs does to today’s researchers. In this four part series, science journalist Gaia Vince looks at the impact of our planetary transformations from the perspective of geological time. When was the last time comparable events happened in Earth history, and are what are the tell-tale marks we’re making on the planet that define the Anthropocene?

Scientific paper on the topic by Jan Zalasiewicz, Mark Williams, Alan Haywood and Michael Ellis. Or the Economist article about it.

Eating the planet.

Mushroom worldSome years ago, I read of a species of tiny woodland wasp that lives on mushrooms. It seems that when a Wandering female wasp chances upon the right kind of mushroom in the forest, she deposits her eggs within it. Almost inmediately, the eggs hatch and the tiny grubs begin literally to eat themselves out of house and home. The little maggots grow rapidly, but soon something very odd happens. The eggs in the larvaes’ own ovaries hatch while still inside their immature mothers. This second generation of parthenogenic grubs quickly consumes its parents from within, then breaks out of the empty shells to continue feeding on the mushroom. This seemingly gruesome process may repeat itself for another generation. It doesn’t take long before the entire mushroom is overfilled by squirming maggots and fouled by their bodily wastes. The exploding population of juvenile wasps consumes virtually its entire habitat which is the signal for the largest and most mature of the larvae to pupate. The few individuals that rhanage to emerge as mature adults then abandon their mouldering birthplace, flying off to begin the whole process over again.

From: OUR ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT: REDUCING HUMAN IMPACT ON THE EARTH. Mathis Wackernagel and William E. Rees.

books.google.nl

Nuclear mushroom clown. 

Nuclear mushroom clown. 

microscopiq.com

40 years of Greenpeace! Please let us make them redundant in the next 40 years!

40 years of Greenpeace! Please let us make them redundant in the next 40 years!

Now, for the first time in its billions of years of history, our planet is protected by far-seeing sentinels, able to anticipate danger from the distant future - a comet on a collision course, or global warming - and devise schemes for doing something about it. The planet has finally grown its own nervous system: us.
Daniel C Dennet - Freedom Evolves

Chronic hunger - petition tracking

This petition against hunger is a petition against hunger as well as a research project by MIT researcher Riley Crane on the effect of petitions.. is that methodologically correct if people know that?

I know that it is a research project, and am therefore attracted to it (in addition to the cause, which is very important). Anyhow, I am quite curious in the effect of petitions, and especially this one. Please join this experiment and see what happens. Click here:

www.1billionhungry.org/thiemehennis/

Thank you for signing this petition to end hunger. The petition will be presented to governments at an event taking place in Rome, Italy on 29 November 2010. You can help put even more pressure on politicians by asking family, friends and colleagues to sign the petition. Just send them this link (copy and paste) www.1billionhungry.org/thiemehennis/ — through email, Facebook or Twitter. Soon you will receive an email that contains your secret key. Use it to log on to 1billionhungry.org and see on a world map how many of your friends have signed. Red lines will connect their cities in a visible network. Elsewhere on this site, you will see how others have made their own efforts to raise awareness about hunger. You can order T-shirts, whistles and other merchandise from the store to show your solidarity. On the videos page see messages from celebrities, events coverage and more. Together we want to blow the whistle and bring an end to world hunger!

1billionhungry.org