The Cosmic Calendar

If you like science and nature and space and have never watched Cosmos, I highly recommend it.

Here's a clip to help put our existences in the gargantuan perspective of time:

Blooming Flowers

Although it's technically springtime already, today it snowed most of the day. So why not watch a cool video of blooming flowers:

Racing Extinction

The Gist: A documentary about the current state of the world's animal life and how humans are accelerating a new mass extinction event.

This is one of those documentaries that really pull at my heartstrings and end up making me incredibly sad and mad, because I love nature and animals so much.

Frankly, it is a disgrace that the world governments don't do more to protect the beauty of our world and the marvelous creatures that have all made it their home.

It was nominated for a Best Original Song Oscar for the end-titles' track, Anohni's Manta Ray, which itself was the cause of some controversy (read more about it here).

The Bottom Line: Racing Extinction is a must see documentary for every human on the planet. Watch it now before it's too late.

Grade: 8

By 2050, there will be more plastic then fish in the sea

That's the shocking result of a new World Economic Forum report:

We’re putting so much of the cheap, non-biodegradable packaging material into the ocean that by 2050, ocean plastic will literally outweigh ocean fish. 

“This report demonstrates the importance of triggering a revolution in the plastics industrial ecosystem and is a first step to showing how to transform the way plastics move through our economy,” said WEF’s Dominic Waughray when the report was unveiled at Davos this week. 

The amount of plastic in the ocean today is estimated at 150 million metric tons (tonnes). Worldwide plastic production is expected to double within the next 20 years—having already multiplied by 20 since 1964.

More at the source.

I guess it's a very good thing that scientists might have found a bacteria that eats plastic...

Voyage of Time

Today I saw the trailer of Terrence Malick's next project.

I now know for a fact what I will have to go watch this fall:

Ice Stacking

This video, which isn't sped up, is from Lake Superior:

The Ghost Fleet Graveyard

Located in Mallows Bay, Maryland, it's the place where tens of ships built for the war effort were stripped and abandoned to sink and rot. They have now been reclaimed by nature, and life has come back to them.

Soon, it might become a marine reserve, if President Obama declares it so.

They were built to sail across the Atlantic Ocean to aid the allied effort in World War I, but wound up unused, abandoned, stripped and finally scuttled. 

Almost a century on, the "ghost fleet" of Mallows Bay in the Potomac River, 30 miles south of Washington D.C., is positively brimming with life again. 

Nature has taken hold amid the rotting hulls and rusted bows of the scores of historic vessels, with flora and fauna inundating the areas where sailors and passengers once stood. 

Located near Nanjemoy in Charles County, Maryland, Mallows Bay is not only treasured by locals -- it could be on the brink of wider recognition thanks to efforts to designate it a national marine sanctuary.

A lot more details, facts, and history over at CNN.

The Human Age

A new scientific paper makes the case that we humans have so altered the planet in the past six decades that we have in fact ushered a new epoch in the history of the planet.

From The New York Times:

Welcome to the “Anthropocene” — a new epoch in our planet’s 4.5 billion year history. Thanks to the colossal changes humans have made since the mid-20th century, Earth has now entered a distinct age from the Holocene epoch, which started 11,700 years ago as the ice age thawed. 

That’s according to an argument made by a team of scientists from the Anthropocene Working Group. Scientists say an epoch ends following an event – like the asteroid that demolished the dinosaurs and ended the late Cretaceous Epoch 66 million years ago – that altered the underlying rock and sedimentary layers so significantly that its remnants can be observed across the globe. 

In a paper published Thursday in Science, the researchers presented evidence for why they think mankind’s marks over the past 65 years ushered in a new geological time period.

The article offers some examples that are worth checking out.

Penguins' Plight

Read this very sad story on CNN. Too bad not much can be done for them, especially since this is part of nature's workings:

About 150,000 penguins have died since being stranded by a vast iceberg that became lodged off the coast of Antarctica six years ago, according to the journal Antarctic Science. 

Combined with expanding ice, the B09B iceberg, which at 1,120 square miles is almost the size of Rhode Island, has cut off the Adelie penguins' food supply and changed the landscape of their home, according to a February report in the peer-reviewed journal published by Cambridge University Press. 

The once 160,000-strong colony has now dwindled to 10,000 penguins. 

"The arrival of iceberg B09B in Commonwealth Bay, East Antarctica... has dramatically increased the distance Adélie penguins breeding at Cape Denison must travel in search of food," said researchers in the report. 

The outlook for the Cape Denison Adelie penguins remains dire. Unless the colossal iceberg is broken up by sea ice, scientists predict the colony will disappear in 20 years. 

About 5,500 pairs are still breeding in the area, but there has been a significant decline in their population compared with a century ago, according to estimates based on satellite images and a census in 1997.

Apparently, there is an understanding among nations that no intervention can be made by humans on animal life in Antarctica, so as not to alter nature's natural course.

It just seems so sad.

Cosmos

This documentary series is a must see for anyone. No matter your age, profession, or interests, you will learn something interesting from this program.

Hosted by the smart, affable, and plain spoken Neil deGrasse Tyson, the series tackles topics ranging from the origins of life here on Earth, to the creation of stars and galaxies in the universe. From discoveries like gravity, to how all species have evolved from a common ancestor.

In the first episode, I learned how dogs descended from wolves and it was fascinating. In another, I learned how our eyes and those of any creature have evolved into the highly sophisticated organs we enjoy today.

The series is based on a similar format hosted by the late great Carl Sagan in the 80s, but the improved visual effects and scientific data mean that each episode is a feast for the eyes as well.

Definitely put Cosmos on your list. You won't regret it.

Grade - Season 1: 10

The Simplicity of Evolution

I honestly cannot believe that in 2015 there are still people out there who proudly proclaim not to believe in the Theory of Evolution, but rather in Creationism, aka “Intelligent Design.”

The best reply to someone who says something that stupid to you should just be, “Please, bitch,” but here are some helpful videos in case you need more evidence to convince them (via Rawstory):

And if they’re still unconvinced, just tell them to listen to the expert, Bill Nye:

Now, if at this point they’re still trying to spew their bullshit, then just walk away. They’re a lost cause and likely are ashamed of their position but feel like they cannot change it and “evolve.”

No pun intended.

The Passage of Time

This video provides one of the coolest time lapses I’ve ever seen.  I always wonder, whenever I look at a landscape, how it must have looked a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand years ago.  This video provides a likely view:

Simply fascinating.

And the appearance/disappearance of one of the Twin Towers is pretty eerie.

Nature at its best

Enjoy this gorgeous montage of beautiful vistas from the Southern United States:

Losing the primates

Worrying news for our closest relatives on this planet:

Twenty-five species of monkeys, langurs, lemurs and gorillas are on the brink of extinction and need global action to protect them from increasing deforestation and illegal trafficking, researchers said Monday.

[…] Conservation efforts have helped several species of primates, which are no longer listed as endangered, said the report, prepared every two years by some of the world's leading primate experts.

[…] Among the most severely hit was the northern sportive lemur with only 19 known individuals left in the wild in Madagascar.

"Lemurs are now one of the world's most endangered groups of mammals, after more than three years of political crisis and a lack of effective enforcement in their home country, Madagascar," said Christoph Schwitzer of the Bristol Conservation and Science Foundation, one of the groups involved in the study.

"A similar crisis is happening in Southeast Asia, where trade in wildlife is bringing many primates very close to extinction," Schwitzer said.

More than half of the world's 633 types of primates are in danger of becoming extinct because of human activity such as the burning and clearing of tropical forests, the hunting of primates for food and the illegal wildlife trade.

At least there are also some good news:

While the situation appears dire for some species, wildlife researchers say conservation efforts are beginning to pay off, with several primates being removed from the list, now in its seventh edition.

[…] Also, conservation efforts have ensured that the world did not lose a single primate species to extinction in the 20th century, and no primate has been declared extinct so far this century, said Russell A. Mittermeier, president of Conservation International and the chairman of the IUCN Species Survival Commission's primate specialist group.

Link here.

Destroying one’s world

That’s what we’re doing to the Earth.  Here’s a side-by-side view of the Amazon rainforest, 20 years ago and today:

And some more alarming statistics (from Live from Hell’s Kitchen…):

1. In 20 years there are 1.5 billion more people - an increase of 27%!

2. The average person eats 26% more meat and 26% more fish since 1992!

3. There has been an astounding 36% increase of carbon dioxide emissions for a grand total of 30 billions tons into the air.

4. The ten hottest years on record all have taken place within the last twenty years!

5. In just 20 years we have lost 741,316,144 acres of forests! This is an area the size of Argentina which is the 8th largest country in the world!

6. Biodiversity in the tropics has dropped by 30% because of the lost of forests.

7. The production of plastics has increased by 130% in the two decades an increase of 149 million tons.

8. The number of reported natural disasters has doubled from about 200 a year to 400 a year. In 2010 over 300,000 people died in a natural disasters.

9. We are losing our sea life and fish. 13% of the fish have been fully exploited. 33% have been depleted with some recovery. Tuna catches have increased by 1,000 tons (35%) pushing some species to the brink of extinction.

10. We have seen a 110% increase in the number of 'megacities' (at least 10 million people per city). We have gone from 10 'megacities' to currently 21. The city of Tokyo, with 37 million people, has more people than Canada!

Shocking and scary.  More here.

Yosemite’s beauty

Via Towleroad, comes this gorgeous tribute to one of the most stunning places I’ve ever had the luck to visit, California’s Yosemite National Park:

Simply spectacular.

All the water in the world

From BuzzFeed, via Towleroad, an image that’s worth way more than a thousand words.  It puts the fragility of our planet and its “uniqueness” even more in perspective:

This picture shows the size of a sphere that would contain all of Earth's water in comparison to the size of the Earth. The diameter would be roughly the distance from Salt Lake City, Utah to Topeka, Kansas.

The sphere includes all the water in the oceans, seas, ice caps, lakes and rivers as well as groundwater, atmospheric water, and even the water in you, your dog, and your tomato plant.

A chilling death

Via Towleroad, one of the coolest and most chilling videos I’ve ever seen:

Undoing a dam

Towleroad had this incredible time lapse clip of the removal of the White Salmon River dam in Washington State:

A murmuration

This has got to be one of the most impressive natural phenomenon I ever saw:

From Towleroad:

A pair of canoeists are treated to the amazing phenomenon known as "murmuration", a survival technique employed by starlings returning from foraging meant to outwit predators. The birds swirl and cloud in an effort to get to the inside of the pack.