Veronika Wild

 [Reprinted with kind permission from The Conversation] Plastic warms the planet twice as much as aviation – here’s how to make it  climate-friendly Gorlov-KV/Shutterstock Laurie Wright , Solent University We’re all too aware of the consequences of plastics in the oceans and on land . However, beyond the visible pollution of our once pristine habitats, plastics are having a grave impact on the climate too. Newly published research calculates that across their lifecycle, plastics account for 3.8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. That’s almost double the emissions of the aviation sector. If it were a country, the “Plastic Kingdom” would be the fifth-highest emitter in the world. Demand is set to rise, too. At 380m tonnes a year, we produce 190 times more plastic than we did in 1950. If the demand for plastic continues to grow at its current rate of 4% a year, emissions from plastic production will reach 15% of global e...

Meet the Short -Tailed Shearwater, a smallish bird which travels 30,000 km a year from Southern Australian waters to Kamchatka in Russia and the Aleutian Islands and back via the Pacific Coast of North America   -Photo Ed Dunens  |  by CC 2 .0    |  per Wikicommons] These are the kinds of birds we mean when we celebrate World Migratory Bird Day this Saturday (10/10/2020). In the Northern hemisphere, you may have celebrated the same day on May 9 and even some of the same birds, because the movement of these birds depends on the seasons. In this case we‘re mainly talking about those which use the East Asian – Australasian Flyway which brings around two million birds to our shores each spring.  Many of them perform the most remarkable feats to get here. The tiny Arctic Tern for instance, weighing only 113 grams (4 ounces), travels a 71,000 km in zig zag route between Greenland and Antarctica.  The speed record holder is the Bar – Tailed Godwit w...

 Instant Wetland. The Caption under T's  post reads "I always wanted a Garden with a Pond." It seems they are getting webbed feet up there in Canberra too. Having a frogpond is not such a bad idea. As well as creating a refuge for frogs, tadpoles keep algae down and the frogs get rid of mosquitoes and other pestiferous insects without the need for pesticides. Just a couple of Updates now as I have to go out, but before I do, I just want to give palaeontologists a plug too. (That's what T. does). It is through them that we know that Antarctica has been a refuge for animals and plants during past climatic upheavals and extinctions, what conditions were like and how things have been changing. I'm sure you never knew palaeontology was as sexy as this. Could be an idea to get the crowds in at other museums. Victoria (as in the Australian State, not the long dead monarch or the Lingerie Mail Order place) has just turned down bottle deposit legislation. This is...