June 2020 - Favorite World Press

The FWP weekly digest of wondrous wildlife happenings
and other interesting items from the natural world

Creatures to meet | Things to learn
Things to do

Lisa S. French

1-minute read

As we live with the daily reality of how rapidly and efficiently the frustratingly tenacious coronavirus has been spreading from points A to Z, a new study from Stanford University shows how protecting forests can help prevent the future transmission of zoonotic (i.e., animal to human) disease.

Close to 75 percent of emerging infectious diseases originate in animals. When proximity and interactions between humans and wildlife increase as a result of ongoing deforestation and habitat loss, the spread of zoonotic disease becomes more common. To reduce the risk of future virus outbreaks, researchers recommend planting forest buffer zones to create natural barriers to disease transmission, protect biodiversity, and provide alternative sources of food and fuel to forest-dependent communities. In a nutshell, to create safe roaming room for wild ones and help keep people and planet healthy—add trees.

If the unrelenting pandemic news cycle leaves you inert and feeling generally out of sorts, we empathize. During challenging intervals, we take comfort in knowing that there is still tremendous beauty to be found in the world, and difficult circumstances can sometimes inspire people—big ones and little ones—to create their own.

Until we cancel the coronavirus, hang in, stay safe, and be well!

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Lisa S. French June 30, 2020

We’re Reindeer. We’re Here to Help.

1.5-minute read

800 Gigatons or 1.764 quadrillion pounds. That’s how much greenhouse gas (GHG) lies under the soil in the northernmost regions of our planet. No matter what metric we use, that’s quite a lot—about 174 years’ worth of annual global passenger car emissions. Keeping carbon in cold storage under the permafrost for the last 2.58 million years has worked out really well from a life-sustaining perspective. But accelerating climate change resulting from increasing CO₂ emissions is now thawing frozen soils and releasing even more carbon into the atmosphere, creating a positive feedback loop. More warming is causing more thawing, which is releasing more carbon, which is causing more warming. We hate it when that happens.

According to a recent study in Nature, climate scientists racing to develop strategies to keep global warming below 1.5-2.0°C are working on a hoofed herbivore hack to keep the perma in permafrost and prevent the additional release of GHGs from Arctic soil. Researchers from the Universities of Stockholm and Hamburg and the Russian Academy of Sciences studying the climate impacts of reindeer and bison trampling the tundra believe the movement of large populations of megafauna may have an important role to play in keeping the planet cool.

Like a fluffy down comforter, snow insulates the soil from cold Arctic air, allowing the permafrost to thaw. Herds of roaming, grazing animals compact snow, reducing its insulating effect, which helps to preserve permafrost temperatures and keep GHG’s in the ground. In two study sites in northern Sweden and Russia, introducing substantial numbers of big mammals, including reindeer, bison, horses, and yaks, resulted in a 1.9°C degree reduction on average in soil temperature during winter and spring. Researchers predict that increasing mammal populations could result in 80% of permafrost soils remaining at an average temperature below -4°C by 2100.

At current emission rates, global temperatures are projected to rise by 2-4°C by the end of the century, and the ground temperature will be above freezing in many regions. If increasing the number of hoofed herbivores traversing the frozen North can prevent the permafrost from thawing, help keep massive amounts of carbon in the ground, and prevent further warming, all we can say is walk on, ungulates.

You can learn more about the ongoing efforts to combat climate change by integrating more megafauna into Arctic ecosystems at Pleistocene Park.

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Lisa S. French June 21, 2020

Climate Scientists: Hug One if You’ve Got One

2-minute read

When you feel like giving up, remember why you held on for so long in the first place — Paulo Coelho

Did you know that June 12 is Hug a Climate Scientist Day?

Since pandemic protocols are interfering with random acts of hugging, we’re going with virtual. But if you’ve got a climate scientist at home, you’ll probably be doubling down on the actual hugging given the latest news on global CO₂ emissions. According to a June 4 press release from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and NOAA, in May 2020, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached 417 parts per million, the highest levels ever recorded. Despite the shutdown, accumulated emissions kept on working through the Earth’s system:

“People may be surprised to hear that the response to the coronavirus outbreak hasn’t done more to influence CO₂ levels,” said geochemist Ralph Keeling, who runs the Scripps Oceanography CO₂ program, “but the buildup of CO₂ is a bit like trash in a landfill. As we keep emitting, it keeps piling up. The crisis has slowed emissions, but not enough to show up perceptibly at Mauna Loa. What will matter much more is the trajectory we take coming out of this situation.”

About that trajectory:

You can learn more about our ongoing planetary predicament from the groundbreaking 2020 Pulitzer Prize-Winning explanatory series: 2°C: Beyond the Limit.

Because hope is an essential mental nutrient in these extraordinarily challenging times, you can replenish your supply by exploring Project Drawdown, a comprehensive plan to reverse global warming from the world’s leading scientists and policymakers.

Feeling inspired to help mend your corner of the world? You can join a community of experts and everyday people working to address some of our most pressing issues from climate change to COVID-19, by supporting the Union of Concerned Scientists.

If you’d like to pitch in and plant a cooling, carbon-storing tree for the planet, head on over to the Trillion Tree Campaign to connect with tree planting organizations around the world. Just click and plant. Or we’ll be happy to plant one for you when you buy any print or electronic book from the FWP series Frankie and Peaches: Tales of Total Kindness. It’s that easy!

And if you’re in need of a brain refresh, you can park your peepers on the work of ten environmental artists using their creativity to interpret the science and impacts of climate change at Artsy.

We’re grateful for all of the people holding it together on the front lines: protecting the planet, saving lives, and championing equality. As far as hugs go, because just about everybody could do with one right about now, we always keep a few spares in stock around here. Have one, or two—actually have a few! They’re electronic so 100% CDC and WHO approved ((())).

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Lisa S. French June 12, 2020

The Flower Whisperers

2-minute read

When nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it — Ralph Waldo Emerson

According to a remarkable and hopeful new ETH Zurich study, bumblebees experiencing pollen deprivation resulting from climate change have learned to garden as if their hives depend on it—and they do.

Global heating is creating a seasonal mismatch between flower resources and the emergence of bumblebees in spring. No flowers, no pollen, no bees. A scarcity of the pollen that bee larvae and worker bees need to survive can negatively impact reproductive success and prevent queen bees from establishing new colonies. Heatwaves and uncommonly warm temperatures have already reduced populations by 46% in North America and 17% in Europe.

The upside (we love upsides!) is that bumblebees may be developing coping strategies to adapt to our new environmental reality, and they’re actually helping flowering plants adapt along with them. The Swiss study found that brainy bumbles have adopted a hive-saving, pollen gathering workaround to coax blooms from plants weeks ahead of schedule. By cutting distinctively shaped holes in the leaves of tomato and black mustard plants, bumblebees substantially accelerated their flowering time by an average of 30 days, approximately 25 days earlier than mechanically perforated plants. When available pollen was limited, the rate of plant perforation was significantly higher and only minor when pollen was plentiful.

Researchers believe that by helping to correct the mismatch between bloom time and hive emergence, the perforating activity of these furry little problem solvers may increase the resilience of plant-pollinator interactions to the destructive impacts of global heating. Given that about eight percent of plants rely on bumblebees for pollination, including eggplants, tomatoes, blueberries, and potatoes, we’re grateful for their efforts to bee the change.

IN SOLIDARITY

Like the flower and the bumblebee, we humans are interconnected. At Favorite World Press, we believe that our shared humanity and our faith in the strength of diverse communities are more powerful than the forces that aim to divide us.

FWP and our tree-planting partner American Forests stand in solidarity with the Black community and support organizations doing essential work to achieve social justice and ensure sustainable transformation. Because the best time to help create a more equitable world, where everyone has an opportunity to flourish, is now.

You can learn more about the mission to create a fair and just future here:

Advancement Project and the Equal Justice Initiative, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Campaign Zero .

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Lisa S. French June 6, 2020