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Tag Archives: nature
Re-imaging the meaning of national defense
Writing for Resilience, Rob Brooks re-imagines a national defense grounded in Wendell Berry’s observation that “Earth is what we all have in common.” “We need to pay as much attention to conserving and restoring the connectivity of the natural infrastructure … Continue reading
Posted in academics, editorial, environment, history, life, skepticism and science, weather, wildlife, wind power
Tagged #Army Corps of Engineers, #CASSE, #Coast Guard, #disaster response, #DoD, #FEMA, #flyways, #National Guard, #natural infrastructure, #steady state economy, climate change, conservation, environment, joint ventures, nature, resilience, science, sea level rise
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Yes, we know that “the climate has always changed”…
… but that’s not the point. Here’s what that point really is. The concentration of global, atmospheric CO2 today exceeds 400 ppm. The last time that happened on Earth was something like 2–5 million years ago, in the Pliocene Epoch … Continue reading
Posted in academics, deforestation, editorial, Endangered Species Act, environment, evolution, history, IUCN, overpopulation, skepticism and science, weather
Tagged #climate justice, #climate proxy, #ClimateAlwaysChanges, #coastal, #famine, #greenhouse gases, #Homo habilis, #human migration, #IPCC, #land cover, #land use, #Pliocene, #ppm, #refugee, #sea level, climate, CO2, environment, nature, NOAA, population, science, sustainability
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The state of global biodiversity — it’s worse than you probably think — ConservationBytes.com
Sobering synopsis here by CJA Bradshaw. For those of us who study natural history, such information confronts us every day. It can be easy to forget that we are a tiny minority of the billions of humans on this planet … Continue reading
Posted in bat conservation, birds/nature, deforestation, editorial, Endangered Species Act, environment, evolution, history, IUCN, nature deficit disorder, No Child Left Inside, overpopulation, paleontology, population estimates, population monitoring, skepticism and science, wildlife
Tagged Anthropocene, biodiversity, Conservation Bytes, Diaz et al. 2019, environment, extinction, nature, population, science, Sixth Mass Extinction
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Your life is profoundly meaningful
It’s quite simple, really. The matter in our universe is comprised of the same elements throughout. Proportions differ and it might be mixed together differently here and there, but it’s the same stuff. Some of those mixes develop self-replication under … Continue reading
Posted in academics, animal behavior, birds/nature, editorial, environment, evolution, history, life, Links, mentoring, skepticism and science, wildlife
Tagged #cosmos, astrobiology, bison, buffalo, Carl Sagan, education, environment, George Catlin, history, intelligence, life, Marie Curie, meaning, nature, nebulae, pale blue dot, research, Revelation, science, sentience, universe
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Kerri J. Smith – beaked whales
via Research I found another bright young scientist to amplify today. This is Kerri J. Smith, who is studying Sowerby’s beaked whale. No, I’d never heard of this species either. #TIL
Posted in academics, animal behavior, birds/nature, editorial, Endangered Species Act, environment, evolution, history, IUCN, population estimates, population monitoring, professional development, skepticism and science, wildlife
Tagged environment, Kerri J. Smith, Mesoplodon bidens, nature, Sowerby's beaked whale
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The nightjars are returning! — A Feathered Reptile
The world needs to better appreciate the unique style of of Gretchen Newberry and her use of art in her #SciComm! This just in! The last of the migrants are on their way back, as evidenced by this announcement by … Continue reading
Posted in academics, animal behavior, bat conservation, bird evolution, birding, birds/nature, Endangered Species Act, environment, evolution, life, migrants, National Audubon Society, skepticism and science, wildlife
Tagged A Feathered Reptile, Caprimulgiformes, environment, Gretchen Newberry, migration, nature, nightjar, science, writing
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Binocular advice for birders
I’m frequently asked about my recommendations for binoculars. My first recommendation is yes, you should get a pair. Sure, you can do a lot of birding without binoculars – and 90% or more of the birds I encounter I detect … Continue reading
Posted in BIRDATHON, birding, birds/nature, Christmas Bird Count, editorial, environment, life, National Audubon Society, nature deficit disorder, No Child Left Inside, Partners in Flight, wildlife
Tagged #binocs, #binoculars, #Bird Watchers' Digest, #bird watching, #British Trust for Ornithology, #European Breeding Bird Atlas, American Birding Association, birding, BirdWatch Ireland, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Countryside Bird Survey, National Audubon Society, nature, ornithology
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The Wild Side newsletter – March 2018
The Wildlife Diversity Program of our Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation publishes a great little e-newsletter: The Wild Side. This month’s issue hearkens to the extraordinary ecosystem diversity our state packs into its relatively modest area: mixed-grass prairie, Ozark caves, … Continue reading
Posted in bat conservation, bird banding, birding, birds/nature, Endangered Species Act, environment, evolution, life, migrants, population estimates, population monitoring, wildlife
Tagged Banded Darter, citizen science, environment, migration, nature, ODWC, Red-cockaded Woodpecker, The Nature Conservancy, The Wild Side, Wildlife Diversity Program
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Some perspective on peak abundance of Passenger Pigeon
You’ve heard the story before, and it’s sobering: Once perhaps the most abundant vertebrate on the planet, a combination of unremitting exploitation and habitat loss reduced the Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) from billions to none in a few short decades … Continue reading
Posted in bird evolution, birds/nature, deforestation, editorial, Endangered Species Act, environment, history, IUCN, life, Links, National Audubon Society, Partners in Flight, population estimates, population monitoring, skepticism and science, wildlife
Tagged abundance, billions to none, conservation, environment, exploitation, extinction, habitat loss, nature, Partners in Flight, Passenger Pigeon, population, population estimates, science
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Why can’t humans affect the climate?
If you have insights on this please help me understand. As noted this week, discussions of anthropogenic climate change have peaked since President Trump’s decision to renege on US commitments to the Paris Climate Accord. One of the primary … Continue reading
2017 AOS/SCO meeting announcement
Two venerable ornithological societies, the American Ornithologists’ Union and Cooper Ornithological Society, merged in 2016 following protracted discussions on the topic over the last several years. Next summer will be the first meeting of the newly merged society, the American … Continue reading
2016 Christmas Bird Count – Stillwater, Oklahoma
The brainchild of ornithologist Frank Chapman at the American Museum of Natural History in 1900, the National Audubon Society’s annual Christmas Bird Count was among the first true citizen science endeavors. Today, with more than a century of data under … Continue reading
Posted in birding, birds/nature, Christmas Bird Count, environment, life, National Audubon Society, nature deficit disorder, No Child Left Inside, Partners in Flight, population monitoring, wildlife
Tagged Christmas Bird Count, environment, Lake Carl Blackwell, National Audubon Society, nature, Oklahoma State University, science, Stillwater OK
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Robert Macfarlane, and words that should not be forgotten
“Under pressure, Oxford University Press revealed a list of the entries it no longer felt to be relevant to a modern-day childhood. The deletions included acorn, adder, ash, beech, bluebell, buttercup, catkin, conker, cowslip, cygnet, dandelion, fern, hazel, heather, heron, … Continue reading
Baby black vulture at Tishomingo NWR
Last weekend, I got to travel with one of my students to the Tishomingo NWR, about 3.5 hours due south of Stillwater, but still not into Texas. We were taking part in the annual spring meeting of the Oklahoma Ornithological … Continue reading
Posted in animal behavior, bird evolution, birding, birds/nature, environment, evolution, life, Links, nature deficit disorder, No Child Left Inside, population monitoring, vultures, wildlife
Tagged #BlackVulture, #Coragyps, #naturalhistory, #TishomingoNWR, baby black vulture, black vulture, Coragyps atratus, environment, nature, nestling, Oklahoma, Oklahoma Ornithological Society, Tishomingo
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