| Hi Everybody,
This is my second News Digest. Thank you for reading! |
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| Endangered Species Day: Stories of Hope and Recovery. The third Friday of May is endangered species day - the perfect time to look back and realize that every time we find a problem, we also find the will in our hearts to find a solution. Read this short article to learn how the okapi, the cape vulture, and the brush tailed bettong have made tremendous progress here. |
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| | 📸 An okapi at Bronx Zoo in the U.S. | Credit: Ryan Schwark via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain) |
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| | | 📸 Wild chimpanzees in Uganda grooming | Credit: Elodie Freymann |
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Chimpanzee Care: Medicine, Altruism, and Intelligence. Studies have shown that chimpanzees use medicinal plants to treat their wounds. Researchers have also seen them applying insects to their own wounds, medicating fellow chimpanzees (both ones they are closely related to and ones that they are not), and removing others from human traps. This evidence opens insights into the world of chimpanzees, and shows how complex, kind, and smart non-human minds can be. See the details of this deep, two-month study, and others that provide fodder for interesting debates on altruism in non-human animals and more, here. There is also a video of chimps! |
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| Caring Forests: How Culture and Stewardship Sustain Nature. A new study suggests that forests don’t have to be abandoned to be healthy. Researchers studied and compared the states of forests, finding that spaces connected with culture were stable at double the rates of other forests. Indigenous people use the forests, but also care for them; learning how to be a part of them, rather than a threat. This story is a call to action for nurturing a deeper relationship with our forests to allow us to learn about and reap their bounties in a sustainable, helpful way. |
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| | 📸 Credit: E. Camilo Alejo |
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| | | 📸 Max, a brown howler monkey | Credit: Marcelo Rheingantz |
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Reviving Wildlife in an Urban Rainforest: The Story of Tijuca Forest. With the threats to natural ecosystems, it may seem impossible for one to grow in an urban area. Despite this, people in the city of Rio de Janeiro started a conservation movement to restore the Tijuca, a heavily damaged rainforest turned national park. This empty forest would have been bereft of fauna, a fundamental part of the ecosystem, if the people had stopped there. Read how howler monkeys came back from a brutal outbreak of yellow fever to find a home in this urban forest here. |
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| A Photosynthesis-Inspired Breakthrough Rooted in Indigenous Knowledge. ingenious, futuristically-efficient process using an everyday common power source. Seems unrealistic? Life forms have been conducting this process for more than 3 billion years, and now humans are finally catching up. Current methods of capturing greenhouse gases are expensive and use a lot of energy and fossil fuels, but this method could let us change that. Read how researchers in Cornell University have learned from the photosynthesis plants use to make huge steps towards reversing global warming and saving energy here. |
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| | | 📸 The Boston Skyline, seen from the Harbor Islands. | Credit: Robin Lubbock (WBUR) |
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Coastal Parks at Risk: Your Help Matters More Than Ever. The coasts want you! The National Parks conservation agency has lost 13% of their workforce due to layoffs, buyouts, and retirement packages since January, yet federal budget cuts of more than $1.2 billion mean more jobs have to be cut. This could mean less service for visitors, less volunteer groups to pull invasives and clean beaches, and less management and research. But we are still here, with our enthusiasm and EwA’s protocols. See details on this happening here, and then let's get out into nature! |
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| | - JeannetteEarthwise Aware | Spring Intern |
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