Category Archives: Ecological affairs

by | 2025/06/29 · 8:00 pm

Rare ducklings hatch at Chester zoo, urban swimmers splash out and more uplifting stories

At the end of June there has been plenty of doom and gloom in the news, but amid the heavy headlines there have been some glimmers of hope and joy.

Maccoa ducklings

Chester zoo has successfully hatched one of Africa’s rarest species of duck for the first time. There are thought to be only 5,000 maccoa ducks left in the wild.

The zoo’s breeding programme is part of a growing effort to safeguard one of Africa’s most-threatened species. Andrew Owen, head of birds at Chester zoo, said:

“These ducklings are very special as they’re the first of their kind to ever hatch here at the zoo, making it a really historic moment for our team.

“This success gives a real boost to the future of the species. These birds are facing rapid decline in the wild, so every hatchling really does count.”

The Guardian newsletters team

‘I live as William Morris for three months a year’
Artist Freddie Yauner dressed as William Morris in Trafalgar Square.
camera ‘We live in ridiculous times, and it’s a ridiculous thing to do’ … Freddie Yauner in Trafalgar Square, London. Photograph: Mark Chilvers

Freddie Yauner spends the first few months of the year growing out his hair and beard to resemble 19th-century designer and activist William Morris. The idea first came to him in 2020 and ever since then, Yauner has celebrated his idol’s birthday by dressing up for an “absurd performance”. This unique passion has taken all forms: fishing for salmon in the Thames, singing lessons for socialist chants and print-making using Morris’ letterpress.

Yauner says using his privileged background to dedicate himself to the arts and socialism, like Morris, has afforded him a sense of comfort and guidance:

“I see him as a brilliant guide to the ridiculous times we live in: it’s a ridiculous thing to do. It helps me carry on.”

 

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‘He just looks like a happy, cheeky boy’: Palestinian child refugees pick up the camera
A boy holding his fingers above his head, a building with flags around it and a girl holding a camera.
camera ‘Ayman’ and other kids’ photographs. Composite: Save the Children

The war in Gaza and Israel’s intensifying occupation of the West Bank have taken an unimaginable toll on Palestinian children. Their injuries, deaths, and displacement have dominated the news, but what about their inner lives?

Acclaimed photographer Misan Harriman set out to explore this by hosting a photography workshop for Palestinian children who fled to Egypt. He gave them cameras, taught them how to use them – and stepped back. The result is a powerful series of intimate and sometimes heartbreaking images.

“They understand what bearing witness means,”

Harriman says.

“It’s just a beautiful, maybe even cathartic experience for them.”

‘How I unlearned the internalised prejudice I had as a Black woman – one braid at a time’
Precious Adesina.
camera ‘On some level, I had become increasingly conscious of the “vibe” I was giving off, before I even spoke’ … Precious Adesina. Photograph: Ejatu Shaw/The Guardian

At the start of 2023, Precious Adesina (pictured above) made a resolution: she would experiment with afro-hairstyles. It seemed like a personal style choice, but as she quickly learned, hair is political for many Black women.

As Adesina began seeing more thinkers and influencers proudly wearing their natural hair, she felt empowered to embrace her own.

She’s not alone: there’s a quiet boom in products and stylists catering to Black women choosing natural styles.

“Reflecting on how I styled and treated my hair,”

she writes in this essay,

“has allowed me to unlearn a lifetime of being told that my Blackness made me less beautiful, less equipped for the job, less worthy of a Tinder match.”

A Spree change: from Berlin to Oslo, Europe’s urban swimmers take the plunge
A group of people in swimming costumes alongside a river with people swimming in it
camera The ‘Dip-Dip-Hurrah’ demonstration. Photograph: Christian Jungeblodt/The Guardian

From Paris to Amsterdam to Oslo, this week Guardian correspondents reported on the rising number of urban swimmers taking a dip in their city rivers.

Why are more Europeans are taking the plunge? Whether it’s self-started social swim club in Copenhagen or a 300-strong “Dip-Dip-Hurrah” protest asking for better access to urban waters in Berlin, it’s all about community and seeing and experiencing their cities in a new way.

As for all the yucky stuff you might worry about?

“I’m not worried,”

says one Berliner with classic German pragmatism.

“I’m a farmer’s son and grew up swimming in ponds with thousands of catfish and leeches.”

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by | 2025/06/15 · 8:00 pm

A win for reforestation, Pakistan’s sushi craving and more

A win for reforestation, Pakistan’s sushi craving and more of this week’s uplifting news

Sun shines through the Redwood trees in the woods of Guerneville, California.

It’s been a heavy week in the news cycle – but amid the headlines, there have been glimmers of hope and progress.

For one, researchers have found regions with the best opportunities to regrow trees and combat the climate crisis, avoiding harm to humans and wildlife. Ranging from the US, Brazil and parts of Europe, these areas have the potential to remove 2.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere annually if reforested, which almost matches the EU’s emissions.

“We must fast-track our focus toward the places with greatest benefits for people and nature – this study will help leaders and investors do just that.”

said Dr Susan Cook-Patton, senior author of the study.

From culinary innovation in Karachi to a Scottish archaeological journey through time, here’s our round-up of the more hopeful stories of the week,

Sundus Abdi
The Guardian newsletters team

Cuba or camping trip? New Scouts badge helps teenagers learn to budget
Explorer Scouts from Argo ESU trying out the new Money skills badge.
camera Explorer Scouts from Argo ESU trying out the new Money skills badge. Photograph: Martyn Milner/The Scout Association

The Scout Association has introduced a Money Skills badge to help young people gain practical financial literacy skills. Guardian Money observed members of a group of explorer scouts in London. Designed by Georgie Howarth, the badge incorporates the realities of managing money, forcing the group to adjust expectations based on their financial constraints.

Young explorer scouts, some of whom already have part-time jobs or allowances, found the programme valuable, particularly in preparing them for real-life financial decisions. One participant noted that school lessons often focus on topics like mortgages, which feel irrelevant to teenagers, whereas the Scout badge

“made me feel more prepared for the real world”.

My voice went and suddenly part of me was missing – then I discovered bellringing
Jean Walters who started bellringing at St Bartholomew’s Church in Meltham, West Yorkshire, at the age of 67.
camera Jean Walters who started bellringing at St Bartholomew’s Church in Meltham, West Yorkshire, at the age of 67. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

At 67, Jean Walters heard church bells drifting through her garden in Meltham, West Yorkshire. On a whim, she decided to learn how to ring them. What began as a curious hobby turned into a passion. Within a few years, Walters joined the Yorkshire bellringers’ association and marked her 80th birthday by ringing eight different patterns – one for each decade of her life.

A former soprano and teacher who lost her singing voice, Walters found a new way to express herself through bellringing. She says the physical and mental challenge of bellringing leaves her feeling exhilarated.

“Its another way of expressing my joy of living.”

A brief history of the Earth on a walk around the Isle of Arran, Scotland
Stuart on top of Goat Fell, view over mountains of North Arran to Jura and beyond.
camera Stuart on top of Goat Fell, view over mountains of North Arran to Jura and beyond. Photograph: Stuart Kenny

Just over two hours from Glasgow, a six-day hike on the Isle of Arran doubles as a journey through 500 million years of Earth’s history. Newly recognised as a Unesco Geopark, the island holds traces of rocks formed by ancient magma and cliffs shaped by tectonic plate shifts.

If you’re lucky, you might find yourself placing your hand in a 240-million-year-old footprint left by a reptile older than dinosaurs, like Stuart Kenny did. Kenny hikes the 65-mile Arran Coastal Way, and in his words:

“I abandon the geological hunt altogether and stop to watch otters fishing.”

I went to a death cafe – and learned how to live a much happier life
Elizabeth McCafferty for G2 - A moment that changed me Pictured in Gloucestershire, April 2024
camera Elizabeth McCafferty in Gloucestershire. Photograph: Courtesy of Elizabeth McCafferty

Elizabeth McCafferty was at a death cafe in London when she was asked the profound question:

“Are you afraid of dying, are you afraid of not living?”

She soon realised that her answer to this question was the latter and by confronting death, she found a way to live with more purpose, clarity and patience.

After meeting people who were ill, parents who had lost children and carers of the dying, McCafferty found that many of her questions about death were answered, but also accepted that not all of them could be. She writes of her newfound zest for life:

“In truth, I feel more alive than ever for doing so.”

How Pakistan fell in love with sushi
Sushi at Fujiyama in Karachi.
camera Sushi at Fujiyama in Karachi. Photograph: Noorulain Ali

What began with Karachi’s elite tasting sushi at Fujiyama in the 1980s – the first Japanese restaurant in Pakistan – has blossomed into a nationwide obsession. Today, you can break your fast during Ramadan at a sushi buffet or host a small gathering in a Japanese restaurant. From chapli kebab maki rolls to seaweed pakoras, sushi has been lovingly adapted to local tastes.

Thanks to pioneers like Byram Avari, who brought home the trend after a trip to Hawaii, Pakistan’s sushi scene now thrives in both upscale and budget-friendly spots, with chefs embracing locally sourced ingredients. Sanam Maher traces this culinary journey in a flavourful long read.

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by | 2025/04/27 · 8:00 pm

Building a city out of wood, painting with seaweed and more uplifting stories

It sounds like the beginning of a fable intended to caution the reader: what happens when you build a city out of wood?

But, as Guardian writer Jonna Dagliden Hunt reports, in Stickla, a former industrial area of south Stockholm that is set to become part of the “largest mass timber project in the world”, the idea is one that is inspiring new ways to think about urban construction.

Once fire safety concerns have been met, wood has many advantages over concrete.

“It’s a fantastic working environment – no concrete dust, no silica dust issues. It’s clean and quiet,”

said Niklas Häggström, the project area manager at the property developer responsible for the Wood City project, Atrium Ljungberg. Jonna reports that 25 neighbourhoods will cover 25 hectares, with 2,000 homes planned for 2027. You can build twice as quickly using timber rather than concrete: 1,000 sq metres a week.

While chopping down trees doesn’t seem like the best thing for the environment, many believe that managed forestry is beneficial for carbon capture, and the use of visible timber has even been found to help regulate people’s moods.

The Guardian newsletters team

Nasa’s oldest astronaut celebrates 70th birthday with return to Earth
Don Pettit gives a thumbs up as he sits surrounded by others
camera Don Pettit gives a thumbs up after the Soyuz landing. Photograph: Roscosmos/Reuters

What did you have planned for your next birthday? Going to your favourite restaurant? Trying something new?

Either way, Don Pettit probably has you beat. The now 70-year-old spent his birthday yesterday hurtling from space through the Earth’s atmosphere at hundreds of miles an hour in a tiny hunk of metal.

Yes, Nasa’s oldest astronaut celebrated another year as he plonked to the ground in Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan alongside two Russian cosmonauts after finishing a 220-day shift at the International Space Station.

Commenting on his return, Nasa said in a low-key statement Pettit was

“doing well and in the range of what is expected for him following return to Earth”.

I was in excruciating back pain – until a standing desk saved me
Rachel Dixon standing at her desk in the Guardian office. 2 April 2025
camera Rachel Dixon at her desk in the Guardian office, April 2025. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian

Is there an upside to back pain? Rachel Dixon found, if not that, then a simple and affordable change that helped her deal with a herniated disc and the persistent pain she felt each time she sat down. Dixon, who plays basketball, does yoga and cycles when she’s not working as a journalist, tried out a standing desk that adjusted so she could alternate between standing and sitting.

At first she could only answer emails while standing and had to sit for more creative tasks, but soon she was on her feet all day and for all tasks. Exercise, it has been found, is often an effective non-surgical treatment for lower back pain. For Dixon, as she writes, it’s done the trick:

“I haven’t put my back out in five years.”

‘It’s almost like Vaseline’: artists including Antony Gormley swap paint for seaweed ink in art challenge
Artist Emma Talbot
camera Artist Emma Talbot. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi/The Guardian

Working with seaweed ink reminded the acclaimed artist Antony Gormley of the “plough mud in West Wittering”, instantly transporting him back to the smell and atmosphere of his childhood.

Gormley is one of 16 artists asked to create ocean-inspired artworks using ink made from kelp grown in the waters off the island of Skye to raise money for ocean conservation. The project clearly held great emotional resonance for Gormley who spoke of how he feels most alive “when I am in the embrace of seawater” and his belief that the oceans will endure the devastation humanity is wreaking on them and continue to nurture life on earth.

The art created from the Art for Your Oceans project will be sold to raise money for WWF ocean conservation projects in the UK and beyond.

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Fashion Revolution non-profit press shot
camera Fashion Revolution non-profit press shot Photograph: Fashion Revolution

The phrase, “Make Do and Mend”, first launched as a government resource-saving campaign in 1942, has come to symbolise the post-war generation’s frugal mentality and aversion to waste.

Fast forward to 2025 and the mending-not-spending mantle has been taken up by Fashion Revolution, a non-profit social enterprise, which is encouraging people across the world to attend one of a network of Mend in Public Day community classes to learn mending, stitching and upcycling skills.

Unlike the post-war years, we now live in an era of vast overconsumption where it can now be cheaper to buy a new piece of clothing than to dry-clean an old one. The organisation argues that while the problems of fast fashion are global, solutions can be local and that participants should see learning to mend their clothing as an act of revolution and defiance.

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by | 2025/04/20 · 8:00 pm

Female mechanics take the wheel, seaweed as fuel and more uplifting stories

Female mechanics take the wheel

Alicia Holland, inspired by her father’s love for tinkering with cars, overcame her own lack of automotive knowledge after struggling with a breakdown during pregnancy.

Her experience sparked her determination to learn the ropes and she now leads Women on Wheels, a programme giving women across Australia the confidence to tackle car troubles head-on. Female mechanics like the resourceful Melissa Hardwicke and apprentices like Caitie Cornford are reshaping the industry, proving that persistence and a little muscle can overcome outdated stereotypes. With car workshops that make learning fun and practical, these women are smashing the “girl tax” and paving the way for fairness in the automotive world.

“We had one participant recently who made me particularly proud and emotional,”

says Holland.

“This young girl said that cars used to scare her as she didn’t know anything about them. Now she wants to get a flat tyre – just so she can practice changing it.”

The Guardian newsletters team

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Octopus jumps shark and goes for a ride on its back

An octopus rides on a shark, or, the world’s first ‘sharktopus’.

camera An octopus rides on a shark, or, the world’s first ‘sharktopus’. Photograph: University of Auckland

An image of an octopus riding a shark would usually be something consigned to a children’s cartoon – but a video that has surfaced from 2023 has stunned scientists and delighted marine animal enthusiasts.

Marina Dunbar reports how researchers spotted the orange Māori octopus clinging to the back of a large shortfin mako shark in the Hauraki Gulf off the northern coast of New Zealand in December 2023. The University of Auckland research team was searching the ocean for feeding frenzies, and marine scientist Rochelle Constantine at first thought the orange patch on the shark’s head might be an injury.

“At first, I was like: ‘Is it a buoy?’”

Constantine told the New York Times.

“‘Is it entangled in fishing gear or had a big bite?’”

A technician set up a drone for a closer look, and as it drew nearer, they saw tentacles – thereby discovering the world’s first “sharktopus”.

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From foul to fuel: how a seaweed problem could power the Caribbean
Mark Nedd, a fisher, walks along a beach that is covered in saragassum seaweed.
camera Mark Nedd, a fisher, on Soubise’s beach. He has been coping with the effects of the sargassum seaweed since he was a teenager. Photograph: Haron Forteau/The Guardian

In Grenada, the persistent issue of sargassum seaweed, which has long plagued the island’s shores, is being reimagined as an opportunity rather than a burden. While the decaying seaweed causes bad smells and disrupts fishing and tourism, innovative solutions are emerging. The Grenadian government, in collaboration with the EU, is exploring ways to turn sargassum into a valuable resource, including clean energy, bioplastics and fertiliser.

Companies such as Seafields are developing methods to farm the seaweed and harness its potential, which could boost the economy. A bioenergy project is already converting sargassum into biogas and organic fertiliser.

“They use diesel to generate electricity [now], which is very expensive for the local population. We are providing a reliable, cost-effective and sustainable alternative,”

Benjamin Nestorovic, who works for the Grenada-based bioenergy company SarGas, says, adding that the company plans to expand across the Caribbean.

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Pioneering project to build cancer database in Africa
Yaw Bediako, co-founder and CEO of Yemaachi Biotech, at the Yemaachi Biotech lab in Accra
camera Yaw Bediako, Yemaachi’s co-founder, right, at the firm’s lab in Accra. Cancer is a huge disease in Africa that does not get much research, he says. Photograph: Nana Kofi Acquah/Gates Archive

After losing his father to liver cancer, Ghanaian immunologist Yaw Bediako was driven to understand the disease, realising Africa’s cancer burden was far greater than expected – accounting for about 700,000 deaths every year – and that very few scientific papers about the disease on the continent were available. In 2020, he co-founded Yemaachi Biotech in Accra to build Africa’s largest cancer database, addressing a critical gap in genetic research.

With a young, diverse team, the company is creating the African Cancer Atlas, which will aid drug discoveries and treatment research, freely available to African scientists. Less than 2% of human genomes studied so far are African, limiting understanding of cancer treatments for populations in Africa. Bediako hopes to change that, despite challenges in funding and global perceptions.

“My dream is one day there will be drugs used to treat cancer around the world that will be derived from knowledge that was generated from this continent – and that shows Africa has something to offer the world,”

he says.

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by | 2024/07/01 · 3:49 pm

Why scientists steer clear of bottled water

Bottled water

A new study by the University of Columbia found that a bottle of water can contain a quarter of a million pieces of plastic. Scientists have created a new category called nanoplastics to refer to the plastic pollution that happens when microplastics break down even further.

“People are doing their best to try and keep us safe but we have contaminated things on a greater scale than we really realised,”

says Dr David Megson, a senior lecturer in chemistry and environmental forensics at Manchester Metropolitan University.

“It’s only now that we’re starting to understand the science behind these things as we’ve been struggling to get the mechanisms for testing PFAS in place.”

With water contamination causing concern whether we drink it from the tap or a bottle, what’s the best option?

>  How safe is tap water?

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by | 2024/06/27 · 11:09 am

No Land Between Us

By Rohan Packer
7th grade | British International School | Istanbul, Turkey
First place contest winner of the seventh annual contest, The Pulitzer Center, Climate and Environment category

I. A Mother’s Lament

I fled as the world
was broken asunder
glancing back
at the devastation
hearing only the pounding
of my feet and heart
Caved in homes
gashed trees, trampled crops
and livelihoods
Rage threatened to choke
Our government
stands by
as the animals rampage
We flee before the elephants
as they march forth
as they encroach
on our land (or is it theirs?)
But is it us
pushing them onwards
with our machines
our lust for money…
precious palm oil
But no money for me
or for my children
Only a striving
a fight to live
yet to little avail
Powerless against pachyderms
I stalked back to the ruins
knowing full well they
would trumpet back
But I march forth
all the same
for my children need to eat

***

II. An Elephant’s Search

I storm across the
desolate earth
past the tiny apes and
their metallic demons
ripping down trees,
once so proud and sturdy
now charred ash and splintered wood
trampling the budding saplings
so that the tortured earth groans
The villages choke off all escape
yet still offer salvation…
Amidst the barren landscape
hard and unyielding
lush trees still blossoming
offering delectable tastes
not only to soothe the hollow
in my own stomach
but also my baby’s savage pain
so weak and small
so vulnerable, yet so brave
standing strong
And so for her I march forth
screaming as the lightning
smote me on the fence
I shove it aside
with a thick stick
with nimble strokes
As the apes flee
I rampage, striking blindly
snatching branches
of crisp leaves
And so we continue on despite
fires and lightning and cold iron
my baby and me

***

III. Rising from the Ashes

I walk about the devastation
the desolation
already formulating
desperate
yet futile
plans for renewal
as my home
my hard earned crops
are stolen
by both the wildlife
and grasping companies.

***

IV. Knife’s Edge

My baby munches
on luscious leaves
milling about contentedly
but still I gaze anxiously
at the plumes of smoke
Our home, my land
usurped by the apes
forcing us further and
further away from
migration corridors
trod by my mother
and her mother before
into an uncertain future,
prowling on a knife’s edge.

Rohan Garg Packer will be attending 8th grade at Ideaventions Academy in Virginia after spending the last three years living in Istanbul, Turkey, where he studied at the British International School. He enjoys chess, writing, and reading, especially fantasy. He’s honored by the Pulitzer Center’s recognition, and hopes to continue writing and learning about ecological and environmental issues.

Comments from judge Irene Vázquez:

 The power of the persona poem to bring us in tune with our non-human kin is on full display in this poem. I love the bold use of perspective in “No Land Between Us” and the intimate way it brings the concerns of the humans and the elephants onto the same plane, illuminating for the reader how each is uniquely subject to the whims of corporate greed.

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by | 2024/05/13 · 5:16 pm

Climate change: ‘Uncharted territory’ fears after record hot March

BBC, April 9, 2024

Event

Climate change could move “into uncharted territory” if temperatures don’t fall by the end of the year, a leading scientist has told the BBC. The warning came as data showed March was the world’s warmest March on record, extending the run of monthly temperature records to 10 in a row. It’s fuelled concerns among some that the world could be tipping into a new phase of even faster climate change.

A weather system called El Niño is behind some of the recent heat. Temperatures should temporarily come down after El Niño peters out in coming months, but some scientists are worried they might not.

“By the end of the summer, if we’re still looking at record breaking temperatures in the North Atlantic or elsewhere, then we really have kind of moved into uncharted territory,”

Gavin Schmidt, the director of Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, told BBC News. March 2024 was 1.68C warmer than “pre-industrial” times – before humans started burning large amounts of fossil fuels – according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

Comment

Due to record heat in parts of the Atlantic this year, and the La Nina weather pattern expected to take hold at the height of the season the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season is likely to be one of the most active on record, a forecasting service has said. The forecasters are expecting up to 23 named storms, of which 11 could become hurricanes and five major hurricanes. These are “well above” the average of for the 1991-2020 period of 14 named storms, seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes. We wait to see what happens in this regard. But we know the physical world is in groaning and in labour pains just as the political and spiritual world is. We need Jesus to return….

Bible quote

For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. (Romans 8:22-23 NLT)

 

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by | 2024/04/22 · 2:17 pm

Thought on Earth Day

Humankind treated this planet very poorly. Lots of people do not bother how they use elements of this earth. They just are using up our valuable resources, without thinking about future generations.

The majority of people do not consider from Whom they have been given the opportunity to rule this earth. That Creator of heaven and earth has a lot of patience, but one day it will come to an end and He will intervene so that man will not succeed in destroying this globe.

image credit: Jamberoo Abbe
Happy Earth Day!

We may not fall asleep! Stil,l too much action should be taken!
If things will not go well with nature, they will not go well with humans either. Both are connected and should be in unity with each other.

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by | 2023/11/19 · 1:07 pm

Conversation starters or Talking points from this week’s news

Dear readers,

We would like to remind you that we provide a News site, where you are presented with a free view on important news facts and religious topics.

Apart from the general news of the day, we bring political and social news there, but are also not shy about how wretchedly bad things are with our natural environment and what we can do about it. But on the religious front (be it Christian, Jewish, Islamic, or other), things are not going so well in this world and it is also necessary to turn an open eye to that now and then.

Our own existence is very important and, in doing so, we have to take into account not only our environment but also our own body, its needs and how to nourish it physically and mentally. This is what we try to pay attention to regularly in “Some View on the World“, as we also try to do here.

We are convinced that “Some Look at the World” can offer you and people around you some food for thought and topics for discussion on a daily basis.

For example, we propose topics such as these:sujets de discussion

Make meals and car rides more engaging when you toss out one of these questions to family members.

1. The American Ornithological Society (AOS) has announced that it will rename all birds that are named after people. The change is being made to ensure that names of people who engaged in discrimination are not attached to the birds. Ultimately, the AOS plans to change the names of 263 birds. What do you think about this decision and why?

2. Your family may have special traditions, especially now as the holidays approach. Whether it’s making cookies, walking around the neighbourhood to enjoy colourful lights, or watching a favourite holiday movie, these traditions can help you feel closer to the people you love. What are some of your favourite family traditions, and what new ones would you like to create? 

3. Earlier this year, the US Senate relaxed its dress code—then reversed the decision days later. That got a lot of people talking. Some say it’s fine to dress down, even at work or in other formal situations, while others say that’s not a good look. What do you think? Has casual dressing gone too far?

Or find messages to think and talk about, like:

  1. Messages leading to an earthly utopia
  2. Leaving their land the death of their cause
  3. Want to make a difference on air pollution? Cut down on your meat and dairy
  4. Melting ice, species going extinct, cow dung zero waste and
  5. A lightning bolt through your brain
  6. Smog in New Delhi, elimination of hepatitis C, global tuberculosis rates & Gaza’s hospitals
  7. Anglo-Saxon era church bringing the church into disrepute
  8. Reasons why Christianity is declining rapidly in America
  9. The countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian
  10. How Evangelicals betray Christians in the Holy Land
  11. Hamas opened the gates of hell on the Gaza Strip
  12. A world needing more time

and many other articles of interest

As we may find you here, we also hope to find you on Some View on the World. You might find it quite wise to subscribe there too so that you will be automatically notified every time a new article appears.

 

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by | 2023/11/16 · 6:18 pm

Don’t forget our overview of daily facts

Not closing ourselves off to what is going on in the world

For those who would not yet know or have forgotten, we would like to remind you that we provide a daily summary of daily facts on our news site: Some View on the World.


A lot of people are preoccupied daily with their obligations to provide sufficient income. As a result, they may not even get sufficiently informed about what is happening on a global scale during the day. When they return home in the evening, they are often too tired to watch news broadcasts and insight programmes or current affairs (news format).

Did you know that Marcus Ampe has created a site, especially for this purpose, which gives a regular overview of what is happening in the world and how we can view it? His intention was to allow several voices to speak, even if they might even contradict themselves in certain circumstances. But according to Marcus Ampe, it should be possible to juxtapose different opinions and give the reader a chance to choose which side of the story he prefers and which he also wants to delve further into.

Being able to follow the important news of the day on a daily basis is not obvious, completely free Some View on the World provides that option.

We would like to invite you to take a look. We would appreciate it even more if you would also register to be kept informed of new publications.

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Find to read:

  1. Journal for you
  2. Aims
  3. My faith and hope
  4. Independence
  5. Weekly World Watch (WWW) looking at a few key developments that have happened during the past week
  6. Presenting views from different sources
  7. Journo tips: Newsgathering
  8. Written-down thoughts
  9. Not enough time to keep pace with writing for different websites
  10. The Media and Democracy
  11. Regarding guest writers

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Preceding

“Our World” Moving from Blogspot to WordPress

Invitation to the news platform that brings a view of the world

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by | 2023/11/11 · 5:32 pm

Foraging has become the ultimate middle-class holiday activity

TikTok videos of the picking and gathering craze have been viewed 1.6 billion times – and our obsession is now infiltrating our holiday.

Foraging has not only become the new shopping. It’s the new therapy. Maybe, even, a new religion. TikTok videos hashtagged with the term have been viewed 1.6 billion times. Online searches for “foraging near me” rose 172 per cent between August 2019 and the same month in 2023, according to holiday home agents Independent Cottages.

The largest British outdoor retailer, headquartered in Bury, Greater Manchester,  Blacks Outdoor Retail which owns the British outdoor retailers Blacks, Millets and Ultimate Outdoors, which in 1931 made tents for the Army and Navy and made fenders for boats on D-Day, has 69 UK stores, originally specialising in the serious walking and hiking kit. Recently they have diversified to including running clothing and more fashion based lines.

That most reliably un-whimsical and unfashionable of outdoor stores has now partnered with the cook and influencer Paul Robinson (aka The Yorkshire Gourmet) to

“offer advice on how to go foraging in the UK”.

Last month, a spike in “excessive” foraging at Wollaton Hall and Deer Park in Nottinghamshire led officials to ban the practice outright. Foragers had, apparently, been stuffing bin bags with chestnuts and mushrooms, knocking branches off ancient trees and starving deer of their food, all for their Instagram feeds.

Read more:

Nature | Foraging has become the ultimate middle-class holiday activity

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by | 2023/11/11 · 12:50 pm

Trees Facing Wintertime

Text and image source: Petie Barre https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02x5DAJbDFRJXkkChvS2U5RTr4ognmZCevGV5vDts5RGJiJy7ekpVh4HnD2UY7HGh9l&id=100032362197041&mibextid=Nif5oz

We had some warmer weather than usual, but at last, the time has come that dead leaves start to fall,

Yielding gently to the call
Of the autumn wind.
Half reluctantly they go,
Falter, waver to and fro,
Glancing oft behind. {Ruby Archer}

Though our surroundings are full of houses, luckily here and there we might still find some trees standing erect. Now the time has come that the trees are turning their own bodies into pillars, not willing to give in to the winds which wants them to throw down. Some trees bend, others keep upright, proudly looking forward to the season when they will flaunt their leaves again.

For now, they are standing proudly, leaving the light caressing their branches, whilst giving off the rich fragrance of cinnamon and fulfilment,

And This is The Way of Life

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by | 2023/09/10 · 4:40 pm

Horn of Africa and a climate disaster

“People in the Horn of Africa are no strangers to drought,
but the duration of this event stretched people beyond their ability to cope.
Five consecutive seasons of below-normal rainfall, combined with rain-dependent livelihoods and vulnerability multipliers, like conflict and state fragility,
have created a humanitarian disaster.”
Cheikh Kane

Policy advisor at the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre
The deadly combination of high temperatures and low rainfall that affected millions in the Horn of Africa was made about 100 times more likely by climate change.

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by | 2023/09/10 · 2:09 pm

Message of climate urgency

“I think it’s critical for the message of climate urgency to make its way out into the mainstream” 

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by | 2023/09/03 · 9:00 am

Hawaii – A wake-up call

The catastrophe caused by the Hawaii wildfire could have been avoided. As with recent blazes in Colorado and California, there were natural and man-made factors at play. But all three blazes had something else in common: Authorities knew they were probable.

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  • Maui losses could reach $6 billion. Most of those losses come from Lahaina, and don’t include the potential impact on Maui’s gross domestic product.
  • The Hawaii fire probe is focused on a substation. Investigators are zooming in on one particular area outside of Lahaina as a possible source of the ignition point.
  • Hawaii victims are following California’s playbook. Property owners seized on a legal shortcut that could help them secure compensation from the local utility.

°°°

A wake-up call

“What is really being demonstrated with Hawaii is that risk is ubiquitous now.
This is being driven not just by people building in areas that are experiencing increasing wildfires,
but also because we know climate change is exacerbating wildfire behavior.”

Kimiko Barrett

Co-author of a report on policies for reducing wildfire risk
A wildfire resilience expert, Barrett talks about what communities can do to prepare for disasters, even in places some may not expect them to occur.

 

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Find to read

  1. Hawaii wildfires
  2. What now for Maui?
  3. About plots and conspiracy theorists who are spreading disbelief about climate change on social media
  4. The Independent’s climate newsletter for the last week of August 2023

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by | 2023/09/02 · 5:17 pm

Extreme weather to expect

We’ve turned up the heat
“Whatever we do now, in the next couple of decades,
you’re going to have more and more dry, hot windy situations.”

 

~ Mojtaba Sadegh

A climate and wildfire expert and an associate professor of civil engineering at Boise State University

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by | 2023/09/02 · 1:44 pm

Black rain frog

Wildlife spotlight

Black rain frog
round frog sitting on green vegetation
Range

Black rain frogs are found only on the southern slopes of South Africa’s Cape Fold Mountains. (Cape Fold Belt)
Interesting info

With a squat, round body and short limbs, this frog walks but can’t hop or swim. When faced with a threat, it puffs up with air like a balloon, expanding to several times its size, which helps the frog lodge itself in its burrow, making it difficult for predators to pull it out.
Like most frogs, black rain frogs are nocturnal. Unlike most frogs, this species doesn’t require access to open water to lay eggs or reproduce. Instead, females lay their eggs in shallow underground nests, which males guard until the embryos hatch—not as tadpoles, but as tiny, fully formed froglets!

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by | 2023/09/01 · 6:03 pm

Ahoy, land lovers

 

“Warming ocean temperatures will – and currently are having – huge impact on land.
Strange and dangerous weather patterns will be the norm in places where they’ve never happened before and at higher frequency.”
Deborah Brosnan

A marine scientist and founder of environmental risk consultancy Deborah Brosnan & Associates
 

Hot oceans are amplifying weather-driven catastrophes. They’re also accelerating climate change.
As water temperatures rise, oceans lose their ability to serve a vital function: absorb the world’s excess heat.

 

 

 

Please come to read:

  1. Stopping emissions will not stop the warming of our planet
  2. Dire global warming impacts distract from even more dire warnings
  3. European Youth Event 2023: The effects of climate change
  4. Opinion: Planes and taps and climate priorities
  5. The impact of last summer to tourism
  6. Record-hot oceans fueling extreme weather
  7. The Med has a fever

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by | 2023/08/26 · 7:43 pm

What to change about modern society

Daily writing prompt
What would you change about modern society?
View all responses

When we look at humanity‘s actions, we may well wonder if it wants to use its brain enough and would not be better off employing its ambitions and goals with more insight. We should not be proud of what mankind made into the 21st century, with an immensely growing wealth gap, social disparities, and systemic inequalities that exist in various aspects of society, such as income, education, and opportunity.

If we look around us we also see a lot of “fake people,” people who do not dare to be themselves but pretend to be this or that.

As the world begins to turn square, we see the far right gaining more ground in industrialised countries, with citizens clearly indicating that what matters most to them is their own self. For the majority, the law of the strongest applies but also the law of money, sparing nothing or no one. In the process, nature seems to be losing out for the common good. The industry is given priority over the general welfare of Mother Nature.

Sometimes we can seem like loners, yet I believe that several crazies like me, if we band together enough, can make a difference. Even if our voices sometimes seem to echo in thin air, the echoes will continue to reverberate and touch other souls.

Therefore, it comes down to those who believe that we should take more care of Mother Nature, to join hands and continuously push their representatives in government to work towards a better environment, where people are also allowed to live more equally with each other.

Many think they can do little to change what happens in the world. But if everyone thinks this way, not much will change. People must realise that no matter how small the change, no matter where it takes place, if more people work to create a better environment, it will become possible for more people.

In the area of human relations, there is also much to be done. Here we can only hope that we will gradually evolve into a more tolerant or more tolerant world where people will come to realise that the differences between them are an enrichment rather than an impoverishment.
My hippie years may be far behind me, but the reasons we protested then have not disappeared. In fact, today they have become even more important and high profile. Even more than then, people should now rise to the occasion and raise their voices to protect animals, plants and humans alike.

 

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Preceding

High time to show the way to peace

Relationship

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Additional reading

  1. Also small changes made by blogging can be useful
  2. A change to be made by a blog
  3. Capitalism and Inequality
  4. Poverty a European Issue
  5. Inequality, Injustice, Sustainability and the Free World Charter
  6. 2014 Human Rights
  7. How willing are people to stand up for their values and beliefs
  8. Involvement and implementation of European Pillar of Social Rights
  9. Subcutaneous power for humanity 1 1940-1960 Influenced by horrors of the century
  10. Subcutaneous power for humanity 3 Facing changing attitudes
  11. Subcutaneous power for humanity 5 Loneliness, Virtual and real friends
  12. An answer to gun violence according two American pastors

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Related

  1. What would you change about modern society?
  2. Modern Society: The change that should be required!
  3. Transforming Modern Society: Environmental Consciousness,
  4. What changes are required in modern society?
  5. Modern Society
  6. Change…in modern society…
  7. Prompt: Modernity
  8. ~modern society~
  9. The Modern Society
  10. Modern Society in a Simple Person’s Perspective
  11. Daily Prompt – There is A Lot of things I would change
  12. Change I want to bring to this modern society
  13. What would I change about modern society?
  14. WDP — FUD
  15. One change to affect all others – let’s ditch expectations
  16. A hopeful thought
  17. A Lack of Empathy
  18. Life energy and enthusiasm….
  19. After 1000 years human look …
  20. “Empowering Change: Unmasking the Hidden Injustices of Modern Society for a Progressive
  21. Where did Modern Women go wrong?| love factual
  22. The Limits of Reason & Necessity of Faith
  23. The Moses Generation
  24. So much…
  25. Get Woke, Go Broke?
  26. Balancing the Benefits and Drawbacks of Modern Society:
  27. Trapped in Society: Breaking Free and Chasing Your Dreams

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Filed under Being and Feeling, Cultural affairs, Ecological affairs, Economical affairs, Educational affairs, Lifestyle, Nature, Political affairs, Questions asked, Social affairs, Welfare matters, World affairs

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by | 2023/08/04 · 10:22 am

If we are to help heal the world…

* If we are to help heal the world we need to remember that it is a sacred place. Our actions need to be positive statements, reminders that even in the worst times there is a world worth struggling for. ~ Ram Dass 💚 * * * * Text and image source: Earthschool Harmony http://www.earthschoolharmony.com […]

If we are to help heal the world…

Our world today is in need of much help. Most people have fergotten that our earth is a sacred place. We may not stand at the side, not doing anything. We need to come out of our she’ll, and continuing the battle for saving our earth.

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