Ecology and the Environment

In a previous thread about how human altruism fits into evolutionary imperitives and this was mentioned by some one. I.E. Sacrifice of one individuals reproduction enhances the survival of the species. But it occured to last night either in a dream or when I was half alseep that we may be looking at this from the wrong perspective. Altruism implies the suppression of an individual imperative for the good of the collective. But worker ants simply don't have the ability to reproduce and therefore have no individual imperative to do so. So is it really altruism from their perspective. Perhaps we need to look at it from the perspective of the ant queen who as …

What if we asked school students to solve real life problems? Real time? For example, a large capital city’s pollution problem? What if they had to bring common sense and learning to the table, work with each other and suggest a solution that might work while showing them how their learning was useful to real life? They might just bring amazing new solutions that are welcome, and they will certainly bring a whole new level of appreciation of learning.

HOW ???... the "epigenetic" CHANGES of the "environment" ???... "influence" !!!... "either" negatively(-) !!!... ( from the very "VIOLENCE" !!!... at a young age for MANY "YEARS" !!!...) "or" positively(+) !!!... ( growing up as a "child" in a family environment with "affection" and "love" !!!... ) HOW ???... do we "know" ???... IF THERE ARE "good" !!!... and "bad" !!!... "genes" ???... ( if <ALL> our "genes" !!!... "create" some "protein-enzyme" !!!... that "only" good <do> !!!...) HOW ???... the "environment" ???... ( through the "R.N.A.' of the "cells" !!!... ) can they "decide" ???... to"open" or "close" !!!.. if NOT "randomly" !!!... the "genes" !!…

If social behavior is intrinsic to human existence or, is genetically facilitated for or possible by, then would understanding that in a scientific perspective help combat environmental issues? Lets say for instance that bands, or any form of social organization is hallmark to being human, as in our nature for instance, if that is so, could many modern day aspects of human civilizations such as variance with different cultures have a biological basis. I think if such was a reality that understanding that could be pivotal in aspects of environmental education. I am looking at the question from a perspective of evolution I think, with thinking that social behavior is a…

This Article Discusses the idea that extinct North American fauna should be "reintroduced" to America by establishing present day relatives from overseas, such as cheetahs, wild horses and asses, even elephants and lions. The point would be threefold... to help increase the populations of these declining species and contribute to conservation efforts to "restore" long lost Pleistocene megafauna and North American biodiversity and, of course, economically benefit rural America through ecotourism Even though I like it, I think most of it sounds too farfetched and undoable, and the article doesn't bring up any of the potential problems. But does anyone t…

Fred: Yes they are john. You coming out on your 4 wheeler this weekend? John:Of course I am Fred. You coming with me to watch the indie500?[/b] Fred:Yep. How was wakebaording last weekend? John:Great we wakeboarded all day long. Fred: Why is it SUV drivers are wastefull again? John:Oh..it's because the vehicles they drive require more gas to run on than my hybrid. We might both travel the same distance but the SUV driver has burned near twice as much gas as I have...thus being wastefull Fred:Why do they drive such big cars John? Just to be wastefull? or is it..........just................just.................just............ John ..Just because…

http://www.earthsky.org/blog/51179/scientific-consensus “The final IPCC report carries an authority and depth far beyond that of any individual scientist or small group of scientists, no matter how gifted or experienced.” -- Bruce A. Wielicki, of NASA’s Langley Research Center, Principal Investigator for CERES, a project that uses Earth-orbiting satellites to monitor how clouds affect our climate. “There cannot be a 100% proof as you have in mathematics.” -- Colin Price, Professor of Geophysics and Planetary Science at Tel Aviv University “The best way out of the dilemma of which expert to believe is to undertake the task of understanding the sci…

A DailyTech blog entry has been making the news & blogosphere rounds this week in which the author discusses a potential Y2K bug that has reportedly been found in NASA's data regarding global temperatures. The study is (or so it says here) the basis for ongoing media stories saying that 1998 is the warmest year on record, but the new information (if it's accurate) states that the corrected data shows 1934 to be warmest, and that it also disturbs the upward trend, instead showing half of the "warmest years" to be in the early part of the 20th century. But the article also goes on to say that this would only impact the overall warming trend by 1-2%. Which really…

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WEATHER/01/10/warm.year.ap/ Gee, I think I'm noticing a trend...

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=36699 2008 was the coolest year since 2000. NASA attributes this primarily to large areas of the Pacific Ocean being cooler than the long-term average due to a La Niña episode that began in 2007.

It seems like only yesterday that the East coast of Australia, faced one of the worst bushfire seasons in living memory, with hundreds of homes destroyed, whole towns wiped out,lives lost and billions of our native animals perishing. Now we have the same east coast having our worst floods in living memory, with month's worth of rain falling in a single day...Roads interstate impassable, and whole towns flooded, by what are being called a once in a thousand year flood! https://phys.org/news/2022-03-australia-tens-thousands.html The couples' home floated fully intact for about a kilometre While I am aware of extreme weather events around th…

So what would be best for the planet? Supposedly the 2C warming level would be set at 450ppm, though I personally would prefer a stronger limit of 1C warming and 350ppm. However if the recent Hansen study is correct (a reasonable debate at this point), and climate sensitivity to CO2 doubling (long term) is about 6C instead of 3C, then this means we'd need to halve the CO2 excess over pre-industrial values. What are the scientific arguments about the climate sensitivity estimates? In other words, would CO2 at 350ppm still yield 2C warming anyway? What should the warming limit be in terms of both CO2 levels and long-term temperature rise? There is also a "safe" limi…

I am beginning to hear rumors of how 5G technology in cell phones and other tech will result in all sorts of death and destruction or at least kill off birds or may just give your ears a suntan. Is there any truth to these rumors?

Ok, maybe my Google skills just suck, but I can't seem to bring this up. I saw it in a news story last week and it blasted itself back into my skull when I woke up this morning in a strange, Dok Gonzo-like episode. (Ok, don't draw any funny ideas about Pangloss' lifestyle from that.....) Anyway, I was just wondering if someone could tell me more about this. I believe the idea is that scientists (?) have come up with 14 or 15 singular instances of things that can be done to flatten carbon emissions down to zero growth. I think each of them represents a billion tons (tonnes?) per year of carbon emission. If I remember right, only seven have to be completed in order…

A group of us have developed a 'new' wind powered energy source that works below wind speeds of 7 mph. We are on are 19th innovation. We are willing to describe our first innovative prototype so that others can/might follow on a parallel course. First take some plastic thread spools and imbed short, flexible (hairlike) glass fibers around the spools. (Yes, we used needles to press holes in the spools for the homemade drawn glass fibers, and yes it is hard to do, but that's typical of prototypical work.) At each end of the spools attach (leave center hole clear) homemade wind cups that will catch the wind and spin the spool (if threaded on a teflon shaft, or simila…

Hi! I'm currently a Ph.D. student in Utah. My project involves a lot of seeds to look at the seed and seedling preferences of rodent communities in burned vs unburned areas of the Great Basin a Mojave deserts. I'm halfway done with my data collection, however, I am starting to run low on some seeds, particularly invasive seeds that can't be bought, and other hard to find seeds. If anyone knows of any way I can get more of the following seeds, I will be very grateful: Great Basin seeds Halogeton Gloneratus Ceratocephala testiculata - Burr Buttercup Alysium allysoides Elymus elymoides - Squirreltail Mojave Desert Seeds Bromus tectorum - Cheatgrass…

Would it be possible for humans to survive in underground tunnels that were completely closed off from the surface with plants providing oxygen through photosynthesis from artificial light sources? Could plants even grow under ground?

I congratulate everyone on the forum with this painting - a contribution to environmental protection! I really hope you like it and I share it with love! http://nikibo.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Z-Ek_www-200-10-10-3.jpg Please leave some comment if you like this artwork!

"These two last ideas are key, since they make it possible to evaluate the load capacity -- the number of organisms which can be supported by a given ecosystem. In any food network, the energy contained in the level of the producers is not completely transferred to the consumers. And the higher one goes up the chain, the more energy and resources is lost and consumed. Thus, from an energy—and environmental—point of view, it is more efficient for humans to be primary consumers (to subsist from vegetables, grains, legumes, fruit, cotton, etc.) than as secondary consumers (from eating herbivores, omnivores, or their products, such as milk, chickens, cattle, sheep, etc.) and …

I read this article by Mike Hulme, a climate scientist as East Anglia University. I am interested in getting peoples responses to this article. I have read it, and I certainly have an opinion, but I don't want to paint others opinion before they read it. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2007/mar/14/scienceofclimatechange.climatechange

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3292050.ece What do you guys make of this? Oh, and here's a jpeg image that shows all the various epoches from the distant past to today: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00276/an385_276938a.jpg

the technique of efficient and rapid non-tube plant cloning one picece of leaf may become lots of plants The unique technique of efficient & rapid non-tube plant clone(TERNPC), which was invented by Professor Li changxiao, can be extensively used all over the world; it can be applied to most of the plants for rapid propagation, and it will be a leading trend of the Plant rapid reproduction industry. The success for rapid propagation of a species of plants may bring fast development of a certain industry. From the very beginning of the initial invention for this unique technique 18 years ago, there have been more than 700 species of plants propagated by this t…

Hello everyone, I often felt sorry for those millions animals being horribly killed. I prayed and a very original answer arrived. A solution that I hope scientifically possible to finally leave these poor animals in peace. Does the solution that follows seem scientifically serious to stop eating meat and stay healthy? "In time you will modify vegetables with such high protein values that you can eliminate meat altogether, as we have done on our planet." A venusian. From Outer Space to You Howard Menger

https://apnews.com/article/humans-epcoch-anthropocene-climate-change-power-4699002bbc3b60ade715ee94a7b7567d This puts the power of humans in a somewhat similar class with the meteorite that crashed into Earth 66 million years ago, killing off dinosaurs and starting the Cenozoic Era, or what is conversationally known as the age of mammals. But not quite. While that meteorite started a whole new era, the working group is proposing that humans only started a new epoch, which is a much smaller geologic time period. The group aims to determine a specific start date of the Anthropocene by measuring plutonium levels at the bottom of Crawford Lake. The idea of the …

While I was doing observation in the backyard I had recently found a small mushroom the stalk of the mushroom is very thin, is it interesting.The tahallus of the mushroom is white in colour and is slightly having heart shape