Some Good Eco-News for the Holidays
And Sacred Earth Connections
Here in the midst of the holiday season I thought it would be a good time to send out one of my occasional environmental good news pieces to remind how wondrous this planet is and how wondrously she heals when given a chance. Also, I’m excited to note that my first Sacred Earth Connections column in Spirituality and Health magazine has just been released. As a thank you to TRANSCEND subscribers I include that column below.
Tiny endangered snails making a big comeback:
A global conservation effort to reintroduce a tiny snail to the wild is celebrating a momentous milestone -- for the first time in 40 years, conservationists have found adult members of the precious mollusks, called Partula tohiveana, born in the wild. The London Zoo, and others coordinating around the world, have been releasing captive P. tohiveana into the wild for years on Moorea island. Each released snail is marked with a permanent color tag. This year, ecologists found unmarked Partula tohiveana which means the snails are now successfully breeding in the wild. Way to go for all of those who have been working toward this for forty years!
Solar Panel Recycling:
Any way you look at it recycling has got to go to whole new levels if we are to have any chance of stopping the trashing of the planet. In a great step in that direction, Solarcycle is opening a new solar panel recycling center in Cedartown, Georgia. According to the company, the upcoming facility will span 255,000 square feet and will eventually have the capacity to recycle around 10 million old solar panels annually, or as much as 30% of the country’s retired solar panels by 2030.
Scotland Rewilding Project is New Haven for Native Bees:
A rewilding project, run by Bumblebee Conservation Trust, restored 90 acres of mono-crop barley fields by reintroducing native wildflowers and local plants. In just two years of “letting nature take the lead”, the native bumblebee population has gone from 50 to over 4,000.
Rhinoceroses on the Rebound:
Since 2016, poaching of one-horned rhinoceroses in India’s Assam state has fallen 86% after a change in government brought determined action to protect them by expanding protected areas and bolstering ranger patrols. The rhino population had been growing slow and steady since the late 60s, but has now accelerated to the point where 3,000 of the magnificent animals currently grace the Assam savannah.
Wolves Howling Happy in California:
After an 87-year absence due to human-caused extinction, the first wolf returned to the state of California in 2011 when a (now famous) young male, known as OR7, walked across the border from Oregon. By 2015, the first new wolf pack had re-established. In 2019, there were seven gray wolves in California. Now there are 44 — a sixfold increase over the past five years, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
My First Column has Arrived! Check out Sacred Earth Connections
Here’s my first column in Spirituality and Health magazine. It is titled, Our Small Blue & White Marble and offers an intro of what I’ll be covering. Below is an excerpt:
Somewhere along the way, Western culture adopted the mindset that humans are apart from and above—rather than a part of and inextricably connected with—nature. We’ve come to view oceans, forests, and fellow species as “natural resources” to be extracted rather than a glorious mosaic of life unfolding. Unparalleled ingenuity allowed our technology to outpace our wisdom in how and when to use our inventions. Human industries and activities are now at such scale that scientists have dubbed the current geological age the Anthropocene, noting that collective humanity—rather than glaciers, volcanoes, and continental drift—has become the dominant influence on Earth’s ecological systems.
Yet even as we’ve built systems and civilizations that are ecologically damaging, we’re still drawn to plants, animals, oceans, rivers, beautiful landscapes, and wild places. In fact, many of us are biophiliacs. Biophilia stems from the Greek words bio and philia, which translate to “love of life.” It is defined as an innate human tendency to connect with nature and other life forms. Biophilia is partly what prompts us to have houseplants and pets, put bird feeders in our yards, and experience awe while gazing into a starlit sky. Perhaps there is some internal acknowledgment that in so doing we’re reconnecting with a fuller aspect of ourselves.
Spirituality and Health comes out six times a year and you can subscribe to either digital or hard copy versions. My March/April column is on the topic of “Seasons, Cycles, Growth and Enoughness.”
I will include my columns as an added benefit to TRANSCEND subscribers (especially those of you greatly appreciated paid subscribers). If you’d like to subscribe to the full Spirituality and Health magazine you can do so at this link.
Looking for last minute holiday gifts? How about a gift of TRANSCEND. The link below takes you to the discount rate and you can gift someone a one-year subscription and include a personal note. Happy Holidays!
Life with Livvy – We’re Now International Agility Champions (on a certificate at least!)
Olive, AKA the Amazing Livvy Lane, is now an International Agility Champion! She earned our final required points with our win in the Snookers run last Sunday. Snookers is a complicated event in which you have to take a red jump before taking a pointed jump (often a multiple obstacle combination), then another red jump before the next pointed obstacle/combination, etc., and then you have to take the final sequence of obstacles in a specific order all within a certain time limit (well under one minute). Livvy rocked it and earned our first IAC title.
Here's the vid of our run and victory lap.
Here’s a vid of a really great Speedstakes win the same day.
This little lady is such a blessing and so much fun.