Environmental and Wildlife Conservation in the Community

There are a number of steps that you can take to maintain the environmental balance in your community and beyond. While some of these methods may require the devotion of time and resources, others simply entail a change of habits. The following paragraphs outline some of the positive actions that you could take.

Purchase Green Food Products

There are a large number of farmers throughout the world who produce delicious foods in environmentally friendly ways. You can show support for the work that they do by buying products bearing Fair Trade, Food Alliance and Bird Friendly labels. You could also reduce your carbon footprint by opting to eat vegetarian meals, rather than those consisting of red meat. And it is also worth asking the chefs at any restaurants that you visit about the organic dishes that feature on the menu.

Looking After Plants and Flowers

You could contribute to conservation work by tending to floral species that have been planted in your local area. It may even be a good idea to put up signs urging other residents not to trample or otherwise harm the plants. If you really enjoy the gardening work then why not create a designated area for the planting of vegetables and pretty flowers? You will be rewarded with delicious produce to share with community and wonderful flowers for everyone to enjoy.

Advise Other People On Green Practices

It is possible to encourage people to take their environmental responsibilities seriously without seeming to be intrusive or condescending. You could tell friends and family about the sense of achievement and empowerment that you have realised by carrying out conservation work. It might even be possible to give a talk about the benefits of green living at a community meeting. The more people who are persuaded by the eco-friendly message the better.

Join a Group

There are a large number of social groups engaged in conservation across the UK. They may organise outings to coastal areas for clean ups and wooded environments for wildlife projects. By joining you will have the opportunity to meet like-minded people and reap the rewards of engaging in conservation work together. The BTCV is a particularly well-known society of this type.

Reduce Your Usage Of Fossil Fuels

The dependence on fossil fuels has a negative impact on plant and animal species throughout the world. You can play a part in their preservation by using public transport and bicycles whenever possible. You could also reward companies who employ ethical conservation work practices by buying electrical items with high standards of efficiency. Another way to lessen the usage of fossil fuels is to replace traditional light bulbs with the modern, compact fluorescent alternatives. This is a positive step for the environment and your finances!

Head to Africa

If you really want to get involved at a grass roots level, there are specialised travel companies providing adult gap year experiences where you can become involved in animal conservation work projects in various locations across Africa. This is an exciting and truly fulfilling way to do your bit in conserving some of our endangered wild species.

How Long Until Humans Can Communicate With Dolphins In Their Language?

The other day, I was reminded by someone of an old article I had written about the potential for dolphin/human communication and how we might go about putting together an electronic device to do that. It shouldn't be difficult at all actually. Yes, I am talking about talking with the dolphins. Now then, I do have some theories on direct dolphin communications. You see, they have large brains and abilities we do not have with extra sensors.

Luckily, it seems we have decoded their 'clicks' and they use a simpler sentence structure than most human languages such as "bob, ball, go get" which would be the click signification for the individual dolphin, click for name of object, then the action. Perhaps, the opposite of that famous line in Star Wars where one species says to a human; "What Say You," and so I hope you now see that point.

So, we seem to know enough now to ramp up that linguistic research to have a conversation. They might like that. Of course, since their language is spontaneous, I don't doubt that different dolphins living in different parts of the world use different communication strategies, sentence structures, etc. just as humans in the Amazon jungle do, or the differences in the World's major languages. I think we could learn one hell of a lot through this communication, not to mention it will helps as humans in the future prove Drake's equation or the theory behind it correct as we explore elsewhere.

You see, there might be a lot more intelligent life out there than we believe, and we ought to start practicing with the intelligent life on our own planet and learn how to communicate. There are dolphins, chimpanzees, and other intelligent life. What about multi-leg sea creatures? They aren't exactly stupid either. We seem to do okay with nonverbal communication with our pets whether they be dogs, cats, livestock animals, or birds.

Maybe it's time to take it all to the next level. We've already designed tablet computer systems which allow us to talk through a translation device. When it comes right down to it isn't that what we are trying to do here? Even if we get the sentence structure wrong with the dolphins and they laugh as us, they are still smart enough to know what we mean, even if we may not be smart enough to communicate with them yet. Maybe they think we are just stupid, who knows maybe we are.

Dolphins seem like an obvious choice, and maybe we should put more effort into bona fide linguistic goal communication and translation through computational devices with audio. We listen to what they say, and we can tell by this sounds and duration of their "clicks" the significance of each word thus, deriving the meaning of their sentences. We have enough knowledge now to make this happen. Therefore we should. Interestingly enough, I'm not the only one who's been thinking here, and it deserves funding and more research. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

Shale Formation in the Eagle Ford Region of Texas

Don't ever write it "Eagleford" because you will be singled out right away as a "outsider." The Eagle Ford shale formation is the biggest boom to hit Texas in the last 40 or so years, and the biggest oil and gas discovery in the United States.

Discovered in 2009, and named for the community of Eagle Ford in South Texas, the Eagle Ford shale formation has been around since the late cretaceous period, about 85 million years ago. This formation, once part of a vast inland sea, starts at the Mexico-Texas border in Webb and Maverick counties, and travels east for about 400 miles.

The shale is mostly carbonate, making it easy to break up using hydraulic fracturing machinery. Over 50 miles wide and 250 feet thick, the formation lies at a depth of from 4,000 to 12,000 feet deep. In all, it goes through 23 counties, and has already made some people very rich.

The community of Eagle Ford is now part of a West-Dallas neighborhood. This is where the formation was first seen. The shale formation is made up of an organic-rich fossiliferous marine shale. The rising and falling of the ancient sea bed, along with the pressures exerted over the millenniums created this vast oil and gas rich area.

While landowners lucky enough to own the rights of minerals on their land will reap profits from the leasing of their mineral rights, there are any number of oil companies wanting to buy the rights. Selling mineral rights in Texas is not as easy as one may think. A landowner who wants to sell mineral rights has to first ascertain if he even owns the mineral rights to his land.

If a landowner finds that he indeed does own the surface and mineral rights to his land, then he may find it more profitable selling mineral rights, rather than leasing them. There are a number of reasons for this move, from combining one's assets, having more liquidity, or even for estate planning purposes. In this case, going to a broker may be the best way to handle the transaction.

But rather than sell their rights, many landowners in Texas are leasing the rights. This move is also profitable. Many people are leasing their mineral rights for as much as $2,000 an acre as an up-front payment, plus getting 25% of the royalties on any profits. All that is required is a legal contract for the use of the land for oil or gas production. With estimated reserves at 3 billion barrels, and an average output of 42,000 barrels a day, Eagle Ford is adding to the economy of Texas.

Little Bee - All About Bumble Bees

There are more than 250 different species of bee and most of these exist in the Northern Hemisphere. They are social creatures with black and yellow hairs that are often arranged in stripes on the bee's body. They may also have red or orange coloring and some bees are almost entirely black. Bumble bees look and feel fuzzy. The thick fuzzy hairs help to keep bumble bees warm through the winter.

The bumble bee is a relative of the honey bee. They gather pollen which is used to feed their young. In queens that have been fertilized, the ovaries become active when she lays her eggs. The queen is able to store the male's sperm from mating in a special container known as the spermatheca that is used when she is laying her eggs. Some eggs are fertilized with the sperm and these bumble bees will grow into females or queens while other eggs go unfertilized and become males.

Hormones stimulate the development of the ovaries and lack of hormones will suppress ovary development. In worker bees, a lack of hormones makes it impossible for them to reproduce. Instead of being capable of reproducing, worker bees have salivary glands that secrete saliva and can be mixed with the nectar and pollen that they gather from flowers. The saliva is mixed with the materials used to build the nest to make them softer.

The tongue of the bee is long and hairy. It extends from a sheath and is used to lap up liquids like nectar. Nectar is drawn up through the tongue also through capillary action. When the bumble bee flies or rests, the tongue is kept folded up underneath its head. Wax is secreted from an area under the abdomen. Pollen is gathered by the bumble bee in part through electrostatic charge which builds up on the bee as it is flying through the air. When the bee lands on a flower, the electrostatic charge causes the pollen to be attracted to the bee. Though bees do not have ears, they do have the ability to sense vibrations.

The bumble bee is usually found more readily at higher latitudes and higher altitudes. There are a few tropical species of bumble bees however. The bee possesses the ability to regulate its body temperatures using several mechanisms such a "shivering" and solar radiation. They are also able to stay cool by radiating warmth out of their bodies through their abdomen.

Bumble bees exist in colonies that are usually smaller than that of honey bees. Mature nests of bees sometimes hold only about 50 individuals. Nests may be found under ground in tunnels made by other animals. They often build a waxy protective canopy that can help to insulate the colony through the winter months. A queen bumble bee from a colony will usually survive the winter and then construct a new colony in the warmer spring months are she emerges from hibernation. She collects pollen and nectar from flowers and then finds a suitable location for the nest to begin the cycle all over again.

The True "Safety" of Bottled Water

News about human conflicts and wars are dominating the headlines in newspapers and news websites. One of the most talked about wars isn't being fought overseas and it's being waged through corporate talks and conversations instead of guns and other weapons. It's a war over resources and personal preferences, and it's all over bottled water.

Envipco is an organization that focuses on rewarding companies for recycling (beverage companies in particular) and it has a unique board of directors that are made up of leaders from different industries. One of the most popular selling points for bottled water is the alleged safety of the product. If people knew the truth about how safe the average bottle of Poland Springs is, they wouldn't buy bottle water again.

Questionable Sources

It would be a lie to say that all municipal water sources are 100% clean and safe, but companies blatantly lie when they advertise their water as "fresh from natural water springs." According to the National Resources Defense Council 40% of bottled water is regular tap water, and public aquifers and water resources are used far more to harvest bottled water than "fresh" springs and streams are.

Harvesting the product from public resources also can create problems for local communities. Companies rarely pay top dollar for the resources they take, towns and communities where water is taken seldom see any profits from the water they supply. Some bottlers take water without factoring in local droughts or community water needs, so some companies have the potential to actually deplete local aquifers and groundwater resources.

False Safety

Some of you may be wondering what's so terrible about a beverage that made a software executive like Gregory S. Garvey and a cement trader like Alexander F Bouri work against it. Organizations like Envipco encourage corporate recycling in hopes of lessening the environmental damage plastic pollution causes, but disposable plastic water bottles cause far more than just environmental damage. Public water resources are far more heavily monitored than the water used in bottled waters. The EPA requires utility companies to test public water resources hundreds of times each month, but the FDA only requires bottling companies to test their water supply once a week. When it comes to checking for chemical, physical, and radiological contaminants in bottled water, the FDA only requires a single test per year.

The National Resources Defense Council tested 103 brands and around one quarter of the brands tested had chemical and bacterial contamination levels that violated state standards. The same study also found that one-fifth of the tested brands exceeded state bottled water microbial guidelines. The FDA also doesn't require bottles and their contents to be checked for phthalates and other chemicals commonly used in plastic bottle production. Overall the FDA also only monitors around 30%-40% of water that's transported along state lines. Many people end up drinking questionable and potentially dangerous water when they think they're getting 100% natural and safe bottled water.

A Rose by Any Other Name: About TENCEL Fabric

TENCEL® is a trademarked brand name the Tencel Group (now owned by Lenzing AG) gave to their lyocell fiber fabric. Lyocell is produced from the wood pulp cellulose of various hardwoods. Cellulose is the natural cell fibers in all vegetation. Eucalyptus trees provide the greatest yield per acre and it is believed the best fiber quality. In keeping with being earth friendly, wood pulp cellulose is collected from trees that are sustainably farmed.

A subcategory of rayon, lyocell fibers are used in making a variety of textiles and it shares many of the characteristics of rayon, ramie, cotton, and linen. Lyocell fiber fabric is a durable material with a soft luxurious feel. A variety of fabric finishes ranging from 'silky soft' to more of a 'woven knit type' surface can be achieved by using abrasive actions on the wet fibers. The tenacious characteristic of the fibers give it strength. Because it is cellulosic, it is fully biodegradable and therefore considered an environmentally friendly material.

Uses 

Because the surface of the fabric can be manipulated into different textures, lyocell fiber fabric is adaptable for use in developing a variety of products. Garments made with this fabric drape well, are soft, breathable, and moisture wicking. This fabric pulls moisture from the skin releasing it into the air avoiding any bacteria from forming between the fabric and the skin. Lyocel fiber clothing tends to be great for traveling as it is lightweight, comfortable, wrinkle resistant, machine washable, quick to dry, and durable. Because of the absorbent and quick drying properties, this fabric is perfect for making towels, bandages, and baby wipes. Other uses include sheets, blankets, upholstery, car carpeting, and oil filters. Powder from the fibers is used to make specialized papers, is an ingredient used in certain building materials and is found in foam mattresses.

The Production Process 

Lyocell is made from wood chips from sustainably farmed trees. Wood chips are chemically softened with an ecofriendly non-toxic solvent forming a wet pulp. The wood pulp is dried into a continuous paper-like sheet. Sheet rolls are sent to a mill where they are broken into pieces and further dissolved in an organic solvent to form a thick solution. The solution is then pumped through small holes forming long strands of fibers. These fibers are dried, soap or silicone is applied to detangle and then the fibers are bundled. The bundles of continuous lengths of dried finished fibers are machine textured and combed to separate the strands. These strands are baled for shipment to manufacturers for weaving into fabric used to create garments and other products.

Environmental Considerations 

Made from plant material, Lyocell is considered a natural product and is easily biodegradable. Raw materials are harvested from certified pesticide free sustainable tree farms. These farms are on lands that are unsuitable for anything else like food crops or grazing. The yield of harvested wood pulp is dissolved in a non-toxic organic solvent. When this solution is pushed through small holes to produce fiber, the solvent extruded is reclaimed in a 'closed loop' process with minimal environmental impact. Because the process reuses more than 99% of the solvent it is considered relatively eco-friendly. The process however uses a substantial amount of energy.

Although production of lyocell fibers is considered eco-friendly, turning the fibers into textiles may not be. Because of its tendency to pill some manufacturers resort to use of harsh chemical processes to weaken surface hairs so they can be removed to avoid pilling. It is difficult to get dyes to bind to the surface of lyocell fibers, causing some manufactures to resort to use of conventional dye treatments that are harmful to the environment. There are quite a few manufactures with earth friendly leanings that avoid the harsh chemicals and use low impact dyes which are more eco-friendly.

Conclusion 

All things considered lyocell fiber fabric is a great earth friendly material to use in a variety of products. Its many attractive properties make it a great choice for products ranging from exercise clothes - moisture wicking properties, travel garments - wrinkle free properties, towels - quick drying properties, and auto carpeting - durability.

Although not organic, it is still considered a natural product. Fibers are produced from sustainable raw materials and are biodegradable. The close loop process of producing the fibers keeps waste by-products to a minimum. Of most concern is the possible use of harsh chemicals to turn the fibers into fabric. Those with chemical sensitivities and those wanting to remain eco-friendly should search out manufacturers that avoid the use of heavy chemicals and dyes in the production process.