cptappleobservation

[cptappleobservation]

The City of Atlanta Georgia has decided to demolish the research and conservation center of the Amphibian Foundation. This organization works tirelessly to conserve the Frogs, Toads, Salamanders, Newts, and other amphibians in the United States. In addition, they provide key education for herpetologists on the care, conservation, and preservation of reptiles and amphibians.

This emergency need is compounded by the government mass firing of conservation officials and the pulling of funds from many of the country's conservation organizations.

If you can help please donate here:

Key points from the Amphibian Foundation.

Our building will be demolished in 2026, and we need to identify a new location (or locations) for 7 labs and over 1,000 animals, many of which are endangered and part of critical conservation programs.

We've identified a new location for most of AF, but not our research and conservation programs. We have an amazing lead, but it's not confirmed yet.

Our first fundraising project is the AF Emergency Fund as the minimum cost estimates to move this many labs and animals safely is $50,000. (It costs about 50 USD per animal to move them)

If you can't donate.. please share... here.. and everywhere else.

[cptappleobservation]

On conservation and survival

[cptappleobservation]

Slow Food Farms are dedicated to producing good, clean and fair food in a way that’s rooted in agroecological principles.

Aligned with Slow Food’s philosophy that everyone deserves access to nourishing food that supports communities, honors the Earth and strengthens local economies, these farms embody the future of sustainable agriculture

What is a Slow Food Farm?

A Slow Food Farm is a plot of land cultivated for agricultural purposes according to the principles of agroecology, used for growing crops and/or for raising animals for human consumption. It may include a processing unit but cannot be solely for processing.

By integrating farms into resilient local food systems, Slow Food Farms not only enhance farmers’ livelihoods but also ensure fair compensation and long-term economic stability.

[cptappleobservation]

Lighthouse, Edinburgh's Radical Bookshop - "as much a hub of organising and activism and community connection as we are a bookshop."

Jessica Gaitán Johannesson is the digital campaigns manager at Lighthouse, described as Edinburgh’s radical bookshop. “The way we see it, books are the starting points of action making and of change making,” she says.

“It's not enough with people reading climate fiction or books about environmental injustice. What do you do when you put the book down?” As a hub for grassroots organising, the shop connects people to groups they can join and actions they can take after reading a book that fires them up. 

[cptappleobservation]

Ok, loves, so we've all got the message that joking about suicide is bad for your mental health. Now we need to get on "joking that the planet/all of humanity has no future" is bad for societal health/encouraging resistance to bad shit."

[cptappleobservation]

I am once again thinking about digging holes

It's so fucked up that digging a bunch of holes works so well at reversing desertification

I hate that so much discourse into fighting climate change is talking about bioenginerring a special kind of seaweed that removes microplastics or whatever other venture-capital-viable startup idea when we have known for forever about shit like digging crescent shaped holes to catch rainwater and turning barren land hospitable

[cptappleobservation]

Over The Waves by Setsuko Matsushima

art quilt

[cptappleobservation]

hopelessness and apathy are the biggest roadblocks to progress, imo.

choose defiant optimism instead! become part of the 3.5% needed to actively participate in a movement to create change!

i promise you that doing *something* will feel better than doing nothing at all. doing something, anything, will always feel better than hanging around online in comment sections spreading hopelessness.

join in, participate, be part of a community, volunteer (even if all you have the energy/time for is online!), let your actions match up with what you say your values are.

you're going to feel better because of it, and it's going to give you the energy & motivation you need to keep going. you just have to start.

[cptappleobservation]

On conservation and survival

[cptappleobservation]

I'm not going to bother reading the article to find out if this actually works or if anyone is actually trying it. I'm just happy we as a society are showing proper reverence for Orbs.

[cptappleobservation]

Found on the ground at the side of the trail.

The nest is lined with spider web silk and willow fluff, the softest imaginable cradle for a hummingbird chick.

[cptappleobservation]

"If you're hoping that reef-restoring coral larvae will settle down in damaged reefs, you can't just sit around and wait for it to happen. You have to get out there and entice the larvae, which is exactly what a new algae-based gel is designed to do.

While we may think of coral reefs' "skeletons" as being composed solely of calcium carbonate produced by coral polyps, much of the material is in fact generated by what are known as crustose coralline algae.

Along with contributing greatly to the structural integrity of reefs, the algae-produced calcium carbonate also serves as a home to planktonic coral larvae. Once those formerly free-swimming organisms settle in and become polyps, they start producing reef-building calcium of their own.

It's a good arrangement for the coral, but it also benefits the algae.

Not only does the reef itself provide the algae with protection from the elements, the coral polyps also emit ammonia which the algae feed upon. It is therefore in the algae's best interest to entice any coral larvae that may be swimming past in the water column. In order to do so, the algae release metabolite chemicals that attract the larvae.

Led by Dr. Daniel Wangpraseurt, scientists at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography have now incorporated those metabolites into a gel that can be applied to degraded coral reefs. Called SNAP-X, the substance reportedly boosts coral larval settlement by up to 20 times as compared to untreated surfaces.

If the algae metabolites were just applied to the coral on their own, they would soon dissipate in the water, leaving the coral larvae unable to follow them to their source. For that reason, the researchers started by encasing the chemical molecules in durable silica nanoparticles. Those particles were then suspended within a biocompatible liquid blend of gelatin methacrylate and polyethylene glycol diacrylate.

When that liquid is sprayed or painted onto a surface – such as a piece of dead coral – then exposed to ultraviolet light, it polymerizes into a hydrogel form. That gel is capable of clinging to the surface for up to one month while immersed in flowing water, gradually releasing its larvae-attracting nanoparticles as it does so.

Initial lab tests showed that application of SNAP-X resulted in a six-fold increase in larval settlement. Subsequent tests that more accurately simulated the water flow on coral reefs, however, produced the 20-times figure.

It should be noted that all of the tests conducted so far have involved a single type of coral, but Wangpraseurt believes the technology should work on other species with a few tweaks.

"I think this material is a breakthrough that can hopefully make a big contribution to coral restoration," he says. "Biomedical scientists have spent a lot of time developing nanomaterials as drug carriers, and here we were able to apply some of that knowledge to marine restoration."

A paper on the research was recently published in the journal Trends in Biotechnology."

-via New Atlas, May 26, 2025

[cptappleobservation]

Growing Grains Off the Coast Could Help Feed the World in the Face of Sea Level Rise

From this article in Anthropocene Magazine:

A new perspective published in Ambio explores how growers in some landscapes could switch to seagrass in an increasingly marine future. Cultivated at scale, seagrass meadows could produce grain in quantities equivalent to 7% of global rice production, with potentially zero emissions, the new perspective says.  Plants in this large marine family, such as eelgrass, produce plump seeds tucked inside underwater shoots. Colloquially known as ‘sea-rice’, this oceanic grain has long been a source of food in Indigenous cultures. Despite the name, the grain is actually similar to wheat, and for centuries has been used by the Seri people of Mexico to make bread, with flavors that are reportedly similar to rye. “The novelty in this paper is to combine [that knowledge] with sea level rise and the solutions we need to adapt our landscapes,” says lead author Marieke M. van Katwijk, who studies seagrass restoration and ecology at Radboud University in the Netherlands, a country that itself is vulnerable to sea level rise. 

[cptappleobservation]

From the article:

Not only will the sanctuary safeguard Palau’s unparalleled biodiversity, but the PNMS also represents an important contribution to the culture, economy, and sovereignty of the country and its people. The Palauan name for the PNMS is “Euotelel a klingil a debel Belau”, a phrase which encapsulates the cultural importance of the marine sanctuary to the people of Palau, who have a long history of ocean stewardship. The sanctuary’s no-take regulations align with the indigenous Palauan practice of “bul”, a tradition of leaving ecosystems undisturbed to prevent over-extraction by humans. The 20% of Palau’s Exclusive Economic Zone outside of the PNMS remains open to fishing. The government legislation that designated the PNMS also created new rules for this fishing-permitted area, such as creating regulatory zones that prioritize Palauan fishers and raising the export tax for fish caught by foreign fleets, which returns the benefits of the adjacent protected area to the people of Palau.

In addition to this new marine sanctuary around Palau, a similar Marine Protected Area was also recently created around Rapa Nui (aka Easter Island).

[cptappleobservation]

Forests are the largest global above ground carbon sinks and managing them through forest-based agroforestry (FAF) can provide a myriad of benefits, a new study led by Yale School of the Environment scientists found. “We want to make sure that we clarify that forest-based agroforestry (FAF) can achieve similar climate benefits as tree planting in fields,” said Karam Sheban ’28 PhD, ’20 MF, who co-authored the study, which was published in Nature Climate Change. “The big takeaway is that human management of forests can result in better outcomes for forests, for people, and for the climate. It is not a zero-sum game.” Agroforestry is a management system that integrates trees with crops or pastures. Forest-based agroforestry, however, integrates crop production into existing forests. The study found that FAF can support forest health and biodiversity, enhance carbon sequestration and storage, generate economic benefits for local communities through sustainable harvesting of forest products (such as fruits, nuts, and medicinal plants), and aligns with Indigenous and traditional land stewardship practices. Despite the benefits and the large number of people practicing forest-based agroforestry, it is receiving proportionally less support and funding than tree planting agroforestry initiatives by NGOs, private companies, and nonprofit agroforestry and conservation organizations. Two common misconceptions often account for the exclusion of FAF from policy language and funding opportunities, the authors said. The first is that industrial agroforestry systems that are designed around global commodity crops (such as cacao, coffee, and palm oil) are often conflated with traditional Indigenous approaches. The second misconception is that outcomes of industrial agroforestry in tropical forests can be extrapolated to temperate and boreal forest systems. “There’s a narrative that human activity in forests causes degradation, and that we really should leave forests untouched to maximize climate benefits. But humans living in and around forests have been supporting forest health for thousands of years and continue to do so now, ” Sheban said.

2 April 2025

[cptappleobservation]

[cptappleobservation]

This, legit, is one of my favorite posts. 😍😍😍