pixelplanettoday - Tumblr blog

[pixelplanettoday]

Moving to the official Pixel Planet Today Blog

Hi there! We initially created this Tumblr to share more in-depth posts, more info about the project, and what you can expect to come - but now, we’re happy to announce that we are moving everything to the official blog (https://blog.pixelplanettoday.com). We won’t be posting here anymore, but we’d love if you joined us on the blog from now on. 😊 Thank you for sticking with us, and in case you’d rather stick with social media platforms, you can always stay up to date on the daily posts on Instagram, Facebook, and We Don’t Have Time.

[pixelplanettoday]

We have exciting news! A new Series is on the way this month, another next month, but then a big announcement on Day 600 (keep an eye out).

Black Lives Matter

I hope this isn't the first you're hearing about it, but this month is Black History Month! To celebrate, we're going to be posting about points in time where Black history coincided with science breakthroughs, conservation developments, and scientific advancements.

Location, location, location!

In light of quarantines and social distancing and cold weather, it's the new normal to have cabin fever. We all just need a vacation, but until you can actually do it safely, you'll have to vicariously live through pictures and videos from the Internet. That's why starting in March, we will be kicking off the new series 'Virtual Vacation', which will focus on amazing areas from around the world. Biodiversity hotspots, areas ripe with conservation movements, and habitats like no other, we'll be exploring all the planet has to offer, right from your couch (or bed, or wherever you decide to view from).

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I'd like to introduce a new Series for the project, called Super News! Times are rough (couldn't leave all bad things back in 2020 I guess), so the idea is to focus on pieces of good news at the beginning of the week to end the weekend on a good note, and help mitigate some of those Monday Blues! Don't worry, I'll still be posting good news posts throughout the week, these will just have a different format than regular posts (similar to Quick Facts). 😊🌎

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Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving is all about giving thanks, and I have quite a few people I would like to thank for making this project possible. Even though I made the decision to start this project on my own and do (mostly) everything myself, I couldn't do it without so many of you. Roll credits!

I first want to say thank you to my family. I have loved anything and everything nature-related since I was just a little kid, and that is no doubt because of the environment they raised me in. We grew up in the country, outside a small town in the middle of the United States, so while we may not have had access to all the activities you can find in a big city, there was no shortage of love and time outdoors. I can't say thank you enough, not just for raising me the way you did and being there for me through anything, but for supporting me in taking the jump to start this project.

Next is my right-hand man (or girlfriend) Ashley. I bounce ideas off her constantly to see what I should do with the website, what Giphy animations to make next, she has even helped plan months-worth of daily post ideas. She HAS to be annoyed by now with how often I complain about what the recycling rates are across the country, how much plastic is in the ocean, or how endangered this certain type of bird is in Guatemala, but she hides it well 😉.

Lastly, I want to thank each and every one of you following me on Facebook, Instagram, and We Don't Have Time. I can't believe there are so many people out there that like my project and want to support it. Even more, it makes my heart swell hearing from you guys, giving feedback on the project, sharing daily posts, or even giving ideas on a new post. And to those that have bought stickers or donated to my project to help me carry on the vision?! I'm so utterly thankful, I don't have the words to tell you how thankful I am for helping me get me closer to living out my dream of changing the world for the better.

[pixelplanettoday]

Hello, Giphy!

Exciting news: We've been approved for a Giphy Creator Account, so expect to find Pixel Planet Today gifs everywhere you use Giphy! All the animated posts (previously only available on Instagram) will now have another home on the Pixel Planet Today Giphy Channel. I will also be creating some Giphy stickers that can be used in places like Instagram Stories for when HD gifs just aren't... pixelated enough ;) Just search for "Pixel Planet Today", or use this link to get to the Giphy Channel

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Pixel Planet Today: Series!

It's been awhile since I've changed anything about the project, but even so, up until now I've only made minor tweaks to the graphics. But starting today (or I guess yesterday), not only will there be a slightly different layout for the post graphics, I'm introducing something called Series.

With the new layout, there is of course the Pixel Planet Today logo, the post number, and the year at the bottom, but there is also an icon at the bottom left to reflect what series or collection the post belongs to. For the time being, there will only be a couple, but if all goes well, I might create some more. The first, 'Vote 2020' (which you've hopefully already seen), will be kept for posts that follow the environmental issues of the U.S. Election. The second one, 'Quick Facts', are going to be a new format of posts altogether. Instead of a full-blown article, these shorter captioned posts will focus on just one core fact that you likely didn't know. This isn’t just for those that want shorter captions on posts ("I can't read a whole essay everyday, Sammy"), but this will also free up some time for me to continue working on collaborations and other projects in the Pixel Planet realm. I've got a whole bunch of stuff I'm so excited to make for you guys, so this time will help astronomically.

As always, I love hearing from you guys, so if you either have feedback on these new types of posts, have ideas for future series or posts, or just want to chat, never hesitate to reach out! 😊❤️🌎

[pixelplanettoday]

Guys! The wonderful people at the Rotary Club of Wyndham Harbor asked me a little while back if I would create a magazine spread for their upcoming issue of WAVE Magazine! The issue was to focus on 'Waste', so they thought it would be cool if I used one of my past posts to create the spread. I'm so happy with how the 'extended post' turned out! If you want to take a look at the online magazine, you can check it out at the link below:

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Day 409: August 22nd, 2020

Day 409: August 22nd, 2020. This is Part II of yesterday's post. You don't necessarily need to have read yesterday's post to understand this one, but I'd recommend it as it provides context.

Yesterday while I was researching light pollution, I came across plenty of statistics and satellite maps showing exactly how much light there is across the globe. They highlighted the major metropolitan areas across the globe, showed how light pollution severely thins as you start to get into the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains, but it also showed a curious hotspot in what looked like Montana or North Dakota. I don't know how familiar you are with United States geography, but there are no major metro areas within hundreds of miles of those states. And this dot (depending on the map) rivaled the size of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area, an area home to over 3 million residents. So what was it? A secret military-base I had not heard about? A massive cluster of data centers? No, it's the Bakken fields, an oil-rich area that has drove North Dakota to becoming the second-largest oil producing state in the U.S.

All that light comes not only from the lights on the oil rigs, it also comes from something called flaring. Fracking, a technique oil producers use to extract oil from deep within the Earth, also causes natural gas to seep up out of natural gas pockets. But since oil producers aren't in the market for the byproduct, they burn it (or 'flare' it) as it comes up. So yes: when oil producers are fracking to find fuel, they are at the same time burning fuel - and lots of it. In 2013, drillers in North Dakota alone were burning enough gas to heat half a million homes EVERY SINGLE DAY. Natural gas is much harder to capture and transport than oil, but it also brings in a lot less money, meaning it's "not worth it" to oil producers. North Dakota has laws and regulations against that much burning, but officials have been slow to enforce them. There were also a lack of natural gas pipelines in the area, so the governments had to decide if either they would let oil producers burn off the natural gas, instead have the natural gas just leak straight into the atmosphere, or halt fracking altogether, one of the biggest source of jobs the state had to offer.

Since 2013, more infrastructure for capturing natural gas has been put in place, but flaring remains a huge problem, even across the globe. In 2018, 145 billion cubic meters of gas was flared, the same amount that Central and South America use in a year combined. While capturing and using natural gas is not the end goal (natural gas is not green energy, people), it only makes sense to capture the gas as long as fracking is going on. We need to stop fracking, flaring, and using oil altogether, but until we get everyone on the same page, we need to stop senselessly burning fuel in order to get to other fuel.

I read so many different articles on this one, pick any of them and you're guaranteed a good read: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/flaring-or-why-so-much-gas-is-going-up-in-flames/2019/09/10/934b369a-d3f5-11e9-8924-1db7dac797fb_story.html

https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-north-dakota-natural-gas-flaring-carbon-emissions-20190527-story.html

...This is the initial article I found on the Bakken fields (from 2013 but gives good background on them): https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2013/01/16/169511949/a-mysterious-patch-of-light-shows-up-in-the-north-dakota-dark

[pixelplanettoday]

When I started this pixel journey last year, I didn't know what to expect. I had seen so many other artists' embark on these Design 365 challenges where they create a piece of art everyday for a year, that I knew it was something I wanted to do. But for the longest time, it was just another thing I put in the back of my mind as something I would get to at "some point." Then early last summer, my friend (shoutout to Sam Hayes) approached me about helping him make a game: a pixel art, magical creature combat game (to say the least). And of course I said yes, who doesn't want to make a computer game with their best friends, strike it big, and retire at the ripe age of 25? The main issue? Other than none of us having enough time to get much work done on it, I had never made pixel art before. I loved vintage video games, but in my 18-odd years of drawing and painting and designing and coding, I hadn't ever tried to make something with just a few pixels. But once I dived into it, I fell in love.

I should also note that I'm a huge proponent for minimalism, so having this new medium that was entirely based on having such a small artboard? It was basically the dream. I worked through a few mockups of animals for the game, and that's when it clicked: I would make pixel art, everyday, for an entire year. But not just any pixel art, I would continue making animals, plants, and other nature-related pixel art to tie in my love for the environment. Tying in so many different aspects of my life that I was passionate about would not only make it hard to quit the project midway through ("Momma didn't raise no quitter!"), but it would just make the project mean that much more and have that much better of a chance to really takeoff. And who knew, maybe I could help change some people's outlook on the myriad of environmental crises we are living through/creating as a human species.

So starting with one fact a day, one pixel design a day, and a whole lot of determination, I was going to try to raise awareness on the environmental issues we face by creating a larger appreciation for what is at stake. Not just polar bears, not just some of our coral reefs, but the entire planet as we know it.