"Hubo en un tiempo300,000 ballenas azulesen nuestros mares, ahora tan sólo quedan3,000 ejemplaresde estos gloriosos animales y a pesar de ello seguimos saqueandoelplaneta Azul."
Deep Blue, BBC
El
planeta Azul es profundo en toda su dimensión: su morfología, sus
colores, su biodiversidad, sus bosques, sus lagos, ríos y océanos...
desde cualquier ángulo que lo apreciemos es abrumadoramente bello.
Disconnecting the connected is simple, anybody can do it. But reconnecting what or who he has just disconnected to connect it back with the Grand Connection that connects everything upon Earth is beyond man´s power. Man taketh life away but he canst not giveth.
Man is nothing but a piece of the Grand Connection. He has strayed from the Mother of all connections. He thinks of himself disconnected from the connected. He has become haughty and goes around kicking and destroying anything connected.
He acts disconnected when he should act connected and acts connected when he should act disconnected,
even though there is no connection disconnected. To connect or not
connect when he should connect or disconnect is his dilema.
From his reconnection with the Grand Connection depends whether he will continue connected to the Connected or be disconnected out of the Connected in the future.
To find his reconnection, he must go back at the beginning, a place where there a piece of his own beginning with the connection of all connections.
If
he can find the right one and reconnect it with the Grand Connection he
might see where he is connected or disconnected and chose between the
two: To connect the disconnected and disconnect anything that puts him outside the connected. Only then he will be able to distinguish when he should go and when he should stop.
And his search for the Grand Connection should start at the table (Video 1), for he is the only beast upon this planet that thrives disconnecting the Connected on a gigantic scale, living off a massive disconnection to become even more disconnected, a sickened creature crawling aimlessly upon the Earth:
Video 1. Massive disconnection for more disconnection.
No creature can ever survive disconnecting without connecting. Here is where we all humans have failed.
Finding our reconnection with the Grand Connection must be our goal.
F. Berkes(1*), T. P. Hughes(2), R. S. Steneck (3), J.
A. Wilson (4), D. R. Bellwood (2), B. Crona (5,6), C. Folke (5,6), L. H.
Gunderson (7), H. M. Leslie (8), J.
Norberg (6), M. Nyström (5,6), P. Olsson (5), H. Österblom (6), M. Scheffer (9),
B. Word (10)
Summary
Marine resource exploitation can deplete stocks faster than regulatory
agencies can respond. Institutions with broad authority and a global perspective
are needed to create a system with incentives for conservation.
Aunque conocemos lo básico de las más de 15.000 especies
animales que habitan en el Mar Mediterráneo, ignoramos el comportamiento natural
incluso de las más comunes, dado que muchas comienzan su actividad al caer el
sol.
En el mediterráneo las diferentes fases lunares no afectan
seriamente a las mareas, pero si lo hacen al comportamiento de muchos animales:
Amparados por el oscuro manto de la noche, infinidad de especies se activan para
relacionarse o buscar alimento sin ser devoradas.
Muchas han desarrollado
habilidades y órganos sensoriales extraordinarios para sobrevivir al próximo
amanecer. Otras utilizan la furtividad de la noche para reproducirse en las
templadas aguas del Mare Nostrum. [YouYube, subido por New Atlantis]
ESPAÑOL
Though we know the basic of more than the 15.000 animal
species that live in the Mediterranean Sea, we ignore the natural behaviour of
the most common ones, because many of them begin its activity after
dark.
In the Mediterranean Sea the different lunar phases do not affect
seriously to tides, but they seriously do to the behaviour of many
animals.
Protected by the dark mantle of the night, infinite number of
species activate at night in search of food, without being devoured.
Many have developed skills and extraordinary sensory organs to survive
the next dawn. Others, covered by the night, find mate to reproduce in the
template waters of the Mare Nostrum. [YouTube, uploaded by New Atlantis]
Evidence for sugar addiction: Behavioral and neurochemical effects of intermittent, excessive sugar intake
Nicole M. Avena, Pedro Rada, and Bartley G. Hoebel Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540 USA
Abstract
The experimental question is whether or not sugar can be a substance of abuse and lead to a natural form of addiction. “Food addiction” seems plausible because brain pathways that evolved to respond to natural rewards are also activated by addictive drugs. Sugar is noteworthy as a substance that releases opioids and dopamine and thus might be expected to have addictive potential. This review summarizes evidence of sugar dependence in an animal model. Four components of addiction are analyzed. “Bingeing”, “withdrawal”, “craving” and cross-sensitization are each given operational definitions and demonstrated behaviorally with sugar bingeing as the reinforcer. These behaviors are then related to neurochemical changes in the brain that also occur with addictive drugs. Neural adaptations include changes in dopamine and opioid receptor binding, enkephalin mRNA expression and dopamine and acetylcholine release in the nucleus accumbens. The evidence supports the hypothesis that under certain circumstances rats can become sugar dependent. This may translate to some human conditions as suggested by the literature on eating disorders and obesity.
Every year, a secret tribe take to the roads of Britain. In the space of a few
months they will drive thousands of miles and spend thousands of pounds in
pursuit of their prey. Their aim is to see as many birds as possible, wherever
that bird may be. Welcome to the very competitive world of the twitcher -
obsessives who'll stop at nothing to get their bird.
It is estimated that between 300 million and one billion birds die each year
from collisions with glass (Fig. 1)in the United States, says Dr. Christine
Sheppard, Birds Collisions Campaign Manager for American Bird Conservancy (ABC). Considering that many bird populations are declining, this is a tremendous loss which sooner or later will eventually lead put more pressure upon the survival of migratory species.
Autumn is the most critical and dangerous season for migratory birds heading south. This situation is aggravated by the artificial lighting from cities at nighttime (Video 1), causing disorientation and an attractive trap for migrating birds.
Video 1. U.S. seen at night from the International Space Station.
If this were not enough, birds are also facing with the destruction of the habitats (Fig. 2) in their own wintering grounds in Mexico, Central and South America, and the Antilles.
Figure 2. Habitat loss.
Since
birds are exhausted upon arrival, they must immediately find something
to eat otherwise they will find only death by starvation at the end of
their trip. This is sad, indeed.
So that after a long trip of hundreds and hundreds of kilometres, North American birds north of Mexico may find that the woody spot where they wintered the previous year is no longer available.
They only find an empty lot full of grass with hundreds of heads of cattle grazing on it or rows upon rows of monocultures of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) or Eucalyptus trees.
Cattle whose meat (Fig. 3) will become hamburger and will find its way to the United States´ market. The palm oil (Fig. 4) will also end on the shelves at the stores as cosmetics or food items in the U.S. And the Eucalyptus trees will become paper cups, tourism pamphlets, cardboard, amongst other things.
Figure 3. Cattle ranching in the Neotropical Region. Source: Climate Connections.
Figure 4. Palm oil and fruits (Elaeis guineensis). Source: Inhabitat.
So the more consumers eat beef and use palm oil in foods, cosmetics or as fuel to squander it cruising around, the more they put the migratory birds´ future in danger, besides affecting the environment in other ways.
And we all earthlings cannot afford to lose any spoke of the Wheel of Biodiversity. Each one has an important role to play in the drama of life. Each one counts.
Bird-friendly glass
Many efforts are being made and implanted to reduce the number of bird collisions. To begin with, architects, designers and developers are joining efforts to create a bird-friendly glass.
