Skip to main content

April 2021 Factfile - some news from the past month and animals that you voted for

Hi Everyone!

In this factfile we are bringing you some more news from the past month, animals you voted for, an exciting announcement and more!

News:

The Guardian reports that 'the new research shows that since the 1990s, the loss of hundreds of billions of tonnes of ice a year into the oceans resulting from the climate crisis has caused the poles to move in new directions.'
Previously, the poles could only move due to ocean currents and other natural factors. Apparently, glacial losses accounted for most of the change but some were also due to the pumping of groundwater which once pumped up by humans isn't replaced.
This shows just how much climate change is having an impact on our beautiful planet.
You may have heard about M&S's plans to release 30 million honey bees to the countryside. It has faced many complaints from experts saying that this could damage the balance of natural pollinators. It is important to have a range of pollinators and releasing honey bees on that scale could push other pollinators off the edge. These other insects are in sharper decline and this could put even more pressure on an already strained system.
Matt Shardlow, who is head of a conservation charity called Buglife, told The Guardian that 'It’s about creating a better countryside for pollinators, not chucking more pollinators out into the countryside – we need to get more pollen and nectar into the countryside'
We get that M&S was just trying to do something good but now let's hope they listen and take action to change their plans.

Animals Of The Month:

Land- Gorilla

Gorillas are a type of primate and share 98.3% of their DNA with us. The largest of the great apes, Gorillas can grow to 4 and 6 ft and weigh up to 440 pounds. Gorillas live in family groups of usually about 5-10. They are led by a dominant male, or silverback, who holds his position for several years.
Females only give birth to one baby every 4-6 years, which means she'll probably only have 3 or 4 over her entire lifetime. This means that it is especially hard for gorillas to recover from a drop in population.
Gorillas have been reducing in numbers for decades and according to a United Nations report, they may disappear from the Congo Basin in the Republic of Congo, where they live in forests, by the mid-2020s. However, a new protected area designed for gorillas has meant that they have gone down from being listed as critically endangered to being listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Water- Platypus

The platypus is a rather peculiar creature that lives in freshwater creeks and slow-moving rivers. They often build a simple burrow in a river bank among a tangle of roots and undergrowth.
Platypus reproduction is pretty unique. They are one of only two mammals (the echidna is the other one) that lay eggs. With a tail like a beaver, a body like an otter and a bill like a duck, the platypus is a really special creature. So unique that the first scientists to analyse them thought they were a hoax!
They eat small water insects and rely on a sensitive bill which can detect electrical currents in the water and help to find food.
However, the duck-billed platypus produces venom, but no one really pays it attention because you probably won't ever see one. Their venom can be lethal, but there are no recorded cases of them killing humans. Both males and females have a spur on either hind foot that excretes venom but females fall off at adulthood.

Air- Red Kite

The red kite (Milvus milvus) can be recognised by its red-brown body, angled wings and forked tail. It was once on the brink of extinction but a huge protection movement saved it and it has now been successfully re-introduced to England and Scotland.
They mainly eat worms and will occasionally be small mammals. They live in woodland, wetland and valleys. They can lay 1-3 and occasionally 4 eggs. They eat primarily dead animals but also sometimes rats, mice and voles. It's wingspan can reach 170cm! They usually live about 4 or 5 years but can live up to 26!

A TV program recommendation:

I recently watched Ade On The Frontline- an incredible documentary series. It follows presenter Ade as he explores the massive impact climate change is having around the world and what different communities are doing to combat it. He travels to many different places and I really love the way he explored these issues and what he covers- highly recommend it!

Announcement:

We are starting a new section to these factfiles with a plant of the month as well! Animal of the week which we did last year and now Animals of the month has been a great opportunity to find out more about a variety of animals and we want to broaden our research and learn more about plants too. Look out for it in next month's post! Click here to vote for next month's animals and plant!
Thank you so much for reading this post and we will be back VERY soon with another post (promise to not leave it as long!). 



Sources:

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Discussion || Should Everyone Switch To Electric Cars?

Hi Everyone! Thank you so much for joining me today, as I hop on the blog to discuss whether everyone switching to electric cars would really help the environment. In other words, should everyone switch to electric cars? This is the first part of a two-part series, discussing electric cars, so stay tuned for part two!! I would like to start this post by stating that I am by no means an expert. This is knowledge I have from my own experience, and from research I have done. If anything is incorrect please take it as it is and accept that this is a discussion and I am taking on board all opinions from reliable sources on this complex topic. Electric cars are a huge topic when it comes to sustainability and "saving our planet". There is no debating the fact that electric cars are better for the environment than diesel or petrol once they are on the road. But the production of them is often very polluting, with one study show

What to do if a House Plant doesn't look Healthy (top tips) || Green Pets

Hi Everyone! Today I wanted to talk about what you should do if your house plants do not look healthy, and how important it is to be flexible around looking after house plants, how changing plans can be very important in keeping your house plants healthy. By not healthy, I mean a plant that has yellowed leaves, dried leaves or is looking droopy. Recently, some of my plants haven't been doing so well either, which has been very frustrating. Here are a few things I am doing to try to change this. **Disclaimer: I am not an expert. I am just a passionate plant mum from Somerset, England and I just want to share some tips. ** 1. Research, research, research I've been collecting information on each of my house plants and trying to match the recommendations for each of the plants. I recently visited Tresco Abbey Gardens on the Isles of Scilly, and I bought a book about how to look after house plants, which I have been using, but the

New Year's Eve 2020 Challenge!!!

Challenge New Year's Eve is only a week away now.  Hundreds of people set goals for the coming year on New Year's Eve. We would like you to set some goals that are about the environment. For instance cut down on how much meat you eat or use less plastic. You can chose the easy, the normal or the hard challenge. Easy Challenge For the easy challenge you only need to set one environmental goal. Normal Challenge To complete the normal challenge you will need to set three environmental goals. Hard Challenge This one is for people who are willing to give things up for the environment. To do the hard challenge you must set five environmental goals. Completion Date 31.12. (New Year's Eve) You have one week. Other info Tell us about your goals We would love you to tell us about your goals. If you wish to share them with us: just write them in a comment. Tips Don't set goals that you know you won't be able to complete. Just

June 2021 Factfile - some news from the past month, animals and our first plant of the month!

Hi Everyone! We’re terribly sorry for missing last month’s fact file (May). We have all had a busy few months. This is actually the May fact file coming out very late. The June fact file is cancelled. Because of this, this factfile contains news from both months. We are very sorry for the delay in this post. As announced in our last factfile, this post has a new feature to it; plant of the month. We hope you'll enjoy it! News: Sierra Leone has sold a rainforest for a Chinese Harbour Sierra Leone has sold 250 acres of beach and protected rainforest for £39m to build an industrial fishing harbour. It was home to many animals, including several endangered species. This will also have a disastrous impact on local communities, tourism and as I've already mentioned, the environment. Just click  here - It's an article about all the environmental disasters that happened in May. It shocked me. Red Squirrels were born

Coral reefs

Hello! We would love to introduce you to the topic of coral reefs and especially coral reef bleaching, as it is a greatly ignored but certainly significant topic. Have fun! 5 coral reef facts 1. The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on the planet and is 2300 km long! 2. Less than 0.1% of the world's ocean surface is covered in coral reefs. 3. At least 25% of all marine animals live there. 4. Coral reefs are often known as the rainforests of the ocean. 5. In 1 square kilometre of coral reef, up to 35 tons of fish can be 'produced'. The 5 biggest coral reefs in the world 1. Great Barrier Reef (near Australia) 2. Red Sea Coral Reef (near Egypt, Israel and Djibouti) 3. New Caledonia Reef (Pacific Ocean near New Caledonia) 4. The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef (near Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras) 5. Florida Reef (Atlantic Ocean/Gulf of Mexico near Florida) What is coral? Coral is actually made up of small anim

November Top Tips | sustainable activities and hobbies

Hello everyone, So this week, we are going to be talking about sustainable free time activities. This area can quite big when it comes to environmental impact, so here are some things that you can do in your free time, that are more sustainable. 1. Reading So reading is one of our favourite things to do. However, books are made of paper and the paper industry isn't great. Some ways you can get around this is by reading online (for example, on a kindle), or through borrowing books from a library or using book boxes. If there aren't any in your area then at least try to support independent bookshops! 2. Running If you love being active then this one is for you. Running is probably one of the most sustainable forms of sport. All you need are some running shoes and somewhere to run. There is obviously more high-tech gear but that isn't really necessary if it's just a hobby. 3. Gardening If you've got a small area of land o

March Top Tips // 10 little things you can avoid in daily life

Welcome to the Top Tips this month! We'll be talking about 10 things you can avoid using in everyday life. We know it's a really simple topic, but it can actually make quite a difference. The avoidable stuff will be things many use because they look nice or taste nice or similar, but aren't actually necessary. We will also write a couple of facts on these things, and give ideas on how you could substitute them if possible. Many might be very obvious, but think about it, do you actually not use them? Have fun! Chewing Gum Most people would not be surprised when told that lots of chewing gum have synthetic colouring and flavouring. However, most people would be surprised when told that chewing gum is largely made of plastic. What the companies call the "gum base" is plastic and partly made of the same stuff plastic bags are made of. The gum contains microplastics that, if you spit your gum on the ground often tend to get into the oce

2021: How Our Year Went, Favourite Posts and Some Goals For 2022 | a wrap up

Hi Everyone! Today we wanted to share some thoughts on how our blogging year went in 2021 and some goals for 2022. We are now at the end of January, which is very scary, but we hope you will still enjoy this slightly belated wrap-up. In 2021, we published 36 posts in total. This is pretty good, we posted on average roughly every 10 days. However, there was a lot of time when we didn't post at all and our posts became increasingly just the monthly fact file. Many of you enjoyed the fact file, and for the most part, we enjoyed writing it but it became a bit of a chore by the end, hence the change we have made over to top tips. We think it would be nice to change our monthly post every year, and we will of course involve you in that just as we did this year. Our best posting months were by far August and September, which is understandable because we were on holiday for August and could schedule a lot of posts for September! Something we want to wor

Photo Essay || Iceland Series (part 1)

Hi Everyone! I recently went on a school trip to Iceland! It was such an incredible experience (and I'm going to sound cheesy now) but it was also incredible to do it with some of my closest friends! I saw so many incredible things and learnt so much, so I couldn't resist sharing a little Iceland mini series of posts, all about Iceland, both my experiences there and what I saw, but also the way it uses geothermal energy, and the animals, natural landforms and plants that are there. Today I'm sharing some photos of my trip. These are all photos I have taken, and are also the highlights so please bear that in mind as you browse these! I hope it is interesting and inspires you to book a trip to Iceland! The blue lagoon <33 landscapes.... Lost little farmhouses a

Why Don't People Switch To Electric Cars? || Green World Blog

Hi Everyone! The previous post in this series really blew up, so thank you so much for your support on that one. In this article, I wanted to discuss why people are not switching to electric cars, and why the transport industry still has a way to go in terms of reaching net zero. If you missed the first part of this post, then  click here to read it! ! I talked in the post linked above, about why people should switch to electric cars, while also taking into account the potential issues with them, and coming to a conclusion about should everyone switch to electric cars. In this post, I wanted to delve further into the topic of why people don't switch to electric cars. The cost is one of the main issues at the moment. To own an electric car, you need a reliable electricity supply, which is not readily available for everyone in the developing world, let alone the cost of buying the vehicle in the first place. The cost of the vehicle coul