October 2021 Factfile | news, animals and more!

Hello,

October is over and November is here - let's hope it's a cosy month full of stunning Autumn colours and beautiful rainy days!

News

Good news

Judge postpones wolf hunt in Wisconsin

Every year in Wisconsin there is a wolf hunt in autumn. But this year, something amazing happened: A judge halted the season. For years there has been a dispute, on one side environmentalists, and on the other hunters and farmers. The farmers claim that wolves destroy their crops and that killing them is the only solution. Environmentalists argue that wolf populations are too weak and that the animals shouldn't be killed. Let's hope that this is the first step toward stopping the wolf hunt altogether.

Bad news

Pacific islands are disappearing

For many of us, the threat of climate change feels distant. But for the people of the Pacific islands, the terror is all too real. These are their homes, and they are rapidly becoming submerged by water. This is, as you may have guessed, a result of the rising sea levels, which is down to the melting of ice caps and the thermal expansion that happens when the sea water heats up. So directly linked to climate change.

The loss of this land is forcing people to move out of their homes and worse: seeing them disappear under the waves. For those who manage to remain on the ever-shrinking islands, life is far from ideal. The seawater seeps into the groundwater, making it unfit to drink and meaning no crops can be grown. This leaves communities relying on the mainland for food supplements and rainfall for water. The soil is sandy and unstable.

The islands may not disappear completely: there may still be trees and some plants. But they will be so small and infertile that those who have always lived there have to move on.

There are a few initiatives in place to help these people rebuild their lives, but nothing can replace the homes and communities they've either lost or will lose. Although the standard of living is better on the mainland and they can grow crops, it's not the same as living on a small tight-knit community-based island.

People are facing the consequences of climate change right now. So anyone who says that they're saving the climate for their children is wrong. They're saving it for people of the same generation as themselves. And the people of the Pacific Islands are the proof.

Rotting Red Sea oil tanker could leave millions without water

In 2017, an oil tanker was abandoned off the coast of Yemen. Ever since it has been slowly breaking apart. Now there is a high risk of the oil on board leaking into the ocean. This would destroy the habitats of millions of marine animals and plants, ruin Yemen's fish industry and possibly leave 8 million people, without proper water. The vessel may also explode which will cause even more damage.

Big businesses lobbying against the climate bill

With the climate crisis becoming more real by the day, new bills and laws are being passed to help stop climate change (although in most cases, not nearly enough is being done). However, it seems that some of the biggest companies in the world are against these new laws. Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Disney are among these companies. Despite publicly saying that they will cut emissions and so on, it seems that they are also trying to stop the climate bill from being passed because it will slightly lower their profits.

Animals

Land: Glowworm

Glowworms aren't actually worms - they're beetles. The males look like any other beetle. It's the females, that give this species its name. They give off a low light at night to attract a mate.
Glowworms live in grasslands, moorlands, farmlands and woodlands (so pretty much everywhere). The larvae are predators, feeding on slugs and snails. They often ride on the snails' backs, while waiting for the poison from their bites to kill their prey.

Air: Fruit bat

The fruit bat is one of the numerous bat species, widely found in Australia, Southeast Asia and Africa. As the name suggests, they feed on fruits and flowers, although some of the smaller species feed on nectar and pollen as well. The biggest and most known type is Flying Foxes, which are widely spread from Madagascar to Australia and Indonesia. Flying foxes can reach a size of 40 cm (Head and body length) and a wingspan of up to 1.5 meters.

Water: Sea otter

Sea otters are fast swimmers. They are probably best known for lying on their backs on the surface. They don't only sleep in this position. They also smash open clams and mussels with a rock. Due to the ocean constantly moving and swirling, they often anchor themselves to the ocean floor with kelp or seaweed.
Of course, sea otters eat more than just clams and mussels, they feed on sea urchins, crabs, fish and squid.

They live for up to 23 years and are classified as Vulnerable.

Plant: Banyan tree

The banyan tree was originally native to India but is now spread throughout South Asia. Its sap is used for healing and soothing. The wood and bark are good for making paper and the roots are often turned into rope. They are massive, with the oldest trees reaching a diameter of more than 200 meters and a height of 30 meters. The fruit attracts monkeys and birds and the flower attracts bees and wasps for pollination. The banyan tree is considered sacred and it represents eternal life. In many villages, the villagers meet under this type of tree for meetings and socialising.

Book Recommendation- The Lost Spells and The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris

These are two books I absolutely love! They are both acrostic poetry collections by nature writer Robert Macfarlane and absolutely BEAUTIFULLY illustrated by Jackie Morris. It truly transports you to the world of the wild and I love it so much! I wish I could frame the entire book on my wall! Out of the two, The Lost Words is a very large format which is fine but it's harder to read and less practical. I prefer The Lost Spells personally but if you're looking for more of a coffee table book, then I would go for The Lost Words (as long as you have a big coffee table!).

Thank you so much for reading our October Factifile! We're sorry it's late but we hope you enjoyed it nonetheless! Thank you so much for all your support and we'll be back soon.

Online vote

Sources:
https://apnews.com/article/environment-and-nature-wisconsin-lawsuits-madison-scott-walker-c08117dbcc2389817ff7a2ce93d2166b
https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/11/1105482
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/01/apple-amazon-microsoft-disney-lobby-groups-climate-bill-analysis
www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/11/rotting-red-sea-oil-tanker-could-leave-8m-people-without-water
https://www.britannica.com/animal/glowworm
https://allanimalfacts.com/fruit-bat/
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/sea-otter
https://www.britannica.com/plant/banyan

Images:
Title image: This image is owned by a blog editor.
Wolf: This image is owned by Pixabay (on pexels.com).
Island: This image is owned by Flo Dahm (on pexels.com).
Cargo ship: This image is owned by Ian Lavrinovich (on pexels.com).
Apple laptop: This image is owned by Pixabay (on pexels.com).
Sea otters: This image is owned by Timothy Wills-DeTone (on pexels.com).
Book: This image is owned by a blog editor.

Comments

19.07.2020: Animal of the week: Honey Bees

Hi everyone, This week's animal is the honey bee. Enjoy! General Information An average honeybee hive is made up of one queen, hundreds of male drones and thousands of female workers. If the queen bee dies then a new queen is created. The workers select a young larva and feed it with a special food called ‘royal jelly’. The ‘royal jelly’ makes the larva grow into a fertile queen. Queens live for several years but the workers only live for five or six weeks. An average worker will make a twelfth of a tee spoon of honey during her entire life. Drones are turned out of the hive and left to die in Autumn. In the summer months, the queen bee is very busy, she can lay up to 2500 eggs in a single day. How they affect the world around them Honey bees are very important for flowers, fruit and vegetables. This comes from the fact that they are pollinators. They help the plants by transferring pollen between male and female parts, meaning the plants can g...

Palm Oil

Hi everyone, Today we would like to share with you some information about palm oil. With all the focus on climate change and plastic pollution, not many people are acting against the use of palm oil. Workers First of all, the managers promise that the workers will have good money, but when they arrive, their passports are taken from them, therefore, meaning they are trapped. Soon they find out that they aren't paid as well as promised. They have to work long hours with no breaks, maternity leave or sick days. Some people have to spray pesticides with leaking cans and no safety gear, meaning they become ill but are still forced to work. Deforestation Many animals are losing their home because the trees are chopped down to make room for the palm trees. they are now facing extinction. Also, trees helped to slow down climate change, but without them, climate change speeds up. So this is a big problem. Help your planet! Image:...

The life of ... a koala

Hello everyone, Today we're talking about koalas. Also known as koala bears, koalas are marsupials. So they're actually not bears. Koalas, phascolarctos cinereus , are tree dwelling and probably best known for spending most of the day sleeping. They live for up to 15 years in the wild although captive koalas generally live for longer. Koalas have a stout, gray body and a cream-coloured chest. They have a broad face, small yellow eyes and big fluffy ears. In adaptation to climbing, their feet are strong and clawed. Adult individuals in South Australia weigh 14kg and are 60-84cm big. Their Eastern cousins are considerably smaller. Koalas are found in Eastern and Southern Australia, where they live in eucalyptus trees. They feed on the leaves of these eucalyptus trees, eating up to 1.3kg a day. With a body weight of up to 14kg, this means they eat just under 10% of their body weight every single day. However, the le...

Green Pets || easy house plants to get you started // best house plants for beginners

Hi Everyone! Today I wanted to talk to you about some easy house plants you could look after to get you started on your green pets journey. These are plants that are easy to look after and that I recommend for an introduction into caring for house plants. If you are a beginner or want to look after some plants, then this is the post for you! 1. Cacti - moon cactus I don't actually have a cactus, but they are the obvious place to start. They need little water and thrive in warm conditions; they are described as "low maintenance". I have done some research and it looks like the moon cactus (Gymnocalycium mihanovichii) is the best one in terms of not being too fussy with needing minimal water and tolerates lower light levels. I would like a cactus at some point, but if you are just starting out wanting to care for some house plants, then this is the one to start with! 2. Aloe Vera One of my first house plants, this is one that is rela...

Animals 31-35 in our '50 incredible animals' series

Hi Everyone! Welcome back to our blog, today we are sharing another 5 incredible animals. This is part of a series to celebrate our 50th blog post, all about unusual animals! Enjoy! 31. Pangolins These creatures are often mistaken for reptiles but they are in fact mammals. They are covered in scales and use them to defend themselves because similar to a hedgehog, they curl up into a ball. They eat ants, termites and larvae. They eat using their tongue, which is very long- sometimes even longer than their body! Sadly, Pangolins are in high demand as their meat is considered a delicacy their scales are used in traditional folk remedies, which means that there is an illegal trade. Luckily, there have been many initiatives put in place to help these animals by WWF and similar organisations. 32. Macropinna Microstoma This is a species of fish that live at about 600m below sea level. They hang nearly motionless in the water and have a very unusual...

The limits of the Earth - the planetary boundary model

Hi everyone, So today we're talking about a model that was introduced in 2009 and has offered a new perspective to thinking about environmental issues. The planetary boundary model has 9 boundaries, each has a safe zone. Once the safe zone is exceeded, the stable conditions on our planet are considered at risk, and there can be severe and possibly irreversible changes. The nine boundaries are considered separate however, they greatly affect each other. Novel Entities describes the introduction and accumulation of man-made novel chemical compounds. These include pesticides, nuclear waste and microplastics. Stratospheric Ozone Depletion refers to the depletion of the ozone layer which was a major problem in the 90s. Atmospheric Aerosol Loading is air particle pollution. Ocean Acidification is self-explanatory. The boundary Biochemical Flows is composed of two separate boundaries; nitrogen and phosphorus. Both of the ele...

Energy comparison: wind turbines

Hello, Finally, we are back with another energy comparison. Today we're looking at wind turbines. Wind power is a fast-growing renewable energy source. In the US, the wind power industry currently employs 120 000 people across all 50 states. It could grow to employ hundreds of thousands of people by 2050. 9% of the electricity in the US in 2021 came from wind turbines, that’s 136 000 megawatts. The wind power industry saves 329 million metric tons of carbon dioxide every year. General knowledge and categorisation We should probably start off by clarifying how wind turbines actually work and what types there are. I’m not going to give an in-depth description of how wind turbines work because I don’t want this post to turn into a physics lesson. To put it very simply, the wind turns the blades, which turns the rotor. The rotor then turns the generator, which converts the kinetic energy (movement) into electricity. There are obviously a lot more...

Animals 26-30 in our '50 incredible animals' series

Hello, Welcome back. We're very sorry for missing last week's animals. We've all had a busy time with school work! 26. Blue glaucus Also known as the blue dragon, the blue glaucus is a type of sea slug. They are small, rarely growing longer than 3cm long. Their favourite food is probably the most bizarre thing about them, Portuguese man o' war. Now, for those of you who don't already know, the Portuguese man o' war is one of the most dangerous jellyfish in the world! Different sites have different opinions, but almost all agree that blue glaucus do not hunt the Portuguese man o' war, instead they feed on dead ones or nibble away at living one! But that's still rather impressive. 27. Shoebill Shoebills are very patient and able to stay still for hours. That's how they hunt. When a lungfish comes up for air, they often don't notice the shoebill standing there until it's too late. Shoebill...

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...

Turning waste into valuables

Hi, So this post was requested on Twitter after our September Top Tips about recycling . Today we will be talking about how to turn complete waste into something reasonably valuable. This is basically a form of upcycling but to a more extreme level. 1. Ecobricks So, almost a year ago we did a post about ecobricks , but they are such a good example of turning waste into valuables that we decided to put it here anyway. Ecobricks are a building material made from plastic. The waste plastic is washed and then compacted into a clean plastic bottle (also waste). The bottle becomes very hard and durable. Multiple bottles can then be used as bricks and cemented together. The 'bricks' are strong and do not decompose. For more info, read our post where we go into more detail. 2. Metals Although this may seem like something not worth the time. When you separate the metals in waste (for example an old car), you can get usable metal out ...

Green World

Search This Blog