Slimy Green Beaches May Be Florida’s New Normal
By Laura Parker | National Geographic | July 27, 2016 The green slime that washed onto Florida beaches earlier this month marks the eighth time since 2004 that toxic algae have fouled the Sunshine State’s storied coastline. The algae blooms of 2013 were so severe the event became known as Toxic Summer. And this year’s outbreak…
Read MorePODCAST: The Survivor
By Leslie Chang | Generation Anthropocene | July 26, 2016 The solenodon: a venomous, shrew-like mammal, found only in the Caribbean, that has survived for millions of years by hiding underground. Even the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago couldn’t kill this hardy little creature. But after surviving for so long, after…
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De-Extinction in Action: Scientists Consider a Plan to Reinject Long-Gone DNA into the Black-Footed Ferret Population
By David Biello | Scientific American | August 1, 2016 In 1987 only 18 black-footed ferrets were known to exist, but thanks to captive breeding and intensive management, the animals are a few hundred strong now. Yet like many species that bounce back from such small numbers, all the individuals are basically half-siblings—genetic near clones, with…
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Sad news from Ol Pejeta – R.I.P. Ringo
Sad news from @OlPejeta today. R.I.P. Ringo. pic.twitter.com/IgVwsLxu5K — Anthropocene Film (@anthropocene) July 20, 2016
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Extinction is forever: de-extinction can’t save what we had
By Brian Switek | Aeon | July 19, 2016 When I hike up into the hills around Salt Lake City, above the Bonneville Shoreline Trail where the sagebrush gives way to the shade of the forest, mastodons are on my mind. Immense bones pulled from a sinkhole on the nearby Wasatch Plateau placed Mammut americanum in the area about…
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More from Shandong
Last week on location in Shandong with @nickdepencier, @edwardburtynsky and @noahweinzweig. 📷: Cloud Zhibin Wang pic.twitter.com/PtP1qjBlbG — Anthropocene Film (@anthropocene) July 12, 2016 On location in Shandong, China last week shooting for @anthropocene. Thanks to Cloud Zhibin Wang for the photo. pic.twitter.com/mG0qHBfAz8 — Edward Burtynsky (@edwardburtynsky) July 12, 2016
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China denied: What Tuesday’s ruling means for Beijing’s maritime ambitions
By Mark MacKinnon | The Globe and Mail | July 12, 2016 An international court in The Hague has dealt a major blow to China’s claim of sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, ruling that Beijing had “no historical rights” over the resource-rich and hotly disputed waters. In a long-awaited ruling published Tuesday, the Permanent Court…
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‘Shocking images’ reveal death of 10,000 hectares of mangroves across Northern Australia
By Kate Wild | ABC | July 11, 2016 Close to 10,000 hectares of mangroves have died across a stretch of coastline reaching from Queensland to the Northern Territory. Key points: A mangrove expert says it is the most extreme “dieback” he has ever seen The mangrove death occurred across a 700km stretch of NT and…
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Massive mangrove die-off on Gulf of Carpentaria worst in the world, says expert
By Michael Slezak | The Guardian | July 11, 2016 Climate change and El Niño have caused the worst mangrove die-off in recorded history, stretching along 700km of Australia’s Gulf of Carpentaria, an expert says. The mass die-off coincided with the world’s worst global coral bleaching event, as well as the worst bleaching event on the Great…
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On Location in Shandong
RT @nickdepencier: @edwardburtynsky & the mighty Noah Weinzweig on location in Shandong filming @anthropocene. pic.twitter.com/dAZWBobwpf — Anthropocene Film (@anthropocene) July 6, 2016
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African wildlife officials appalled as EU opposes a total ban on ivory trade
By Andrew Nelsen | The Guardian | July 6, 2016 Wildlife officials in nearly 30 African states say they are appalled by an EU decision to oppose a comprehensive global ban on the ivory trade. In a position paper released on 1 July, the European commission said that rather than an all-encompassing ban it would be better to encourage…
Read MoreGovernment of Canada labels microbeads ‘toxic substance’
Via The Canadian Press | The Globe and Mail | June 30, 2016 The federal government has officially listed microbeads as a toxic substance, giving it the ability to ban the plastic beads used in cleansers. An online notice published Wednesday says the tiny plastic beads commonly found in facial and body scrubs is now listed as…
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Humanity Is Killing Off Thousands of Species. But It’s Creating Them, Too
By Lizzie Wade | Wired | June 28, 2016 DURING WORLD WAR II, Londoners often sought shelter from German bombs in the city’s subway tunnels. There, they encountered another type of enemy: hordes of voracious mosquitoes. These weren’t your typical aboveground mosquitoes. They were natives of the metro, born in pools of standing water that pockmarked…
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3D printing could save our coral reefs
By Ronan Ye | 3D Printing Industry | June 28, 2016 Most of the environmental changes in the present times are taking the earth closer to the loss of biodiversity. Environmentalists are worried that the vast coral reefs under the ocean are subject to risk of extinction in the coming years. Hence, any program undertaken…
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Can Virtual Reality Emerge As a Tool for Conservation?
By Heather Millar | Yale Environment360 | June 27, 2016 Could virtual reality (VR) — immersive digital experiences that mimic reality — save the environment? Well, that may be a bit of a stretch. But researchers say that it could perhaps promote better understanding of nature and give people empathetic insight into environmental challenges. “Virtual reality can…
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Another Threat to Tuna: Ocean Acidification
By John R. Platt | Scientific American | June 22, 2016 More acidic oceans could soon start dissolving tuna fish as they swim, long before they make it to consumers’ plates. This worrying news comes from a study published last month in the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology which found that increasing acidification in the Pacific…
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‘Finding Dory’ Could Lead to Dangerous Demand for Blue Tangs as Pets
By Brent Lang | Variety | June 22, 2016 “Finding Nemo” centers on an adorable clownfish who is separated from his father before being reunited to live out his days, swimming wild and free in his ocean home. The success of the 2003 film created a huge demand for the finned cuties, as fans of the…
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Plastiglomerate: The New And Horrible Way Humans Are Leaving Their Mark On The Planet
By Carla Herreria | The Huffington Post | June 19, 2016 Humans will now be forever inscribed into the Earth’s geological history. Our everlasting signature? Plastic-infused stones. The newly identified stone, according to a report from The Geological Society of America, has been officially named plastiglomerate. It is formed when plastic trash melts and fuses together with…
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Podcast: On the Way to Peak Phosphorus
By Generation Anthropocene | Smithsonian.com | June 17, 2016 Phosphorus is an essential element to life on earth, but it’s not distributed equally, to say the least. Geologic deposits of phosphorus are concentrated in just five countries, and experts say the rate at which we’re consuming it is unsustainable, predicting we may reach peak phosphorus this century…
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Venice has unusually high levels of water but the locals are getting on just fine
By Harley Tamplin | Metro.co.uk | June 17, 2016 If there’s one place in the world that should cope fine with some flash flooding, it’s Venice. That’s the case in the beautiful Italian city at the moment – and judging by the pictures, the locals don’t seem to mind. There are unusually high levels of water as…
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Seven climate records set so far in 2016
By Adam Vaughan | The Guardian | June 17, 2016 From soaring temperatures in Alaska and India to Arctic sea ice melting and CO2 concentrations rising, this year is smashing records around the world Continue reading on The Guardian.
Read More“Smartest Person,” “Anthropocene” receive Bell Fund cash
The Bell Fund has distributed CDN$6.4 million (US$5.04 million) across 39 broadcast and digital media projects. Unscripted English-language broadcast and digi projects to receive funding from the fund’s production program include Mercury Films’ feature documentary Anthropocene (TMN, TVO); Little Engine Moving Pictures’ Canada Crew (TVO); season three of Canada’s Smartest Person (pictured, CBC), from Media Headquarters Film & Television; marblemedia’s Driving Me…
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Biggest US coal company funded dozens of groups questioning climate change
By Suzanne Goldenberg and Helena Bengtssen | The Guardian | June 13, 2016 Peabody Energy, America’s biggest coalmining company, has funded at least two dozen groups that cast doubt on manmade climate change and oppose environment regulations, analysis by the Guardian reveals. The funding spanned trade associations, corporate lobby groups, and industry front groups as well as…
Read MoreBell Fund – May 2016 Funding Decisions
The Board of Directors of the Bell Fund has announced its decisions for the May 2, 2016 round of applications. Over $6.4M in grants has been approved for 39 of the 60 (English and French) applications received, as follows: The following English language projects received Production Grants under the Bell Fund’s Production Program: Continue reading on Bellfund.ca.
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Since the Late Pleistocene Humans Were Already Radically Transforming the Earth
By Jackson Landers | Smithsonian Magazine | June 7, 2016 “The idea of trying to restore things to a pristine state is not possible,” says Melinda Zeder, senior research scientist and curator of old world archaeology at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. “Humans are very much a part of nature,” Zeder says. “The ways in…
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Success! U.S. Effectively Bans Ivory Trade
By Andrew Harmon | WildAid | June 2, 2016 WASHINGTON (June 2, 2016) — In a bold effort to save Africa’s elephants, the Obama Administration has released strong, clear rules aimed at effectively shutting down the U.S. ivory market, one of the world’s largest. Released Thursday, the final Endangered Species Act special rule for the African elephant substantially limits…
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Coral Bleaching in The Great Barrier Reef
This month the #Anthropocene film team visited Australia to observe coral bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef. pic.twitter.com/gBtpGEkYKW — Anthropocene Project (@anthropocene) May 26, 2016
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Cloud-Seeding Surprise Could Improve Climate Predictions
By Davide Castelvecchio | Scientific American | May 26, 2016 Molecules released by trees can seed clouds, two experiments have revealed. The findings, published on May 25 in Nature and Science, run contrary to an assumption that the pollutant sulphuric acid is required for a certain type of cloud formation—and suggest that climate predictions may have underestimated the role that…
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Are We in the Anthropocene Yet?
By Zach St. George | Nautilus | May 23, 2016 In the early 1990s, a few miles west of El Kef, a town in Tunisia, geologists set a small golden spike in between two layers of clay that remains there to this day. They wanted to mark the tiny yet striking layer of iridium—a hard, dense, silvery-white…
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Coal made its best case against climate change, and lost
By Dana Nuccitelli | The Guardian | May 11, 2016 Peabody Energy, the world’s largest private sector coal company (now bankrupt), recently faced off against environmental groups in a Minnesota court case. The case was to determine whether the State of Minnesota should continue using its exceptionally low established estimates of the ‘social cost of carbon’, or…
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