The World is Amazing, Actually (Part 11 or 12, I lost count)
It's been awhile since I made a post about how fucking rad the world actually is, and amidst all the pandemics and climate change and economic troubles, I felt the need.
So:
Today’s Wild Place (The Earth is An Alien Planet):
The Danakil Depression, Ethiopia:
The Danakil Depression is probably the closest you'll ever be able to come to standing on the surface of Venus (without the crushing atmosphere, of course). Choking sulphuric acid and chlorine gases fill the air, while acid ponds and geysers pepper the landscape.
- Daisy Dobrijevic, published July 4, 2022
(BTW scientists recently discovered microbes capable of surviving in this toxic, extremely hot environment, which means...well, even if we kick the bucket, life will continue. There's something comforting in knowing that no matter how bad we screw up...life will go on.)
Today’s Incredible Feat of Engineering (look! at what! we made!):
Ouarzazate Solar Power Station in Morocco, which has gone solar in a big way.
(Which means they are making a huge contribution to helping fight toxic pollution, noise pollution, water use, land destruction, and carbon emissions. No really, there are charts. Reducing carbon emissions charts. Reducing irresponsible land use charts. Charts! Graphs! Data samples!)
Today’s Cool Life Form (the rare, the weird, the beautiful):
The Hispaniolan Solenodon.
A very rare, nocturnal, shrew-like creature that is one of the few mammals able to produce venom. Look at him! Look at his snout! He's just a little guy! He will bite you and run away on his back legs! He's rare, and endangered, but not gone! Not gone yet, bitches!
(Bonus: 10 Fun Facts About the Solenodon)
Today’s Bizarre Mystery (no, seriously, wtf?):
The Great Unconformity.
Hey, remember the Grand Canyon? Remember how we can see the passage of time through each layer, going back hundreds of thousands of years?
Did you know that apparently, on this massive record of earth's geological history, there's a chunk of time missing? Science has some hypotheses about how and why this happens (and yes, it's been found in more than one place), but they are really only hypotheses, and no one's really sure what happened to, oh, 1.6 billion years, give or take.
Today’s Act of Humanity (yes, we are worth the effort):
After fleeing a war, Ukrainians rush to help Mississippi tornado victims.
"They made the 16-hour drive south to donate bottled water and volunteer with aid workers, buoyed by the idea that they could help a community facing a similar struggle to theirs.
“We had to leave our home,” Pavliuk told The Washington Post in Ukrainian, in an interview interpreted by Hrebenyk. “And they don’t have a place to go back, either.”"
NEW CATEGORY:
Today's Good News About The Future (No, It's Not Too Late and Anyone Who Says Otherwise is Selling Something):
The Saiga Antelope, a species critical to the continued survival of huge swathes of grassland, that in 2003 was down to 6% of it's population and already extinct in it's natural habitat of China and Ukraine, has rebounded back to almost 2 million strong thanks to conservation efforts.
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🎵 You know Dasher and Dancer, and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid, and Donner and Blitzen… but do you recall the most famous reindeer of all? Hint: it’s not the saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica)!
While this antelope won’t be taking Rudolph’s job anytime soon, the saiga just so happens to have its own special nose. Serving as a built-in humidifier and air filter, its nose helps it survive the dry steppes and deserts of central Asia where it lives. The saiga’s impressive nose filters out dust during dry summers and warms the air it breathes during frigid winters!
Photo: tcager, CC0 1.0, iNaturalist
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Saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica)
Saiga don’t only look weird, but are found in the last place you would expect antelope to be- the cold, dry Eurasian steppe. Their large nose helps filter out dust and warm air before it reaches their lungs, and they also develop a warm, grey-brown coat in the wintertime. During the last ice age, saiga antelope were found across the cold northern steppe, from Britain and Mongolia to Alaska. Unfortunately, they are now critically endangered, found only in a few refuges in Kazakhstan and the surrounding countries.
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aha... beast i think is epic and cool
[id: a neck-up drawing of a female saiga antelope. she has big sparkling black eyes and the characteristic trunk-like nose of her species. end id.]
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