Category: Animals & Nature

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Patagonia’s CEO Donated Company’s $10 Million Tax Cut to Fight Climate Change

As much as some people (and organizations) out there would like to bury their heads in the sand and pretend climate change doesn’t exist, it is very real, and its effects are growing more drastic.

Because of the 2018 rewrite of America’s tax laws – a tax code revision that greatly benefited corporations by lowering the corporate tax rate by almost a third for most companies – Patagonia paid $10 million less in taxes that year than it had anticipated. So the company’s CEO, Rose Marcario, decided to donate the $10 million to non-profit groups that are working to fight climate change and help the environment.

Marcario believed the corporate tax cut was not a good thing, and she wrote, “Based on last year’s irresponsible tax cut, Patagonia will owe less in taxes this year—$10 million less, in fact. Instead of putting the money back into our business, we’re responding by putting $10 million back into the planet. Our home planet needs it more than we do.”

Speaking about climate change deniers, including many in government, Marcario wrote, “Far too many have suffered the consequences of global warming in recent months, and the political response has so far been woefully inadequate—and the denial is just evil.”

Patagonia has been a friend of the environment for many years now and their website says the company has donated more than $89 million to environmental groups to fight climate change.

Let’s hope that more corporations and individuals make their voices heard about the extreme consequences of climate change that are occurring around us every day. This isn’t something that might happen in the future, this is taking place right now.

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A Kansas City Chiefs Player Celebrates Super Bowl Victory by Paying the Adoption Fees for 100+ Shelter Dogs

The Kansas City Chiefs are champions for the first time in 50 years, and one player celebrated by doing something great for his community…and for a whole lot of animals.

Chiefs defensive tackle Derrick Nnadi paid the adoption fees for every dog that was available at the KC Pet Project shelter. The total was more than 100 pooches looking for a forever home.

KC WINS! We are so excited to announce that the Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle, Derrick Nnadi is choosing to…

Posted by KC Pet Project on Sunday, February 2, 2020

Tori Fugate of the KC Pet Project said, “KC Pet Project cares for over 10,000 pets a year, so partnerships like this are so wonderful to help our pets find loving, forever homes. We’re thrilled and honored that Derrick Nnadi chose to do this to help us save lives in Kansas City. Our community is on cloud nine following last night’s win and this is such a heartwarming story to go along with this huge victory.”

When Nnadi played college football at Florida State, he adopted a shelter dog named Rocky. He said, “All my life, I always wanted a dog. When I first got him, he was very timid. It made me think of how other animals, whether they’re owned or in a shelter, are feeling scared and alone.”

Nnadi has been active in charity work in both Kansas City and his hometown of Virginia Beach, Virginia, since he joined the NFL in 2018.

And here’s a bonus: the story about Nnadi’s generosity became so popular that TV host Rachael Ray decided to pay for dog food for all the 109 pooches once they get adopted from the KC Pet Project.

Great work to everyone involved! And go Chiefs!

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Amazon Prime Offers TV Programs for Your Cat

Amazon Prime has a brand new solution if you feel guilty about leaving your pets at home: TV for cats.

This is real.

The streaming service is full of videos to entertain indoor cats, featuring footage of birds, chipmunks, squirrels, and more birds. The service could keep cats from getting bored while you’re at work all day — or you could even throw the TV on for your indoor cat while you’re home.

The videos include such riveting titles as “Movies for Cats – Forest Birds and Chipmunks,” “Songbirds and Squirrels on a Tree,” and “Baby Robin’s Day Out.” The videos mimic the experience of looking out the window, watching the birds and other critters.

The only potential side effect of cat TV? Your cat may end up attempting to hunt your television. This genre gives “reality TV” a whole new meaning.

Photo Credit: Amazon Prime Screenshot

If you don’t have Amazon Prime, your cats can still enjoy the same experience, because YouTube is full of videos for cats for free. In fact, these free videos were the inspiration behind Amazon Prime’s Cat TV service, according to a blog post.

Amazon Fire TV software engineer Sue Kim says her cat Ruby adores these videos.

“I simply leave the video playing when I leave for work, and that occupies Ruby until her nap,” Sue writes. “She also doesn’t get so upset when I leave.”

Dogs would likely enjoy watching cat TV too, especially the shows with squirrels or chipmunks. Bonus: The nature-oriented videos seem pretty darn calming for humans, too!

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This Is What Happens to Mosquitoes in the Winter

The greatest thing about winter is the lack of bugs. No pesky mosquitoes making you itch every time you go outside at night! It’s such a relief — but, like, what even happens to mosquitoes in winter? Do they fly south, like birds?

Not quite, according to Mental Floss.

Mosquitoes have difficulty surviving in any temperatures below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, but their strategy depends on their sex. Males simply die off, though not directly due to the cold — instead, the winter just happens to coincide with the end of their life cycle, when they’ve already finished mating. They actually only live for about 10 days anyway.

Females, on the other hand, enter what is called diapause, a rested state similar to hibernation. They find a hollow log to burrow into, slow their metabolism, and hunker down until the cold is over. Females can stay in diapause for up to six months, thanks to the large reserves of energy that they hoard beforehand — they eat up to 10 times their normal body weight in blood to prepare for this stage.

Photo Credit: iStock

After warm weather returns, females leave their burrow and return to their normal metabolism. Then they must search for more food (blood) to nourish their eggs, and the whole dreadful cycle starts all over again.

Photo Credit: iStock

Unfortunately, there are some exceptions to all this. Some types of mosquitoes can actually breed underground in the winter and forego food, allowing them to stay alive all throughout the cold months. A species called Culex pipiens molestus invaded a poor Manhattan neighborhood in exactly this manner.

Bummer.

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Meet Perdita, Called the “World’s Worst Cat”

“World’s Worst Cat,” of course, is an honorary title, like “World’s Greatest Dad” or “Best Sister In The World.” It’s not like there’s an actual competition or even an official poll one has to win before wearing one of these superlatives like a badge. Someone just has to be of the opinion that you’re the “best” or “worst” before bestowing it on you.

So, I suppose it must follow that someone who met Perdita the Cat must have believed whole-heartedly that she was the actual worst.

Her adoption photograph and biography on Mitchell County Animal Rescue’s Facebook page begins with the ominous line, “We thought she was sick, turns out she’s just a jerk.”

Meet Perdita, not for the faint of heart. LIKES: staring into your soul until you feel as if you may never be cheerful…

Posted by Mitchell County Animal Rescue, Inc-North Carolina on Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Now, shelters usually try to paint their animals in as positive a light as possible, but they also don’t want cats like Perdita being returned by adoptive owners who learned a little too late what, exactly, they’ve invited into their homes.

The News & Observer reports that the 4-year-old cat arrived at the animal rescue on Christmas Eve after her owner had died, and the rescue acknowledges that Perdita has plenty of reasons to be angry.

Not that she needs reasons, of course.

Amber Dale Lowery, the shelter’s director, said they “understand that she has earned every right to be a jerk and meant to the post as tongue-in-cheek. We adore her strong personality and hope that by shedding light on her ‘cattitude,’ the perfect home will step forward to adopt her.”

Add Catnip to her list of likes…she may need to learn moderation.

Posted by Mitchell County Animal Rescue, Inc-North Carolina on Friday, January 31, 2020

The adoption listing went on to say that adopting Perdita would not be “for the faint of heart” – apparently, Perdita likes “staring into your soul until you feel as if you may never be cheerful again,” “lurking in dark corners,” and “being the queen of her domicile.”

She does not appear to enjoy “the color pink, kittens (yuk they are so chipper), dogs, children, The Dixie Chicks, Disney movies, Christmas, and last not NOT least…HUGS.”

Perdita is lucky; she got so much attention on Facebook – people have called her their “soulmate kitty” and said that even though they don’t like cats “I want this cat!” – that she found a home!

Posted by Mitchell County Animal Rescue, Inc-North Carolina on Saturday, February 1, 2020

Perdita’s newfound celebrity as the “world’s worst” hasn’t changed her at all, according to the shelter.

“Perdita is not fazed by her fame. Just this morning she allowed me to scratch her head, admire her good looks, and then promptly growled at me,” reported Lowery.

Today is a bittersweet day. Perdita has brought so much joy to the staff here at MCAR. We have loved getting to know her…

Posted by Mitchell County Animal Rescue, Inc-North Carolina on Saturday, February 1, 2020

In her new home, Perdita and her owners will share (their own) space and the occasional how-do-you-do, and perhaps, when Perdita deems it acceptable, a scritch or two.

Cat ownership bliss.

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Koalas Don’t Exactly Sound Like You Might Expect…

We’ve been discussing koalas a lot lately, and, sadly, it’s not just because they’re ridiculously adorable little mammals who deserve attention in the best of times.

The wildfires in Australia are killing them, destroying their habitat, and may even render them essentially extinct in the wild if we don’t do anything to help.

 

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But if there a silver lining to the universe shining a very harsh light on the cute not-bears Down Under, it’s this: someone posted a video of what koalas sound like, and, well…educate yourselves, because there’s a 99.8% chance they do not sound at all like you’re expecting.

I mean…they’re so sweet-looking. They should squeak and purr, no?

No. No, they do not do that.

Here goes.

The internet had some feelings about it, duh, and most were at least as funny as the original video.

I held a koala when I was in Brisbane, and…idk guys, none of them made any noise at all. Probably because they were drugged so they wouldn’t try to scratch our eyes out, I’m now realizing.

Apparently they make a bunch of different sounds, and this one was a mating call – he must have really been interested in whoever was holding that camera.

Taronga Zoo Sydney cleared up some of the confusion on YouTube, saying, “Koalas might look cute, but they can produce bellowing sounds during mating season that have been compared to a donkey braying and a frog vomiting!”

Were you surprised by this video? Tell us what you thought in in the comments!

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A Rescued Sea Turtle’s Digestive System Was Jammed Full of Plastic Trash

You probably know that trash dumped into waterways around the world makes its way to the ocean, where it’s endangering the lives of all manner of marine life.

It can be a difficult problem to look directly at because no one wants to see animals hurting because of human behavior, but until we recognize the power we have to fix the problem (i.e. reduce, reuse, recycle), nothing is going to change.

So we have to look.

Scientists rescued a green sea turtle from a fisherman’s net off the coast of Buenos Aires, in Argentina, and passed it to a conservation group called the Mundo Marino Foundation.

Workers there quickly figured out that the animal’s health was endangered by the amount of plastic trash clogging its gut.

“Through radiographic images, we could see foreign bodies inside. Therefore, we started a treatment with a medication that increases peristaltic movements (movements of the digestive tract) and allows it to excrete what we saw in images,” explained Ignacio Pena, a veterinarian at the Foundation.

The turtle – a member of an endangered species that faces grave threat due to the degradation of their habitat – spent a full month excreting over 13 grams (half an ounce) of nylon bags, netting, and other plastic trash.

Green turtles typically keep a herbivorous diet, but juveniles will branch out, and a young and inexperienced hunter like this one was can easily mistake trash for food, scientists say – particularly because many sea turtles will eat jellyfish, which look alarmingly like plastic bags floating along. The mistake is often deadly according to one 2018 study that found that a turtle who eats just one piece of plastic has a 22% chance of dying.

Pena says that this particular turtle, though, is doing well.

“Today the turtle is eating green leaves, mainly lettuce and seaweed. We’re viewing this with an optimistic attitude, the progress is favorable.”

Sadly, the same can’t be said for other turtles who have been found in a similar state – even at Mundo Marino, they’ve been unable to save many that came into their care.

Plastics are insidious for animals like turtles, says biologist and conservation manager Karina Alvarez, for a couple of big reasons.

“There is not only a risk of a mechanical obstruction due to plastic intake. The accumulation of non-nutritive elements in the digestive systems of these marine reptiles can cause them a false sense of being full, which gradually weakens them. …In addition, a large amount of gas could be generated in their organisms, product of the accumulated plastic. Which would affect their ability to dive, both to feed and to find more suitable temperatures.”

Please do your part to keep turtles like this one from accidentally ingesting your trash; put your garbage where it belongs, and try to find alternatives to single-use plastics wherever you can.

Think of the turtles (and the fish and the dolphins and whales and sea lions)!

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A Melting Glacier Revealed 28 New Virus Groups and Scientists are Worried

There are a whole lot of reasons to lament the demise of glaciers around the world – for one, they are the visual proof that the earth is warming, no matter what the weather outside your window or the politicians in their offices want to claim.

For another, many of them have been around for millennia, and as they melt, things are thawing out of them that modern human beings have never encountered.

In 2015, researchers from China and the United States drilled a 164-foot hole into a Tibetan glacier, gathering 2 ice core samples to study in a lab. The 15,000-year-old glacier is melting, and the scientists have so far found 33 virus groups in their core sample.

28 of them are completely new to science.

These scientists and researchers are not alone; their peers around the world are desperately trying to identify potential microbial threats in the melting ice before they escape and put us on the spot.

Image Credit: Pixabay

The meltwater from glaciers and ice caps could release these potentially harmful pathogens into streams, rivers, and pretty much any other type of waterway…and once a previously unknown microbe finds its way into human beings, there’s no telling what might happen.

The permafrost around the world is melting, too, and presents similar microbial challenges. It’s also releasing an alarming amount of methane gas and carbon dioxide – it is estimated to hold twice as much carbon as currently resides in our atmosphere.

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For 141 years since its first ascent, mountaineers from around the world traveled to climb la Meije in the Massif des Ecrins of France. Meanwhile, the permafrost that held its stones together was melting. On August 7, 2018, rockfall destroyed much of the normal route. In this On Belay story from Alpinist 68—which is now available on newsstands and in our online store—two locally based guides—Benjamin Ribeyre and Erin Smart—recount a search for a new way up the peak amid the uncertainties of the planet’s future. . You can now read the story at Alpinist.com. . Did you know—only a small fraction of our many long-form stories from the print edition are ever uploaded to Alpinist.com. Be sure to pick up Alpinist 68 for all the goodness: https://shop.holpublications.com/products/alpinist-magazine-issue-68 . The south face of la Meije (3983m) and the upper Etancons Valley is pictured here with the Glacier Carre covered in snow during spring, Massif des Ecrins, France. [Photo] Manu Rivaud . @benjaminribeyre @erinsmart_mountainguide #lameije #glaciercarré #frenchalps #snowmelt #rockfall #climatechange #meltingpermafrost #alpinistfeature #theclimbinglife #alpineclimbing #mountaineering

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Researchers have pulled samples of smallpox, Spanish flu, bubonic plague, and even anthrax from thawing permafrost, along with pollutants like mercury, all previously trapped inside permanently frozen ground.

There are important buildings in jeopardy, too, as thawing ground begins to result in more slumping or sagging of previously hardened earth. In Sweden, for example, there is a nuclear waste containment facility that could be in danger, and in Norway, the world’s global seed vault, built to safeguard seeds against exactly this kind of environmental impact, could itself be threatened.

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Humans are very good at self sabotaging ourselves, controlling and manipulating others, colonizing and dominating over other live and sentient beings. All these behaviours are driven by fear, anger, greed, hunger for power, status and control. 🧐🤯 Would we still buy into all this nonsense if we fully realized that we are destroying ourselves, all living beings and our planet? What if we only have few years to live? Would we contemplate life and death? Seek reconciliations between peoples with different religions, nations, genders, classes, generations? ❤ Let's make universal love our compass. ❤ Let's live in present. ❤ Let's seek and adapt inner peace and love. ❤ Let's be human again. ❤ Let's share love and show compassion. ❤ Love, enjoy, live. Now. #love #behuman #awakeninghumanity #humanrights #climatecrisis #sixthmassextinction #climaterefugees #consumerismkills #foodshortages #heatwave #flooding #reducereuserecycle #circulareconomy #govegan #carbondrawdown #risingsealevel #meltingpermafrost #plasticfreelife #socialcollaps #noplanetb🌎 #universalconsciousness

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Basically, we’ve only encountered the tip of the iceberg (pun intended) when it comes to the potential disastrous effects of global warming – not only on the planet, but on humanity, too.

I don’t know about you, but the idea that I could get smallpox is one more reason I want to do my part.

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A Biology Professor Explained Why Defining Sex and Gender Is Actually Not Simple At All

Sex and gender are much more complicated than most people want to believe. And in a world where many, many brave folks are coming forward to say that they don’t want to be categorized with the sex they were born with, or that they don’t identify with a particular gender at all, or a hundred other combinations of some or all of these things, others (who have never questioned what’s on their birth certificate) are confused.

How can this be true, they ask? Gender is the same as sex, isn’t it? And we just are what we are?

Well, here’s the thing – it turns out that chromosomally, cellularly, and biologically, sex and gender are not black and white, not easily defined, and are often fluid. And that’s not even layering a social or psychological aspect on top of it all.

Don’t believe me? Good, you shouldn’t – I’m a writer, not a biologist!

But Rebecca R. Helm is a biologist, and she recently tweeted an insanely insightful thread about how complicated it can be to classifying biological gender.

The best way to combat confusion is with knowledge, so buckle up and let’s go for a little learning ride, shall we?

First, she acknowledges that, on the outside, determining one’s biological sex might seem simple.

But right away, when you learn just a tiny bit more about those X and Y chromosomes, things begin to get more complicated.

And she keeps going, giving us a rundown of things possible and known, and everything out there that’s still a mystery, until – even though I’m educated and consider myself fairly quick on the uptake – I had to admit I was out of my depth.

And what should we do when we’re out of our depth? Defer to the experts, of course, who are comfortable in the deeper water and willing to hold your head above water, too.

So, let’s all take Rebecca R. Helm’s advice and just try to be kind to people.

Biological sex might not be simple to parse or grasp, but you know what is? Listening to what another human being is telling you about the body they inhabit and referring to them how they ask you to.

That’s something we can all start doing right now.

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These Cute Three-Legged Pets Are Living Their Best Lives

Don’t listen to people who say that a dog or a cat that has a limb removed can’t live a great life full of love and happiness.

And here are some great examples.

Let’s meet these little guys and gals!

1. Luna out in the woods.

2. Bear looks comfortable.

3. A very happy Cassidy.

4. Peggles enjoying the sunshine.

5. Cash the Greyhound.

6. Willy sitting shotgun.

7. Chicken frolicking in the snow.

8. Hey, it’s Trip!

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Monday reminder of my handsomeness.

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9. Brandi is a very good girl.

10. Let’s me Suni the cat!

Very cute, if I do say so myself.

Do you have a pet that had to have a leg removed? Or maybe some other kind of major surgery, but they’re still kicking ass and taking names?

Share a pic and a story with us in the comments!

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