Ecoclimax

We may not share a common language with our furry friends, but talking to them is worthwhile all the same. Sadly, unless you’re Dr. Dolittle, talking to an animal is impossible. Instead, humans can only interpret what animals say as best they can. And even though animals of the same species will generally make the same noises wherever they are on the planet, it turns out that how we convert them into human sounds often differs by language and country. For example, if English is your first language, you’ll know that Old MacDonald’s famously noisy farm is full of pigs that oink. But did you know that pigs boo boo in Japan and nöff-nöff in Sweden? Meanwhile, a mouse will squeak to English speakers, but to a Dutch ear, mice will adorably piep. With this in mind, our animal-loving analysts at WordTips wanted to discover how dogs and cats — the world’s two most popular pets — sound around the world. Key Findings - Around the world, at least 40 interpretations of a dog's bark exist. - ...

Millions of tons of plastic are produced worldwide every year. Only half of this plastic garbage is recycled, incinerated, or dumped into landfills. A substantial portion of leftover plastic finally ends up in oceans. Many fragments of ocean plastic waste have come together to form a patch of plastic waste thrice the size of France in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and California. Where does all of this plastic garbage come from? Louis Lugas Wicaksono utilized data from a research paper by Lourens J.J. Meijer and his team to emphasize the top 10 nations emitting plastic pollutants in the waters encircling them. Most plastic garbage in deep blue waters arrives from the trash in parks, beaches, or along the storm drains lining the streets of the cities. Wind and rainwater drainage carry this plastic debris into our gutters, streams, and rivers . The rivers then turn into plastic superhighways , carrying the plastic to the oceans. An extra portion of ocean plastic comes from destroye...

Every day, the average adult inhales approximately 11,000 liters of air. While getting outside and breathing in fresh air has numerous health benefits , the reality is that not all air is good for you.  Airborne pollutants are one of the greatest sources of toxic exposure known to humankind and have a significant impact on human health. According to one estimate from the World Health Organization ( WHO ), air pollution contributes to seven million premature deaths around the world every year.  The dangers of smoking cigarettes are well publicized. But while quitting smoking is a straightforward way to reduce exposure to toxins and improve overall health, it is less easy to avoid exposure to the many toxins that pollute the indoor and outdoor air we breathe every day. Whether you’re a smoker or not.  Air quality varies significantly around the globe, and in many parts of the world, the negative health effects of poor air quality are equivalent to smoking hundreds of cigar...

Dutch research ecologist Marten Scheffer and his coworkers at the Santa Fe Institute and Wageningen University  studied  the history of global temperature, human population, and land-use assessments from the mid-Holocene period, starting about 6,000 years ago to the contemporary times. Researchers found that people, crops, and livestock had concentrated heavily in a limited range of comparatively restricted climate conditions. This range referred to in the research as the "human climate niche," has remained unchanging since 6,000 years ago. These thousands of years of human history reveal how society flourishes when we remain within it and the instability that occurs when it is moved out of these climatic zones. According to the analysis, the optimum conditions for human civilization to flourish have a mean annual temperature of  11 to 15° C (51.8 to 59 °F) . The ideal average temperature for national economic success is 13°C (55.4°F).  The modern production of crops...

The amount of snow and ice that covers our planet’s surface differs with latitude, altitude, and seasons. Over the last century, average snowfall and worldwide ice cover have declined in many regions because of rising average temperatures induced by the release of greenhouse gases from human activities. The snow and ice cover decline is altering ecosystems and influencing our climate system.  The maps below colorfully illustrate the radical changes in the average number of days with snow cover in Poland, 1961-1990 vs. 2011-2020. Such changes are the same across Europe and most places worldwide.  The reduction of snow cover in areas with harsher climates in the springtime is particularly noticeable from the space. According to climate.gov , despite yearly variability, the long-term tendency in the Northern Hemisphere spring snow cover is negative. Between 1967 and 2022, April snow cover declined by 1.32% per decade, May snow cover by 4.1% per decade, and June snow cover by 12.9...

The Cretaceous is the third and last Period of the Mesozoic Era geological period that lasted from approximately 145 to 66 million years ago. It was a geologic period with a relatively warm climate, culminating in high eustatic ocean levels that formed many shallow inland water bodies. The Earth was without ice, and forests extended to the poles. Oceans and water bodies were inhabited by now-extinct aquatic reptiles, ammonites, and rudists, while dinosaurs dominated on land. However, during this time, new groups of birds and mammals appeared. Birds became more typical and diverse. During the Early Cretaceous, flowering plants appeared and began to diversify speedily, becoming the leading group of plants across the planet by the end of the Cretaceous, coinciding with the decline and elimination of previously widespread gymnosperm groups. By the late Cretaceous (100.5–66 million years ago), the Earth's continents were beginning to assume their broad current alignment. The Americas ...

Palms are perennial flowering plants of the Arecaceae family. Nowadays, exists 181 genera with about 2.6 thousand palm species. Most palm trees are distinguished by their broad, compound, evergreen leaves at the top of an unbranched trunk. Palms emerged about 80 million years ago and spread right across the planet. Competition from more recent trees has disposed of palms from many of the ecological niches they once occupied, but they are still predominant in warmer climates. Palms succeed mainly in moist and hot climates of the subtropics and tropics. Their diversity is exceptionally high in wet, lowland forests (2/3 of palm species inhabit humid forests). South America, the Caribbean, South Pacific, and Asia regions have a high concentration of palm species. Only 130 palm species naturally grow outside the tropics, mainly in humid subtropical climates, on hillsides in southern Asia, and along the rimlands of the Mediterranean Sea. In the northern hemisphere, the northernmost native p...

 Fossil fuels have been our prevailing energy source for over a century, and the countries still extract and consume an enormous amount of oil, coal, and gas every year. Visual Capitalist created a stunning infographic using data from BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy that visualizes global fossil fuel production volume in 2021. In 2021, the world produced about 8 billion tonnes of coal, 4 billion tonnes of oil, and above 4 trillion cubic meters of natural gas. Most of the coal is used to generate electricity for our homes and offices and has a crucial role in steel production. Natural gas is also an essential source of electricity and warmth for buildings. Oil is predominantly used by the transportation sector, besides petrochemical manufacturing, heating, and other end uses. Coal If all the coal mined in 2021 were arranged in a cube, it would measure 2,141 meters (2.1 km or 1.33 mi) on each side—over 2.5 times the height of Burj Khalifa - the world's tallest building. Chi...