Category: Marine Ecology

Ancient Indigenous forest gardens still yield bounty 150 years later

Originally planted with a rich array of edible and medicinal flora for people to use, forest gardens are now a source of food for animals and pollinators. While human activities, such as industrial land management, are often seen as being harmful to biodiversity, their study shows how Indigenous practices have benefited the health and resilience of forest ecosystems in the long-term, the researchers say.

Only 19% of Earth’s land is still ‘wild’

The paper “debunks an important myth” in conservation circles, says Massachusetts Institute of Technology aerospace engineer Danielle Wood, who studies technology and international development but was not involved with the new work. By offering a long-term look at humans’ impact on the planet, the study reveals that it’s not people per se that send biodiversity on a downward spiral, but it’s instead the overexploitation of resources, she explains. If their practices are sustainable, “humans don’t have to be removed,” to save the world’s species.

Dr Thomas White on Dolphins Intelligence and Sentience

Dr Thomas White shares with us his knowledge on the implications his research has of how we currently treat dolphins; while his work focuses on ethics and how we need to re-evaluate our perception of dolphin intelligence. Humans continue to apply speciesism when observing intelligence of other creatures when we do not necessarily demonstrate balanced consciousness by living within the means of the earth’s sustainable carrying capacity.