home.social

#polarbears — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #polarbears, aggregated by home.social.

  1. A new dawn rises in the #Arctic: the #Inuit plan to reclaim their sea

    By Ossie Michelin in Rigolet, #Nunatsiavut , Sun 27 Aug 2023

    Excerpt: "While there are other Inuit-led marine conservation programs in Canada, this will be the first to bear the title of #InuitProtectedArea. This #ConservationZone, which is now the subject of a feasibility study, would span nearly 15,000 sq km (5,800 sq miles) of the #LabradorSea bordering the #TorngatMountains national park.

    "Built on Inuit values and culture, this type of conservation area would allow Indigenous people to continue traditional practices of hunting and fishing.
    That was not always the case. Past conservation policies saw Inuit at best only consulted and at worst completely ignored. Many Inuit hunters and fishers faced fines, had their equipment confiscated and their catches from hunting and fishing taken.

    "Despite being granted the power to self-govern in 2005 (after 30 years of negotiations with the Canadian government), Nunatsiavut still lacked the final say over conservation in its waters. Final decisions defaulted to federal or provincial ministers.

    "Now, at last, Nunatsiavut can jointly create and co-manage the protected area, based on Inuit priorities, as an equal authority. This will allow Inuit to practise #TraditionalHunting and #fishing in the area, while protecting the waters from industry and development.

    " 'Just because we’re small doesn’t mean we can’t do something,' says #JamesGoudie, deputy minister of lands and natural resources in the Nunatsiavut government. 'We can show the world that a small region can protect a massive amount of #BioDiversity.'

    "The Inuit Protected Area would only cover about a third of Nunatsiavut’s nearly 50,000 sq km of offshore waters, but the region is home to important populations of fish such as #salmon and #ArcticChar, the breeding grounds for many #MigratoryBirds, and the habitat of Arctic marine mammals including #PolarBears, #BelugaWhales and #Seals.

    "Establishing a protected area is also a pre-emptive strike against #ResourceExploitation. Significant #NaturalGas deposits have been found offshore along the #LabradorShelf, but it has remained largely unexplored because of the ice. As the climate warms, however, the region is becoming more accessible – the Inuit Protected Area would prevent such resource exploration."

    Read more:
    theguardian.com/environment/20

    Archived version:
    archive.ph/LfYRZ

    #SolarPunkSunday #ProtectingTheArctic #TraditionalEcologicalKnowledge #TraditionalKnowledge #FirstNations #InuitValues #TraditionalFishing #AnimalProducts #Conservation #Nature

  2. Bird Wings Good; Bat Wings Bad

    Have you ever noticed that good religious creatures, like angels, have what can only be described as bird wings? Meanwhile, evil religious creatures, such as demons, have wings that are blatantly like that of a bat.

    The only bad thing I can think of for a bat is that they can give rabies to humans whereas birds can’t. The reason they are so susceptible to rabies is because they are closer to humans than birds are. They are mammals, just like us. Whereas birds are part of the bird family of vertebrates. Birds are descended from the dinosaurs and have their own diseases to worry about.

    Mammals survived the apocalypse that wiped out the dinosaurs (except birds) and basically took over almost all the niches that dinosaurs were in. Dinosaurs were tall so mammals became giraffes. Dinosaurs were big so mammals became the blue whale, the biggest creature that has ever lived. Dinosaurs could fly so bats took to the sky.

    Bats nurse their young, thus proving they are a caring species of mammal.

    Another thing which seemingly makes them bad is that they come out at night. But this is really more of a testament about how birds are evil in daylight. Bats don’t brave the day because they are likely to be dinner for some bird with 100 million years more of flying experience. And those daytime birds can be big with nasty talons and sharp beaks.

    As a fellow mammal, we should be proud of our bat cousins. They can fly in the dark because they use sonar. They have good vocalizations that their good ears can pick up and that their good brains can use to figure out what the terrain is – even in the dark.

    Still think birds are superior in the good/evil department? Then why is it a murder of crows, a conspiracy of ravens, a plague of grackles and a squabble of seagulls?

    Actually a squabble isn’t that bad. So suddenly I see the truth. Bad is associated with black birds and bats because they are black.

    This dark/ light thing of good and evil has got to go. Termites are white so they must be good. Maggots are white so they must be good. Polar bears are white so they must be good. It’s just not true. Black labs, black horses and even black cats can be very good.

    Maybe I’ll retreat into fantasy which has some stories of good dragons who incidentally have giant black bat wings. It’s more realistic than the angel/ demon characterizations of religion.

    #angels #batWings #batsNurseTheirYoung #birdWings #black #blueWhales #cats #conspiracyOfRavens #day #dayBirdsAreEvilToBats #demons #dinosaurs #dragons #evil #giraffes #good #horses #labs #maggots #mammals #murderOfCrows #night #plagueOfGrackles #polarBears #rabies #sonar #squabbleOfSeagulls #termites #white

  3. For International Polar Bear Week here are free #knitting patterns for #PolarBears
    The patterns are on my Polar Bear knitting post at
    intheloopknitting.com/polar-be
    #PolarBearWeek was created to draw awareness to challenges they face and coincides with the annual polar bear migration to Churchill, Manitoba, where the bears gather to wait for ice to form on Hudson Bay.

  4. @𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗧𝗼𝗿𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗼𝗭𝗼𝗼
    By taking practical steps to take #ClimateActionNow, reducing and rethinking our use of fossil fuels for energy, we act in the best interest of future generations of #polarbears and people! t.co/598SmdjJaj #PolarBearWeek #SaveOurSeaIce #EnergyShift #COP29
    ∙ 𝙽𝚘𝚟 𝟸, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟺 𝟷𝟶:𝟹𝟶𝙰𝙼 ∙

    External URL(s) in tweet:
    youtu.be/HYXvtQzmiDU

    #zoo #animals #TheTorontoZoo