2. Don’t wash too often. On the micro level, the clothes remain as dirty as before. With normal use, where there are no stains, but we would only wash for the feeling of cleanliness, don’t. By washing too often we only do harm to the clothes and to water. Do this instead: 3. Be very …
Category: environment
Sustainable fashion series – 1. how to start
There are more clothes in existence now, than we need, to decently dress all the people in the world for their lifetimes. Therefore, it makes sense to reduce production, improve quality and extend the life of clothes, shoes and accessories through repairs, recycling and exchanges. Have you ever wondered how much energy goes into the …
Environmental organisations to follow and support
There are many environmental organisations out there (I would say thankfully, but just the fact that the earth needs them makes it clear that we’re not in a good situation) and all of them deserve our attention. Here’s a list of the few I follow and have researched so far. These teams do incredible work …
Importance of riparian vegetation for water bodies
Riparian area is a transitional semiterrestrial/semiaquatic biome, the interface between land and river or stream extending from the edges of water bodies to the edges of upland regions. This area includes flood plains and landscapes closely surrounding streams, rivers, vernal pools, ephemeral streams, ponds and lakes. Plant habitat along water bodies is riparian vegetation, consisted of hydrophilic …
Snow leopards and cashmere – how consumption and production of cashmere affects snow leopards (Panthera uncia)
One way on how we are directly impacting the existence of snow leopards. Snow leopards inhabit mountain ranges of 12 countries across Central and South Asia. Between 4500 and 10000 of these majestic animals are estimated to live on this planet and a decline is still expected. We don’t know more exact numbers, because these …
Fungi in ecosystems
Fungi have existed roughly 5/6 of the earth’s existance. They have had a lot of time to adapt to every environment on earth. For comparison, the humanoid species has existed 0,01 % of earth’s time (from the first speciments of the genus to Homo sapiens). Fungi are everywhere – they are so widespread, they make …
Dolphin series: monitoring dolphins
For the biologist, dolphin research presents challenges and opportunities in trying to understand individual species in their marine ecosystems. Marine mammals are highly mobile, cover large areas, move in three spatial dimensions, and spend most of their lives under water. So for most species of delphinids, basic aspects of their evolution, physiology, ecology, behavior and …
Dolphin series: fishery interactions
Fishing intensity keeps increasing throughout the world, which has negative impacts on nontarget species, including marine mammals. Thus bycatches have become a critical issue for marine mammal populations. Every year fishing industry removes about 80–90 million tons of fish and other marine organisms from the world’s oceans. Another 7–8 million tons of unwanted animal biomass …
Threats to dolphins
Dolphin mortality results from both natural and anthropogenic causes. Natural causes include old age, failure to thrive as a calf, intra-specific agonistic interactions, predation, stingray wounds, disease, storms and biotoxins from harmful algal blooms such as red tides. Threats of human origin include entanglement in nets, entanglement in or ingestion of fishing gear, pollution, boat …
Things we may think we need but don’t or things I never started buying
Lately or in the last few years we can often come across vlogs and blogs titled »things I’ve stopped buying« or something in that style. Having a minimalistic lifestyle has become somewhat trendy, which is, in its core, good for the environment. But how about never starting with all the consumerism in the first place? …