At Home On Earth

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Brian Taggert and Matt Pickett created Oceans Unmanned so they could monitor wildlife from the sky, without bugging the whales, seals, otters, and others they track. Now they fly drones all over the world, from surveying seals on Muskeget Island in Massachusetts to monitoring whale distentanglement operations in Hawaii. Here, Brian launches a drone from a tropical beach. Read this story from our archives.

March 22 is World Water Day and this year’s theme is “Save Our Glaciers.” Renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma went to Alaska with drag queen Pattie Gonia and musician Quinn Christopherson to record an anthem that speaks to our connection to the planet, to the task we face in protecting it, and to the power in working together. “Pattie Gonia, known for her climate-themed take on drag, had the idea to write a requiem for our dying glaciers, a mournful musing on loss and grief,” the online magazine Atmos writes. “Then, she met with Christopherson, an Indigenous trans musician, who convinced Gonia to turn this into a song of hope.” Yo-Yo Ma was already promoting his own environmental project called Our Common Nature and got on board with the “Won’t Give Up” project. The original song, written by Pattie Gonia, was conceived as a requiem for glaciers, “something that could be performed at a funeral for glaciers,” Gonia said. But then Christopherson pointed out that would mean they were giving up, saying that, “In my culture as an Alaskan Native, we feel like we and nature are not two different things — we’re the same, and so we’re going to treat nature how we treat ourselves.”

Give the song a listen and hear the haunting groans of the glaciers. And then tap into the UN’s resources on how to get involved in protecting them

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BIG IDEAS AND LOCAL CHANGEMAKERS

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Rain barrels cut down on the use of city water to keep your garden growing. You can even create a lovely planter on top of your rain barrel.

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A Small But Mighty Fishing Cooperative

Caribbean Spiny Lobsters are one of the Yucatan Peninsula’s most valuable natural resources, but their populations have been declining. A fishing cooperative in Punta Allen has made lobster fishing there more sustainable and taken steps to protect water conditions and the health of marine life. Jesús Pereira, a third-generation member of the community and a cooperative member since 1991, said: “We hope to continue leaving this legacy of responsibility to our young partners and children, raising awareness and values for a future where order, trust, and love for what we do — fishing — can continue.” Read more here.

What’s So Bad About Dams?

The golden days of dam construction are over and there are river restoration projects around the world reminding many of us that nature tends to be the better architect. But do dams still have a role to play? Bluedot contributor Jill Webb investigates.

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The Keep-This Handbook

We at Bluedot pride ourselves on just how many items we help readers responsibly dispose of via our Guide to Getting Rid of (Almost) Anything. Case in point: Do you have excess cold gel packs, perhaps courtesy of a lot of meal delivery programs? Let us tell you what to do with the goo. 

Parting Thoughts on Why We Love Water

When Leslie’s father was 17, he borrowed $800 from his dad, and bought a cabin on the shores of Lake Huron. He’s now 95 and still lives his days observing the changing face of the lake. Leslie remembers lying in bed at night, listening to the sounds of the water, a “lakeside lullaby,” she called it in a story she wrote about the science behind our love of water. “I wasn’t the least surprised by marine biologist and author Wallace J. Nichols’ idea of Blue Mind,” Leslie wrote. “Blue Mind, Nichols posits, is something like a meditative state induced by proximity to water. ‘It makes us happier,’ he says. ‘It connects us to each other, it connects us to ourselves, it connects us to place.’”

As we acknowledge World Water Day, let’s not just focus on the ways in which water supports physical life on this planet but also the ways in which it buoys us emotionally and spiritually. Wallace J. Nichols said that oceans, lakes, rivers, ponds … all are schools for empathy, which, he said, is “not just a beautiful metaphor, or beautiful poetry, it’s beautiful science.”

The Monterey Aquarium in California has released a collection of songs of humpback whales. Did you know they sound different each season? With this one, we wish you happy spring.
Give them all a listen here. 

Lastly, some fun team news to share: Cleo Carney, now a Boston-based intern with Bluedot, has been working with us since she was 14 years old. We just updated a Climate Conversation she did with her dad, Mark Carney, “who is Canada’s new Prime Minister Designate, after winning his party’s leadership convention to replace Prime Minister Trudeau.”

Congratulations, Cleo (and Mark)! And check out some of Cleo’s baking videos. 

Enjoy St. Patrick’s Day,  and we’ll see you in two weeks.

–Jamie Kageleiry and Leslie Garrett

Editors

Write us at editor@bluedotliving.com

Jamie Kageleiry, a longtime magazine and newspaper editor from Martha’s Vineyard, says her favorite spot on earth is out on a kayak there, looking at birds.

Leslie Garrett has been covering climate stories for close to two decades.  She divides her time between London, Ontario, and Massachusetts. She’s still figuring out her favorite spot but it’s definitely near the water.

Sent to: _t.e.s.t_@example.com

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