Barbara 🇺🇦 @babs_at_masto@qoto.org

Do you have an innovative solution based on #EUSpace🇪🇺🛰️ to tackle marine plastic pollution🌊🐟?

Submit your idea for our #CASSINI Prize and contribute to the protection of marine ecosystems 🦈

📅Deadline: 3 May
💶Total prize pool: ~ Є 3 million

🔗http://europa.eu/!xdd6Cy

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/defis_eu/status/1625077497636216832

Sara Khadem: Top Iran chess player exiled for refusing headscarf

When one of the world's most promising chess players, 25-year-old Sara Khadem, decided to play at an international tournament without her headscarf, in solidarity with the protest movement in Iran, she thought a warning would be the worst that would happen to her.

Instead, she can't return to Iran - there are arrest papers waiting for her, and she now lives in exile in southern Spain, with her husband and one-year-old son.

Sara Khadem said there was a slow evolution of her decision to play in the tournament in Kazakhstan in December last year without her headscarf. The contestants only wore them in front of the cameras, and she felt that was hypocritical. Given the sacrifices being made by the women and girls on the streets of Iran, some of them risking their lives, it was the least she could do, she said.

#iran #women #misogyny #religion #hijab #choice #Islam #fundamentalist #patriarchy

Codebreakers deciphered century-old letters stored for centuries in French archives and discover they were written of Mary, Queen of Scots. It turns out she was "well-trained in the art of cipher by her mother, Marie de Guise, from a very young age."

My Ars colleague @jenlucpiquant spins a fascinating tale that nicely blends #history and #cryptology.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/02/lost-and-found-code-breakers-decipher-50-letters-of-mary-queen-of-scots/

The recovery of plant community composition following passive restoration across spatial scales https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2745.14063

Humans are damaging biodiversity, but restoring habitats can help. Ladouceur & colleagues studied 17 old fields for 33 years and found that, after up to 80 years of agricultural abandonment, biodiversity hadn't recovered to levels of undisturbed sites. Species composition improved, but some species increased more than others.

I'm involved in a project that uses the Twitter and Reddit APIs to help journalists send corrections/updates down the same social media pathways as the original story. With Musk and minions pulling the plug there, we're urgently investigating fediverse/Mastodon possibilities. I wish journalists would do that, too, because we could really help them out with this tool.

Canadian butterfly-lovers can apply to be "butterfly rangers" with the David Suzuki Foundation. Looks like there is training and events, and that rangers would encourage neighbours to plant pollinator gardens.

I have applied, mostly out of curiosity, but whether or not I become a "ranger," I'll be trading in some lawn for #milkweed and nectar plants. I will have native plants that bloom from early spring to late fall. #Bees #butterflies & birds are my new best friends.

https://davidsuzuki.org/take-action/act-locally/butterflyway/#editor-4

On #WorldWetlandsDay we want to stress the crucial service they provide:

✅ Reducing flood risks
✅ Mitigating storms, tsunamis
✅ Acting as carbon sinks
✅ Preserving biodiversity
✅ Sustaining local communities

They should be protected & restored for #Mitigation and #Adaptation strategies to face the #ClimateEmergency

“If there are pelicans nesting in a wetland, something is good with the health of this wetland.” For #WorldWetlandsDay we share a story set along the shores of the Prespa lakes in northern Greece. Read "The Spirit of the Wetlands," by Julian Hoffman. https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/the-spirit-of-the-wetlands/

Ontario wetlands under threat.

"the changes that are being proposed to the Ontario wetland evaluation system will dramatically undermine its efficacy and endanger wetlands across Ontario"

Happy #worldWetlandsDay to everyone except Doug Ford and his supporters.

https://phys.org/news/2023-02-ontario-wetlands-threat.html

San Leandro marsh near Heron Bay #WorldWetlandsDay #NaturePhotography #Birds #BirdPhotography #sfba

What you should know on #WorldWetlandsDay #cawater
https://www.france24.com/en/video/20230202-world-wetlands-day-some-70-of-wetlands-have-disappeared-in-last-100-years

It's the #WorldWetlandsDay!
Let's #revive and #restore degraded #wetlands.
https://www.worldwetlandsday.org/

#Canada is committed, via #cop15, to protect 25% of its land by 2025 and 30% by 2030.

#Key #Biodiversity #Areas are going to be a big part of that. And of course it's not as simple as simply drawing a new line on a map.

This article covers some of the opportunity and complexities well. In particular, this goal can only be met with #Indigenous #consultation and authentic #partnerships:

https://theprovince.com/news/local-news/biodiversity-how-will-bc-protect-environment

Also, lots of fun #maps and other information here: https://kbacanada.org

And more three milion, nine hundred ninety nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety seven more digital items, here: https://www.si.edu/openaccess

via https://glitterkitten.co.uk/@doot/109727731935198524

A huge herd of bison, containing up to 170 of the animals, has been spotted in Poland.

Scientists say it is the largest they have ever seen.

https://notesfrompoland.com/2023/01/20/unprecedented-herd-of-170-bison-spotted-in-poland/