Earth Hour 2021
March 27, 8:30 pm – 9:30 pm your local time.
Join us in showing your planet appreciation.
Switch off your lights for one hour
and
find out how to participate in the Virtual Spotlight.
Let’s sit in the dark together—apart.
For the planet.
1-minute read
Much has been written about the stress-reducing, joy-inducing power of human friendship. In good times and in bad, positive social interactions can provide a life-affirming sense of community and belonging. In addition to being psychologically restorative, the company of trusted friends has also been proven to reduce the risk of health problems and increase longevity.
Researchers studying whether members of the animal kingdom experience similar benefits from sociability have determined that for adult female giraffes being friendly is also more than just a nice idea—it’s a lifesaver. Compared with other environmental factors (food sources and distance from towns), chewing cud and slurping savanna water in familiar and amiable company is critical to their survival.
And just how do giraffes configure friendships to increase their lifespan? Do the endearingly long-necked animals benefit more from having exclusive besties, or do they gain a greater advantage from mixing and mingling within a larger group? According to a January 2021 study, it appears that female giraffes that are more gregarious and form stable associations with at least three other group members, live longer. Similar to human friendship groups, giraffes that connect with other members of their community (known as a tower) may experience life as more predictable and less stressful. And faced with ongoing environmental change, compared to lone roamers, giraffes inclined towards sisterhood also benefit from cooperative calve care and the sharing of important knowledge about the location of food and predators. When it comes to survival in the Serengeti, it looks like sticking your neck out and being gir-affable results in a life-extending payoff.
As the world turns, if you’re feeling more sociable today, and you’ve got a bit of a spring in your step, it could be because March 20th marks the vernal equinox. Or perhaps you’re particularly chirpy this Saturday because it also happens to be World Sparrow Day. You can learn more about how to keep the little brown fellows flying from the Audubon Society. Now that’s something to tweet about, friends!
2.5-minute read
In about six to eight weeks, billions (or possibly trillions!) of periodical cicadas will emerge from the earth at the same time in the Eastern, Great Lakes, and Mid-Atlantic regions of the U.S. Some things have been bugging us about this mass insect invasion. Why do cicadas only pop up-top every 13 and 17 years? What do they do underground for all of that time? And why are there so many of them? We thought we’d do a little digging and find out, so here’s a quick Q & A about the noisy critters to keep you up-to-date on your insect info—you know, for Trivial Pursuit.
What is this ginormous bunch of bugs called?
The astonishingly large populations of cicadas that emerge from the earth at precisely timed 13 and 17-year intervals are called broods. In 1893, the broods were assigned Roman numeral designations by American entomologist Charles Marlatt. The 2021 17-year Brood X is made up of three different species with distinctive color patterns, sizes, and behaviors. Every 221 years, the 13 year and 17-year broods come out together in one tremendous bug fest. The next time that will happen is 2118. Optimists: schedule your 97-year cicada reminder with Siri now.
Why the extended percolation time?
About two feet below the earth, baby cicadas, known as nymphs, begin the long preparation for their emergence by feeding on fluid from tree and plant roots until they have matured enough to dig tunnels and crawl to the surface. The brood making their debut this year began their journey way back in 2004.
How do cicadas know when to launch?
Some biologists believe that fluctuations in root fluids might serve as cues for marking the passing years, and that cicadas may have a built-in timing mechanism that prompts them to start tunneling upward. Soil and bug body temperatures reaching a specific level could trigger the synchronized “let’s do this” launch.
What’s all the noise about?
For the first two weeks of their short, four to six-week lives, male cicadas gather in a colossal insect chorus to serenade the lady bugs. By contracting their rib membranes, the singing insects create surreal-sounding cycles of raucous buzzing that can reach 100 decibels—equivalent to the noise level of a jackhammer or a jet flyover at 1,000 feet.
Why are there so many of the little buggers?
There is safety in numbers. Cicadas are a non-toxic source of food for all manner of creatures including birds, squirrels, cats, dogs, turtles, snakes, and spiders. But even the hungriest of the hungry can only eat so many of the crunchy insects from a billion-bug buffet. Emerging synchronously in enormous numbers helps to ensure that enough cicadas will survive to sustain their brood and come back to sing another year.
When do cicadas go underground?
Female cicadas lay anywhere from 2-30 eggs in tiny nests on pencil-sized twigs. In about six to ten weeks the eggs hatch, the nymphs fall to the ground and burrow into the soil and the amazing prime-numbered life cycle of the periodical cicada begins again. Pro-tip for Brood X states—hats on when roaming under tree canopies this July and August.
Is 2021 Brood X emerging at a location near me?
The American Forest Service has created a handy map indicating where and when the 13 and 17-year broods emerge. You can check it out here.
Are there any songs about cicadas?
As a matter of fact, there are quite a few! These are some top picks:
• The Squirrel Crossed the Road/Jane Siberry
• Day of the Locusts/Bob Dylan
• Sicka Cicadas/Kathy Ashworth
So that’s this bug’s life—thirteen to seventeen years under the ground and only about six weeks under the sun. Perhaps the cicadas are not singing, but complaining—and who could blame them. Whether your response to the synchronized mass emergence of cicadas is “oh, wow” or “oh, eww”, we think you’ll agree that the recurring natural phenomenon is pretty remarkable.
And that’s this week’s Wild & Wondrous. Don’t forget to spring forward. Welcome back, light! Btw, today, 3.14, is also Pi (Π) Day, so if you are into numbers or into pie or into both, go wild!
To the Peacemakers, Risk-Takers, and Up-and-Coming World-Shakers
Happy International Women’s Day!
from
Frankie and Peaches
&
FWP
XO – KOKO!
1.5-minute read
It’s almost here! Spring! Sun, longer days, tender shoots and leaves, bright little flower buds, and the joyful appearance of the fuzzy, buzzy companions of delicate blooms—bees.
If you’re like us and inclined to geek out over anything bee-related, we’ve got just the thing for your next home movie night—The Pollinators. The award-winning documentary, directed by Peter Nelson, is a fascinating and informative look into the working lives of the industrious insects, and the dedicated beekeepers who help these brainy essential pollinators of fruit and veg do what they do best—maintain our food supply.
The Pollinators is now available for viewing worldwide. Wherever you are, you can watch it here. We’ll bring the popcorn, and with continued support from their friends, the bees will bring the apples, strawberries, cherries, avocados, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, coffee beans, almonds… you get the picture.
After watching The Pollinators, you can learn more about how to befriend the bees from The Bee Conservancy. You can access free kids and classroom educational material and find out how to participate in Sponsor-a-Hive and business and corporate partnerships.
If you’re ready to help mason, leafcutter, and carpenter bees set up shop in your yard or garden, you can find bee huts at garden supply stores, and Amazon. We use the bamboo huts at FWP, and our city bees seem very happy with their digs.
Feeling motivated to go all in and become a beekeeper? The American Beekeeping Federation is an excellent all-around resource for beginners, with members in 18 countries.
In addition to helping to keep our food supply intact, we think bees are just delightful to have around. When change is the only constant, they remind us that whatever else may be going on in the world, nature is always there perking along in the background—a reassuring source of comfort and beauty. If you’ve been meditating on the calming simplicity of the natural world to help you manage the rolling stress of the pandemic, keep a lookout for the arrival of the first winged wonders and do bee zen.
Have a peaceful weekend.
1.5-minute read
Clever farmers in Kenya are lighting up the night for the love of lions. Because the big cats need big meals to maintain their body weight, which ranges from 280 pounds for females and up to 450 pounds for males, they are always on the prowl for large prey. In areas where people have settled in close proximity to increasingly fragmented wildlife habitats, lions are roaming into farm communities in search of food, leading to conflict that is contributing to the decline of the iconic African animals. Working alongside conservationists, livestock keepers around Nairobi National Park are implementing a simply ingenious strategy to help lions and farmers peacefully co-exist—the installation of flashing solar lights around livestock enclosures.
The bright idea was originally devised by an 11-year-old school student determined to find a non-violent method to discourage lions from helping themselves to the farm animals that his family depended on for survival. Since lions have learned to associate flashlights with life-endangering night patrols, they steer clear of light-protected enclosures. Now, a growing number of farm communities are successfully employing the light-fright-based technique to protect their livestock. By installing continuously flickering solar-powered LED flashlight bulbs around animal pens, participating farmers were able to reduce night raids by 96%. At a time when lion populations are in decline (43% over 21 years), this is roaring good news.
Paying careful attention to how lions interact with their environment enabled livestock farmers to come up with a simple solution to one of the sticky problems that can arise when humans and wild animals occupy the same space. Local communities and conservationists are continuing to explore innovative ways to live in harmony with wildlife, united in the common purpose of maintaining the healthy functioning of ecosystems and preserving Africa’s precious, natural heritage. Good for people, good for wildlife, good for the planet.
2.5-minute read
The world was a vastly different place when we posted our first entry dedicated to the beauty, mystery, and magic of nature in December of 2018. We can’t be sure what challenges lie ahead post-pandemic, but as long as the planet keeps going, so do we. And like Earth, we rely on a little help from our friends, so thank you very much for reading! We’re celebrating our 100th blog post with a title tweak from Weekly Wondrous to Wild & Wondrous, some insight on the intelligence of the octopus—and a mountain of cake. We hope you’ll join us!
Coming out of your shell has its benefits. For example, you might become smarter and grow lots of limbs—if you’re an octopus, that is. When the marine mollusk shed its shell about 530 million years ago, it got two anatomical upgrades: super flexible arms, and a bigger brain to coordinate them. While the octopus may resemble a vacuum bag with adjustable attachments, there is more to the weirdly wonderful animal than meets the eye. It has evolved to become one of our oceans’ most clever occupants.
High intelligence typically occurs in long-lived species like elephants, apes, whales, and dolphins that have to manage interdependent social bonds. Although octopuses only live about two years, are usually loners, and don’t nurture their young, the invertebrates developed a very sophisticated nervous system that rivals vertebrates in size and complexity.
So, why the big brain? Researchers at the University of Cambridge believe that once the octopus emerged from its protective housing, the increase in intelligence and growth of flexible limbs enabled the shell-less mollusk to survive in a much wider range of environments. The 300 species of octopus have adapted to diverse marine habitats all around the world. Plus, the vulnerable, soft-bodied animals needed more developed sea-smarts to protect themselves from predators.
Just how smart are they? Problem solving and tool use are two hallmarks of advanced cognitive abilities in animals, and octopuses are able to do both, which means they’re pretty darn clever. Octopuses use stones and shells as armor against sharks and to block the entrance of their dens. When hiding places are hard to come by, they haul around coconut shells to use as makeshift mobile homes. And if they are caught between a den and a coconut shell, to discourage attacks, octopuses can change their skin color to mimic advancing predators. The masters of multi-tasking are also skilled at finding and extracting food from hard-to-reach places. Not only do they use their big brains to figure out how to pry open clams, mussels, and oysters, they can fetch food from a maze, open boxes, and remove lids from jars.
If you’re wondering if all octopus limbs are created equal, each of the eight arms can bend, lengthen, shorten, and turn clockwise and counter-clockwise in all directions. Scientists at Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory observing ten wild-caught octopuses have recorded 16,563 arm movements in 120 minutes of video. Top that!
Similar to an elephant’s trunk, the octopus’ exceptionally flexible arms are primarily made of muscle and connective tissue and rely on internal pressure to create movement. Although they have a wide variety to choose from, octopuses prefer to use specific arms for specific tasks, like rear arms for walking versus front arms for exploring, and some are lefties and some are righties.
It’s obvious that the octopus is not your run-of-the-mill mollusk. Aiming to pass on the sea creature’s big brain benefits to humanity, scientists and engineers are continuing to study its cognitive ability and complex arm movements to help develop bio-inspired soft robots for use in medicine and industry. All we can say to that is, we’re glad you came out of your shell, octopus!
If you’re also feeling inspired by the marine animal’s amazing maneuverings, you can download giant Pacific octopus wallpaper from the Monterey Bay Aquarium for your daily viewing pleasure.
Sending you heart-shaped greetings from nature!
With love,
Favorite World Press
To all of the current and future problem-solving, knowledge-evolving, barrier-dissolving brainiacs, thank you for not hiding your light.
From The Pancake Girl, Favorite World Press
Then Ruby showed her math magic,
and no one bothered to tease.
And her most favorite part,
no more wobbly knees!
Sincerely,
LSF • WW • FWP
1-minute read
The real voyage of discovery consists of not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes — Marcel Proust
How do you see forests—peaceful, inspiring, hopeful, magical? Forests and trees play a significant role in creating evocative places that also contribute to the health and prosperity of people and our planet, whether they take root in the wilderness or a landscaped urban park.
If you’re up for a wander, you can showcase your favorite picture-perfect tree or woodland in the Forests in Focus Photo Contest and help tell the visual story of the importance of nature.
Sponsored by Favorite World Press planting partners, American Forests, the competition is open to professional, amateur, and high-school-aged photographers across the United States. You can submit up to ten high-resolution, digital format photos across seven categories, including cityscapes, landscapes, wildlife, and nature as art. Winning photos from each category will be featured in American Forests’ Summer magazine issue. Winners will also receive a one-year American Forests membership.
Expressing your unique photographic perspective on Earth’s beautiful view is a super and safe way to put a dent in the winter/COVID-19 doldrums. So head on out tree people, focus on your favorite forest, and submit what you see, now through March 5, 6 PM EST. Click, click, click!
“Kindness is contagious. Pass it on.”
April 26, 1785 – January 27, 1851
Graveyard at the Church of the Intercession in the Trinity Church Cemetery and Mausoleum at 155th Street and Broadway.
Yeah, okay, but can you do this?
100 blog posts = sparklers + cake mountain!
Strenuously exercising on the inside!
“It’s going to be alright!”
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