+ The Pink Underwing Moth Caterpillar of Australia’s Rainforest

Nature never ceases to astonish.  This is the larva of the Pink Underwing Moth, an endangered species which lives in the subtropical rainforest below about 600m elevation in the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland. It has evolved a remarkable set of patterns to ward off potential predators.

A giant set of eyes would, you might think, be enough to warn off a bird looking for an easy lunch. Yet this caterpillar goes one step further.  It appears to have a set of teeth which could rip any possible attacker to shreds. Why, then, is it so rare? You might think that with this sort of natural protection the species would be thriving everywhere.

That might be true, if it were not for the fact that the caterpillar of the pink underwing (a subspecies of Phyllodes imperialis) is something of a fussy eater. Prospective breeding habitats are restricted to places where the caterpillar's sole food plant, a rainforest vine, Carronia multisepalea, grows in Australia’s eastern subtropical rainforests. The plant is rare, so likewise is the pink underwing. In fact the larva has only been found in six places.

When they hatch the caterpillars are at first a dull brown color.  At this stage in their life cycle they rely on something called crypsis to avoid detection. It does this by having the appearance of a dried up leaf. Yet when it gets larger it relies as much on its markings as it does its ability to blend in.

text from http://www.arkinspace.com/2012/11/the-pink-underwing-moth-skull-faced.html#more

photos from pant.nerd on flickr.com

+ Sudjai Chaiyapan

Sudjai Chaiyapan was born in Bangkok in 1969. He graduated from Silapakorn University, Faculty of Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Art.  His style is often surrealistic and full of symbols. In his earlier work, the artist's focus has been on environmental degradation such as in his series from the late 1990s. In his latest work he focuses on love and relationships. Depictions of bodies surrounded by flowers, such as roses and lotuses, are characteristic of his most recent series.  The flowers represent his emotions and tell tales of the artist’s experiences in his relationships. To enhance the emotional effect, all of them are depicted in a surrealist setting.  A technical signature of his very unique style is that in addition to using a brush, he uses the edge of a cutter to produce very fine lines.   In 1997 Sudjai won the ASEAN Art Awards in Thailand. He has also won prizes from private corporations as well as from international bodies such as the UN (Our World in the Year 2000 - The United Nations Millennium Art Exhibition) for his artwork reflecting on environmental awareness. Sudjai also participated in the Osaka Triennale in Japan in 1996.  

http://www.thavibu.com/thailand/sudjai_chaiyapan/THA1400.htm

+ endangered pygmy rabbits

The Oregon Zoo’s 12-year effort to save the endangered Columbia Basin Pygmy Rabbit drew to a close on July 19, when the zoo released its last 14 breeding rabbits and their offspring at the Sagebrush Flat Wildlife Area in eastern Washington. The Pygmy Rabbit is America’s smallest native rabbit, weighing less than one pound when fully grown, and is the country’s only burrow-digging and sagebrush-climbing rabbit. The shy species is dependent on sagebrush, which makes up the majority of its diet and grows in deep, loose soil, where the rabbits dig burrows.

“We’ve helped give these rabbits a chance for survival, and now it’s time to send them off into the world,” said Michael Illig, Oregon Zoo animal curator. “Our hope is that they’ll continue to breed and establish a stable population at Sagebrush Flat. A strong Pygmy Rabbit population there will keep the local community involved and help preserve the habitat.”

to read the full article...
http://www.zooborns.com/zooborns/2012/07/oregon-zoos-12-year-effort-to-save-endangered-pygmy-rabbits.html

+ Reduce, Reuse, Recycle…or Rethink

For consumer durables, environmental sustainability starts with discarding conventional wisdom.

Rethinking Durables

Sustainability for consumer durables demands deeper thinking than the simple “reduce, reuse, recycle” framework. And unlike consumables, where the responsibility for rethinking falls on consumers, for durables, the primary rethinking job belongs to business executives and environmental regulators.

A rethinking of the problem should start with an examination of the ecological impact and economics across the full product life cycle — from manufacture through use, reuse, recycling, and disposal. The economic incentives for the various industry players must also be considered, including original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), retailers, service providers, remanufacturers, recyclers, and waste management companies. Every industry has a unique set of players; for each of them, the costs and benefits vary considerably, and are sometimes at odds. This insight provides a starting point for thinking strategically about reshaping the industry value chain in ways that increase profits while reducing environmental impact. Such rethinking can be employed by business executives to seek out new profit pools — or, alternatively, by regulators to alter the profit pools and enhance overall societal benefits.


Published: November 23, 2010 / Winter 2010 / Issue 61
by Tim Laseter, Anton Ovchinnikov, and Gal Raz
this is an exerpt from full article : http://m.strategy-business.com/article/10406?gko=ec603

+

Recycling Around the World

November 15 is America Recycles Day, an annual event launched in 1997 by the National Recycling Coalition. The need to reuse and recycle raw materials has never been as urgent as it is today. The human race has reached a worldwide population of 7 billion, and America is responsible for consuming a disproportionate share of the planet’s resources. In many parts of the world, recycling is done by necessity. In others, artists, governments, and businesses have found creative and useful ways to reuse materials — a plastic bottle may find itself reborn as artwork, a warm blanket, or fuel oil. Collected here are photographs of various recycling efforts around the world, ranging from small and whimsical to industrial in scale.

Above: A laborer rests on piles of plastic bottles at a recycling center in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, China, on November 6, 2011. (Reuters/Stringer