Tag: important

put these things in your car right now

glumshoe:

With much of North America experiencing severe winter weather this week, anyone doing any kind of travel should be prepared with a winter emergency kit.

-A warm coat, blanket, gloves, socks, hat, and hand warmers. Those thermal mylar blankets are a compact and affordable addition.
-Ice scraper and brush
-Jumper cables
-A foldable shovel
-A flashlight
-Emergency road flares or reflectors, to place well behind your vehicle 
-First aid kit
-Multitool
-Tire chains, tow strap
-Flashlight, extra batteries
-Matches, lighter, candles
-High-energy snack food
-Safety absorbent, sand, cat litter, or road salt to provide traction for your wheels
-a hand-crank radio
-More than half a tank of gas

Some of these things can get kind of expensive, but they can be life-saving and are cheaper than an emergency room. 

lokittyofcatsguard:

The first one was popular so I made a follow up

Basically, the point of this is that fish produce ammonia in their waste. Ammonia is highly toxic, burns their gills, and will kill them. There are bacteria that convert ammonia into less toxic nitrites, and then there are bacteria that convert those nitrites into even less toxic nitrates, which plants can use. This is how you get them useful bacteria so your fish don’t die slow, painful deaths. 

Also, don’t ever wash your gravel or filter in tap water. Those are what all your good bacteria live in. They don’t live in water, that’s a myth. 

You can potentially bypass the wait by adding filter media or gravel from an established tank. You still have to do all these steps, but you might not have to wait for the bacteria to show up and grow. 

Source: lokittyofcatsguard

did you seriously just say we should let pandas go extinct to save other animals or am i misinterpreting because that is a very questionable judgement

zoologicallyobsessed:

cyanocrylate:

biologizeable:

ALRIGHT MY FRIEND I have received about six messages in this vein since yesterday, but I worked for thirteen hours today and I have no time for this nonsense. Short answer: YES. 

I’m gonna summarize some salient points on why pandas are awful from a conservation standpoint:

  • PANDAS LITERALLY CANNOT MATE IN CAPTIVITY. IT’S UNBELIEVABLE
  • Artificial insemination and hand-rearing of cubs are basically standard practice, and still they usually die. At what point is it reasonable to give up because I think we hit it DECADES AGO
  • In 35 years, only 90 cubs have been born in captivity outside of China
  • Wild panda numbers have increased a bare (bear?) 200 individuals in 10 years, despite literal billions of dollars being poured into conservation
  • NO OTHER AREA OF ANIMAL CONSERVATION EVEN COMES CLOSE TO THE MONEY BEING POURED INTO PANDAS. NONE
  • And yet we’ve managed to literally rebuild populations of black-footed ferrets, oryx, and California condors with exponentially less money
  • Despite all of this, only 10 pandas have been released since the 80s, and all but two died
  • I bet you wouldn’t have guessed that it’s because their habitat is destroyed and fragmentary and barely protected!!!!!! 
  • The only good thing about panda conservation is that protecting their range is also protecting tons of other species. Which would be great, if more of their range was being protected effectively.
  • There is way more money in keeping captive pandas captive than in releasing them!! surprise!!!!!!
  • Zoos pay a lot of money to get pandas on loan because people just LOVE looking at pandas and they can’t afford to house and care for their other animals without people coming to visit! Or do any kind of conservation whatsoever!! Panda-economics! (this is kind of a pro as opposed to a con but its the kind of pro that makes me feel like I need a shower)
  • Pandas are endangered and sort of have a role in spreading bamboo seeds around, so they get billions of dollars. Every shark ever is MORE endangered, and without them the entire ocean ecosystem would collapse, but that’s fine they don’t need money (I’m not bitter) ((I am bitter))

I’m gonna be frank with you. We are in the middle of a mass extinction event, caused by us. Not to be a downer (jk, I’m gonna) but we’re already driving so many species to extinction that we cannot afford to save them all with the money and interest that is in conservation right now. 

Instead, we have to do some kind of awful extinction triage and assess which animals will do the most good to work to conserve – and getting into keystone species, ecosystem engineers, and other truly integral species is a whole other can of worms I’m not gonna touch on – but there are animals that are “more important” in a certain sense than others, in that they can support or affect a much wider range of other species than another. 

People only care about big, cute, fluffy animals – a common lament heard from conservationists, but it’s so true. There are thousands, if not millions of species that don’t fit this mold that conservation work would benefit eons more than pandas. It’s like fixing a pretty, stained-glass window in a house whose foundations are collapsing and thinking you’re helping. 

Pandas have always been the face of conservation, and they continue to be one of the biggest and most expensive ongoing failures. 


[Sources/ stuff to read to make sense of my incoherent response!]

Keep reading

@zoologicallyobsessed

I’m in the panda hate club right here. Fuck those black and white wastes of money

Look, I like pandas and all, but that money needs to go to other places.

The trouble is, it won’t. China keeps pandas alive because they’re profitable, in order to rent them out. If all the pandas up and died, they’d go “ugh, oh well” and put the money into other profitable things, not conservation.

But if there was a button that I could press to put all that money that goes towards pandas into more worthwhile conservation projects? I’d push it, no question whatsoever. 

drownedduck:

youcantseebutimmakingaface:

glumshoe:

wetlands are important

They filter runoff, preserve vital habitat, and help to prevent erosion and flooding. There’s more but I am not a scientist BUT YOU SHOULD KNOW

But I am!

Wetlands are important for all those things and more! First off they’re a unique ecosystem that harbors certain types of life that can’t survive elsewhere. They are a major link in the chain that is the whole ecosystem, in that without them then things would break down or drastically change.

Estuary wetlands are pivital not only to both fresh water and salt water species, but to humans on the coasts as well. Estuaries can help absorb the impact of a flood from hurricane or tsunami, prevent contamination from crossing either way, and be nurseries for thousands of species that grow up/live far from the wetland. When you have rain runoff, if there wasn’t wetlands then all the dirt and excess nutrients would go directly into the next water source downstream, causing pollution and algae blooms, which further disrupts the systems on that body of water. It means less food for fish, which means less food for predatory animals and human fishers, which means you start paying more for said food. The fisherman loses his job, the ospreys and eagles start thinning out, eventually the impacts add up to change that affects you personally.

When there is a flood or tsunami, wetlands can literally absorb some of that excess water, keeping it out of your house. Wetlands act as a buffer for wave action, protecting coasts and shores from erosion. The trees within act as wind breaks.

Wetlands are carbon traps like peat bogs, only not as efficient. Things rot there, some of the material stays under layers of silt and mud, some still gets released as gas but not as much or as fast as out in the open. Wetland mud isn’t as nutrient packed as peat, but it’s okay, if not freshly coated in precipitated toxins (still, that could be sloughed off).

Remember Katrina? Even the army corp engineers commented that the levies wouldn’t have broken and been over powered so easily and New Orleans wouldn’t have flooded as bad if the wetlands were still really there. Same story for many hurricanes before and since.

chocolatecoffeething:

nyarlathotwink:

it’s crazy that im alive to witness major effects of climate change. like it always seemed super vague and it was always ‘the polar bears won’t have anywhere to live’ but this shit is going to fuck everything up bigtime.

Most people don’t realize how serious it is. We’ve only got 50 years worth of resources left, if we keep going the way we are, and honestly, that’s optimistic. Aside from that, we’ve already gone over the calculated “point of no return”, so even if we immediately start sucking gasses out of the atmosphere and stop all transport and agriculture, we’re going to see oceans rise, sea life die, we’re going to be crammed into smaller land areas, places like Melbourne will be underwater, and the fallout will probably send us into an ice age anyway (long story, but basically the ice melts, cold water sinks, the ocean flow responsible for thermoregulation of the planet is interrupted, cue ice age).

I can already see it now. Forget the hurricanes for a moment:

-Hay isn’t growing at the right time. Last year, no one got good hay where I live, because the weather (which has been in the same pattern during hay season for as long as I’ve been alive) was whacked out.

-None of my animals grew coats correctly, because the weather is just all wrong, and they don’t know what season they’re in.

-We’re getting new temperature records globally; basically, all weather is starting to change already

-Where I live, there are always two weeks where we see echidnas everywhere, and then we don’t see them the rest of the year. that is, until last year, when we barely saw them, spaced throughout several months. 

-Let me reiterate, the animals cannot tell what season it is because climate change is altering weather patterns that have been here for as long as anyone can remember

-We also have more acidic rain due to all the gasses, which is why we’ve got so many statues and whatnot corroding even though they haven’t changed for thousands of years

-We had a tornado start to form in Melbourne. That’s unheard of.

We have the technology to slow down climate change. If we want to survive for more than 50 years, we need to act now. NOW. We need to put in place all the technologies we have, and pour money into more scientific research.

And why haven’t we? Because politicians earn money from oil companies and don’t care about the future of the planet, because they’re not going to be here in 50 years anyway.

some good consent phrases

thatdiabolicalfeminist:

“May I hug you?”

“When I ask you if you want to do something, you know it’s always okay to say no, right?”

“Let me know if you get uncomfortable, okay?”

“How do you feel about (x activity)?”

(When someone’s insecure about having said no and asks if it’s okay/if you’re mad or upset they said no) “I’m disappointed, of course, but I’m really glad you were willing to tell me (no/that you were uncomfortable/etc.). That’s really important to me. Thank you.”

“I’d ALWAYS rather be told no than make you feel pressured or do anything to hurt you or make you uncomfortable.”

“I care about you, so when something I do hurts you or makes you uncomfortable, I want to know, because I don’t like making you feel bad.”

“Wanna do (x)? It’s okay if not, but I think it would be (fun/worthwhile/prudent).”

(When starting a social phone call): “Hey, are you busy right now?”

(When confirming plans made earlier): “Hey, are you still up for doing (x) at (time) on (day)?”

“Can I vent a little about (x)?”

“Can I tell you something (gross/depressing)?”

“Are you comfortable talking about it?”

“Do you think you could talk me through this problem I’ve been having? If you have the time and emotional energy of course.”

“It’s okay if that doesn’t work for you.”

“I’m interested in spending more time with you. Would you be interested in doing (x) together on (y day)?”

“No? Well let me know if you ever want to do something else.” (leave it open! don’t nag! let it go!)

Consent culture – it’s about way more than just sex!

Give people as much freedom as possible to make their own choices without pressure or control.

Even children deserve as much autonomy as allows them to remain safe and get their needs met – remember, you can’t train a child to make good/safe/healthy choices without ever giving them choices. A child who is taught to respect consent is a child who doesn’t assault people! A child who knows they have a right to say no is a child who knows that someone who infringes on their autonomy isn’t supposed to do that.

A consent-conscious relationship is a healthier and safer relationship, and a person who is aware of and deliberate about asking for, giving, receiving, refusing, and being refused consent is a healthier and safer person.

dealing with the worst case scenario

karkatcas666:

astrologypixies:

4velitta4:

lilypotterr:

I feel like this could be useful in my future

REBLOG THIS. I CANNOT STRESS HOW IMPORTANT THIS GUIDES ARE, BOOST THIS SHIT

I don’t have a breast, unless you talking about chicken