A snapping turtle emerges from weeks of sleeping beneath a muddy lake that had dried up.

Image credit: Timothy C. Roth
Further reading: https://www.livescience.com/64215-earth-turtle-photo.html

Turns out the "red in tooth and claw" view of nature is not quite right. Cooperation is essential to life.

“In the more than a century since, symbioses have been found to play an essential role in the development and survival of almost every organism. Humans, animals, plants, coral and insects all depend heavily on microbes, which, in turn, depend on their hosts. Consider the gut bacteria that support human and animal health, the algae that power coral reefs, or the mitochondria that make our cells run. It turns out that these give-and-take relationships with the microbiome are essential to life on earth. They are so universal and paramount, in fact, that earlier this year, some scientists called for a wholesale remapping of Darwin’s Tree of Life to take them into account.”

Link to article:
https://medium.com/hhmi-science-media/symbiosis-its-complicated-f9578d3b4b9a

#ecology #biology #symbiosis #nature #ecophilosophy #science

"Much of the reluctance to do what #climate change requires comes from the assumption that it means trading abundance for austerity, and trading all our stuff and conveniences for less stuff, less convenience. But what if it meant giving up things we’re well rid of, from deadly emissions to nagging feelings of doom and complicity in destruction? What if the austerity is how we live now — and the #abundance could be what is to come?"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/15/rebecca-solnit-climate-change-wealth-abundance/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWJpZCI6IjI5MjMyNDkiLCJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNjc5MDI1NjAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNjgwMzIxNTk5LCJpYXQiOjE2NzkwMjU2MDAsImp0aSI6IjYwOTRiMDgxLTBjNWItNDlkMy05MTc5LTFmYjllYTFjMTM0OSIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9vcGluaW9ucy8yMDIzLzAzLzE1L3JlYmVjY2Etc29sbml0LWNsaW1hdGUtY2hhbmdlLXdlYWx0aC1hYnVuZGFuY2UvIn0.LBlhsfHjufdQYJzO9V5-kY1gR2L6vlCnMI0TZ4xeqZo

“Beaver sites should be treated as small nature reserves,” says Ciach. “The beaver, like no other species, is our ally in stopping the decline of biodiversity.”

https://therevelator.org/beavers-birds-biodiversity/

#rewilding #biodiversity #beavers