Earth Day 2023 - Think Before Following Another Trend

                 Few days ago, it was Earth Day!!! Horayyyyy!!! 🎉🎉

No much to celebrate though, seeing what we are doing to Mother Nature!!!

It's more like a reminder to be kinder and more respectful!!!

                                        BUT...

How many of us have shared an #savetheplanet 📱💻or used one of those icons Instagram had on the GIF, just because it's cool or to get more followers and likes👍, while buying new clothings that we are going to wear only once and ending up in a landfill?! Or switching the lights off when leaving the room?! Or throwing away less food or eating more vegetables and turning the tap off while brushing our teeth?!

                          I am sure A LOT!!!

How many of us have actually taken a minute to think about any of those things before hitting the share button on our phone or keyboard!!!

                                                "It's another trending Hashtag, let's be part of the community, I don't know what that is, but everyone is posting about, so why not?!"

"After all it's only today Earth Day, tomorrow I will use my washing machine or dishwasher half full again!!!"

"I will start recycling from tomorrow!!!"

"The exhausted batteries?? Put them all together in the same rubbish bag, they won't do any harm, it's only 2 of them!!"

No, I am not reading your minds, but that's what we are all thinking. So multiply that by... I don't know... Let say... roughly... Billions of People?!🧮➕❌➗❓❓

It's not only 2 batteries anymore🔋, it's not only few gallons of water anymore.💧

It's much more... So much more TO LOOSE...💥

Big like an entire planet!!! 🌍🌎🌏

So: Think, Before Following Another Trend!!!

Microplastic: From the Highest to the Deepest Place

Plastic has become a huge problem!!! Microplastic were already found on the Everest Mount, the roof of the world!!! 🗻

And while you are thinking: "it got everywhere and we reached the bottom...", well.. nope!! Not really!!

In fact it has been found in the Marianas Trench, the deepest place on Earth!!! 😰😰😰

Now we can say: "WE HAVE REACHED THE BOTTOM!!!" 😓😓

And we shouldn't!!!

According to James Lovelock's Theory: Gaia (Earth) works like a self-regulating system, so in my opinion the planet is overloaded by this material (which takes 450 years to decompose) and it's trying to find a way to distribute it everywhere else. 

It's like getting fat and your body, already in bad shape, trying to move it to your ears or toes because the other places are already full.

Sounds funny, but that's what I think is happening!! 🙈🙈

Now, the question here is: what shall we do??? And why we are not doing it???

Internet is already filled with to do/task lists about how and why recycle plastic items, where to dispose them, reuse it many times and choosing other materials instead.

So why we are not improving they are only few simple actions? 😥

29th of July 2021: Overshoot Day

How many of you know what the Overshoot Day is?

It's when all Mother Nature's resources of the year are over!!!

Basically we are consuming quicklier than the planet takes to restore in a year!!!

It's a symbolic date calculated by a simple mathematical formula:

 the Biocapacity of Earth to produce resources

divided by the human annual requirement

times 365 (days in 1 year)

And every year it gets earlier and earlier, meaning we are consuming everything faster and faster.

We need to take action!! We need to make this to change!!! Starting with acting as respectful guests!!!

Mother Nature loves us, let's love her back before it's too late!!

🌍Happy Earth Day!!🌍

Today it's Earth Day!!!🌍

Many people will celebrate it in different ways: cleaning a park or a beach, taking care of the garden, having a walk..

I tried to contribute creating some inspirational collages of pictures I take.

Hoping you will like them and you will feel inspirated by them, I wish you a HAPPY EARTH DAY!!!

The floral power, the natural beauty.

The water power, the natural beauty.

The sky power, the natural beauty.

Curious & Curioser Facts: Animals Laugh!! 😂

Have you ever seen those programmes where people don't have to laugh otherwise they are out? 😂😂😂😂
Laugh is a natural behaviour to express happiness and joy!!

But did you know animals laugh too??!! 😰😂

According to some ethologists, monkeys 🐒 laugh a lot as much as children. Dogs 🐕, best man's friend, do the same, changing their muzzle expressions when they play, basically when we see pictures on internet like this one, wondering if they are real, well they are!! Cats🐈 instead, to express their feelings, meow in a particular way.

And finally parrots 🎶🐦, famous for their copying skills, can even sound like they are having so much fun!!😉

So, did you like this curious fact about animals?

Would you like to add anyone else?

🌸🏵🌹 Blossoms 🌸🏵🌹

It's fully #spring, and even if the temperatures are not the highest at the moment, we are surrounded by beautiful and colorful blossoms!!!

Very famous is the Japanese cherry trees event happening in Tokyo during this month, which I really wish one day to go to. 😍🌸🌹🏵

Although in London there is a beautiful place where you can enjoy a walk surrounded by nature in bloom. I am talking about the Kew Gardens.

But do you know what the differences are between a cherry🍒, plum 🏵, almond 🌳 and peach🍑 tree?

They might be mistaken but if you look carefully you can see they have peculiar characteristics, starting from the flowers.

All of them belong to the same family, in fact they all present the following floral formula, which is:

K5 C5 A10+ G1+

and means they have 5 sepals, 5 petals, the male part of the flower is formed by 10 or more stamens, and the female part by 1 or more carpels.

The cherry🍒 flowers have a little rift on the tip of the petals and they are distributed on the branch in long single stems.

The plum 🏵 ones are rounded and don't have any stem.

The almond 🌳 flowers instead are white/pale pink with many rifts on the petals tip.

Finally the peach🍑 ones have a tear-drop shape and the blossoms are united in pairs on the branch with shorter stems.

SOURCE: University della Calabria, Facoltà Agraria.

Curious & Curioser Facts about Eggs

 In honour of #Easter 🌈, here few curious facts about eggs!!!🐣🐤🐔

Probably everyone knows that the biggest egg on Earth, (at the moment not in the past) is the Ostrich's (weight 5 kilos), and the smallest is the Humminbird's🐦 (weight 0,4 grams).

But not everyone knows that the weight of a kiwi’s egg is usually about quarter of its own weight, for humans it's like giving birth to a fully grown 4 years old kid, or for a chicken laying an egg that weights half a kilogram!! 

😥 Ohi ohi!! Poor them!! 😫

Instead, the dinosaurs🐊, after laying a egg, needed to wait 6 months before becoming parents!! 😲😲

But how do we have this info?

Few fossil eggs were discovered and put under an X-Ray exam which revealed little embryos at the 60% of their development.

Studying their teeth they found out a baby dino needs 6 months to hatch!! ⏳😰🙈

Probably this was another factor which caused their #extinction: the time between one #generation and another was too long, therefore they didn't manage to adapt to the new #weather. 😞

About cold, an animal who got adapted to extreme weather is the #Penguin 🐧!!!

The female lays the egg but it's the male who takes care of it for 65 days, keeping it warm and making sure it doesn't get dropped in the snow, holding it on top of its feet. It's so funny seeing how they walk protecting that egg with parental love, or watching the parents passing it between them.

If you want to learn more about eggs go to the NHM at Tring, that has the largest birds' egg collection. Click here if you want to read it!!!

Enjoy the reading and 

Happy #Egghunt!! 🐣🐰

Zombie Cicadas

Who said #Zombies don't exist?!! 

Some #cicadas get infected by a fungus called Massospora, which eats them from inside, feasting with their internal organs but leaving the brain untouched so it can control the corpse.

The dead cicada walk and mate with others to transmit the infection.

In this video you will see how the fungus controls the cicada's brain making the insect walk like a puppet.

#creepy and #fascinating at the same time!!! 

Walking Towards Spring

 Today my feet took me to a beautiful natural place, surrounded by flowers and green lawn.

The temperature was really nice, reminding me Winter is over, Easter is a week away and Spring is spreading all over the landscape.

The fresh and clean air increased my mood, which during this lockdown wasn't that great.

Among the birds chirrping and the buzzing bees, on my path I found something really singular: a circular structure digged in a rock for the rain collection.

In fact in the past the people to water their fields didn't have a pipe system, so they had to use what Mother Nature was offering them: rain!!!

The interesting geological part is that the place is situated on top of a whole piece of clay rock, which is impermeable and so perfect to collect and contain water.

I have been told going down the road there is a natural drinking water spring, next time I will let my feet taking me there.

International World Water Day

During these past days we heard talking a lot about the International #worldwaterday, but why water is so important?

Even if humans are terrestrial living being, before we are born we live in a liquid environment, our body is formed by 70% of water, in fact we are  always recommended to drink at least 2 litres of water per day, to allow our organs working properly. 🍹

Lately we have sent a rover to #Mars and guess what we are looking for? WATER!!! It's the only way to demonstrate the planet was #habitable, as that's how life began on Earth!! 🌍

The biggest civilizations started around important rivers, the first commercial exchanges were done via sea. ⛵

Also who doesn't like to spend a day in a spa🛀 or a swimming pool 🏊 to feel relaxed and reborn, and what about the calming effects of the marine landscapes on the human brain. 🌊

The relationship humans-water is very ancient, but nowadays we use it as it's a spendable good and not a precious one!!

We always consider the water pollution someone else's problem, instead we need to act!!!

By acting I mean taking these little precautions!!

1) Turn the tap off while brushing your teeth, even better if you use a glass to rinse your mouth.

2) Prefer showers instead of bath, if taking a bath don't refill it too much.

3) Wash your car in a self-service or if you wash it yourself turn the tap on only when you need to rinse it up.

4) Water your plants only in the morning and evening so the water doesn't evaporate before reaching the roots.

5) Use the dishwasher and the washing machine only fully loaded.