#habitat

A climate's changes are tough to quantify. Butterflies can help. Entomologists prefer "junk species--" the kind of butterflies too common for most collections-- to keep up with what's going on in the insect's world. They're easy to find and observe. When do something unusual, something's changed in the area. Art Shapiro's team at UC Davis monitors ten local study sites, some since the 1970s. The ubiquitous species are the study's go-tos, helping distinguish between lasting changes (climate warming, habitat loss) and ones that will right themselves (one cold winter, droughts like last year's). Consistency is key; they collect details year after year, no empty data sets between. A few species have disappeared from parts of the study area altogether, probably a lasting change. On the other hand, seemingly big news in 2012 might be just a year's aberration. Two butterflies came back to the city of Davis last year, the umber skipper after 30 years, the woodland skipper after 20-- both likely a result of a dry winter with near-perfect breeding conditions of sunny afternoons and cool nights. ↗

— Johnson Rizzo National Geographic Feb.

#changes #climate-change #environment #habitat #patterns

It is a drastic mistake to eliminate the provisions that have to do with the protection of habitat for endangered species. It is my opinion that the Endangered Species Act is 99 percent about protecting critical habitat. ↗

— Jim Saxton

#act #critical #drastic #eliminate #endangered

The natural habitat of the tongue is the left cheek. ↗

— Red Smith

#habitat #left #natural #tongue

Oceans are one of the most important things in the world now and that is a national security threat of the United States of America, to be honest with you. That is why seeing the habitat destroyed is so short-sighted by us. ↗

— Ian Somerhalder

#destroyed #habitat #honest #important #important things

I introduced Nora as my wife, though that was a lie. Old people, that's what they wanted to hear. If you were married, you were mature, reliable, exactly like them, because in their day men and women didn't just live together--they made a commitment, they had children and went on cruises and built big houses on lakes and filled them with all the precious trinkets and manufactured artifacts they'd collected along the way. ↗

— T.C. Boyle

#cohabitation #commitment #marriage #maturity #reliability

You are truly endearing when you sleep. I attribute this to the exotic nature of seeing you in a state of silence. —Tybalt ↗

— Seanan McGuire

#october-daye #tybalt #nature

Zoos are becoming facsimiles - or perhaps caricatures - of how animals once were in their natural habitat. If the right policies toward nature were pursued, we would need no zoos at all. ↗

— Michael J. Fox

#caricatures #habitat #how #natural #nature

We have been working with Habitat for Humanity and we have built eighty homes, 80% of which are being lived in by New Orleans' musicians. It is called the Musicians' Village and at the center is the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music. ↗

— Harry Connick, Jr.

#being #built #called #center #eighty

For example, in my district there are visitors from all over the world who are drawn to our beautiful beaches, recreational lakes, habitat wildlife preserves and golf courses. ↗

— Mark Foley

#beautiful #courses #district #drawn #example

The one process now going on that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us. ↗

— E. O. Wilson

#descendants #destruction #diversity #folly #forgive