Walking on Air, produced for NASA using time-lapse sequences photographed by the crew of Expedition 30
aboard the International Space Station. Music by Howard Blake. (more info at NASA)

Frans de Waal: Moral Behavior in Animals

In perhaps the worst idea a Frenchman ever had, Descartes declared animals to be machine-like automatons which had no mind and felt no pain, opening the way to several centuries of cruel treatment, culminating in the industrial-scale animal-testing of the last half-century. More recently, there are some arguing today an equally absurd idea, that all morality comes from religion; animals (and "non-believers" alike) have no sense of morality. Franz De Waal shows just how wrong these notions are.

Paul Gilding at TED Conf: The Earth is Full

Middle America Is Experiencing a Massive Increase in 3.0+ Earthquakes

"A new United States Geological Survey study has found that middle America between Alabama and Montana is experiencing an 'unprecedented' and 'almost certainly man-made' increase in earthquakes of 3.0 magnitude or greater. In 2011, there were 134 events of that size. That's six times more than were normally seen during the 20th century.
In some regions, the increase in earthquakes is even greater than six fold. For example, in Oklahoma over the past half-century, there were an average of 1.2 quakes of greater than 3.0 magnitude per year. Since 2009, there have been more than 25 per year."
"A naturally-occurring rate change of this magnitude is unprecedented outside of volcanic settings or in the absence of a main shock, of which there were neither in this region,"  scientists wrote in the study.  (source: The Atlantic)

Bat-Killing Fungus Continues Deadly Spread; Death Toll Now at 7 Million

Extinction countdown: North American Bats

"Things keep getting worse for North American bats. Nearly seven million from various species have now fallen victim to the deadly but little-understood disease known as white-nose syndrome (WNS) since it was first observed in February 2006. The fungus that causes WNS, Geomyces destructans, has quickly spread from cave to cave and state to state, and the disease itself was confirmed for the first time west of the Mississippi River this week. This makes 19 U.S. states and four Canadian provinces where the disease can now be found. WNS has a 70 to 100 percent mortality rate; it has no cure or treatment, nor is it entirely clear how it kills bats."

(Read more at  Scientific American's  Extinction Countdown blog)

U.N. High Level Meeting on Wellbeing and Happiness

The UN yesterday held the “High Level Meeting on Wellbeing and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm”, an effort spearheaded by Bhutan's Prime Minister, Jigme Thinley.

Here’s an excerpt from the World Happiness Report, prepared for the conference:  

"The realities of poverty, anxiety, environmental degradation, and unhappiness in the midst of great plenty should not be regarded as mere curiosities. They require our urgent attention, and especially so at this juncture in human history. For we have entered a new phase of the world, termed the Anthropocene by the world’s Earth system scientists. 

"The Anthropocene is a newly invented term that combines two Greek roots: “anthropo,” for human; and “cene,” for new, as in a new geological epoch. The Anthropocene is the new epoch in which humanity, through its technological prowess and population of 7 billion, has become the major driver of changes of the Earth’s physical systems, including the climate, the carbon cycle, the water cycle, the nitrogen cycle, and biodiversity. 

"The Anthropocene will necessarily reshape our societies. If we continue mindlessly along the current economic trajectory, we risk undermining the Earth’s life support systems – food supplies, clean water, and stable climate – necessary for human health and even survival in some places. In years or decades, conditions of life may become dire in several fragile regions of the world. We are already experiencing that deterioration of life support systems in the drylands of the Horn of Africa and parts of Central Asia. 

"On the other hand, if we act wisely, we can protect the Earth while raising quality of life broadly around the world. We can do this by adopting lifestyles and technologies that improve happiness (or life satisfaction) while reducing human damage to the environment. “Sustainable Development” is the term given to the combination of human well-being, social inclusion, and environmental sustainability. We can say that the quest for happiness is intimately linked to the quest for sustainable development."

 NYTimes Dot Earth coverage of the conference
 
Jigme Thinley:  
Bhutan Rails Against World's 'Suicidal Path' (Guardian UK 4/1/12)

U.N. Happiness Project- Timothy Ryback, NYTimes