Migrating birds are taking refuge on California rice paddies
Some 95% of the wetlands in the Central Valley have disappeared as a result of intensive farming and urban development. The areas are habitat that are relied on by declining populations of birds such as the western sandpiper, which travels from the Arctic to South America.
In response, a network of organizations called the Migratory Bird Conservation Partnership began paying rice farmers to make paddies more habitable for birds. Farmers who win the open bidding process flood their fields earlier than normal in the fall and begin planting later in the spring. That cuts into the growing season but gives migrating birds wetlands along their journey.
Why We Wrote This
What does it mean to have your country finally accept you? Or to welcome home a sacred object that was taken from your people centuries ago? Our progress roundup takes a look, and notes how hospitality to birds on California rice farms aids their migration.
With initial funding from The Nature Conservancy, 120,000 acres of temporary wetlands have been created over the past decade. “It’s this weird rare circumstance where you have a large industrial-scale intensive agricultural system that can simultaneously support wildlife,” said conservation researcher Daniel Karp of the University of California, Davis.
Source: High Country News
Indigenous leaders in Brazil received a sacred cloak from a Danish museum
Nearly 6 feet long and adorned with 4,000 red feathers from the scarlet ibis bird, the cloak had been on display in Copenhagen, Denmark, since 1689.
It was taken from the Tupinambá people when Brazil was a colony of Portugal. “Our ancestors say that when they [the Europeans] took it away, our village was left without a north,” Indigenous Chief Sussu Arana Morubyxada Tupinambá said. Two hundred members of the tribe attended a ceremony in Rio de Janeiro to welcome back the garment, some having traveled over 700 miles by bus.
The decision is part of a trend of museums returning artifacts to communities, an act that serves as recognition of Indigenous rights, Tupinambá leaders said. Other Tupinambá cloaks remain on display across Europe.
Source: BBC
The International Space Station can now print metal parts in space
Space missions are safer and more autonomous when astronauts can build their own tools and manufacture parts for repairing equipment.
The European Space Agency launched the first metal 3D printer to space at the beginning of the year, following success using plastic 3D printers. The metal piece it produced in August was the first to be printed in microgravity conditions. This and three other parts will be brought to Earth for quality analysis at technical centers in the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark.
The accomplishment “paves the way for long-distance and long-duration missions,” said Daniel Neuenschwander, director of human and robotic exploration at the agency. The printer was built by Airbus and designed in part by researchers at Cranfield University in the United Kingdom.
Source: European Space Agency
Guinea banned most single-use plastics
In the past seven decades, the world’s plastic production has grown from 2 million metric tons to over 450 million metric tons (over 496 million tons) a year.
The decree issued by Guinean President Mamady Doumbouya aims to curb plastic pollution and encourage the use of biodegradable materials. It affects the production, import, sale, and use of single-use plastics and prohibits the disposal of plastic packaging on streets, in public places, and in natural areas. Penalties include the closure of businesses and fines.
Chau Cuong Le/Hans Lucas/Reuters/File
Single-use plastics will still be allowed in water and other liquid packaging as well as in the medical, agricultural, and military sectors. Nearly two dozen African countries have banned some form of single-use plastics, a trend pioneered by Rwanda in 2008.
Source: Energy Monitor
Malaysian women can pass their nationality on to children born overseas
Until recently, if a Malaysian woman returned home after giving birth abroad, her children did not have the same rights to education, health care, and other services as children born in the country.
Such citizenship laws can leave children stateless or trap women in abusive relationships for fear of losing custody. Six Malaysian women and the grassroots organization Family Frontiers took the government to court in 2021 over what they saw as a sexist and outdated practice. The case was initially deemed “frivolous,” but the change to the constitution was overwhelmingly approved by Parliament in October.
Two dozen countries still ban or limit mothers in their ability to confer nationality.
Source: Context
