Their good friends, the fuzzy white polar bears, are losing their icy homes. Rising sea levels will wash away those nice pastel houses along the beach. Some day, every moving thing that relies on gas -  cars, trains, ships and planes – will come to a screeching halt and the world will be in shock because people won’t know how to live, work, feed themselves or get around.

These are real fears being shared with children – and not just around my own …

Tags: animals , child education and conservation , composting , eco fears , extinction , fears , kids and the environment , polar bears , recycling

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Tsk tsk! This has nothing to do with Hustler or hardcore! Get your mind out of the gutter and more into the art of…oh, bug sex.

The fabulous Isabella Rossellini hosts her second series of delightfully wacky short films about the sex lives of different insects and animals. Welcome to the wild and wonderful world of sexy nature – welcome to Green Porno. It sounds racy, but the clips are tame and respectful enough to educate children. Seriously.

And what exactly will you find in an episode of Green Porno? …

Tags: animals , celebrities , celebrity , film , sex

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I can think of no better way to wake up in the morning than to the music of birds. Granted, they wake up a lot earlier than I prefer, but their song and poetry makes it easy to drift back into a sweet morning sleep. I’m incredibly grateful for the presence of birds. I have lived where they are silent and rare and it truly makes for a dismal day.

So how are our avian companions doing these days? Due to contaminants in the environment and habitat loss (i.e., …

Tags: animal preservation , animals , environment , news

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Got goats? If not, there’s a family-owned and operated grazing service in Orinda, California that will deliver to you a South American shepherd, Border Collie and trained herd to graze your ranch or yard. Used primarily for fuel mitigation, star thistle eradication and reducing pesky hillside brush, the livestock comes in a variety of breeds to munch sites as expansive as 30,000 acre ranches.

The Goats R Us business was bred by …

Tags: Angoras , animals , Border Collie , brush reduction , California , family businesses , fuel mitigation , Goats , grazing , herds , livestock , Orinda , thistle eradication

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Our planet is in peril and it seems there’s more grim environmental news every day. Of course, it’s important we recognize the gravity of the situation so we can change rather than continuing blithely in our old, polluting habits. But the relentless delivery of bad news makes it easy to succumb to despair and the natural human reaction to despair is inaction.

We need hope. Not blind optimism that it’ll be all right in the end, even if we don’t change our ways. But genuine hope that if we all pull …

Tags: animals , conservation , economy , energy , environment , news , Obama , pollution , sustainability

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Biodiversity, while healthy for the earth, is a real boon for human health, too. Take the West Nile virus, spread to humans by mosquitoes. It turns out that that the greater diversity of bird species in a region, the lower the amount of human West Nile virus cases.

You’d think the greater number of birds in a region will ensure that more mosquitoes get eaten, but that’s not what’s affecting the statistics. Some species of birds are particularly good hosts for the virus and that’s how the mosquitoes get …

Tags: animal preservation , animals , environment , health

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Birds twitter. Cats meow. Dogs bark. And elephants…rumble.

It’s one of the most curious corners of the biophony – the low-frequency noise (on the lower edge of our own hearing) that elephants send into the ground to attract a mate. The vibration is picked up by potential partners through their forelegs, and from there it’s transmitted to a bone in their middle ear (here’s the science of it – pdf). Amazingly, this may work over distances of up to 6 miles. It’s only one …

Tags: acoustics , animals , biophony , conservation , environment , natural world , science , technology

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There’s a saying, “animals make us human.” It’s because the way we treat the creatures in our care shows what kind of people we are. If you care about your own health, what you eat and what kind of home you live in, it’s important that you care about the health and happiness of the animals that share your home. Love is important for your pet, but so is proper care and mental stimulation. Here are the essential basics of providing a good life for your pet:

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Tags: animals , care , going green , health , personal care , pets

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This is a healthy pelican – quite beautiful. Unfortunately, very sick pelicans are falling out of the sky these days. It’s one of many recent alarming indicators from our fellow creatures that things are seriously wrong.

Hundreds of sick pelicans have fallen to the ground from Mexico to Oregon, smashing into cars, boats and beaches, and experts are baffled. Authorities have ruled out domoic acid poisoning, which has affected wildlife before. It’s nothing short of a mystery. Surviving pelicans have been found in yards and on roads, disoriented …

Tags: animals , environment , news , pelicans , wildlife

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