Good Morning All!
2thanks is having Gremlin problems, so this gets thrown in first! He will be with us shortly
Protecting a Desert Environment or Lithium Ion Batteries?
From the LA Times:
The desolate beauty of the Panamint Valley has long drawn all manner of naturalists, adventurers and social outcasts — including Charles Manson — off-road vehicle riders and top gun fighter pilots who blast overhead in simulated dogfights.
Recently, the Australia-based firm Battery Mineral Resources Ltd. asked the federal government for permission to drill four exploratory wells to see if the hot, salty brine beneath the valley floor contains economically viable concentrations of lithium. The soft, silvery-white metal is a key component of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries and is crucial to the production of electric and hybrid vehicles.
The drilling request has generated strong opposition from the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club and the Defenders of Wildlife, who say the drilling project would be an initial step toward the creation of a full-scale lithium mining operation. They say lithium extraction would bring industrial sprawl, large and unsightly drying ponds and threaten a fragile ecosystem that supports Nelson’s bighorn sheep, desert tortoises and the Panamint alligator lizard, among other species.
The countries with the largest lithium reserves in the world in 2018 were, in order, Chile, Argentina, Australia, and China.
There was a mining town nearby in Surprise Canyon, also called Panamint, which flourished between 1872 when silver was discovered until it was largely destroyed by a flash flood on July 24, 1876. The town had a reputation so bad that silver mined there was cast into un-stealable 450 pound balls and shipped to Los Angeles in unguarded wagons.
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Not One, But Two Bear Stories! One From Spain, One From Korea!
From the Local (Spain):
A Return of the Brown Bear to Portugal!
The bear, which most likely belongs to a population living in the western Cantabrian Mountains in northern Spain, is thought to have wandered across the border.
"The reappearance of individuals from this species in Portugal... has now been confirmed by the ICNF," the Portuguese Institute for Conservation of Nature and Forests (ICNF) said.
Brown bears have been extinct in Portugal since the 19th century.
The animal was spotted in the Montesinho Natural Park and Braganca commune in northeastern Portugal.
And this from the BBC:
“A rare Asiatic black bear has been spotted in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), South Korea's government says.
The Asiatic black bear is described as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The DMZ has become a haven for plants and wildlife, with South Korea's government predicting there are more than 100 endangered species there.
A ministry official told Yonhap news: "It is believed that the photographed bear, about eight to nine months old and weighing about 25 to 35 kilograms, is a descendant of the Asiatic black bears who inhabited the DMZ region for quite a long time."
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Free Flow?
From Science News:
Free-flowing rivers are an endangered species on Earth. Only about a third of the world’s longest rivers still flow freely along their entire lengths, unchained by dams or reservoirs, scientists report in the May 9 Nature.
The study is the first global map of river “connectivity,” the ability of river water to move freely downstream, across floodplains and into and out of aquifers throughout the year. Connectivity signals river health, and is vital to protect freshwater biodiversity, support fish stocks and deliver sediment to coastal regions threatened by rising seas.
The team, led by geographer Günther Grill of McGill University in Montreal, used satellite data to map 12 million kilometers of rivers around the globe. Of the planet’s 246 rivers that are longer than 1,000 kilometers, only 37 percent still run free, the team found.
Most of the remaining free-flowing rivers are in more remote parts of the world, such as Canada’s Liard River in the Arctic and Zambia’s Luangwa in the Congo Basin.
By way of contrast, there are eleven dams on the Missouri River.
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More New Neighbors!
A pair of mockingbirds have chosen one of the flowering shrubs in front of the house in which to build their nest.
It’s high enough off the ground to thwart the cats, and in a crook of two branches thick enough to support the nest.
Mockingbird females lay up to four eggs at one time, and the chicks hatch after about two weeks.
Across the street, the dead tree has become Starling Condos. My neighbor has learned not to park his truck under that tree anymore.
Have a great day! And, take it away 2thanks!