The Arctic Death Spiral.

The sharp decline in Arctic sea ice area in recent decades has been matched by a harder-to-see, but equally sharp, drop in sea ice thickness. The combined result has been a warming-driven collapse in total sea ice volume — to about one quarter of its 1980 level.

I first asked creative tech guru and programming analyst Andy Lee Robinson to make this ice cube volume chart (updated below) after the record-setting sea ice melt in 2012. The European Space Agency’s CryoSat-2 probe had just confirmed modeling by the University of Washington’s Polar Science Center that it wasn’t just ice area that had shrunk to a record low.

Robinson wanted to improve the visualization of volume collapse through 3D animation, which requires serious programming chops and computing power (more details here). Here is his most recent version of the video—with piano music composed and played by Robinson himself.

The full story is at Think Progress. I don’t have the heart to comment, we humans, so destructive, so uncaring.

How A Scruffy Magpie Saved A Family.

Our story is deeply painful to share, but it is also beautiful and true. Just know that when I tell you about the tears, the anger and the longing, I am also talking about love. We have laughed till we cried and we have wept ourselves to sleep, for that is the nature of love. Love hurts. Love heals. Photograph: Cameron Bloom.

Our story is deeply painful to share, but it is also beautiful and true. Just know that when I tell you about the tears, the anger and the longing, I am also talking about love. We have laughed till we cried and we have wept ourselves to sleep, for that is the nature of love. Love hurts. Love heals.
Photograph: Cameron Bloom.

Here’s a story to warm your heart and start your day on a lovely note, or end your evening that way. Thanks to Lofty for sending this our way.

Penguin Bloom is the story of an Australian family who rescued a ‘a tiny, scruffy, injured’ magpie chick they called Penguin. In caring for the newest member of their family, the Blooms – including mother Sam, who was herself coming to terms with paralysis after an accident – found that Penguin helped them to heal emotionally. Their story went viral on Instagram and has now been turned into a book, royalties from which will go to Spinal Cure Australia and Wings For Life in the UK.

You can read and see all the images at The Guardian.

Turkeys On Deck, Eeeeeee!

I should say Her Majesty on Deck. The wild turkeys were back, and this time, found a deck full of food. The Matriarch was the only one who stayed on the deck, and not just stayed, she owned that deck. The squirrels were upset, but wisely ran away, and the smaller birds stayed high in the trees. One Blue Jay tried screaming, but soon found that to be no use. I’m still feeling a bit light-headed and in awe of being allowed the privilege of such closeness, because the Matriarch made it very clear she was aware of me. Oh man, giddy. I’m giddy. Click for full size! ETA: Just got a bunch more shots. More tomorrow.

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© C. Ford.

SPECTACULAR.

Interested in documenting one of the oldest animals on Earth, Barcelona-based production company myLapse set to capture the minimal movements of brightly colored coral, recording actions rarely seen by the human eye. The short film took nearly 25,000 individual images of the marine invertebrates to compose, and photography of species, such as the Acanthophyllia, Trachyphyllia, Heteropsammia cochlea, Physogyra, took over a year.

The production team hopes the film attracts attention to the Great Barrier Reef, encouraging watchers to take a deeper interest in one of the natural wonders of the world that is being rapidly bleached due to climate change. You can see more up-close images of the coral species featured in this film on Flickr.

This is in the realm of true awe, and it’s yet another timely reminder of just how much is at stake in our cavalier attitude toward our earth. It isn’t just the lives of human people which are at stake, but all peoples (for those who need translation: all beings, all species).

Via Colossal Art.