Nature’s Symphony

Recording Earth Sounds for Posterity

Dr. Bernie Krause has spent four decades collecting environmental soundscapes from around the globe. Encompassing more than 1,200 habitats and 15,000 species, his archive is believed to be the largest privately held collection of natural sounds in the world. "Forty percent of my library is from now-extinct habitats," says this internationally-recognized bioacoustician. "That’s in my working lifetime."

From Weddell seals in Antarctica voicing spine-tingling imitations of equatorial thunderstorms to chilling before-and-after recordings at a logging site near Lake Tahoe in North America, Krause’s specialty is preserving the combined sounds that whole groups of living organisms produce. He terms them biophonies.
 Krause focuses on the deep genetic connection between humans and the natural world triggered by sound. "If you listen and listen right, it changes your concept of time," he says. "And, it makes you feel better."

Available CDs are organized by region at WildSanctuary.com.

Wiser Earth
Global Data Bank Connects Good Work Everywhere

Perhaps as many as a million idealistic organizations around the planet are now effecting "a curriculum for the 21st century." And for the first time this vast unnamed movement can gain a sense of its own breadth and depth at www.WiserEarth.org. Thanks to founder Paul Hawken and his team of researchers, businesspersons, activists and writers at Natural Capital Institute, they can also learn from each other.

More than 125,000 non-governmental environmental organizations already have gathered in this online community. Big and small, they are busily sharing proven, practical approaches for addressing the central issues of our times. Anyone can post his or her organization’s details, goals and contact information and tap into others’ expertise. Businesses can participate through a sister site at WiserBusiness.org.

Going Undercover
Bliss Beneath Urban Trees

"The toughest landscape in the world is a city street," says Michael Dosmann, curator of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University in Boston. Planting it right requires expertise. But cities like Boston are determined to broaden their green canopy to cut the "urban heat island effect," which spikes temperatures five to 20 degrees in areas with excessive concrete and asphalt.

"Sidewalk [pavement] really heats up and radiates heat long past when the sun goes down," says Nina Bassuk, head of the Urban Horticulture Center at Cornell University. She posits peak heat from 3 to 5 p.m. and says that trees can have a tremendous cooling effect.
 Boston is the fourth U.S. city, behind Baltimore, Annapolis and New York, to employ the U.S. Forest Service’s satellite mapping to quantify their canopies. Three of these four currently show less than 30 percent cover, with Annapolis, Maryland, at 41 percent.
 Trees are considered miracle workers for city problems. Boston officials cite studies showing benefits of lower energy costs, less stress, enhanced neighborhood pride, more time spent outdoors, less aggressive street behavior and lower crime rates.

P.S. A new hybrid blight-resistant supertree is poised to usher in the revival of the American chestnut, "the sequoia of the East" that once dominated forests from Maine to Florida. Its recovery is the lifework of a modern-day Johnny Appleseed, research orchardist Fred Hebard.

Source: The Christian Science Monitor

Climate Extremes
Tough Weather Circles the Planet

The global warming trend confirmed early this year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been playing out with a vengeance. In its most recent report the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization (WHO) found that 11 of the past 12 years had higher average ground temperatures than any other period since formal temperature recording began. "The average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely the highest during any 50-year period in the last 500 years, and likely the highest in the past 1,300 years," the report said.

More, "Climate change projections indicate it to be very likely that hot extremes, heat waves and heavy precipitation events will continue to become more frequent." WHO is now putting together an early-warning system for climate extremes, including killer monsoons, hurricanes and floods, as well as long-term monitoring systems and plans to help countries most vulnerable to climate change. A comprehensive report is due out at the end of this year.

Bubbling Joy
Money Really Doesn’t Buy Happiness

A 2007 Deakin University study has concluded that the most miserable people living "down under" in Australia reside in Sydney’s most affluent suburbs. Even those in the poorest sections of the country are more satisfied with their lives than these city dwellers. The happiest Aussies mostly live outside the big cities. And of these the happiest neighborhoods are characterized by lower population, more folks over 55, more women, more married couples and less income inequality.

Apparently it’s true that happiness doesn’t depend on what we have, but what we think we have. Or, as Abraham Lincoln observed, "Most people are as happy as they make up their minds to be." He counseled that the secret to happiness has a lot to do with being grateful, practicing random acts of kindness, forgiving enemies and noticing life’s small pleasures.

Other, earlier studies add the interesting note that despite today’s higher incomes, better food, more white goods, overseas holidays, bigger houses and more modern health care, even notoriously well-to-do-Americans are no happier than our 1950 forebears. More, a recent Carnegie Mellon University study published in Psychosomatic Medicine even links health to happiness, reporting that people who are happy, lively and calm contract milder and fewer colds.