The flower industry is toxic. Pick wildflowers 🌸

Fishing with compassion

Dear wildflowers 🌸

Spring is in full bloom, the season of rebirth is upon us. So we invite you to pick some wildflowers, embrace changes, and let go of past troubles.

eco_nnect

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🗞️ In Climate News

• 🇲🇽 Mexico sanctioned by international trade agreement (CITES) for failing to protect the endangered vaquita marina.

• 🛩️ Amsterdam Schiphol airport plans to ban private jets and night flights by 2025.

• 🇪🇺 European Parliament proposes including ecocide in EU law.

• 🌡️ World’s ocean temperatures reach record high.

• 🌊 Over 10,000 people displaced in record floods in Acre, Brazil.

• 🇳🇦 Locals in Namibia sue government over Okavango oil exploration leases.

📈 Cool Trends

• 🏙️ carbon-negative concrete.

• 🍊 flour made from food waste

♾️ eco-stories

🎣 Fishing with compassion

“I studied to be a technician to solve technical issues, like changing the type of fishing nets that were being used… Nobody had taught me how to understand a culture, how to engage with the community, how to appreciate how they feel and how they live, not just by understanding their language, but all of their expressions. This realization made me grow a lot and see conservation work in an entirely different light.”

I met Alejandro Robles on a sunny afternoon in his countryside home in Los Barriles, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Alejandro and his wife Monica grow their own produce there and have built nature cabins for guests. Their home was welcoming and peaceful, a sweet countryside relief nestled within the giant cacti that are so symbolic of Baja. They normally reside in La Paz, the capital of Baja California Sur. Baja is known for its marine wildlife and ecosystems, it’s often described as an “open air aquarium”.

la vaquita marina

Alejandro has been working in ocean conservation his entire life. At the tender age of 26 he was on the scientific boat that first identified the vaquita marina —– the elusive endangered and tiny porpoise that is endemic to the Sea of Cortez. 

💩 WTF NEWS?

• 🐦 Microplastics are changing the microbiome of birds?

• 🏊 Swimming pools driving city water crises, study says.

🌏 The Culture Club

📺 What we’re watching: Operation Milagro III

📸 Profile of the week: @seashepherd

seashepherd

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📚What we’re reading: Flower Confidential by Amy Stewart
🤯 Scary fact we learnt this week: Two-thirds of Ecuadorian flower workers suffer from headaches, nausea, miscarriages, and neurological problems;  all related to exposure to chemicals and pesticides.