The Octopus And The Butterfly

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Join an endearing young octopus on an epic adventure that begins unexpectedly when she encounters litter pollution in her tranquil coral reef…

Copyright ©Martyn Lee Brown 2021

Who’s ready for Halloween? 🎃 Halloween is just around the corner, but when it comes to decorating your home for the spo...
27/10/2023

Who’s ready for Halloween? 🎃 Halloween is just around the corner, but when it comes to decorating your home for the spooky holiday, it can be a challenge to keep things eco-friendly. Most store-bought decorations are made with non-recyclable plastic and covered in toxic paint or synthetic fabrics. But there is no need for frivolous spending and waste when it comes to decorating for Halloween. There are some great DIY ideas that you can use to upcycle things that are already lying around your house, allowing you to keep your environmental impact to a minimum. Reusing, swapping, making, buying from charity shops will help minimise the impact of the throwaway items associated with Halloween. Please enjoy yourself but please help by refusing to buy new!

Which film shoot shamefully destroyed a natural space to transform it into a set?In 1999, Danny Boyle filmed The Beach w...
16/10/2023

Which film shoot shamefully destroyed a natural space to transform it into a set?
In 1999, Danny Boyle filmed The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio, Virginie Ledoyen and Guillaume Canet.

For the main setting of the film, the producers are looking for an idyllic beach. They finally chose a beach in Thailand, Maya Bay, on the island of Ko Phi Phi Le.

However, the beach in question is not perfectly consistent with the paradise image that director Danny Boyle is aiming for. To make it completely idyllic, work is necessary…

Fox studio officials will then negotiate with Thai officials and obtain authorization to “redevelop” the landscape.

As the scenario describes the beach as being big enough to play football, a clearing will be created with a bulldozer. The vegetation bordering the beach is razed without qualms.

Then, as the trees that grew naturally along the beach are not telegenic enough, we brought in around a hundred palm trees from another region which we planted there. Even if this species, which is not indigenous to the island, could threaten the local ecosystem in the long term...

All the changes made to the nature of the island will prove catastrophic.

After production begins, seasonal storms hit the region. As the sand dunes are no longer protected by their natural vegetation, which has been razed, they collapse and are washed away by the sea, damaging the coral reef.

Although Fox had promised to return the beach to its original state after filming, this was not the case.

Thai environmentalists became aware of the problem and accused the film's production of bribing the Thai government to obtain legal permissions.

Apparently, Fox donated the equivalent of $100,000 to Royal Forestry Development in Thailand, 100 times more money than the organization typically charges to authorize filming. This is the sign of a bribe for environmentalists, who are suing Fox, its local partner Santa International and Thai officials.

The case dragged on for nearly 7 years, until a court finally ordered Fox to do everything possible to repair the environmental damage.

Let’s talk about…Dugongs. Dugongs are cousins of manatees and share a similar plump appearance, but have a dolphin fluke...
09/10/2023

Let’s talk about…Dugongs. Dugongs are cousins of manatees and share a similar plump appearance, but have a dolphin fluke-like tail. And unlike manatees, which use freshwater areas, the dugong is strictly a marine mammal. Commonly known as "sea cows," dugongs graze peacefully on sea grasses in shallow coastal waters of the Indian and western Pacific Oceans. Dugongs are threatened by sea grass habitat loss or degradation because of coastal development or industrial activities that cause water pollution. If there is not enough sea grass to eat then the dugong does not breed normally. This makes the conservation of their shallow water marine habitat very important. They also often become victims of bycatch, the accidental entanglement in fishing nets.
Drones To Be Used To Monitor The Falling Dugong Population

The dugong population of India is struggling to remain afloat as pressures from many different burdens are bearing down on them. The fragile population of remaining dugongs in India is concentrated in the Gulf of Mannar, and the Gulf of Kutch.

Currently, there are less than 200 of these animals living in Indian water. The situation looks desperate, but researchers are looking to the sky for answers. Specifically, by creating a drone program that will help to find, track and look out for the remaining dugongs in the area.

Let’s talk about…. Chimpanzees. Like us, chimps are highly social animals, care for their offspring for years and can li...
03/10/2023

Let’s talk about…. Chimpanzees. Like us, chimps are highly social animals, care for their offspring for years and can live to be over 50. In fact, chimpanzees are our closest cousins; we share about 98% of our genes.

In their habitat in the forests of Central Africa, chimpanzees spend most of their days in the treetops. When they do come down to earth, chimps usually travel on all fours, though they can walk on their legs like humans for as far as a mile. They use sticks to fish termites out of mounds and bunches of leaves to sop up drinking water. Results from the largest ever research study of gorillas and chimpanzees in Western Equatorial Africa show population numbers higher than first believed, but their future still remains in peril. Despite our shared lineage, humans are pushing chimpanzees toward extinction. Chimps have already disappeared completely from four countries and are under tremendous pressure everywhere else they live.

Let’s talk about… Blue Whales! Blue Whales can grow to over 30-metres in length, but are extremely graceful swimmers. Th...
29/09/2023

Let’s talk about… Blue Whales! Blue Whales can grow to over 30-metres in length, but are extremely graceful swimmers. They typically have a cruising speed of around 8-kilometres per hour, and can hit top speeds of up to 50 kph. They are also great divers, plunging down to depths of 500-metres, to seek krill to snack on.

Because the blue whale is the largest animal to live on the planet, it has few predators. However, shark attacks and killer whales can injure or kill a blue whale. More commonly, they succumb to injuries sustained with collisions with large sea vessels.

The global population of blue whales is uncertain, but based on research from the IUCN, the global total for the species is estimated to be between 10,000-25,000 and classed as endangered and were hunted almost to extinction, until they were put on the protect species list in 1966. By this time it is believed that 380,000 blue whales lost their lives to hunters who used them for their oil. Unfortunately, their population has not grown back to pre 1911 levels and records estimate their growth is between 3-11 percent or what it was before this date.

Let’s talk about… Amur Leopards.The Amur leopard is one of the rarest big cats in the world, with only around 100 indivi...
21/09/2023

Let’s talk about… Amur Leopards.

The Amur leopard is one of the rarest big cats in the world, with only around 100 individuals left in the wild. Although their wild population seems to be stable and increasing, these leopard subspecies are still critically endangered since 1996. And there is a good reason that: Amur leopards can only be found in a relatively small region of the far east of Russia and north-eastern China at present.

The remaining Amur leopards face multiple threats to their survival, including habitat loss and fragmentation, prey scarcity and transportation infrastructure such as roads. However, there is hope for this rare big cat. Around 75% of their home range lies in protected areas in Russia and China, and they are also moving into suitable habitats outside of these protected areas.

Ramona’s stunning pencil drawing Great White Shark (who I’m going to name Clive btw) is a world class snippet of this in...
08/09/2023

Ramona’s stunning pencil drawing Great White Shark (who I’m going to name Clive btw) is a world class snippet of this incredible lady’s talents. With beautiful textures achieved and insane lighting details, you could almost be forgiven that this drawing was a still from one of David Attenborough’s early BBC documentaries. If you haven’t already, check out her Instagram pages and and also her Etsy account by typing in mirabiliaArte!

Mind boggling work from my incredible artist of a beautiful humpback whale breaching the waves. Check out more of her a...
29/08/2023

Mind boggling work from my incredible artist of a beautiful humpback whale breaching the waves. Check out more of her amazing work and by going to Etsy and searching mirabiliaArte. She also has a new page on Instagram where she shows off her paper model art skills. This lady’s talent has no bounds!

HETTY REALLY NEEDS YOUR HELP! What do yo...
10/05/2023

HETTY REALLY NEEDS YOUR HELP!
What do you think of this model of Hetty and Harmony? It was made as a representation of a . (If you don’t know what they are, please look them up) I have been talking to the company back and forth but they have said that although they love the book, that I need more of a social platform following, so this is where I really need your help! I need to build my following on Instagram, so if you have any friends or family that may want to follow the story of please tag them to this post. If you have any ideas how you might be able to help me boost the numbers to convince that it would be great to get these into production, please let me know! Ps. This prototype was made by the amazing

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