fábulas sustentáveis

After vacations, friends, family, and an incursion to Africa, time just flows. It has been a lot of time in the computer. Writing and re-writing. Deadlines are passing out. I'm trying to stay alive.

13 December, is closed to the Winter Solstice, the day with the shortest daylight. The sunset is at 15h25 in Göteborg. So the light needs to be celebrated. A girl, coming in the dark, should give us light. People get together in the morning, sing and eat saffron buns . It is a special moment. Everywhere in Sweden it is celebrated. Interesting is to understand that it is dedicated to Lucia of Syracuse (d.304), also known as Saint Lucy, a tradition originally coming from Italy. This year I was in Sweden for the first time and I made part of it.

The world's marine fisheries peaked in the 1990s, when the global catch was higher than it is today.  And the populations of key commercial species like bluefin tuna and cod have dwindled, in some cases falling more than 90 percent.  ... The amount of effort that fishermen have put into catching fish has increased significantly in the past three decades, as measured by engine power and days that fishermen spend at sea.  But the amount of fish actually caught has nevertheless stagnated since the 1990s. Yes, we are!

 In these last months it has been a lot of working in the computer: writing and thinking and rewriting and rethinking. Not so fun for me. But equally important for science. The good thing in these days is to come outdoor *. See the amazing colors of the trees. From red, yellow, brown, green...a rainbow. The light is especially and more and more scarce. The sunset today was at 15:52. It changes very fast:  in 2 weeks could be at 15:30.  So when one is indoor with a beautiful blue sky, it feels to go outdoor. My street has nice colors. I like to look around. Old houses between buildings. Yellow, red and blue. The light in the coast is equally beautiful.  The sea reflects the colors. The end of the sunlight gives hope for more enlightenment days. * Which justifies why  I do not had spend time updating this blog, looking to Facebook, speaking on Skype, and sometimes not even sending ema...

As the IPCC rolls out its climate appraisal, the overall impact of industrial animal farming bears thinking about. The FAO's last livestock report, a 2006 assessment titled Livestock's Long Shadow, found that farms breeding chickens, pigs, and cows for meat and dairy products, produced a disconcerting 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Despite being called into question, that figure strengthened the case for vegetarianism: it was shown to be higher than the greenhouse gas discharge from cars and planes combined. The latest FAO study lowers that number to 14.5%. and... ...when it comes to livestock, reducing emissions isn't the only challenge. "Around 30% of global biodiversity loss can be attributed to livestock production, such as the spread of pasture land or turning over forests and savannahs…to feed production." There's also the role that consumers play in driving unsustainable industries—a feature that was beyond the scope of its current repor...

At this time of the year in Sweden there is: lingonberry,  to make jam  that it is used in the Swedish food; apples; nice grass; wooden houses in the forest; walks in the middle of the trees; moss and me!

It suggests that women who might become pregnant, women who are pregnant or are breastfeeding and young children should not eat more than one small portion (less than 100 g) per week of large predatory fish, such as swordfish, shark, marlin and pike.  If they do eat a portion of this fish, they should not eat any other fish during the same week.  Nor should they eat tuna more than twice per week. What more can we do?  The largest source of mercury emissions into the environment is from coal combustion. Join with your neighbors to reduce fossil-fuel based energy consumption by moving to clean energy generation and consumption.  Portugal has one of the highest seafood consumption per capita in the world. But there is no advice from Portuguese authorities. Could be important to diversify the fish, at least. ...and maybe to reduce the seafood consumption!? Maybe...given the fact that we live in a world growing population and a limited resources planet.