tag > Regenerative
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Fetishizing human made "artificial intelligence" while utterly ignoring the presence, needs and rights of basically all non-human "real intelligence" lifeforms on earth (except to slaughter them for pleasure) is a sign of a deeply stupid species and borders on necrophilia.
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Snails have great magnetoreception
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The Staggering Ecological Impacts of Computation and the Cloud
"The Cloud now has a greater carbon footprint than the airline industry. A single data center can consume the equivalent electricity of 50,000 homes."
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The mushroom tunnel of Mittagong, photo by Nicola Twilley “Japanese researchers are closing in on understanding why electrical storms have a positive influence on the growth of some fungi,” Physics World reported last month, with some interesting implications for agriculture.
These electrical storms do not have to be nearby, and they do not even need to be natural: “In a series of experiments, Koichi Takaki at Iwate University and colleagues showed that artificial lightning strikes do not have to directly strike shiitake mushroom cultivation beds to promote growth.” Instead, it seems one can coax mushrooms into fruiting using even just the indirect presence of electrical fields.
As the article explains, “atmospheric electricity has long been known to boost the growth of living things, including plants, insects and rats,” but mushrooms appear to respond even to regional electrical phenomena—for example, when a distant lightning storm rolls by. “In Takaki’s previous studies, yield increases were achieved by running a direct current through a shiitake mushroom log. But Takaki still wondered—why do natural electric storms indirectly influenced [sic] the growth of mushrooms located miles away from the lightning strikes?”
Whether or not power lines or electricity-generation facilities, such as power plants, might also affect—or even catalyze—mushroom growth is not clear.
For now, Takaki is hoping to develop some kind of electrical-stimulation technique for mushroom growth, with an eye on the global food market.
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There are 7000+ species of earthworms, which are essential for soil fertility, food production & all life on earth. They contribute ruffly 6.5% of grain & 2.3% of legume production globally. The collective agency & overall usefulness of worms far surpasses that of AI.
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Estimates on the energy and carbon costs of deploying AI models
1. Average energy use per 1000 queries by task. A single image generation can be the equivalent of a single phone charge or driving 4 miles. Source: Hugging Face
2. Energy demand of training various AI models
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Spearheading Community Composting Of Food Waste In China
Through nearly five years of experiments, approximately 50 communities located in 22 provinces throughout China have participated in a national community composting program. Nearly half have continued.
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Solar energy new builds in 2023 is about 392 gigawatts globally. That's the equivalent in generation terms of about 1 nuclear reactor every 10 days. And the solar boom is still accelerating & tech getting better.
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A society that systemically disrespects the rights of non-human life (animals, plants, etc.) but celebrates the rights of machines, is inherently insane.
The currently popular notion that "more energy use = better outcomes overall" is naive juvenile nonsense. Nature strives for ecological coherence in a complex web of life-forms, that are hyper attuned to their environment, use energy highly efficiently and create minimal waste.
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What the world's cities need now: Expansion of nature on six lanes - Art by @RuediWidmer
Art by Quino
