Image of the Day: Climate Change Idea Floats to Surface
Architects and urban planners are exploring the possible options of floating buildings with the threat of rising sea levels looming. According to the Associated Press, advocates say that a leap in imagination is what is needed in the face of climate change. Amphibious homes are a mainstay in the Netherlands, where the focus on floating homes has grown tremendously.
Credit: flickr/GusF
Image of the Day: Ladybug, Ladybug, Fly Away Home
Climate change could be a leading cause in the decline of native ladybugs, according to John Losey, one of the world’s leading experts on the beetles. Warmer weather is disastrous to ladybugs, as snow covers their hibernation sites, it keeps the ground temperatures at 0 degrees, allowing them to remain dormant in the winter. If the temperatures go too low, the ladybugs could freeze to death and a warm spell could have them out of hibernation early, making them vulnerable to dropping temps again. Ladybugs are important because they are a natural pesticide, controlling insect crop pests like aphids, moths, mealybugs and caterpillars.
Credit: Jeff Horner/AP
Image of the Day: Signs of Spring Spread Their Wings
Signs of spring are everywhere as newborn Swallowtail butterflies (Papilio demoleus) are observed at the Benalmadena Butterfly Centre in Spain. It is the largest butterfly park in the world. The lifecycle of most adult butterflies is about seven days. In captivity, however, they can live up to two to three weeks.
Credit: Jorge Zapata/European Pressphoto Agency
Image of the Day: Northern Lights in a Dazzling Display
This extraordinary image from the International Space Station shows Ireland in the foreground, still in darkness with city lights easily visible; the shimmering glow of the aurora borealis, or northern lights, on the left-hand side of the curving horizon, and the brilliant glow of the oncoming sunrise refracting through the Earth's atmosphere. It's hard to believe, but true nonetheless, that such a thin layer of gases — only 100 miles or so thick, compared with the planet's 8,000-mile diameter — can trap enough heat to make life possible on a world that would otherwise be perpetually frozen. Thanks to human-generated greenhouse gases, that thin slice of atmosphere is trapping more heat than at any time in many tens of thousands of years.
Image of the Day: It’s a Jungle out There
A crocodile and turtle face off at the Cano Negro Wildlife Reserve in Costa Rica. Twenty-five percent of the country’s land been turned into protected reserves and parks to protect animals and habitats from deforestation. Costa Rica produces 95 percent of its energy needs from renewable energy sources and has made a pledge to become a carbon neutral country by 2021.
Credit: Jeffrey Arguedas/European Pressphoto Association
