Posts tagged ‘conservation’
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Cataloguing the World’s Ants
Yesterday, Boing Boing’s David Pescovitz posted the documentary “Ants: The Invisible Majority”, about Californian entomologist Dr. Brian Fisher’s attempt to catalogue the world’s 30,000 species of ants before they’re extinct. Fisher has designed the website AntWeb, which digitises data and photos of different ant species. He calls on all amateur taxonomists to help catalogue ants, saying “We’ve discovered but 10% of the living things on earth. 90% is out there to be found. We need more taxonomists!”
The video also talks about evolutionary biologist Neil Tsutsui’s research into the invasive Argentine ant, which has eliminated almost all native ant species in its path, since it was introduced to the states from South America in the 1890s. Usually, most ants will fight against other colonies of the same species, but these Argentine ants form ‘super-colonies’, and cooperate with each other, leading to their high population densities. Ants can tell other species apart from waxy chemicals on their exoskeletons. Tsutsui found that by changing their external chemical uniform, they can turn friend into foe. He hopes to develop non-toxic insecticides to convince members of the Argentine colony to fight each other, leaving other ant species unharmed.
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More Photos from the Observer Ethical Awards Ceremony
We’ve been meaning to post some of our own photos from the Observer Ethical Awards ceremony, held at the V&A a few weeks ago. Although there were many cameras on hand, and tons of photos taken, for some reason most of them came out blurry (which is solid proof of a fun night!).
Here are some that came out well. (Thanks Ariane and Crispin!)
(Holding their breath in anticipation, as Pestival is announced the winner of the Conservation Award)
Above, from left to right: Bridget Nicholls (Pestival Founder and Director), Stephanie Fudge (Operations Director, Pestival 2009), Crispin O’Brien (Chairman of the Pestival Advisory Board) and Kirsty Kinnear (Lead Producer, Pestival 2009)
Above: Bridget Nicholls and Caroline Lucas (Green MP for Brighton Pavilion and first Green Party representative in the House of Commons — winner of Ethical Politician Award)
Above: Bridget Nicholls, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (celebrity chef, “real food” campaigner, and initiator of the Landshare project — winner of Campaigner of the Year Award) and Stephen Watts (Abundance — winners of Grassroots Project Award)
Above: Bridget Nicholls and John Grant (green media man and brains behind Pestival 2009′s Tweehive)
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Video: Pestival Awarded Observer Ethical Award in Conservation
Here’s a video of the judges talking about why they awarded the conservation prize to Pestival.
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Pestival featured in the Observer
If you didn’t get a chance to see Pestival featured in the free Ethical Awards supplement with the Observer today, here’s the article online!
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We Won!
Pestival has just won the Observer Ethical Award in the Conservation category!
This is the first time a left field festival has won a mainstream Conservation Award. The insects shall inherit the earth! Oh wait they’ve been custodians all along… : )
Thanks one and all for your amazing efforts and support – we did it!
Lucy Siegle (Observer), Chris Murray (Director, UK Transmission, National Grid),
Bridget Nicholls (Director, Pestival), Colin Firth (actor)
Colin Firth, Bridget Nicholls, Chris Murray -
Pestival Shortlisted for an Observer Ethical Award
Pestival has been shortlisted in the Conservation category of the 2010 Observer Ethical Awards!
