Ben Phalan
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benphalan.bsky.social
Ben Phalan
@benphalan.bsky.social
1.2K followers 310 following 5 posts

Bird conservation, mostly vegan, he/him. Seeking a better world for all people & the other species with whom we share the planet

Videos
Environmental science 59%
Geography 15%
Posts Replies Media Videos

Reposted by Ben Phalan

mbolotnikova.bsky.social
Marina Bolotnikova @mbolotnikova.bsky.social · 26d
Wrote a lot of words on SOYBEANS!🫛 I love having this job so much lol

America should have greater ambitions for the soybean—treating it not just as slop for the world’s abused livestock, but as a miracle technology with the potential to reshape world diets for the better
www.vox.com/future-perfe...
How soybeans took over America — and the world
This technology could feed a world of 10 billion. We’re squandering it, and the trade war with China could make it worse.
www.vox.com

Reposted by Ben Phalan

nicholasdcarter.bsky.social
Nicholas D Carter @nicholasdcarter.bsky.social · Sep 13
Agriculture drives more biodiversity loss than any other sector, with ruminant meat causing extinction risks ~340× higher than grains by mass and ~100× higher than legumes both by mass and when adjusted for protein.

benphalan.bsky.social
Ben Phalan @benphalan.bsky.social · Sep 5
Nice thread on the value of @inaturalist.bsky.social for sharing and preserving observations of biodiversity that might otherwise never have seen the light of day again
alexanderlees.bsky.social Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · Sep 5
Some validation for my recent efforts in uploading some old images of unidentified species to @inaturalist.bsky.social – turns out I photographed an undescribed poison-dart frog in the Western Amazon 18 years ago 🌎 🧪🐸🪶 #ornithology #herpetology 🧵1/21
Photo of Metallic Poison Frog (Ranitomeya aquamarina)

Reposted by Ana S. L. Rodrigues, Ben Phalan

alexanderlees.bsky.social
Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · Sep 5
Some validation for my recent efforts in uploading some old images of unidentified species to @inaturalist.bsky.social – turns out I photographed an undescribed poison-dart frog in the Western Amazon 18 years ago 🌎 🧪🐸🪶 #ornithology #herpetology 🧵1/21
Photo of Metallic Poison Frog (Ranitomeya aquamarina)

Reposted by Ben Phalan, Paul Caplat

georgemonbiot.bsky.social
George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · Aug 29
This, by @jasonhickel.bsky.social, is the clearest explanation I have yet read of why the US and UK governments continue to support the Israeli government, regardless of its great crimes against humanity.
jasonhickel.substack.com/p/why-does-t...
Why does the US support Israel's crimes?
Why does the US support Israel’s genocidal crimes against the Palestinian people, even in the face of overwhelming international condemnation, at massive expense, and to the point of totally debasing ...
jasonhickel.substack.com

Reposted by Ben Phalan

drsimevans.carbonbrief.org
Simon Evans @drsimevans.carbonbrief.org · Aug 15
FACTCHECK: We asked dozens of scientists to review Trump's climate report, being used to justify major policy rollbacks.

They found "more than 100" false or misleading claims.

Click through to read them all:

interactive.carbonbrief.org/doe-factchec...

benphalan.bsky.social
Ben Phalan @benphalan.bsky.social · Aug 4
What about a name with six letters? Avocet, cuckoo, magpie -- plenty there for the taking

Reposted by Terry P. Hughes, Olivier Honnay, Stacy D. VanDeveer , and 1 more

nicholasdcarter.bsky.social
Nicholas D Carter @nicholasdcarter.bsky.social · Jul 30
'Cows just replaced the methane from wild bison'

Not even close.

At their peak, wild ruminants incl. bison emitted ~15 Tg CH₄/yr

Today’s 4+ billion farmed ruminants emit over 100 Tg CH₄/yr

That’s nearly 7x more methane.

essd.copernicus.org/articles/17/...
Global Methane Budget 2000–2020
Abstract. Understanding and quantifying the global methane (CH4) budget is important for assessing realistic pathways to mitigate climate change. CH4 is the second most important human-influenced gree...
essd.copernicus.org

Reposted by Ben Phalan

doctorzen.net
Zen Faulkes @doctorzen.net · Jul 3
Six 6️⃣ tips on communicating effectively with politicians.

From @jacquelyngill.bsky.social some time ago.
Effective communication with elected officials: 1. Petitions are useless. 2. Posting is useless. 3. Phone calls are effective. 4. Contacting people who do not represent you is useless. 5. Written letters are effective. 6. Elected officials get Google alerts for their names, and may see mentions in small blogs.

benphalan.bsky.social
Ben Phalan @benphalan.bsky.social · Jul 2
These are the numbers for natural forest in Ireland from Global Forest Watch: 1.6% www.globalforestwatch.org/dashboards/c...
Screenshot showing part of a webpage from Global Forest Watch, with the text: Ireland. In 2020, Ireland had 110 kha of natural forest, extending over 1.6% of its land area. In 2024, it lost 665 ha of natural forest, equivalent to 274 kt of CO2 emissions.

Reposted by Ben Phalan

bengoldfarb.bsky.social
Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · Jun 24
Perhaps gauche to quote your own book, but I think CROSSINGS's section on the Roadless Rule gets at something fundamental: that to designate places as roadless is to assert that our national forests have value—for wildlife, for water, for slow recreation—beyond mere timber extraction. #roadecology

Reposted by Jason Stajich, Ben Phalan

Reposted by Ben C. Sheldon, Ana S. L. Rodrigues, Keith C. Hamer , and 2 more

stubutchart.bsky.social
Stu Butchart @stubutchart.bsky.social · Jun 11
We've just launched AviList! - the new unified global taxonomic checklist for the world's birds, developed through the Working Group on Avian Classification, including BirdLife, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, IOC and others @birdlifeglobal.bsky.social @birdsoftheworld.bsky.social www.avilist.org

benphalan.bsky.social
Ben Phalan @benphalan.bsky.social · Apr 4
Some seabirds such as albatrosses have been monitored for decades, with periodic counts of all colonies of some species and trend monitoring, e.g. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
The conservation status and priorities for albatrosses and large petrels
Seabirds are amongst the most globally-threatened of all groups of birds, and conservation issues specific to albatrosses (Diomedeidae) and large petr…
www.sciencedirect.com

Reposted by Ben Phalan

jandutkiewicz.bsky.social
Jan Dutkiewicz @jandutkiewicz.bsky.social · Mar 31
You've been told that "tech won't save us." But the opposite is just as true. @garrettbroad.bsky.social and I wrote about the dangerous appeal of "nature-based solutionism," or the idea that natural solutions to complex problems will save us. They won't.

newrepublic.com/article/1933...
The Flawed Ideology That Unites Grass-Fed Beef Fans and Anti-Vaxxers
From RFK Jr. to Hollywood A-listers and Democratic senators, people across the political spectrum are jumping onto the slippery slope of nature-based solutionism.
newrepublic.com

benphalan.bsky.social
Ben Phalan @benphalan.bsky.social · Jan 7
I got to know Accra, Ghana well when I did research there almost two decades ago. Please consider helping those affected by the devastating Kantamanto fire, here: donorbox.org/kantamanto-f...
Fire Relief for Our Beloved Kantamanto | The OR Foundation Ltd. (Powered by Donorbox)
DONATIONS through January 5th WILL BE MATCHED!Our beloved Kantamanto has burned. On January 1st, 2025, Kantamanto Secondhand Clothing Market in Accra, Ghana, the largest secondhand market in the world...
donorbox.org