Give Bees A Chance Song

Bees return to the #hive and show where the #pollen and nectar are located by what is called a "waggle dance" By their movements the other bees know the exact direction to fly 
This #video #song is also a link from the children's Ebook "GIVE BEES A CHANCE" with a message for everyone! #Bee awareness and #education #savethebees
YOU CAN PURCHASE THE EBOOK HERE https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/al...
Visit www.TheEarthwormBook.com for more #books on #earth-friendly #creatures

Scientists: Save the Bees or People Will Go Hungry

January 27, 2015 By Emily J. Gertz

Emily J. Gertz is TakePart’s associate editor for environment and wildlife.

full biofollow me 

Bees pollinate crops. Crops nourish people. Fewer bees (owing to pesticides, loss of habitat, and disease) means less food and more malnutrition.

It sounds logical, but there’s been no science to back up this accepted wisdom—until now.

In a first-of-its-kind study published this month in the journal PLOS One, researchers at two New England universities have connected falling populations of pollinators, such as bees, to shortfalls of vitamin A, a crucial nutrient.

The scientists examined what foods people eat in four nations where women and children suffer from high rates of malnutrition: Zambia, Mozambique, Uganda, and Bangladesh. They also looked at data on which food regularly supplied people in these countries with five key nutrients: vitamin A, zinc, iron, folate, and calcium.

The researchers then developed two hypothetical case studies to estimate rates of malnourishment: In one, pollinator populations were completely healthy. In the other, bees and other pollinators had disappeared completely. Since bee colonies began to collapsearound the globe nearly a decade ago, researchers have identified several environmental threats to these tiny animals, which pollinate about one-third of the world’s food supply. They include a bacteria that attacks entire hives, habitat loss, and a class of widely used pesticides called neonicotinoids.

The researchers found that without a healthy supply of pollinators, the potential for vitamin A deficiencies grew depending on a person’s diet.

In Zambia, children got vitamin A from fruits and vegetables that rely on pollinators and from other food sources as well, so the hypothetical absence of pollinators did not affect them severely. In Bangladesh, removing pollinators didn’t have a huge impact only because people were already going hungry.

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In Uganda, however, vitamin A deficiencies rose by 15 percent, and in Mozambique, by 56 percent.

The potential for calcium, zinc, iron, and folate malnutrition remained more or less the same in each scenario.

The finding rings public health alarms. Annually, “vitamin A deficiency causes an estimated 800,000 deaths in women and children, including 20–24 percent of child mortality from measles, diarrhea and malaria and 20 percent of all-cause maternal mortality,” the scientists wrote. “It is estimated to roughly double the risk of mortality from common conditions like measles, diarrhea, and malaria while increasing the risk of maternal mortality 4.5 times.”

A World Without Bees

The researchers acknowledge that nothing suggests that bees and other pollinators are going to vanish completely from these or any other countries, even though there have been serious declines in bee numbers in the past several years.

That does not diminish the importance of their findings. “Ecosystem damage can damage human health,” Taylor Ricketts, a professor of natural resources at the University of Vermont and a study coauthor, said in a statement, “so conservation can be thought of as an investment in public health.”

Del Mar Heights PTA presents ‘Inside the Outdoors’ with Alicia Previn

Del Mar Heights PTA presents ‘Inside the Outdoors’

The Del Mar Times wrote up an article about the presentation of The Earthworm Book & CD that Alicia Previn, author, illustrator and owner of Lovely Previn Publications gave at the school. Pictures show the children very engaged as they helped prepare and build the worm boxes for the garden and then got to touch and hold the worms. Also Alicia's other two books were highlighted "The Strange Disappearance of Walter Tortoise" and the new Ebook "Give Bees a Chance" which explains the importance of bees to food, farming and survival, and what each of us can do to help #savethebees

Everyone's Talking About Solar & Wind Wildlife Deaths

http://www.theearthwormbook.com/everyones-talking-about-solar-and-wind-wildlife-deaths/

The so-called #green industry is not always so green! It is widely known that many birds and other native desert animals are being harmed by #solar and #wind #energy. Batteries that make electric cars go are highly toxic, in fact, way more toxic to mine nickel (the metal that makes most car batteries) than the life of a regular combustion engine!
The Strange Disappearance of Walter Tortoise is a children's picture book with actual photography of the pristine vibrant living desert of the Mojave area, with drawings of the native animals placed within the landscapes.
In the "voices" of these animal characters comes the discussion of a looming problem. What will happen to us and our habitat? Where has our friend Walter been taken? How can we get help to #save our desert?
This book is educational, fun, scientific and asks good questions. Solar is good but why not on already distressed land or rooftops?
Added practical application of ways to save energy for the family to adopt.
Available in paperback and ebook formats wherever books are sold online and Apple iBooks
Also visit www.TheEarthwormBook.com for more information

Earthworm Art Room: Earth-Friendly Sustainability for Events, Schools, Party

Earth-Friendly Sustainability for Events, Schools, Party 

Gift Ideas and Indie-Publisher Support

I have been bringing awareness to everyone I meet and all over the internet on my website and many social media sites through my illustrated children's book, "The Strange Disappearance of Walter Tortoise" ever since I met with award-winning filmmaker Robert Lundahl and heard him tell me of his making the "Who Are My People?" documentary. The book covers this travesty in our pristine deserts from the animals' perspective and includes Alfredo (La Cuna de Aztlan Sacred Sites Protection Circle) as a main character. I have also been posting every article I can find about the solar industry's mistakes, problems, even a new distressed land solar maps etc.  (See my website www.TheEarthwormBook.com)

At the screening in San Diego of "Who Are My People?" I introduced Robert and opened up the meeting by reading an excerpt from the book and talked about what had moved me to write and illustrate it. Several women present expressed delight as they had been hoping for a way to present this problem to children, and now here was the way.

'Tis The Season for giving gifts and love.

"The Strange Disappearance of Walter Tortoise" is a non-fiction book that is a perfect gift for your nieces, nephews, kids and grandkids. The desert is a precious place with many important aspects that need our protection and support. Get informed. Ages:Elementary grades Available at Barnes&Noble MiraMesa (signed copies), all online bookstores worldwide and linked here.

"The Earthworm Book/CD" comes with audio narration, music, The Earthworm Song, all for beginning reading with page-turning sounds. Ages 0-3rd grade. A practical application for the whole family how to build a worm-box for making worm castings out of your kitchen scraps to feed your plants. Hand-drawn illustrations. On sale on Amazon.com through www.TheEarthwormBook.com  To Buy Books Click Here link.

2 Desert Solar Projects May Harm Tortoises

We need to educate ourselves and especially our children about what is going on in our deserts under the banner of “green” and “sustainable.” A lot of harm is being done that we do not see! Please click on the Amazon.com link on this page www.TheEarthwormBook.com/?page_id=64 and go and buy the book. Spread the word.

Keep it going; be aware and knowledgeable for our children’s and for our future, and all the beauty and wildlife of the desert. Solar is good, but do not put it in this habitat.

The Strange Disappearance of Walter Tortoise

http://www.kcet.org/news/rewire/wildlife/two-desert-solar-plants-may-harm-thousands-of-tortoises.html

 

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