Tuesday, April 14, 2009
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Earth’s climate has changed since our planet was first formed, but in the past 200 years, it has accelerated. Some of the major causes of this are burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. This leads to the release of what has become known as greenhouse gases, resulting in progressively warmer average temperatures. In addition to this warming trend, other weather events are becoming more extreme, including patterns of rain and snow.
Scientific studies have led to the conclusion that people are changing the atmosphere and climate of the planet. There are a variety of models which vary in exactly what impact this will have, but the one constant result of research is that earth’s temperature has been steadily rising since the Industrial Revolution, and it has led to unwanted climate changes.
Already major effects of climate change include observed increases in the intensity of storms, more numerous and longer droughts, change in the length of seasons, and generally less predictable weather patterns. Glaciers are melting, hurricanes are becoming more destructive, and ocean currents are altering. The ten hottest years in recorded weather history have all been since 1990.
Changing weather has been one of the constants in Earth’s story, so why should we care? After all, talking about the weather has been a timeless way to start a conversation. Although the earth may have been hotter in the distant past, this was before modern civilization developed. This means that our patterns of agriculture, the way our cities are built, are becoming threatened by rising sea levels and changing weather patterns. We may think that if we lose some undiscovered species in a tropical forest this has no impact on us. But because life on the planet is inextricably linked, the loss of any species threatens all life.
Earth now is starting to change in ways we don’t understand and can’t control. With our own species dominating the landscape, we have changed the atmosphere and climate, and driven many species to extinction. If we continue to view ourselves as having special privileges, at the expense of the planet, we may find too late our arrogance leads to our extinction. We need to recognize that caring for the rest of life is the same as taking care of ourselves. If not, we may soon be watching our final weather report.
So with all this gloom and doom, what can you do? Turn off a light. Walk instead of driving. Vote for people who share your views.
Friday, June 27, 2008
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Just what the title says... A video of Bumblebees shot in slow motion with a Casio EX-F1 camera.
Thursday, May 08, 2008
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This is a video of one year old tigers, Almos and Taj, filmed at the Cougar Mountain Zoo in Issaquah, Washington, shot at 300 fps with a Casio EX-F1 Exilim Pro camera set to hip hop music. It was shot on May 3, 2008, during the birthday celebration for Almos. For this occasion, visitors were allowed into an area within a foot or two of the tigers, separated by glass. Visit the zoo website, at
http://www.cougarmountainzoo.org for more information. In shooting the video at high speed, in this case at 300 frames per second, it allows for slow motion playback. By observing a tiger in slo-mo, it is possible to see behaviors and movements not visible to the naked eye. It opens up an interesting new world of wildlife.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
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I have been looking forward to this camera for a long time. When it was first mentioned in development last August, I eagerly followed all the news I could find about it. When Casio requested user input on features late last year, I gave them my advice. And when the camera finally appeared in the U.S. earlier this month, I was one of the first to buy it.
Already a few reviews have come out, and I expect even more thorough coverage is yet to come, outlining all the nifty features. More...
Sunday, April 20, 2008
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A short video about the transformation from winter to spring. This was shot in HD video, and highspeed slow motion with the Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 camera at 600 frames per second.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
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A short musical video about penguins and climate change.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
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A video depiction of a day in a swan's life with musical accompaniment.
Friday, February 29, 2008
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A new NaturePalooza video- The Call of the Wild
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
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A short video on the adventures you can have every day...
The HD version is here.
Saturday, February 09, 2008
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A short video on the journey of water from a mountain stream to the ocean, along with some of the wildlife that depends on it. In addition to the revver version there is also a 720P HD version.