Holy Eco-Crisis! Deadly Fungus Destroying Bat Colonies


White-nose syndrome, a disease spread by a soil fungus, G. destructans, and thought to have been carried to North America from Europe, is devastating bat colonies in the U.S. and Canada. First identified in 2006 in a population of common little brown bats in a cave 150 miles north of New York City,


the malady has claimed 98 percent of the bat population there by causing them to awaken prematurely from their normal hibernation and then die from lack of food and exhaustion.


A single reproductive female little brown bat can eat her weight in insects


each night. A recent Canadian study valued crops potentially lost to insects that would otherwise be devoured by bats at $53 billion a year. Without the bats to keep insect numbers down, farmers may turn to greater use of pesticides.


Source: Telegraph.co.uk


Second Verse Kids Turn Trash into Musical Instruments


Young musicians from the village of Cateura, Para- guay, a town of 2,500 families that make a living by mining the 1,500 tons of solid waste daily dumped in a local landfill, have started making musical instruments from the debris. Favio Chávez, an ecological technician and


trained musician, was inspired to teach the lo- cal children to play music in an orchestra. He says, “The world sends us garbage, we send back music.” A documentary, Landfill Harmonic, is in production and a 30-member Recycled Orchestra has performed in Argentina, Brazil and Germany. The message is that like other natural resources, children living in poverty have redeeming value and should not be deemed worthless.


Watch videos at Tinyurl.com/ChavezOrchestra and Facebook.com/ landfillharmonicmovie.


Safer Sleep People- and Planet-Friendly Fire Retardants


An ultrathin film that consists of polymers found in crustacean shells could be an environmentally friendly alternative to the flame retardants used in bedding and sofas. Mattresses and furniture cushions are typi- cally made of highly flammable polyurethane foam; to meet fire safety guidelines, manu- facturers treat the foam with fire-retardant chemicals. These are typically brominated


compounds that studies by the National Institute for Public Health and the Envi- ronment, in The Netherlands, have shown can act as endocrine disruptors, leading to neurological problems or even cancer. The European Union has banned several of the flame-retardant compounds and U.S. and Canadian regulatory agencies have started to scrutinize their use. The nano-coating could be sprayed on foam, which would make it easy for mass production; several companies have expressed interest in the material.


Source: Chemical & Engineering News natural awakenings November 2013 25


Capital Idea Social Networking Funds


Local Business


Community Sourced Capital (CSC) is a newly formed lender headquartered in Seattle, Washington, that aims to apply the crowdsourcing model to encourage the growth of locally owned businesses. “The hardest part is often not attracting shoppers once the project is off the ground,” explains co-founder Casey Dilloway, “but se- curing capital to get it started.” CSC’s objective is to harness the


power of the connections that tie lo- cal people together—both via social media and in the physical world—to find people willing to loan money to small local businesses. They may initially connect through Community SourcedCapital.com. Lenders make funds available in


$50 blocks up to a maximum of $250 per project, and are acknowledged by the receipt of a pale-blue square card bearing the CSC logo, which identifies them as “Squareholders”. The funds are then made available to borrowers at zero interest, and loans are paid back at a designated rate based on the company’s revenue. CSC makes loans of up to $50,000.


Source: Yes magazine


photo courtesy of Landfill Harmonic


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