November 10, 2024

Hi and welcome to newsletter #47 of OneBeautifulPlanet.org!

This message goes to my 237 subscribers, with a big Thank you for signing up. If you have just subscribed, check out the Newsletter archive. I wrote the first issue in June 2023, and an overview of the effort at the 100th subscriber milestone.

Stargazer Fish

I start most newsletters with a person, animal, or plant that inspired or intrigued me. It is a moment of reflection and gratitude, meant to find lessons and nurture curiosity. Previously I featured animals like the albatross, the oyster, and the fossa, and luminaries such as Rachel Carson, Buckminster Fuller and Sylvia Earle.

A small and bizarre marine creature caught my eye while surfing social media recently: the Stargazer Fish. The stargazers are part of the family of fish Uranoscopidae that have eyes on top of their heads and include about 51 species (one extinct). They are found worldwide in shallow and deep saltwaters. Imagine walking on the beach, going for a dip in the ocean, and seeing this guy in the sand, right in front of you beneath the waves!

In addition to the top-mounted eyes, a stargazer has a large, upward-facing mouth in a large head. Their usual habit is to bury themselves in sand, and leap upwards to ambush prey (benthic fish and invertebrates) that pass overhead. Some species have a worm-shaped lure growing out of the floors of their mouths, which they can wiggle to attract prey's attention.

Both the dorsal and anal fins are relatively long, and some lack dorsal spines. Lengths range from 18 up to 90 cm, for the giant stargazer Kathetostoma giganteum. Stargazers are venomous: they have two large venomous spines situated behind their opercles and above their pectoral fins. The species within the genera Astroscopus and Uranoscopus can also cause electric shocks.

While stargazer fish are not currently classified as endangered, like many marine species, they face threats from habitat destruction, pollution, and overfishing. Coastal development and dredging can disturb sandy seabeds where stargazers live, potentially impacting their ability to find suitable habitats for hunting and breeding.

Sources:

• https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/blogs/creatura-blog/2021/07/the-whitemargin-stargazer-is-all-of-us-right-now/

• https://www.instagram.com/species.spotlight

Mindset

“Slow success builds character, fast success builds ego.” — Ratan Tata

In The Works

Earlier this month I completed a cleanup at Silver Lake Park, in Newtown - Bucks County, PA - my third at this location in the past twelve months. This was a one-hour exercise, in which I took advantage of low water levels (we have not had rain in Eastern Pennsylvania in more than six weeks), and filled a 13-gallon bag with debris from the banks of the lake.

As before, I am tracking solo cleanups in my three favorite apps for litter pickup enthusiasts: CSFN, Pirika, and Cleanup. I also regularly post on the DeTrashed subreddit. Of all the various social media outlets, Reddit is my favorite: compared to posts on Instagram, or FaceBook, where the effort seems a bit one-sided and isolated, the DeTrashed subreddit is one where you can feel both like a hero, receiving kudos from the community, as well as like a complete beginner when you see the work of others: the online community is full of unsung heroes who selflessly clean up their local areas and quietly lead the way: see for example the work of Lehigh Valley Cleanup in Allentown, PA, or Dan Taylor in Baltimore, MD.

On a related note, earlier this year I decided to adopt a highway, through the well-known program. Volunteers “beautify roadsides two miles at a time. You or your civic or volunteer group sign a two-year agreement to pick up litter at least two times a year. In return, PennDOT posts recognition signs along the adopted roadway giving you or your group full credit for your efforts.”

You can see my excitement below, next to the One Beautiful Planet sign that just went up. Driving past it yesterday and seeing it for the first time, I had to pull over and take a picture! I am clearly ready to follow in the footsteps of Kramer! See Episode 16, of Season 8 of the show Seinfeld, also uploaded on my Environmental Humor page.

“I’m part of the solution, now, Jerry!!”

;-)

On the administrative front, as web traffic is slowly increasing, I started making a few formatting and organization improvements to the site. Please check it out and let me know your feedback! I changed the color palette, added an Events section (previously only highlighted in newsletters), and grouped articles either under a “Get Inspired”, or a “Get Knowledge” category. The former includes all my blog pieces and inspirational articles, while the latter includes Fundamentals of environmental science, as well as my original Research, in topics like litter pickup apps and tools, as well as event notes.

Speaking of event notes, last week I attended for the second time the Wharton Energy and Climate Conference, in Philadelphia. Overall, it was a very interesting event, on par with the high quality of the 2023 edition. Read on below to get a sense of the latest in things like nuclear fusion, scaling the energy transition, and overcoming the challenges in clean energy adoption.

If you found this newsletter helpful or interesting, please share it. Thank you. And if you would like to collaborate in some way, whether in writing, or volunteering together at a cleanup, please let me know.

Razvan