In this episode, we briefly discuss solar storms, Carrington events, and the possible failure of the electrical grid. Then: what does the absence of organisms where they once were mean? In the Exumas, Bahamas, this month, there were no laughing gulls. Eight months ago they were abundant in the same place. Could they be migrating? Might it be a pathogen? Local patchiness? Major decline for other reasons, like competition, or toxicity from plastics or pesticides? We discuss conservation success stories, like sea otters and bald eagles and California condors; and failures, like sea stars on the West coast of North America; and show some videos from the Bahamas. We object to the conflation of “environmental decline” with “climate change.” And we discuss curly haired “woolly dogs” of the Pacific Northwest, who were bred and cared for by the Coast Salish people, but are now extinct. ***** Our sponsors: Mindbloom: at-home ketamine therapy. Use code DARKHORSE at www.Mindbloom.com to receive $100 off your first six session program. MDHearing: Use promo code DARKHORSE to receive a pair of high-quality hearing aids for only $297. https://www.mdhearingaid.com Sundays: Dog food so tasty and healthy, even husbands swear by it. Go to www.sundaysfordogs.com/DARKHORSE to receive 35% off your first order. ***** Join us on Locals! Get access to our Discord server, exclusive live streams, live chats for all streams, and early access to many podcasts: https://darkhorse.locals.com/ Heather’s newsletter, Natural Selections (subscribe to get free weekly essays in your inbox): https://naturalselections.substack.com Our book, A Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century, is available everywhere books are sold, including from Amazon: https://a.co/d/dunx3at Check out our store! Epic tabby, digital book burning, saddle up the dire wolves, and more: https://darkhorsestore.org ***** Q&A Link: https://rumble.com/v43tubf-your-questions-answered-bret-and-heather-205th-darkhorse-podcast-livestream.html Mentioned in this episode: How the sun could wipe us out: A burst of plasma would set in motion a devastating cascade of failures (Weinstein 2021): https://unherd.com/2021/07/how-the-sun-could-wipe-us-out/ In want of a geologist: When "parrotfish" isn't a complete answer to where the land came from (Heying 2022): https://naturalselections.substack.com/p/in-want-of-a-geologist Curly haired ‘woolly dogs’ of the Pacific Northwest were no myth: https://www.science.org/content/article/curly-haired-woolly-dogs-pacific-northwest-were-no-myth Lin et al 2023. The history of Coast Salish “woolly dogs” revealed by ancient genomics and Indigenous Knowledge. Science, 382(6676): 1303-1308: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi6549 *****