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40-Year Taklamakan Greening Project Bears Fruit
An experiment in western China over the past four decades shows that it is possible to tame the expansion of desert lands with greenery, and, in the process, pull excess carbon dioxide out of the sky. Taklamakan Desert location. (PeterHermesFurian/iStock/Getty) The sprawling greening project along the edges of China’s Taklamakan Desert is creating a visible […]
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Law of the Sea, the Abysmal Plain, and the Value of Intentional Obsolescence
REE’s — Rare Earth Elements. We’re all connected to the deep sea. There is no line in the ocean that says to us, ‘below this, nothing matters.’ The ocean is all connected. It’s the largest livable habitat on the planet. — Astrid Leitner, Oregon State U assistant professor. The interview HERE, to be aired, in […]
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When Trash Infests Our Oceans, Some Choose to Act
Every year, around 8 million tons of plastic waste finds its way into the world’s oceans. Some of this plastic takes centuries to break down. For the plastic that drifts to the coast of Zhejiang, China, a new opportunity presents itself. Here it is collected, brought ashore and given a second life thanks to the […]
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The Mirage of Development: Gwadar’s Water Wars
A view of the Gwadar port of Pakistan Photo: VCG While the rest of Pakistan’s major cities were drenched in monsoon rains, a group of children stood hand in hand and chorused this in unison in Gwadar’s New Tobagh Ward near Koh-a-Bun Ward: “Pani Dho, bijli dho, warna Kursi Chor Dho.” ( Give us water, […]
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Wasting Food
It has been suggested that to reduce landfill greenhouse gas emissions, food wastes should be ground up and sent to the sewer. This is the worst possible attempt to reduce greenhouse gases, and will, in fact, increase the amount of greenhouse gases released to process those food wastes. I have worked at a wastewater treatment […]
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The Mighty Amazon River Ebbing
Fossil fuel CO2 emissions are taking the world’s time-honored ecosystems, like the world-famous Amazon River, down onto their knees. The problem is greenhouse gases like CO2 and CH4 trap heat and excessive levels, like we’ve been experiencing, create extreme heat; it’s a direct connection that’s destroying the world’s legendary ecosystems. Over time, the biosphere rejects […]
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Amazon Death Rattle
The Amazon rainforest is in deep trouble. Labeling it a “crisis”, however, seems too hackneyed and not descriptive enough because the devastation is beyond description. The magnificent rainforest is morphing into a tinder box that’s trapped in the worst drought of all time. According to MapBiomas, an all-time record amount of land is charred and […]
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Tipping Points: Where Things Stand
Major planetary boundaries that support life are at risk of collapse. This is happening at speeds that climate scientists never thought possible. What are the consequences and what, if anything, can be done? Johan Rockström, Potsdam Institute for Climate Research, Germany, recently gave a 20-mimute TED speech: The Tipping Points of Climate Change. He is a […]
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Olympian Ordure: Swimming and Shitting in the Seine
Swimming, or dipping, in faecal polluted waters is not unusual. The spirit longs for purity in the staining aqua, and the body keeps pace with it. The Ganges, for instance, features sacred rites and ceremonies defiant of science. In an aqueous body of lingering corpses, thickening pollutants and full flowing faeces, foolhardy believers can find […]
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