Climate

The remarkable power of Australian kelp
re than 45,000 years ago, by the shore of present-day Tasmania, a local person picked up a large piece of thick, dark brown seaweed. Its impervious tissue and resilient flexibility sparked an idea, and they realised that this giant piece of seaweed could solve one of the day's nagging problems. The piece of kelp was fashioned into a small rubbery bag, its edges perforated with a stick to give it structure, and plant fibres twisted around the stick to make a handle. From then on, the kelp was used as a versatile water carrier.
By Gu Wei Di Qi3 years ago in Earth
Why Peru is reviving a pre-Incan technology for water
Pre-pandemic, in the austral winter, I drove north out of Lima, up into Peru's highlands to the village of Huamantanga (wa-mon-TONG-a). I was traveling with scientists who were studying local farmers' use of a 1,400-year-old technique to extend water availability into the long dry season.
By Gu Wei Di Qi3 years ago in Earth
The neglected 'Galapagos of Europe'
It's around 8am and there's a chill in the air as I look out across the foggy horizon of Lake Ohrid, which sits on the border between Albania and North Macedonia. A cluster of small wooden fishing boats, painted in bold primary colours, slowly grow larger as they move towards the shore.
By Fra Tusha3 years ago in Earth
Can investors save the Amazon?
When you think of your retirement savings, your bank, or your investments, it's unlikely that you associate these with trees being chopped down in lush tropical rainforests. And yet, well-known banks, asset managers and other financial institutions either own shares in or provide credit to companies that have links to deforestation.
By Baru Ku3 years ago in Earth
The tiny islands leading the green transition
ust off the north coast of Northern Ireland, in the chilly waters of the Atlantic, lies a tiny, L-shaped island called Rathlin. It is home to around 160 people. Mains electricity only arrived on Rathlin in the early 1990s, with the construction of three wind turbines. One islander enthused to local media about the benefits it would bring – she would no longer have to light a candle when getting up to feed her baby in the middle of the night.
By Fra Tusha3 years ago in Earth
The mystery of Mexico's vanishing stream oaks
y the banks of a seasonal riverbed in north-western Mexico, a collection of towering, gnarled oak trees stand guard. These trees descend from ancestors that lived more than 50 million years ago and their species has faced, and survived, any number of challenges.
By Baru Ku3 years ago in Earth
The rush to claim an undersea mountain range
One of the most mysterious mountain ranges in the world is not visible on any ordinary map. You can’t see it on the most popularly used flat map of the world, the Mercator projection, or on the Peters projection that is a popular (and more accurate) alternative. On a spinning globe, the plastic axle at the North Pole often covers it up, as if there’s nothing to see.
By Baru Ku3 years ago in Earth
The factories turning West Africa’s fish into powder
unjur, a town of some 15,000 people, sits on the Atlantic coastline of southern Gambia, the smallest country on the African continent. During the day, its white-sand beaches are full of activity. Fishermen steer long, vibrantly painted wooden canoes, known as pirogues, toward the shore, where they transfer their still-fluttering catch to women waiting at the water’s edge.
By Udley3 years ago in Earth
How the world's deepest shipwreck was found
On 23 October 1944, the first engagements of a gigantic naval battle began in Leyte Gulf, part of the Philippine Sea. It was the biggest in modern human history.
By Holy horse3 years ago in Earth
The record-breaking dive under the Arctic ice
On 3 August 1958, the commander of the world's first nuclear submarine made an extraordinary, if somewhat tongue in cheek, entry in his logbook: "Embarked following personage at North Pole…" wrote USS Nautilus commander William Anderson, "…Santa Claus, affiliation: Christmas."
By Udley3 years ago in Earth
The mysterious disappearance of the world's longest shrubbery
n a second-hand bookstore in London, in late 1994, author Roy Moxham made a discovery that would consume the next three years of his life. Wedged in the footnotes of a colonial-era book published in 1893 that he had just purchased, was a fascinating, long-forgotten piece of Indian history.
By Baru Ku3 years ago in Earth
The Perishing Kelp
Scientists are increasingly alarmed that the kelp forests world wide are dying out at a disturbing pace. It appears that the kelp forests are 93 percent smaller on the California coast than before because of warmer waters resulting in a population increase of urchins which feed on the kelp.
By Sinha Ceni3 years ago in Earth