Environment
The Forest Phantoms
After decades of poaching pushed the Central African Republic’s forest elephant populations to critically endangered status, scientists are starting to understand the crucial role they play in keeping the rainforest safe from fires. But can the species be brought back from the brink?
Pastoralists on the Precipice
Each year, fewer families are making the seasonal migration to Morocco’s communal mountain pastures, breaking with an ancient and sustainable way of life that has characterized the High Atlas for centuries, if not millennia. The decline of transhumance is pushing pastoral agdals to the precipice at a time when scientists say sustainable land-use systems are needed more than ever.
To the ‘People of the Red Sea,’ a Warning and a Hope
Maoz Fine, who studies coral reefs, was especially agog about the prospects of peace and better ties between his country and states along the Red Sea shores. When the first fruits of peace arrived, however, Fine and an ad hoc coalition of sundry Israelis found it unpalatable. A deal to bring oil from the UAE to Israel and then to Asia and Europe left many up in arms.
The Life and Death of Landfills
Upon closer inspection, I realized that the sparkles were in fact castaway shiny things: Crushed wash basins and tiles, porcelain that had outlived its purpose and was thrown into a mounting heap of junk so that it may die and, hopefully, in its next incarnation, find a new purpose.
Greece’s Wildfires and the Future of Natural Disasters
Wildfires last month on Greece’s second-largest island have destroyed homes and livelihoods. For many parts of the country, climate change is not a problem of the future; it is here and now. Yet the response from those on the island has not been to seek help from the government, but to turn to the local community.
From Syria to Lebanon, Saving the Seeds That Could Save Humanity
If a grown sample in a colder region isn’t able to withstand frequent heat waves and gets wiped out, the genetically resilient samples created in ICARDA’s genebank would come to the rescue. So when the accessions made their way to Lebanon in late 2015, it was all hands on deck.
As Brood X Nears the Completion of its Life Cycle, We Are Left Listening to the Cicada Blues
Much has been written about the din of cicadas, compared at times in its strangeness to the imagined sound of UFOs. Bob Dylan was moved to write “Day of the Locusts” when he heard them in 1970 at Princeton as he was receiving his honorary degree.