The Kushiro River on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido used to meander across a vast area of green hills and rural communities, through the Kushiro wetlands, the country’s largest and home to some 2,000 species of wildlife, before disgorging…
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The boreal forests are those areas found north of the Arctic Circle and yet still below the tundra line. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica On-line dictionary, the area is characterized by “vegetation composed primarily of cone-bearing, needle-leaved, or scale-leaved evergreen…
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The straightening of rivers is one form of river engineering(hydromodification). River engineering is “the process of planned human intervention in the course, characteristics or flow of a river with the intention of producing some defined benefit.” River engineering has been…
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Climate change and the water crisis are both contained within one system. Our world’s atmosphere, large as it seems, is fragile as an eggshell in the face of multiplying threats. Many of the worst threats come from us, ironically, yet…
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Since the formation of the earth around 4.5 billion years ago, it’s climate has undergone vast changes due to the constant evolution of its physical elements like its landmasses (continents) and oceans, changes in the levels of greenhouse gases contained…
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A mass extinction event is happening at this very moment. Has been happening, in fact, since Homo sapiens decided to walk out of Oduvai Gorge and spread across every habitable land surface on the planet. From our merciless treatment of…
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The one alternative energy source that I believe has the most potential is geothermal energy. There are many reason for this. AVAILABILITY There are some geothermal sources that we are familiar with. Geysers and hot springs come to mind first….
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Just close your eyes and imagine the Industrial Revolution. Long, gray snakes of smoke enter the sky, changing the once blue sky, to a toxic gray. As children and adult alike walk monotonously with morose eyes knowing that one fatal…
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Rivers are straightened to make them more predictable. Straightening a river is part of the process of enclosing, confining, and managing it. An unmanaged river rises in spring, develops sandbars and snags, and is likely to meander. In flood, a…
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There are three priorities a person has when lost in a desert. First is protecting oneself from the effect of the sun. The second is finding a source of liquid nourishment. Finally there is the matter of orientation, and finding…
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