Residents near the Caribbean coast of Honduras have been witness to an unlikely, and much welcome, event: fish that seem to arrive from the skies. Or maybe from somewhere else?
Tag: nature
NEW DELHI — I had never given thought to the provenance of funeral wood, until news reports revealed in late April that officials in Delhi had begun receiving requests to chop trees in city parks amidst the colossal surge in COVID deaths. It was a jolting statement to encounter, for it forced me to reframe a life-giver into a death-enabler in ominously stripped, urgent terms. Wood, of course, had been used for cremation since ancient times, but to think of it as coming from our very midst instead of some sequestered supply-area bore a sting of abrasiveness. Would our public […]
Can nature save capitalism? Biomimicry is thought-provoking because it provides many sources of inspiration to calibrate production models to nature, and thus continue to grow while respecting our environment.
The concept of smart cities is a kind of received wisdom among planners and technologists, but our digital world of today is not sustainable.
Javier Franco, a mountain guide in Argentina Patagonia, started with an idea. Next he had a prototype. Now, he and his siblings run a small but thriving business in Buenos Aires.
Monkeys, lobsters and even guppies … They all have an innate understanding that there’s only one truly effective way to contain an epidemic.
With July recorded as the driest month since 1959 in France, farmers — who make up half of water consumption in the country — face a problematic water shortage. The agricultural world is now working on solutions to better manage this precious resource.
Five stories around the world of indigenous populations suffering from global warming. The good news is they can provide solutions — if governments will listen.
The top layers of corals reduce the cost of storms by an average of $4 billion annually, a new study finds.
Mountains are as integral to Switzerland as beaches are to Tahiti. But that doesn’t mean every Swiss person likes the rising surroundings.
OGONI REGION — Stanley, 40, once considered becoming a fighter. He says he already has a small stash of Kalashnikov assault rifles hidden somewhere. He’s not boasting. That’s just how things are in the creeks of the Niger Delta. The youth have easier access to weapons than to schools and jobs. But instead of becoming […]
A project that encourages villagers to protect local river sources is helping revive community life and traditional culture.
The Antarctic, one of the last, unspoiled parts of the natural world, will, like the Amazon, face man’s destructive onslaught unless states take action quickly.
I live in a small village in the Vosges Mountains in northeastern France with my four brothers and sisters. My father works in industrial maintenance and my mother takes care of the family. I attended kindergarten because I had asked to go there. But I left after a year. My siblings aged 18, 15, 12 […]
Categories
Plastic Trees
The sap harvested from these Pará rubber trees on the Indonesian island of Java coagulates in the yellow collection cups, and voilà, here’s your rubber latex. Or as we say in France, caoutchouc ! See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
Categories
Nooks And Parties
The Spanish island of Ibiza is not reserved for beach-goers and party animals only. It’s also rich with nice villages and seaside resorts with old olive trees like this one. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
Peter Wohlleben wrote an unlikely bestseller about trees. Now the lifelong forester explores the spiritual side of animals.
Categories
Where Weavers Nest
This tree was not afflicted by some strange disease: “Village weavers” — little yellow birds we got to see on both Mauritius and Réunion islands — had made it their home.
A meeting with shamans in Colombia allows El Espectador’s Pablo Correa to experience an “indescribable” ritual.
SPOTLIGHT: MIXED GREEN FEELINGS Even as we’ve been consumed by a news cycle that includes wars, elections and the biggest European reorder after World War II, our planet is quietly waiting for some attention. Nature reveals that pledges taken by countries during the Paris COP21 climate summit may need a big boost “to maintain a […]
LIMA — The Peruvian capital has no shortage of vultures flying overhead. For the past year they have also been enlisted to help find, and perhaps eventually clear, some of Lima’s worst illegal trash heaps. How is it done? The city and scientists have been using 10 vultures strapped with GPS and GoPro cameras to […]
Categories
Luxembourg, From Tax Shelter to Animal Haven
LUXEMBOURG — This tiny country has long been known for its unsavory status as a tax haven. But now Luxembourg may be on its way to forging a new title: as animal rights capital of the world. A new government bill aims to protect the “security and dignity” of animals, and recognizes that they possess […]
Categories
Morning Dew — Video Quote Of The Day
MUMBAI — In the western state of Maharashtra, dozens of men, women and children surround a water tanker on the main road. They hold pitchers, buckets and other containers, and are trying to fill as many as they can. Renuka, 35, pushes her way to the top of the tanker and is able to fill her five pitchers. “I waited 15 days to get this much water. But how long will it last?” she says. “We haven’t had tap water for the last two years. Our ponds and wells have dried up. There’s no water at all.” Manohar was less […]
With help from agencies and the government, locals from Monte de María in northern Colombia are breathing new life into the land stripped by abuse and violence.
Too many wild boars are roaming Germany, causing considerable damage to farms and forests. Their numbers need to be severely reduced, but German hunters have their own code for proper conduct.
Categories
Volcano Diving
In the northwest corner of the Portuguese island of Madeira, the contrast between the serene, warm lava pools and the ocean waves crashing in when the wind rises is simply stunning.
Categories
Lake Of Diamonds
During this cold night of May, the lake had frozen, and in the morning the banks were sparkling like diamonds … Beautiful, but chilly. Thankfully, at the Lake Louise Inn where we stayed, there was a fireplace in our bedroom.
Protecting the environment is not about “reconciling” man and nature, it’s about giving each their due space. In large part, this means concentrating people in cities.
MINQIN — Here, where the sand threatens to encroach, China is waging a long-term war against desert expansion. Just a few steps beyond the cultivated fields, the desert stretches as far as the eye can see. Minqin is menaced by the Tengger Desert to the west and by the Badain Jaran Desert to the east, […]
Animals have many of the characteristics of the brilliantly useful machines scientists would like to create: flexibility, adaptability, instinctive intelligence …
Categories
Extra! Chilean Eruption
Diario Austral, March 4, 2015 The Villarrica volcano, one of the most active in southern Chile, erupted Tuesday, prompting authorities to evacuate thousands of people from the region. The eruption was the strongest since 1985, sending plumes of ash up to 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) into the air for about 20 minutes, before calming down, […]
Categories
A Mouse In The Garden
When we went to Florida’s Cypress Gardens in the late 1980s, the botanical garden theme park was trying to survive, threatened as it was by a nearby rodent stealing all its visitors.
BOGOTA — Authorities in Bogota are banning road and building construction across 14 square kilometers (5.4 square miles) in the Colombian capital, in a bid to create the largest urban nature reserve in Latin America. New restrictions will turn a sector of the existing Thomas van der Hammen Reserve into a “biodiversity corridor” spanning Guaymaral, […]
Categories
Iran’s Last Siberian Crane Flies Alone
TEHRAN — What was described as the “last remaining” member of a flock of cranes that has flown to Iran from Siberia every winter was recently spotted on Iran’s northern Caspian shore, confirming environmental officials’ fears that the pack is virutally extinct. This was said to be the seventh year it had flown 4,000 kilometers […]
Categories
Holiday Traffic Jam
In the near vicinity of the Pont d’Arc natural bridge in Ardèche, southern France, is the Chauvet Cave, which features some of the earliest prehistoric paintings in the world. Not as fun as kayaking on a crowded river, I guess?
Categories
Monumental Indeed
It doesn’t matter how many pictures of the Taj Mahal you’ve seen before, or how often you’ve seen the Iguazu Falls on TV: Seeing the world’s wonders in the flesh will always leave you awestruck. Same goes for Monument Valley’s gigantic sandstone buttes — yes, this speck of dust in the foreground is a car.
Who’d have thought Lebanon’s cedars could actually root out loud for their own preservation? The country’s Ministries of Environment and Education have helped a team of bioacoustic engineers extract the natural sounds emitted in the Barouk Forest by a cedar tree, the endangered national symbol of Lebanon. They then let Beirut-based DJ ESC work his […]
Categories
Comparative Studies Of Waterfalls
We saw what most agree are the three most impressive waterfalls in the world: Victoria Falls, between Zambia and Zimbabwe; Niagara Falls, between the U.S. and Canada; and Iguazu Falls, between Argentina and Brazil. If I had to choose one, it would definitely be what you’re looking at here. Niagara is awesome, but doesn’t have […]
Categories
The Stone Giant
It’s a geological phenomenon known as giant’s kettles, where erosion carves out cauldron-like shapes in stone. In this picture of Bourke’s Luck Potholes — in the upper Blyde River Canyon, in the South African Drakensberg mountain range — it seemed the giant himself was staring at us.