Teaching kids to protect the planet; flamingos are back; the truth about groundhogs
| | Tuesday, February 1, 2022 | | | | |
| In today’s newsletter, teaching kids to protect the planet; flamingos are back; another benefit to offshore wind farms; the truth about groundhogs | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN, AFP VIA GETTY | |
By Robert Kunzig, Executive Editor, Environment
Can a growing humanity feed itself? The question has been with us at least since the Reverend Thomas Malthus posed it more than 200 years ago. Malthus argued that the number of humans on Earth would inevitably outstrip the available farmland, leading to famine so widespread it would cut the global population back down to size. Though famine has indeed remained a recurrent local danger—including right now in East Africa—we’ve so far escaped catastrophe on the scale Malthus envisioned, thanks to advances in agriculture.
But past performance is no guarantee of future results—especially in an era of climate change.
Last week we published three stories that came at this huge and weighty subject from different angles. In the 21st century, water shortages will loom especially large as a threat to food production in some regions. Stephen Robert Miller reports for us from one of the front lines—central Arizona, where farmers this year are facing steep cuts to the amount of water they can draw from the drought-stricken Colorado River. He finds one heartening development: a few white farmers are now collaborating with the Gila River Indian Community, who have more senior rights to water and thus haven’t faced a cut yet. But deep uncertainty hangs over the future of farming in the Arizona desert.
As it does over the future of coffee—hardly an existential threat, to be sure, but for many of us, life would be a lot poorer without it. Sarah Gibbens and cartographer Riley Champine report on a new study projecting that by 2050 the area most suitable for growing coffee on this planet will decline by half, mostly because of rising temperatures in the main producers: Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia, and Indonesia. The areas suitable for growing cashews, on the other hand, will increase—but they will be new ones. Some countries that now export a lot of cashews, such as Benin in West Africa, may be hard hit. The situation with avocados is broadly similar, with losses in some regions and gains in others. (Pictured at top, picking coffee in Indonesia; below, avocados growing in Mexico.)
| | | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY JOSE CASTANARES, AFP VIA GETTY | |
Farmers will try to adapt to the disruptions, of course, and scientists will develop new crop breeds. The American Corn Belt shows what the combination of the two can achieve: Yields have gone up tenfold since the 1980s. And genetic engineering now gives crop scientists far more powerful tools than they used to have.
But as Alejandra Borunda writes for us, when University of Nebraska researchers recently analyzed how yields have improved in that Corn Belt state since 2005, they reached a surprising conclusion. The biggest contributor to increased yields hasn’t been genetically modified (GM) corn—it has been the longer growing seasons and mild weather promoted by climate change. The problem is, as the heat keeps rising, however, the weather in Nebraska is unlikely to remain as mild.
The modified crops are a powerful tool, but they “aren’t enough on their own to meet the challenge of climate change,” scientist Patricio Grassini tells Borunda. Fortunately, there are a lot of other ways to confront that very real threat to global food security. In the coming months we’ll be writing about them too.
If you want to get this email each week, join us here and invite a friend. If you’d like to support our journalism, subscribe here. | | | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY JOE RAEDLE, GETTY IMAGES | | Welcome back, flamingos: The poised, four-foot-tall birds were killed off in Florida in the late 1800s—and haven’t bred in the state since then. But a determined flamingo named Conchy—backed by wildlife experts—may have paved the way for a return of the year-round wild American flamingo. Good news: The flamingo population has grown in the Caribbean in recent decades, Ashley Belanger reports. (Pictured above, a touring bird on Miami’s Haulover Beach.)
Subscriber exclusive: Meet Flamingo Bob, the celebrity poster bird for conservation that Jasper Doest started photographing in 2016. | | | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY JEFF SWENSEN, GETTY IMAGES | | | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY ALESSANDRO CINQUE | | | Saving alpacas: Herders and innovators are going to great lengths to save the alpaca of the Andean highlands, threatened from warmer temperatures, drying glaciers, increasing diseases, and shrinking grazing lands. The highland wool is softer than that of the lowland variety, and a team of Peruvian researchers is developing ways to help the alpacas adapt. They also are using 3,200 animals to preserve the genes of colored alpacas to make sure the colors do not disappear, team leader Oscar Cárdenas tells Nat Geo. (Pictured above, Alina Surquislla Gomez cradles a baby alpaca in Peru.) | | | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY ELVA ETIENNE, GETTY IMAGES | | | Have to start somewhere: How do you build a child’s love of the planet? Step by step. Parents and teachers can empower kids by showing them simple, surprising, and clever “eco hacks.” “If kids are made aware of these things, they can kind of tip the balance a little bit in their lives,” Attainable Sustainable author Kris Bordessa tells Heather Greenwood Davis in this story with 16 suggestions. (Pictured above, a homemade playhouse made with recycled cardboard.) | | | |
HERE ARE THREE ‘ECO-HACKS’
1. Regrowing snacks: There’s a simple way to take bits of celery, lettuce, green onions or garlic and plant them to grow more.
2. A “bee water station:” In the spring, kids can add pebbles to a shallow pan filled with water that’s just below the top of the rocks. Place near flowers or pollinating trees and bushes so bees have an easy place to land and sip safely.
3. The four-minute shower playlist: Have your kids sing along to a four-minute song but be sure to finish when it does. That cuts America’s average eight-minute shower in half—and saves eight or so gallons of water each time.
| | | |
We hope you liked today’s Planet Possible newsletter. This was edited and curated by Monica Williams, Heather Kim, and David Beard. Have an idea, link, or other “eco-hacks” for us? Let us know at david.beard@natgeo.com. | | | |
Clicking on the Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and National Geographic Channel links will take you away from our National Geographic Partners site where different terms of use and privacy policy apply.
This email was sent to: mitch.dobbs.pics@blogger.com. Please do not reply to this email as this address is not monitored.
This email contains an advertisement from:
National Geographic | 1145 17th Street, N.W. | Washington, D.C. 20036
Stop all types of future commercial email from National Geographic regarding its products, services, or experiences.
Manage all email preferences with the Walt Disney Family of Companies.
© 2022 National Geographic Partners, LLC, All rights reserved. | | |
