Dark sky tourism rises; is your tortoiseshell real or fake?
| IT'S ALWAYS MURALS IN PHILADELPHIA | |
| Wednesday, April 20, 2022 | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY MATT ROURKE, AP | | By George Stone
Philadelphia played an important role on the first Earth Day, 52 years ago. A big takeaway for participants was the realization that environmental movement could not ignore the needs of major cities.
Thanks to communities and creatives, the “City of Brotherly Love (and Sisterly Affection)” has become known as the “City of Murals.” More than 4,000 multihued mosaics and vibrant displays of public art now decorate the city. Nearly four decades ago, Jane Golden, tasked by the city to solve a graffiti problem, started showcasing some of those artists as public art purveyors, encouraging them to put color on canvases several stories high. Some are celebrated—including the only in situ Keith Haring in the U.S. (Pictured above, a mural of 19-year-old Najee Spencer–Young by famed artist Amy Sherald.)
“Murals are really the autobiography of the city of Philadelphia. No matter where you go there are projects that talk about the people who live there, our heroes, the issues that confront us. Cumulatively they tell the story of Philadelphia. People feel that this work is theirs,” Golden, founder of Mural Arts Philadelphia, tells us. “The importance of this art form—from cave paintings, the Mexican muralists, the Renaissance—[is that it’s] about our ability to tell stories, to represent, to grapple with the issues of our time. The goal of murals is to put art to work on behalf of the citizens.”
Today, Philadelphia’s artful eyefuls of homegrown creativity support local communities and delight visitors. A new mural to see: Artist Eurhi Jones’ depiction of birds and bees on the wall of the Overbrook Environmental Education Center. This work is part of a Nat Geo Earth Month greening project that has funded murals in Philadelphia as well as New York, Chicago, and San Francisco.
Read our full story here—and get out and go green for Earth Day. | | | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY DINA LITOVSKY, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION | | Faces for places: An untitled mural on South Ninth Street in Philadelphia’s East Passyunk neighborhood highlights homegrown celebrities, such as Frankie Avalon and Bobby Rydell.
Readers, please consider supporting our storytelling by subscribing here. Thanks! | | | |
| Aurora borealis: These awe-inspiring lights, dancing above Canada’s Hudson Bay, represent an atmospheric mechanism that protects life on Earth. When charged particles and plasma from solar storms head toward us, the magnetosphere deflects it back into space. If you are lucky to see the auroras, know that you just witnessed a great battle of Earth vs. sun. Here are the best places to see the northern lights in the U.S.
Related: Earth’s magnetic field has flipped more often than scientists thought
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| EARTH MONTH: ARTICLE OF THE DAY | |
| PHOTOGRAPH BY JASPER DOEST | | | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY GREG LECOEUR, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION | | Save this species: Tortoiseshell is found in jewelry, combs, and even swizzle sticks for mixing cocktails. It’s pretty but comes at a cost: Tortoiseshell comes almost exclusively from the critically endangered hawksbill turtle (pictured above). More than nine million are believed to have been killed for their shells over two centuries. “It was plastic before plastic was invented because it’s so malleable,” says Brad Nahill, a Nat Geo Explorer and president of a conservation group that’s working to combat the illicit trade of this age-old material. A new app called SEE Shell can help identify whether a photo of something with a tortoiseshell pattern is real or fake. Find out more.
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 | | ILLUSTRATION BY ANDREW FAZEKAS | | Harp meteors? Just in time for Earth Day on Friday, celestial fireworks grace our skies. From late Thursday into Friday night, sky watchers can catch the annual Lyrid meteor shower. Normally we can see anywhere from 10 to 25 shooting stars per hour under dark skies, but the glare of the second quarter moon rising after midnight may filter out all but the brightest meteors. So time your viewing before midnight. Individual shooting stars will appear to stream from the shower's namesake constellation Lyra (the Harp), which rises in the east mid-evening. Also starting Sunday, early risers can catch the week-long meetings between the crescent moon and neighboring planets hanging above the eastern sky at dawn. —Andrew Fazekas
Where to stargaze: Some of the darkest skies in the U.S.
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 | | People tend to see plants as boring because they are fixed in the soil, they can’t really move, and then they’re not anthropomorphic in any way like animals. ... You could think of that rootedness as a source of creativity or ingenuity because they have to resort to all of these pretty out-there methods to achieve whatever they want. | | | Nirupa Rao
| Artist specializing in botanical illustrations; Nat Geo Explorer
Listen: The Secret Life of Plants | | |
 | | MAP EDITORS: MARTIN GAMACHE AND SOREN WALLJASPER | | Do you love maps? These maps and graphics take you on a tour of Earth’s forests—for better and for worse. See the countries that have the most intact forests, and those with losses that are mounting the fastest.
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| This newsletter has been curated and edited by David Beard, Monica Williams, and Jen Tse. Have an idea or feedback? We'd love to hear from you at david.beard@natgeo.com. Thanks for reading. | |
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