Especially as temperatures rise. Plus, an emerging alternative to opioids.
|  | Saturday, January 21, 2023 | | | | |
 | PHOTOGRAPHS BY MOISES SAMAN
| | You hear the pit before you see it, says photographer Moises Saman.
Inside, men tirelessly swinging rock-crushing hammers. Women haul loads of granite up steep walls. Children work beside them. Tires burn.
The insatiable need for concrete in Burkina Faso’s modern construction projects keep quarries like the Pissy Granite Mine (above) running. Now there's a growing call to return to traditional mud building techniques across the Middle East and North Africa—especially as temperatures rise.
Read the full story here.
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| | High-rises of mud: The city of Shibam in Yemen was built with the heat in mind. Nicknamed Manhattan of the Desert, the tall earthen buildings create shade and their white walls reflect sunlight. The city dates back to the 16th century. | | | |
| | Divine protection: The mud brick walls are more than six feet thick and insulate the Grand Mosque of BoboDioulasso in Burkina Faso. Walls made from concrete cinder blocks, on the other hand, allow heat to pass through freely. | | | |
| | Returning to tradition: Salima Naji, a Moroccan architect and anthropologist, believes that her country has forgotten the benefits of mud buildings in the heat. “But we must remember, because we need it now more than ever,” she says. Read more. | | | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY REBECCA HALE | | | |
 | PHOTOGRAPHS BY JAN VERMEER
| | Scary and beautiful: The new show The Last of Us has us thinking about fungi that can create zombies—which already exists, by the way. But during the pandemic, photographer Jan Vermeer also had fungi on the mind. Stuck at home in the Netherlands, he started photographing fungi that appeared in his neighborhood (like the fly agaric mushroom, left, and the Ramariopsis pulchella fungus, right).
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| A world with no trash? Photographer Luca Locatelli was on assignment in Iceland to see what a waste-less world might look like. His work focused on “circular economies” that aim to use few new resources and recycle everything else. “Iceland is a place of balance between humans and nature,” says Locatelli of these houses near Gljúfrabúi waterfall.
Related: Is a world without trash possible?
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 | PHOTOGRAPH BY KIKE CALVO, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION
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Today’s soundtrack: La Bicicleta, Carlos Vives and Shakira
This newsletter has been curated and edited by David Beard, Jen Tse, and Sydney Combs. Thanks to the Nat Geo French edition for the interview with Moises Saman—and to Beata Nas, Darren Smith, and Amy Kolczak. Amanda Williams-Bryant, Alec Egamov, Rita Spinks, and Jeremy Brandt-Vorel also contributed this week. Have an idea? We’d love to hear from you at david.beard@natgeo.com. Thanks for reading! | | | |
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