Brazilian Amazon (Photo: gustavofrazao/Depositphotos)

In a victory for the planet, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has continued to plummet. According to data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, INPE, deforestation reached a six-year low in May 2024. This promising trend began in 2023 after deforestation peaked in 2022.

The INPE shared that 193 square miles of rainforest were cleared in May, bringing 2024's total deforested area down 54% over the same period last year. The yearly total will be capped on July 31, which marks the peak of Brazil's dry season and is the date used by the government to calculate annual deforestation.

The sharp decline in deforestation coincides with the term of Brazil's current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was sworn into office in January 2023. A key talking point of President Lula's campaign was the environment. In fact, he pledged to stop illegal logging and made a target of zero deforestation by 2030.

The Cerrado in Brazil (Photo: Angeladepaula via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

While great strides have been made in preserving the rainforest, there is concern for the adjacent region, the Cerrado. This vast tropical savanna has seen an increase in environmental destruction at the same time that the Brazilian Amazon has seen increased protection measures. This leads many to believe that illegal loggers have simply taken their activities elsewhere.

The Cerrado, which is home to 800 species of trees and a wealth of animals, is the second-largest biome in South America and the most biodiverse savanna in the world. It is also a major center of agriculture, with an enormous amount of livestock and grain production. Unfortunately, it is not constitutionally part of the country's National Heritage, and only 1.5% of its area falls under environmental protection. This makes it particularly vulnerable for those looking to exploit the environment without the government's watchful eye.

So, while we continue to have good news about the Brazilian Amazon, Brazil will need to move swiftly to also keep all of its ecosystems safe.

h/t: [Mongabay]

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READ: Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon Reaches a Six-Year Low

Photo: luna123/Depositphotos

By nature, plants and trees are our best allies against carbon emissions. On top of “breathing out” oxygen, they capture CO2 during photosynthesis, keeping the world in balance. However, when they decay, the carbon they stored is released back into the atmosphere. Now, a startup called Graphyte has found an affordable and nearly permanent way to stop this process—sparing the world from tons of emissions through carbon casting.

“After decades of working in the climate change space, we were committed to finding a better way to remove carbon. We knew that energy was critical. That’s why we started with the power of nature,” reads the company's website. “Graphyte realized that the carbon captured in plant matter could be preserved by eliminating the causes of biomass decomposition—microbes and the water they depend on. Drying the biomass eliminates microbes, and impermeable barriers prevent water and gas from restarting the decomposition process.”

Graphyte's solution is a LEGO-like brick that can be buried underground and later tracked. The process is as follows; they first collect by-products of the timber and agriculture industries that would otherwise be left to decompose or be burned. The company then  dries it to eliminate microbes, stopping decomposition. The biomass is later compacted into dense blocks and protected by an environmentally safe, impermeable barrier that keeps microbes at bay. Once ready, they are equipped with a sensor and placed 10 feet underground.

According to the company, this method has leveled production costs at under $100 per ton of CO2 with minimal energy requirements. By comparison, other carbon removal processes cost anywhere from $600 to $1,200 per ton, according to The Washington Post. With the right monitoring, the shoebox-size blocks can remain there for a thousand years, offering a long-term option. The sites where their blocks are placed can be used as solar farms or working agricultural land.

Graphyte states that this is only a complement to aggressive emissions reductions, as gigatons of carbon removal are needed in the coming decades to achieve the targets set by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “Graphyte is focused on working with partners responsibly to ensure our solution is not used as a replacement for direct emissions reduction strategies,” they write.

Still, Graphyte's carbon casting endeavor offers a glimpse of hope, as it speaks to the myriad of ways companies big and small can tackle global warming. By not only taking accountability but actively looking to reduce emissions at every step of the way, we all can contribute to protecting our future.

A startup called Graphyte has found an affordable and nearly permanent way to prevent decaying plants from releasing stored carbon into the atmosphere.

Graphyte's solution is LEGO-like bricks that are buried underground and later tracked.

According to the company, this method has leveled production costs at under $100 per ton of CO2 with minimal energy requirements.

Graphyte: Website

All images via Graphyte except where noted.

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2024 Goldman Prize winner Alok Shukla (Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize)

The biodiverse Hasdeo Aranya forests are one of the largest intact forest areas in India. Spread over 657 square miles, the forest, which is popularly known as the Lungs of Chhattisgarh, provides crucial natural resources to the 15,000 Indigenous Adivasi people living there. The sprawling forest is also home to diverse wildlife including elephants and tigers, as well as thousands of unique reptiles and birds.

However, one of India's largest coal reserves is also located in the Hasdeo Aranya forest, and in a country where blackouts are common and widespread, there has been a great deal of focus on turning the forest into a mining hub. Even though the Hasdeo Aranya forests are considered a “no-go” zone by India's environmental ministry, the policy was never enacted into law and as a result, more than 21% of India's coal comes from the region.

Several years ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's regime pushed for 21 new mines to be placed in the forest, but a local man named Alok Shukla refused to let that happen. Shukla, a 43-year-old environmental activist, grew up watching the effects of deforestation on his community. He stepped up and founded the Save Hasdeo Aranya Resistance Committee, a grassroots organization advocating for the preservation of the sweeping, lush forests in the region. The protest campaign relied on both in-person action and social media awareness, and included events such as sit-ins, tree-hugging campaigns, and advocating for couples to write #savehasdeo on their wedding invitations.

Shukla's efforts paid off as India's legislature voted unanimously that all new mining proposals in the forest should be canceled. His commitment to conservation has also earned him the 2024 Goldman Environmental Prize, which “honors ordinary people who take extraordinary actions to protect our planet.” He is sharing the prize with five other winners from Brazil, the United States, South Africa, Australia, and Spain.

An environmental activist in India named Alok Shukla founded a grassroots organization to help preserve the lush forests of his country.

2024 Goldman Prize winner Alok Shukla and community members at Hasdeo Aranya (Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize)

Over the years, India has cut down forests to build coal mines, but Shukla took a stand against the environmentally harmful deforestation of places like the Hasdeo Aranya forests.

2024 Goldman Prize winner Alok Shukla at the edge of a mine (Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize)

Shukla's efforts paid off as India's legislature voted unanimously that all new mining proposals in the forest should be canceled.

Hasdeo Aranya (Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize)

And now, he's won the Goldman Environmental Prize for his work on conserving one of the largest forests in India.

Alok Shukla at the 2024 Goldman Prize ceremony in San Francisco (Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize)

Watch Shukla's acceptance speech:

Goldman Environmental Prize: Website | YouTube

My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by Goldman Environmental Prize.

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The Kutuk River in Gates of the Arctic National Park in Alaska. (Photo: Ken Hill / National Park Service)

Alaska is famous for its extensive, beautiful, and foreboding wilderness. Mountains, dense forests, and many miles of roaring rivers cover the state. Many areas are accessible only by helicopter or bush plane, particularly the more remote Arctic regions. While visiting one of the state's many remote rivers in 2018, scientist Jon O’Donnell was surprised to see the waters turned a murky, rusty orange. The great contrast to the crystal clear waters when he visited the year prior kicked off an investigation into why Alaska's rivers were turning orange. The findings, recently published in Nature Communications: Earth and Environment, suggest that the culprit is climate change. As the permafrost warms, metals and acids are polluting the rivers of the Arctic.

After noticing the one orange stream in 2018, scientists including O'Donnell and others from institutions such as the National Park Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and the University of California, Davis, began surveying rivers and sampling their water's contents. Satellite imagery suggested the changing river colors began as far back as 2008 and were visible from space. “The more we flew around, we started noticing more and more orange rivers and streams,” lead author Jon O’Donnell says in a statement. “There are certain sites that look almost like a milky orange juice. Those orange streams can be problematic both in terms of being toxic but might also prevent migration of fish to spawning areas.”

Testing the waters revealed iron, zinc, nickel, copper, and cadmium. The waters were often highly acidic, with pH closer to 2.3 as opposed to the normal 8. According to PhD student Taylor Evinger who helped analyze the samples, “We see a lot of different types of metals in these waters. One of the most dominant metals is iron. That’s what is causing the color change.” Tributaries which turn orange as the iron oxidizes acquire their rust color. They then feed into larger rivers, mixing with waters which still remain clear. “There’s a lot of implications,” O’Donnell added. “As the climate continues to warm, we would expect permafrost to continue to thaw and so wherever there are these types of minerals, there’s potential for streams to be turning orange and becoming degraded in terms of water quality.”

Permafrost melting and changing river water may have scary implications for drinking water and wildlife. The salmon populations in Alaska may be particularly affected. Permafrost can also release other long trapped things, such as ancient plant DNA or frozen viruses.

Climate change threatens to affect human life and the Earth's ecosystems in many ways, as scientists rush to learn how the changing world will affect humans and animals.

As climate change causes long-frozen permafrost to melt, acids and metals are released into Alaska's rivers, literally rusting them.

The Kutuk River in Alaska's Gates of the Arctic National Park. (Photo: Ken Hill/National Park Service)

The Kugaroruk River showing contrasting waters. (Photo: Josh Koch, U.S. Geological Survey)

A tributary of the Kugororuk River. (Photo: Josh Koch, U.S. Geological Survey)

The Anaktok River where clear and orange waters mix. (Photo: Josh Koch, U.S. Geological Survey)

A tributary of the Kugororuk River. (Photo: Josh Koch, U.S. Geological Survey)

The orange waters of the Kugaroruk River tributary meet clear. (Photo: Josh Koch, U.S. Geological Survey)

The Akillik River in Kobuk Valley National Park, Alaska turning orange. (Photo: fig. 4, O'Donnell et al.)

h/t: [Smithsonian Magazine, CNN]

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Photo: SergeyNivens/Depositphotos

Humans visiting Mars will likely happen within the next 15 years. However, it will be a nine-month-long journey one way. Finding a way to feed humans on Mars is, therefore, critical before anyone steps foot on the Red Planet. A recent study done by researchers in the Netherlands may have come up with a viable method for growing nutrient rich vegetables by drawing upon ancient farming techniques used by the Mayans. 

While dehydrated food has become a staple of space missions, it's not an ideal method of feeding humans long-term. It is less nutritious than fresh food,  and being able to pack enough for a Mars mission is unfeasible. Regular supply missions are not efficient economically, leaving agriculture as the best method to feed Mars-bound humans. Of course, with an atmosphere 100 times thinner, with more carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and argon than Earth's atmosphere, Mars isn't readily hospitable to our crops.

Building upon past studies, scientists at Wageningen University & Research are looking for ways to optimize plant growth. Centuries ago, Mayans started using a  method of farming which involved intercropping. Their descendants still use this method today, resulting in drought and disease resilient farms. Intercropping, as opposed to monocropping, consists of multiple plant types being grown together in the same plots of land.

Researchers compared three different crops in an approximation of dusty Martian soil called regolith, as well as soil and river sand, both by monocropping and intercropping. Tomatoes, carrots, and peas were grown for 105 days. These three vegetables are high in nutrients that are destroyed during food dehydration. Also the researchers believed they would be complementary to each other. Tomatoes provide climbing support to peas and shade to carrots that are heat-sensitive, while peas “fix” nitrogen in soil by turning it into ammonia which becomes food for plants. Carrots, in turn, help aerate soil, thus improving water and nutrient uptake.

There were 60 pots total of plants, in greenhouses similar to what would be built on Mars. The results were then measured in terms of yield and nutrient density. In all three soil types, all the crops grew. Tomatoes did especially well in the intercropping regolith pot. They were higher in biomass, and impressively they had the most potassium of any of the tomato plants in the experiment. However, the peas and carrots were not fans of sharing a pot with tomatoes in the regolith, and produced decreased yields. There are several possible reasons for this. Tomatoes are known as “heavy feeders” likely taking nutrients from the peas and carrots. Additionally, a bacteria, Rhizobia, was added to the peas' plots to symbiotically work together for nitrogen-fixing. In the higher pH regolith, the Rhizobia failed to survive, resulting in the peas not being able to turn nitrogen into ammonia for its neighboring crops.

This study, however, was still promising to researchers, as they now think they can come up with ways to adjust the regolith so that it will be welcoming to intercropped plants. For instance, after the first harvest, they will be able to compost the unused parts of the produce to increase the nutrient value of the regolith. The study also provided evidence that intercropping would be beneficial to agriculture on Earth as well. With a rapidly changing climate, farming conditions are shifting, and soil is becoming sandier in some places. The intercropped plants did better in the river sand iteration than the monocropped pots. Not just astronauts on Mars, but many communities on Earth have plenty to learn from the Mayans.

Using Mayan farming techniques of planting different crops closely together could be beneficial for agriculture on Mars, and also on an Earth with its changing climate.

Comparison between intercropping and monocropping treatments in Mars regolith simulant.
A: Intercropping treatment (left) and monocropped tomato (right). B: Intercropping treatment (left) and monocropped pea (right). C: Intercropping treatment (left) and monocropped carrot (right). Arrows point to the small carrot leaves from the intercropping treatment. Pictures were taken on the day of harvest (day 105). (Photo: Gonçalves et al. / Plos One, CC BY 4.0)

Researchers point out that farming will be the most time- and cost-efficient method of feeding Mars colonists, but also will be a mental-wellness supporting practice.

Comparison between intercropping treatment from the three soils.
A: Sand. B: Mars regolith simulant. C: Potting soil.(Photo: Gonçalves et al. / Plos One, CC BY 4.0)

Yield comparison between cropping treatments and between soils.
Labels in pictures indicating “Organic soil” refer to the potting soil treatment. A: Intercropped tomato. B: Monocropped tomato. C: Intercropped peas. D: Monocropped peas. E: Intercropped carrots. F: Intercropped carrots.  (Photo: Gonçalves et al. / Plos One, CC BY 4.0)

h/t: [Smithsonian Magazine]

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In a move to integrate ecological preservation with urban development, Dubai-based urban planning firm URB has created Dubai Mangroves. The initiative calls for the planting of more than 100 million mangrove trees over nearly 50 miles, as well as a botanical museum, conservation center, and visitor hub. By balancing the needs of the planet with the needs of humans, URB is hoping to demonstrate that urban growth and environmental responsibility can work hand in hand.

Mangroves are the perfect choice for the project, as these plants are known for their ability to capture carbon, help prevent coastal erosion, and provide food and shelter for marine life. URB estimates that the planted mangroves will be able to absorb 1.23 million tonnes of CO2 annually, calling it “the equivalent of removing the CO2 emitted by more than 260,000 gasoline-powered passenger vehicles from the roads each year.”

Several structures will also support the environment by providing public education opportunities. The Mangrove Visitor Hub will not only teach the community about the importance of mangroves, but it will also focus on broader environmental challenges. The Botanical Museum and the Nature Reserve Conservation Center will also serve as important platforms for research, education, and advocacy.

“Dubai mangroves is a testament of how urban and environmental innovation can work in harmony as a model for cities worldwide, demonstrating the transformative power of integrating ecological preservation with urban growth,” says Baharash Bagherian, CEO of URB. “Yet this project is much more than coastal regeneration or resilience; it’s about setting a global standard for how cities can balance the needs of the planet with the needs of the people.”

The project is currently in the search stage and has selected six beaches to test the best methods for mangrove restoration. URB will also introduce various facilities to these areas, such as beach sports facilities, habitats for wildlife, areas dedicated to biosaline agriculture practices, and integrated running and cycling tracks. They will then study how these diversified offerings can work in harmony with the mangroves to create an area where ecology, recreation, and leisure can co-exist in harmony.

The entire project is in line with the Dubai 2040 Master Plan, which focuses on urban resilience, biodiversity, and sustainable planning. If executed successfully, Dubai Mangroves would be the largest coastal regeneration project of its kind and could provide a blueprint for future redevelopment.

URB plans to plant 100 million mangrove trees as part of the world's largest coastal regeneration project.

It's estimated that the trees will absorb 1.23 million tonnes of CO2 annually.

Dubai Mangroves will also incorporate learning and research opportunities as a visitor center, museum, and research hub.

“This project is much more than coastal regeneration or resilience; it’s about setting a global standard for how cities can balance the needs of the planet with the needs of the people.”

URB: Website | Instagram

My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by URB.

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An artistic rendering of what Pangea Proxima might look like. (Photo: IANM36/Depositphotos)

You probably learned about Pangea, also spelled Pangaea, the prehistoric supercontinent that once hosted the earliest dinosaurs. Around 200 million years ago, the process known as continental drift began to shift portions of land apart. Riding the tectonic plates, the continents separated and migrated to their current locations. Yet Earth's surface is not static. Continents continue to shift, causing the Himalayas to rise slightly each year and the continents to continually, slowly move. In fact, recent scientific estimates suggest that in about 250 million years, the continents will merge back together into a supercontinent.

This supercontinent may take several different forms. Under a scenario known as Aurica, an equatorial continent forms. To form Amasia, the continents would converge on the North Pole, with Antarctica remaining at the South Pole. Novopangea sees the Pacific Ocean closing. For Pangea Ultima, or Proxima, the continents converge around a small ocean or sea. Pangea Proxima means “the next pangea,” harkening back to the prehistoric state of affairs. According to a recent paper published in Nature Geoscience, Pangea Ultima will, “due to changes in volcanic rifting and outgassing . . . [and] solar energy . . . and continentality (larger range in temperatures away from the ocean) lead to increasing warming hostile to mammalian life.” The authors conclude it “will probably lead to a climate tipping point and their mass extinction.”

If this mass extinction is terrifying, it is ultimately the natural course when viewing history through the millions of years. The Sun will only get hotter as the star ages, so the Earth will eventually face more radiation. The dinosaurs went extinct in a similar event, although their crisis was partly caused by an asteroid impact and volcanoes.

“It might end up looking a lot like Pangea did when the dinosaurs were roaming around,” Hannah Davies, a geologist who studies supercontinents, told Mashable. “We could end up with six or seven supercontinent cycles throughout Earth's history.”

Millions of years ago, our seven continents were mashed together into one supercontinent, and current science suggests that they will eventually return to this formation.

The break up of the original Pangea into our present day map. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)

In one proposed formation called Pangea Ultima, all of the continents will converge around a small ocean.

What Pangea Proxima or Ultima may look like, as postulated by Paleomap Project. (Photo: Cgboeree via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED)

Scientists suggest that this will likely occur about 250 million years from now.

When it happens, it will create a climate tipping point that will drive a mass extinction, similar to what happened to the dinosaurs.

New paper alert “Climate extremes likely to drive land mammal extinction during next supercontinent assembly” in @NatureGeosci . w/ @EuniceLoClimate , Paul Valdes, @JonathanRBuzan , @bjwmills , Andrew Meredith, @chris_scotese , @StellarPlanet 1/nhttps://t.co/aKsWJxbrln

— Alex Farnsworth (@Climate_AlexF) September 25, 2023

h/t: [Mashable]

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Volcanos are fascinating geological structures. They essentially serve as vents, allowing the warmer inner materials of the Earth to emerge in flowing lava. Mount Etna, located in Sicily, is even more interesting than your average volcano though. Known as a stratovolcano for its steep cone-shape, Mount Etna's eruptions have been watched and recorded by humans since 1500 BCE. The mountain is particularly known for producing smokey vortex rings, which look almost mythical—and the mountain has been belching these at a swift rate recently.

Mount Etna is generally extremely active. The name Etna actually may originate in the Latin and Greek words meaning “to burn,” or potentially Phoenician for “furnace.” Vortex rings are Mount Etna's specialty. They are created when vents open up, allowing hot gasses, vapors, and smoke to emerge from the hotter volcanic material below. Differences in speed as the gaseous material is ejected creates a vortex, a high speed swirl. The gaseous ring then floats off, eventually fading.

In April 2024, Mount Etna has produced more rings than any volcano on record, according to The New York Times. Despite this unprecedented pace, it doesn’t necessarily mean that a big explosion is on the way. For now, the hyperactivity is a mesmerizing piece of nature. Even if you’re not in Sicily right now, you can watch the video above. The Straits Times has captured footage of the hypnotizing smoke rings floating through the sky.

The active volcano is currently a protected park. It's a UNESCO World Heritage site that has a unique ecosystem on its slopes, where plants and animals live. One can explore Mount Etna via hiking trails and scenic viewpoints, and perhaps will even catch sight of a vortex ring. You can also follow the explosions and flows through a webpage maintained by The Smithsonian.

Mount Etna, a volcano in Sicily, has been blowing out smoke rings at an unprecedented rate this month.

A Mount Etna smoke ring in August 2023. (Photo: PSomol via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED)

h/t: [Colossal]

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Photo: NoteTanapat/Depositphotos

Did you grow up playing with LEGOs? You're definitely not alone. And though many people may grow out of piecing the iconic little plastic blocks together, there are still a significant amount of people who do remarkable things with them as adults. Some have made the bricks their main medium of choice as LEGO artists while others have maintained their playful side as impressive hobbyists who build their favorite sets. For one LEGO fan known only by their YouTube channel name, Build it with Bricks, the toy bricks are a way for them to experiment, learn, and teach viewers more about the world around us. In one of their most popular videos, they used LEGO bricks to build and demonstrate coastal sea defenses.

In the video, the creator begins by setting up a mini beach. First, they add a pile of sand at one end of an aquarium tank. Next, they assemble a wave generator out of a board of LEGO bricks hooked up to an engine. The board is wired to move back and forth. Once water is added to the tank, this mechanism is designed to push against it, simulating waves. Now that the “coast” is complete, the wave generator is turned on to show how erosion occurs. The ripples of water being pushed by the wave generator rush against the small hill of sand, chipping away at it and pulling the grains into the sea as it sways back.

To combat this erosion, Build it with Bricks constructs multiple types of barriers, each with their own varying levels of success. They constructed offshore breakers, gabions, revetments, seawalls, and more, showing their effectiveness in preventing erosion of the shore. Throughout the video, viewers are introduced to new terminology and offered a visual understanding of how structural design affects success rate. Build it with Bricks' video is a fascinating watch that is both mesmerizing and educational.

Build it with Bricks has many videos that make big concepts more understandable as LEGO creations. To keep up to date with their builds and experiments, you can subscribe to them on YouTube. In the meantime, scroll down to see the full video about sea defense.

A YouTube channel known as Build it with Bricks uses LEGO bricks to build machines and to conduct various experiments.

One of their most popular videos uses LEGOs to show how sea defense structures can be built to resist erosion.

Build it with Bricks: YouTube | TikTok | Facebook
h/t: [The Kid Should See This]

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The consequences of climate change can often feel far off. It can be difficult to register the gradually increasing temperatures on Earth from season to season. Occasionally, the effects of our planet heating up become more obvious through startling photos and videos of glaciers melting or increasingly violent natural disasters, but even these events are intermittent.

A recent TED Talk video presents a bleak fate for our planet several decades from now if humans fail to address climate change in a meaningful way. The speaker, Shannon Odell, lays out what life on Earth might look like in 2050. In some ways, it mirrors our world now, only in a more extreme way, as she explains that reports of wildfires and heatwaves would fill the evening news, and blackouts would be more common. Her descriptions become more harrowing, however, as she discusses how ambulance sirens would fill the night as people suffering from dehydration and heat exhaustion would be rushed to hospitals.

Odell also describes drought-like conditions in parts of the United States, Africa, and Australia and how some communities would be unable to cope with them, likely collapsing altogether. Additionally, Earth's children would be harmed, as higher temperatures and pollutants in the air would cause more infants to be born prematurely, and rates of asthma and other respiratory conditions would also increase.

Odell jumps forward another 50 years to 2100, and the situation has only gotten more dire. Assuming that, thanks to government action, global emissions were to go down after 2050, it would still be too little, too late. Due to rising sea levels, entire island nations become uninhabitable, and climate refugees from all around the globe begin settling in floating cities above their submerged former homes. The video doesn't end there, but it deserves a watch in order to fully understand the gravity of the situation.

Odell paints a bleak picture for us, indeed. But thankfully, we are not in 2050, and we have not yet reached the point of no return. Through government action and our own efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change, we will not be able to stop the phenomenon, but we will be able to slow it down and ensure that our planet remains habitable for more generations to come. Humankind has been extremely fortunate to live and breathe on a Goldilocks Planet, but it is now up to us to make sure it stays that way.

h/t: [Open Culture]

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