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reasonsforhope · 15 days
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"With “green corridors” that mimic the natural forest, the Colombian city is driving down temperatures — and could become five degrees cooler over the next few decades.
In the face of a rapidly heating planet, the City of Eternal Spring — nicknamed so thanks to its year-round temperate climate — has found a way to keep its cool.
Previously, Medellín had undergone years of rapid urban expansion, which led to a severe urban heat island effect — raising temperatures in the city to significantly higher than in the surrounding suburban and rural areas. Roads and other concrete infrastructure absorb and maintain the sun’s heat for much longer than green infrastructure.
“Medellín grew at the expense of green spaces and vegetation,” says Pilar Vargas, a forest engineer working for City Hall. “We built and built and built. There wasn’t a lot of thought about the impact on the climate. It became obvious that had to change.”
Efforts began in 2016 under Medellín’s then mayor, Federico Gutiérrez (who, after completing one term in 2019, was re-elected at the end of 2023). The city launched a new approach to its urban development — one that focused on people and plants.
The $16.3 million initiative led to the creation of 30 Green Corridors along the city’s roads and waterways, improving or producing more than 70 hectares of green space, which includes 20 kilometers of shaded routes with cycle lanes and pedestrian paths.
These plant and tree-filled spaces — which connect all sorts of green areas such as the curb strips, squares, parks, vertical gardens, sidewalks, and even some of the seven hills that surround the city — produce fresh, cooling air in the face of urban heat. The corridors are also designed to mimic a natural forest with levels of low, medium and high plants, including native and tropical plants, bamboo grasses and palm trees.
Heat-trapping infrastructure like metro stations and bridges has also been greened as part of the project and government buildings have been adorned with green roofs and vertical gardens to beat the heat. The first of those was installed at Medellín’s City Hall, where nearly 100,000 plants and 12 species span the 1,810 square meter surface.
“It’s like urban acupuncture,” says Paula Zapata, advisor for Medellín at C40 Cities, a global network of about 100 of the world’s leading mayors. “The city is making these small interventions that together act to make a big impact.”
At the launch of the project, 120,000 individual plants and 12,500 trees were added to roads and parks across the city. By 2021, the figure had reached 2.5 million plants and 880,000 trees. Each has been carefully chosen to maximize their impact.
“The technical team thought a lot about the species used. They selected endemic ones that have a functional use,” explains Zapata.
The 72 species of plants and trees selected provide food for wildlife, help biodiversity to spread and fight air pollution. A study, for example, identified Mangifera indica as the best among six plant species found in Medellín at absorbing PM2.5 pollution — particulate matter that can cause asthma, bronchitis and heart disease — and surviving in polluted areas due to its “biochemical and biological mechanisms.”
And the urban planting continues to this day.
The groundwork is carried out by 150 citizen-gardeners like Pineda, who come from disadvantaged and minority backgrounds, with the support of 15 specialized forest engineers. Pineda is now the leader of a team of seven other gardeners who attend to corridors all across the city, shifting depending on the current priorities...
“I’m completely in favor of the corridors,” says [Victoria Perez, another citizen-gardener], who grew up in a poor suburb in the city of 2.5 million people. “It really improves the quality of life here.”
Wilmar Jesus, a 48-year-old Afro-Colombian farmer on his first day of the job, is pleased about the project’s possibilities for his own future. “I want to learn more and become better,” he says. “This gives me the opportunity to advance myself.”
The project’s wider impacts are like a breath of fresh air. Medellín’s temperatures fell by 2°C in the first three years of the program, and officials expect a further decrease of 4 to 5C over the next few decades, even taking into account climate change. In turn, City Hall says this will minimize the need for energy-intensive air conditioning...
In addition, the project has had a significant impact on air pollution. Between 2016 and 2019, the level of PM2.5 fell significantly, and in turn the city’s morbidity rate from acute respiratory infections decreased from 159.8 to 95.3 per 1,000 people [Note: That means the city's rate of people getting sick with lung/throat/respiratory infections.]
There’s also been a 34.6 percent rise in cycling in the city, likely due to the new bike paths built for the project, and biodiversity studies show that wildlife is coming back — one sample of five Green Corridors identified 30 different species of butterfly.
Other cities are already taking note. Bogotá and Barranquilla have adopted similar plans, among other Colombian cities, and last year São Paulo, Brazil, the largest city in South America, began expanding its corridors after launching them in 2022.
“For sure, Green Corridors could work in many other places,” says Zapata."
-via Reasons to Be Cheerful, March 4, 2024
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arcusxx · 1 year
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stemwithjooricanka · 3 months
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The Colour of meteor
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nasa · 10 months
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Ways NASA Studies the Ocean
We live on a water planet. The ocean covers a huge part of the Earth's surface – earning it the name Blue Marble.
The ocean is one of Earth’s largest ecosystems and helps moderate Earth’s climate. NASA scientists spend a lot of time studying the ocean and how it is changing as Earth’s climate changes.
In the last few years, NASA has launched an array of missions dedicated to studying this precious part of our planet, with more to come. For World Oceans Month, which starts in June, here are new ways NASA studies the ocean.
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1. Seeing the colors of the ocean 🎨
A new NASA mission called PACE will see Earth’s oceans in more color than ever before. The color of the ocean is determined by the interaction of sunlight with substances or particles present in seawater.
Scheduled to launch in 2024, PACE will help scientists assess ocean health by measuring the distribution of phytoplankton, tiny plants and algae that sustain the marine food web. PACE will also continue measuring key atmospheric variables associated with air quality and Earth's climate.
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2. Surveying surface water around the globe 💧
The SWOT satellite, launched in late 2022, is studying Earth’s freshwater – from oceans and coasts to rivers, lakes and more – to create the first global survey of Earth’s surface water.
SWOT is able to measure the elevation of water, observing how major bodies of water are changing and detecting ocean features. The data SWOT collects will help scientists assess water resources, track regional sea level changes, monitor changing coastlines, and observe small ocean currents and eddies.
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3. Setting sail to understand interactions between the ocean and atmosphere 🚢
With research aircraft, a research ship, and autonomous ocean instruments like gliders, NASA’s S-MODE mission is setting sail to study Earth’s oceans up close. Their goal? To understand ocean whirlpools, eddies and currents.
These swirling ocean features drive the give-and-take of nutrients and energy between the ocean and atmosphere and, ultimately, help shape Earth’s climate.
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4. Building ocean satellites the size of a shoebox 📦
NASA’s HawkEye instrument collects ocean color data and captures gorgeous images of Earth from its orbit just over 355 miles (575 kilometers) above Earth’s surface. It’s also aboard a tiny satellite measuring just 10cm x 10 cm x 30 cm – about the size of a shoebox!
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5. Designing new missions to study Earth’s oceans! 🌊
NASA is currently designing a new space-based instrument called GLIMR that will help scientists observe and monitor oceans throughout the Gulf of Mexico, the southeastern U.S. coastline and the Amazon River plume that stretches to the Atlantic Ocean. GLIMR will also provide important information about oil spills, harmful algae blooms, water quality and more to local agencies.
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6. Taking the ocean to new heights ⬆️
The U.S.-European Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite is helping researchers measure the height of the ocean - a key component in understanding how Earth’s climate is changing.
This mission, which launched in 2020, has a serious job to do. It’s not only helping meteorologists improve their weather forecasts, but it’s helping researchers understand how climate change is changing Earth’s coastlines in real time.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!
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Psychologist: How come evil scientists in movies are always biologists, physicists, chemists, and engineers?
Military Scientist: Yeah! Where’s all the evil mad military scientists!? Do you have any idea how many people I’ve killed using science? How many people that other people have killed thanks to my military theories and formulas?
Astronomer: Uh… yeah. Well, a mad astronomer could make first contact with aliens and convince them to take over the world? That would be a pretty cool villain idea. Of course it is pretty unlikely we'll ever get to meet aliens but y'know...
Meteorologist: Or a mad meteorologist could… like… predict the weather incorrectly. And minorly inconvenience a bunch of people!
Psychologist: Oh, so like you!
Meteorologist: shut up
Geologist: An evil geologist could discover some evil rocks! And add them to his private rock collection so no one else gets to see them! That's just so EVIL!
Anthropologist: Oh, or a mad anthropologist could make real life have regionally and historically inaccurate language, clothing, and architecture, just like in a movie! It’d be completely immersion breaking!
Ornithologist: *gasps* THEY COULD RELEASE LOONS EVERYWHERE IN THE WORLD AND ANNOY PEOPLE WITH REGIONALLY INACCURATE BIRD CALLS!
Psychologist: You know what? I was actually an evil mad psychologist this whole time and was trying to manipulate you guys into turning evil, but you all just kinda suck. I don't know if I even want you on my side anymore. 
Military Scientist: *whispers into radio* She said I suck, start the bombardment
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mckitterick · 2 months
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Climate change causes Polar Vortex to venture south
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this.
this right here is why it's called "climate change." Arctic warming = deep freeze in the temperate regions, because Arctic ice melting warms the ocean up there, messing with the Jet Stream and driving the cold air mass southward
stories that go into depth:
"What’s Behind the ‘Arctic Blast’ Plunging into the U.S.?" - Scientific American
"How Frigid Polar Vortex Blasts are Connected to Global Warming" - CitizenTruth.org
not only was 2023 officially the hottest year on record by a long shot (1.5°C above preindustrial levels), but this winter is on track to be one of the coldest
Interesting Times we live in, folks
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yinlotus · 10 months
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the smoke from the wildfires in canada are crossing the atlantic and is now bringing a haze to the nordic countries
it's said that the soot from the smoke will deposit onto the snow and ice of the arctic which will in turn increase local warming (i.e worst wildfires, ice sheets melting, oceans warming and rising, stronger tropical cyclones, etc. etc.)
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From the NY Times (and other sources):
Ways to Help
The Canadian Red Cross: Every $1 donated to the Canadian Red Cross will become $3 to support those affected by wildfires. The funds will be directed to people living in Nova Scotia and other Atlantic provinces, some of the hardest hit areas, for immediate and ongoing relief and recovery efforts as well as community preparedness initiatives.
United Way: The Canadian federal government joined the government of the Northwest Territories in a similar matching program to support disaster relief and recovery efforts. The funds will be used to support nonprofit community groups who are helping local residents.
Donate a Mask: This volunteer-run charity ships free N95-equivalent masks to anyone in Canada who requests them, with priority to Canadians who cannot afford or do not have access to high-quality masks.
Firefighters Without Borders: This Ontario-based nonprofit donates equipment and training to communities across Canada and in other countries.
Odawa Native Friendship Centre: The Odawa NFC is a nonprofit organization serving the Indigenous community in the Ottawa-Carleton region and is currently collecting donations for First Nation evacuees (with “wildfire evacuees” as the donation type). On Facebook, the NFC noted that it can no longer accept clothing donations.
Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC): Live map of the fires. Updated daily.
APTN National News: Newspaper on the Indigenous Peoples of Canada. Can be used to understand how the climate is affecting the Inuit, Métis, and First Nations.
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dollsdesires · 4 months
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lunar halo ✨🪐 11/22/23
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fxa · 2 years
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forever thinking about this satellite photograph from the 2020 atlantic hurricane season that captured 5 tropical cyclones (hurricanes, plus tropical storms and tropical depressions which are basically weaker classifications of hurricanes) and 3 other weather systems that would develop into tropical cyclones shortly after, all in the same single photograph.
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lionfloss · 2 years
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Undulatus Asperatus
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reasonsforhope · 20 days
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As relentless rains pounded LA, the city’s “sponge” infrastructure helped gather 8.6 billion gallons of water—enough to sustain over 100,000 households for a year.
Earlier this month, the future fell on Los Angeles. A long band of moisture in the sky, known as an atmospheric river, dumped 9 inches of rain on the city over three days—over half of what the city typically gets in a year. It’s the kind of extreme rainfall that’ll get ever more extreme as the planet warms.
The city’s water managers, though, were ready and waiting. Like other urban areas around the world, in recent years LA has been transforming into a “sponge city,” replacing impermeable surfaces, like concrete, with permeable ones, like dirt and plants. It has also built out “spreading grounds,” where water accumulates and soaks into the earth.
With traditional dams and all that newfangled spongy infrastructure, between February 4 and 7 the metropolis captured 8.6 billion gallons of stormwater, enough to provide water to 106,000 households for a year. For the rainy season in total, LA has accumulated 14.7 billion gallons.
Long reliant on snowmelt and river water piped in from afar, LA is on a quest to produce as much water as it can locally. “There's going to be a lot more rain and a lot less snow, which is going to alter the way we capture snowmelt and the aqueduct water,” says Art Castro, manager of watershed management at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. “Dams and spreading grounds are the workhorses of local stormwater capture for either flood protection or water supply.”
Centuries of urban-planning dogma dictates using gutters, sewers, and other infrastructure to funnel rainwater out of a metropolis as quickly as possible to prevent flooding. Given the increasingly catastrophic urban flooding seen around the world, though, that clearly isn’t working anymore, so now planners are finding clever ways to capture stormwater, treating it as an asset instead of a liability. “The problem of urban hydrology is caused by a thousand small cuts,” says Michael Kiparsky, director of the Wheeler Water Institute at UC Berkeley. “No one driveway or roof in and of itself causes massive alteration of the hydrologic cycle. But combine millions of them in one area and it does. Maybe we can solve that problem with a thousand Band-Aids.”
Or in this case, sponges. The trick to making a city more absorbent is to add more gardens and other green spaces that allow water to percolate into underlying aquifers—porous subterranean materials that can hold water—which a city can then draw from in times of need. Engineers are also greening up medians and roadside areas to soak up the water that’d normally rush off streets, into sewers, and eventually out to sea...
To exploit all that free water falling from the sky, the LADWP has carved out big patches of brown in the concrete jungle. Stormwater is piped into these spreading grounds and accumulates in dirt basins. That allows it to slowly soak into the underlying aquifer, which acts as a sort of natural underground tank that can hold 28 billion gallons of water.
During a storm, the city is also gathering water in dams, some of which it diverts into the spreading grounds. “After the storm comes by, and it's a bright sunny day, you’ll still see water being released into a channel and diverted into the spreading grounds,” says Castro. That way, water moves from a reservoir where it’s exposed to sunlight and evaporation, into an aquifer where it’s banked safely underground.
On a smaller scale, LADWP has been experimenting with turning parks into mini spreading grounds, diverting stormwater there to soak into subterranean cisterns or chambers. It’s also deploying green spaces along roadways, which have the additional benefit of mitigating flooding in a neighborhood: The less concrete and the more dirt and plants, the more the built environment can soak up stormwater like the actual environment naturally does.
As an added benefit, deploying more of these green spaces, along with urban gardens, improves the mental health of residents. Plants here also “sweat,” cooling the area and beating back the urban heat island effect—the tendency for concrete to absorb solar energy and slowly release it at night. By reducing summer temperatures, you improve the physical health of residents. “The more trees, the more shade, the less heat island effect,” says Castro. “Sometimes when it’s 90 degrees in the middle of summer, it could get up to 110 underneath a bus stop.”
LA’s far from alone in going spongy. Pittsburgh is also deploying more rain gardens, and where they absolutely must have a hard surface—sidewalks, parking lots, etc.—they’re using special concrete bricks that allow water to seep through. And a growing number of municipalities are scrutinizing properties and charging owners fees if they have excessive impermeable surfaces like pavement, thus incentivizing the switch to permeable surfaces like plots of native plants or urban gardens for producing more food locally.
So the old way of stormwater management isn’t just increasingly dangerous and ineffective as the planet warms and storms get more intense—it stands in the way of a more beautiful, less sweltering, more sustainable urban landscape. LA, of all places, is showing the world there’s a better way.
-via Wired, February 19, 2024
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tornadoquest · 2 months
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todayontumblr · 9 months
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Monday, June 26.
(Almost) Everything you need to know...about rainbows 🌈🌤️🌧️
Rainbows. We all know 'em. Most of us love ‘em. And you'd be hard-pushed to find someone who was online in 2010 and doesn't recall that delightful record of Paul L. Vasquez' joy at seeing a double rainbow back in 2010.
#Rainbows occur when sunlight is refracted, or bent, by water droplets in the atmosphere, creating a sequence of colors: red on the outside of the curve, then orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet on the inside. The bigger the raindrops, the brighter and more saturated a rainbow's colors.
You'll only ever see a rainbow when facing a rain shower with the sun shining from behind you. A primary rainbow's arc radius is usually about 42 degrees from your line of sight. Unfortunately, this means you'll never find a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow because you'll never reach the end of a rainbow. Basically, it's all a lie. Sorry! 
Aristotle was one of the first dudes to scientifically study rainbows, followed by the Persian scholar Ibn al-Haytham in his Book of Optics. And Isaac Newton established the color sequence in rainbows (ROYGBIV, the name of your next EP) when he refracted light through a glass prism. Rainbows are old, man. 
Rainbows can also be seen around other light sources, like the moon baby! And on the subject of the cosmos, Earth is apparently the only planet in the solar system where rainbows occur. We have no way of verifying this.
That's all for now. Go forth, ye light seekers! xoxo
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humanoidhistory · 3 months
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Antarctica in the year 2024, as seen in GM’s Futurama exhibit at the New York World’s Fair, 1964.
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nemfrog · 6 months
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"Components of temperature." Descriptive meteorology. 1914.
Internet Archive
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