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ICEBERG ESCAPADE
In December, the world’s largest iceberg, known as A23a, broke free from Antarctica after being trapped for months in an ocean vortex. It is now on a collision course with South Georgia. Some scientists think it could obstruct feeding routes for penguins and seals, increasing juvenile mortality. Others think it may bring rich nutrients to the surface, encouraging plankton blooms and, in turn, prey abundance.…
Is our future underground?
AGRICULTURE Underground farming involves growing crops beneath Earth's surface in controlled environments, such as tunnels, basements and abandoned mines. It relies on artificial lighting, hydroponics and climate control to create optimal growing conditions without relying on sunlight or weather. Advocates, including the operators of a farm in the London Underground, argue that the method conserves water, reduces the need for pesticides and allows year-round production, while increasing food security in densely populated areas. EARTHSCRAPERS Imagine an inverted skyscraper that extends for storeys under your feet instead of over your head. Developers claim that building earthscrapers will save on steel costs, as well as on heating and cooling systems. Proposed examples include the earthquake-proof complex Underground Science City, planning to house 4,500 researchers in Singapore. In 2018, the InterContinental Shanghai Wonderland…
Our deepest effect on the planet
UNSUSTAINABLE irrigation and drought have emptied nearly all of the Aral Sea’s water since the 1960s, causing changes extending all the way down to Earth’s upper mantle, the layer beneath the planet’s crust. This is probably the deepest recorded example of human activity changing the solid inner Earth. “To do something that would affect the [upper mantle] is like, whoa,” says Sylvain Barbot at the University of Southern California. “It’s showing you how potent we are at changing the environment.” The Aral Sea in Central Asia was once one of the world’s largest bodies of water, covering almost 70,000 square kilometres. But Soviet irrigation programmes starting in the 1960s, as well as later droughts, emptied the sea. By 2018, it had shrunk by almost 90 per cent and lost around…
Trade war with China threatens U.S. economy
What happened The tariff war between the U.S. and China intensified this week as both sides dug in amid rising fears of a global recession. The Trump administration’s levies on Chinese imports hit a staggering 145 percent, and China countered with levies of 125 percent on U.S. goods. After saying repeatedly there would be no carve-outs, the administration announced an exception for electronic goods including smartphones, laptop computers, and modems, which face only 20 percent tariffs. But Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick then said additional tariffs on electronics would be announced “in a month or two.” President Trump signaled he would also impose new tariffs on semiconductors and other technologies; he has already imposed stricter limits on the transfer of AI technology to China. The dollar hit a three-year low—dropping 9 percent…
How to Drive Elon Musk Down
IN THE FALL OF 1984, when I was a high school senior in Washington, DC, protests at the South African embassy began. Civil rights leaders met with the ambassador. That meeting became a sit-in, and that sit-in launched a movement. Soon, there were demonstrations at consulates across the country. College students held rallies, built “shantytowns,” and pushed their schools to divest. Area kids like me got in on protesting the embassy, too. And we had a soundtrack. “Free Nelson Mandela” had been released by the Special AKA in March. The leader of that British ska band, Jerry Dammers, later admitted that he didn’t know much about Mandela before he went to an anti-apartheid concert in the UK, where a long-simmering boycott movement was roiling to a boil. Then in 1985,…
Reliving the’90s in the Gulf of Whatever
HAVE YOU EVER TAKEN ONE OF THOSE naps from which you wake up with no idea where you are? Maybe you’ve only been conked out for ten minutes, but on the other side of it, you’re like a soap-opera amnesiac in distress: Where am I? Who am I? Eventually you see something—your rug, your coffee table, your spouse—that draws you slowly back into the real world. Ah, you sigh, I am in my home. This is my life. I recognize this. I had one of those naps in late January, and when I woke up, I was in my stateroom on The 90s Cruise, featuring Blues Traveler, Gin Blossoms, Digital Underground, and more. I was somewhere between Tampa and Cozumel, on a body of water still mostly called the Gulf of…