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Last week, scientists published a study in the journal PNAS that warned that deforestation in the Amazon could significantly decrease the power output of hydroelectric dams, which are a major source of energy in the region. The study noted that although removal of trees tends to increase the amount of water that runs off the land, and…
Guests at the upscale Harney Sushi in San Diego now get a little something extra with their fresh tuna and crab rolls: edible QR (quick response) codes. When scanned with a smart phone or tablet, the codes take users to the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) FishWatch website, where they can learn about the sustainability of the seafood they…
Opening the Blue Vision Summit 4 in Washington, D.C., on Monday, author and ocean advocate David Helvarg said of Congress, “A lot of them are hardwired like sharks, they respond to stimuli like money or votes” (see Helvarg’s posts in Ocean Views). The summit, which ends today, is “the biggest ocean day on the Hill,”…
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic 1925 American novel The Great Gatsby has been made into several films and TV programs over the years. Robert Redford played the title character in 1974. In the recent HBO hit Entourage, Vincent Chase (played by Adrian Grenier) starred in a critically lauded version helmed by Martin Scorsese. Australian auteur Baz…
I lived in Michigan as a child, and I spent many summer nights gazing at the dark sky. I also spent many happy hours making sand castles on the edges of the Great Lakes. In winter, I spent hours romping in the ample snow. Lisa Borre is also from Michigan originally, and she has been…
Bass fishing in the American Southeast may have just gotten a little bit more complicated. According to a release filed this week, biologists from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) would like to name a new species of black bass, the Choctaw bass, or Micropterus haiaka. In 2007, FWC scientists found an unusual DNA…
Theresa Peterson has been an Alaska fisherman for three decades. During summer break one year in college she went to Homer, Alaska, to work in a cannery. She lived in a tent with friends. But after four days of being cooped up in the factory she decided she wanted to get a job on a…
When I was younger, I watched a lot of the Disney Channel. My favorite content was the old-school cartoons, featuring the likes of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and gang, although the Goofy spots were my favorite. One time I caught a program about Disney’s propaganda films from World War II. Those animated shorts are rarely…
Note: In response to reader feedback on this post, the makers of the infographic below updated it and resent us a copy, so we reposted it at 2:52 PM on May 7, 2013. The infographic was not created by National Geographic. You’ve probably heard by now that how you get around has a big impact…
New Zealand’s large, slow-growing longfin eels (Anguilla dieffenbachia) are on a “slow path to extinction,” according to an April report by the parliamentary commissioner for the environment. The commissioner has now been joined by a number of scientists in calling for a ban on fishing of the eels, since their numbers have been declining in…
My Village, My Lobster profiles the dangerous lives of those who dive for lobster off the Caribbean coast of Central America. The toll to put food on (mostly American) plates is considerable, as divers face death and disability from decompression sickness (the bends)–brought on by improper equipment and very long work hours.
Despite the risks, economic opportunities are scarce. Fortunately, there are also safer alternatives on the horizon.
I recently attended the award ceremony for the 2013 Goldman Environmental Prize winners in Washington, D.C. Six people, one from each of the inhabited continents of the planet, was honored for their tireless conservation work. I have followed the Goldman awards since my days at E Magazine, and each year I am inspired and uplifted…
National Geographic Channel has been running a number of programs on drugs and addictions, including the show Drugged (see 10 tips for recovering from addictions). Addiction is a strange beast that has devastated millions of people and families around the world. It’s also in the news a lot, from allegations of sex addict stars to the…
Orcas vs. Sperm Whales from Blue Sphere Media on Vimeo.
The other day Alexis Manning posted a link in the Nat Geo Daily 10 to a video showing rare footage of a pod of orcas attacking a family of sperm whales (watch above). The video is from Blue Sphere Media, a production company with the tagline: “We fuse dramatic imagery with intimate and thought-provoking stories,…
In January, we posted a “dreamlapse” video made in Death Valley by Sunchaser Pictures. Some 9,600 Facebook users clicked the “like” button. Today, I received notice from Sunchaser’s Gavin Heffernan that part 2 has just been released (view above). In an email, Heffernan wrote: “This time our timelapse adventure took place at the infamous sliding…
The northern map turtle (Graptemys geographica) is a relatively large aquatic turtle that is native to North America. It is named for the lines on its shell, which resemble the contour lines on a map. Map turtles show extreme sexual size dimorphism, which means the genders grow to different sizes. Northern male map turtles…
Acclaimed French environmentalist, photographer, and filmmaker Yann Arthus-Bertrand has been traveling in the U.S. to premiere his recent film Planet Ocean. Arthus-Bertrand’s photos have been published numerous times in National Geographic media, and he recently sat down with the National Geographic Channel to discuss his 2009 film Home. His new film Planet Ocean is narrated by…
Today, April 25, is World Penguin Day, a time to marvel at these amazing flightless birds. In honor of the occasion, The Pew Charitable Trusts has produced a fun quiz that asks users to see what type of penguin personality they are most like. In the style of a Cosmo or Seventeen quiz, the tool…
We’ve written about artificial intelligence (AI) a fair amount in the past, from IBM’s Watson supercomputer, to AI-controlled space probes, and swarm theory. As futurist Ray Kurzweil pointed out in his book The Singularity Is Near, the public has a number of misconceptions about AI. Kurzweil argues that AI is proceeding much faster than people…
Water Currents’ own Sandra Postel, National Geographic’s Freshwater Fellow, will be talking live with the public today at 2 p.m. Eastern time on a special Google Hangout for Earth Week. The conversation, Clean Water For All, is being hosted by Whole World Water and is moderated by Billy Wilson. Sandra will be joined by David de…
An iconic freshwater fish of tropical South America, the arapaima is a massive, slender beast that can grow up to 10 feet (3 meters) long and weigh 440 pounds (200 kilograms). It is known as the pirarucu in Brazil and the paiche in the western Amazon, and is one of the largest freshwater fish in…
(Updated on April 17, 2013 at 2:15 pm) The 2013 Pulitzer Prizes were announced this week (see the photo winners). Among the journalism winners were familiar names like the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Sun Sentinel, and InsideClimate News. Wait, who? InsideClimate News is a five-year old, Brooklyn-based website…
I was born on July 25, 1978 at 2 p.m., in Midland Hospital in Midland, Michigan. Across the Atlantic, in Oldham Hospital in Oldham, England, Louise Brown was born on that same day, at 11:47 p.m. My parents had conceived me in the old-fashioned way, but the Browns had had trouble in that department, having…
We recently wrote about a two-headed bull shark found by fishermen. One of our readers, Christopher Johnston, then sent us an email with photos he had taken on September 27, 2008 of a similarly surprising find: a two-headed blue shark. As far as we know these photos have never been published anywhere before. As we…
Earlier this week I posted a story about the passing of Margaret Thatcher on April 8, sharing some lesser known facts about the life of the former British prime minister (including that she had been a food scientist who worked on soft serve ice cream before she entered politics). That story struck a nerve with our readers.…
