Random thoughts

[rbkwp]

AUSTRALIA/INDONESIA
ignore China at your peril
white Australian govt,as in USA/Trump sympathizer
when widodo/Indonesiam PMs term expires
CHINA will rise
incl a new Aus govt

 

[rbkwp]

not sure

but

love to come back as a face mask, depending on ..

Coronavirus: How Well Do Face Masks Protect Against Viruses, Droplets and Dust?

 

[rbkwp]

Tracking the coronavirus epidemic
Epidemiologists, politicians and citizens around the world are following the spread of the new coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China, infecting almost 40,000 and killing more than 800 people since the outbreak began.
Read the web version


Covering big health news stories like the new coronavirus always presents challenges. People need information and the media need to be careful not to overstate risk. Information is often fluid, with new scientific knowledge emerging daily, and public health officials are careful to provide accurate updates without raising undue alarm. Lives are at stake.

The coronavirus that started in Wuhan, China presented many of the normal challenges – and editors across The Conversation network went from watching and reading to quickly reaching out to sources who could give people vital information. Where did this virus come from, and how dangerous is it? Is it likely to turn into a global pandemic, or is it being contained in China? Is there a vaccine? How is China handling this outbreak? And what is a coronavirus anyway?

From scientific stories that aimed to describe how the virus makes people sick to the role of social media in the outbreak, editors found scholars around the world to answer questions and provide guidance. The story is still unfolding – and our editors are still following it. Here is a collection of articles to help you understand this global health threat and to stay safe.



Understanding the new virus

“An outbreak of a respiratory virus like this will typically be deadly but containable.”

– Maciej F. Boni Associate, Professor of Biology, Pennsylvania State University

As China struggles to contain the epidemic, scientists around the world are racing to learn more about the new coronavirus. Biologist Maciej Boni of Penn State University explains what scientists do and do not yet know about how contagious or lethal it is. He says scientists look at past global outbreaks to help find answers. “At this moment, 2019-nCoV looks to me like its severity and transmission profile is somewhere between [the 2002-2003] SARS [outbreak] and the 2009 H1N1 influenza,” he wrote on Jan. 30.

Professor of global biosecurity C. Raina MacIntyre says a number of factors explain why this coronavirus was able to spread so quickly and describes a study which showed that children appear to have the virus but are not showing symptoms.

And, in a bit of good news, a professor of veterinary medicine reports that Australian scientists have been able to recreate the pathogen in the lab, offering a potentially important step toward vaccine development.

Is the coronavirus outbreak as bad as SARS or the 2009 influenza pandemic?

How contagious is the Wuhan coronavirus and can you spread it before symptoms start?

Coronavirus grown in lab outside China for first time, aiding the search for vaccine

How does the Wuhan coronavirus cause severe illness?



How can I stay safe?

“During the H1N1 influenza pandemic in 2009, the WHO did not recommend the general public use face masks. The case is different for health workers, who face greater risks.”

– C Raina MacIntyre, NHMRC Principal Research Fellow, Head of the Biosecurity Program, Kirby Institute & Abrar Ahmad Chughtai, Epidemiologist, UNSW

Consumers, meanwhile, may be wondering what they can do to avoid getting sick and spreading the virus further. For people who don’t live or who have not travelled to China, the risk is very low but there are common precautions – the same as one would use to prevent the common cold – to help contain what the World Health Organization has called a “global health emergency” but not yet a pandemic.

Is the coronavirus a pandemic, and does that matter?

How worried should I be about the shortage of face masks? Or can I just use a scarf?

A clue to stopping coronavirus: Knowing how viruses adapt from animals to humans

How scientists quantify the intensity of an outbreak



China’s response

“By the time Xi issued his directive, it had been seven weeks since the virus was first recorded and three weeks since it was reported to the WHO.”

– Yun Jiang Senior Research Officer, Australian National University & Adam Ni China, researcher, Macquarie University

China’s response to the crisis has been dramatic, which has included unprecedented quarantining. But at the same time the government has been criticised for its slow initial actions. Our scholars explored how much China’s authoritarian political system is influencing the country’s response and the history of the close ties between health and politics in China.

Coronavirus: how health and politics have always been inextricably linked in China

Why the coronavirus has become a major test for the leadership of Xi Jinping and the Communist Party



Guidance you can trust
Know someone who would find this newsletter helpful? Forward it to them and help spread trusted information.
Subscribe to The Conversation's newsletter


The Conversation is an independent source of news and views, sourced from the academic and research community and delivered direct to the public. To stop receiving these emails, use the below link.

 

[rbkwp]

dont particularly like the yappy little RASCALS

 

[rbkwp]

NSW DELUGE
QLD possible cyclone
prefer myself
be thankful Aussies
- i think anyway

 

[rbkwp]

doubt its that critical
1st ive heard of it
usually such is mentioned weeks ahead

Noted

 

[rbkwp]

smile agriculture NZ this month

Lemons. Photo/YHG
What to plant, sow and harvest in the garden this February

• 
  
  • By Carol Bucknell
• Your Home & Garden
• Feb 3, 2020

It’s time to plant courgette and leeks, sow bok choy and carrots and harvest your tomatoes. Here’s all you need to do in the garden this February.

Harvest


What to plant, sow and harvest in the garden this February

 

[rbkwp]

love Au rural
suffer ye mortals duh'


Plan to control carp with herpes virus criticised for lack of transparency
Calls for a more transparent national carp control plan.

'Bring it on': Minerals Council NT backs world's biggest solar farm in the Barkly
Plans to build the world's largest solar farm in the Northern Territory receive support from what seems an unlikely ally.

'Nonsense': Renewables sector, stakeholders reject Canavan's 'dole bludger' label
An industry group says renewable energy operators in Queensland have been sidelined again amid a Federal Government push for new coal projects.

SA's renewable energy future hampered by lack of electricity infrastructure
South Australia's drive to be the national leader in renewable energy is being hampered by infrastructure unable to support future growth.

Iconic farm land sells for more than $97m
An iconic farming property sells for more than $97 million in one of the biggest rural sales in WA's history.

Nationals infighting continues as Government contends with shock Deputy Speaker vote loss
Internal tensions within the federal Nationals continue to bubble over, amid accusations those who failed to topple the party's leadership are now out for revenge.

'Nonsense': Renewables sector, stakeholders reject Canavan's 'dole bludger' label
An industry group says renewable energy operators in Queensland have been sidelined again amid a Federal Government push for new coal projects.

Bagdad Valley farmers struggling with drought call for irrigation scheme
Tasmanian farmers hope the heavy rain on the east coast of Australia will continue down across Bass Strait as the dry gets desperate.

 

[516778]

Dual Threats of Flooding Rainfall and Severe Storms Return to the Waterlogged South This Week | The Weather Channel

"A stormy week is expected in the South, where there could be more damaging and life-threatening flash flooding, as well as severe thunderstorms packing strong winds and some tornadoes.

Showers and thunderstorms are widespread across the South, and areas of locally heavy rain will persist into early Tuesday."

"There is a high risk of serious flash flooding into early Tuesday from central Mississippi to northern Alabama and northwestern Georgia, according to NOAA's Weather Prediction Center. A significant flash flood threat also exists in other parts of the South from eastern Texas to the southern Appalachians. Additional flash flooding and river flooding are likely since many of these areas already have saturated soil conditions. The National Weather Service has issued flood watches across the South from eastern Texas to the western Carolinas and southeastern Kentucky."

"The threat of flash flooding will continue in the South through Thursday as an area of low pressure in the Southwest tracks northeastward and brings more heavy downpours and severe storms to the region.

Rainfall totals this week will be 3 to 5 inches from northeastern Texas eastward to northern Louisiana, southern Arkansas, northern and central Mississippi, southeastern Tennessee, northern Alabama, northern Georgia and the western Carolinas. Some areas could have localized totals up to 8 inches."

"There will also be a threat of damaging severe thunderstorms in the South.

The most concerning time is Wednesday into Thursday, when an intensifying area of low pressure tracks from the South toward the eastern Great Lakes.

Severe storms could spread from Louisiana to parts of Mississippi, Alabama, western Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky Wednesday into early Thursday. Damaging wind gusts and some tornadoes are possible, but details are still uncertain.

There is the possibility that some severe weather might continue through the rest of Thursday in other parts of the Southeast. "


"A wet pattern has dominated parts of the South so far this year, but February is off to a particularly soggy start.

The heavy rain last week caused widespread flooding from Alabama into the Carolinas and northward into southeastern Kentucky and southern West Virginia.

Greenville, South Carolina, smashed its record for wettest February day by almost 2 inches last Thursday when 5.36 inches fell. Greenville has measured more than a foot of rainfall in 2020, more than 8 inches above average.
The latest round of heavy rain added to the precipitation surplus that areas from the western Carolinas into Mississippi and parts of northern Texas have had since Jan. 1.

Atlanta and Asheville, North Carolina, had recorded about double their average precipitation so far this year as of Feb. 7.

Several locations across the South have picked up more than a foot of rainfall since the start of the year. Jackson, Mississippi, had measured 15.19 inches as of Feb. 7, which was 9 inches above average, and as a result, it was experiencing the second-wettest start to the year on record, according to the Southeast Regional Climate Center.

This wet pattern may be a case of déjà vu for many – last year, several locations in the South set records for all-time-wettest February. This included Nashville; Knoxville, Tennessee; Huntsville, Alabama; and Tupelo, Mississippi. "

 

[rbkwp]

always intriuged me this vault
cant fault humankind for this WW gem

'This Is History in the Making': Cherokee Nation Is First U.S.-Based Tribe to Preserve Seeds in 'Doomsday Vault'

Jordan DavidsonFeb. 10, 2020 11:43AM ESTPOPULAR

Svalbard Global Seed Vault or the 'doomsday vault' is seen above. Global Crop Diversity Trust / Flickr / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The Cherokee Nation will save seeds from the "three-sisters" crops in the Arctic "doomsday vault," making it the first Native American tribe to ensure culturally emblematic crops will be preserved for the future, as The Guardian reported.

Never before has a Native American tribe received an invitation to store heirloom seeds in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which lies in the permafrost over 800 miles into the Arctic Circle.

'This Is History in the Making': Cherokee Nation Is First U.S.-Based Tribe to Preserve Seeds in 'Doomsday Vault'


'This Is History in the Making': Cherokee Nation Is First U.S.-Based Tribe to Preserve Seeds in 'Doomsday Vault'

 

[rbkwp]

SOMETHING positive become of huh

Australian Wildfires Uncovered Hidden Sections of a Huge, Ancient Aquaculture System
The Gunditjmara have been building an eel-farming system at the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape for more than 6,000

Hidden Ancient Aquaculture System
Australian wildfires recently uncovered hidden sections of the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, a vast aquacultural complex that the Gunditjmara Aboriginal people of Australia began construction on 6,600 years ago.
READ MORE

Australian Wildfires Uncovered Hidden Sections of a Huge, Ancient Aquaculture System

 

[rbkwp]

a little different to Mc Chucks huh

How to Feed a Megacity Like the Aztecs
The chinampas that nourished Tenochtitlan may hold the key to better urban gardens.
BY REINA GATTUSONOVEMBER 18, 2019

Farmers on a trajinera, a traditional flat-bottomed river boat. RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
In This Story
DESTINATION GUIDE
Mexico City
WHEN CONQUISTADOR HERNÁN CORTÉS REACHED Tenochtitlan in 1519, he beheld a floating city. The temples and palaces of the Aztec capital gleamed white from an island in the middle of a vast lake, all spread under a searing blue sky. With an estimated population of 200,000, roughly the size of contemporary Paris, the city overflowed with people. Around the metropolis, an archipelago of lush islands emerged from the lake’s glassy surface, overflowing with plants.

These were the floating gardens, or chinampas, that fed the Aztec Empire. Constructed of layers of earth taken from the lake bottom, and held together by the tangled roots of diverse and rotating crops, chinampas are rich islands of soil that can produce up to seven harvests a year. The result of Aztec adaptations of earlier agricultural forms, chinampas’ efficiency has gained them UN recognition as a marvel of agricultural ingenuity.

Today, the parched asphalt streets of Mexico City—built on top of the filled-in lake that once bore Tecnochtitlan—show little trace of these lush Edens. But if you head to the southern borough of Xochimilco, where the cusp of the city touches the countryside, the landscape still bears an ancient crisscross of canals. Some of these chinampas have been in use since Aztec times. Most have been built and deconstructed again and again, part of a living current of agricultural knowledge flowing through centuries.

An early Spanish colonial document, the Florentine Codex, details chinampa agriculture in what is now Mexico. THE DIGITAL EDITION OF THE FLORENTINE CODEX/CC BY 3.0
“The way they are built is almost identical to the way they were built in pre-Columbian times,” says Roland Ebel, a Postgraduate Research Associate in Health and Human Development at Montana State University.



How to Feed a Megacity Like the Aztecs


how incredible also


Found: A Prehistoric Bead-Making Factory Town Off the Florida Coast
The kinds of beads they made were coveted far and wide a thousand years ago.
BY ISAAC SCHULTZNOVEMBER 5, 2019

Excavations conducted after the lidar survey revealed the extent of the bead-making village. COURTESY TERRY BARBOUR AND KEN SASSAMAN
In This Story
DESTINATION GUIDE
Florida
IN 2010, TWO GRADUATE STUDENTS from the University of Florida landed on Raleigh Island, an uninhabited piece of Florida’s western coast, to check for environmental damage from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which gushed more than three million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. They didn’t find oil, but amid the dense stands of palmettos and cedars there were dozens of large ring structures, where pre-Columbian people lived and ran a factory for making beads out of shells.

“They came back and told me and I was like, ‘Yeah, right,’” says Ken Sassaman, an archaeologist at the university and coauthor of a recent paper on the finds in the Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences. “‘Let’s check it wasn’t from some target practice range or mining work.’ Because there’s no precedent for it.”

Along Suwannee Sound, around 60 miles from Gainesville, the land fragments into a patchwork of islands and estuaries that are now mostly recreation areas and wildlife refuges that protect everything from manatees to black bears to bald eagles. Prior surveys had shown some signs of human presence on Raleigh Island, less than a mile from the mainland, but the scale of the site and its purpose were unknown until now.

A lidar drone collecting data at Raleigh Island. COURTESY KIM SCOTTO-KELLEY
The University of Florida team used drone-mounted lidar equipment to survey the island’s topography below the dense foliage, and conducted test excavations. They found 37 rings of varying sizes, but each large enough to enclose a living space, some up to 12 feet tall, and all made of discarded shells dating to between 900 and 1200.

RELATED



Found: A Prehistoric Bead-Making Factory Town Off the Florida Coast

 

[rbkwp]

Has there been enough rain to end the drought?
Torrential rain over the last week has brought fields of green, but sadly many have missed out too.

NSW coastlines under more threat as Tropical Cyclone Uesi looms
The category-three cyclone, which is currently north of New Caledonia, is tracking south-west towards the Tasman Sea and could cause increased surf, wind and rainfall as early as Thursday.

More than 100 native animals in urgent need of help after bushfires, report finds
An expert panels finds there have been no extinctions as a result of the most recent bushfires so far, but it has warned urgent action is needed to protect 113 species impacted by the blazes.

 

[rbkwp]

fair comments from Aus the CONVERSATION, i think

Darren England/AAP
We depend so much more on Chinese travellers now. That makes the impact of this coronavirus novel

Mingming Cheng, Curtin University

Chinese travellers help create about 0.6% of Australia's GDP. How long we keep them out will make a difference to economic growth.

Lisa Portolan, Western Sydney University

Love requires imagination. What happens when this imagination spirals?

karenfoleyphotography/Shutterstock
Half of over-55s are open to downsizing – if only they could find homes that suit them
Amity James, Curtin University; Steven Rowley, Curtin University; Wendy Stone, Swinburne University of Technology

While a majority of householders over 55 have thought about downsizing, only one in four have done it. What's stopping them? Most simply can't find a home in the right place that meets their needs.

Brooke Cagle/Unsplash
Don’t ‘just Google it’: 3 ways students can get the most from searching online
Renee Morrison, University of Tasmania

Most students think they know how to use the internet to search for information, and teachers agree. But this isn't always the case.

Environment + Energy

• 222 scientists say cascading crises are the biggest threat to the well-being of future generations
  Anthony Capon, Monash University
  
  These scientists identified the five most severe crises the planet faces in a new report, Our Future on Earth 2020.
  
  
• Duke the dog’s plane death shows how climate change complicates pet ownership
  Simone Blackman, University of Tasmania; Anne Fawcett, University of Sydney; Paul McGreevy, University of Sydney
  
  Dogs dying on flights in hot weather might be the canary in the coal mine on climate change. Pet owners should consider how climate change will change our relationship with our pets.

Politics + Society

• ‘Closing the Gap’ process will better involve Indigenous Australians: Morrison
  Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
  
  With the release of the 12th Closing the Gap report, Prime Minister Scott Morrison is expected to claim for the first time that indigenous expertise is at the centre of decision-making.
  
  
• States shine as federal government flounders this summer – now they should lead on climate change
  Jennifer Menzies, Griffith University
  
  In recent years, state governments have become more sophisticated in service delivery and more accountable – in contrast to the federal government.
  
  
• Behave as a team, Morrison tells the troops
  Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
  
  Addressing Tuesday's Coalition party room, Morrison called for unity, reminding members they were not there as a team, and declaring the government had a “contract” with the Australian people.
  
  
• High Court rules Indigenous people cannot be deported as aliens, but the fight for legal recognition remains
  Kate Galloway, Griffith University; Melissa Castan, Monash University
  
  The case grappled with the deeper question of whether Indigenous Australians can be considered aliens and therefore excluded from the state.

Science + Technology

• Small world: atom-scale materials are the next tech frontier
  Baohua Jia, Swinburne University of Technology
  
  Since the 1960s, silicon 'nanomaterials' have driven the information revolution. But as their potential is exhausted, is it time for 'atomaterials' such as graphene to drive innovation still further?
  
  
• Curious Kids: is the sky blue on other planets?
  Jake Clark, University of Southern Queensland
  
  Atmospheres can be all different colours, depending on what's in them.

Health + Medicine

• Poppers can now be sold in pharmacies, but getting them might not be so easy
  Stefanie Vaccher, UNSW
  
  Amyl nitrite, known as poppers, can now legally be sold in pharmacies. But don't expect to see it stocked any time soon. No product has yet passed Australia's manufacturing and testing process.

OMG
thinking i will have to be careful if Mr. LPSG does what he says
- smile
no more
ie
minimal sharing in this social media era
such are the workings of freedom of speech
owner vs member
or ... ha
oh well,adjust/accept

all cool

 

[rbkwp]

beehave ourselves humanity
been saying so for many years,incl many other things
but
more so bees in this instance

• SCIENCE

Humans need bumble bees—and they are disappearing faster than we thought

Alarming data shows it’s time to save the bees.


By Molly Glick
February 7, 2020

Researchers from the University of Ottawa created a model to estimate the likelihood of bumble bee decline among 66 different species found throughout North America and Europe.Antoine Morin
Within just one human generation, the odds for bumble bee survival have dropped by an average of more than 30 percent, according to a new study.

As global temperatures rise and precipitation rates grow more extreme,


Humans need bumble bees—and they are disappearing faster than we thought

 

[rbkwp]

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
How Eucalyptus Trees Stoke Wildfires
Eucalypts are now cosmopolitan, spread around the world through imperialism and globalization. Unfortunately, they’re also highly flammable.

Devastated eucalyptus forest after a severe wildfire in Australia.

Whitworth Images/Getty
By: Matthew Wills
August 23, 2018

3 minutes
Share Tweet Emaileucalypts are native to Australia and neighboring islands?

Fire certainly wasn’t on the minds of those who spread eucalypts around the world. As geographer Robin Doughty details it, eucalypts were taken from Australia after Europeans first arrived in the late eighteenth century. He describes a combination of “push” and “pull” factors. The pull was the appeal of exotic, ornamental plants by botanists, royals, and other estate owners. The push factor was originally a single individual. The German-born botanist Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller migrated to Australia in 1847. Within a decade, he was the world’s leading evangelist for eucalypts. Through books, correspondence, and, rather more to the point, the mailing of seeds, this Johnny Eucalyptus helped spread the tree around the world.

When it comes to eucalyptus canopies, wildfires burn through them furiously.
The best place to see eucalypts in the United States is in the southern half of California. One of von Mueller’s correspondents was the president of Santa Barbara College, who joined the eucalyptus cult in the 1870s. The region between San Diego and the Bay Area was the locus of a veritable boom in Australian trees. The re-forestation was sold as a get-rich-quick scheme, harvested as lumber for fuel and furniture, with a sideline in miraculous eucalyptus oil. By the early 1900s, Berkeley had fourteen species growing within its boundary; another one hundred and fifty species were being tested in the state. But the speculative boom, as so many others, went bust. For one thing, petroleum was the up-and-coming fuel. And it turned out that the best lumber was from mature trees, not the quickly harvested plantation types. A glut of eucalyptus oil meant that if often went rancid before marketing.

How Eucalyptus Trees Stoke Wildfires | JSTOR Daily

 

[rbkwp]

Bees and the World-Wide Farming Web
Connections between beekeepers in the 17th and 18th centuries created the early “world-wide farming web”—a way to share information across long distances.

Getty
By: Livia Gershon
August 24, 2018

2 minutes
Share Tweet Emailyou’re following in the footsteps of hobbyists in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as Adam Ebert, a historian who’s also a beekeeping blogger himself, explains.

Ebert writes that the connections between beekeepers in those years was part of what historian Joan Thirsk has called the early modern “world-wide farming web”—the sharing of information about agriculture across long distances. While well-known naturalists made important observations about beehives, Ebert notes that it was hobbyists who defined and spread scientific beekeeping across England. These were mostly educated professionals, clergymen, artisans, and merchants. They didn’t care much about making money from their bees. Instead, they pursued techniques to maximize honey production in the hopes that it would help improve the welfare of the poor beekeepers.

As the use of print spread in the country, beekeepers were increasingly able to publish and share their discoveries. The first British beekeeping treatise, published in 1568, synthesized information from ancient Roman agricultural manuals. Soon, however, publications took a more modern turn, incorporating recent scientific discoveries and practical experience.

One beekeeper-scholar found divine order, and lessons for humanity, in the workings of the hive.
Beyond sharing practical advice, Ebert writes, many beekeeper-writers had bigger topics on their minds. Charles Butler, a reverend and language scholar, popularized the understanding that what had previously been known as the “king bee” was actually female. He also found divine order, and lessons for humanity, in the workings of the hive. The hive offered a “patterne unto men”—continual labor under a rigid class system resulting in perfect order and productivity. A hive was a “perfect monarchy, the most natural and absolute form of government.” Later, some writers offered different political interpretations of the hive, writing of a “common-wealth of bees.”


Bees and the World-Wide Farming Web | JSTOR Daily

 

[rbkwp]

Ban on Chinese visitors sends Victoria's tourism industry into 'meltdown'
Hit by a double whammy of bushfires and now a travel ban from China due to the coronavirus, the industry is having a "horrific" start to the year.

'Low level of maturity': That's how a leaked report describes Federal Parliament's cyber security
Federal Parliament failed to develop effective methods for preventing cyber intrusions and did not regularly update some sensitive information systems, according to a draft internal audit.

Our cities are turning into concrete jungles. Here's why that's a problem
Australian cities are increasingly becoming concrete jungles as tree coverage disappears, according to experts who warn this is creating an urban "heat island" effect.

 

[rbkwp]

Leaving a Softer Footprint in 2020
January 21, 2020Sara Sheehy + Save to a List

Travel that gives back.

Traveling can open up your mind and heart in so many different ways, from falling in love with a new culture to introducing you to landscapes and wildlife that need our attention and care.

It's one of the benefits of traveling, but also one of the responsibilities. MT Sobek, who has been a leader in adventure travel for over 50 years, knows this responsibility well. They are dedicated to making a lighter footprint on the earth and are focused on responsible journeys in the year ahead.

Here are just a few of the ways that MT Sobek is committed to traveling responsibly in 2020.

No More Single-Use Plastic Bottles

This year, MT Sobek is eliminating single-use plastic bottles from all of their trips. Single-use plastic is a significant threat to wildlife and ecosystems throughout the world. In the ocean alone, we are dumping over 9 million metric tons of plastic into the water each year, with that number estimated to reach 16 million metric tons in 2025.

For those of us in the United States, the majority of whom have easy access to clean drinking water, stopping the use of plastic bottles may seem like a small step. But looking at it through the lens of an adventure travel company that leads trips to destinations all across the globe, clean drinking water isn't something that comes out of every tap. To eliminate single-use plastic bottles requires research, planning, and execution on a large scale.

In making this change, MT Sobek will stop hundreds of pounds of plastic waste from reaching the landfills, or wherever those bottles may end up.

Partnering with Local Charities

MT Sobek supports local charities that share the travel company's values, especially in destinations where they lead trips.

For example, in Scotland, MT Sobek supports the John Muir Trust's projects on the Isle of Skye to replace commercial plantings with native woodlands and to maintain over 40 miles of trail. When the trails are maintained well, it reduces the effects of tourism on the island's fragile habitats.

Another example is MT Sobek's support of Sticky Rice Travel's foundation, which provides skill training and job to local villagers in Borneo to reduce their reliance on working at palm plantations. Palm plantations are a contributor to deforestation in the area and impact wildlife species such as the orangutan. Both the Wild Borneo and Borneo Family Adventure trips with MT Sobek support this effort.

Getting Dirty

At MT Sobek, they aren't afraid to get a little dirty. Staff and in-country tour leaders roll up their sleeves to help with projects like maintaining trails (such as the Smugglers' Trail in Patagonia's Jeinimeni National Preserve), pulling invasive weeds, and assisting in other needed projects in parks and communities across the globe, like participating in Yosemite National Park's Facelift.

This year, travel with a softer footprint, and a commitment to leaving your destination better than you found it, with MT Sobek.

All photos courtesy of MT Sobek

 

[516778]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weat...thward-this-winter-it-most-resembles-atlanta/

"Because of human-induced climate warming, winters like this — characterized by a lack of extreme cold and spotty snowfall — may become the norm this century.

Multiple studies have projected that the climate of the Mid-Atlantic region will turn more southern over the coming decades. This means shorter winters with far less bite. "

(this image may not stay up long)

"Mild weather has been eerily persistent this winter: Of the past 54 days, 45 have been milder than average. On a stretch from December into January, 17 days in a row were milder than normal. Through Wednesday, we have seen a streak of 20 consecutive mild days.

Extreme cold has been notably absent. For only the fourth time so late in the season, we’ve yet to see freezing temperatures for an entire calendar day.

The lowest temperature at Reagan National Airport this winter was 22 degrees.

“In one regard, this winter’s lack of extreme cold is almost unprecedented in the existing climate record for Washington DC,” the National Weather Service tweeted. “Only one other winter has failed to drop below 22 degrees by this point — The winter of 1931-1932.”

Overall, this winter ranks as the sixth warmest on record dating back to 1872.

The lack of cold air has meant rain has fallen far more often than snow. Just 0.6 inches of snow has fallen this winter, which is the seventh least on record."