Environment
![We Need to Radically Re-Imagine Our Food System. Here’s How. We Need to Radically Re-Imagine Our Food System. Here’s How.](jpg/bean-plants-in-a-vegetable-gardene2b5.jpg)
A global food system that is both truly sustainable and sufficiently productive will consist, not of a few massively scaled practices, but rather a vast patchwork quilt of smaller-scale solutions that vary dramatically from place to place, over space and over time, in an interplay with local climate, ecology, and culture. #ecofarming
![Offshore Wind Farms Could Help Capture Carbon from Air and Store It Long-Term – Using Energy that Would Otherwise Go To Waste Offshore Wind Farms Could Help Capture Carbon from Air and Store It Long-Term – Using Energy that Would Otherwise Go To Waste](jpg/offshore-wind-farme2b5.jpg)
If direct air capture systems were built alongside offshore wind turbines, they would have an immediate source of clean energy from excess wind power and could pipe captured carbon dioxide directly to storage beneath the seafloor below, reducing the need for extensive pipeline systems. #offshorewindfarm #cleanenergy
![Beavers Offer Lessons About Managing Water in a Changing Climate, Whether the Challenge Is Drought or Floods Beavers Offer Lessons About Managing Water in a Changing Climate, Whether the Challenge Is Drought or Floods](jpg/beaver-dame2b5.jpg)
Scientists are finding that beavers’ small-scale natural interventions are valuable. In dry areas, beaver ponds restore moisture to the soil; in wet zones, their dams and ponds can help to slow floodwaters. These ecological services are so useful that land managers are translocating beavers in the U.S. and the United Kingdom to help restore ecosystems and make them more resilient to climate change. #beavers #beaverdam #waterresources
![Batteries Get Hyped, but Pumped Hydro Provides the Vast Majority of Long-Term Energy Storage Essential for Renewable Power – Here’s How It Works Batteries Get Hyped, but Pumped Hydro Provides the Vast Majority of Long-Term Energy Storage Essential for Renewable Power – Here’s How It Works](jpg/clyde-dam-power-statione2b5.jpg)
The U.S. is going to need a lot more solar and wind power generation, and lots of cheap energy storage. It’s called pumped hydro energy storage. It involves pumping water uphill from one reservoir to another at a higher elevation for storage, then, when power is needed, releasing the water to flow downhill through turbines, generating electricity on its way to the lower reservoir. #RenewableEnergy #pumpedhydrostorage
![Why the Volcanic Eruption in Tonga Was So Violent, and What to Expect Next Why the Volcanic Eruption in Tonga Was So Violent, and What to Expect Next](jpg/tonga-volcano-eruptione2b5.jpg)
The Kingdom of Tonga doesn’t often attract global attention, but a violent eruption of an underwater volcano on January 15 has spread shock waves, quite literally, around half the world. Volcano researchers call this “fuel-coolant interaction” and it is akin to weapons-grade chemical explosions. #tongavolcano