Ocean mapping as it turns out is more important than just knowing what lies under what covers some 70% of the earth’s surface. Understanding the seafloor is important for safe navigation, for conservation efforts, for fisheries management because marine wildlife congregates around underwater mountains. But ocean mapping also has another function. It influences ocean currents and how water mixes in a vertical way, information which is relevant to climate since oceans play a pivotal role in moving heat around the planet, and therefore it has a role to play in the information needed for the models forecasting future climate change. The International Bathymetric Chart of the Southern Ocean has undertaken the project of mapping the ocean floor around Antarctica. It’s obviously a huge undertaking and is now only 23% done, that is of 18.3 million square miles. Not a small feat. They have discovered mountains, canyons, plains, valleys, depressions they did not realize were there. The deepest depression to date called the Factorian Deep is 24,383 feet. That depth means even more when one realizes that Mount Everest, the tallest mountain on the surface of the Earth is 29,032 feet. The undertaking asks ships and boats to use their sonars, and also urges government, institutions and corporations to share their data and put it in the public domain. It is something that is paying off. Much of the information, however, comes from ice strengthened ships that are able to support scientific endeavors. That includes the UK’s RRS James Clark Ross which is soon to be replaced by the aptly named RRS Sir David Attenborough. The nature and size of the project are certainly impressive, their results can’t help but awe us and the fact that it is such an international endeavor given such a fractured world is notable too.
Category: Social Issues
Peecycling
When I read about peecycling in the NYT something in me went the way it must with many, yuck, but I quickly remembered how growing up in Morocco, a while back of course, a place which at the time had its fair share of horse drawn carriages, how often I would see people shovel in hand scour the streets where they had trodden collecting horse manure. They would later mix it with a bit of straw and sell as fertilizer. So why not collect urine? It is now the work of the Rich Earth Institute in Vermont a non- profit which describes itself as engaging in research, education and technological innovation to advance the use of human waste as a resource. It turns out that human urine contains the very nutrients that make the best fertilizers, nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. Chemical fertilizers use a lot of fossil fuels, and the war in Ukraine not only is reinforcing the need to move away from fossil fuels, it is also highlighting a shortage of fertilizer. Human solid waste is already being used, but human urine is even more beneficial because it has more nutrients.
The Rich Earth Institute gives jugs and funnels to those interested in collecting their urine. For some there can be a cistern installed and there is a way for the institute to come and collect it. The whole idea is not yet worked out so that it can be more generally used., but they are working on it.
The Institute as it turns out is not the only place in the world which works to use human urine. In Southern Niger, where chemical fertilizer can be too expensive for many farmers, it was discovered that the place where people relieved themselves had greater yields. They began to collect urine, and pasteurize it for a couple of month before using it– as is on wet ground or mixed with water on dry soil. They have noticed that when they used urine as fertilizer the yield is 30% more. And in Paris some new apartments will be equipped with toilets which can automatically collect the urine. The more I read about it, the more the whole idea makes sense and given that we must find alternatives to fossil fuels and to fertilizers, the idea overcomes its own yuck factor and becomes attractive.
Guns and Dicks Sporting Goods
This past June 220 CEOs wrote a letter to the Senate asking them to take action immediately to lessen gun violence. In 2019 a similar letter had been sent, this time though it had many more signatories. One of the signatories, Ed Stack, of Dicks Sporting goods, has been a leader in corporate activity against gun violence, so much so that his actions have been a case study from the Harvard Business Review. In 2018 Stack, himself a gun owner as well as a second amendment supporter, was so shaken after the Parkland shooting, that he decided to limit the sale of guns at his 850 plus stores and eliminate assault weapons. The reason for him was simple, “ I don’t want to be part of the story anymore,” he said. Dicks Sporting goods, lost money at first, but rebounded, a sign that corporate America may have more influence in controlling guns than politicians. Stack announced his decision on Good Morning America and that same day, LL Bean, Walmart and Kroger joined him. The Harvard case study attributes his success to the fact that he consulted with his executives, sought a kind of consensus and also engaged in a campaign communicating what he was doing and why. They do say however that the fact that he was the chief s stock owner as well as the CEO played a role. In an article about the CEO’s letter to the senate, the news website Axios summarized its importance by writing that not only did this letter have 50% more signatories than the one in 2019, but also that in light of Dicks sporting good experience as more companies and more CEOs take action it’s going to be harder for other consumer brands to doge the gun issue. And if that’s so then it would be a very hopeful step.
Remittances and Migrants
No matter what it’s for, 50 billion dollars is a very large sum. And when it is the amount of money that migrants have sent home to their families in Mexico, it is astounding. Migrants in this case include legal as well as undocumented. The amount has surged during Covid, and the total for 2021 is expected—not all tallied yet—to pass $50 billion. Mexico is one of three countries along with China and India where total remittances are large enough to be a part of the economy. In 2020 those remittances represented 3.8% of the Mexican GDP and the percentage of households it reached was 5.1%. Bearing in mind that the people sending these remittances are often not high earners and the total is even more astounding. It evokes people making sacrifices for their family, enduring deprivations to share what they have. It means living in cramped quarters and foregoing little luxuries, or perhaps even something that’s a need. The money sent home usually goes for necessities, such as food and medical expenses. It also goes for items like a refrigerator, an appliance that actually helps people save money on food. Placed in context the existence of remittances is not a fact that is without issues, how long can sending remittances last? Or when will Mexico no longer be dependent upon them? Adding to the poignancy of remittances is also the fact that many of the families live in violence prone areas of the country and have to be very careful not to let it be known they receive money. They could then be prey for gangs and be kidnapped for ransom. Regardless of these issues, or perhaps even more so because of them, what jumps out to someone like me is the sheer goodness of the people behind the remittances, people who put their families first, people who undergo hardships to share what they have, people who are courageous, devoted, resilient, people we should honor a lot more than we do.