Tags:
Journalism of Courage
amp;149; Photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrands 1990 book,Earth From Above,has graced many a coffee table since it was published. The New Earth From Above Abrams,30 includes 365 stunning aerial photographs,one for each day of the year. According to an introduction by Serge Orru,director general of World Wildlife Fund France,readers should savour and absorb the power of its superb photographs,then consider what you yourself can do for the reconciliation of man and nature.
To hammer home responsibility to our planet,a page of text with each photo describes the environmental concerns in each location. Do you like the look of Venice,photo of the day for March 4? Dont get too attached: Its sinking because of the settling subsoil and a rise in sea levels. Those beautiful tulips in the Netherlands on December 21? They were created with pesticides that are taking a heavy toll on the environment.
Ten million tonnes of waste
amp;149; Sandwiched between an article about Madonnas Sticky amp; Sweet Tour and a profile of the Motorhead frontman in Rolling Stones October 29 issue is a four-page,outrage-inducing piece called An Ocean of Plastic. Did you know there is a floating garbage dump twice the size of Texas in the Pacific Ocean? It contains 10 million tonnes of waste,a swirling vortex of plastic soup,an immense fetid swamp of debris and has become known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. In some areas,the birds,fish and sea turtles eat a plastic diet that kills them; a photo of a cut-open dead seabird shows a pen,a lighter and 42 other pieces of trash in its belly. A proportional amount in a human being would weigh about five pounds.
how mole rats defy cancer
amp;149; The lifespan of mole rats is of extraordinary length28 yearsfor a rodent. And unlike mice,the naked mole rat,which lives underground,is not prone to cancer. These animals have never been observed to develop any spontaneous neoplasms, Vera Gorbunova and colleagues said in an article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Gorbunova,who works at the University of Rochester,has taken a first step toward understanding the genetic basis of the mole rats surprising immunity to cancer. She and her colleagues have found that the rats cells have a double system for inhibiting irregular proliferation,compared with the single system in human cells.
