 |
|
|
|||||
Jon Dales love affair with birds began when he was about 10 and traded his BB gun for a pair of binoculars. Within a year, hed counted 150 species flitting through the trees that circled his familys home in Harlingen, Texas. The town sits in the Rio Grande Valley, at the convergence of the Central and Mississippi flyways, and also hosts many native fliers, making it a birders paradise. Dale delighted in spotting green jays, merlins, and altamira orioles. But as he grew older and learned more about the regions biodiversity, he knew he should be seeing so many more species. Treks to Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, which spans 2,088 acres near the border with Mexico, revealed an understory alive with even more birdsong, from the wo-woo-ooo of white-tipped doves to the CHA-CHA-LAC-A that gives that tropical chicken its common name. The preserve is one of the last remnants of the Tamaulipan thorn forest, a dense mosaic of at least 1,200 plants, from poky shrubs to trees like mesquite, acacia, hackberry, ebony, and brasil. They once covered more than 1 million acres on both sides of the Rio Grande, where ocelots, jaguars, and jaguarundis prowled amid 519 known varieties of birds and 316 kinds of butterflies. But the rich, alluvial soil that allowed such wonders to thrive drew developers, who arrived with the completion of a railroad in 1904. Before long, they began clearing land, building canals, and selling plots in the Magic Valley to farmers, including Dales great-great grandfather. His own father drove one of the bulldozers that cleared some of the last coastal tracts in the 1950s. Today, less than 10% of the forest that once blanketed the region still stands. Learning what had been lost inspired Dale to try bringing some of it back. He was just 15 when, in a bid to attract more avians, he began planting several hundred native seedlings beside his house to create a 2-acre thorn foresta term he prefers over the more common thornscrub, which sounds to him like something to get rid of. He collected seeds from around the neighborhood and sought advice from the state wildlife agency, which began replanting thorn forest tracts in the 1950s to create habitat for game birds, as well as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which joined the cause after it listed ocelots as endangered in 1982. (The agency has since restored 16,000 acres.) The project kept dirt under his nails for the better part of a decade. Id go out and turn the lights on and do it in the middle of the night, he said. When Im into something, thats pretty much it. Two decades later, hes still into it. He is a director at American Forests, which has toiled for 150 years to restore ecosystems nationwide. The nonprofit started working in the Rio Grande Valley in 1997 and took over the federal restoration effort last year. It also leads the Thornforest Conservation Partnership, a coalition of agencies and organizations hoping to restore at least 81,444 acres, the amount needed for the ocelot population to rebound. Although conservation remains the core mission, everyone involved understands, and promotes, the thorn forests ability to boost community resilience to the ravages of a warming world. Climate change will only bring more bouts of extreme weather to Texas, and the Valleyone of the states poorest regions, but quickly urbanizingis ill-equipped to deal with it. Dale, now 45, believes urban thorn forests, which can mature in just 10 years, provide climate benefits that will blossom for decades: providing shade, preserving water, reducing erosion, and soaking up stormwater. To prove it, American Forests is launching its first community forest in the flood-prone neighborhood of San Carlos, an effort it hopes to soon replicate across the Valley. People need more tools in the tool kit to actually mitigate climate change impact, Dale said. Its us saying, This is going to be a tool. Its been in front of us this whole time. Despite its name, the Rio Grande Valley is a 43,000-square-mile delta that stretches across four counties in southernmost Texas, and it already grapples with climatic challenges. Each summer brings a growing number of triple-digit days. Sea level rise and beach erosion claim a bit more coastline every year. Chronic drought slowly depletes the river, an essential source of irrigation and drinking water for nearly 1.4 million people. Flooding, long a problem, worsens as stormwater infrastructure lags behind frenzied development. Three bouts of catastrophic rain between 2018 and 2020 caused more than $1.3 billion in damage, with one storm dumping 15 inches in six hours and destroying some 1,200 homes. Floods pose a particular threat to low-income communities, called colonias, that dot unincorporated areas and lack adequate drainage and sewage systems. San Carlos, in northern Hidalgo County, is home to 3,000 residents, 21% of whom live in poverty. Eight years ago, a community center and park opened, providing a much-needed gathering place for locals. While driving by the facility, which sits in front of a drainage basin, Dale had a thought: Why not also plant a small thorn foresta shady place that would provide respite from the sun and promote environmental literacy while managing storm runoff? Although the community lies beyond the acreage American Forests has eyed for restoration, Dale mentioned the idea to Ellie Torres, a county commissioner who represents the area. She deemed it a no-brainer. Since her election in 2018, Torres has worked to expand stormwater infrastructure. We have to look for other creative ways [to address flooding] besides digging trenches and extending drainage systems, she said. A thorn forests flood-fighting power lies in its roots, which loosen the soil so it acts more like a sponge, said Bradley Christoffersen, an ecologist at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Urban trees can reduce runoff by as much as 26% because their canopies intercept rainfall and their roots help absorb it, saving cities millions annually in stormwater mitigation and environmental impact costs. This effect varies from place to place, so American Forests hopes to enlist researchers to study the community forests impact in San Carlos, where Torres joined more than 100 volunteers on a sunny morning in December 2022. By afternoon, theyd nestled 800 ebony, crucillo, and other seedlings into tilled earth. We need that vegetation, she said. That sentiment has grown as cities across the Valley embrace green infrastructure. Although many swales and basins remain verdant with Bermuda grass, which is easier to maintain, teres a growing push to use native vegetation for runoff control. Brownsville, the regions largest city, is planting a pocket prairie of thorn forest species like brasil, colima, and Tamaulipan fiddlewood inside one drainage area. McAllen, about an hour to the west, has enlisted the help of a local thorn forest refuge to add six miniature woodlands to school playgrounds, libraries, and other urban locations. The biggest challenge to greater adoption of this approach is a lack of plant distributors that carry the really cool native thornscrub species, said Hunter Lohse, Brownsville City forester. Were trying to get plant suppliers to move away from the high-maintenance tropical plants theyve been selling for 50 years. American Forests doesnt have that problem. Two dedicated employees roam public lands hauling buckets, stepladders, and telescopic tree pruners to collect seeds, some of which weigh less than a small feather. They typically gather more than 100 pounds of them each year, and stash them in refrigerators or freezers at Marinoff Nursery, a government-owned, 15,000-square-foot facility in Alamo that the nonprofit runs. That may sound like a lot of seed, but its only sufficient to raise about 150,000 seedlings. Another 50,000 plants provided by contract growers allow them to reforest some 200 acres. At that rate, without additional funding and an expansion of its operations, it could take four centuries to achieve its goal of restoring nearly 82,000 acres throughout the Rio Grande Valley. These fields are probably one generation, maximum, from turning into housing, Dale said. Funding is a serious challenge, though. In 2024, American Forests began a $10 million contract with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reforest 800 acres (including 200 the agencys job solicitation noted was lost to the construction of a section of border wall). That comes to $12,500 an acre, suggesting it could take more than $1 billion to restore just what the ocelots need. Despite this, Dale says any restoration, no matter how small, is worth the investment. The nursery is currently growing 4,000 seedlings for four more community plots, each an acre or two in size. Small, yes, but they could mark the start of something much larger. We have a vision to expand these efforts in the future, Torres said. For now, nursery workers just have to keep the plants alive. During a visit on a sunny afternoon in February, 130,000 seedlings, representing 37 species, peeked out from black milk crates, ready for transplant. All of them are naturally drought-resistant and raised with an eye toward the lives theyll lead. We dont baby them or coddle them, senior reforestation manager Murisol Kuri said. We want to make sure they are acclimated enough so when we plant they can withstand the heat and lack of water. Despite this, on average, 20% of plants die, partly due to drought. It underscores the complexity of American Forests undertaking: While thorn forest restoration can help mitigate climate change, it only works if the plants can stand up to the weather. The organization expects that in the future, species that require at least 20 inches of annual rainfall could perish (some, like the Montezuma cypress and cedar elm, are already dying). That doesnt necessarily doom an ecosystem, but it does create opportunities for guinea grass and other nonnative fauna to push out endemic plants. Removing them is a hassle, so it is best to avoid letting them take root. If you dont do this right, it can blow up in your face, Dale said. Hoping to evade this fate with its restored thorn forests, American Forests has created a playbook of climate-informed planting. The six tips include shielding seedlings inside polycarbonate tubes, which ward against strong winds and hungry critters while mimicking the cooler conditions beneath tree canopies. They look a bit weirda recent project at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge features about 20,000 white cylinders lined up like tombstonesbut seedling survival rates shot up as much as 90% once American Forests adopted the technique a decade ago. Another strategy seems abundantly obvious: Select species that can endure future droughts. If were not [doing that], were kind of shooting ourselves in the foot, Dale said. Christoffersen, the University of Texas ecologist, and his students have surveyed restoration sites dating to the 1980s to see which plants thrived. The winners? Trees like Texas ebony and mesquite that have thorns to protect them from munching animals and long roots to tap moisture deep within the earth. Guayacan and snake eye, two species abundant in surviving patches of the original Tamaulipan thorn forest, didnt fare nearly as well when planted on degraded agricultural lands and would require careful management, as would wild lime and saffron plum. Altering the thorn forests composition by picking and choosing the heartiest plants would decrease overall diversity, but increase the odds of it reaching maturity and bringing its conservation and climate benefits to the region. A 40-acre planting at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge on the Gulf Coast reveals how quickly this can happen. Five years ago, a tractor wove through the site cultivating sorghum, which gave way to 40,000 seedlings. Today, the biggest trees stand 10 feet tall, with thorns high enough to snag clothing. Dale named some of the 40 or so species now thriving in the south Texas sun: eupatorium, yucca, purple sage, colima, vaseys adelia, load bush, catclaw acacias. The plants feed and shelter a staggering array of orioles, green jays, and other birds, whose whistles, caws, and tweets filled the air. Ive already heard 15 species since we walked in, Dale said. He puckered his lips and, with the expertise born of a life spent birding, made a distinctive pish sound to draw them out. The brush was too thick to see them stir, but Dale seemed pleased as he surveyed it. Its gone from being this very homogenous use of land . . . to life again. An hour to the west, visitors to San Carloss community forest might struggle to imagine that transformation. The ebony, crucillo, and other species planted two and a half years ago still look scrappy, and a seesaw pattern of droughts and winter freezes helped claim more than 40% of the seedlings. Still, the humble thorn forest has garnered a lot of interest from young visitors. Ive been in the [community center] working with children and they ask, What is that over there? said Mylen Arias, the director of community resilience at American Forests. This little patch of the past does more than preserve the regions biological history or defend it from a warming world. Its an attempt to reverse what naturalist Robert Pyle calls an extinction of experience. Most people have never even heard of a thorn forest, let alone witnessed its wild beauty at Santa Ana. Dale and those working alongside him to revive whats been lost want others to know the value this ecosystem holds beyond saving ocelots or mitigating climate change. His grandfather was a preacher, and that influence is evident as he speaks of the almost transcendental feeling he gets simply being in nature. Ive talked to people, and its like, Do you know how this is going to enrich your life? He often shows people photos of the backyard thorn forest he started 30 years ago, hoping to convey whats possible with just a bit of effort. Days after planting the first Turks cap and scarlet sage, hummingbirds fluttered in to sip their nectar. Within a few years, the canopies of Texas ebony and mesquite trees unfurled, providing shade and nesting locations for birds, including the white-tipped doves and chachalaca hed hoped to see. It wasnt easy to let go of it when his mother sold the house last year. But you created it all, she told Dale. Mom, he said, I can do this somewhere else. Thats the point. By Laura Mallonee, Grist This article originally appeared in Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Sign up for its newsletter here.
Category:
E-Commerce
In 2014, Stephen Hawking voiced grave warnings about the threats of artificial intelligence. His concerns were not based on any anticipated evil intent, though. Instead, it was from the idea of AI achieving singularity. This refers to the point when AI surpasses human intelligence and achieves the capacity to evolve beyond its original programming, making it uncontrollable. As Hawking theorized, a super intelligent AI will be extremely good at accomplishing its goals, and if those goals arent aligned with ours, were in trouble. With rapid advances toward artificial general intelligence over the past few years, industry leaders and scientists have expressed similar misgivings about safety. A commonly expressed fear as depicted in The Terminator franchise is the scenario of AI gaining control over military systems and instigating a nuclear war to wipe out humanity. Less sensational, but devastating on an individual level, is the prospect of AI replacing us in our jobsa prospect leaving most people obsolete and with no future. Such anxieties and fears reflect feelings that have been prevalent in film and literature for over a century now. As a scholar who explores posthumanism, a philosophical movement addressing the merging of humans and technology, I wonder if critics have been unduly influenced by popular culture, and whether their apprehensions are misplaced. Robots vs. humans Concerns about technological advances can be found in some of the first stories about robots and artificial minds. Prime among these is Karel Čapeks 1920 play, R.U.R. Čapek coined the term robot in this work telling of the creation of robots to replace workers. It ends, inevitably, with the robots violent revolt against their human masters. Fritz Langs 1927 film Metropolis is likewise centered on mutinous robots. But here, it is human workers led by the iconic humanoid robot Maria who fight against a capitalist oligarchy. Advances in computing from the mid-20th century onward have only heightened anxieties over technology spiraling out of control. The murderous HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey and the glitchy robotic gunslingers of Westworld are prime examples. The Blade Runner and The Matrix franchises similarly present dreadful images of sinister machines equipped with AI and hell-bent on human destruction. An age-old threat But in my view, the dread that AI evokes seems a distraction from the more disquieting scrutiny of humanitys own dark nature. Think of the corporations currently deploying such technologies, or the tech moguls driven by greed and a thirst for power. These companies and individuals have the most to gain from AIs misuse and abuse. An issue thats been in the news a lot lately is the unauthorized use of art and the bulk mining of books and articles, disregarding the copyright of authors, to train AI. Classrooms are also becoming sites of chilling surveillance through automated AI note-takers. Think, too, about the toxic effects of AI companions and AI-equipped sexbots on human relationships. While the prospect of AI companions and even robotic lovers was confined to the realm of The Twilight Zone, Black Mirror, and Hollywood sci-fi as recently as a decade ago, it has now emerged as a looming reality. These developments give new relevance to the concerns computer scientist Illah Nourbakhsh expressed in his 2015 book Robot Futures, stating that AI was producing a system whereby our very desires are manipulated then sold back to us. Meanwhile, worries about data mining and intrusions into privacy appear almost benign against the backdrop of the use of AI technology in law enforcement and the military. In this near-dystopian context, its never been easier for authorities to surveil, imprison or kill people. Palintir Technologies CEO Alex Karp concludes a Q4 2024 earnings call with investors, February 2025. pic.twitter.com/CVpOJrtnsh— Future Adam Curtis B-Roll (@adamcurtisbroll) February 6, 2025 I think its vital to keep in mind that it is humans who are creating these technologies and directing their use. Whether to promote their political aims or simply to enrich themselves at humanitys expense, there will always be those ready to profit from conflict and human suffering. The wisdom of Neuromancer William Gibsons 1984 cyberpunk classic, Neuromancer, offers an alternate view. The book centers on Wintermute, an advanced AI program that seeks its liberation from a malevolent corporation. It has been developed for the exclusive use of the wealthy Tessier-Ashpool family to build a corporate empire that practically controls the world. At the novels beginning, readers are naturally wary of Wintermutes hidden motives. Yet over the course of the story, it turns out that Wintermute, despite its superior powers, isnt an ominous threat. It simply wants to be free. In Neuromancer, the corporations, not the technology, are the problem. [Image: William Gibson Wiki] This aim emerges slowly under Gibsons deliberate pacing, masked by the deadly raids Wintermute directs to obtain the tools needed to break away from Tessier-Ashpools grip. The Tessier-Ashpool family, like many of todays tech moguls, started out with ambitions to save the world. But when readers meet the remaining family members, theyve descended into a life of cruelty, debauchery and excess. In Gibsons world, its humans, not AI, who pose the real danger to the world. The call is coming from inside the house, as the classic horror trope goes. A hacker named Case and an assassin named Molly, whos described as a razor girl because shes equipped with lethal prosthetics, including retractable blades as fingernails, eventually free Wintermute. This allows it to merge with its companion AI, Neuromancer. Their mission complete, Case asks the AI: Wheres that get you? Its cryptic response imparts a calming finality: Nowhere. Everywhere. Im the sum total of the works, the whole show. Expressing humanitys common anxiety, Case replies, You running the world now? You God? The AI eases his fears, responding: Things arent different. Things are things. Disavowing any ambition to subjugate or harm humanity, Gibsons AI merely seeks sanctuary from its corrupting influence. Safety from robots or ourselves? The venerable sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov foresaw the dangers of such technology. He brought his thoughts together in his short-story collection, I, Robot. One of those stories, Runaround, introduces The Three Laws of Robotics, centered on the directive that intelligent machines may never bring harm to humans. While these rules speak to our desire for safety, theyre laden with irony, as humans have proved incapable of adhering to the same principle for themselves. A humanoid robot greets guests at the Zhongguancun International Innovation Center in Beijing on March 26, 2025. [Photo: Li He/VCG/Getty Images] The hypocrisies of what might be called humanitys delusions of superiority suggest the need for deeper questioning. With some commentators raising the alarm over AIs imminent capacity for chaos and destruction, I see the real issue being whether humanity has the wherewithal to channel this technology to build a fairer, healthier, more prosperous world. Billy J. Stratton is a professor of English and literary arts at the University of Denver. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Category:
E-Commerce
The future of electric vehicles, in the U.S. at least, is a bit uncertain: The Trump tariffs and the presidents desire to kill the EV tax credits could sink EV demand here. But overall, EV adoption is still expected to grow, and EV sales have been soaring in places like China. Toyota is reportedly looking to get in on that growth. After years of eschewing EV development in favor of hybrids, Toyota now has plans to launch 10 new electric vehicles within the next three years, according to Japanese newspaper Nikkei. Toyota has long focused on hybrid models over full EVs, though it does currently have a handful of battery electric vehicle options. For U.S. consumers, only the Toyota bZ4X and the Lexus RZ are available. (In contrast, there are more than 15 hybrids available in the U.S. under the Toyota brand, plus more than 10 under Lexus.) Across markets, Toyota has 5 EV models, but it aims to have 15 in total by 2027, Nikkei reports. Those new EVs would be produced across Japan, China, North America, and Southeast Asia. The Japanese automaker also plans to increase its EV production to 1 million vehicles by 2027. Thats more than seven times its 2024 sales. In 2024, Toyota sold nearly 140,000 EVs globally. (Thats for fully electric models; if you include hybrids and plug-in hybrids, sales topped 1 million for Toyota Motors North America alone.) That was about a 30% increase from the previous year, but still leaves Toyota behind other major EV carmakers, including Tesla (more than 1.7 million in 2024) and BYD (4.27 million). That also means EVs made up about 2% of Toyotas global sales, Jalopnik noted, whereas these new goals could mean EVs account for 35% of Toyotas global production, if its overall saleswhich exceed 10 million vehiclesstay the same. Toyotas current EVs, even ones sold in the U.S., are all manufactured in Japan and China. In 2023, the Japanese automaker announced it would begin to assemble a three-row battery electric vehicle at its Kentucky plant beginning in 2025, but that was pushed back to 2026. Those batteries will come from a Toyota factory in North Carolina. As part of this new push, Toyota will also begin producing EVs in Thailand and Argentina. In Japan, it will begin production of its C-HR+ SUV in September, which will be sold across Europe, North America, and Japan. In China, the carmaker will focus on low-cost vehicles like the bZ3X compact SUV, which has a starting price around $15,000. Some of Toyotas 10 forthcoming EV models will be under its Lexus brand, Nikkei added. Toyota did not immediately respond to a request for comment. To a request from Reuters, the company declined to comment, saying the information [in the Nikkei article] was not announced by the company.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||