“Death Star” Diatom – Steve Mandel
An enthusiastic and prolific nature photographer for over 25 years, Steve Mandel’s diverse portfolio includes astronomical imaging, wildlife photography, and the photography of microscopic marine organisms.
Steve is much more than a photographer with a camera. When he can’t find a camera that can capture the sort of imagery he believes is required to broaden our understanding of science and widen our perception, he will just BUILD it himself.
His photographs have appeared in the New York Times, Smithsonian Books, Reader’s Digest, Forbes Magazine, Sky&Telescope, Astronomy, and used by websites including NASA. Three of Steve’s images: of Japanese Macaques, Lemurs in Madagascar, and Proboscis Monkey have been given Highly Honored Awards by the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and put on display at the Museum. He is also the recipient of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific’s International Amateur Achievement Award, and the American Astronomical Society’s Chambliss Amateur Achievement Medal.
California Against the Sea: Visions for our Vanishing Coastline – by Rosanna Xia
Along California’s 1,200-mile coastline, the overheated Pacific Ocean is rising and pressing in, imperiling both wildlife and the maritime towns and cities that 27 million people call home. In California Against the Sea, Los Angeles Times coastal reporter Rosanna Xia asks: As climate chaos threatens the places we love so fiercely, will we finally grasp our collective capacity for change?
How does sea level rise challenge modern notions of property lines? – Los Angeles Times
The (California) Coastal Act is a remarkable commitment to the public trust doctrine, which traces back to Justinian I, who declared in 533 C.E. that “the following things are natural law common to all: the air, running water, the sea, and consequently the seashore.” This notion — that certain lands should be held in trust by the government for the benefit of all people — evolved into English common law, which the United States then adopted and California later wrote into its state constitution…
As sand miners prosper in Uganda, a vital lake basin suffers – AP News
The excavator grunts in the heart of the wetland, baring its teeth. There are trucks waiting to be loaded with sand, and more almost certainly on the way.
This is how it is here daily in Lwera — a central Ugandan region on the fringes of Lake Victoria: a near-constant demand for sand that’s exerting pressure on a wetland that’s home to locals and animals and feeds into Africa’s largest freshwater lake…