Category: Celebrate

Flowers Bloom in the Atacama Desert – in Pictures

The Atacama desert, covering a 600-mile (1,000 km) strip of land on the Pacific coast west of the Andes mountains, is experiencing a rare springtime bloom of flowers after El Niño brought the heaviest rainfall in two decades earlier this year. The desert is usually one of the driest places on Earth.

And Now for Some Good News About Climate Change

Small things like energy efficient lightbulbs and big ones—like solar panels and light rail transportation—are making a difference. Australian author Tim Flannery counsels cautious optimism by showing how the millions of small actions taken by individuals are driving down oil consumption and points out how new “Third Way” carbon-capture technologies promise to reduce emissions and create massive economic opportunities.

Bronx Artist Transforms Discarded Plastic Into Playful Sculptures

Daniel Lanzilotta started collecting plastic on the beaches of southern France. While his son played, the Bronx native collected the often tiny fragments of plastic he found in the sand, and soon began pocketing these items and making them into sculptures. Over the course of several years, as fresh debris washed up on the shore every day, he realized what a huge problem plastic pollution is for the environment.

Great Exuma Island, Bahamas

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this photograph of small island cays in the Bahamas and the prominent tidal channels cutting between them. For astronauts, this is one of the most recognizable points on the planet.