A new study from Tulane University researchers has found that after decades of loss from deforestation and coastal development, mangroves ar
Mangrove forests used to be considered one of the world's most threatened ecosystems. However, recent analysis of satellite data shows that mangrove forests are no longer in decline and in fact the global coverage of mangrove forests has been increasing over the last 16 years due to restoration and natural habitat expansion.
The health of mangrove ecosystems is particularly relevant in the era of climate change, since they place a crucial role in protecting coastlines from storms and erosion in addition to storing carbon.
So in the run up to the 1893 Chicago Columbian Exhibition, one of the Chicago newspapers put out a call for drawings and sketches, all with the same brief---capture the spirit of the newly rebuilt Chicago, just as Columbia or Uncle Sam stood for the USA generally.
(One Birmingham, AL newspaper reporting on the contest said that, "New York has her Father Knickerbocker, Philadelphia her William Penn" and suggested that Chicago have a woman with windblown hair and webbed feet. However, they also wrote that "[Birmingham should have] a handsome young woman with a constitution of iron, hair of the blackest of coal, and eyes with the fiery glow of the furnaces," so I think the takeaway here is that throughout all of history, people without Hetalia will invent it.)
Anyway, the newspaper received hundreds of entries, and they chose as their winner a woman standing with feet apart and one hand on her hip, a masonâs square in the other hand, crowned with a phoenix rising from the ashes to reference the Great Chicago Fire. Most importantly, she had "I WILL" emblazoned on her cuirass.
The New York Times called this "a badly proportioned design and a swaggering pose" but Chicago didn't care (and maybe liked the swagger, thanks very much). The Columbian Exhibition moved ahead, and a lady crowned with a bird and flames, "I WILL" somewhere on her person, became as close to an official symbol for the fair as you could get---so much so that they brought her back for the 1933 Fair too.
(that 'Y' you see on either side of her was also the result of a newspaper competition around the same time, and is still found throughout the city.)
I don't really have a point here, I just like her. I've never seen the anthropomorphic personification of a place and thought "actually? that seems about right."
You know what I know I'm usually pretty silent but I need you all to understand the horrible impact SpaceX and Starship has had on South Texas.
Yes, fuck those ugly ass cyber trucks but FUCK that Space Center.
Starship genuine danger to the people who live here. It's to the point many of the people here when they heard the explosion joked that it was probably another one of Elon's rockets.
This is a horrifying pattern we are becoming numb to, we hear about a planned test launch and brace ourselves for more debris.
Several of Musk's attempts at rockets, especially after the deregulation, have resulted in catastrophic explosions. Want the list? Here are a few!!
December 9th, 2020- Starship serial No. 8, or SN8. Exploded upon landing.
February 2, 2021- Starship SN9. Exploded upon landing.
March 3rd. 2021- Starship SN10. Landed in one piece. Fire at the skirt caused an explosion.
April 20, 2023- Starship. Exploded once more. Debris scattered in Port Isabell.
March 6, 2025- Flight 8. Spun out of control and exploded in a mass of fireballs. Planes had to be grounded due to the mass explosion and the debris are stills scattered in the ocean.
And now we have the most recent and the worse one yet.
June 18-19, 2025- Starship 36 during a GROUND test caused a mass explosion, the looming mushroom cloud causing locals in Cameron to believed they had been bombed.
The loser describes this it as a "rapid unscheduled disassembly" instead of what they are: fiery failures locals have to deal with as a result.
Pretty much everyone locally knows Elon Musk and his negative impact on our home, people who have had the unfortunate curse to have worked with him and the center call it Cultish, 8 members of his staff who spoke out against his behavior and sexual harassment were all fired.
Its a well known fact he hates the people here, and he goes out of his way to find employees who are not from this area and move them down here.
Musk has tried to encourage even more white people to come down to South Texas and live in his "Starship City". An attempt to gentrify and push out local citizens.
Rebekah Hinojosa, a local Activist with Another Gulf Is Possible, even had her home unlawfully entered by police after an alleged graffiti on a mural he commisioned (which didn't even obscure the mural).
This article is a good read on everything Musk has done to South Texas
One day last month, Juan Mancias, the chief of the Carrizo Comecrudo tribe of Texas, and two companions headed to Boca Chica village, a bays
I am TIRED of this going unnoticed and unheard of the People of The Valley. I need you to stop laughing and start taking this seriously.
If you want to read more on all the insane shit this man has done to South Texas here are a few more Articles I would Recommend
South Texas groups sue Texas for letting Elon Musk's SpaceX dump wastewater without permit, SpaceX's Starship explodes in space, which Musk calls a 'minor setback', What Is Starbase? Elon Musk Builds a SpaceX City With Shops, Worker Housing and Its Own Mayor â But Texas Locals Aren't Happy
Engineering teams around the world have been attempting to develop new methods of seawater desalination.
Scientists in China have developed a more efficient form of solar desalination that uses 47.4% less energy than alternatives. After the first year of testing, the scientists believe that at scale it would be able to desalinate water more cheaply than producing bottled water.
The goal is now to scale the technology for use in coastal areas and islands experiencing water insecurity.
I get a WTTW e newsletter called Urban Nature. This is from today, and I resonated it:
"Friday, July 17, 2026
A few years ago, I noticed something weird about the sunrise coming through the living room window. The color was unusual and the brightness was oddly diffused. I know now the effect was caused by wildfire smoke, but we were so naive back in 2023, werenât we.
Iâm writing this on Thursday, sitting at my desk with a mask on because the smell of smoke â drifting down from Canada and Minnesota â is everywhere. It reeks like a city-wide campfire without any of the cozy charm or sâmores.
I had things I wanted to do tonight, like harvest beans and tomatoes from my community garden plot (thanks to the current cyclosporiasis outbreak, I only trust my own homegrown produce). Instead I guess Iâll be stuck indoors, probably scrolling through Instagram looking at photos of apocalyptic skies.
I think we can all agree this stinks. We grit our teeth through February, holding on to the promise of a glorious summer along Chicagoâs lakefront. Jokeâs on us: The beaches have been closed due to unhealthy air quality. We got smoked.
I think about all those trees, burning, and all the critters that rely on all those trees, now out of food and shelter. When tens of thousands of acres, hundreds of thousands of acres, millions of acres burn, itâs too much to comprehend.
You know what I can comprehend? A single sequoia. In 2021, a major wildfire struck Sequoia National Park, a place Iâd visited and fallen in love with in 2018. I was glued to reports of firefighters wrapping the General Sherman tree â the largest giant sequoia in the world â with what looked like tinfoil to guard it from encroaching flames.
I knew the General Sherman, and I didnât want it to die (spoiler: It lived). I know Iâm not alone in having an attachment to a specific tree, or a specific landscape or a specific creature (piping plovers, anyone?). And a lot of them are being wiped out by the same extreme weather thatâs taken what should have been a heavenly July day and turned it into a hellscape.
Which brings to mind an interesting opinion piece the Guardian had this week on âecological grief.âÂ
I know, that sounds like such a âwoo-wooâ thing. Ecological grief. But thatâs the Guardianâs point. It exists, weâre experiencing it whether we want to admit it, and itâs a lot to repress.Â
Maybe storms eroded your favorite beach. Maybe birds stopped visiting your backyard feeder. Maybe your favorite hike has been overrun by invasive species. Something is gone that you canât get back.Â
Feeling very down about our current timeline lately.
Thereâs wildfire smoke in the air, the grass I see on the Tour de France is brown and dry from the heatwaves, a parasite is ruining fresh berry season, and we have a shitty government that is actively trying to roll back environmental protections. Itâs shit!
Trying to find spots of hope and itâs getting so hard!
