Issue 46
All issues can be found at: https://geocraic.com/
World
NASA’s Worldview App gives you access to amazing remotely sensed imagery.
- Article: https://www.maps.com/viewing-our-world-nasa-worldview/
- App: https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/
Rewilding
Soundscapes help to re-wild bleached and degraded reefs. Recordings of healthy fish are being transmitted to attract heat-tolerant larvae back to degraded reefs in the Maldives.
The Future
A great PBS show about the future, called “Beyond The Now” is now on PBS. Well worth watching if you need a little more hope in your life when thinking about the problems the world faces.
China
Another great PBS Nova show was referenced in Issue 31. If you haven’t seen it, and are interested in China, it’s definitely worth watching. Another very interesting perspective is a Financial Times Weekend essay on the human stories of the Chinese economic boom. The author, Yuan Yang, has a book coming out in July: “Private Revolutions: Four Women Face China’s New Social Order”
What was missing most, I felt, from our understanding of China’s transformation — and what is most difficult for foreigners to come by — was a human-level view of how families and individuals are shaped by living through a breakneck pace of change.
- From FT - The untold human stories of China’s economic boom: https://on.ft.com/43WwDUK
- Issue 31 - Inside China’s Tech Boom: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/inside-chinas-tech-boom/
- Yuan’s book Private Revolutions.
UAE and Oman
Torrential rain hammers the desert (thanks Eric). Record flooding results.
- NYT article: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/17/world/middleeast/dubai-airport-oman-flooding.html?unlocked_article_code=1.lU0.cqZh.AMIBh_bEsz3l&smid=url-share
- Images of flooding at the Dubai airport: https://x.com/WUTangKids/status/1780304312071037267
Australia
Great Browning
We’re not talking about making a good roux when we we talk about the great browining. This is the drought in Australia impacting the Southwest coast. Those of us who live in the US West know something about mega-droughts. Unfortunately, after the browning comes the flames.
- AU News Article: https://au.news.yahoo.com/anger-as-great-browning-spreads-along-1000km-of-australian-coast-021115851.html
Norway
Here’s a very interesting story from the BBC, that while sad in that it documents shrinking glaciers, it highlights the Viking artifacts now exposed by those melting glaciers on mountain passes in Norway.
- BBC video: https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p0gl9tq4/melting-glaciers-reveal-viking-pass-hidden-for-centuries
US
Economic Geography
US West Housing Affordibility Disparities
It’s not a surprise to those of us in the US West to see this map, but the contrast in affordabliity is quite stark.
- Housing Affordibility Map: https://geospatialtraining.com/mapping-the-us-housing-affordability-gap-simple-techniques-with-arcgis-pro-r-and-ai/
New National Monument in Nevada?
Tribes are pushing the administration to act before the election in November.
- HCN article: https://www.hcn.org/articles/nevada-tribes-push-for-a-monument-to-commemorate-historic-massacres/
Rewilding
Another great story about the benefits of dam removal. This time a long-term study of the Elwha River Delta after dam removal.