All posts tagged: ecological

‘Strategy of ecological terror. Desalination as a weapon of war’ in the Middle East

‘Strategy of ecological terror. Desalination as a weapon of war’ in the Middle East

Published by Sam Flores

Eve Irvine is pleased to welcome Dr. Michael Christopher Low, Associate Professor of History and Director of the Middle East Center at the University of Utah. As a historian of infrastructure and environmental systems in the Middle East, his work examines how seemingly technical systems, like desalination, become deeply embedded in geopolitical strategy, including in wartime. In his forthcoming book “Saltwater Kingdoms”, he argues that water infrastructure in the Gulf is not merely a tool of survival, but a central axis of political leverage and vulnerability. Keywords for this article Source link

Tesla files site plans for massive Giga Texas expansion including ‘ecological paradise’

Tesla files site plans for massive Giga Texas expansion including ‘ecological paradise’

Published by skeptic

Tesla has filed new site plans with Travis County detailing a significant expansion of its Giga Texas campus, including the long-promised “ecological paradise” along the Colorado River and infrastructure for the recently announced Terafab North Campus. The filings, which include a permit application for “Tesla North Campus” submitted to the Travis County Fire Marshal on March 13, reveal the scope of Tesla’s ambitions for a campus that already stretches across 2,500 acres in southeast Austin. The ‘ecological paradise’ — six years and counting The centerpiece of the Travis County filing is Tesla’s GFTX Riverfront Eco-Park, an ambitious public green space project that CEO Elon Musk first promised during a July 2020 earnings call when he described the area as a future “ecological paradise” with “birds in the trees, butterflies, fish in the stream.” According to Tesla’s 2024 annual report to Travis County, a requirement of the company’s Chapter 381 Economic Development Performance Agreement, the eco-park plans include 25 miles of walking trails, 18 miles of biking paths, and 3.78 miles of direct Colorado River access. …

The importance of standardised methodology in ecological studies

The importance of standardised methodology in ecological studies

Published by skeptic

Scientists need to follow standardised methodology, but designing an effective protocol is not without its challenges. It is yet another morning of driving to the field site, and we pull up the weather forecast for the last days of this sampling session. Will we finally have the dry window of 48 hours that we need to set invertebrate traps in the twenty-four cages of our project? Leaving our traps out during high rain probability not only means we run the risk of lower insect activity and therefore non-representative numbers in our traps, but also that in the event of heavy rain, traps could flood and make the data nonviable. The previous samplings took place during good weather, when insects were more active. Over the course of two years, each year has samplings set at specific times in the seasons to be able to compare changes over time. Thus, more importantly, we want data to be comparable to our previous samplings and to other studies with the same aims. Teammates sort plants in the lab, quantify …