people are dramatically underappreciating how much this discovery rewrites history
> for decades, archaeologists believed the amazon could only support small, scattered communities because its soil was too poor for large, complex civilizations
> then deforestation started exposing giant circles + squares carved into the ground, and the theory began falling apart
> the intact jungle still hid the true scale, so researchers flew lidar over 4,500 kmยฒ and digitally peeled away the trees
> they found 396 previously unknown earthworks, some surrounded by ditches 5m deep + connected by roads
> across the full region, they estimate 20,000+ structures spread over an area roughly the size of syria
> most belonged to a 2,500-year-old society researchers call the aquiry
> its peak population is estimated at 1.25-3 million people (the city of rome had roughly 1 million)
> so while rome ruled the mediterranean, this supposedly impossible forest society may have supported 1-3 romes worth of people
> which raises the obvious question: how did a region archaeologists thought was infertile feed millions?
> it turns out this part of the amazon has unusually fertile soil, and they grew maize + squash while actively managing the surrounding forest
> then around 850-950 ad, their ceremonial centers were suddenly abandoned, and researchers still have no idea why
> and all of this came from a territory covering less than 3% of the amazon
what else is still hiding beneath the other 97% of the Amazon??
Every number here is real. The comparison is missing.
Per megawatt-hour, solar produces about 2 kg of inert, recyclable waste. Coal produces about 90 kg of ash laced with arsenic, mercury and lead, plus a tonne of CO2.
Cumulative solar panel waste 2016 to 2050 runs 54 to 160 million tonnes. Coal ash over the same window: 46 billion tonnes. Coal generates monthly what solar is projected to generate in 35 years.
A turbine gets replaced once every 25 years. A coal plant gets refueled every day it runs. You've described a maintenance schedule and called it a nightmare.
*slams table* THIS IS WHAT IโVE BEEN TRYING TO TELL YOU ALL.
THEY ARE USING KIDS AS A TROJAN HORSE TO IMPLEMENT CENSORSHIP AND SURVEILLANCE.
THEY DO NOT CARE ABOUT PROTECTING KIDS.
The riveting first hand account of Colorado Parks and Wildlife and U.S. Forest Service employees risking the Gold Mountain Fire to hike into Nate Creek and catch native, endemic Uncompahgre cutthroat and hike them out to safety away from the fire.
Uncompahgre cutthroat are incredible, genetically distinct, native fish to the headwaters of the Colorado and Gunnison Basins. If these fish had disappeared in this fire, there would be no way to replace them. This type of fish, in conservation, is known as the Nate Creek โhalotypeโ which means they have a unique genetic fingerprint found only in the Uncompahgre cutthroat.
Electrofishing is nonlethal fish stunning device that CPW hiked into the burn zone in heavy backpacks, escorted by forest service firefighters. Trout float to the top, recover in seconds, but are easily removed brought back down to the safety of the hatchery. All in all they netted around 100 Uncompahgre cutthroats, carrying them down in 5 gallon buckets (down a steep incline in the middle of a burn zone). When conditions improve, theyโll be hiked back in. Huge thanks to CPW and the Forest Service for protecting the Uncompahgre cutthroat.
transitioning has always been a sort of dunning-kruger thing to me, a truuning-kruger if you will, where u imagine it going better than it does and the initial disappointment + lack of results is really depressing but then it sorta turns around once u get far enough in.