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EXTREME CLIMATE, EXTREME CONSUMPTION

Wednesday, July 6, 2022

Welcome back! In today’s newsletter, we examine a land of extremes, the robot revolution, the disappearance of seashells, new Omicron variants … and a mystical hamlet in Taiwan.

PHOTOGRAPH BY GABRIELE CECCONI, PARALLELOZERO

How do you live in a land whose summer heat records have been exceeded only by California’s Death Valley? Photographer Gabriele Cecconi went to the emirate at the northern end of the Persian Gulf to find out.

“In Kuwait I wanted to investigate the psychological impact of an extreme environment on people,” he tells Nat Geo. Some studies predict parts of the area may become too hot by the end of the century for humans to live there.

Through his images, Cecconi explores the environmental concerns as well as the contrasts of a citizenry that benefits from the state’s oil production and the vast number of workers from abroad (three pictured above) who support them.

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PHOTO OF THE DAY

VIDEO BY NORIKO HAYASHI, @NORIKOHAYASHI_PHOTO

The night nurse: Mirai (“future” in Japanese), a self-navigating artificial intelligence-equipped robot, disinfects doorknobs, elevator panels, and handrails in the hallways of Activa Biwa nursing home in Otsu, Japan. It also quietly opens the doors of rooms to check on residents. When the robot detects an emergency such as a fall or sleep abnormalities, it notifies its human colleagues immediately by sending them images. Demand for robots that can perform human chores has skyrocketed around the world, particularly during the pandemic.)

Related: How the pandemic is good for robots

THE ROBOT REVOLUTION

STORIES WE’RE FOLLOWING

PHOTOGRAPH BY MARTIN SHIELDS, GETTY IMAGES

Why are seashells becoming harder to find? (pictured above, a lightning whelk in Sanibel Island, Florida)

Two Omicron variants are causing new coronavirus infections

One of the best tools for predicting COVID-19 outbreaks? Sewage.

The 225-year-old working warship sustained by a U.S. Navy forest

Find peace on a 72-hour train ride across America

Going camping? Try these eco-friendly tips

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

PHOTOGRAPH BY EDWARD S. CURTIS, MAKAH MUSEUM

Preservation versus conservation: After 17 years of red tape, the Makah of northwestern Washington State, may resume hunting gray whales, a practice central to the tribal nation’s culture. Laws have protected mammals and endangered species from hunts, even as the whale population has recovered. Conservationists are backing Indigenous rights in this case, and a new U.S. government report suggests that whaling may be allowed as early as next year, Emma Marris reports. (Pictured above, a century-old photo shows a Makah whaler carrying a harpoon.)

THE NIGHT SKIES

ILLUSTRATION BY ANDREW FAZEKAS

Summer stunners: Tonight and Thursday evening, look for the near quarter moon posing with a blue-colored star in the southwestern sky. Spica is the brightest member of the Virgo constellation and is 264 light years from Earth. The fifth brightest star in the heavens, the blue-white giant is about 14 times the mass of our sun and 2,000 times more luminous. On Sunday night, look for the moon gliding close to Antares, an old red giant star that represents the heart of the S-shaped Scorpius constellation. Sky watchers across the Northern Hemisphere should also be on the lookout for noctilucent (night-shining) clouds in the west after sunset. These rare eerie, electric-blue clouds are created by ice crystals forming around meteoritic dust particles falling into Earth’s atmosphere. —Andrew Fazekas

NIGHT-SHINING CLOUDS

IN A FEW WORDS

My disabilities are like superpowers—if harnessed properly, they enable me to explore nuances—whether of a physical space, a word in a foreign language, or a feedback loop in a marine social-ecological system.

Ecologist, Nat Geo Explorer

LAST GLIMPSE

PHOTOGRAPH BY MIKE KAI CHEN

Magical charms: Now that Taiwan has reopened its borders, you might want to consider Jiufen, a dreamy mountain hamlet heavily influenced by its Dutch and Japanese colonizers. The town’s appearance is often compared to the settings in the 2001 film Spirited Away. By day, it’s a tropical paradise, but the town in the northeast has a special allure after dark, Mike Kai Chen says. Look at his photos and see if he’s right. (Pictured above, Amei Tea House.)

This newsletter has been curated and edited by David Beard, Heather Kim, Jen Tse, and Monica Williams. Have a story idea or feedback? Drop us a line. We'd love to hear from you.

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