Join the seed hunters; how to stop glacial melt; using AI to help electric vehicles boom; and what if you could hear climate change?
| | Tuesday, December 7, 2021 | | | | |
| In today’s newsletter, join the seed hunters; how to stop glacial melt; using AI to help electric vehicles boom … and what if you could hear climate change? | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHARLIE HAMILTON JAMES | |
By Peter Gwin, Editor at Large
Over the last century, National Geographic has sent scores of scientists and researchers, filmmakers, and photographers to document the Serengeti. But a couple of years ago, photographer and Nat Geo Explorer Charlie Hamilton James pointed out that it had been 30 years since the magazine had taken a comprehensive look at this important ecosystem—which covers a Maryland-size swath of northern Tanzania and southern Kenya. That observation led us to this month’s special issue—a deep dive into the current state of one of Africa’s most iconic landscapes.
Part of what makes the Serengeti so special is the astonishing array of life it contains—a deeply interconnected web of thousands of animal and plant species. There are, of course, the safari favorites—elephant, lion, rhino, hippo, cheetah (pictured above), and giraffe. But there are multitudes of creatures that get little attention—the African fish eagle (a near doppelganger for the American bald eagle), the tree hyrax (a tiny distant relative of the elephant), and a hundred species of dung beetles (which navigate by the Milky Way).
Like many wild places, the Serengeti now faces immense challenges—many posed by the growing number of humans who now live in and around it. Kenya and Tanzania have seen their populations double in the last 30 years, and though both nations have protected large parts of the ecosystem, more people are moving into the area. With them come the pressures of livestock, farming, new roads and buildings, and more harvesting of resources. The demand for firewood and charcoal—traditional fuel sources—for example, has devastated the Mau Forest in the north of the Serengeti. Meanwhile, deforestation, dams, and large-scale irrigation projects have disrupted the predictable flow of the Mara River (pictured below)—the Serengeti’s lifeblood. | | | |
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Since the 1970s, scientists have understood that the key bellwether for the health of the Serengeti is the wildebeest. The ecosystem relies disproportionately on the more than one million wildebeest moving steadily clockwise around the region, following the pattern of seasonal rains. This spectacular interactive map explains how the migration causes everything to flourish—trees and grasses, insects and birds, predators and prey.
But the surge of human activity has squeezed the wildebeest migration routes, raising concerns about this crucial piece of the Serengeti puzzle. According to Joseph Ogutu, a Kenyan statistician whose specialty is counting wildlife populations and modeling how they will change, the number of wildebeests migrating from Tanzania into Kenya is declining, and those that do come are spending up to one and a half months fewer per year than they used to. (Below, lions rest after feeding on wildebeests.)
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In addition to the wildebeest, Kenyan conservationist and Nat Geo Explorer Paula Kahumbu points out other animals that serve as barometers to the Serengeti’s health. The greater kudu, common duiker, bushbuck, bushpig, giant forest hog, oribi, colobus monkey, sable antelope, roan antelope, and black rhino are all species that safari guides report have disappeared or nearly disappeared in recent years.
To change course, Ogutu cites the need to reduce fencing in key areas and enact better policies regarding grazing, but he especially emphasizes the need to set aside land to protect the wildebeest migration route because, as Tanzanian ecologist Tony Sinclair has pointed out, “Without the wildebeest, there would be no Serengeti.”
It really comes down to the will of the local people, Kahumbu says. “I believe we can defend this wilderness and preserve it for future generations, but that will not happen unless ordinary Kenyans and Tanzanians demand it.”
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 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTIE HEMM KLOK | |
One way to regrow forests: The United States needs billions of seeds—as well as “seed hunters” who can climb trees and steal seeds from squirrels—to support the nation’s ambitious tree-planting goals. Climber Robert Beauchamp (pictured above, atop a Ponderosa pine in California) says he collects seeds from the top third of the tree. The U.S. needs to replant 100 million acres with trees and needs at least a billion pounds of seeds to do that, Nat Geo reports.
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 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY TOMAS MUNITA, BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES | | | Slowing the melt: What can humans do to stop the staggering scale of glacier melt? Not counting Greenland and Antarctica, the rest of the 200,000 glaciers around the world are losing 267 billion metric tons of water each year—as much water as it would take to fill a 10-foot-deep swimming pool that covered Ireland. One study predicts melting glaciers will translate into a five-inch rise in sea level by 2100. The hope, by containing temperature rise by cutting carbon emissions, would be half that, Michael Greshko reports in the December issue of National Geographic. (Pictured above, a geologist and hydroelectric engineer working on a weather station at Chile’s Olivares Alfa Glacier, where freshwater reserves are dwindling.) | | | |
 | PHOTOGRAPH BY KOBOLD
| | Rocks under the hood: Artificial intelligence has been used in the climate fight to track emissions, and develop smart grids and other devices. Today, companies are using AI to give geologists a better idea of where to look—or where not to for rare metals such as cobalt and copper, key in powering electric cars. (Pictured above, KoBold workers in Zambia prepare soil samples for analysis to determine whether they contain the chemical signatures of desirable metals.)
Subscriber exclusive: The electric travel revolution is here.
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Correction: Typo gremlins were busy on yesterday’s newsletter. Josephine Baker’s remains were placed in France’s Pantheon last week, and Egypt celebrated the opening of a renovated walkway dating back 3,400 years—and dubbed the Avenue of Sphinxes—that connects the main ancient temples in Luxor. Thanks to the eagle-eyed readers who wrote in!
We hope you liked today’s Planet Possible newsletter. Today's newsletter was edited and curated by Monica Williams, Heather Kim, and David Beard. Have an idea or link for us? Let us know at david.beard@natgeo.com. | | | |
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