ROCKY REX'S SCIENCE BITES

As the world warms, rocks that have ice in fractures and cracks begin to fall apart; ice that was solid begins to have meltwater running through channels in the ice mass. At some point the structural integrity of the rock and ice is reduced to the point where there's a catastrophic failure.   In this case, the rock gave way, and part of the glacier sitting on it fell with it. Up to 200 million tonnes of material crashed down a 1 kilometre cliff into a valley, creating a churned up mess of water and pulverised rock, travelling downhill at speed. https://showyourstripes.info/c/asia/nepal/all/

The Green parties around the world are the only political movements that have always understood that "PEOPLE and PLANET" is the most important relationship, more important than countries and economics.  The relationship between "people and planet" has broken down, and the planet's systems have the casting vote. It's time to reset that relationship. . Our system gives no value to global commons such as the atmosphere, the forests, or the oceans, because they are not seen as "scarce commodities". Let's consider a nice old ancient oak tree as a microcosm of the problem. The oak tree has no value if it just goes on photosynthesising, providing a habitat for a whole ecosystem of species, just being a tree. It only has value if it is cut down, the wood is sold, and the land cleared for development. Why? Because there's a built-in idea that the natural world is effectively infinite, there's no scarcity value. And of course "leaving things...