David Mungoshi Shelling the Nuts
The title of my piece today could get me lynched by the purists in science. They will most likely cite me as yet another example of a clogged mind and in the same breath shake their heads ruefully and wonder out loud about so-called educated people whose ignorance can be so debilitating.

Daniel Grossman

Daniel Grossman
DECEMBER 3, 2017  KILOMBERO VALLEY, TANZANIA

One method of stemming greenhouse gases – by pruning excessive undergrowth that prevents forests from flourishing  – is one of a slew of quixotic ideas being worked on by scientists and researchers around the world to help solve what could be the dominant issue of the next 100 years.

Desalinated sea water poses a probable health risk to Capetonians, say scientists from the Western Cape's top universities.

The city's three marine sewage outfalls, which send more than 36million litres of effluent a day into the ocean, contain chemicals that mean "great caution is needed" in the desalination process, which is touted as the answer to Cape Town's water crisis, the environmental scientists warn.

Dig into the black sand of Deception Island, off the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, and hot water percolates up, heated by geothermal activity. The horseshoe-shaped spit of land is itself the flooded caldera of an active volcano and home to more than 50 volcanic craters—markers of past eruptions. Now, scientists have shown that ash lofted by a hypothetical eruption on Deception Island would potentially disrupt air traffic as far away as South America, Australia, and Africa.