Tag Archives: mashable

Finally, a solution to the worst scourge of this scorched Earth: brown avocado

by AimeeDowney690 Posted on August 12, 2016

Pit of Despair

Finally, a solution to the worst scourge of this scorched Earth: brown avocado

By on Aug 12, 2016 6:06 amShare

There’s nothing worse than overripe avocados. Bone spurs? Nah. Attack by rabid dog? Uh-uh. 24-hour election coverage? Not even that! Expecting the beautiful green flesh of a perfect avocado and finding brown slime in its place is objectively worse than all the evil of the world combined.

Brown avocados don’t just kill any mortal’s will to live — they’re also wasteful: Americans throw away an estimated 70 billion pounds of food each year. And you can bet your $10 toast there’s a whole lot of discolored avocados on that trash heap.

But from the darkness, a hero must emerge. As Mashable reports, the Natavo Zero — a new machine developed by Australian company Naturo Technologies — uses pressure, temperature, and steam to quench the enzyme that causes avocado to turn brown after it’s exposed to air. If you run sliced avocados through the “time machine,” as Naturo calls it, the precious fruit will stay green for up to 10 days.

Natavo Zero is only available for large-scale food processors. Why? Because you, as a lazy consumer lone wolf, actually have to do very little to keep an avocado green: Squirt it with lemon, rub it with olive oil (debatable, but sure), or leave the pit in. Or maybe just don’t buy too many of the damn things in the first place — you will never make that much guac.

Election Guide ★ 2016Making America Green AgainOur experts weigh in on the real issues at stake in this electionGet Grist in your inbox

Read more:

Finally, a solution to the worst scourge of this scorched Earth: brown avocado

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, food processor, G & F, GE, LG, ONA, PUR, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Finally, a solution to the worst scourge of this scorched Earth: brown avocado

Leonardo DiCaprio gives $1 million to help island nation protect its oceans

by ArnetteSoderste Posted on March 19, 2016

Leonardo DiCaprio gives $1 million to help island nation protect its oceans

By on 19 Mar 2016commentsShare

From Shutter Island to Manatee Island, Leonardo DiCaprio keeps winning our hearts — and our climate-inclined minds.

The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation recently granted $1 million to help the Seychelles islands protect their ocean territory — which makes up 99 percent of the country.

It’s part of a huge, unprecedented swap between the Pacific Island nation and foreign investor groups. The gist of the deal: The country of 115 tiny islands commits to protecting 154,000 square miles of its surrounding seas, and in return, its lenders agree to restructure $21.4 million of its debt. From Mashable:

In this case, instead of repaying debt at relatively high interest rates, the Seychelles government will redirect payments to a new, locally-run organization known as the Seychelles Conservation and Climate Adaptation Trust.

DiCaprio’s (ahem) titanic donation will go toward financing this swap, which was brokered by The Nature Conservancy and will result in the second-largest swath of protected waters in the West Indian Ocean. By protecting coral reefs and limiting damaging fishing practices, Seychelles is hoping it will encourage more resilient ecosystems — and in turn, a more robust economy for the ocean-dependent nation.

“We champion projects like this one across the globe that use cutting edge methods in conservation and environmental protection,” said DiCaprio in a press release. “This deal will enhance food security for the local people of Seychelles, help mitigate the effects of climate change on their low-lying island home, and protect the surrounding rich ocean ecosystems for future generations.”

All the more reason to lobby for a new holiday: Leonardo DiCapprecation Day!

Please

enable JavaScript

to view the comments.

Find this article interesting?

Donate now to support our work.

Get Grist in your inbox

Continue reading – 

Leonardo DiCaprio gives $1 million to help island nation protect its oceans

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Leonardo DiCaprio gives $1 million to help island nation protect its oceans

El Niño could raise meteorological hell this year

by JacquelLiddell Posted on April 11, 2014

El Niño could raise meteorological hell this year

By

Shutterstock

It’s more likely than not that El Niño will rise from the Pacific Ocean this year — and some scientists are warning that it could grow into a bona fide monster.

NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center put out a bulletin Thursday saying there’s a greater than 50 percent chance that El Niño will develop later this year. Australian government meteorologists are even more confident — they said earlier this week that there’s a greater than 70 percent chance that El Niño will develop this summer.

Not totally clear on what this El Niño thing even is? Andrew Freedman explains at Mashable:

El Niño and La Niña events refer to fluctuations in air and ocean conditions in the tropical Pacific. El Niño events are characterized by warmer than average sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, and they add heat to the atmosphere, thereby warming global average temperatures. They typically occur once every three to seven years and can also alter weather patterns around the world, causing droughts and floods from the West Coast of the U.S. to Papua New Guinea.

There was a particularly brutal El Niño from 1997 to 1998, which killed an estimated 23,000 people and caused tens of billions of dollars worth of damage. The looming El Niño could match the intensity of that outburst. More from Mashable:

Eric Blake, a hurricane specialist at NOAA’s National Hurricane Center in Miami, said conditions are changing rapidly in the Pacific, going from 50/50 odds of an El Niño, to a setup that eerily resembles the circumstances that preceded the monster El Niño of ‘97-’98.

“It’s something we haven’t really seen since the ’97 El Niño,” Blake said of the westerly wind bursts and ocean observations.

El Niño events aren’t our fault — they’re just a fact of life on planet Earth, caused by inherent instability in Pacific Ocean weather patterns. But we may be making things worse for ourselves. Scientists reported in July that El Niño is arriving more frequently now than had been the case before we started heavily polluting the skies with greenhouse gases. And in January, a paper published in the journal Nature Climate Change forecast that more El Niños will be of the extreme variety as we continue to warm the globe.


Source
ENSO Alert System Status: El Niño Watch, NOAA
Unusually Intense El Nino May Lie Ahead, Scientists Say, Mashable

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Climate & Energy

Link – 

El Niño could raise meteorological hell this year

Posted in Anchor, FF, Free Press, GE, LAI, Landmark, LG, ONA, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on El Niño could raise meteorological hell this year