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Farming in the Sky

Why agriculture may someday take place in towers, not fields. chipmunk_1/Flickr A couple of Octobers ago, I found myself standing on a 5,000-acre cotton crop in the outskirts of Lubbock, Texas, shoulder-to-shoulder with a third-generation cotton farmer. He swept his arm across the flat, brown horizon of his field, which was at that moment being plowed by an industrial-sized picker—a toothy machine as tall as a house and operated by one man. The picker’s yields were being dropped into a giant pod to be delivered late that night to the local gin. And far beneath our feet, the Ogallala aquifer dwindled away at its frighteningly swift pace. When asked about this, the farmer spoke of reverse osmosis—the process of desalinating water—which he seemed to put his faith in, and which kept him unafraid of famine and permanent drought. Beyond his crop were others, belonging to other farmers, so that as far as the eye could see were brown stretches of newly harvested cotton plants. When I think of the potential ills of contemporary agriculture, I think of this farm, a 19th-century crop taken to its 21st-century logical limit, organized largely the same way it was two centuries ago—only with less human labor, and over a much bigger expanse. There is, even in Texas, only so much usable surface area, and so much irrigable water to maintain future commercial crops, and it made me wonder: What would a truly modern crop look like? To keep reading, click here. Read this article –  Farming in the Sky ; ; ;

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Farming in the Sky

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Overpumping of Groundwater Is Contributing to Global Sea Level Rise

Drilling for water could account for as much as 7 percent of sea level rise. Irrigation in California’s San Joaquin Valley GomezDavid/iStock Pump too much groundwater and wells go dry—that’s obvious. But there is another consequence that gets little attention as a hotter, drier planet turns increasingly to groundwater for life support. So much water is being pumped out of the ground worldwide that it is contributing to global sea level rise, a phenomenon tied largely to warming temperatures and climate change. It happens when water is hoisted out of the earth to irrigate crops and supply towns and cities, then finds its way via rivers and other pathways into the world’s oceans. Since 1900, some 4,500 cubic kilometers of groundwater around the world—enough to fill Lake Tahoe 30 times—have done just that. Read the rest at Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting. Original source: Overpumping of Groundwater Is Contributing to Global Sea Level Rise

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Overpumping of Groundwater Is Contributing to Global Sea Level Rise

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Selling Solar Power in India’s Slums

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The country is fast outgrowing its electric grid. Are small-scale solar projects the solution? Honza Soukup/Flickr Bangalore, INDIA — It’s a little after sundown, and Arun Kumar is hawking his wares in the neighborhood for the first time. He’s selling a light, just a small half-circle tied to a three-inch wide solar panel. An older man tests it in his home, a tiny hut of tarp and tin built like the 30 others in this far north side slum settlement. A kerosene lamp flickers inside. At a second home, Arun wields his 1,600 rupee ($29.48) gizmo for a woman seated with nine children. He points out the small cell phone charger in the light’s rear. The woman turns inside, pulling out her phone to consult her husband. She is one of millions in India and worldwide in a surreal contemporary fix: she owns a cell phone, but her home has no toilet or power line. The country’s mobile users mushroomed in a few short years, reaching some 900 million. Cheap phones have not suddenly lifted owners out of poverty. But they have given them access to resources and economic ladders once unreachable. To keep reading, click here.

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Selling Solar Power in India’s Slums

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Selling Solar Power in India’s Slums

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