October 31, 2015

Chilean Desert, One Of The Driest Places On Earth, Is Awash In Flowers

Chilean Desert, One Of The Driest Places On Earth, Is Awash In Flowers
October 30, 201512:31 PM ET
Joe Ruiz

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/10/30/453138753/chilean-desert-one-of-the-driest-places-on-earth-awash-in-flowers


A view over a mallow field in the Atacama region in Chile on Oct. 21. This year's rainfall over the hostile land has led to the most spectacular blossoming of the past 18 years.
Mario Ruiz/EPA/Landov

One of the driest places on Earth has blossomed after some unusual rain earlier this year.

The Atacama Desert, primarily located in Chile along the Pacific Ocean, is flush with flowers after relatively heavy precipitation in March and August fell in the drought-stricken region.

The bloom generally occurs once every five to seven years, but rain in March and more in August has produced an array of blooms reportedly not seen in such profusion in nearly two decades.



A car passes through a mallow field in the Atacama region of Chile on Oct. 21.
Mario Ruiz/EPA/Landov

The rainfall on one day in March — 0.96 inches — was the equivalent of approximately 14 years of precipitation, according to The Washington Post.

More than 25 people were killed and thousands left homeless after the March rain, which caused mudslides and flooding, according to EFE. The Spanish news agency spoke with Daniel Diaz, the director of the National Tourism Service in Atacama, about the region's recent rain and the result:

" 'The Atacama region was punished, but also blessed by the phenomenon of a flourishing desert, something that happens only after the rains, this time brought about by El Niño and climate change,' he said.

" 'The intensity of blooms this year has no precedent, and the fact that it has happened twice in a same year has never been recorded in the country's history. We are surprised.' "

The desert once went more than 14 years without rain in the early 20th century, according to Arizona State University's School of Geographical Sciences.

If you'd like to see the carpet of more than 200 native plant species in person, you'll have to get to Chile quickly, as the bloom will soon end, says EFE.

October 30, 2015

Japan has finally figured out what to do with its abandoned golf courses

Japan has finally figured out what to do with its abandoned golf courses

Ariel Schwartz, provided by
Published 9:14 am, Thursday, July 16, 2015

http://www.chron.com/technology/businessinsider/article/Japan-has-finally-figured-out-what-to-do-with-its-6388551.php
solar plant



<snip>

This is what's happening in Japan, where developers built too many golf courses over the last few decades after demand shot up in the 1980s. Now the industry is in decline, with participation in the sport down 40% from the 1990s, and abandoned golf courses are starting to pop up.

Kyocera's solution: turn the abandoned green space into solar farms. Japan has been hungry for alternative energy ever since the 2011 Fukushima disaster made nuclear power an unattractive option in the country, and golf courses just happen to be perfectly suited for solar power — they're large open spaces that often get lots of sunlight.

The golf course that will be turned into a 23 MW solar farm.

Kyocera's first project, now under construction, is a 23 megawatt solar plant on a golf course in Kyoto prefecture. When it goes live in 2017, the plant will produce enough power for about 8,100 households.

The company is also developing a 92 megawatt solar plant — generating enough energy for over 30,000 households — on an abandoned golf course in Kagoshima prefecture. No word on when that project will go live.

<snip>