Took this one at Taronga, Sydney's city zoo.
The Sumatran tiger is the smallest of the tiger sub-species and is highly impacted by the palm oil plantation growth in Indonesia. They number less than 500 today. Think of these tigers when you buy cereals, soaps and cosmetics that use palm oil as an ingredient. Over 80% of world palm oil comes from Indonesia or Malaysia where palm oil is produced at the expense of precious forests. The sun blows it's goodnight kiss for the day to the mountain top at Mount Shasta in Northern California. The Shasta snow cover reflects the third consecutive year of dry winter in California. This past winter Shasta ski lifts were mostly closed, and the slopes were covered by as little as two to three inches of snow. Shasta Lake the largest reservoir in California stood at about 35 percent of storage capacity in Spring 2014 showing the cumulative effects of dry winters since 2012. The Columbia River Gorge is one of the most beautiful yet accessible natural landscapes in the continental United States. Just over 30 miles east of Portland, the Gorge extends for over 80 miles and contains over 90 waterfalls just on the Oregon side of the river and is home to Mt Hood Oregon's tallest mountain.
The Columbia river, sacred to the Natives and dear to the locals, also shares a deep connection to western US history given the Lewis and Clark expedition, the first white immigrant American expedition to cross the western United States, across the continental divide onto the Pacific Ocean. By the time I took these shots, it was about an hour after sunset and it was pretty dark given the greenery in the area. There was still light in the sky so I let the light flow into the lens to capture the depth of the river with the city lights shining onto the sky, and to showcase the greenery around, while allowing time for the clouds to roll over the scenery. I love this place and hope to be back here soon. This past week was pretty exciting, waiting till well into the night on Monday watching the first of four consecutive total lunar eclipses in 2014 and 2015. April and October are unique for 2014 since they have both lunar and solar eclipse in the same month.
While capturing the different phases of the lunar eclipse was interesting in itself, I wanted to give balance to the picture by anchoring them to something that is more grounded on Planet Earth while still keeping the lighting in the scene honest to the time of the capture, which was past midnight in California. So I took a picture of vehicle light trails fading into the night and combined pictures of various phases of the lunar eclipse into it. Also known as the blood moon, the moon turned red during lunar eclipse due to the scattered light from all the sunsets and sunrises on earth that reflect onto the moon's surface since the Earth sits directly between the moon and the sun. This red earthly color of the moon this month was timely given that Earth Day is just around the corner. Since fear sells well, some folks may instead say that apocalypse is around the corner. I am sure I'll be waiting with my camera on September 28th, 2015 too. Happy Earth Day every one. A visit to Glen Canyon Dam in Page, Arizona few years back changed my pristine imagery of Colorado River flowing through the Grand Canyon.
It took some time to digest the fact that the river that helped create one of the greatest landscapes out there is human controlled from this (Glen Canyon) point on for the past 50+ years; with the United States Bureau of Reclamation determining how much of the river flows into the Grand Canyon and beyond, and how much stays behind in the man made Lake Powell reservoir that fills the Glen Canyon. It was interesting to read that from 2000 through 2009 inflow to Lake Powell was down by one-third and this is in line with climate change model predictions of a 14-22 percent decline in the flow of the river. That 14 percent adds up to half of California's annual water intake from Colorado river. Between 1999 and 2005, the Lake Powell reservoir lost two-thirds of its volume due to evaporation and seepage losses. Water promises to be the blue gold of the future. Winds of change are blowing hard at the grassroots level despite stalemates in Washington. In 2012, 13.2 percent of domestically produced electricity in United States came from renewable sources. Globally, renewable energy's contribution to energy production was 16 percent. United States makes up 21.2% of world wind power capacity as of 2012. A recent September 2013 study by U.S National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) finds that $7 billion worth of fuel can be saved by switching to wind and solar. An earlier 2010 NREL study on wind and solar had indicated that a 35 percent contribution from wind and solar energy into existing electric power systems can reduce fuel costs by 40% and carbon emissions by 25%–45% without extensive infrastructure changes. As per NREL that is roughly equivalent to taking 22–36 million cars off the road. That's pretty darn significant. The alternate energy money ball is about to roll uphill.
|