forest

What Can We Do For the Gentle Giant?

/ Organikos / 1 Comment
A herd of elephants by the river at Periyar Tiger Reserve, Thekkady, India. PHOTO: Rosanna Abrachan

A herd of elephants by the river at Periyar Tiger Reserve, Thekkady, India. PHOTO: Rosanna Abrachan

Predation of elephants has increased in recent years, with as many as 100,000 African elephants being killed between 2010 and 2012, according to an elephant researcher at Colorado State University. Nearly 60 percent of Tanzania’s elephant population has been wiped out in the past six years, the report indicated. Increased demand in Asia, where a single tusk can fetch up to $200,000, has fueled the increase in poaching. August 12 marked the fourth annual World Elephant Day, a day to “bring attention to the urgent plight of Asian and African elephants,” according to a Web site about the annual event. There may be fewer than 400,000 African and fewer than 40,000 Asian elephants remaining in the wild, the Website says.

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Welcome to the Urban Forest Neighborhood

/ Organikos / 1 Comment
The OAS1S™ architecture is shaped as a 1 and answers to the deep human need to become 1 with nature.

The OAS1S™ architecture is shaped as a 1 and answers to the deep human need to become 1 with nature.

If one Dutch architect gets his way, we might soon be living in car-free urban forests where the buildings look like trees. Raimond De Hullu’s new home design, the OAS1S, runs completely off the grid, thanks to renewable energy and on-site water and waste treatment. It’s made with recycled wood and organic insulation, meeting “cradle to cradle” standards where no material goes to waste. But the designer wanted to also rethink what a green building—and neighborhood—should look like.

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Crepuscular Forest

/ Milo Inman / 4 Comments

Elusive, elemental, and extremely beautiful – this natural phenomenon is breathtaking and actually quite simple to explain. Commonly known as light beams, crepuscular rays are caused by an effect similar to Rayleigh scattering, and are rare to see in a natural environment save near the twilight peripheries – hence the name. Steam, smoke, and dust during the rest of the day makes these beams visible to us from all angles, but short of these mediums, angle and hour are the most significant factors for seeing them.

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