“California is completely drought-free for the first time in a quarter of a century, a significant development in a state that endured grueling years with insufficient rainfall,” reports The Guardian:
Over the last 25 years, drought conditions in California have intensified the state’s wildfire crisis and created challenges in its massive agricultural sector. But a few wet years, and a recent spate of winter storms, helped bring the state out of drought.
A map published by the US Drought Monitor on Thursday showed that no part of the state is experiencing drought or abnormal dryness. The development came after weeks of above-normal rainfall that helped fill reservoirs in the state, including lakes Shasta and Oroville, far beyond their historic averages. The December holiday season has been one of the wettest on record for parts of southern California.
Reforestation is offsetting the effects of global warming in much of America’s southeast.
The automobile restored New England’s forests, which had mostly disappeared by 1910, but now cover much of the region. Today, Vermont is 78% forested, but in 1910, it was mostly un-forested. Before 1910, vast amounts of land were used to grow hay to feed horses. But after 1910, those acres gradually stopped being used to grow hay as people shifted to using automobiles rather than horses. The land once used to grow hay reverted to forest.
Mountain gorillas are making a comeback in the African country of Rwanda.
Scientists are using artificial intelligence to save whales.
Scientists have developed genetically-modified bananas to keep the principal variety of banana from being wiped out by a dangerous blight. They also engineered bionic silkworms that spin fibers six times stronger than Kevlar.
