Tagged: Australia

Sundrop farms turns desert into tomato factory

photo: eSolar

If you are a traditional farmer, you’ll need water and energy to grow your produce. And you’ll need lots of it. The challenge is that they are finite resources that are becoming ever scarcer. Our solution? Not to use them!

Sundrop’s website bulges of this kind of statements. It is clear that the South Australia-based farm is pretty proud of their achievements over the last six years. In cooperation with an international team of scientists, they developed a commercial farm that runs on solar power and seawater. Yes, you read that right: they are producing tomatoes with just salt water from the nearby Spencer Gulf and the energy captured by a solar power plant.

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Photo of the week: Australia’s dry season has begun

Northern Australia hosts the perfect conditions for wildfires. The wet season makes grasses grow thick and abundant, the dry season turns them in one of the best fuels for a good fire. The dry season normally begins in May, but wildfires have already been reported in Western Australia and Northern Territory, the pillars of smoke captured on photo. The fires are indicated with red marks (click on the photo to enlarge). This could be the beginning of a long and intense wildfire season, since Australia is experiencing an ongoing increase in temperatures and droughts. The photo was taken by NASA’s Aqua satellite which is equipped with six instruments monitoring all kinds of Earth’s water, temperature and energy fluxes.

Pillars of smoke rise from wildfires in Northern Territory and Western Australia (photo: NASA)

Pillars of smoke rise from wildfires in Northern Territory and Western Australia (photo: NASA)

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NASA

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Photo of the week: the Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier reef, Australia

The Great Barrier Reef is still world’s largest coral reef system stretching for over 2.300 kilometres. over an area of approximately 344.400 square kilometres. Due to climate change and the impact of human behavior the Great Barrier Reef lost nearly half of its corals since 1985, according to a study of National Academy of Science.

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