National Geographic USA 03.2020

03.2020

THE

END

OF CAN WE SAVE THE PLANET BY
REUSING ALL THE STUFF WE MAKE?

TRASH

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NATIONAL FURTHER I MARCH 2020
( GEOGRAPHIC

I CONTENTS On the Cover

Mountains of wool and
cast-off clothes in this
Prato, Italy, facility are
sorted by color, cleaned,
processed, and used to
make new clothing.

LUCA LOCATELLI

IPROOF IEXPLORE IT R AV E L
17
•• THE BIG IDEA
30
.·of' Finding Our Way
to the Future GETTING THERE
.. ~-· A Cosmos author’s plea:
Let’s take what scien- Sacred Heights
""t. tists tell us to heart. Visiting the mountain
monasteries of
8 BY A N N D RU YA N Meteora, Greece, is
worth the steep climb.
When Art Sounds DECODER
a Climate Warning BY DANIEL STONE
In bubbles captured by Microbial Art
ice on Alaska lakes and Agar helps scientists
ponds, a photographer grow microbes in labs.
found inspiration—and It’s also a canvas for
sobering evidence— unconventional art.
of climate change.
BY JENNIFER TSANG
PHOTOGRAPHS BY
RYOTA KAJITA ALSO CLOSER LOOK

• A Giant Among Geodes Bike Between Parks
• What Vikings Consumed on Kokopelli’s Trail
• Mudskipper Parenting A backcountry path
runs 142 miles through
“big, wild country”
in the western U.S.

BY AARON GULLEY

ALSO

• Coral Recovery: How
Travelers Can Help

• Gardeners’ Guide

I FEATURES The End of Trash The Secrets of Bees Culture, or Abuse?
“To get along on this Observing a wild nest Questions surround
Earth,” National Geo- of honeybees reveals the treatment of
graphic’s senior envi- tricks to their survival. Japanese macaques.
ronment editor writes,
“we must do just one BY JASON BITTEL BY RENE EBERSOLE
thing: Stop wasting so
much of it.” That’s the PHOTOGRAPHS BY PHOTOGRAPHS BY
goal of advocates of
a circular economy— INGO ARNDT JASPER DOEST
one that would extract
value from most of the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 72 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 98
trash we now discard.
Chibok Schoolgirls Trailblazers
BY ROBERT KUNZIG These Nigerian kid- The accomplishments
napping survivors are of groundbreaking
PHOTOGRAPHS BY reclaiming their future. women light up
National Geo-
LUCA LOCATELLI BY NINA STROCHLIC graphic’s history.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 42 PHOTOGRAPHS BY BY NINA STROCHLIC

BÉNÉDICTE KURZEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 114

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 84

M A R C H | WHAT’S COMING

INAT Join the exploration of NAT GEO WILD
GEO Cosmos: Possible Worlds
TV Enjoy the Critter
Television’s most watched science show returns Fixers TV debut
March 9. Cosmos: Possible Worlds, created and Veterinarians Vernard
executive produced by Ann Druyan and hosted by Hodges and Terrence
astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, continues the Ferguson have been
legacy that Carl Sagan began more than 40 years ago. classmates, partners in
Episodes transport viewers across space and time an animal hospital—and
with one-of-a-kind animations (above), holograms, now they’re co-stars
and reenactments of world-altering discoveries. of a show about their
work. Critter Fixers:
Country Vets premieres
February 23 at 10/9c
on Nat Geo WILD.

NAT GEO LIVE

Experience an
era When Women
Ruled the World
A Nat Geo Live event
may be coming to a
venue near you. This
month, learn about
ancient queens with
Egyptologist Kara
Cooney, author of
When Women Ruled
the World. See sched-
ules at nationalgeo
graphic.com/events.

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IMAGINING FROM THE EDITOR | M A R C H
‘THE END
OF TRASH’ The Promise of a
Circular Economy

B Y SUSAN GOLDBERG P H OTO G R A P H B Y LUCA LOCATELLI

WE FEEL BAD when we throw out things is not entirely new. Environmental- At this Prato, Italy, facility,
that shouldn’t have become trash (like ists have espoused the reduce, reuse, bundles of discarded textiles
uneaten, past-its-prime produce) or recycle ethos since the 1970s. For will be processed and used
expend resources needlessly (like leav- generations, in Prato, Italy, old wool to create new clothing—
ing lights on when we’re away). This sweaters have been reduced to their an example of the circular
guilty feeling is deeply ingrained; the yarn and rewoven into new clothes. economy in action.
origins of the expression “waste not, And for decades, copper was extracted
want not” can be traced to the 1500s. from church bells and statues; today
it’s more likely to come from iPhones
But we do waste, in ways big and and flat-screens.
small. The result is this shocking fact:
Of the minerals, fossil fuels, foodstuffs, We sent Kunzig and photographer
and other raw materials that we take Luca Locatelli to document where the
from the Earth and turn into products, new circular economy is taking hold.
about two-thirds ends up as waste. And, They found a lot of examples. In New
more likely than not, that waste is part York, fungi filaments are used to create
of a larger environmental problem. compostable packaging. In London,
researchers are feeding beer waste to
“Plastic trash drifted into rivers and insects, which are made into animal
oceans; so did nitrates and phosphates feed. In hotel kitchens around the
leaching from fertilized fields. A third world, chefs are reducing food waste
of all food rotted, even as the Ama- with AI garbage cans that measure it.
zon was deforested to produce more,”
writes senior environment editor Rob- The idea that we might put an end to
ert Kunzig in “The End of Trash,” the trash may seem far-fetched—and it is,
cover story in this issue. And the biggest but in a good way, Kunzig told me. “It
waste-caused problem? Climate change reminds me of a line in Diner, a movie
is what happens when “we burn fossil I love: ‘If you don’t have good dreams,
fuels and scatter the waste—carbon you got nightmares.’ The circular econ-
dioxide—into the atmosphere.” omy is like that—it’s a dream we have
to try to make real.”
What if we could recapture waste
and turn it into something else? This Thank you for reading National
concept, called the circular economy, Geographic.

Since 2010, Ryota Kajita
has photographed
patterns that occur both
underneath and atop
the layers of ice over
Alaska’s rivers, lakes,
swamps, and ponds.

8 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

PROOF

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
VOL. 237 NO. 3

WHAT THE ICE
CAPTURES

LOOKING PHOTOGRAPHS BY
AT THE RYOTA KAJITA
EARTH
FROM The photographer sees intriguing
E V E RY designs—and concerning markers
POSSIBLE of climate change—frozen into the
ANGLE ice in Alaska’s interior.

MARCH 2020 9

PROOF

...

. .r•

,"" ..

';..

I•

-·',

''

Kajita described the science behind the images in his project, Ice Formations, for the digital gallery
Life-Framer.com: “Many of the formations are frozen bubbles of gases such as methane and carbon

10 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

..; .

•

' .. ;- -.. I ""'. •• -

-..

.' .

dioxide trapped under ice. When water freezes, it turns into ice slowly from the surface and traps the
gases,” creating unique geometric patterns. Frost and snow crystals on the ice add another dimension.

M A R C H 2 0 2 0 11

PROOF

The under-ice formations he has photographed range from 10 to 30 inches in diameter, Kajita says.
Though he likes how they look, he’s concerned about what they signify. “Because methane gas is

12 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

considered one of the fundamental causes of greenhouse effects,” he explains, “scientists in Alaska are
researching these frozen bubbles in relation to the global climate change.”

M A R C H 2 0 2 0 13

PROOF

THE BACKSTORY

A PHOTOGRAPHER SEES BUBBLES UNDER THE ICE THAT ARE
VISUALLY STRIKING—AND A MARKER OF CLIMATE CHANGE .

YEAR AFTER YEAR, as autumn in Alaska frozen surface, and snow and ice crys-
is ending, Ryota Kajita goes looking tals dusted across it. Many photos are
for winter’s first ice. A Japanese-born compositions of trapped, frozen bub-
photographer living in Fairbanks, bles of methane and carbon dioxide.
Kajita believes that “everything—even
if it appears to be insignificant— Though Kajita loves to photograph
connects to larger aspects of our Earth.” the formations, their existence worries
An example, he says, is the ice, after him. As Earth’s northern regions warm,
it has frozen over ponds and lakes but the melting of permafrost accelerates.
before it’s been obscured by snow. That releases more methane, a harmful
greenhouse gas.
Kajita has been shooting photos
through the ice since 2010 for his Kajita hopes people who see the
project, Ice Formations. He’s capti- photos will “feel connected to nature”—
vated by the geometric patterns he and that connection will help them
sees: fizzy fields of bubbles under the “face bigger issues, like global climate
change.” — PAT R I C I A E D M O N D S

“The window of time to find ice patterns is brief,” says Kajita, “because all surfaces on the ground will
be covered once snow falls.”

EXPLORE IN THIS SECTION

A Giant Geode
Microbial Art
Mudskipper Parenting
Arctic Racing

ILLUMINATING THE MYSTERIES—AND WONDERS—ALL AROUND US EVERY DAY

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC VOL. 237 NO. 3

Finding Our Way
to the Future

THE MOST AMBITIOUS SCIENTIFIC MISSION MAY BE TO INSPIRE
HUMANITY TO ACT, SAYS THE AUTHOR, A CO - CREATOR OF COSMOS.

I B Y A N N D RU YA N

I T WA S A R A I N Y N I G H T when the future became a
place, one you could visit. A downpour at sunset
couldn’t discourage the 200,000 people who had
gathered for the opening ceremony of the 1939 New
York World’s Fair. “World of Tomorrow” was the
theme of this art deco land of promise.

There were television sets, calculating machines,
and a robot. For the first time, people saw these things
that would change their lives. But on that night
they had come to hear the greatest scientific genius
since Isaac Newton. Albert Einstein was to give brief
remarks and flip the switch that would illuminate the
fair. The spectacle promised to be the largest flash of
artificial light in technical history, visible for a radius
of 40 miles. A wow—but not as mind-blowing as the
source of this sudden, unprecedented brilliance.
Scientists would capture cosmic rays and transmit
them to Queens, where they would supply the energy
that would turn night into day, flooding with blinding

M A R C H 2 0 2 0 17

E X P L O R E | THE BIG IDEA

18 FROM NASA’S HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, AN IMAGE OF NEW STAR CREATION IN THE ORION CONSTELLATION, SOME 1,350 LIGHT-YEARS FROM EARTH

PHOTO: NASA/ESA, G. BACON, L. FRATTARE, Z. LEVAY, F. SUMMERS (VIZ3D TEAM, STSCI)

light a new world made possible by science. Watch Cosmos: Possible Worlds
It fell to Einstein to explain cosmic rays. He was
Created and executive produced by Ann Druyan
instructed to keep it to five minutes. Initially he and hosted by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson,
refused. That wouldn’t possibly be enough time to the third season of the series Cosmos: Possible
explain this mysterious phenomenon. But he was a Worlds transports viewers across space and time
true believer in the scientist’s duty to communicate with animations, holograms, and reenactments
with the public. And so he agreed. of world-altering discoveries. The series pre-
mieres March 9 on National Geographic.
As the sun was setting, Einstein stepped to the
microphone. He had just turned 60 and had enjoyed live without—air, water, the sustaining fabric of life
decades of the rarest form of iconic celebrity, a on Earth, the future—more than we prize money and
renown based on his discoveries of new physical short-term convenience? Nothing less than a global
realities on the grandest possible scale. Those who spiritual awakening can transform us.
stood there in the rain to hear him were only a frac-
tion of those who listened to the event on radio. Science, like love, is a means to that transcendence,
to that soaring experience of the oneness of being fully
“If science, like art, is to perform its mission truly alive. Love asks us to get beyond our personal hopes
and fully,” he began, “its achievements must enter and fears, to embrace another’s reality. This is pre-
not only superficially but with their inner meaning cisely the way science loves nature. This lack of a final
into the consciousness of people.” destination, an absolute truth, is what makes science
such a worthy methodology for sacred searching. It
When I discovered Einstein’s rarely quoted words, is a never-ending lesson in humility. The vastness
I found the credo for 40 years of my life’s work. This of the universe—and love, the thing that makes the
always has been and always will be the dream of Cos- vastness bearable—is out of reach to the arrogant.
mos. Einstein was urging us to tear down the walls What’s real must matter more to us than what we
around science that have excluded and intimidated wish to believe. But how do we tell the difference?
so many of us—to translate scientific insights from
the technical jargon of its priesthood into the spo- I know a way to part the curtains of darkness that
ken language shared by us all, so that we may take prevent us from having a complete experience of
these insights to heart and be changed by a personal nature. Here it is, the basic rules of the road for sci-
encounter with the wonders they reveal. ence: Test ideas by experiment and observation.
Build on those ideas that pass the test. Reject the ones
We didn’t know that particular Einstein quote that fail. Follow the evidence wherever it leads. And
when Carl Sagan and I began writing the original question everything, including authority.
Cosmos with astronomer Steve Soter. We just felt a
kind of evangelical urgency to share the awesome If pilgrimages toward understanding our circum-
power of science, to convey the spiritual uplift of stances in the universe, the origin of life, and the
the universe it reveals, and to amplify the alarms laws of nature are not spiritual quests, then I don’t
that Carl, Steve, and other scientists were sounding know what could be. I’m not a scientist, just a hunter-
about our impact on the planet. Cosmos gave voice gatherer of stories. The ones I treasure most are
to those forebodings, but it was also suffused with about the searchers who have helped us find our
hope, with a sense of human self-esteem derived, way in the great dark ocean and the islands of light
in part, from our successes in finding our way in the they left to us.
universe and from the courage of those scientists
who dared to uncover and express forbidden truths. The misuse of science endangers our civiliza-
tion, but science also has redemptive powers. It
The original award-winning television series and can cleanse a planetary atmosphere overburdened
book of 1980 were embraced by hundreds of millions with carbon dioxide. It can set life free to neutralize
of people. The Library of Congress included the book the toxins that we have scattered so carelessly. Its
as one of 88 in an exhibition called “Books That unrivaled powers of prophecy are demonstrated by
Shaped America.” So it was with a fair degree of fear our current predicament.
that I set out with Steve, a dozen years after Carl’s
death, to undertake Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey. The words Einstein spoke on that rainy night
Now on my third series of voyages on the Ship of the might prove to be among his most important gifts
Imagination, I once again have brilliant collabora- to us. If we take what the scientists are telling us to
tors, and I am still worried about not measuring up. heart, a conscious and motivated public can will this
Despite this, the times impel me forward.
possible world into existence. j
We all feel the chill our present casts on our future.
Some part of us knows that we must awaken to action Writer-director-producer Ann Druyan was cre-
or doom our children to dangers and hardships we ative director of NASA’s Voyager message project
ourselves have never had to face. How do we rouse that sent sounds and images into space on golden
ourselves and keep from sleepwalking into a climate disks. This essay is drawn from her new book, Cos-
or nuclear catastrophe that may not be reversed mos: Possible Worlds. Druyan has won Emmy and
before it has destroyed us and countless other spe- Peabody Awards for her contributions to National
cies? How do we learn to value those things we cannot Geographic’s renowned television series Cosmos.

M A R C H 2 0 2 0 19

ADVERTORIAL FOR MILLIKEN

If we lose our
snowcapped
mountains,

how will we shred?

A QUARTER CENTURY AFTER INVENTING
RECYCLED FLEECE, POLARTEC CONTINUES
TO LEAD THE OUTDOOR INDUSTRY
WITH SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION AND
CUTTING-EDGE MATERIAL SCIENCE.

THREE DAYS AFTER THE MILL BURNED DOWN, But according to Polartec President Steve Layton,
Aaron Feuerstein, then 70 and white-haired, stood these days recycled content is table stakes.
before his workers. It was just before Christmas, 1995, The next level of sustainable manufacturing
and Malden Mills employees were braced for the is circularity—polyester products made from
worst. With the insurance settlement, Feuerstein recycled content that can themselves be recycled.
could presumably have closed the business and retired “That’s going to be the key moving forward,” says
quite comfortably. But he announced that he would Layton. “To be able to take a Polartec sweatshirt at
rebuild—and keep every worker on the payroll. It was the end of its life and put it in the recycling bin, the
reported that everyone wept, including the news crews. same as a plastic bottle—that’s the ultimate goal.”

Feuerstein had good reason to be confident, even Now that Milliken has acquired Polartec, that level of
standing in the ashes of his mill. In 1981, his team of innovation is even more promising. Layton, a longtime
engineers had developed a dense polyester fabric that Milliken leader tapped to head the Polartec business in
stayed warm when wet and dried quickly. It was the June, says the acquisition paves the way for scientific
first synthetic alternative to wool insulation. They advancement in recycled performance textiles.
called it PolarFleece®. Years later, Time magazine would
name fleece one of the 100 best inventions of the “I get excited when I think about how many material
20th century. scientists and engineers we have in research and
development within Milliken,” he says. “Our plastics
The brand that invented synthetic fleece is now called team has already made some important strides in
Polartec, and it has expanded the limits of outdoor [recycling] polypropylene. Hopefully we can apply
exploration. “What people have accomplished wouldn’t it to polyesters and go from there.”
have been possible if we’d stopped innovating at
wool,” says David Karstad, creative director and vice He reveals that dedicated teams of material scientists
president of marketing at Polartec, which has recently and engineers at Milliken are working on different
been acquired by Milliken & Company. areas of sustainability for the Polartec brand. They’re
developing fabric with recycled content, researching
Polartec didn’t stop innovating at fleece, either. biodegradable fabrics, and looking into combining
In the mid-90s, the company turned its attention synthetic fibers and hemp. “There’s a lot of great
to environmental sustainability, and pioneered the energy behind it,” says Layton.
process to knit recycled polyester yarn made from
plastic water bottles into performance fabrics. A quarter century after the invention of recycled
In 1993, the brand collaborated with Patagonia to fleece, Polartec is well-positioned to keep leading on
design and manufacture the first-ever recycled sustainable fabrics. “We can’t solve the intractable
polyester fleece. problems created over the last hundred years of
industrial apparel-making, but we can certainly
Since then, Polartec has diverted about 1.5 billion change how it impacts the planet going forward,”
plastic bottles from landfills and manufactured says Karstad. “If any industry can do it, it’s the
more than 200 styles with a minimum of 50 percent outdoor industry, because it’s dependent on having
recycled content. The goal is to reach 100 percent an outdoors to explore.” After a beat, he says: “If we
recycled content across all products. lose our snowcapped mountains, how will we shred?”

This content was created for Milliken. It does not necessarily reflect the views of National Geographic or its editorial staff.

ADVERTORIAL FOR MILLIKEN

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PHOTOS, TOP TO BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT

Professional backcountry skier Baker Boyd
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Quality control is a hands-on process at
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Recycled fabrics begin as spools of yarn
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An employee takes a break at Polartec’s
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Milliken, Polartec, and PolarFleece names and marks are trademarks of Milliken & Company.

E X P L O R E | BREAKTHROUGHS

D I S PATC H E S The grand master workout
FROM THE FRONT LINES
Though chess is hardly a strenuous
OF SCIENCE sport, its grand masters experience
A N D I N N OVAT I O N physical costs on a par with those faced
by more active athletes. Because of the
human body’s response to the stress of
elite play, chess professionals
can burn up to 6,000 calo-
ries a day in tournaments,
a Stanford University re-
searcher says. —A N N I E R O T H

Geologist Milagros Carretero sits inside the Pulpí Geode, one of the world’s largest geodes. E T H N O B OTA N Y

GEOLOGY Did this plant
help Vikings
A GIANT AMONG GEODES lose control?

SCIENTISTS ARE WORKING ON THE RECIPE FOR THIS The English word
SPANISH SITE’S ENORMOUS GYP SUM CRYSTALS. “berserk” is derived
from berserkers,
A N Y G E O D E M I G H T M A K E U S WO N D E R : What geologic forces violent Vikings said
form these hollows lined with crystals? But the Pulpí Geode, to consume some-
discovered in an abandoned Spanish mine, takes wonder to a thing that induced
different scale. One of the world’s largest geodes, it’s an approx- rage before battle.
imately 390-cubic-foot cavity whose walls bristle with imposing Historians have
gypsum crystals, some nearly seven feet long. Now scientists long assumed
are hoping to uncover how these colossal crystals developed. that fly agaric,
a hallucinogenic
They seem to have been made by a very specific recipe: a mushroom, was the
250-million-year-old supply of the mineral anhydrite, a climate berserkers’ drug
hospitable to crystal formation, and lots of water and time. In the of choice. But now
resulting chemical soup, larger crystals may have cannibalized ethnobotanist
smaller ones to boost their own size, while swings in the local tem- Karsten Fatur says
perature could have accelerated the crystal growth even further. Vikings likely took
henbane (below).
Though key chapters remain incomplete, this otherworldly The plant is
site now has a possible origin story. — RO B I N G E O RG E A N D R E W S more common in
Scandinavia than fly
PHOTOS: JORGE GUERRERO, AFP/VIA GETTY IMAGES (GEODE); BOGNÁR JÁNOS (HENBANE); ALAMY STOCK PHOTO agaric, he says, and
has compounds
with greater links
to aggression. —A.R.

TURKISH

CRAFTSMANSHIP

goturkey.com

0 TURKISH
AIRLINES

iSTANBUL

E X P L O R E | DECODER

w

ART AND CULTURES

Agar evolved from an unconventional canvas for show- STAPH COLORS
a kitchen ingredient casing microscopic organisms in all
to a lab medium for their visual brilliance. Kim found two of her
growing bacteria. pigments very close
Now it’s the canvas Some microbes create color natu- at hand: “The white
for artworks made rally. Different species of Streptomyces, bacteria, most likely
of microorganisms. which produces many of our antibiot- Staphylococcus epi-
ics, come in pigments ranging from dermidis, and the
BY JENNIFER TSANG reds and blues to black. E. coli is natu- yellow bacteria, most
rally a beige color, but introduced genes likely Staphylococcus
A N G E L I N A H E S S E , a Dutch-American can make it or other microbes fluoresce aureus, were sourced
lab assistant and cook, suggested in bright pinks, greens, and blues. Invis- from my skin,” she says.
in the 1880s that an ingredient in ible when first applied to the agar, the
jellies and puddings could be used microbes multiply over time to reveal an
to grow bacteria. By finding that pur- patterns and colors. undersea
pose for agar, Hesse revolutionized scene on
microbiology and set the stage for a Since 2015, the American Society agar
new art form. for Microbiology (ASM) has held the
annual Agar Art Contest to illuminate This artwork, “Marine
In the laboratory, agar—a gelatinous this intersection between science and Universe,” was a finalist
substance isolated from seaweed—is art. Every year, says ASM’s Katherine in the professional cat-
mixed with other nutrients and water, Lontok, contestants become “more and egory of the 2019 ASM
heated to sterilize, and poured into more intricate with it, incorporating contest. To compose
shallow dishes. When cooled, it thick- things like 3D agar and using spores it, Princeton University
ens into a smooth, semisolid surface and all different kinds of organisms.” student Janie Kim used
for bacteria to grow on—an upgrade microorganisms from
from the potatoes, meat extract, and Microbes surround us all the time, numerous places.
bread scientists were previously using. but most are unseen. Agar art reveals
that invisible world, limited only by
More than a century after Hesse’s the microbial palette and the creator’s
work, agar is still at the center of bac- imagination. The contest is “a great
terial cultivation. It has also become public outreach tool,” Lontok says, and
shows the often overlooked “beauty
and diversity of microbes.”

highlights
of agar art

The Agar Art Contest This scene of a koi and a lotus Supreme Court Justice Ruth This desert scene was made
proves that “scientists flower, which won first place Bader Ginsburg—aka RBG— of pathogens that cause uri-
absolutely can be cre- in the professional category, was painted on an agar known nary tract infections in “water-
ative,” says Katherine took nine different organisms as VRBG, the acronym for its stressed regions like the Middle
Lontok of the American to make. chemical components. East,” the artist says.
Society for Microbiol-
ogy, the sponsor of the
competition. Here, a
sample of 2019 entries;
see more at ngm.com/
mar2020.

22 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

GROWING GREEN

Yellow S. aureus bac-
teria and blue E. coli
bacteria can be mixed
to make green. Kim
appreciates how they

“exist together to
create art, much
like marine
symbioses
themselves.”

E. COLI COLOR

A gene-regulating
sequence controls how
blue these E. coli bac-
teria look. “Fittingly,”
Kim says, the sequence
comes “from a marine
bacterium associated
with algae.”

Spreading backyard soil on Luminous in green and red, The 3D volcano is a mound of agar inoculated
agar to see what would grow, Bacillus subtilis containing with the mold Cladosporium cladosporioides,
one artist wound up with the introduced fluorescent dripping with dyed-agar lava. The sand is
purple and yellow shades to protein genes was used to mold spores, and the corals are microorganisms
make this butterfly. make this tree. grown on a dyed-agar sea.

PHOTOS (TOP, THEN LEFT TO RIGHT): JANIE KIM; ARWA HADID; MICHAEL TAVEIRNE; MICHAEL V. MAGAOGAO; ALLISON WERNER; LETICIA LIMA ANGELINI; ISABEL FRANCO CASTILLO

E X P L O R E | BASIC INSTINCTS

FOR HIS S T U DY I N G E LU S I V E F I S H that dwell in dark mud chambers is no
OFFSPRING, easy feat. Thus the science of the many species of mudskippers
is incomplete—and some of what’s known is a bit odd. Example:
THIS DAD Mudskippers of one sort keep their protruding eyes moist by
GIVES THE AIR retracting them deep into their sockets and then popping them out
HE BREATHES again—hence the genus name Boleophthalmus, or “ejected eye.”

PHOTOGRAPH BY When it’s time for these amphibious fish to breed in the tropical
T H OM A S P. P E S C H A K intertidal zones where some of them live, the male stages flamboy-
ant courtship displays, flaring his fins and leaping high into the
air. If a female’s impressed, she follows the male to a burrow for
procreation away from prying eyes. But thanks to an endoscope,
excavation tools, and patient research, Atsushi Ishimatsu of Japan’s
Nagasaki University and his team have pieced together a vision of
how mudskippers reproduce.

The male builds a burrow to serve as a nest. One or more shafts
lead to a chamber that fills partly with water but has a domed ceil-
ing to hold an air pocket. The female deposits eggs on the ceiling,
and the male fertilizes them. Once she departs, he tends the eggs
for their few days of gestation. To maintain the oxygen the eggs
need, the male will swim to the surface, gulp air, bring it back, and
exhale, over and over. Watching video that Ishimatsu made with
the endoscope, his colleague Karen L. M. Martin deduced that a
male might take “roughly 100 mouthfuls” to create the air bubble.

Then somehow, Martin says, the expectant male “keeps track of
tide and time”—and at the right moment, he begins gulping the
air in the burrow and blowing it out. Water pours in, triggering the
larvae to hatch; they swim up from the burrow and away. The male,
Martin says, is “really a very good papa.” — PAT R I C I A E D M O N D S

A few dozen species of
mudskippers live in mangrove
and tidal-zone ecosystems
around the world, including
on Kuwait’s coast, where
it took veteran National
Geographic photographer
Thomas P. Peschak “many
hours of lying motionless in
the mud to photograph the
courtship rituals” of the fish.

3 QUESTIONS | E X P L O R E

Finding the Surprises

JEFF

GOLDBLUM in Familiar Things

we’d do familiar subjects in which we
might be able to find something unex-
pected: historic, scientific, and some-
thing of the human connection, our
own story, triggered by these things.

The World According to J E F F G O L D B L U M crackles with curi- Are you curious about why you’re
Jeff Goldblum premieres osity. Eyes wide, posture keen, mouth curious?
on Disney+ this spring. agape, hand gestures expectant. It’s a Having two kids, I am in a cycle of
For an extended version quality he’s leased to an array of wide- particularly appetized curiosity. My
of this interview, visit eyed, reactor-brained characters in kids look around and they say, What is
www.nationalgeographic. films such as Jurassic Park, Indepen- this, why is this? Maybe it’s something
co.uk/jeffgoldblum. dence Day, and The Fly. Now the Penn- you pass down. Or maybe our species
sylvania-born actor and musician—a has to be curious to be connected to
man of 67 who, by his own admis- the world. While making this show, I
sion, is “still four years old in many read these books by Yuval Noah Harari:
respects”—is unleashing his eccentric Sapiens, Homo Deus, and 21 Lessons for
brand of curiosity in a new show for the 21st Century. As Harari says, larger
National Geographic and Disney+. issues like climate change, the dangers
He explores a suite of subjects: Poli- of nuclear proliferation, and technolog-
tics, disease, and crime are out; bikes, ical disruption can be solved only with
pools, and tattoos are in. It’s The World global cooperation. It was always true
According to Jeff Goldblum. that the only reason the human species
proliferated and flourished was that
Your subjects—denim, gaming, ice we cooperated in groups and therefore
cream, barbecue—seem quite dispa- were curious about each other.
rate but universal. Why these?
They’re eclectic, a mélange, a potpourri, If you could time travel, who would
a shepherd’s pie, with many surprises. you want to meet?
I’d recently hosted three episodes of I just started reading The Inven-
a National Geographic show called tion of Nature about Alexander von
Explorer—and really loved them. That’s Humboldt. They say more things are
how this show came about. We thought named after him than anybody else.
He predicted climate change chal-
lenges, the unintended consequences
of civilization, the industrial revolu-
tion. I bet his would be a good brain
to pick. That’s kind of the show in a
nutshell: It’s me, not pretending to
know any more than I do, but getting
interested, talking to interesting peo-
ple who come from an unexpected
place, and having a curious and fun
encounter with them. And letting my
mind, such as it is, roam free. j

PHOTO AND INTERVIEW: SIMON INGRAM

E X P L O R E | THROUGH THE LENS

The Race Goes On

TRAVELING NORTH TO COVER A GRUELING STORY AND
SLED DOG RACE, A PHOTOGRAPHER FINDS PHOTOGRAPHS
CLARITY IN THE ARCTIC AIR AND KINSHIP
B Y KATI E
WITH THE DOGS THAT DIDN’T FINISH. ORLINSKY

26 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

S E V E R A L Y E A R S AG O, I was offered a last-minute Iditarod. When I thought of the Arctic—if I thought
assignment to photograph the Yukon Quest, a thou- about it at all—I pictured exotic endangered ani-
sand-mile sled dog race through the subarctic wil- mals and a distant, cold place out of reach to me
derness of Alaska and Canada. The race takes place as a photographer. It was a realm of rugged men
in the dead of winter along a route that was used with salt-and-pepper beards who owned bright
by sled dog teams during the gold rush to deliver orange camping gear and were raised by even more
mail and supplies. The Yukon Quest is considered rugged fathers who taught their sons life lessons
one of the toughest sporting events on the planet: while hunting and fishing. My father was a theater
Temperatures frequently reach minus 50°F, winds producer from New York City. I learned life lessons
can blow over 40 miles an hour, and the days are backstage, not in the backcountry.
so short that most of the race happens in the dark.
Even so, it’s surprising that the Arctic intimidated
I did not know any of this before the assign- me. I spent most of my 20s documenting conflict and
ment. I’d never heard of the Yukon Quest or its social issues in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin
more famous counterpart in the United States, the America, focusing especially on Mexico and the drug
war. I was committed to telling stories no matter the
risk. Then in 2011 I became part of a story—a tragedy—
in which the victims were my colleagues and I was a
survivor. In the aftermath I had a hard time finding
the inspiration I needed to love photography as I once
did. I kept working—I needed the money—but often
I was just going through the motions.

And so I took the assignment to photograph the
2014 Yukon Quest with no idea what to expect. A few
days later I was on a plane to Canada. We landed in
Whitehorse around midnight, the tarmac covered in
snow. When I touched my airplane window, I could
already feel the freezing cold air. I’d made it north;
my luggage had not. In it was everything I thought
I was going to need, including borrowed snow pants
that were too big for me, long underwear I hadn’t
worn since a high school ski trip, and a brand-new,
expensive puffy parka (I’d left the tag on so I could
return it once I got home). I was supposed to fly from
Whitehorse to Dawson City to photograph the race
first thing in the morning, and all I had was a gray
hoodie and a backpack full of camera equipment.

Inside the airport I explained my plight to the two
women behind the Air Canada desk. One of them
disappeared into the back office. She returned with
a navy blue Air Canada wool cardigan. The other
woman asked her husband to bring boots and a
jacket. She gave me her own gray down jacket, the
furry boots off her feet, and a pair of red fleece gloves.

It was still dark as I boarded the plane for Dawson
City later that morning. When the sun finally began
to rise, sweeping mountain ranges came into view.
They went on and on—jagged peaks of hot pink
and beige, mounds of gray and black, rolling hills of
endless white. I had never dreamed of a landscape
this magical and took pictures through the window
until a dense fog settled in.

As I got off the plane, the snow crunching beneath
my feet sparkled as if a million little children had
sprinkled it with all the glitter in the world. I spent
the ride to the hotel in silent awe as we drove by
lavender-tinted mountain ranges and frozen rivers
coated with a mosaic of blue and white ice. The entire
boreal forest was layered in what looked to me like
shimmering snow. I later learned that it’s called
hoarfrost—the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

M A R C H 2 0 2 0 27

E X P L O R E | THROUGH THE LENS

A day or two into her first trip north, Katie Orlinsky meets some Immediately I asked the driver if he could wait, and
of the contenders in the 2014 Yukon Quest sled dog race during I rushed to photograph the scene. The vets told me
their 36-hour mandatory stop in Dawson City, Canada. that these dogs had been dropped from their team.
The bags would keep them safe and calm while
It felt like another planet, a fairy tale. Some days I flying home.
wish I could go back in time just to experience my
first few hours in Dawson City again. Sled dogs, considered by some to be the world’s
greatest endurance athletes, are bred to thrive in the
Meanwhile the cold was as brutal as the land was cold, snowy wilderness. Most mushers have trained
beautiful. When I stepped outside, the air was so their dogs since they were puppies. Even so, during
dry I could barely breathe. But at that moment bor- such a long race, dropping dogs is a common occur-
rowed clothes and the kindness of strangers were all rence. Sometimes a dog is tired or it’s injured or it
I needed for warmth. A feeling came over me that I seems to have simply lost interest in running. (One
hadn’t experienced in a long time: As long as I had year a dog got sick from eating the neon booties that
my camera, everything would be OK. I wanted to protected its feet.)
take pictures again.
When a dog team hits its stride, it is a beautiful
I have been covering the Arctic, among other sight to behold—paws tapping the snow like a soft
places, ever since. The following year I returned chorus, legs swinging in quiet rhythm, hot breath
to the north to follow the Yukon Quest yet again, leaving trails of billowing smoke that cluster like
this time on assignment for National Geographic. clouds in the cold air. It makes it easy to forget that
I remember it was more than halfway through the every dog is different. Seeing the dropped dogs
race when I flew to a checkpoint in Eagle, Alaska. A separated individually—into sacks, no less—was a
pickup truck was waiting to take me and my fellow stark reminder of this.
passengers, mostly from Alaska media or race vol-
unteers, to our temporary sleeping quarters—the I spent the next few days focusing far more on
floor of the local school library. the dogs that were leaving the race than those that
might win it. The local media and race officials prob-
Before we drove away, I noticed a pair of race vet- ably thought I was nuts. I thought my fascination
erinarians, identifiable by the medical patch on their with dogs in sacks flying in airplanes was pretty
giant red parkas, loading what looked like heavy self-explanatory. Looking back, perhaps I also felt
potato sacks onto a small plane. Then I saw furry connected to the dropped dogs. I could relate to
heads with pointy ears sticking out of the sacks. the idea of having a goal you’d worked toward your
whole life, only to have something happen that
changes your course.

Bad weather hit Eagle, and for days there were no
commercial flights. I was close to missing the finish
in Fairbanks on my first big National Geographic
assignment. Fortunately I was able to join a late-
night charter flight—in a tiny plane loaded with
dropped dogs.

We took off, and I remember smiling as I looked
out the window at the night sky opening up over a
pitch-black Alaska wilderness. Buckled up in that
plane, wearing the fancy parka I never ended up
returning, surrounded by 16 dogs in sacks, I too felt
safe and calm. j

Photographer Katie Orlinsky, based in New York City, has
covered the Arctic for more than five years. Her latest feature,
“The Carbon Threat,” focused on permafrost thaw.

Start Streaming March 2020

TR AV E L IN THIS SECTION

Best Gardens to Visit Now
Coral Replanting
Kokopelli: Epic Biking Trail

WHERE TO GO, WHAT TO KNOW, AND HOW TO SEE THE WORLD

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC VOL. 237 NO. 3

BY THE NUMBERS

60

ESTIMATED AGE OF
ROCK FORMATIONS IN

MILLIONS OF YEARS

200

STEPS REQUIRED TO
REACH ROUSSANOU

MONASTERY

4

HOURS FROM
ATHENS BY CAR

ASIA

GREECE

AFRICA

B Y DANIE L STO NE P H OTO G R A P H B Y V E SEL I N ATANA SOV

30 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C NGM MAPS

‘ROUSSANOU ... IS ROUGHLY GIRDED
BY THE TALLER SPIRES OF THE

METEORA, ON A SHARP LEANING
BLADE OF ROCK. IT IS AS COMPACT

AS A SWALLOW ’S NEST.’

—Patrick Leigh Fermor, Roumeli: Travels in Northern Greece

GETTING THERE

SACRED HEIGHTS
T H E M O N A S T E R I E S of Meteora, Greece, are marvels of engineering.
Perched atop sandstone cliffs, with monastic cells hidden in crevices
throughout, these Greek Orthodox sanctuaries reflect the contemplative
solitude sought by the monks who built them between the 14th and 17th
centuries. The most intimate, Roussanou Monastery (left), is now home
to 16 nuns and holds relics of Saint Barbara, popular in medieval times.

HOW TO GET THERE WHAT YOU’LL SEE EXPLORE NEARBY

For centuries the only way Inside: Sixteenth-century Around Roussanou are
to reach Roussanou and Byzantine frescoes fill 16 ancient hermetic caves
the other Meteora mon- Roussanou’s chapel, from (pack your climbing boots)
asteries in central Greece the walls to the domed and five other functioning
was by climbing retract- ceiling, with illustrations clifftop monasteries (of
able ladders or being of planets, peacocks, and the original 24). The Great
lifted up in a net basket. seraphim. Ostrich eggs Meteoron Monastery
Restricted access kept the are displayed as symbols houses the skulls of monks
faithful in and the faithless of kingship, resurrection, who lived there, along with
out. Today new tunnels and safekeeping. vibrant paintings and the
and steep roads and stair- church’s 14th-century bread
cases open the churches Outside: Look down when oven. Most of the churches
to anyone willing to make crossing the small bridge were damaged by waves
a cliffside journey. Guided into Roussanou to see of pillaging and war in the
tours are recommended the monastery’s private 20th century, but they
to better understand the garden, says Greek travel have since been restored.
sites’ rich histories. expert George Kourelis.
Look up to see eagles,
falcons, and rare vultures.

M A R C H 2 0 2 0 31

TRAVEL C HE CK LI ST

MA~ CH Here are five ways
tocelebrateflowers
and gardensaround
the world this spring.

BY M AR YEL LEN
KENNED Y DU C KETT

1 DIG INTO
DETAILED
LIGHT SCULPTURES DEPICTIONS
OF PLANTS AT
How Does Your THE NATIO NAL
Garden Glow? GALLERY OF
IRELAND I N
Find out at South DUBLIN. THE
Carolina’s Brook- EXHIBITION
green Gardens 'DRAWN FROM
April 8 through NATURE: IRISH
September 12, BOTANICAL
when artist Bruce ART' RUNS
Munro’s installa- MARCH 7
tions illuminate TO JUNE 21.
seven areas, includ-
ing the arboretum. 3 AIRPORT T H E J E W E L C O M P L E X at Singapore’s Changi Airport
Munro also created
California’s recent
“Field of Light at
Sensorio,” above.

takes “green travel” literally. Inside the terrarium-like

dome, find more than 2,000 trees and 100,000 shrubs,

plus the world’s tallest indoor waterfall.

BLOSSOM WATCH 5 -

Lone Star State Flower In Nature’s Best Hope,
author Douglas W.
Waves of wild bluebonnets turn Tallamy gives home-
the Texas Hill Country into a sea owners tips on how to
of cerulean and nourish several
species of butterflies, typically from NEW establish conservation
late March until mid to late April.
BOOK corridors in their

own backyards.

PHOTOS (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT): GEORGE LIN; COBRA LILY, DARLINGTONIA CALIFORNICA (DETAIL), 1886, BY LYDIA SHACKLETON,
COURTESY NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDENS, DUBLIN; EM CAMPOS; MARK THIESSEN, NGM STAFF; LEENA ROBINSON, ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

DISCOVERY | T R A V E L

REEF REVIVAL

BY THERESA MACHEMER

B E AU T I F U L A N D F RAG I L E , coral reefs in For example, in some areas where
tropical oceans worldwide are threat- reefs border lagoons, such as French
ened by climate change, storms, and Polynesia (below), the coral fragments
bleaching. Now travelers can help are placed in underwater nurseries to
restore them by supporting coral recuperate before replanting.
replanting programs.
Resorts and conservation groups are
National Geographic Explorer Paola starting to educate and involve visi-
Rodríguez-Troncoso has worked on tors in these efforts. To avoid programs
a Mexican program that sustainably that may do more harm than good,
replanted more than 6,000 coral frag- Rodríguez-Troncoso cautions against
ments over six years. In this project, any that purposely break off fragments
divers collect fragments from the from healthy corals or fail to get the
ocean floor that have been knocked required permits. Though replanted
off reefs by storms or waves. Then they fragments grow slowly, each one can be
tether healthy pieces to the substrata part of a reef’s centuries-long life span.
of reefs at the same or nearby sites. It’s “That small seed,” Rodríguez-Troncoso
a process that can vary by location. says, “that will really help.”

In Moorea, French
Polynesia, the nonprofit
group Coral Gardeners
tends broken pieces of
coral on a nursery table
for one month before
reattaching them to
reefs. Travelers there can
adopt a coral piece and
help the group plant it.

PHOTO: CRISTINA MITTERMEIER, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC IMAGE COLLECTION

T R A V E L | CLOSER LOOK

On the 142-mile Kokopelli’s Trail, a group of bikepackers race against dusk on Porcupine Rim, a fast and scenic descent into Moab, Utah.

‘BIKEPACKING’ THE WEST

STRETCHING ALONG PUBLIC LANDS ON THE COLORADO PLATEAU,
KOKOPELLI’S TRAIL PIONEERED A NEW SPORT.

BY AARON GULLEY

THOUSANDS OF VISITORS speed daily along Interstate Trail Association, the group that has stewarded the
70 between the soaring cliffs of Colorado National Kokopelli since its 1989 completion. “When the guys
Monument and the fantastical sandstone of Utah’s first talked about biking out there, it seemed crazy.
Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. Compared But it’s land that’s hard to resist.”
with those marquee destinations, the borderland
between them—an open range of cinnamon-colored It’s also land that’s highly valuable. Every mile of
sand and scraggly juniper—seems barren and the trail is on public property, a patchwork of Bureau
anonymous. But out of sight, a backcountry mountain of Land Management–administered rangelands,
bike path, Kokopelli’s Trail, takes in 142 miles of slot national forests, and the McInnis Canyons National
canyons, bluffs, and desert mesas as formidable and Conservation Area. Linking so much public land is
astonishing as anything in the parks. no small feat in Utah, a state with a vocal political
movement for land transfers and privatization. In
“It’s big, wild country,” says Chris Muhr, vice recent years the state’s land conflicts bubbled onto
president of the Colorado Plateau Mountain Bike the national stage with the fight over Bears Ears and

PHOTO: LOGAN WATTS

AN ALLIANCE
TO CHANGE THE

WORLD

42 MEMBER COMPANIES AND GROWING
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4 AREAS OF FOCUS: INNOVATION, INFRASTRUCTURE,
EDUCATION AND CLEAN-UP

1 MISSION: HELP END PLASTIC WASTE
IN OUR ENVIRONMENT

LEAR N M OR E AT E N DP LAS T I CWAS T E.COM

T R A V E L | CLOSER LOOK

Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monuments, sandstone. Once we’d turned south, we rode through
both southwest of the Kokopelli. Those disputes, great basins where towers of rock balanced like out-
which pit preservation against development and size skeleton keys sunk in the sand. Over our entire
extraction, are a microcosm of a larger struggle. three-day trip, we’d see only three 4x4s and a half
According to a 2019 study in the journal Science, dozen cyclists. Considering the throngs that visit the
protected lands are increasingly in jeopardy world- nearby parks and monuments (in 2018, more than a
wide, with 90 percent of reductions to public lands third of a million people entered Colorado National
in the United States made since 2000. Monument while 2.4 million went to Arches and
Canyonlands combined), the trail’s solitude makes
“Vast expanses of undeveloped tracts of public its vistas feel all the more exclusive.
lands like the Kokopelli are less and less common
in the West,” says Kurt Refsnider, executive director The Kokopelli has always been about big ideas.
of the cycling advocacy group Bikepacking Roots. When the concept of the trail was hatched in the
(Refsnider also holds the fastest known time for late ’80s, mountain biking was little more than a few
biking the Kokopelli: 11 hours and 52 minutes.) “The eccentric cyclists modifying street bikes for off-road
first step in preserving such lands is getting people use. “It was taking off in Crested Butte and in Moab,
out using them and engaged.” and I just thought that if we could figure out a trail
to link those two places through Grand Junction,
So when you get to ride across more than a hun- maybe we’d have something positive instead of just
dred miles of unblemished land these days, it’s not oil shale,” says Timms Fowler, whom Muhr describes
only a rare experience; it’s also a ballot cast for land as the visionary for the trail.
conservation. I got to do just that when I pedaled the
Kokopelli in early November with my brother-in-law, Though the project never grew beyond the initial
Trevor Webb. Loma-to-Moab segment, it laid the groundwork for
subsequent trails and systems that have turned the
We rolled out of the Colorado border town of region into a riding hotbed, one of the first places to
Fruita on a bracing Friday morning, alone on the capitalize on the sport. Today the Kokopelli seems
rock benches above the Colorado River. Strictly tailor-made for one of the industry’s growing trends:
speaking, the Kokopelli isn’t just one trail but a bikepacking, in which cyclists ride with all their gear
stitched-together tapestry of single-track, back- on multiday adventures. “I don’t think they’d have
country roads and even a bit of pavement that very anything to bikepack these days if we hadn’t started
roughly follows the river between Loma, Colorado, putting in trails like the Kokopelli,” says Muhr. “It
and Moab, Utah. After crossing Salt Creek a couple
of hours into our ride, we cruised through a sea of was the first of its kind.” j
grasslands turned flaxen with the gathering autumn
and passed outcrops that were like battleships of Aaron Gulley is a Santa Fe, New Mexico–based journalist who
has written for two decades on cycling, travel, sports, and fitness.

191 KOKOPELLI’S
70 UTAH TRAIL

COLORADO

ARCHES Cisco E. Salt Cr.
NATIONAL PARK Loma
Colorado
Moab DOME McINNIS CANYONS
PLATEAU KOKOPELLI’S NATIONAL CONSERVATION
TRAIL
128 AREA

191 Porcupine Rim Fisher Mesa CUOTLAOHR A D O Fruita
Piñon Mesa
Trail COLORADO 70
high point 10 mi NAT. MON.
8,612 ft 10 km
LA SAL 2,625 m Grand
MOUNTAINS Junction

Mt. Peale

12,720 ft
3,877 m

N

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NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MARCH 2020

F EAT U R E S The End of Trash ........ P. 42
The Secrets of Bees .... P. 72
Kidnapped Students .. P. 84
Japanese Macaques .. P. 98
Trailblazing Women.. P. 114

~~~ krc\_ j s m~ ......

~'---~------------ 84

‘THEY ARE
NOT REGULAR
STUDENTS.
BOKO HARAM
PLEDGED TO
KILL THEM
IF THEY
RETURNED
TO SCHOOL.
GUARDS
WATCH THEIR
B U I L D I N G .’

PHOTO: BÉNÉDICTE KURZEN

42

A world without waste
sounds impossible.
But the vision of
a circular economy—
where we use resources
sparingly and recycle
materials endlessly—is
inspiring businesses and
environmentalists alike.
Can we make it happen?
Can we afford not to?

BY ROBERT KUNZIG
P H OTO G R A P H S BY LUCA LOCATELLI

THE
END
OF
TRASH

ENERGY

The trash silo at a new
incinerator in Copen-
hagen holds more than
24,000 tons. Automatic
cranes mix the waste
to help it burn cleaner.
Equipment to filter the
smoke takes up much
of the plant’s interior. A
clean-burning, energy-
generating incinerator
is a better end for trash
than a dump—but the
circular economy aims
to end trash by not
producing it at all.

PREVIOUS PHOTO

Dubbed Copenhill,
the incinerator in
Denmark’s capital uses
the latest technology
to convert 534,600
tons of waste a year
into energy to electrify
30,000 homes and heat
72,000. The plant dou-
bles as a recreational
destination, with
an all-season ski slope,
a tree-lined hiking
and running trail, and
a 280-foot climbing
wall, the world’s tallest.

AN X-RAY OF THE
GLOBAL ECONOMY

Global resources, 2015 Take
in billions of tons

From the Earth Minerals
The vast majority of 41.8 MINING
inputs to the econ-
IN AMSTERDAM Imetaman omy, 93 billion tons
who revealed to me the hid- in 2015, are resources
den currents of our lives—the extracted from the
massive flows of raw materi- Earth: both finite
als and products deployed, (minerals, ores, and
to such wonderful and dam- fossil fuels) and
aging effect, by 7.7 billion renewable ones
humans. Our shared metab- (biomass).
olism, you might say. It was a
crisp fall morning, and I was Extracted Ores MINING
sitting in a magnificent old resources 10.6
brick pile on the Oosterpark,
a palace of curved corridors 93
and grand staircases and
useless turrets. A century Total
ago, when the Dutch were resources
still extracting coffee, oil, and entering
rubber from their colony in the global
Indonesia, this building had economy
been erected as a colonial
research institute. Now it houses assorted 102.3
do-gooder organizations. The one Marc de
Wit works for is called Circle Economy, and Fossil EXTRACTION
it’s part of a buzzing international movement fuels
that aims to reform how we’ve done just about 18.3
everything for the past two centuries—since
the rise of the steam engine, “if you need to FORESTRY
pinpoint a time,” de Wit said. FARMING
De Wit is 39, genial, bespectacled, a lit-
tle disheveled, a chemist by training. He Biomass
opened a pamphlet and spread out a diagram 31.6
he called “an x-ray of our global economy.”
Unlike natural ecosystems, which operate Reused
in cycles—plants grow in soil, animals eat resources

48 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C 9.3

Every year we transform more than 100 billion tons of raw material into products.
Less than a quarter becomes buildings, cars, or other long-lasting things. Less
than 10 percent cycles back into the economy. The circular economy movement
aims to increase that number and reduce the enormous amount of waste.

Process Produce Provide Societal needs End of use

STONE CONSTRUCTION Housing To the dump
44.8 Two-thirds of the
SAND material flowing
AND through the economy,
C L AY 67.4 billion tons in
2015, gets emitted as
pollution—the carbon
from fossil fuels, for
example—or other-
wise scattered or
disposed of as waste.

MINERAL PROCESSING

METAL PRODUCTS

METAL ORE METAL PROCESSING MACHINES Communication
VEHICLES 2.8
PETROLEUM
N AT U R A L Mobility Dispersed into
GAS 11.9 the environment
as unrecoverable
COAL waste
AND 67.4
P E AT
T R A N S P O RTAT I O N
WOOD
ANIMALS FUEL PROCESSING
CROPS
AND FIBER R E TA I L Health care
AND TRADE 4

ELECTRICITY AND HEAT

Services Long- Accumulated
6.1 lasting global stock
material of long-lasting
Consumables such as material
10.7 buildings 981
and infra-
WOOD AND PAPER structure
23.7
WOOD PRODUCTS

Landfill 1.7
Incineration 0.3

FOOD PROCESSING Nutrition Reused
22.2 resources
9.3

Composting 0.1
Recycling 1.5
Land application 1.8
Biogasification 1.9
Water treatment 4

NGM STAFF. SOURCE: CIRCLE ECONOMY

plants, dung replenishes soil—the industrial 18th century. Until then, most of what humans
economy is largely linear. On the diagram, fat, did was done with muscle power, whether
colored currents of the four types of raw mate- human or animal. Growing things, making
rial—minerals, ores, fossil fuels, and biomass— things, shipping things took hard labor, which
surged from left to right, splitting and braiding made them valuable. Our limited physical energy
as they became products that met seven human also restricted how big a dent we could put in
needs. Sand went into concrete apartment towers the planet. It kept most of us very poor, however.
on six continents. Metal ore became ships, cars,
and also combine harvesters—in a single year Cheap fossil energy, concentrated by geologic
we harvested 22.2 billion tons of biomass, just to time and pressure in seams of coal or pools of
feed us all. Fossil fuels powered those vehicles, oil, changed all that. It made it easier to extract
kept us warm, became plastic, became all kinds raw materials anywhere, ship them to factories,
of things. The total flow into the economy in 2015 and send the merchandise everywhere. Fossil
was 102.3 billion tons. fuels exploded our possibilities—and the pro-
cess keeps intensifying. In the past half century,
All good so far; amazing even, if you’re the while the world’s population has more than dou-
type to be amazed by human effort and inge- bled, the amount of material flowing through the
nuity. It’s what happens next, after our needs economy has more than tripled.
are met, that’s the problem—the mother of all
environmental problems, in fact. De Wit pointed “Now we’re reaching the limits,” de Wit said.
to the gray fog on the right edge of the diagram. For that same half century, environmental-
The gray fog is waste. ists have been warning of limits to growth. The
new “circular economy” movement is different.
In 2015, he explained, about two-thirds of the It’s a collection of strategies—some old, such as
material we scratched from the planet slipped reducing, reusing, and recycling, and some new,
through our fingers. More than 67 billion tons such as renting rather than owning things—that
of hard-won stuff was lost, most of it scattered together are meant to reshape the global econ-
irretrievably. Plastic trash drifted into rivers and omy to eliminate waste. The circular economy
oceans; so did nitrates and phosphates leaching doesn’t aim to end growth; it aims to bend how
from fertilized fields. A third of all food rotted, we do things back into harmony with nature, so
even as the Amazon was deforested to produce that growth can continue. “Prosperity in a world
more. Think of an environmental problem, of finite resources,” as European environment
and chances are it’s connected to waste. That commissioner Janez Potočnik once put it, in
includes climate change: It happens because we the foreword to an Ellen MacArthur Foundation
burn fossil fuels and scatter the waste—carbon report. It said the circular economy could save
dioxide—into the atmosphere. European businesses up to $630 billion a year.
The idea is catching on, particularly in Europe,
This may sound ridiculous, but as de Wit that small, crowded, rich but resource-poor con-
walked me through the numbers that morning, tinent. The European Union is investing billions
it felt like an epiphany. There was a unifying, in the strategy. The Netherlands has pledged to
exhilarating clarity to that wonky diagram, to the go fully circular by 2050. Amsterdam, Paris, and
way it defined the task. Sure, it said, the threats London all have plans. “It must happen,” said
we face are multifarious and overwhelming. Wayne Hubbard, head of the London Waste and
Sure, they’re planetary in scale. But really, to get Recycling Board, when I asked whether the cir-
along on this Earth, we must do just one thing: cular economy could happen.
Stop wasting so much of it. De Wit pointed to a One man who definitely thinks it could hap-
thin arrow that circled back, from right to left, pen, and whose work has proved revelatory to
along the bottom of the diagram, represent- many others, is American architect William
ing all the material we’d managed to capture McDonough. With German chemist Michael
through recycling, composting, and so on. It was Braungart, he wrote the visionary 2002 book
only 9.3 billion tons: just 9 percent of the total. Cradle to Cradle, which argues that products and
economic processes could be designed such that
The “circularity gap,” as de Wit and his col- all waste becomes fodder for something else.
leagues dubbed it when they presented their Before setting off for Europe, I made a pilgrim-
report at the World Economic Forum in Davos age to McDonough’s office in Charlottesville,
in 2018, is relatively new in human history. It
dates to our industrial use of fossil fuels in the

50 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

Virginia. Our conversation ricocheted from his souvenir of the many bronze Lenins melted here,
childhood in Tokyo, through Plato, Aristotle, and from towns around communist East Germany,
Buckminster Fuller, to some new compostable after East and West were reunited in 1990. Auru-
blue jeans he was excited about, before I finally bis, Europe’s largest copper producer, is also the
managed to ask him the nagging question: Is all world’s largest copper recycler. When the Lünen
this talk of an end to waste just pie in the sky? plant was built in 1916, at the height of World
War I, copper for artillery shells was in short sup-
“It’s absolutely pie in the sky, no question ply, and Germans were pulling bronze bells out
about it,” McDonough said. “You need pies in of church towers. “Since that day, this plant has
the sky to help us go forward. Because remember exclusively done recycling,” said Detlev Laser,
what Leibniz said.” the deputy plant manager.

I didn’t remember much about that German Copper, unlike plastic, say, can be recycled
philosopher. indefinitely without loss of quality—it’s a perfect
circular material. The Lünen plant still processes
“Leibniz said, ‘If it is possible, therefore it bulk copper, mostly pipes and cables, but it has
exists.’ And I’m saying, ‘If we can make it exist, had to adapt to waste with much lower concen-
it’s therefore possible.’ ” trations. As Europe has replaced landfills with
municipal incinerators, a lot of slag is showing
Was that tautological? Was it wise? Did Leibniz up containing bits of metal—“because someone
really say that? It was intriguing, in any case. Not threw their cell phone in the trash” instead of the
long after that, I took my busted old roller bag to recycling bin, Laser said.
be repaired (very circular, compared with buy-
ing a new one), packed the certified cradle-to- With Hendrik Roth, the plant’s environmental
cradle jeans that McDonough had given me, and manager, I watched an excavator drop bucket-
headed out to see what evidence of possible exis- loads of electronic debris, including laptops,
tence I could find for the circular economy. onto a sloping conveyor that carried it toward a
shredder—the first of more than a dozen steps in
Metals the bewildering and deafening sorting process.
At one station, a conveyor raced by, carrying
T H E F I R ST S M A L L B R E A KS in our natural circular- hand-size shards of circuit boards. Some fell into
ity actually predate the 18th-century industrial an abyss; others leaped as if by their own voli-
revolution. The Romans, besides tossing bro- tion onto a belt above. A camera system, Roth
ken amphorae around in an uninhibited way, explained, was deciding whether each shard
pioneered a fraught invention: sewers. That is, contained metal—and if not, activating an air
they channeled human waste into rivers, instead jet under it at just the right instant.
of returning it to fields where, as any circular-
ity maven will tell you, those nutrients belong. Aurubis sells the aluminum and plastic it
As a young boy in Tokyo in the 1950s (his par- recovers to those industries; copper and other
ents were in the occupying American Army), nonferrous metals go into its own ovens. In the
McDonough recalls waking at night to the sound tidy yard, the dust is swept daily and fed to the
of farmers collecting the family’s night soil. His smelter. “We have no waste here,” Laser said.
mother would soothe him with lullabies about
poop, sometimes in Japanese with an Alabama Worldwide, only about a fifth of all electronic
accent. It made a permanent impression. waste is recycled, according to a 2017 UN report.
Aurubis even takes shipments from the United
The Romans, like the Phoenicians before States. “But I do wonder sometimes why such
them, also mined copper from the rich deposits a highly industrialized country would give up
at Río Tinto in Spain. But they recycled too: They such resources,” Roth said. “They’re sitting on
melted down bronze statues from conquered billions.” That’s starting to change. Apple, for
peoples to make weapons. Copper has always example, encourages customers to trade in old
been a prime target for recyclers. Compared with iPhones; an intelligent robot in Texas dismantles
sewage, it’s scarce and valuable. them and extracts materials for new devices.

In the yard at the Aurubis copper smelter in But copper exemplifies a general challenge:
Lünen, in the Ruhr region of western Germany, There’s a limit to what even aggressive recycling
a large bust of Lenin stands in a flower bed—a can accomplish. At Aurubis, recycled copper
accounts for only a third of production; the rest

T H E E N D O F T R A S H 51

MACHINES

Reusing machinery
is a time-honored
strategy for reducing
waste. Nearly 3,300
decommissioned U.S.
government planes and
helicopters are stored
at Davis-Monthan Air
Force Base (right) in
Tucson, Arizona, where
dry air limits corrosion.
The aircraft are scav-
enged for parts (next
photo) or restored and
returned to service.
To preserve them,
they are sprayed with
a removable protective
coating. The facility,
often called the Bone-
yard, is the largest
of its kind.



t I

------ .