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‘In a warming world, the fight for water can push nations apart—or bring them together‘ (Zoë Schlanger, Naveena Sadasivam, Daniel Wolfe & David Yanofsky for Quartz)
This is a fascinating multimedia feature on a pressing issue: The climate is getting warmer, and shifts in our world are making water scarcer than ever before, even as the pressures on water supplies mount. How do we balance the needs of communities who may share a hostile border?
A defining characteristic of all three states is water scarcity. The region had just gone through the worst drought in 900 years, ending in 2012, and climate scientists believe the Middle East will become 40% drier by the end of the century. Israel, Jordan, and Palestine are geographically and hydrologically bound together, but the thwarted Red-Dead deal is a symptom of a broader illness: the three almost never all meet to talk.
‘Fighting the vanilla thieves of Madagascar‘ (Nancy Kacungira for BBC News)
This piece will give you a new appreciation for a spice many people think of as prosaic and boring. As the price of vanilla skyrockets, a complex economy has arisen around communities that grow and process it, and there’s a lot of money at stake.
The pollen on a vanilla orchid flower is inaccessible to most insects, including typical honey bees. The small Melipona bee, which lives in only Mexico, was the only one able to reach the vanilla pollen and fertilise the flowers. Still, relying on the bees for pollination is a hit-and-miss affair as the pale white orchids bloom for just one day each year and the flower is fertile for only eight to 12 hours after it blooms.
‘I Shouldn’t Have To Lose Weight For My Wedding. So Why Do I Feel Like A Failure?‘ (Scaachi Koul for Buzzfeed)
This intensely intimate essay is a fantastic read. In a world surrounded with ‘body positivity’ messaging and calls to love our bodies, weight loss is still highly prized. For one group of women, it’s an especially fraught topic, because many people believe it’s important to lose weight for their weddings.
But for me, all of this has become foundationally heartbreaking. I’ve had more than a year to lose the weight I decided I should. But I haven’t. And my inability to lose it, or maybe my refusal to try — because I know it’s rooted in self-loathing, because I’m fed up with having to care — makes me feel like even more of a failure.
‘Welcome to Traveling While Black‘ (Morgan Jenkins editing for Medium)
This is a fantastic collection of stories curated and edited by Morgan Jenkins — take the time to read them all!
I’ve been traveling since I was a baby, and I’ve gotten used to the ways in which my body is surveilled both in and out of the airport. I’ve had a near run-in with neo-Nazis in Russia, landed in a taxi situation where I thought I could’ve been assaulted in the Bahamas, and had employees refuse to acknowledge me in domestic places like Florida. The constant awareness of what kind of treatment I’ll get for being born Black and assigned female is often more exhausting than the time it takes to get to and from my destination.
‘The High-Stakes Race to Create the World’s First Artificial Heart‘ (Mimi Swartz for Texas Monthly)
Chasing the dream of the artificial heart has been a trying and fraught process.
I’ve been traveling since I was a baby, and I’ve gotten used to the ways in which my body is surveilled both in and out of the airport. I’ve had a near run-in with neo-Nazis in Russia, landed in a taxi situation where I thought I could’ve been assaulted in the Bahamas, and had employees refuse to acknowledge me in domestic places like Florida. The constant awareness of what kind of treatment I’ll get for being born Black and assigned female is often more exhausting than the time it takes to get to and from my destination.
Photo: Keenan Browe/Creative Commons