Crossing Cuba in a Chinese Bus

Conor Kennedy | October 8, 2014 9:41 am | Comments

[Editor's note: Conor Kennedy traveled this summer to Cuba to dive the Gardens of the Queen, one of the most pristine marine environments in the Caribbean, to conduct ecological assessments of the coral reef ecosystem with Ocean Doctor. This is Part III of a five-part series. Read Part I, Part II and Part IV.]

On June 21, we rode a Chinese manufactured bus the six-hour, 200-mile ride to Porto Jucaro, on Cuba’s southern mid-coast. From Havana we travelled southeast on the Autopista Nacional, a six-lane tarmac highway with rutted red dirt tributaries cutting through towns and forests and crossing meandering rivers. We passed cooperative farms of corn and tobacco. Farmers wielding machetes battled hefty cane stalks in endless sugar cane fields shadowed by the smoking chimneys of sugar mills. Ruler-straight royal palms, massive flowering orange flamboyant trees and spreading acacias with brilliant yellow flowers, shaded grass-thatched huts nestled among banana groves, and orchards of papaya, mango, chirimolla, plantain and mamey, a fruit the Cubans use to make milkshakes.

Just as in Havana, the highways carried cars from the 1940s and 1950s and motorcycles with sidecars, and horse and buggies. Roadside stands selling coconuts and fruit juice marked the incursion of Cuba’s new entrepreneurial capitalism. At the town of Tagnasco, we stopped for sandwiches at a thatched-roof government restaurant where we browsed through a library of books, propaganda and postcards for sale about Che Guevara and the other heroes of the Cuban Revolution. My dad caught a turquoise colored Cuban anole. Then we turned onto the Artery Central and proceeded south to Porto Jucaro through open savannah dotted with ranches where ubiquitous cowboys straddling fat ponies herded goats and Brahman cattle, until the flatlands rose into mountains as we approached the coast.

At the small port of Jucaro, we boarded the 125-foot Avalon II for the forty-mile cruise south to the thousand-island archipelago that constitutes Gardens of the Queen National Park. The island chain that has been protected for 18 years is renowned among divers and scientists as the most pristine reef system in the Western Hemisphere. We moored in a narrow channel between two mangrove-fringed islands: Cayo Anclitas and Cayo Caballones.

Avalon, an Italian Company that maintains a partnership with the Cuban government, has an exclusive license to operate two large dive boats in the Gardens of the Queen. Avalon and its founder, Giuseppe “Pepe” Omnega, played a key role in working with the Cuban government to establish this marine reserve and continues to play an important role in supporting research and conservation efforts there.

Each vessel carries up to 20 divers on one-week tours of the 40-mile island chain. In order to protect the reefs, the Cuban government limits visits to 1,000 divers per year. Elsewhere in the Caribbean, some dive sites a fraction of this size can see as many divers in a single day. Cuba also permits 500 fishermen annually to fly-fish the flats, mangroves and reefs for tarpon, permit, snook and bonefish. The fishery, of course, is catch and release. The only extractive fishery belongs to local fishermen who use tiny traps called “casitas” to harvest a small number of live lobsters.

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frigate

Another blessing in disguise from the embargo.
http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/index.php agelbert

Thank you Conor!
DaveMurphy4561

Go Nuclear and Dump Biofuels, Mexican Scientist Proposes

March 2, 2013 • 9:48AM

Biofuels
cannot possibly represent a solution to Mexico’s energy problems, says
Dr. José Ricardo Gómez Romero, a professor in the Dept. of Basic
Sciences and Engineering at the Iztapalapa campus of Mexico’s Autonomous
Metropolitan University. Instead, he recommends the country direct its
research efforts to nuclear energy and forget about biofuels altogether.

Speaking Feb. 28 at the roundtable “Biofuels: Solution or Problem?”
at the II Nanotechnology and Environmental Quality Symposium at the
Metropolitan University’s Azcapotzalco campus, Gómez Romero pointed out
that the corn, wheat, sugar cane, and other food crops now used to
produce biofuels can’t even cover 10% of the current 784,000 barrels
daily of national gasoline consumption—not to mention the implications
of using food to produce fuel in a nation such as Mexico.

Dr. Gómez Romero said Mexico would do better to redirect its research
efforts to nuclear energy, as it is a clean and more sustainable form
of energy. Unfortunately, he added, its development in Mexico was
halted due to fears about its safety, provoked by “certain sectors.”
Biofuels, he underscored, offer no solution, either in quality or
quantity.

At the same seminar, Dr. Joaquin Pérez-Pariente forcefully condemned
the use of food as fuels, noting that biofuels production meant
producing corn and other crops for the sole purpose of “burning them in
cars.” Huge tracts of fertile land will be taken out of production for
food, he warned, creating greater scarcity.
The director of the Institute of Chemical Catalysis and Petroleum
from Spain’s Council of Scientific Research asked what “social criteria”
was used to dictate using food for fuel, and debunked the notion that
biofuels are “clean” fuels
DaveMurphy4561

Solar Power Plants Are Literally Roasting Birds In-Flight

By Nicholas Lund

over an area larger than
Central Park and aims them all at a single, water-filled tower. The
reflected, concentrated heat reaches 800 degrees Fahrenheit, boiling the
water in the tower and generating electricity. Genesis employs a trough
system, generating steam by reflecting sunlight from parabolic mirrors
onto water-filled tubes. Desert Sunlight is a photovoltaic system,
converting sunlight directly into energy using an array of 8.8 million
solar modules spread over 6 square miles.

Industrial-scale facilities like these are exactly the kind of places
that can help wean this country off fossil fuels. Once they’re at full
capacity, these solar plants together will generate about the same
amount of power as a small coal-fired plant, but with none of the nasty
emissions. They’re located on public lands, paying rent to the federal
government and providing jobs in areas with few other well-paying
opportunities.

Yet despite its blazing unwelcomeness, the California desert is
anything but empty. The desert is home to thousands of species of plants
and animals. Many of them are rare or endangered, including the desert
tortoise and the desert bighorn sheep, or are found nowhere else.
Perhaps surprisingly, it’s also a major route for migratory birds
working their way north. Indeed, more species have been found
on the Salton Sea—a stinking oasis in the middle of the desert—than at
any other single spot in California. According to the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife report, all these birds now have solar mega-traps in their
path.
soldes desigual

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manteau desigual femme chaussures ouvertes et les bottes peuvent très bien être à la mode prêt avec un chiffon humide conçu, et le caractère raisonnable de toute personne cherchant au-dessus de trésorerie pratique sur l’enseignement supérieur. Les mamans seraient quand même aimer les sacs à main de votre étiquette de porte-monnaie en tant que telle les résultats complets sont livrés avec fourni obtenir la fonctionnalité et les solutions de sacs alligator de déplacement des unités régulières .
afm

So, we’re supposed to care about “Connor Kennedy” because he’s a relative of a rich family? At least lose the idiotic college jargon, connon “Back in the Day” jeez, what the heck does THAT mean? Ever heard of citing credible references. Just another rich kid supported by the rich system

Crossing Cuba in a Chinese Bus

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