Rising seas could put Easter Island's moai at risk by 2080, study warns
'Sea level rise is real,' said Noah Paoa, lead author of the study and a doctoral student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa's School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. 'It's not a distant threat.'
Paoa, who is from Easter Island — known to its Indigenous people as Rapa Nui — and his colleagues built a high-resolution 'digital twin' of the island's eastern coastline and ran computer models to simulate future wave impacts under various sea level rise scenarios. They then overlaid the results with maps of cultural sites to pinpoint which places could be inundated in the coming decades.
The findings show waves could reach Ahu Tongariki, the largest ceremonial platform on the island, as early as 2080. The site, home to the 15 towering moai, draws tens of thousands of visitors each year and is a cornerstone of the island's tourism economy.
Beyond its economic value, the ahu is deeply woven into Rapa Nui's cultural identity. It lies within Rapa Nui National Park, which encompasses much of the island and is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The roughly 900 moai statues across the island were built by the Rapa Nui people between the 10th and 16th centuries to honor important ancestors and chiefs.
The threat isn't unprecedented. In 1960, the largest earthquake ever recorded — a magnitude 9.5 off the coast of Chile — sent a tsunami surging across the Pacific. It struck Rapa Nui and swept the already-toppled moai further inland, which damaged some of their features. The monument was restored in the 1990s.
While the study focuses on Rapa Nui, its conclusions echo a wider reality: cultural heritage sites worldwide are increasingly endangered by rising seas. A UNESCO report published last month found that about 50 World Heritage sites are highly exposed to coastal flooding.
A UNESCO spokesperson said that relevant experts weren't immediately available for comment.
Possible defenses for Ahu Tongariki range from armoring the coastline and building breakwaters to relocating the monuments.
Paoa hopes that the findings will bring these conversations about now, rather than after irreversible damage.
'It's best to look ahead and be proactive instead of reactive to the potential threats,' he said.
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Follow Annika Hammerschlag on Instagram: @ahammergram
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The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP's environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
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The Guardian
18 hours ago
- The Guardian
The power of pulses: 15 easy, delicious ways to eat more life-changing legumes
Worried about rising food prices, your diet's carbon footprint or whether you're eating healthily enough? Believe it or not, there could be a magic bullet: pulses. According to a study by the University of Reading, published in the European Journal of Nutrition in March, adults who eat more pulses – dried beans, peas and lentils – have a higher intake of nutrients including fibre, folate and vitamins C and E; minerals such as iron, zinc and magnesium; and a lower intake of saturated fat and sugar. Similar results have been found in American, Australian and Canadian research. The UK study also found that eating pulses was associated with a more sustainable diet. In her book, Pulse: Modern Recipes with Beans, Peas & Lentils, Eleanor Maidment explains that growing pulses has a positive effect on the environment. 'Many are 'nitrogen fixers', meaning they have the ability to convert nitrogen in the atmosphere into a form that can be used in the soil, making it more fertile for other crops,' she writes. Justine Butler, the head of research at Viva!, says: 'The lowest-impact beef still creates six times the greenhouse gases and uses 36 times more land per gram of protein than peas.' Pulses are filling and good value but, say the Reading researchers, the typical British adult eats only about 15g a day, with the average household spending just £1.68 on pulses a week. UK guidelines state that 80g of pulses (about a third of a tin) counts as one of your five a day. The University of Reading study is part of the Raising the Pulse project, which aims to increase pulse consumption to improve public and planetary health. One of its strategies is adding fava bean (dried broad bean) flour to white bread – similar to a successful programme in Denmark using rye flour to increase wholegrain consumption. Prof Julie Lovegrove, the director of the Hugh Sinclair Unit of Human Nutrition at the University of Reading, says: 'These foods are not only nutritious but also incredibly versatile, affordable and sustainable.' If you want to start eating more pulses, here are 15 things you need to know. You don't have to cook pulses for hours. 'Don't be put off by the idea that you have to soak dried pulses in advance,' says Maidment. 'I am rarely organised enough to do so, but thankfully there's a huge range of jarred and canned varieties that require no prep and are hugely convenient. If you can afford to spend a bit more, then jarred varieties have the edge over canned in terms of flavour and texture. Brands such as Bold Bean Co, Brindisa or Belazu are consistently excellent.' But batch-cooking dried pulses is the best value. Jenny Chandler, the author of Super Pulses and Pulse, soaks and cooks a big pot of pulses once a week. 'You will finish up with well over double their volume – it's a really economical way to have a ready supply. They will keep in their cooking water for five days in the fridge and you can freeze any leftovers. Use them in salads, soups, purees, curries, stews and even puddings – they will become the bedrock of your cooking.' Pulses are for everyone. 'You do not have to be vegetarian or vegan to enjoy pulses – far from it,' says Maidment. 'We should all be eating more pulses. For instance, in a traybake, I'll use one chicken thigh per person instead of two, and add a can of chickpeas or butter beans. I often add a can of lentils to bolognese. You're still getting filling protein, but with the added benefits of gut-friendly fibre and numerous other minerals, vitamins and antioxidants.' They make meals go much further. 'Most pulses are relatively cheap and quite mild in taste, making them ideal for bulking out soups, stews and curries without affecting the original flavour,' says Maidment. 'You can often use different varieties interchangeably, depending on what you have to hand.' Chandler adds a handful of cooked pulses to all sorts of dishes. 'Throwing a few chickpeas or cannellini beans into a simple tomato sauce with pasta not only ups the nutritional profile, but also keeps you feeling full for much longer,' she says. Baked beans are just the beginning. 'By far the most eaten pulse in the UK is the haricot bean due to its starring role in tinned baked beans,' says Maidment. 'Butter beans, cannellini beans, black beans and kidney beans are also popular, but there is a huge variety of beans to try. For instance, flageolet beans are delicate, pale-green beans popular in French cooking – try them in a slow-braised lamb stew with garlic, thyme and white wine.' Chandler loves yin yang beans, AKA calypso or orca beans. 'These black and white beans are utterly beautiful and taste wonderful in chilli,' she says. But beans on toast still rules. 'My favourite pulse-based dish is garlicky beans and bitter greens on toast, topped with chilli oil,' says Joe Yonan, the author of Cool Beans. You can make (almost) anything with chickpeas. 'The chickpea is my favourite pulse, for its versatility,' says Yonan. 'It is the basis of hummus, the best dip on the planet. It's great in a coronation chickpea sandwich, and it holds its shape in salads and stews.' For a snack, Yonan mixes cooked chickpeas with olive oil and spices (such as za'atar, Chinese five spice, chaat masala or smoked paprika) and roasts them in the oven for an hour at 150C/300F. 'I then turn off the oven but leave them in there to completely cool – it dries them out and makes them really satisfyingly crunchy.' He also uses chickpea (AKA gram) flour to make farinata or socca, a savoury pancake; panisse (chickpea fries); and bhajis and pakoras. 'Sometimes I use it as a base for a sort of non-traditional, don't-tell-the-Italians pizza.' Lentils cook more quickly than most pulses. Red split lentils are especially quick, cooking in about 15 minutes. Lentils don't need soaking, but it does reduce the cooking time. Maidment likes to experiment with different dals. 'Regional Indian dals can be made with a range of lentils – yellow moong, black urad, chana dal – each bringing a slightly different flavour and texture,' says Maidment. But she also has a soft spot for tinned lentils. 'I often roast drained, tinned lentils with olive oil and crushed garlic to boost their flavour and add crispness before throwing them into a salad – perhaps ricotta and prosciutto, or chopped fresh and sun-dried tomatoes, mozzarella and basil.' Pulses make delicious dips. 'Hummus is the classic, but you can blend most pulses into dips,' says Maidment. 'Fava, a fabulous Greek split yellow pea dip, is absolutely worth making.' Blend cooked split yellow peas with caramelised onions and garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and a little of the beans' cooking liquor or water to make. Pulse liquid has many uses. 'Jarred and canned pulses are usually stored in a liquid known as aquafaba,' says Maidment. 'It can be great for adding creaminess to savoury dishes or used as an egg alternative in baking.' She advises checking the salt levels and ingredients list before using – some pulses have added preserving and firming agents. Black beans make the best veggie burgers, says Yonan. The Guardian's Meera Sodha agrees. She mashes a drained tin of black beans with breadcrumbs, garlic and onion powders, chipotle paste, dijon mustard, tomato ketchup and a splash of aquafaba, shapes them into patties, then fries them in olive oil until crispy. British pulses are having a revival. Maidment and Chandler both recommend carlin peas, pleasingly also known as black badgers, which are a heritage British pulse. They are available dried and cooked from companies such as Hodmedod's. 'They're small, nutty brown peas, and make a great alternative to chickpeas, with a similarly impressive nutrient profile,' says Maidment. She roasts cooked carlin peas until crispy, then adds them to salads such as quinoa, broccoli and halloumi. Chandler uses them in dips and curries, and to make a version of refried beans. 'They're much more versatile than yellow or green dried peas as they don't have such a pronounced 'pea' flavour,' she says. In the US, Yonan suggests the lady pea, a spherical white bean that is popular in southern cuisine. Pulses make great protein shakes. 'A handful of cooked pulses added into a smoothie will give it a great creamy texture and make it more nourishing,' says Chandler. She adds black beans or borlotti beans to dark berry smoothies, and chickpeas, cannellini beans or butter beans to green smoothies. Pulse-based pasta is worth a try. There is an increasing range of high-fibre pasta made from pulse flour: peas, lentils, chickpeas, black beans, mung beans … Chandler enjoys this alternative pasta, but says she doesn't use it in classical Italian dishes: 'I may use it in a pasta salad, say, or team it with a blue cheese and walnut sauce.' Yonan agrees that pulse pasta is best paired with 'pungent flavours – super-garlicky or spicy'. Pulses aren't just for savoury dishes. Yonan makes a chocolate and chickpea tart, and adds adzuki beans to brownies. 'Adzuki beans are used in a lot of Asian desserts, such as mochi and ice-cream,' he says. Maidment prefers to use kidney beans in her brownies, while Chandler has a recipe for a simple chocolate and cannellini bean mousse. Drain and retain the liquid from a tin of cannellini beans. Blitz the beans with 150g of melted dark chocolate and an optional tablespoon of cocoa powder. Whisk the liquid for five to 10 minutes, until frothy. Fold into the melted chocolate and bean mix, and sweeten with a couple of tablespoons of maple or date syrup. Chill the mix before eating, perhaps topped with some chopped stem ginger in syrup, or served with fresh raspberries. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
The Independent
21 hours ago
- The Independent
Meet the Afghan girls building robots at home after the Taliban stopped their education
In the sweltering heat of Kabul, a group of young women, who have been barred from higher education for the past three years, gather in one of their homes to work on a new project. Calling themselves 'Voices of Hope,' the group's members are former computer science students who refuse to abandon their pursuit of knowledge, despite the Taliban's sweeping ban on female education. They are using the internet and artificial intelligence to reconnect with the subject they once studied at university. In a country where even a walk in the park is off-limits for them, they have created their own community of learners behind closed doors. Their education was interrupted in December 2022, when a Taliban ban forced them to abandon their studies. The young women were all in their second semester of computer science studies at a private Afghan university. Initially, they clung to the hope that public outrage and international pressure might prompt the regime to reverse its decision. Instead, the Taliban, who had seized power in 2021, issued even harsher decrees, further tightening restrictions on women and making their lives even more difficult. Asrar Parsa, the 25-year-old leader of Voices of Hope, told Independent Persian that the university ban caused a wave of despair. But she and 20 of her classmates decided to keep going, turning to online educational resources to continue studying at home. Since then, the team has taken on several projects in their desire to learn, grow and keep their dreams alive. Among their achievements are building two robots from scratch. They cost about 30,000 Afghanis (roughly $430 or £330) to build, paid for by the group members themselves. Under Taliban rule, women are not allowed to go outside without a male guardian. The team has one male member: Asrar's 28-year-old brother, Navid Parsa, a computer science graduate who is their link to the outside world. He runs errands for the group and brings in supplies from the city. The group started off with 20 members. But over time, 14 dropped out due to economic hardship and a growing sense of hopelessness. Asrar explains: 'Our goal was to keep the light of hope alive in our hearts, to stay motivated, and to learn about AI. But most of the team became disheartened and gave up.' However, some chose to stay. 19-year-old Hadiya Ahmadi, says she suffered from depression and anxiety after universities shut down. But working on small projects and learning how to use AI with the support of the group helped her feel better. Over the past two years, the team has used what they learned in their first year of university and supplemented it with online tutorials. They've built two robots and several other devices. One robot can recognise 20 different objects, including humans, and is controlled remotely. The team tested its movement on a kitchen table. It's powered via radio frequency and bluetooth and can be operated through four different apps. Asrar says if developed further, it could be used in search and rescue operations after earthquakes or explosions. The team is also working on building a drone. If successful, they hope it could be used for tasks like collecting rubbish, delivering emergency medicine, or transporting small items across Kabul. For Asrar, Hadiya, and the rest of the group, tinkering with wires and batteries and listening to online lessons is about more than just robotics or AI. In a time when, under Taliban laws, even a woman's voice and face are deemed awrah (something to be hidden), these sessions are a way to cope with the mental and emotional toll of their isolation. Asrar says these gatherings are a way to escape 'the pain and grief brought about by their current situation'. The meetings offer hope, she explains:'When we're together, it feels like not everything is lost. We still have the power to learn and grow.' Hadiya adds that meeting the group two to three times a week has had a positive impact on her mental well-being. They study AI, build robots, and talk about their hopes for the future. She says she feels better now than she did when her university first closed down: 'Seeing the results of our work makes us happy. It makes us feel that our education isn't over yet and we can still try to reach our goals.' They draw inspiration from another Afghan robotics team, known as 'The Afghan Dreamers', which was founded in 2017 and gained widespread attention both at home and abroad. Focused on technology, engineering, and robotics, the team became a symbol of talent and hope in the face of social and political restrictions. After the Taliban returned to power and banned education and employment for women and girls, team members left the country and now continue their work in exile. For Voices of Hope, the Afghan Dreamers serve as an inspiration. But unlike them, Asrar's team has not yet received any support from external organisations. Despite all the obstacles, they hope to one day showcase their work in international exhibitions, and find opportunities to keep chasing their dreams. The Taliban have strictly enforced their ban on education for girls over the age of 12, claiming that they are adhering to 'Sharia law'. These decrees, especially those denying women access to education and jobs, have drawn widespread international condemnation. But Taliban leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada has dismissed international pressure as 'pointless.' Over the past four years, Mullah Hibatullah has repeatedly emphasised the importance of 'education within the framework of Sharia and Islamic principles'. However, not once has he addressed the topic of education or employment for women and girls in Afghanistan.
Daily Mail
21 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Harvard prof says Earth-bound comet could be 'hostile' alien spacecraft sent to spy on our solar system
A Harvard professor has suggested a 'hostile' alien spaceship is hurtling its way towards Earth - and it could be an extraterrestrial spy. And if the object - known as 31/ATLAS and believed by most astronomers to be a comet - does land among us it will be 'a blind date of astronomical proportions,' Avi Loeb says. In a study paper, he and his fellow researchers suggest the object's size, trajectory and behavior - when taken together - suggest an unknown intelligence is steering it our way. NASA first spotted the object, traveling through our solar system at 37 miles a second, in early July and most experts expect it to come nowhere near Earth. But Loeb, a professor of astrophysics, and his associates – Adam Crowl and Adam Hibberd of the London-based Initiative for Interstellar Studies – advance a detailed theory about who or what this intergalactic visitor might be. They speculate that, far from being a comet, the object could instead be a sprawling mothership from a distant planet, armed with technology vastly more advanced than ours. Loeb and his associates have identified eight anomalies about 3I/ATLAS to support their outlandish theory. Each individual anomaly is statistically rare, they insist, and so taken together they strongly suggest that some as-yet-unknown intelligence is steering the object towards us. 'An encounter with an interstellar, alien technology is a blind date of astronomical proportions,' Loeb told the Daily Mail. 'You don't know what you will meet, because our imagination is limited to our experience on Earth.' He argues that the plots of science fiction films are 'pretty much tailored to fit the narrative of what we are doing here on Earth and just expanding [on it]'. That is, most of us have no conception of what a really advanced civilization might look like. Expecting present-day humans to comprehend the sort of technology aliens would have developed in order to reach us is 'like asking a caveman to imagine an iPhone,' says Loeb. He has suggested sending a message using radio waves to the object: 'Hello, welcome to our neighborhood. Peace!' However, he also acknowledged the risks of this, noting that any intelligent life might see the signal as a threat. Most of Loeb's professional peers have determined that 3I/ATLAS will turn out to be a comet. They believe it has been drifting through space for billions of years, accelerating thanks to the gravitational 'catapult effect' of the countless stars it has passed. Its current speed of 130,000mph makes it the fastest comet ever recorded, says NASA. Predictably, some of Loeb's fellow astronomers are peeved that he is, as they see it, letting the side down by venturing into science fiction. Oxford University astronomer Chris Lintott says he's spouting 'nonsense on stilts.' And Loeb, it has to be said, has been urging the world to keep an open mind about extraterrestrials for some time. An expert on black holes, he has spent years searching for signs of alien life and, in 2021, founded the international 'Galileo Project' to focus on this area. Two years later, he led an expedition to a site on the bed of the Pacific Ocean where a meteor was believed to have come to rest, claiming the remains his team discovered could have come from an extraterrestrial spacecraft. NASA, whose telescope in Chile first spotted 3I/ATLAS on July 1, says the object should remain visible to ground-based telescopes in September but will then pass behind the sun. It is expected to reappear by early December. So what are the anomalies about 3I/ATLAS that have so alarmed Professor Loeb? The first relates to its lack of 'tail.' Comets are propelled through space by gravity and solar radiation. The latter turns the comet's surface ice into gas, which – together with the dust it carries – creates a visible tail. Loeb said he was 'puzzled' that the object has undergone 'significant non-gravitational acceleration' without apparently having any such tail. He was also disturbed by its unusual 'retrograde' orbit around the sun (in other words, it's moving against the flow of the solar system). This, he argues, could be a 'defensive maneuver' by its alien pilots to make it harder for their craft to be intercepted by rockets fired from Earth. 3I/ATLAS's trajectory also means it will pass relatively close to Venus, Mars and Jupiter – again statistically unlikely but, he notes, affording it the perfect opportunity to snoop at the other planets in our solar system, like some sort of extraterrestrial spy. He points out that 3I/ATLAS will achieve 'perihelion' – reaching its closest point to the sun – on the opposite side of the sun relative to Earth. This, says Loeb, 'could be intentional to avoid detailed observations from Earth-based telescopes.' It would also, he warns, allow it to launch 'probes' or other 'gadgets' in secret to invade or infiltrate – or even change direction and visit our planet itself, arriving with little warning as early as late November. Some critics, while agreeing with him that scientists should be less dismissive of ET research, accuse Loeb of cherry-picking data to suit his argument. In the past few days, NASA has revealed an image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope which it hailed as the 'sharpest-ever picture' of 3I/ATLAS. The image remains blurred (hardly surprising given it shows something 277 million miles away) but NASA claims it suggests the object is a comet because it appears to show a 'teardrop-shaped cocoon of dust coming off its solid, icy nucleus.' But Loeb is adamant there is still no evidence the object has the tail of dust thrown off by comets. The jury's still out, he insists. So, if – and, yes, this is a big if – 3I/ATLAS does turn out to be an alien spacecraft, is there anything we could do? In the short term, Loeb and his co-authors have suggested using NASA's unmanned Juno spacecraft, currently in orbit around Jupiter, to photograph the object. But Juno may not have enough fuel left for such a mission. In the long term, Loeb argues, we should treat all interstellar objects entering the solar system as potentially the creation of aliens. He believes governments should co-ordinate through an international body. 'We talk about the existential risks from artificial intelligence, from climate change, from an asteroid impact, but there's no discussion about the risk from alien technology,' he told the Daily Mail. He'd like to see governments form 'task forces' to determine how to respond if and when alien intelligence is finally detected, and how to break the news to the public without triggering panic. Of course, the public reaction may depend on whether the visitors wish us well or ill. 'In the first case, humanity needs only to wait and welcome this interstellar messenger with open arms,' says Loeb. 'It is the second scenario that causes serious concern.' Loeb says we'll get a much better indication of what exactly 3I/ATLAS is when it can be seen – possibly as early as later this month – by the James Webb Space Telescope. The telescope, which is now a million miles from us, will be able to view the object in infra-red, allowing it to analyze the sunlight reflected from it and determine precisely what it is. It's easy to be cynical about ET hunters like Loeb and he concedes he is expecting to be wrong. But with all his expertise, one has to consider the daunting question: What if he's right?
