“One of the nation’s largest homebuilders have created a community of entirely wildfire-resilient homes to help reduce homebuyers’ risks of loss if another Palisades or Dixie fire comes roaring by.

With nothing flammable on the exterior or the roofs and curated desert foliage around the gardens and lawns, the homes aren’t necessarily fireproof, but the design of the entire community was informed by identifying and eliminating the most common causes of homes catching fire.

Available now, and with some already off the market, KB Homes estimates their price at around $1 million, a price consistent with disaster-proof housing around the country.”

From Good News Network.

“Using an innovative planting technique, Javier Munoz has been trialling the ‘Jaspe’ strain created by experts at the Agricultural Research Institute’s (INIA) Rice Breeding Program.

It is one of several research efforts worldwide to come up with less resource-hungry crops at a time of increased water scarcity in parts of the world due to global warming.

Using Jaspe in combination with a growing method that requires only intermittent watering cut the Munoz family’s water consumption in half in a country that has for generations cultivated rice in flooded fields, or paddies.

At the same time, yield rocketed, with each seed yielding about thirty plants — nearly ten times more than a conventional rice field.”

From FRANCE 24.

“The southwest monsoon’s early arrival in India this year is good news for crops, but exactly when, where, and how much rain will fall over the next few months are still difficult questions to answer.

To help solve that dilemma, India is hoping that a new weather model can significantly help boost its capabilities by forecasting at a resolution of roughly 6 kilometers (3.7 miles), doubling the level of detail previously possible. That means it can zero in on smaller geographic areas and give more localized predictions, helping farmers tailor their decisions and enabling better flood preparation ahead of extreme rainfall events.”

From Bloomberg.

“Much of the internet, phone systems, television and other high-speed communications relies on a world-girdling network of fibre-optic cables. By one estimate, more than 4 billion kilometres of such cables snake beneath and between cities; the longest ones span oceans. Normally, we don’t think much about this physical network, happy just to receive the calls, web pages and cat videos it transmits. But more and more, the cables themselves are becoming a valuable source of information about the planet…

In Istanbul, these fibres have revealed potentially life-saving information about how to protect people and infrastructure against future earthquakes. Elsewhere, they are allowing researchers to measure the subsurface hum of London’s bustle, track the rumbling of Iceland’s volcanoes and map the upper reaches of our planet’s mantle. This new view of the underground has the potential to transform our understanding of the world’s constant vibration.”

From New Scientist.