Nature
Our sun is a magnificent, life-giving force. While it’s only considered a medium star by universal standards, thanks to our proximity to it, the sun supplies us with heat and light. It is the most basic source of energy for planet Earth; without it, neither people nor any other species would be able to survive. The sun is 1.3 million times larger than Earth. Because the sun is so big, it also produces a lot of gravity. The sun’s strong gravitational pull is what keeps Earth and the other planets in our solar system in orbit. Without the heat and light of the sun, life as we know it could not exist on the earth. Since solar energy is used by green plants in the process of photosynthesis, the sun is the ultimate source of the energy stored both in food and fossil fuels. Solar heating sets up convection currents, and thus is the source of the energy of moving air. Falling rain also owes its energy to the sun because of the relation of solar radiation to the water cycle. In conclusion it’s important and fundamental to the Earth as it provides the Earth with energy which enables electricity and sunlight which helps plants grow and lightens the Earth.
Orchards The Matta tehsil in particular is rich in apple orchids. There are about 30 different types of apples grown in the valley, but King Star (French), Red Golden, White Kolo, Kala Kolo, Sota and Rail Gala are the most renowned among them. The tehsil is also home to well-established markets where consumers and traders from different regions come to purchase apples. Orchards spread on about 3,000 hectares of land and contribute a sizable share to the country’s fruit market. The fruit is usually picked starting August up until the last week of September. The harvesting season is currently at its peak and farmers and orchid owners are busy picking the fruits of their labour across the valley. Following this, some apples are packaged and transported to different cities while others are left on the field to further ripen. Farmer Didan Gul explained about 20 kilogrammes of apples are packed
in each box. Citing unofficial data, he claimed Swat use to produce around 0.6 million tons of apples annually until a few years back. “It currently produces only about 0.1 million tons,” he added. Commenting on the decrease in production, Swat Fruit and Vegetable Marketing Association President Rehmat Ali said, “The orchards in the valley were destroyed during the military operation against militants and those remaining were washed away by the floods. It caused losses worth a billion rupees and we received no help from the government or the department of agriculture.” He complained the government was not taking interest in promoting the production of apples and was not facilitating farmers in terms of providing standard pesticides and necessary training to adapt to new horticultural trends on managing orchids. “People are now more
interested in maintaining peach orchards instead because it has a higher return in exchange for lower inputs of production.” Farmer Safdar Khan said increasing apple exports could earn the country substantial foreign exchange. The recent price of one kilogramme of apple ranges between Rs50 and Rs300, he added. “The government should keep a check on retailers selling substandard agricultural chemicals, including pesticides, because it is one of the factors contributing to the decrease in apple orchards,” said farmer Fazal Wahab.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
Landscape
Good or bad? With so much of life based on electronic representations of reality, humans risk losing touch with nature, says University of Washington psychologist Peter Kahn.
From web cams that offer views of wildlife to virtual tours of the Grand Canyon to robotic pets, modern technology increasingly is encroaching into human connections with the natural world. Kahn and his colleagues believe this intrusion may emerge as one of the central psychological problems of our times. “We are a technological species, but we also need a deep connection with nature in our lives,” Kahn argues. “What do we compare technology to? If we compare it to no nature, technological nature works pretty well,” Kahn said. “But if we compare it to actual nature, it doesn’t seem to provide as many psychological benefits.”
we call environmental generational amnesia.” This concept of amnesia proposes that people believe the natural environment they encounter during childhood is the norm, against which they measure environmental degradation later in their life. The problem with this is that each generation takes that degraded condition as a non-degraded baseline and is generally oblivious of changes and damages inflicted by previous generations. “Poor air quality is a good example of physical degradation,” said Kahn. “We can choke on the air, and some people suffer asthma, but we tend to think that’s a pretty normal part of the human condition.
The AIBO studies showed that children were in some ways treating the robots as other beings. But compared to interacting with a real dog, their interactions with AIBO were not as social or deep.
“Some people get the idea on one level if they are interested in environmental issues,” Severson said. “They see the degradation, but they don’t recognize their own experience is diminished. How many people today feel a loss such as the damming of the Columbia River compared to a wild Columbia River? A lot of us have no concept of it as a wild river and don’t feel a loss.”
“Robot and virtual pets are beginning to replace children’s interactions with biologically live pets,” Ruckert said. “The larger concern is that technological nature will shift the baseline of what people perceive as the full human experience of nature and that it will contribute to what
“People might think that if technological nature is partly good that that’s good enough,” he said. “But it’s not. Because across generations what will happen is that the good enough will become the good. If we don’t change course, it will impoverish us as a species.
Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises.
With so much of life based on electronic representations of reality, humans risk losing touch with nature, says University of Washington psychologist Peter Kahn. From web cams that offer views of wildlife to virtual tours of the Grand Canyon to robotic pets, modern technology increasingly is encroaching into human connections with the natural world. Kahn and his colleagues believe this intrusion may emerge as one of the central psychological problems of our times. “We are a technological species, but we also need a deep connection with nature in our lives,” Kahn argues. “What do we compare technology to? If we compare it to no nature, technological nature works pretty well,” Kahn said. “But if we compare it to actual nature, it doesn’t seem to provide as many psychological benefits.” The AIBO studies showed that children were in some ways treating the robots as other beings. But compared to interacting with a real dog, their interactions with AIBO were not as social or deep. “Robot and virtual pets are beginning to replace children’s interactions with biologically live pets,” Ruckert said. “The larger concern is that technological nature will shift the baseline of what people perceive as the full human experience of nature, and that it will contribute to what we call\ environmental generational amnesia.” This concept of amnesia proposes that people believe the natural environment they encounter during childhood is the norm, against which they measure environmental degradation later in their life. The problem with this is that each generation takes that degraded condition as a non-degraded baseline and is generally oblivious of changes and damages inflicted by previous generations.
It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man.
The fruit With so much of life based on electronic representations of reality, humans risk losing touch with nature, says University of Washington psychologist Peter Kahn. From web cams that offer views of wildlife to virtual tours of the Grand Canyon to robotic pets, modern technology increasingly is encroaching into human connections with the natural world. Kahn and his colleagues believe this intrusion may emerge as one of the central psychological problems of our times. “We are a technological species, but we also need a deep connection with nature in our lives,” Kahn argues. “What do we compare technology to? If we compare it to no nature, technological nature works pretty well,” Kahn said. “But if we compare it to actual nature, it doesn’t seem to provide as many psychological benefits.”