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Camera CATalogue: Help Cat Conservation Without Going to Africa

A new wildlife photo website that Panthera, the global wild cat conservation organization, launched recently is called Camera CATalogue. “We've launched this with our partners at Zooniverse as a platform that houses tens of thousands of Panthera's camera trap photos and engages with citizen scientists and wildlife lovers around the world, asking that they help identify the big cats and other fascinating animals pictured in these photos,” says Ross Pitman, Leopard Monitoring Coordinator for Panthera. “The idea is that the more we know about the number of big cats and their prey populations, where they live and roam, and how our efforts are helping to protect them using these images, the better.”

Fancying myself as a bit of a wildlife spotter, especially in Africa, where I have visited more than three dozen sanctuaries, including the iconic Kruger, Okavango, Hwange, and Serengeti national parks, I tried out Camera CATalogue. It's quite addictive, and I had to tear myself away after identifying a hundred or more animals. It's also fascinating to “observe” what animals get up to when people are not around.

Ross Pitman was kind enough to answer a few questions about Camera CATalogue and how this kind of citizen science helps conservation, even if those of us who engage with it are on the other side of the world.

DB: How does this citizen science project help protect big cats? It's presumably not only about monitoring species and numbers of cats, but also prey base and threats (vehicles and people) in their range?

Camera CATalogue has two main objectives with regards to monitoring wild cats across vast landscapes using camera traps. First, it's a platform that provides people from around the world (even those that have never visited Africa) with the opportunity to engage with wildlife and actively contribute to wildlife conservation. Second, and by no means less important, Camera CATalogue allows Panthera's scientists to monitor larger areas than ever before, but without the time-consuming challenge of identifying every species within each camera trap photo. By engaging the wider community, Camera CATalogue helps us identify animals more accurately, simply because each image is viewed by so many people.

Since we're now able to camera-trap across far larger areas and still accurately process all the data, we're able to ask many more questions and provide many more answers relating to wildlife conservation. A suite of important questions center around indices of prey abundance and prey quality. Is there enough prey around to support carnivores in the area? And if not, what are the primary causes of prey decline? These prey-focused questions might generate more questions related to human pressure, perhaps from poachers or subsistence farmers. How are the animals in the area—both carnivores and herbivores—responding to human disturbance? Are animals actively avoiding densely populated areas, and what are the conservation implications for these animals or the financial repercussions (through ecotourism) for people? We can also go further and ask far broader questions about how wildlife use their habitat at a landscape scale and how they interact with each other. These questions have significant conservation implications and importance, and need answers soon if we're to curb the precipitous declines faced by many wild cats, and wildlife more generally.

Camera CATalogue provides a means of making research more efficient, and therefore, more effective. This ultimately allows scientists to focus on more pressing conservation concerns—with the added benefit of hopefully encouraging budding citizen scientists to pursue a career in wildlife conservation.

"integtime=1535 — This image was taken at Makalali Private Game Reserve, in 2014. This is the largest male leopard we've ever captured on camera in Limpopo Province, South Africa. He's so elusive that not even the guides, rangers, or lodge managers knew he lived in the area! Credit: Ross Pitman/Panthera/Siyafunda.

How many photos are in the database? How many cameras are used? How are they secured?

Camera CATalogue's database currently holds around 160,000 images. This first batch of images represents a tenth of the total images we need identified in the coming weeks and months. It's easy to see why we so desperately need the help of thousands of citizen scientists across the world! In addition, we are constantly expanding our research footprint across the world, and usually take on a few new surveillance sites every year.

In terms of cameras and their setup, we typically use 80 PantheraCams (a Panthera custom-made camera trap) set up in pairs across roads or animal paths in order to photograph both flanks of an animal as it walks past our PantheraCams. Some animals, like spotted cats, have unique coat patterns, and photographing both flanks enables us to identify each individual. We then use this information to run complex analyses to robustly determine their population densities across the survey area, which gives us the data so urgently needed to inform sound, science-based management and conservation decisions.

One major challenge with using camera traps to monitor wildlife is that our PantheraCams are often stolen, either by animals (like elephants!) or by people. To reduce theft, we secure the PantheraCams to trees or metal posts (hammered deep into the ground) using cable ties or bungee cord and connect the PantheraCams to steel cables that are linked to the tree or post. Although not 100% secure, we have noticed a reduction in theft—primarily from elephants who find it annoying to walk around with a PantheraCam that's still attached to a metal post.

"Credit: — Credit: Wai-Ming Wong/Panthera

How many photos remain to be sorted and identified?

Camera CATalogue was launched on August 4^th, 2016, and in the first 24 hours over 8,000 citizen scientists cumulatively identified 170,000 images! Each image is shown to 10 citizen scientists to ensure identification accuracy, which means this current database is approximately 10 percentcomplete.

What have you already learned from this project?

The biggest take-home message from the launch of Camera CATalogue was in realizing how much people enjoy identifying wildlife, and are willing to spend their own time to help our conservation efforts. It's a fantastic feeling to know we have the support and assistance of so many citizen scientists around the world.

What do you still hope to find out?

The biggest what-if would be to know if this initial interest in Camera CATalogue will be sustained. There is so much data to process that we could use this level of response to constantly assist our scientists. Our PantheraCams take such amazing photos though, so we're hopeful that citizen scientists will flock to Camera Catalogue for a long time to come.

Do you have any funny/unusual photos you can share?

One of the most amazing photographs taken by the PantheraCams shows a genet (a small mongoose/weasel-like mammal) on the back of a rhino. The genet proceeded to hitch a ride on the rhino for quite some time! It's these sorts of species interactions that make camera trapping such an amazing surveillance tool.

"integtime=1536 — Credit: Panthera/ Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife/Wildlife ACT

How can this citizen science project be used to educate people and help them become better stewards of the planet, even if they live half a world away from where these photos are made?

By allowing citizen scientists the opportunity to actively participate in wildlife research, Camera CATalogue will hopefully raise people's excitement about conserving these precious species and the habitats in which they live. Even for those that have previously visited these wild places, Camera CATalogue provides a way of re-experiencing the magic of viewing animals in the wild. This constant engagement with wildlife will help to engender a sense of ownership and compassion towards animals and ultimately generate a more conservation-aware community.

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Right-Wing Media Org Is Crowdfunding to Distort Obama's Record on Coal
The right-wing Media Research Center is getting into the crowdfunding business, setting up a Kickstarter page to raise $15,000 for "completing the production and marketing" of a "short documentary" about "the devastating human toll of the EPA's war on coal," to be called "Collateral Damage." Here's the pitch:

Several months ago, MRCTV sent a camera crew to the southern counties of West Virginia to document the impact of the EPA regulations on the coal industry and the local communities that have historically relied on it for survival. What the team found was devastating.

The effect of shuttered coal mines and the loss of thousands of coal jobs has trickled down into nearly every facet of these communities, crippling local businesses, destroying the housing market and forcing desperate families from their homes. Thousands are without work, while still thousands more live under the constant threat of job loss and bankruptcy. Local charities struggle to meet the needs around them, only to be quickly overwhelmed. While the media are focusing on "climate change," hardworking Americans are left to wonder how they will keep the lights on in a house they're struggling to hold on to.

Through a compelling series of up-close footage and brutally honest interviews, "Collateral Damage" will expose in stark detail the real, human impact of President Obama's promised and delivered assault on the coal industry, and on the hardworking Americans and their families in Central Appalachia.

This is a true American story about real American people. And we need more Americans like you to help us get it out.

The solicitation doesn't explain why a wealthy organization like the MRC -- which raised more than $15 million in 2015 -- can't pony up a measly $15,000 to edit and promote footage they've already shot.

And it looks like this documentary will be on the dishonest side. In the trailer -- which frames President Obama and his EPA as the sole source of misery in coal-mining country -- there's a clip of Obama saying, "You know, the irony is that what's actually hurt coal is not any EPA rules." That clip is cut off abruptly.

Why? Because Obama's full statement under mines the entire premise of the MRC's film. Here's the full statement by Obama, with the tiny snippet the MRC used in bold:

You know, the irony is that what's actually hurt coal is not any EPA rules as much as it is any really cheap natural gas that has come from fracking, a new technology that we developed that allowed the United States to become the leading producer of natural gas in the world. And those gas-fired plants -- natural gas-fired plants are now so much more efficient that even if there were no rules whatsoever, coal would be replaced by natural gas in terms of generating electricity. Natural gas is a little cleaner than coal, and what we are saying in the same way that natural gas has replaced a lot coal-fired plants, well, let's see if we can get that same kind of progress on solar and wind and, you know, hydro and other clean energies that are sustainable over the long term.

And what we to then do is invest in those communities that used to have a lot of coal miners, which was a tough, dirty job. Let's retrain them so that they're the ones who are installing wind turbines. Let's retrain them so they are getting jobs in the solar industry. And that's the nature of American innovaton and American change. We used to have a lot of folks who worked on farms. Farms became really efficient here in the United States, and what we did then is said, let's set up public schools and let's set up community colleges and land-grant colleges and let's have them work in the factories. And then now we're having them work in the digital world.

And you know, we can't abandon those communities, and there's still some market for coal. And I'm still investing, by the way, in technologies that could potentially pull the carbon out of coal so that -- there's a lot of coal here in the United States as there is in China and India. If we could figure out a way to do that cleanly, that should be part of our smart energy mix. But we can't stand still. America never has, it never will.

So it's not the EPA who's the only villain here, or even the main one -- it's also fracking, something conservatives like the MRC have championed. And Obama has not maliciously abandoned coal miners -- he supports retraining them for new jobs. Somehow, we doubt that retraining will get mentioned in the MRC's film.

Also, apparently nobody has told the MRC that Obama is not running for re-election, so bashing him seems rather pointless.

It looks like the only "collateral damage" we'll actually be seeing from the MRC is to the truth.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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Can our Weary World Keep Feeding Us?
For most of us in Europe, 8th August is just another summer's day. But it also marks a more chilling moment in our calendar: the day our world starts going into debt. By the 8th we will have used up the supply of natural resources that the Earth can regenerate within one year. For the remaining 40 percent of the year, we will add to the overdraft of nature's budget.

Called 'Earth Overshoot Day', it is a stark reminder that the planet we live on has natural limits within which we must live. And perhaps no other sector is feeling these boundaries more than the agriculture sector that feeds us. As the population surges and our diets become more resource-intensive (think meat, dairy, oils), agriculture is faced with the Herculean task of meeting an ever-increasing demand for food while helping to sustain our landscapes and the very biosphere of the Earth itself.

Today, agriculture is the world's single largest driver of global environmental change, much of it negative. So the basic challenge is this: can we produce even more food by intensifying our agricultural production, yet stay within the Earth's budget? Can agriculture become a key contributor to a global transition to a sustainable world? According to a recent paper published in scientific journal Ambio, the answer is yes, if we take better care not to cross the 'planetary boundaries' that affect our food system most directly. This is what we need to do.

We need to make our soils a carbon trap. We must transform agriculture from the world's single largest source of greenhouse gases into a major sink by adapting the way we farm so we capture carbon in the soil. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, about 90 percent of agriculture's technical potential to reduce the effects of climate change lies in this very method.

We have to grow more food on less land and reduce waste. We need more forest cover for our Earth system to function sustainably rather than less. To reverse the trend of deforestation, we have to drastically reduce the conversion of forests into agricultural land by making existing farmland more productive and reduce the estimated 30% of waste in the food supply chain. Part of the answer lies in increasing the uptake of crop and livestock varieties that have a high ratio of productivity to use of inputs.

We must get more crop per drop. Around 70% of global freshwater is used for agriculture. To get back on budget, we need to improve water productivity in agriculture by 50 percent by 2030 by using water more productively. This can be done through conservation agriculture and managing water at the watershed level. Such measures can also improve resilience to climate shocks.

We should protect our biodiversity. Agricultural expansion is undermining the Earth's biodiversity at an alarming rate. Healthy agriculture depends on this genetic diversity, so we must encourage farming systems that adopt an ecosystems approach, that reduce biodiversity loss in agricultural landscapes and value the services that the natural environment provides, such as the flood regulating effect of wetlands.

We need to use fertilizer more efficiently and recover nutrients. We are extracting too much nitrogen from the atmosphere and we are running out of the phosphorus we need to fertilize our food crops. The excess runoff pollutes our river and groundwater systems. We have to rebalance the way we use fertilizer, without increasing overall use and encourage the recycling of nutrients from human, agricultural, livestock and solid waste.

We need to reduce the energy footprint of agriculture. Groundwater irrigation supports an increasingly large proportion of food production with implications for energy use and resource depletion. We have increasing opportunities to expand the use of solar power and more efficient irrigation and food processing practices and thereby reduce emissions.

To tackle these challenges, we need to enlist the help of the world's farmers. Over 2.5 billion smallholders provide up to 80 percent of the food in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. For them to produce more over the long term, and reduce their ecological footprint, they have to be encouraged to shift their main focus beyond productivity to sustainability. To do this we will have to invest heavily in research into the crops, diets and farming practices that are healthy both for people and the planet.

We already have ways to achieve some of this painlessly - the so-called 'win-win' solutions. For example, farmers practicing conservation agriculture in Brazil (which involves minimal soil disturbance to maintain moisture, nutrients and carbon content) lost 30 percent less of their maize crop than conventional farmers when drought hit. Encouraging a shift to less resource-intensive diets - lower in refined sugars and fats - will address the twin challenge of improving global health and reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and resource footprints.

Farmer and his daughter from Gurinder Singh using a solar powered irrigation pump / Prashanth Vishwanathan (IWMI)

In India, solar powered irrigation pumps offer an attractive way to access more groundwater to produce more food. This has the advantage of reducing emissions whilst improving productivity. But there are huge concerns about the sustainability of already diminished groundwater resources. To solve this, the International Water Management Institute and partners are testing ways to incentivize farmers to put unused electricity back into the national grid. This represents a triple win for farmers, the environment and the government.

We cannot pretend this will be easy - staying within our natural resource budget will require difficult trade-offs. But it is in all of our interests, as food producers or consumers, to tread more lightly on our planet which is already buckling under the pressure of our demands. Earth Overshoot Day should serve as a wake up call. Collectively, we need to balance nature's books, and live within our planet's boundaries.

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Earth Overshoot Day Arrives Earlier Than Ever

"GFN_EOD_2016_squaretru" — Earth Overshoot Day is calculated by dividing the planet's biocapacity (the amount of ecological resources Earth is able to generate that year), by humanity's Ecological Footprint (humanity's demand for that year), and multiplying by 366, the number of days in 2016: (Planet's Biocapacity / Humanity's Ecological Footprint) x 365 = Earth Overshoot Day.”

Earth Overshoot Day 2016: August 8

As of today, we humans have used as much from nature in 2016 as our planet can renew in a whole year. Nothing will seem to change for many of us between today and tomorrow, but collectively we are draining Earth's capacity to provide. Overshoot Day is a red light warning of trouble ahead — and it is flashing five days earlier than it did last year (Aug. 13); eleven days earlier than the year before (Aug.19).

Earth Overshoot Day is devised by Global Footprint Network, an international think tank that coordinates research, develops methodological standards and provides decision-makers with a menu of tools to help the human economy operate within Earth's ecological limits.

To determine the date of Earth Overshoot Day for each year, Global Footprint Network says on its website, the think tank calculates the number of days of that year that Earth's biocapacity suffices to provide for humanity's Ecological Footprint. The remainder of the year corresponds to global overshoot.

Watch the video and study the graphics; think what we can do about this.

Related Post:

Earth's ‘Annual Physical' Lists Symptoms of a Hotter World (Aug. 2016) — A new State of the Climate report confirmed that 2015 surpassed 2014 as the warmest year since at least the mid-to-late 19th century, says NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). Read the statement, view the charts.

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The Positive Impact of Environmental "Gamification"
Getting people excited about environmental issues can take a bit of strategy. Natural resource depletion, global warming, landfill waste and water contamination are topics that can be intimidating when presented to the average consumer, especially for the demographic we most hope to reach: young people and future stewards. With so much on the line for establishing sustainable infrastructures for future generations, it is important that we find ways to engage youth and make motivations for environmentalism positive and fun.

Making complex concepts like sustainability and the importance of circular waste solutions compelling to young consumers can be a real game: literally and figuratively. One of the most popular, and effective, methods for engaging consumers is gamification, the simple concept of taking elements of a game and applying them to other areas of activity, like learning about implementing green habits. "Gamifying" environmental action campaigns has proven to be a very successful way to get consumers excited about CSR and environmental issues - and we've been doing it for years at TerraCycle.

Using animation and a multiplayer format, our social networking game Trash Tycoon made a splash on Facebook in 2011, allowing players to earn points for collecting trash in a waste-filled town and recycling and upcycling the items. In real life, every TerraCycle program offers individuals, businesses and organizations the opportunity to earn TerraCycle points for the waste they collect and send in, which are redeemable for cash donations to the charity or nonprofit of their choice. The more you recycle, the more points you get, and through brand sponsored contests like the Sensible Portions® DIY Poster Contest back in May, people have the opportunity to win additional TerraCycle points for an even larger contribution.

Incentivizing recycling through a points system quantifies an individual's environmental efforts with hard numbers, recognition of effort, the thrill of competition, and the opportunity to do something big for their community. This element of gratification creates a rewards system that is sometimes missing from conventional messaging.

Big companies like PepsiCo are catching on to the effectiveness of gamification in reaching young people with an environmental platform. For years, PepsiCo's Recycle Rally has engaged K-12 students, teaching the importance of recycling by incentivizing schools to track their bottle and can recycling. With an online tracking system and regular competitions and challenges, the "game" keeps young people immersed in the program and, therefore, in recycling. Through gamification, PepsiCo has recycled over 59 million beverage cans and bottles and awarded over $1 million in prizes since 2010.

Science competitions are a form of gamification that incentivizes knowledge of environmental issues and the application of the tools available to solve them with resources that allow students to make a difference in the future. The Siemens Competition in Math, Science, & Technology presents an opportunity to students to conceive engineering or technical solutions for different problems affecting the world, including environmental problems; winners are awarded scholarship money for the college or university of their choice. Focusing specifically on current and future water challenges, the Stockholm Junior Water Prize (SJWP) is a science research project competition in which students aged 15-20 compete on the state and national level for $10,000 and an all-expenses paid trip to represent the U.S. on the international level.

A personal stake in the world's sustainability challenges is the bridge that needs to be built for children and young adults to cross into the future as environmental stewards. Not only does game-based engagement create that connection, it allows environmental concepts to be learned, developed and used; like riding a bike, they'll never forget. Gamification is proven to work, so why not play?

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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California's First in the Nation Climate Plan
Even though the Supreme Court has frozen implementation of EPA's Clean Power Plan Rule while it decides on its constitutionality, last week California announced its plan to meet EPA's carbon reduction requirements. California knows it needs to reduce carbon even if the rule is deemed illegal. The California Air Resources Board, the powerful government agency that regulates the state's air quality, will simply extend the state's cap and trade carbon reduction policy over the number of years needed to meet the federal requirements. According to a Climate Wire piece by Anne C. Mulkern on August 3rd:

California's landmark cap-and-trade program for carbon emissions and proposed amendments to extend that system will be used to comply with U.S. EPA's Clean Power Plan, the state said yesterday...Under ARB's draft blueprint, power plants and other energy generating units (EGUs) that participate in cap and trade in addition to that state requirement would have a federally enforceable mandate to comply because of CPP. California under CPP must meet an emissions target of a 13.2 percent rate reduction from 2020's level by 2030. It looks likely to hit that number. The only state with an economywide carbon cap, California aims to cut its greenhouse gas pollution to 1990 levels by 2020. It's writing regulations to reach 40 percent below that by 2030.

This forward-looking approach makes sense because even if the court throws out the Clean Power Plan, the Supreme Court has already ruled that greenhouse gases are dangerous air pollutants regulated by the Clean Air Act. That means that if the current rule is overturned, a new rule will still need to be developed by the Environmental Protection Agency. This means that states, companies and individuals will still need to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. I believe that states that get ahead of the game will have an easier time complying than those states that decide to stall.

The same can be said for institutions such as universities, hospitals, and corporations. My view is that they should follow California's lead and get ready for a more efficient and renewable resource based economy. This is a low risk, high-payoff strategy for saving money by lowering the long-term cost of energy. There are a number of technologies that must still be developed to complete this transition, but we have all the technology we need to get started. Modern appliances such as refrigerators and air conditioners are far more energy efficient than older appliances. LED light bulbs are already here and provide great illumination at a very low cost. Rooftop solar is currently available for single-family homes, and companies are willing to pay the cost of capital in exchange for a percentage of energy bill reduction. Solar water heating is here for everyone who wants to install it. Insulated walls and windows have been around for a while. While all of these technologies cost capital, the costs of capital can all be paid off from savings in energy bills. So the obstacles to a more efficient energy system are largely institutional, ingrained habit and uncreative finance.

The bigger lifts will be lower priced and smaller solar cells and cheaper but more convenient battery technologies. Solar and wind are intermittent, and so storage is critical. The other technology needed for a renewable energy economy is distributed or decentralized generation of energy. This requires smart grids. One goal of smart grids is to enable users to both consume and generate electricity; a second goal is to use modern computer technology to increase energy use when there is excess capacity and reduce energy consumption when supplies are strained. Smart grids have begun in the form of microgrids: small scale, computer controlled energy systems that provide backup for grid failure, but generate energy for local consumers and the broader electrical grid. Microgrids are being designed throughout New York State and institutions such as New York University already operate one. The way we get to the smart grid is by developing hundreds of microgrids and then tying them together.

The original electrical grid was not some giant federal infrastructure project. It was built incrementally in response to market demand for energy. Almost from the very start electricity has been a regulated utility, since it made little sense to invest in redundant generation and distribution systems. But the natural monopoly in electricity required government oversight. Rural electrification required government intervention because there was an insufficient ratepayer base in the countryside to amortize the cost of capital to build an energy system. Without energy, rural areas would have been abandoned and American political and social values did not favor depopulating the countryside for the sake of energy.

In other words, we know how to build an energy system and those same lessons can be used to modernize the grid. What is missing is the political will to get moving. California Governor Jerry Brown has shown us over and over again that he leads a government that is willing to look beyond the current crisis and envision the future. California is not alone; many other states, including New York are setting ambitious carbon reduction goals, even if they are not explicitly designed to comply with EPA's clean power rules.

The picture is not all pretty. It's true that America is responding to cheap gas by once again buying SUVs. But at the same time more and more young people are moving back to cities and small towns and don't even own cars. They rent and share cars when they need them. The era of the auto as ego extension is showing its first cracks in half a century. Last week I spent hours driving a rental car through Los Angeles gridlock. If this is someone's idea of a good time I'd like to meet them. California does not plan to do without energy. Every part of the modern economy requires energy and California projects that their demand for energy will continue to grow. The question is where does the energy come from? The answer is no new centralized power plants, reduced use of nuclear power, increased use of renewables and increases in energy efficiency.

The goal of the energy transition is to create a renewable energy system that is as effective and reliable as the current fossil fuel-based system. Microgrids provide backup capacity and vastly increase the reliability of power systems for consumers. A second goal of the energy transition is to switch off of fossil fuels and rely on solar, wind and geothermal sources of energy. This transition will take decades and we will need to find some way to allow the fossil fuel industry to recover the capital they invested in fossil fuel extraction and distribution once those sources are no longer needed. One possible solution is to use investment in renewable energy to provide tax benefits when they retire fossil fuel infrastructure. We need to help energy companies find their way to renewables, and the best way is through their wallets.

In this summer of political weirdness it is fitting that the guy once called Governor Moonbeam, California's Jerry Brown, is showing us the way to overcome inertia and implement a sound energy future. California has long represented America's future. From the gridlocked freeways of Los Angeles, to the zero waste policy of San Francisco, all our contradictions and aspirations are on display and compete for our attention. California's population is now over 39 million people and it is home to over 12% of America's population. It is encouraging that they are moving aggressively to reduce greenhouse gases. It increases the probability that the rest of the country will eventually follow their lead.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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Meatless Monday: Olympic Cool
Record summer heat temperatures around the globe. Factor in Olympic fever, and it seems like there's no way to cool down. But there is. Naturally. To beat the heat, Ayurvedic medicine, that ancient Indian body-balancing system, advocates eating foods that are alkaline. They reduce inflammation in the body and act as your personal air conditioning unit. So what foods are alkaline? Most fruits and vegetables. A bonus -- much summer produce can take the heat as it grows, yet cool you down as you eat it. You don't have to remember (or pronounce) ayurveda, or even alkaline, just think mild, sweet-tart and bitter.

Mild-- Enjoy summer produce mild in flavor but high in water content, like zucchini and summer squash and celery. Melons like watermelon, cantaloupe and their kin, the cucumber, are also alkaline. This led my husband to make a cucumber martini. Nice try, but an icy martini or a cold beer isn't cooling. Or alkaline. Like meat, dairy, coffee and processed white sugar and flour, alcohol is acidic and inflammatory. Keep the cucumber, lose the booze, and keep hydrated. Drink water -- lots.

Sweet and tart -- Summer fruit like grapes, with their sweet flesh and tart skins, and local goodies including mangoes, antioxidant-rich berries and all manner of citrus have that juicy, sweet-tart zing going. Lemons and limes have that acidic sizzle on the tongue, yet create a more alkaline balance in your body. Think of lemonade on a brutally hot day. Summer fruits are fun and refreshing to eat even as they cleanse and cool the body.

Bitter-- The astringency in bitter greens -- that puckery sensation in the mouth -- acts as a natural cooling agent. Brassicas like broccoli and cauliflower and greens including dandelion and collards are also natural detoxers, decluttering your liver, lightening you up and cooling you down. While there's still the southern propensity to cook collards with a hunk of pig and simmer them till they're gray, in honor of our Olympic hosts, enjoy collards the Brazilian way, shredded and tossed with lemon. Known as couve a miniera, it's served throughout Brazil, with a variation or two, but always simple and vibrant.

We've yet to find the food -- or drug -- that guarantees Olympic victory, but we can connect you to the produce that'll help you beat the heat. How cool is that?

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Couve a Miniera

Natural coolants collards and lemons come together in this vibrant salad/accompaniment you'll find throughout Brazil. I have a real fondness for this dish which is as simple to make as it is dazzling to eat. While many Brazilian recipes call for giving the greens a quick saute, these are shredded, raw and "cooked" only with the the acid from the lemon juice. Enjoy as a salad, sprinkle some into a tofu scramble, pair with beans, whole grains or grilled vegetables or as a filling for tortillas.

2 bunches collards greens
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 2 juicy lemons)
sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Wash the collards well. Blot dry. Slice out the thick central stems and discard (or reserve them to make broth later). Stack the collard leaves and roll them up widthwise, forming a tight collard cigar. Using your sharpest knife, slice across as thinly as possible, forming skinny ribbons -- collard tinsel -- or to use the correct culinary term, chiffonade. Alternately, using the shredding disc, shred the collards in a food processor. You'll have about 4 cups of greens. Congratulations, you've just done the toughest bit of the recipe.

Scoop the collards into a large bowl. Add the minced garlic, lemon juice and olive oil. Toss to combine. Season with sea salt and pepper.

Enjoy. Couve a miniera keeps tightly covered and refrigerated for a day or two.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

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And here's April, the official "boss" of the team.

We're, um, Straight Outta 'fourth' 'trons... 'trinos... you know what we mean scientists

Earth Overshoot Day 2016: August 8

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