via Reuters –
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Rather than throwing that bag or hosepipe into the recycle bin, how about turning it into a belt or a shower curtain, joining a growing band of upcyclers?
Upcycling refers to reusing an object in a new way without degrading the material it is made from, as opposed to recycling which generally involves breaking down the original material and making it into something else, using more energy.
Supporters of the environmentally friendly practice of upcycling say people in developing countries have effectively been upcycling for years, …

From National Geographic News -
August 5, 2009—Talk about a sea change.
From 2006 through 2009, Central Asia’s vast Aral Sea dramatically retreated, with its eastern section losing about 80 percent of its water in just four years (above, newly released NASA satellite images are animated to show the regression).
The immense body of water, which straddles Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan (see map), was once the world’s fourth largest freshwater lake.
But in the past 30 years, 60 percent of the lake has disintegrated, according to NASA’s Earth Observatory.
In the 1960s farmers in this arid …