Ernest Hemingway made Mount Kilimanjaro famous with his story “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”—though he never climbed the peak.

But many others have. More than 30,000 try each year, with two-thirds reaching the top.

Kili, as it’s called, is the tallest mountain in Africa but the easiest climb of the Seven Summits—the highest peaks on the seven continents.

Its high camps have hosted some world record sporting events, including the highest professional soccer game, with players hailing from 20 countries.

It’s a unique ascent, traversing five different ecological zones, from cultivated lands to rain forest, then moorland, alpine desert and finally an arctic summit.

The summit of Mount Kilimanjaro is actually three volcanic cones. The last major eruption ended 170,000 years ago, and all peaks are thought to be either extinct or dormant.

There are glaciers in the highest areas, but they’re disappearing quickly, down more than 80 percent since the early 1900’s. It’s thought this is mostly related to human deforestation in the valleys surrounding the mountain, disrupting its microclimate.

The valleys have fertile volcanic soils and ample rainfall, producing the tallest trees in Africa. Tanzania has recently pushed to protect them from logging and is now replanting millions of indigenous trees in an effort to reforest the area.

Through careful stewardship, the mountain could be protected from the further impacts of humans.

Why do zebras have stripes? It’s probably a combination of things.

Zebras’ main predators are lions. Black and white stripes actually make zebras stand out against their grassland home, rather than camouflage them.

But when many zebras are running simultaneously, the cacophony of stripes may confuse predators as to how many zebras there are and which way they’re moving, making it more difficult to target an individual.

However, lions are ultimately successful at catching zebras, so this optical confusion deters but doesn’t prevent predation.

It’s also thought that the alternating black and white areas may be a thermoregulation strategy. The black stripes are 20 degrees Fahrenheit warmer in the sun, which may help the zebra absorb the sun’s heat on cool mornings, while white stripes reflect heat in the hot afternoons.

But perhaps the most beneficial quality of the stripes is to deter biting flies. Researchers have found that the stripes confuse the flies’ depth perception, making it difficult for them to land and bite.

In tests, scientists dressed horses in striped coats and put them with captive zebras and solid-colored horses in fly-infested areas.

They found that flies preferred the solid-colored animals four to one, and either hovered over, or bounced off, the striped animals.

Scientists accept it’s probably some combination of all these beneficial traits that led the zebra to develop stripes.

Utah’s Great Salt Lake may seem like a wasteland, ringed by toxic deposits of mercury and arsenic, and filled with water so salty that only brine shrimp can live in it.

However, those shrimp feed 10 million migrating birds. And the lake provides eight thousand jobs and two billion dollars in industry, harvesting salt and other minerals. It’s vital to the region’s ecology and economy.

But the lake is in danger.

Great Salt Lake is the remnant of Lake Bonneville which, in ancient times, was nearly as big as Lake Michigan.

Then, 18,000 years ago, the lake found a drainage path to the Pacific Ocean through the Snake River Valley, and its level fell 400 feet.

Fifteen thousand years ago, as glaciers retreated from the region, the climate became drier. The lake became landlocked again and started to evaporate, falling another 600 feet to stabilize at its modern size.

But over the past century, its been gradually shrinking. In 2022, it hit a record low.

This is due to rising temperatures and drier summers in the region, and, importantly, to lower inflow—as the rivers that feed the lake have been increasingly diverted for agriculture and mining. So, Utah began water conservation measures.

Then 2023 saw the most snowfall in 70 years, which may lead to record runoff.

Only time will tell if Utah’s people, and weather, can save the Great Salt Lake.