National Geographic Magazine August 2018

NAT GEO TV Within the 22.6 million acres of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, there are lush forests, dramatic canyons, gushing geysers—and more than 300 animal species. For the four-night television event Yellowstone Live, world-renowned cinematographers will use cutting-edge technology to show some of Earth’s most majestic wildlife in real time. Episodes will air August 5 to 8 at 9/8c on National Geographic. BOOKS Birds of the Photo Ark Take Flight Of the many species that Joel Sartore has photographed, some of the most glorious are birds. Their images fill the 240 pages of Birds of the Photo Ark, available where books are sold and at shopng.com/books. NAT GEO WILD Learn Insiders’ Secrets of the Zoo Go behind the scenes at one of America’s most popular zoos: the Columbus (Ohio) Zoo…

‘WHEN I GET EIGHT HOURS, I KNOW THE DIFFERENCE. I KNOW I’M MORE EFFECTIVE; I KNOW I’M THE BEST VERSION OF MYSELF.’ Thanks for sharing your expertise on sleep, the topic of our cover story. Thomas Edison called sleep “an absurdity” and “a bad habit.” Is that idea ingrained in our culture? I think it’s deeply ingrained, but we’re at a moment of transformation. What stops people from prioritizing sleep is the fear that somehow they’re going to miss out. We have so many phrases that confirm that—“You snooze, you lose,” “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” But now there are role models, people who are prioritizing sleep and are supereffective. You’re known as hard-charging. Did you have a moment when you said, I’ve got to change what I’m doing? Yes,…

VOL.2 34 NO.2 EGYPTIAN VULTURE (NEOPHRON PERCNOPTERUS) This vulture’s range includes southern Europe, Africa, India, and Nepal. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed the bird as endangered, one of the nine categories it uses to describe a species’ conservation status.…

CONSIDER THE SHOEBILL, whose photo opens this article. It’s a one-of-a-kind species on the verge of extinction—exactly the type targeted for protection by the Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered species program, aka EDGE of Existence. But when I started the EDGE initiative in 2007, the challenge was getting people who’d never heard of those animals to commit to protecting them. Ideally I could have gone to the leading marketing agency for nature and asked what to do to get people to emotionally connect with these weird and wonderful creatures. But no such agency exists—and we’ve only begun to develop both the art and science of making this vital connection. Tim Flach photographed the birds in this article; all are in his book Endangered, to which I contributed. Flach has a…

“YOU NEED TO HAVE your throat cut out and your decomposing, bug-infested body fed to wild pigs.” An anonymous Facebook user wrote that—and more that’s unprintable—to Kyle Edmund after the British pro tennis player lost in a 2017 tournament. After University of Cambridge classics professor Mary Beard spoke about the history of male suppression of female voices, she received Twitter threats, including “I’m going to cut off your head and rape it.” On Martin Luther King Day this year, an anonymous Twitter user lionized the man who killed King some 50 years ago: “RIP James Earl Ray. A true fighter for the white race.” The same month, U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted that his “Nuclear Button … is a much bigger & more powerful one” than Kim Jong Un’s. This…

ENVIRONMENTAL MEASURES Selected cities; higher numbers are better scores. HOW THE CITIES RANK Munich, Germany (#2) Berlin, Germany (#3) 1 FRANKFURT German cities score high due to advanced bike infrastructure, plentiful green spaces, and low greenhouse gas emissions. Seoul, South Korea (#11) Edinburgh, U.K. (#22) Baltimore, U.S. (#25) 28 SHENZHEN Despite its rapid growth from fishing village to megalopolis of over 10 million people, the Chinese city has developed sustainable transit. Boston, U.S. (#43) 52 RIO DE JANEIRO To combat major pollution, the Brazilian city launched a 50-year strategy in 2015 to improve air quality and local ecosystems by using cleaner fuels. Sydney, Australia (#61) Johannesburg, South Africa (#72) 67 LOS ANGELES Electric-vehicle incentives and investments in public transit are improving mobility in the U.S. city, which is known for…