Assistant Residence Director Apartment Living (North) - University Of: Fill & Download for Free

My career was in higher ed (university/college) student housing administration. I had worked my way up through the ranks of head resident to assistant area coordinator of what was, then, the largest student housing structure in North America.During those years I had been reserved about who I confided in and remained observant of the social norms in interactions with students, parents, and staff. After working and being reliable, amicable, and fair, I eventually was given an opportunity to live off campus and still keep my rank and position. It was during this time off campus that I met and fell in love with the man who would be my life partner. Within two years, the university had determined that the position I now held was going to be required to live back on campus.I understood their reasoning and discussed with my immediate supervisor that if I were required to live back in the student housing facilities, that my life partner would be living with me, that I understood the delicacy of the situation, and that every effort would be made in an attempt to keep from being a distraction from the mission of helping students to be successful as they adjusted to life on their own.My supervisor took the issue up with the director of housing, who was an evangelical christian, and, as a result, I was cut loose just before the start of a semester. Being as there were other straight staff which were allowed to have their boyfriend/girlfriend live with them in staff apartments without the necessity of marriage, it was simply the fact that I was a gay man that changed their decision.It was disappointing and eventually dealt a blow to my relationship with my partner that would never recover, not to mention my own self esteem, which I was able to eventually salvage.One of the best things I learned from that experience was that those who deny you opportunity based on anything other than the actual ability to do a job, rob themselves of some of the most dedicated and productive people that ever worked a job or held a career. Their bigotry takes more from a company than it can ever give back.

There in the middle of the desert wastes stood a great sidr tree, lonely and alone. Unaccompanied but for a bungalow that stood nearby. A man and his wife occupied that house along with their servants. One night there came a great sandstorm and the next morning Abu* Saud and Umm* Saud looked out their window; the sand had piled on their windows and covered the outside of their home, and while looking out they noticed a deep hole beneath the tree that the sandstorm uncovered. Upon closer inspection the hole revealed an ancient grave that contained a dead, mummified woman. Abu Saud called his servants in order to rebury the woman, but suddenly she came alive. The woman claimed that she had lingered in her grave for a thousand years, and that she was hungry, in need of a wash, and warm clothes. The couple obliged, but before they could let her in the house, an angry mob led by an elderly bearded man with a white beard bearing a long knife and his mob armed with staves and swords demanded to rebury the woman alive. A skirmish would ensue and Abu Saud grabbed the man’s knife and slew him, before going back to lead the woman to his home. Abu Saud…Harold Dickson awoke from his dream.A town that had for centuries been largely unremarkable on the world stage, built of clay, suffering from an economic depression, whose wealth had been based on the blessings of the sea, and whose growth had largely been slow was about to face prominence and growth unprecedented in size and speed than anytime in its history. With the end of the Second World War, the quest for oil production and exploitation to power the world’s technology came into full swing and with it the wealth that would flow as a result. This was Kuwait City in 1948.A decade earlier in 1938, oil was first struck in the country in the Burgan field, then the largest oil reserve ever discovered. Harold Dickson, former British political agent in Kuwait along with his wife had been living in the country for over a decade in their blue and white house overlooking the Gulf in the Sharq district. After leaving the foreign service, he became the Emir of Kuwait’s representative in the Anglo-Persian Oil Company that surveyed signs for oil reserves in the region. Holes that were dug in Bahra, nearby Burgan in the Kuwaiti desert, yielded signs of pressure on the rock; possible evidence of oil but nothing that was thorough. It was close, but not there yet. Oil was first discovered in the Gulf in Bahrain in 1932, leading hope that larger reserves could be found in the rest of eastern Arabia.Dickson when awaking from his dream, told his wife Violet (Umm Saud) who jotted down the description. He made his way to the Emir, Sheikh Ahmed Al Jaber Al Sabah and told him of what he saw. Sheikh Ahmed, who, as a result of Dickson’s earlier visions of flash floods that came to be, and an attempted assassination on an Arab ruler (Ibn Saud), had trust that this was more than a dream and told him of a Bedouin woman known as Umm Mubarak (Mother of Mubarak) who was renowned for interpreting dreams. After seeking her out and telling her of what he had seen, she asked if he had been looking for an ancient treasure. He responded in the affirmative. She said that the woman he saw in the dream represented that treasure, and the mob that tried to rebury the woman represented those in Kuwait who would attempt to stop him from finding that treasure. She knew of only one such lonely tree in Burgan known to the Bedouins that roamed the Kuwaiti desert, and told him that if he was looking for treasure, then it would be under that lone sidr tree in Burgan that he would find it.Within a few months, oil surveying operations did move to Burgan from Bahrah, and using his influence, it was near that lone sidr tree that Dickson pressured them to dig. It did not take long for them to make their find; as a result of the pressure and sheer quantity of the oil after digging the hole, the oil spurted and gushed out in February 22nd, 1938. The first oil well in Kuwait had been struck.My own family’s home in this time was in the area of Jibla (Qibla) in the west: one of two areas in the original Kuwait City, the other being Sharg (Sharq) in the east, and the third which was newer Murgab (Murqab) in the south. Specifically it was in the Freej Al Ghuneim neighborhood, the first neighborhood of Jibla west from Sharq. To the north it is bordered by the sea and Nig’at Al Ghuneim (Al Ghuneim harbour), to the south Barahat Al Sub’an known today as Barahat Bin Bahar (a baraha is a plaza between houses and a larger space in contrast to the tight spaces in the streets between houses), to the east: Freej Al Shuyoukh and Buhaita hill, which was the neighborhood that was inhabited by the ruling family, and Buhaita hill was where the original Kout (fortress by water) was built by Sheikh Barrack bin Ghurayr of Al Hasa in the 1670s as a fortress and a summer residence, and from which Kuwait (little fortress by water) got its name, and to the west, the neighborhood of Freej Saud. The home was near the wide Ali Al Salem (formerly Qabazard) road in the south-eastern corner of Freej Al Ghuneim, bordered to the north by the Al Sarhan/Yaseen Al Qin’ai Mosque, the south: a row of stores that mainly sold ship supplies and carpets mainly belonging to the Qabazard family, and Ali Al Salem road, the east: the house of Yousef Al Mukhaizeem, and the west: Mahalat (tight street) Al Anjeri, and the house of Jassim Al Anjeri, and the Al Husseini family house.It belonged to my grandfather Nokhetha ((ship) Captain) Abdulaziz Al Samakah (Al Meajel) who was born in the house in 1890 and his elder sisters, Sheikha (who married into the Al Refai family) and Sherifa (who married into the Al Khamis family). They inherited the house from their father before them, Nokhetha Abdullah bin Ibrahim Al Samakah (Al Meajel) who was married to Fatima Al Adsani, daughter of the Qadi (Judge) of Kuwait at the time. Those who lived in the house, by the early 1950s, other than those mentioned earlier were: my grandfather’s second wife (he divorced his first wife Sherifa Al Meajel who bore him a son Ibrahim in 1910, but he passed away in the 1930s with one daughter Dalal) Noura bint Abdullah Al Barrack and her daughters (my aunts) Hessa, Taiba, Muneera, and Aisha, and son, Abdullah and his wife, Dalal Al Rushoud, and sons Abdulwahab and Mohammed, and my grandmother (my grandfather’s third wife) Bazzah bint Nasser Al Nisif and her son, Ahmed, and later, towards the end of their stay before moving to the newer residential areas in the late 1950s, her children Abdulrazaq, Sherifa, and Hamed. The rest of my uncles, aunts, cousins, and my father would be born in the new residential area of Kaifan, not Jibla in downtown Kuwait. As well as that, two former slave women also lived with them, who my grandfather’s sisters had inherited from their late husbands, Zahra, who was mute and Mabrooka (who had earlier left the home when she got married and came back when her husband passed), and her son Mansour.The house was considered large especially by the standards of the time and compared to others. The house had two courtyards with the rooms overlooking the courtyard, and halls between the rooms and the courtyard. It was built of hyar bahar (sea rocks) that would be stacked on one another and wiped with Yiss (Clay Gypsum/Plaster/Render). The roofs over the rooms were built of Chandal - a type of wood that grew in the mangroves of eastern Africa, Zanzibar, and Kenya, of which there were various types - the best being Abu Tabr cut from the middle of the axe, Lamu (from the town of Lamu, Kenya north of Mombasa), and Abu Mshara among others. They would be rowed in the roofs with a distance of a shibr (span, a hand’s distance) between each one, on top of it the Bascheel was placed, which were reeds - also from eastern Africa - that would be nailed and patterned to prevent clay from seeping to the Chandal and on top, the clay would be placed to complete the roofs. On the roof, the house had a Kengiya - an attic where items were stored - and in the summer months, everyone would sleep on the roof at night on mattresses dripped in water to escape the heat. The house also had several mirzam, which was made of metal or wood, that allowed rainwater to flow from the roof and fall to the street below.The location of our house in cyan. Family names rendered over aerial image.As well as that, they owned two cows, which would be milked by Mama Noura and whose milk would be drunk, and dairy products made for household consumption. Less well-off families could not afford cows, as upkeep was more expensive, so instead they owned goats, which would be taken by herders in each Freej (neighborhood) to graze outside the town walls.Kuwait in the 1950s:In the 1950s, the winds of change began to flow as the wealth came in. It was a time of compulsory land purchase by the government in Kuwait to make room for a redesign of Kuwait City. The building of new residential areas, where citizens would be given land by the government free of charge to build their houses, and a new social welfare system was being developed. By the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s, the vast majority of downtown Kuwait City within the borders of the third wall would have moved out, with many inhabitants being compensated with buildings of economic purposes and free houses elsewhere.In 1954, known as the “year of demolition” (sinat al hadama), due to the rains that tore down houses and resulted in flash floods. Those affected were temporarily resettled in schools, as they were large, new, and built of concrete. My own family home, though the walls of their house stood sturdy, had leaks in the roof, and for safety reasons - lest the roofs fall upon their heads - they departed to stay in the Khalid bin Al Waleed school, until the rains stopped and the leaks could be fixed.As for other stories from my family’s last days in Jibla, Othman Al Anjeri, who was Jassim’s brother and my family’s neighbor, loved films and every week would set up a film projector with a cotton screen, and invite over the whole freej to watch black and white Egyptian movies which were famous across the Arab world. He would set it up in their house’s courtyard and they would sit and watch, with a different film every week. My grandfather, who was a merchant that traded in ship supplies in India with his ship Samhan, and got fresh water from the Shatt Al Arab between Iraq and Iran to bring to Kuwait with his ship Al Khalidi, and during the Second World War bought sugar from Dubai to sell in Kuwait and smuggled gold into British India, would by the end of the decade stop his voyages and settle in his office where his house in Jibla was, instead, trading in real estate. As it was with other Nokhethas who stopped their voyages as well as other Kuwaitis with traditional forms of work, instead they opted for other, more relaxed trades, with everyone moving to residential areas outside the downtown, and my family relocated to Kaifan.Sadly, no one at the time had an idea of historical and cultural preservation. The mentality was: old was bad and new was good. Kuwait City was to be rebuilt, with the wall being demolished in 1957, with only the gates remaining. What remained of old Kuwait was a few houses here and there, the old mosques that are all still preserved, and the old souq. As for the tight streets and city layout, it was all demolished to make way for new buildings. What they should have done was preserve the old town, while building around it, as much of the land between the town itself and the third wall was undeveloped, a modern town could have been built around the old town with it being preserved as heritage. Maybe with each building having a plaque, and acting as a mini museum of the family that lived there, when they migrated to Kuwait and from where, and something of their family history, while at the same time retaining other purposes such as shops, cafes, restaurants, and museums, among other things, while being government owned. Today 30% of downtown Kuwait City is undeveloped, which makes the demolition of the old town all the more heartbreaking. What I wish would be done is that they demolish the ugly buildings built after the liberation in 1991, as well as in undeveloped land, mainly in Sharq and in parking places, and rebuild old Sharq and Jibla through use of the 1951 aerial image, maps, and testimonies of the town, with the whole downtown having an underground parking lot, and preferably. underground roads, with the top being pedestrian. For now, though, that remains a dream.Aerial view of Kuwait City, 1951.Free healthcare, education, and other welfare benefits were being provided. Change was apparent and very fast paced. It was something that brought hope, and society itself changed with exposure to more liberal trends in more advanced Arab countries like Egypt, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. Egypt was all the rage, and everything Egyptian was all the rage. Arab nationalism ran hot and the role of women began to change. With many younger urban women towards the end of the fifties opting to go unveiled without the Boshiya - the mesh that covered the faces of Kuwaiti women for centuries - and hijab, influenced by Egyptian Nasserism. It was not something against religion per se, but it was due of lack of knowledge and ignorance that it was not necessary, as well as cultural influence from more westernized, technologically, and infrastructurally more advanced Arab countries. People still prayed and fasted, and society was still conservative.However, be as it may, that influence would remain, with it being societally acceptable for women to be outside unveiled today - something unthinkable in other Gulf societies at the time, and even today, as their wealth did not come during a period where Arab nationalism and Nasserism was at its peak, but quite the opposite, when social conservatism and religiosity was rising in the 1970s and 1980s. Kuwaiti drama and theater at this time also began taking root, influenced by Egyptian theater at the time. They would be the seeds that paved the way for Kuwaiti dominance of television in the Gulf for the coming decades.Kuwait in the 1960s:In 1961, Kuwait would request the termination of its 1899 protection treaty with the United Kingdom, granting Kuwait full independence, with full control over its foreign policy. A clause stipulated that Britain (in an emergency situation) would protect Kuwait militarily if need be from threats to its independence. That clause would be called in soon, as immediately a revolutionary Iraq under Abdulkarim Qassim made its intentions clear to annex Kuwait. Britain would distribute troops on Kuwait’s border with Iraq, and Iraq would back down. The British troops would later be replaced by Arab League troops, mainly from Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Thousands of Kuwaitis demonstrated against Qassim’s threats - the first demonstration of its size in Kuwaiti history - a sign of the growing political culture in the state.Kuwaitis demonstrating outside Sief Palace against Prime Minister of Iraq Abdulkarim Qassim’s threats to invade Kuwait.The 1960s was primarily a time of cultural change in the political and educational sphere, which went hand in hand with development. In 1962, the Kuwaiti constitution was made law by the Emir, Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem Al Sabah, written and proposed by prominent Kuwaiti individuals primarily from the merchant class. The constitution would introduce the National Assembly, which aimed to check the power of the government appointed by the Emir, and headed by the Prime Minister, who was traditionally also heir apparent, and meant to represent the interests of the population (not so much the case anymore, but oh well).Much of the penal code and court systems came from Egyptian law itself, descended from French civil law, and to some extent, English common law and Ottoman law. Though in the constitution it stipulated that Islamic law is the main source of legislation, it was not limited by saying that it is the only source of legislation. Egypt was seen as the pinnacle of advancement at the time - everyone wanted to travel to Egypt and study in Egypt. However, Egypt was a country that would lose much of the development that it had in the past, and many issues that plague the Egyptian system today also plague the Kuwaiti system. Court decisions are incredibly slow, making lawsuits dreadful and expensive. Even when decisions are made, many are based on decisions made in Egyptian courts in the past: development projects put on hold due to lawsuits by the company against the government, or the like, take years, if not a decade or more, putting much development and progress on hold. The court system is in need of reform.In 1966, Kuwait University would be founded, which would be a place of gathering and work for Kuwaiti scholars and academics. It was to be a local university, rather than having those aiming for higher education to travel abroad to Arab countries like Egypt or Iraq, Europe, the United States, or the Soviet Union. Architecturally as well the city was starting to take shape. Socially, and in terms of welfare, health systems, cooperative societies systems, and education systems would be put in place, Kuwait would also be the first country to introduce a sovereign wealth fund and a fund for future generations to save a percentage of revenues every year for the benefit of future generations. Cooperative societies in which 70% of exchanges and trades in Kuwait are directed to this day, with a central co-op in every residential area bringing in goods as would a supermarket based on demand, with connected barbers, tailors, bakeries, restaurants, and shops to fulfill needs and wants without having to leave the residential area. Members of the board of directors are elected by the residents of the area, registered with the cooperative society. It would be a central experience to every Kuwaiti living in Kuwait, and an important aspect of every residential area built.These systems would serve as a basis for other Gulf countries with emerging oil wealth in the coming decades. From sovereign wealth funds to welfare systems paving the way for successful investment of oil wealth in the region and in order to invest that wealth abroad as well to increase non-oil revenues. Kuwait shared in its wealth through the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, supporting Arab and non-Arab developing countries - something that helped its position diplomatically in the stand against the Iraqi Invasion of 1990. Gulf neighbors, particularly, that were less well off at the time saw Kuwaiti schools, with Kuwaiti books, and education systems opened for public use and hospitals to serve the residents, and funded by Kuwait.Kuwait in the 1970s:Kuwait in the 1970s was a continuation of its successes and development of the sixties. Kuwait was known as “the Pearl of the Gulf”. The 1970s saw the Kuwait water towers established in order to store desalinated water from the sea and increase water security. Water desalination plants were built in Kuwait starting in 1951, and today constitutes 90% of Kuwait’s water needs. Starting from 1970, thirty three towers would be constructed and completed in 1976. The three final towers would get a special design, and would become an icon of Kuwait, and the tallest buildings in the country at the time, dubbed “Abraj al Kuwait” “the Kuwait Towers”. One would store water, the other would store water, and have an observatory and restaurant in the top sphere, and one acted as a monument. These last three towers would be completed and opened in 1979. The water towers and Kuwait towers act as a unique architectural aspect of Kuwait to this day, with the water system still remaining vital for Kuwait’s water security and self-sufficiency.Abdulaziz Al Meajel's answer to What was the source of drinking water in Kuwait before the SWECO built the water towers?The seventies became the start of the renaissance of Kuwaiti entertainment, from theatrical performances to film and television productions. This renaissance and golden age of Kuwaiti entertainment would go on until the mid 1990s before going downhill from there. Freedom of expression and the great support for actors and the dramatic profession saw actors from other Arab countries, primarily Iraq and the Gulf, flock to Kuwait, learning the Kuwaiti dialect and performing in productions that would be watched across the Gulf and other Arab countries. The first Kuwaiti movie, Bas Ya Bahar, would be shown in 1972. Popular theatrical performances produced in this period include: Hafla ‘ala al Khazooq in 1975, which was partly Kuwaiti and partly formal Arabic, ‘Ala Haman Ya Fir’oun in 1978, I’zoobi Al Salmiya in 1979, and the musical Muthakarat Bahar, also in 1979 (the 2019 remake is even more amazing). One of the most famous television shows, Darb Al Zalag, was also aired in 1977 and was a comedic take on the period of the mid to late fifties and early sixties.Television and entertainment became a central part of life. It allowed Kuwaiti culture to evolve into a new sphere and project it regionally. It also significantly developed cultural life, and created a new platform of political and social criticism, with many shows and performances having meanings political, social, and economic while presenting it in a comedic way. It was not the newspapers of the merchant class that aimed to direct politics based on their interests, nor the pulpits of mosques where scholars in religion delivered their sermons to right moral wrongs in society,it was the common man’s platform and was very relatable on a personal level.The roads were much cleaner than they are now. The city was much greener, with plants and grass subject to upkeep. Education from primary to secondary levels was excellent, with free breakfasts and lunches, free uniforms, and recreation facilities. Children roamed the streets and played. The public transportation on buses was considered excellent before its privatization by the government, leading to lack of organization, lack of maintenance for bus stations, and neglect of certain routes over others. As for politically, the National Assembly was suspended from 1976 until 1980, when it was reinstated, and in that span of time, Kuwait was an absolute monarchy, and that would play a role later in the 1980s.The seventies was for Kuwaitis what the fifties were in the American psyche.Hey, look! It’s Dickson’s house! Though Harold died in 1959, his widow Violet still lived in the house with their children, Saud and Zahra.Kuwait in the 1980s:Kuwait in the 1980s was a continuation of the late 1970s, mostly, and was characterized by its influential entertainment regionally, the impact of the Iran-Iraq War, and increasing social conservatism that began in the mid 1970s. Kuwait supported Iraq against its war with Revolutionary Iran, and as a result was a target of attack by Iranian backed militias like the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Iraqi Islamic Dawa Party. This included the first terrorist attack in Kuwaiti history in 1983, which included an attack on the American and French embassies, a petrochemical plant, which would have harmed oil production and severely impacted the water supply system, and the international airport. The only car bomb that caused damage though was the one that rammed the American embassy’s gates and killed two Kuwaitis, two Palestinians, and one Syrian. The rest failed to cause much substantial damage, aside from one at the airport control tower, which killed an Egyptian technician.In 1984, four Lebanese hijackers took control of a Kuwait Airways flight flying to Karachi, Pakistan from Kuwait, and diverted it to Tehran, aiming to get the 17 people arrested in the bombings released. In 1985, there was an attempted assassination attack on the Emir, Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmed Al Jaber Al Sabah, when a suicide car bomber attacked the Emir’s motorcade, killing two of his personal guard and a civilian, and wounding the Emir. The justification was stated to be the release of the original perpetrators behind the 1983 bombings. In 1988 as well, another hijacking took place on a Kuwait Airways plane flying from Bangkok, Thailand to Kuwait in which two Kuwaitis were killed.Infrastructure was still great, and so was the education system up to this point. It was also a golden decade of Kuwaiti theater, from shows to plays. Children’s shows would be shown during Ramadan, such as Madinat Al Reyah in 1988, and the shows primarily revolved around good and evil. Others included Al Ghuraba’ in 1982, Khalti Qumasha: a famous Kuwaiti sitcom in 1984, ‘Ala al Dunya Salam in 1987, among many others. As well as famed plays such as Bye Bye London in 1981, Bye Bye Arab in 1986, and Fursan Al Manakh in 1983 which talked about the black market stock exchange called Souq Al Manakh (which caused a huge economic crisis in 1983, leading the government to spend 90 billion dollars, 60 billion of which went to only a handful of people to clear up their debts), and many other performances as well. These performances would remain secure in the Kuwaiti psyche to this day, and the period of the late fifties through the eighties is remembered fondly as Ziman Al Taybeen: “Era of the Good people”.Politically, in 1986 the National Assembly Majlis Al Ummah was suspended, and Kuwait became an absolute monarchy, much like between 1976 to 1980. In 1990, the Majlis Al Watani was put in its place and acted as an advisory and municipal body, but it would not last, as Iraq would soon invade. The influence of the merchant class was also evident in putting a hold on a play (Hatha Seifo) which criticized their role in influencing politics in 1987. They managed this through newspapers that criticized the play after only one performance, and claimed that it went against Islamic values, which caused the Islamic scholars from both sects to protest.Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait and Liberation of Kuwait 1990-1991:On August 2nd, 1990 Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait, and within two days had full control over the country. The Kuwaiti military was ordered to withdraw into Saudi Arabia, with those units that remained covering the withdrawal, and putting up as much stiff resistance as they could. While withdrawing, they distributed weapons to civilians in residential suburbs, and those in the military that could not leave formed the Kuwaiti Resistance, which were unconnected separate networks of Kuwaiti soldiers and civilians, including women who aimed to make the occupation miserable for the Iraqis, which they did quite well: managing to bomb Iraqi makeshift bases in police stations, and killing them in guerrilla type warfare and surprise skirmishes.It caused fear and paranoia. The mere presence of Kuwaitis within Kuwait was a form of resistance, as otherwise, Iraqis would have taken over Kuwaiti homes, and would have effectively colonized the country. Kuwaitis, including my own father, went up the roofs at night and would shout “Allahu Akbar” “God is Greater!”, which would cause fear in the Iraqis, with noise from all around them, and they would start shooting into the air. Kuwaitis became the garbage cleaners, they became the bakers, they distributed what supplies they had to other families; doctors worked in secret, helping people who needed it, and resistance fighters, all for nothing in exchange. Neighbors became family effectively. Suddenly, for half a year, Kuwait of 1991 became Kuwait of 1948, in the style that people dressed kind of, especially women in their abayas, and in terms of becoming a more close-knit society.Umm Saud (Violet) Dickson, who still lived in Kuwait at the behest of her children, would leave Kuwait in September 1990. She would pass away in the United Kingdom in January, a month before Liberation and she would not see her adopted country - the one she wished to die in - free.Many buildings were destroyed, including the National Assembly building and Sief Palace, that were damaged. The telecommunications tower was still only half-built at the time, and stood at the center of downtown Kuwait City. Iraqi soldiers tortured resistance fighters and then, to finish them off, took them to their houses in front of their families, parents, and children, and executed them. It was a time of horror, and everyone who lived through it has a story. The day liberation came, people felt a happiness they never had before: they had their country back. Imagine waking up one morning and your country doesn’t exist anymore, soldiers are on the street, and people are telling you that you’re a citizen of a country you’re not. Now, imagine the happiness when your country is back:Civilians celebrating the liberation of Kuwait from Iraqi forces.Resistance fighters and civilians raising pictures of the Crown Prince, Sheikh Saad Al Abdullah Al Salem Al Sabah, and the Kuwaiti flag, celebrating the liberation.Emirati and Qatari tanks drive into Kuwait City, and are cheered by civilians on February 26th, the day of Kuwait’s liberation, part of the US-led coalition that liberated Kuwait.Kuwaitis and their children celebrating with Saudi soldiers, part of the coalition contingent that liberated Kuwait.Man: ecstatic, welcoming coalition troops and raising the Kuwaiti flag.Kuwait 1990s:Kuwait returned to its rightful owners in 1991. In 1992, the National Assembly would be returned. In 1994, the Telecommunications tower would be completed and renamed “the Liberation Tower” (Burj Al Tahreer), which remains a central aspect of Kuwait’s skyline to this day. High-rise buildings became popular in areas such as Salmiya and the capital during this time, which would be filled with office buildings and apartments. Some Iraqi actors who had lived and acted in Kuwait for decades were tried and expelled for treason. Iraqis, Palestinians, and Jordanians who had supported and assisted the Iraqi regime during the occupation were also expelled, and Arab nationalism reached a new low in Kuwait.“An Arab country invaded us and was aided by many foreign Arabs within the country while foreign infidels helped us? Keep your Pan-Arabism to yourself. The only countries we can trust are our Gulf brothers after God”. That was the mentality following Liberation. Egyptians were seen in a much more positive light, as not only did their country politically and militarily aid Kuwait, but many Egyptian residents even took up arms and joined the Kuwaiti Resistance, and as such, many Egyptian teachers, workers, and other residents replaced the departed Palestinians - most of whom had sided with the Iraqis.Culturally, Kuwaiti entertainment initially would continue as it was before, focusing on drama series and falling in quality, with one of the last of the great plays being Seif Al Arab, produced in 1992, which was a comedic take on the period of the invasion and occupation of Kuwait. The 1990s also saw an increase in corruption and the slowness of the development sector, with issues being blamed on “the invasion”, and corruption becoming more widespread. Infrastructure was not as good as it was previously, and this would continue on into the 2000s.Kuwait City skyline: 1996.Kuwait today:While there maybe a lot of flaws when it comes to government administration, recent years have seen strong infrastructural improvement and development, from parks, to malls and cultural centers and museums. What makes Kuwait unique are the Kuwaitis themselves, and their creativity. Many cannot handle office jobs, those jobs being too boring and rigid. As such, entrepreneurship has grown significantly, from fashion to restaurants with some of the best food internationally, not only local food, but an international array, as Kuwaitis are known for traveling and improving on what they see. They have great taste, and it is the efforts of Kuwaitis that drive many tourists from other Gulf states to visit, especially with the rise of social media and the popularity of it to advertise, with many famous Kuwaiti influencers having impacts regionally (not always positively, but what can you do?).The best two things in Kuwait today are shopping. and food. Amazing malls - the best of them are facilitated by the Avenues, however, people opening cafes and restaurants even open them in garages - it’s amazing. In every nook and cranny you go, you’ll find a restaurant or a local shop that are even outcompeting international brands. In the 2000s, while I was growing up, all we ate outside at Pizza Hut, Burger King, and McDonalds. Towards the end of middle and high school, all that changed. It isn’t even worth it ordering from Burger King and Pizza Hut anymore, since we have delivery apps like Carriage, Talabat (which are local), and a new international competitor, Deliveroo, which deliver even better burgers and pizzas than Burger King and Pizza Hut could ever produce. Every country has flaws, but I am optimistic for the future. Culturally, after years of dreadful dramas on television, last year a movie that was produced: Serb Al Hamam, about the Battle of Qurain between Iraqi forces and a unit of the Kuwaiti Resistance, exceeded expectations, and the quality and special effects were superb. This year, the theatrical remake of Muthakarat Bahar, from the storyline, to the special effects, in the state of the art theaters in Jaber Al Ahmed Cultural Center, was beautiful and is a positive sign of an improving entertainment sector, though writing in regular shows still needs to be improved exponentially, and writers should be given more importance over producers.The political arena is still as complicated as ever:Abdulaziz Al Meajel's answer to What are the politics of Kuwait like?Life in Kuwait is good. It may not be perfect, and most of our sidewalks are ugly, but no place is perfect. It’s the people that make a place fun for the most part. At least we have our Kuwait, free, and May God protect her. Long may Kuwait remain, and long live the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah.Abdulaziz Al Meajel's answer to What's it like to born and raised in the Middle East?The parking lot where my grandfather’s house in Jibla once stood.Me, standing where the Al Anjeri house once stood, and in front of the mosque (built in 1784) that was only about three meters in front of our old house in Jibla on the northern side. The Imam of the mosque was curious as to why I was taking so many pictures of the mosque when I was standing at the southern door. I pointed at the parking lot and said “My grandfather’s house once stood there”.

This information is from ncbi. You can visit ncbi and can read it there. This explains about nitrogen and it's cycling, and there by from the nitrogen cycling u will be able to understand this.A Natural History of NitrogenEverything that lives needs nitrogen. But most atoms of nitrogen—which represents 78% of the atmosphere—are bound tightly in pairs as N2. Most organisms can’t break the powerful triple bond of the N2molecule’s two atoms. For plants to grow and animals to thrive, they need the element in a reactive fixed form that is bonded to carbon, hydrogen, or oxygen, most often as organic nitrogen compounds (such as amino acids), ammonium (NH4), or nitrate (NO3). Animals get their reactive nitrogen from eating plants and other animals somewhere along the food chain. And plants get reactive nitrogen from the soil or water.Lightning accounts for some naturally occurring reactive nitrogen—worldwide each year, lightning fixes an estimated 3–10 teragrams (Tg), the usual measurement unit for discussing the global nitrogen cycle. The energy that lightning generates converts oxygen and nitrogen to nitric oxide (NO), which oxidizes to nitrogen dioxide (NO2), then to nitric acid (HNO3). Within days the HNO3is carried to the ground in rain, snow, hail, or other atmospheric deposition. This source of reactive nitrogen is important to areas in which nitrogen-fixing plants are scarce.Most naturally occurring reactive nitrogen comes from nitrogen fixation by bacteria, including cyanobacteria and specialized bacteria such as those in the genus Rhizobium, which most often live symbiotically in plants such as peas, beans, and alfalfa. According to a literature review published in the April 2003 issue of BioScience by Galloway and colleagues, experts believe natural, nonagricultural organisms fix 100–300 Tg of nitrogen per year on the land surfaces of the Earth, although most estimates tend toward the lower end.Farmers eventually learned to increase the levels of reactive nitrogen in their soil using plants that have nitrogen-fixing bacterial symbionts, but their resources were limited: at the beginning of the twentieth century they could rotate with nitrogen-fixing crops such as legumes, or add naturally occurring fertilizers such as manure, guano, and nitrate mineral deposits mined in Chile. At this point, according to the BioScience review, humans were producing about 15 Tg of reactive nitrogen per year.Around this time, however, German scientists Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch developed a way to convert nonreactive atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia, the reactive compound that forms the base of nitrogen fertilizer. Currently, the Haber-Bosch process is used to produce about 100 Tg of reactive nitrogen per year worldwide, most of which is used to produce nitrogen fertilizer. Food grown with this fertilizer feeds some 2 billion people, estimates Vaclav Smil, a professor of geography at the University of Manitoba, writing in the July 1997 issue of Scientific American.The past 15 years have seen a huge explosion in the amount of reactive nitrogen that humans have produced and injected into the environment, according to a report on relationships between the global nitrogen cycle and human health in volume 1, issue 5 (2003) of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment by Alan Townsend, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado, and colleagues. Human production of reactive nitrogen is currently estimated to be about 170 Tg per year, write Galloway and colleagues in the BioScience review, and the global use of nitrogen fertilizers is increasing by about 15 Tg per year. The ratio of anthropogenic to natural reactive nitrogen creation is likely to increase with population increases, Galloway says. More mouths to feed will require both more reactive nitrogen fertilizers in the ground and the clearing of unspoiled, nitrogen-fixing lands to make farmland.Human Sources of Reactive NitrogenWhere does all this human-generated reactive nitrogen come from? The largest contributor is nitrogen fertilizer. As of 2000, about 100 Tg of reactive nitrogen were released each year from nitrogen fertilizer spread on farmlands around the world, according to the BioScience review. As modern farming methods have been increasingly adopted, so has the rate at which nitrogen is being fixed, with much of the increase coming in developing countries, according to Townsend and colleagues in Frontiers in Ecology and Environment. In their BioScience review, Galloway and colleagues write that widespread cultivation of nitrogen-fixing crops such as legumes has added another approximately 40 Tg of reactive nitrogen.Burning of biomass—the use of wood for fuel and the clearing of forests and grasslands for agriculture—converts another 40 Tg or so. Draining wetlands allows organic material in the soil to oxidize, and clearing land of vegetation for crops can free reactive nitrogen from soils. These sources contribute about 10 and 20 Tg, respectively, according to an article in the Spring 1997 Issues in Ecology by a team led by Peter Vitousek, a professor of population and resource studies at Stanford University.Fossil fuel combustion also contributes to the reactive nitrogen load. “It’s not just agriculture that’s changing the nitrogen cycle,” says Michael Mallin, a research professor at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington’s Center for Marine Science. “Urbanization is doing it in a big way. Cities are full of cars. Cars release nitrogen oxides [NOx; the collective term for NO and NO2]. It goes up into the air and comes down as somebody else’s problem.” By fixing atmospheric nitrogen and releasing reactive nitrogen that otherwise would be sequestered indefinitely in fuels, fossil fuel combustion contributes about 20 Tg of reactive nitrogen globally each year.Very few parts of the Earth now lack their own regional sources of reactive nitrogen pollution, says David Tilman, a professor of ecology at the University of Minnesota. “Agricultural expansion has really taken over the whole world,” he says. “The rates of fertilization per hectare—the nitrogen added per hectare—are not that different. Not just among the seven or eight most industrialized nations, but even among nations that are not industrial giants, the agricultural side has really pursued nitrogen fertilization.” Galloway adds that nitrogen pollution is distributed globally not just by wind and water but also by ship and truck: “International commerce is a major way of shipping reactive nitrogen around the world,” he says.As a result, Galloway says, there are significant sources of polluting reactive nitrogen in just about any corner of the Earth, with the unfortunate exception of much of Africa, which although spared much direct nitrogen pollution, is also deprived of the sorely needed fertilizer. Currently Asia, Europe, and North America account for almost 90% of human-generated reactive nitrogen, Galloway says. European countries such as the Netherlands (where long-term nitrogen fertilizer use and many concentrated animal farms have created perhaps the world’s most nitrogen-saturated area) and Germany have long shown the effects of nitrogen pollution. In the Netherlands, for example, extreme reactive nitrogen levels have changed the Dutch countryside’s characteristic heathlands to grasslands. But over the next 50 years, Galloway says, the developing world’s growing dependence on nitrogen fertilizers, rising population densities, and adoption of gasoline-powered vehicles are all likely to result in increases in nitrogen-related environmental and human health impacts.A Vicious Cycle?“The nitrogen cycle has changed on a global scale to a remarkable extent, but the rate at which that plays out locally is hugely variable,” says Townsend. “There are major hot spots at all of the industrialized nations of the world. We’re seeing incredible increases [in reactive nitrogen use/production and resulting pollution] in the United States, much of Europe, and much of Asia and China now. There are areas there, for example, that are seeing deposition from the atmosphere that is ten times or more what it was prior to human activity.”Some of this reactive nitrogen is, of course, put to good use, Townsend says. Nitrogen fertilizers can take credit for reductions in starvation and malnutrition in many parts of the world, especially in Asia in the last decade. In fact, Smil writes in the March 2002 issue of the Swedish journal Ambio that “for at least a third of humanity in the world’s most populous countries the use of [nitrogen] fertilizers makes the difference between malnutrition and adequate diet.”But as nitrogen levels continue to rise, Townsend says, the net health effects become increasingly negative. Furthermore, says Galloway, reactive nitrogen can not only impact many different ecosystems, but a single atom also can make mischief repeatedly, unlike most better recognized pollutants. “If you put a molecule of NOxin the atmosphere from fossil fuel combustion or a molecule of ammonium on an agricultural field as a fertilizer,” he explains, “you have a whole series, or cascade, of effects that goes from acid rain to particle formation in the atmosphere, decreasing visibility and causing impacts on human health, acid rain, soil and stream acidification, coastal eutrophication, decreasing biodiversity, human health issues in groundwater, and nitrous oxide [N2O] emissions to the atmosphere, which impact the greenhouse effect and stratospheric ozone.”Nitrogen in the AirThe effects of reactive nitrogen on ozone are profound, wreaking havoc at every elevation. “In areas like the northeastern United States, because we have more automobiles than agriculture, our major contribution to global nitrogen cycling is oxidized forms of nitrogen,” Aber says. NOx, which can form from the application of nitrogen fertilizers, burning of biomass, and combustion of fossil fuels, is an important contributor to the formation of smog and ground-level ozone. “That’s [the Northeast’s] most important form of air pollution,” Aber says.High concentrations of NOx, which are common in urban areas with their high car populations, can produce low-lying ozone, which in turn can cause or worsen asthma, cough, reactive airways disease, respiratory tract inflammation, and chronic respiratory disease. High levels of NOxcan also worsen viral infections such as the common cold. In addition to ground-level sources, where denitrification (the conversion of reactive nitrogen to N2) in soil also produces some N2O, aircraft inject NOxdirectly into the atmosphere.At mid-altitudes, N2O acts as a green-house gas, with each molecule absorbing about 200 times as much outgoing radiation as carbon dioxide. And although at low altitudes reactive nitrogen increases ozone, at very high altitudes it actually destroys ozone. In the stratosphere, ultraviolet light breaks N2O apart, producing NO, which in turn acts as a catalyst to break down ozone. Destroying ozone in the stratosphere, of course, allows more ultraviolet light to reach the Earth’s surface, resulting in more skin cancers—an article in the 30 March 1998 International Journal of Climatology by Rajaram P. Kane, a senior scientist at the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research, says that reductions in ozone suggest a 10–20% increase in ultraviolet-B radiation, which would “explain a 20–40% rise in skin cancer in the human population since the 1970s.”The effects of N2O can persist for decades, with a residence time of 120 years in the atmosphere, says Robert Howarth, a professor of ecology and environmental biology at Cornell University. “It plays a big role in catalyzing the destruction of ozone in the stratosphere,” he explains. “It’s a greenhouse gas, and it’s a pretty potent greenhouse gas—it’s the longest-lived greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.” Once in the atmosphere, other nitrogen gases such as NOxand ammonia can also generate particulates that are small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs, contributing to cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, asthma, reduced lung function, and overall mortality.In spite of the severity of these effects, Howarth says, there is little understanding among the public of nitrogen’s role in public health, global warming, or much else. “Everyone on the street is well aware of ground-level ozone and that it is a serious health issue,” he says. “The average person on the street does not know that ozone pollution is caused by nitrogen pollution. If you did not have the nitrogen pollution, you would not have the ozone pollution.” Other indirect health effects of nitrogen pollution include promotion of the conditions favorable to cholera and the breeding conditions for the types of mosquitoes that carry West Nile virus, malaria, and encephalitis.Other experts point to a lack of recognition—in U.S. policy-making circles, at least—of the role of reactive nitrogen in producing acid rain. Not all NOxstays aloft, says Aber. “In contact with moisture in the atmosphere, it turns into nitric acid, which is the nitrogen component of acid rain,” he says. In industrialized areas of the United States, nitric acid has become an increasingly significant component of acid raid, says Gene Likens, director of the Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Mill-brook, New York. “Our long-term studies at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest—the longest continuous measurement of precipitation and stream-water chemistry in the world—clearly indicate that there is a major change under way,” he says. In 1963, when the studies began, he says, sulfuric acid contributed about 70% of total acidity of rain, and nitric acid was about 15%. Currently sulfuric acid is about 50%, and nitric acid is about 40%. “We project that if the current trends continue, nitric acid will become the dominant acid in eastern North America by about 2012,” Likens says. “And yet we’ve focused all of our regulations primarily on reducing sulfur.”Nitrogen in the WaterIf any aspect of nitrogen pollution has a high public and policy profile, it’s the effects of excess nutrients on bodies of water, especially in coastal areas. “Because of its high solubility, nitrate quickly escapes to down below the root zone of an agricultural field or forest and into groundwater,” says Donald Boesch, a professor of marine science and president of the University of Maryland’s Center for Environmental Science. “That makes it difficult and expensive to control.”Reactive nitrogen—whether from animal-raising facilities, manufactured fertilizer, septic systems, or other sources—has raised nitrate concentrations in the waterways of most industrialized nations. In Norway, nitrate concentrations in 1,000 lakes doubled in less than a decade. Rivers in the northeastern United States and in much of Europe have increased 10- to 15-fold in the last 100 years.Where nitrate loading to bays and costal zones increases (rivers tend to be less affected), it can provide such a steady source of nutrients that algae bloom uncontrollably. When the algae die, they sink and decompose, which draws oxygen from the water. If too much oxygen is removed, the water body develops a “dead zone”—an area that can no longer support finfish, shellfish, or most other aquatic life. Perhaps the best-known dead zone is that found in the Gulf of Mexico, which is fed by the nitrate-rich Mississippi River and fluctuates in size from 3,000 to 8,000 square miles. There are also oxygen-starved areas in the Baltic Sea, the Adriatic Sea, the Gulf of Thailand, the Yellow Sea, and the Chesapeake Bay.Boesch notes that scientists were saying as far back as 1987 that 40% of the nitrogen coming into the system needed to be removed. But so far, he says, programs to reduce reactive nitrogen in the Chesapeake Bay haven’t significantly improved the bay’s health. And although rivers are generally less susceptible to such algal blooms and oxygen losses, Mallin has found similar effects in North Carolina’s blackwater streams, so called because they are rich in organic matter. “Regardless of what we add [nitrate, ammonia, or urea from livestock], it will stimulate algae growth in these black-water streams,” he says.Reactive nitrogen can also infiltrate drinking water, as nitrates from nitrogen fertilizers and runoff from livestock find their way into streams, rivers, lakes, and groundwater. In the United States, Townsend says, as much as 20% of ground-water sources may exceed the U.S. and World Health Organization limits of 10 parts per million for nitrates. This concentration is also exceeded in many other parts of the world. High concentrations of nitrates can cause methemoglobinemia—or “blue baby disease”—in infants. In blue baby disease, nitrate ions weaken the blood’s capacity to carry oxygen. Epidemiological studies have also linked nitrates to reproductive problems and some cancers, including increased risks for bladder and ovarian cancers at concentrations below 10 parts per million.Nitrogen in the SoilAs with water and air, reactive nitrogen builds up in soil. There’s a limit, however, to how much nitrogen plants can use. When soil reaches a point at which plants can’t use additional nitrogen, it’s said to be “saturated.” And saturated soil, in theory at least, will shed any additional nitrogen introduced to it. But that nitrogen doesn’t leave unaccompanied. “When it leaches out of the system,” says Townsend, “it takes other nutrients with it, so it ends up acidifying the soil, and it takes things like magnesium and calcium out into the water. And you end up with a very unbalanced system.”If it’s true that saturated soil immediately passes additional nitrogen, rather than denitrifying it, that could be bad news for the near future, says Howarth, with all that excess nitrogen flowing straight to ground-water, rivers, streams, and seas. However, he says, we have a very poor understanding of what is actually happening. “If the nitrogen is accumulating in soil, it could be a temporary phenomenon until it saturates the ability to store it. Then we have a much bigger problem,” he says. “If it is being denitrified, on the other hand, that’s more of a steady-state process, and it can probably continue to do that.”Townsend says some scientists had hoped that excess reactive nitrogen levels might actually reduce greenhouse gases by stimulating plant growth, which locks up carbon dioxide. But, he says, “It doesn’t seem likely that it’s going to play a dominant role.” Although the jury is still out, Tilman adds, “there isn’t very good evidence that nitrogen deposition actually does lead to increased carbon removal and storage.”Although more reactive nitrogen means more growth, it also changes which of the species in an ecosystem thrive. For example, in grasslands that received increased nitrogen, Tilman says, “the species composition changed to plants that had litter that decomposed more quickly. And because it decomposed more quickly, there was actually no net storage of carbon with added nitrogen.”On the surface it could seem as though additional nutrition might at least help struggling ecosystems thrive. In fact, however, reactive nitrogen can disrupt an ecosystem’s delicate balance. “From the 1850s on, we’ve known that the addition of nutrients to terrestrial ecosystems causes changes in which species are there and causes a loss of diversity in those systems,” says Tilman. “Under the highest rates of agriculturally driven nitrogen that we’ve seen, there’s a very strong effect [on biodiversity loss].” Recent field studies in Great Britain—reported by Open University Earth scientist Carly J. Stevens and colleagues in the 19 March 2004 issue of Science—have confirmed that biodiversity decreased as unaided nitrogen deposition increased in a sample of 68 grasslands. Tilman’s experimental work in which nitrogen was added to ecosystems shows similar results, he says.Regaining ControlReducing the amount of reactive nitrogen that is added to the environment is critical, Galloway says. Of the nitrogen that is created to sustain food production, only about 2–10% enters the human mouth, depending on the region. The rest, he says, is lost to the environment: “Unless an equivalent amount is denitrified back to molecular N2, then that means reactive nitrogen is accumulating in the environment, in the atmosphere, in the groundwater, in the soils, in the biota.”Some solutions are at best long-term, or simply unlikely. If many of the world’s meat-eaters were to switch to a largely vegetarian diet, Townsend says, farmers could plant far less nitrogen-stoked grain, most of which goes to animal feed and sweeteners. But meat consumption in the United States and Asia is rising rather than falling. It has also been suggested that symbiotic bacteria could someday be genetically engineered to bestow grains directly with nitrogen-fixing capability.A more practical, low-tech, low-cost solution is to improve the ways farmers rotate crops and fertilize their lands, says Stanford University Earth science professor Pamela Matson. In the American Midwest, for example, it’s common for farmers to fertilize their fields in the fall. Winter snow and spring thaw wash away far more fertilizer than stays in the soil. Many farmers in all regions that have especially unpredictable weather intentionally overfertilize, she says, rather than run the risk of running short of nutrients in a year in which conditions would otherwise result in a bumper crop. The alternative, which Matson says some farmers manage well, is to add exactly the right amount of fertilizer exactly when it is needed.In an effort to better understand the problems associated with changes in the nitrogen cycle and reduce their negative impacts, the Swedish-based International Geosphere–Biosphere Programme and the French-based Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment have teamed up to support the International Nitrogen Initiative (INI). This international project is planned as a three-phase effort to assess the state of the knowledge of nitrogen flows and problems, develop region-specific strategies, and put those strategies into place, with regional centers to be established to carry out these goals. The INI will cosponsor the Third International Nitrogen Conference, scheduled for 12–16 October 2004 in Nanjing, China. There, scientists will focus on the problems specific to Asia and examine options for increasing food and energy production while reducing nitrogen pollution. During this meeting, the INI Scientific Advisory Committee will meet to plan one or more regional centers for Asia.Ultimately, however, the answer is to regulate reactive nitrogen the same as other pollutants, Likens says. In Europe, regulations have helped reduce nitrogen pollution, Galloway says. But the United States—not to mention developing nations—has a long way to go, not just in developing regulations, but in understanding the dynamics of the nitrogen cycle, Galloway says.He cites the example of federal regulations to reduce nitrogen losses from hog farms. “A lagoon system was mandated to decrease reactive nitrogen–containing waste release into waters. The waste was stored in these big lagoons and then aerated—which released ammonia to the atmosphere—and the sludge was spread onto fields to grow cover crops,” he explains. The system works insofar as it keeps the nitrogen out of the rivers fairly well. “But it just transfers [the nitrogen] to the atmosphere,” Galloway says. “You need to have an integrated management policy.”We know the global nitrogen system is being disrupted, Galloway says. “What we don’t know is the rate that nitrogen is accumulating. And because reactive nitrogen contributes to many environmental issues of the day, the more you have, the faster the rate of accumulation, and the more you’re going to have an increase in the effects and distribution of the effects.”“Humans are changing the nitrogen cycle globally faster than any other major biogeochemical cycle—it’s just going through the roof in a hurry,” Townsend says. “The problems with that are remarkably diverse and widespread, and we really need to do something about it. But I think the good news is that there are a lot of ways to envision that we could do something about it without utterly turning socioeconomic systems on their ear.”