The True Cost Of Meat
It’s not uncommon for Americans to eat meat at every meal – bacon with breakfast, a turkey sandwich at lunch, steak for dinner. Worldwide, meat production has more than quadrupled since the 1960s, when more meager portions were the norm. And mass production has driven prices down considerably.
Trash Into Treasure
In one of the world’s most impressive reclamation projects, Israel’s largest landfill dump has been turned into a 2,000-acre ecological park three times the size of New York’s Central Park.
Emptying The Skies
Here in the Northeast, winter is slowly giving way to spring. This means melting snow, thawing soils, and the return of migratory birds. The calls of warblers and woodcock and the thrill of spotting waterfowl like heron herald the warmer and greener days ahead.
Better Carbon Capture
Finding an efficient and cost-effective way to capture the carbon dioxide generated by the use of fossil fuels would be a dramatic game-changer in the fight against climate change. We have often heard about clean coal – coal that doesn’t release lots of carbon dioxide when it is burned – but we haven’t really seen it. Our supplies of coal, natural gas, and these days, even oil are plentiful. We just haven’t figured out how to use these things without damaging the environment.
Coyotes Calling
In New York State, if you hear howling at night, it’s not a wolf. And it’s not your imagination. When New York’s wolves were killed off in the 19th century, it left an ecological vacuum that coyotes were happy to fill.
Plastic Pollution
It’s no secret that plastic pollution in the ocean is a huge problem. The most visible sign of this is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This accumulation of debris is at least twice the size of Texas and can be seen from space. But now scientists have developed a new way to measure ocean trash – and it turns out there’s more than meets the eye.
Eiffel Tower Wind Power
The recent retrofit of the Eiffel Tower – the first in 30 years – included the installation of two custom-designed wind turbines. The 17-foot vertical-axis turbines look more like modern sculptures and are painted to blend in with the rest of the structure. Viewed from a distance, it would be very difficult to spot the additions to the 126-year-old Parisian landmark.
GMO Apples
In February, the first genetically engineered apples were approved for planting and sale in the US by the Department of Agriculture. Two varieties, known as the Arctic Granny and Arctic Golden received the approval. They are genetically engineered to resist browning.
The Dirty Job Of E-Waste Recycling
“Reduce, reuse, recycle” was a popular mantra of the 80s and 90s, encouraging citizens to separate paper, plastic, and aluminum from their trash. But with the exponential rise of electronics like cell phones, laptops, and tablets – recycling has become more complex.
Too Much Solar Power
California has been experiencing an unprecedented boom in solar energy in recent years. The state’s major utilities now get 6% of their power from solar installations and on top of that, nearly a quarter million homes have solar panels on their roofs. All of this clean energy is surely a good thing, but it also presents a unique problem.
The World’s Largest Solar Plant
Recently, the world’s largest solar power plant has opened in the town of Desert Center, California. Known as Desert Sunlight, the project can produce up to 550 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 160,000 average California homes.
An Astonishing Number Of Lakes
Have you ever wondered how many lakes there are in the world? In an effort to answer this question, an international research team used satellite photos and computerized mapping technology to count up Earth’s inland waters. They found about 117 million lakes, covering almost four percent of the planet’s non-glaciated surface, according to their study, which was published in Geophysical Research Letters.
A Floating Wind Turbine
Wind technology generally faces two challenging facts: the wind is much more powerful higher up in the air and good locations for wind turbines are often far away from where electricity is needed.
In A Warmer World, The Ticks That Spread Disease Are Arriving Earlier
In the northeastern US, warmer spring temperatures are leading to shifts in the emergence of the blacklegged ticks that carry Lyme disease and other tick-borne pathogens. So reports a new study published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.
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Deep Green
Strangford Lough, a large inlet on the coast of Northern Ireland is close to the location where Game of Thrones is filmed. It is also the site of a tidal and ocean current power plant called Deep Green.
Teaming Up To Protect And Manage Lakes
During a mild July in 1985, a cold front caused algae in Shelburne Pond, a small Vermont Lake, to quickly die back. Decomposing plants stripped the water of available oxygen, smothering aquatic life and causing a massive fish kill. Thousands of fish littered the lake’s surface – from perch and walleye to northern pike. Some 30 years later, a once prolific walleye fishery has not recovered.
Dynamic Tidal Power
A consortium of Dutch hydraulic experts and the global consulting firm ARCADIS has been funded by the Dutch and Chinese governments to assess the viability of building a tidal power facility along the east coast of China using a technology known as Dynamic Tidal Power.
Tuning Into Nature’s Rhythms
Most of us feel a connection to the seasons—the relief that comes with green leaves unfolding in early spring, the soothing sound of crickets in the summer, or the honking of migrating geese in the fall. Our food, water, and even moods are tied to seasonal cycles. But only a select few tune into nature’s rhythms and take careful notes.
The Rising Hudson
