Economy and Policy
When Planting Trees Is Bad For Biodiversity
Over the past decade, more than five million acres of forests and farms worldwide have been cleared for agro-industrial rubber plantations. The driver is the growing demand for rubber products – especially tires – which use 70% of the annual rubber production.
[Read more…] about When Planting Trees Is Bad For Biodiversity
A New Oil Repellant
As long as we continue to transport oil around the world in ships, there is going to be the danger of oil spills, which have been some of our worst environmental disasters. While preventing such spills from happening at all is the first line of defense, we also need better approaches in cleaning up the spills that do occur.
The Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
Are you a smoker who is trying to stop? Or are you helping a loved one kick their tobacco habit? Whether you’ve quit or tried to get someone else to, it is almost certainly because you know that smoking is unhealthy.
How Much Room Is There For Solar Power?
California has mandated that it will get at least a third of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020 and that it will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% from 1990 levels by 2050. To meet these goals, the state has been installing solar power at a staggering rate.
Leaky Pipes And Polluted Waters
Most of us don’t spend a lot of time thinking about our wastewater. We want our toilets to flush and our dirty wash water to go down the drain. We assume this water is efficiently routed to a treatment facility, where it is cleaned up and returned to the environment. But reality doesn’t measure up to our expectations.
Saving Sheep By Helicopter
Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep were never a huge presence in California. They tended to concentrate in loosely connected pockets scattered through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. But over time, the connections were severed. Hunting and diseases spread by domestic sheep diminished the herds and predation by mountain lions took a toll. Eventually the subspecies was down to its last 100 individuals.
Desalination And California’s Drought
Four years of drought in California have created a serious water crisis. 2014 was the third driest year in 119 years and was also the warmest year in recorded history. California’s Sierra snowpack, which provides a third of the state’s water, is at its lowest level in 65 years.
When Eco-Fences Fail
Fences and eco-passages meant to protect animals from highway traffic can lead to more fatalities, particularly for reptiles like turtles and snakes. That’s what scientists in Canada found after monitoring an 8-mile stretch of highway crossing the Georgian Bay coastline of Lake Huron, a region rich in reptile biodiversity.
Human Pollution And Fish
We recently spoke on this program about how up to 28 billion pounds of plastic debris enters the world’s oceans every year. Well now a new study has shed some light on how this and other human-caused pollution may be impacting deep-water marine fish.
The Tragedy Of The Atmosphere
More and more, arguments against the scientific consensus that humans are changing the Earth’s climate are not about science at all. Instead, they focus on loss of personal liberties and distrust of increased government regulation.
Cleaning Up With Mussels
Zebra mussels are one of the most pernicious invasive species in the United States having infested the Great Lakes in the 1980s and then having spread to 29 states by hitching rides on boats on inland waterways.
Time To Move Lyme Disease Awareness Month To April
The month of May brings many things, among them Mother’s Day, tulips, and Lyme Disease Awareness campaigns. But according to Rick Ostfeld, a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, if we want to get a leg up on tick-borne illness we need to become vigilant earlier in the season.
[Read more…] about Time To Move Lyme Disease Awareness Month To April
Green Roofs In France
France is becoming increasingly serious about environmentalism. That country recently passed new legislation mandating that all new commercial construction projects must incorporate either green roofs or solar panels. Solar panels are increasingly familiar to us on rooftops but to date green roofs have primarily been a European phenomenon.
Time To Hug A Tree
Forest preservation is essential to combating climate change. Growing trees absorb carbon dioxide, storing it in their wood. Forest destruction is responsible for about 20% of human-caused carbon dioxide emissions into the Earth’s atmosphere.
Accounting For Sea Level Rise
Several years ago, North Carolina’s legislature voted to ignore sea level rise when setting rules for coastal development. Here is the science that conservationists hope will influence future decision-making.
Growing Wind Power
The global wind power industry had a banner year in 2014, installing more than 50 GW of new capacity. To put this in perspective, the total amount of wind power capacity in the world ten years ago was only 60 GW.
Why Did The Frog Cross The Road?
Here in the Northeast, after a long winter signs of spring have finally arrived. Many of us are tuned into budding plants and migratory birds. It’s also a great time to take a hike and observe the awakening of amphibian life.
Why Volcanoes Are Not Driving Climate Change
Once in a while, one will hear the argument that volcanoes are to blame for rising carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere. There are several reasons why this can’t be the case.
[Read more…] about Why Volcanoes Are Not Driving Climate Change
Cooling Cities With Electric Cars
