Earth Wise
Fungus Sucks The Life Out Of Hibernating Bats
Common throughout North America, little brown bats keep insect populations in check. Anyone who has spent dusk near a lake has seen the little browns performing acrobatics on the wing as they feast on mosquitoes, midges, and gnats. Each bat can eat thousands of bugs each night.
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Floating Solar Panels
Japan is an island country with over 125 million people and doesn’t have much land to spare. The country is largely mountainous and has no room for large-scale solar plants. It has long embraced solar power, but has to be creative about where to put the solar panels.
Threats To Corals
Coral reefs are some of the most spectacular sights in the world. People call them the “rainforests of the sea.” These colorful otherworldly places are some of the most diverse ecosystems on Earth. Coral reefs provide a home for 25% of all marine species and they flourish even though ocean waters that provide few nutrients typically surround them.
Food Waste: Now Illegal In Seattle
Previous Earth Wise segments have explored the global problem of food waste. In developing nations, inefficient harvesting and poor storage result in less than half of produced crops making it to the marketplace. In the U.S., food waste tends to occur in grocery stores, homes, and restaurants.
Wind Power In Denmark
Denmark has been a world leader in wind power for a long time. Its wind energy policy had its origins in the 1970s oil crises. The country first embraced nuclear power, but abandoned it in the 80s based on public opposition.
Let’s End Factory Farming!
It’s quite clear that factory farms are only able to produce their cheap goods at the expense of the animals, the environment, and human health. And while it could be easy to feel powerless against the factory farming machine, there are several viable alternatives.
Factory Farming And Human Health
Factory farms produce cheap goods. But while consumers may be happy with how much these products cost at the grocery store, there is a much bigger price paid by the animals, the environment – even human health.
Factory Farming And The Environment
Factory farms put an incredible strain on earth’s natural resources. While originally built for maximum efficiency, factory farms actually yield relatively small amounts of meat, dairy and eggs given the staggering price the environment pays.
The Welfare Of The Animals In Factory Farms
These are not Old MacDonald’s farms. Far from the idyllic, spacious pastures that are often shown in food advertisements and children’s programming, factory farms raise large numbers of animals in extreme confinement. More than 99% of farm animals in the U.S. are raised on factory farms, where they’re regarded as a commodity for maximizing profit.
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What Is Factory Farming?
We should start by clearing up a myth: A factory “farm” is no farm at all. It’s quite simply an animal factory built for efficiency. Approximately 70 billion farm animals worldwide call these places home – including chickens, turkeys, cows, pigs, goats, and sheep.
Goats As Allies In Removing Problem Plants
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s last census, there are more than 2.5 million goats living in America. The majority are reared for their milk, meat, and mohair wool. But a small but growing number have been recruited for a new task: combating nuisance and invasive plants.
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Hope For Sea Turtles
If you are fortunate enough to have encountered sea turtles while swimming, snorkeling or diving in the sea, then you know how remarkable these creatures are. The seven species of these large reptiles are real throwbacks to the age of dinosaurs.
Chocolate That Is Less Bittersweet
February is a boon for the chocolate industry, with heart-shaped confections found everywhere from drugstores to gas stations. Of course, the same could be said of almost any holiday, as chocolate has become a quintessential part of Easter, Mother’s Day and more.
Sustainable Flowers
It’s that time of year when many of us will buy flowers for those we love. After all, what’s more quintessentially romantic than a bouquet of red roses? But what it takes for those roses to get to the refrigerated case of your local florist is decidedly less romantic.
Restoring Rainforests
Forests play a major role in the Earth’s carbon cycle. Trees pull carbon dioxide out of the air and lock the carbon away in their wood and in the soil beneath them. Over time, we have cut down or damaged at least three-quarters of the world’s forests and that destruction has been an important contributor to climate change.
Algal Biofuel
At the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and at dozens of other labs nationwide, scientists are trying to develop biofuels made from algae. Right now, a gallon of fuel made from algae costs four times as much as a gallon of conventional diesel, but researchers believe that the costs will come down dramatically over time.
Global Warming And Wine
It has often been argued that global climate change is affecting the less fortunate more than the wealthy. Having money can insulate people from such problems as rising food prices and flooding in coastal areas. Apart from that, much wealth is generated by industries that contribute to global warming as opposed to combating it.
Cleaning Up Carbon Pollution And Improving Air Quality
States have a chance to safeguard more than the climate when they adopt the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Clean Power Plan. That’s because many of the strategies used to reduce carbon dioxide emissions have the added benefit of improving air quality.
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Hidden Water Usage
