Imagine a world where industrial manufacturing’s toxic solvents and chemicals were replaced with sugar, starch and sunlight. Imagine pure, clean water and air leaving factories, workplaces free of “hazmat” gear, polluted sources brought back to life and farmers transitioning away from highly toxic conventional chemical pesticides into an era of truly sustainable agriculture through the […]
In the warming Arctic Ocean, newly forming cracks in the sea ice are releasing surprising levels of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, according to a new study conducted with funding from NASA and other institutions. Scientists have long known that melting permafrost allows gas trapped in the soils and ocean sediments to be released into […]
It Might Be Closer than You ThinkIf every American family improved their household energy performance and installed solar panels, we’d go a long way toward zero carbon emissions. Solar panels on a majority of houses at one time seemed unattainable—it was simply too great an investment, with too long a payback time. But with new […]
Lawsuit Aims to Protect the Parrotfish, the Deep Sea Cleaning CrewRecently, conservation groups sued the National Marine Fisheries Service for failing to protect coral reefs by allowing the overfishing of parrotfish, a colorful fish species that spends its days munching algae off of the underwater, polyp-covered structures. If you’ve ever owned a goldfish (and we […]
This week will mark the second anniversary of the explosion at BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling platform, which led to the largest oil spill in US history. In the immediate aftermath of the spill, researchers marvelled at the ability of bacteria to consume the oil and natural gas that stretched across the gulf in a 22 […]
To inspire the general public to become more interested in and aware of their local redwoods, Save the Redwoods created this iPhone appResidents of the American Pacific Northwest walk among nature’s giants — the Coast redwood, Giant Sequoia and Dawn redwood trees. Coast redwoods are the tallest trees in the world with a height that […]
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) suggests that prolonged oil exposure from the Deepwater Horizon disaster is causing “incredibly ill” dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico.Dolphins are exposed to oil through inhalation of vapors at the water’s surface, ingesting oil from the sediment or water while feeding, eating whole fish, including internal organs and […]
The last several years have witnessed one of the most dramatic impacts on insect life in modern history. At least a third of U.S. honeybee colonies have died out in the past six years. Initially, the phenomena baffled scientists. But several new studies indicate that they may be honing in on a potential cause: overuse […]
A new study released March 29, 2012 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports boys born in Utah have a 1 in 32 chance of being autistic, the highest risk in the nation. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is defined by the Autism Society Of America as: “A complex developmental disability that typically […]
It Isn’t Space. It’s the Inner City.Lately the concept of “interim uses” has begun to receive a lot of attention. It’s a wonky phrase most often uttered by scholars and city-hall bureaucrats. Nevertheless, it represents a dynamic set of ideas about how cities can become more sustainable, even in the face of a recession. As […]
