EarthTalk Q&A

An urban heat island is a metropolitan area that is significantly warmer than its surrounding rural areas. Unlike global warming, which entails a worldwide rise in temperatures, heat islands occur at the local level.

Considered the most destructive fishing technology ever devised, commercial “drift netting” involves vertically suspending near-transparent nylon nets in ocean waters with floats attached to the top and weights fixed to the bottom.

Environmental education has long struggled for legitimacy alongside more traditional disciplines within the liberal arts and sciences. But “environmental literacy” studies in the late 1980s revealed that schoolchildren lacked basic knowledge about the natural environment.

Trees are important tools in the fight to stave off global warming, because they absorb and store the key greenhouse gas emitted by our cars and power plants, carbon dioxide (CO2), before it has a chance to reach the upper atmosphere where it can help trap heat around the Earth’s surface.

Marine aquaculture, an age-old practice in parts of Asia, has grown in popularity in western countries in recent years in response to dwindling supplies of wild fish in the world’s oceans.

According to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), most animals used in dissection—including amphibians, birds, snakes, turtles, fish and invertebrates—are taken from the wild, even though many have been declining in population

Increased environmental concerns worldwide have not escaped the notice of the fashion industry, which has been fast incorporating organic materials into its designs. Materials like hemp and bamboo are coming on strong

Traditional commercial carpet-cleaning solutions contain a cocktail of noxious synthetic chemicals. One, perchloroethylene, commonly called “perc” in the industry, is a notorious dry cleaning additive known to cause dizziness

Most environmental organizations appear to be run by men. But who are the women leaders in this field? I’d love to know about them.