Rural ‘buffer ring’ can reduce urban heat island effect by more than 0.5C
Rural land cover surrounding a city has the potential to reduce the “urban heat island” (UHI) effect and cool the city centre by more than 0.5C, new research shows.
Environment featured
Between Optimism and Despair: The Messy Middle Paths Through Climate Breakdown
In the escalating drama of climate breakdown — especially as we navigate the apparent crossing of the 1.5C warming threshold — a binary is emerging that wastes a huge amount of time, energy and passion, needlessly limiting our vision to confront and adapt to our situation at all levels of society: Are we (optimist) solutionists or (realist) doomers?
Janine Benyus: “Biomimicry: Applying Nature’s Wisdom to Human Problems”
In this episode, Nate is joined by Janine Benyus, who has spent decades advocating for biomimicry – a design principle that seeks to emulate nature’s models, systems, and elements to solve complex human problems in ways that are sustainable and holistic.
Positive Soundscapes: A Doubly-Cool Trend for Municipalities
Regardless of its origin, the notion of a ‘soundscape ‘opens up a welcomed alternative to speak positively about sounds. They counteract the negative reality we know as ‘noise pollution’.
Ancient poppy seeds and willow wood offer clues to the Greenland ice sheet’s last meltdown and a glimpse into a warmer future
Understanding the environmental conditions that triggered the ice sheet’s last disappearance, and how life on Greenland responded, will be crucial for gauging the future risks facing the ice sheet and coastal communities around the world.
Feel the Love
Just as loving particular people or all people moves us to act for their benefit, Kimmerer verifies that loving the earth impels us to act in service to it. Our source of motivation is in and all around us, and our direction is now clear: vigorously support and vote for democracy and climate action.
Cry, the Beloved World
How do we try to compensate for our destruction of so much of Earth’s life? By curbing ourselves? By deep societal change? By bending heaven and Earth to protect what is left, before it is too late?
Who will pay for the cost of overheated humans in the age of climate change?
Climate-change-induced temperature rises are already testing the limits of outdoor workers. Will governments continue to ignore their protection?
Johan Rockström: “Planetary Boundaries: Exceeding Earth’s Safe Limits”
In this episode, Nate speaks with environmental scientist Johan Rockström to unpack his team’s work on Planetary Boundaries and the pressure that humanity is putting on them.
The Beaver Seekers
Citizen scientists are helping restore the ecosystem engineers to the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.
MM #8: Timeline
I often have compared this period to a fireworks show: dazzling, unusual, and temporary. The sky conditions during a fireworks show make for a poor predictive model of weather conditions for the coming days, weeks, or months. Fireworks shows end—about as quickly as they began.
Repair Café & Darning the Planet
Getting dressed is a universal human trait, but the textile industry is collapsing environmental systems everywhere. Relearning basic skills and taking back the agency in what we wear and how we wear it is an act of resistance and an invitation to reimagine ways to inhabit the planet.
