Taking the long view: building environmental activism in the next generation
If we expect the next generation to do better than the present one at protecting our precious blue marble, however, we have an obligation to help them as much as possible.
Environment featured
Okeechobee County: Kept Great with Conservation
Wetland restoration and conservation, in combination with agricultural stakeholder best management practices, is a promising model for success.
MM #13: A Species out of Context
You see, as we foolishly escaped our ecological context, we recklessly re-fashioned the world so that we are destroying the ecological context crucial to millions of other species—including ourselves, eventually.
Review: The Burning World by J. G. Ballard
For all its bleakness, The Burning World offers a more hopeful outlook on humanity’s future than does The Drowned World. While the latter leaves no room for hope that human extinction can be averted, the former hints at the possibility of recovery and renewal for humanity.
What Could A Climate Corps Do? Part 2
Living machines are essentially intensive, indoor artificial wetlands. Technical names for living machines include “advanced ecologically engineered systems” and “fixed-film ecology wastewater treatment systems.” What they entail is mimicking natural processes of biological decomposition in a constructed aquatic environment.
Dark oxygen: We don’t know what we don’t know
The discovery of oxygen production in the deep ocean without light (and therefore without photosynthesis) is upending ideas about the evolution of life and origins of oxygen in the atmosphere.
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.
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.
