While we're moving in the right direction when it comes to overall energy efficiency, there's a lot more we can do to cushion the impact of our ubiquitous tech usage. Here are ways we can continue to positively impact our Earth and ensure that our resources are preserved for many future generations to enjoy.
While the eastern seaboard was fortunate to safely make it through hurricane season this year, cities should take this opportunity to invest in innovative storm water infrastructure systems that can help them withstand the next 100-year storm.
Never has Sen. Rockefeller's leadership on health and safety issues been more needed in the coal mining areas of central Appalachia.
We will have to ask our retailers: Are you meeting the California flammability standard with chemicals in foam (i.e., business as usual)? Or are you meeting the standard through physical barriers instead?
In Bjørn's world, climate is tomorrow's problem, which must wait until we solve today's, poverty. Cheap and available fossil fuels are going to lift the poor. Clean energy which might solve the climate crisis is not up to the job.
Why is the decline of pollinators one of our most critical environmental issues? Pollinators provide a crucial ecosystem service valued annually at $125 billion globally ($15-$20 billion in the U.S) in the pollination of our food crops.
We have a responsibility to protect this island -- and, in fact, all ocean habitats -- from the scourge of plastic pollution.
There is much to be learned about the places we call home -- our history, our environment, our culture, our civic life, our government and much more. Enter author David Helvarg and his brilliant and engrossing new book The Golden Shore: California's Love Affair with the Sea.
So what's wrong with our recycling system? Why are we not recycling more? Some insight can be gained by seeing how different states encourage people to recycle.
The stewards of these many acres understand that with land comes power, and a good number of them are dedicated to use that power to stop what they see as an onslaught against the earth's sacred soil, sacred air and sacred water as well as the safety and well-being of human communities.
The experience of having a bike to use when and where I want, for unlimited use, and for a yearly cost of just $95, defied the notion that nothing can get done that works well in a city as complicated as New York.
After years in the rumor mill, it's safe to say Mother Nature is bipolar, but it's not her fault. For decades, analysts have pointed to a steady decline in the Earth's natural environment.
How should the marchers be tuning their perception so as to notice that climate change is already impinging on ecologies and cultures? And how will those changes accelerate if we turn a blind eye to the credible and increasingly urgent warnings of climate scientists?
If I am going to be informed about our dismal future living on a carbon-crammed planet I want you to be miserable right alongside me. We will sink or swim together. Literally. Bottoms up!
Some people say corporate responsibility reports are a waste of time and money, believing them to be so dense and so dull that no one could possibly bother to read them. Others see them as vehicles for corporate greenwash.
You can't be wearing a bike helmet and messing up your hair before work. Fact: Hair products are not portable, and are not designed for use outside of your home bathroom or a hair salon. And let's face it: Your hairstyle is a work of carefully crafted art, not something that can be rushed.
During 22 days, four social justice heroes fasted in Washington, D.C., to support immigration reform including a path to citizenship, in the shadow of the very same Congress that refuses to vote on it.
The world's oceans are vast, covering 71 percent of the Earth's surface and containing 97 percent of the water, yet only about 5 percent of the ocean and its depths have been explored.
With Congressional partisanship reaching unprecedented levels and science too frequently under attack from a vocal minority, it's all the more vital to stand up for the basic idea that our choices should be informed by the best evidence and data available.
We are part of a magical, beautiful, and suffering Earth, whose darkening we have created with our endless exploitation. The Earth, which is so infinitely generous, needs our prayers, needs our loving, our open hearts and remembrance.
Mary Ellen Hannibal, 2013.13.12
Ronnie Citron-Fink, 2013.12.12