Visit a forested area that’s not near a city, and you’ll see all sorts of lichens decorating trees and rocks. But if you visit an urban area or walk alongside a highway roaring with traffic, you won’t find very many lichens. As a matter of fact, Downtown Boston is a lichen desert. Lichens get nutrients from […]
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Tag: Pollution
May the Lichens Be With You
If flowers are commonly placed on a loved one’s final resting place, why shouldn’t lichens be allowed to reside on that loved one’s gravestone? After all, a lichen on a gravestone occupies a branch on the tree of life considerably closer to the branch occupied by that loved one than a chrysanthemum. Plus, that lichen […]
Dogs–The Scoop on Poop
It’s just one dog! Is dog poop really that bad? How about not using a bag and leaving the dog poop to decompose? We hear these sorts of comments all the time. The answer? What dogs eat, what their waste carries, and how many dogs visit an area can have a serious impact on all […]
The Invasion of Microplastics
The Invasion of Microplastics Microplastics and microbeads are small particles of plastic. There simply are little pieces of plastic. They are man-made in their ‘micro’ form or are a product of the breakdown of larger plastics. Small or large, they are harmful to the environment. They hurt wildlife and sneak into our water systems affecting […]
Ten Years After The Crisis, What Is Happ...
Ten years after the crisis, what is happening to the world’s bees? Ten years ago, beekeepers in the United States raised the alarm that thousands of their hives were mysteriously empty of bees. What followed was global concern over a new phenomenon: Colony Collapse Disorder. Since then we have realised that it was not just […]
How Noise Pollution is Changing Animal B...
How noise pollution is changing animal behaviour Noise pollution, generally an unintended byproduct of urbanisation, transport, and industry, is a key characteristic of human development and population growth. In some cases, it is produced intentionally, for example when seismic surveys are being carried out using powerful airgun arrays to explore and map the seafloor, or […]
Curbing our Addiction to Plastics
Curbing our Addiction to Plastics Plastic is everywhere. Take a look around and you’ll be surprised! But do we need that much? No. Not really… There are solutions to reduce your plastic dependency, in turn reducing waste, saving our wildlife, and reducing your carbon footprint on our planet. Outline ▸ The Truth About Plastic ■ Plastic in Numbers ■ What […]
Ecological Ethics A&A —From Awareness To
A friend and I were chatting ‘over’ ethics. The context was our species’ fascination of a limitless growth model, showcased for instance in our expectations with respect to our human biology (e.g., our quest for biological immortality), as well as exhibited in our modern economies and business practices. I remarked about our difficulties at defining […]
Eating Less Meat? It Matters & It’s Easy
If every person stopped eating meat and dairy for just one day a week, it would be the equivalent of removing 7.6 million cars from the road, or not driving 91 billion miles. That is incredible. Seems simple, right? Well the good news is that it truly is (simple)! And here I highlight why it matters […]
Reaching Out in an Anti-Environment Clim...
Although today the American society seems deeply torn apart by cultural, geographic, racial and class differences, still there is more that unites us than divides us, and this includes few environmental views and concerns… An opinion piece. Today the U.S. government decided against the Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.). It places at its head a man who is no less […]