Day: November 1, 2016

Planting the Seeds of Change: how youth involvement feeds families and promotes environmental justice across the country

Read the full post from U.S. EPA.

Far too often, low-income communities of color are burdened by sites such as sewage treatment plants, factories, and garbage dumps, which pollute the water, air, and land. The neighborhoods in New Orleans, Albuquerque, and North Philadelphia where we work are all predominantly low-income, minority neighborhoods where fancy health food stores and green spaces like parks and gardens are rare. Through our work, we support these neighborhoods by working on urban farms and building green spaces.

Making Room at the Table for Diverse Leaders

Read the full post from U.S. EPA.

In the summer of 2014, Green 2.0’s released a report titled “The State of Diversity in Environmental Organizations,” which studied workplace diversity amongst 223 organizations in the environmental movement. The results showed that while people of color make up 36 percent of the U.S. population, the racial composition of staff hovers at from 12 to 16 percent in environmental organizations and government agencies. Following the release of the report, a conversation was ignited, and many of these organizations started taking substantive actions.

But why does this matter?

Furniture made from recycled newspaper has brick-like strength, marble finish

Read the full story at Curbed.

Sometimes designers make furniture out of paper and leave nothing to the imagination—just look at these lumpy lamps and stools. But such is not the case with a new furniture series from Netherlands-based designer Woojai Lee, who’s managed to transform paper into a polished, brick-like material.

The Bottle Project: What are Youth doing to Reduce Litter?

Read the full story from U.S. EPA.

During a trip to Costa Rica, I saw a recycle bin that was made out of plastic water bottles. This inspired me to start a community initiative called The Bottle Project, which encourages transparency about plastic consumption. My friends and I saw that our society has an unhealthy addiction to disposable plastics and we sought to raise awareness of this issue— specifically calling into question the necessity of plastic water bottles— by marrying creativity and conservation.

$151 Million Settlement Deal Reached Over West Virginia Water Poisoning

Read the full story from NPR.

A federal judge has tentatively signed off on a $151 million settlement between residents of Charleston, W. Va., and two companies implicated in a 2014 chemical spill that poisoned drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people.

City of Raleigh to Collect Used Cooking Oil and Grease Beginning Tuesday

Read the full story from the City of Raleigh.

Beginning Tuesday, Nov. 1, Raleigh residents and places of worship will be able to dispose of used cooking oil by placing it on the curb. The goal of the program is to protect the environment by keeping cooking grease out of the City’s sewer system and preventing sewer overflows. The collected grease will be converted to biofuels, a renewable source of energy used to power vehicles, heat homes and cook food…

The program will serve only residents and places of worship in Raleigh. The grease collection ends on Jan. 15.

UD study suggests people prefer conservation as way to protect drinking water

Read the full story from the University of Delaware.

The water crisis in Flint, Michigan put the need to protect and invest in clean drinking water front and center in the minds of many Americans. But how to go about investing, as well as how to get the public on board with such spending, is a difficult challenge that faces policymakers.

A new study from the University of Delaware has found that when given the choice, people prefer to invest their money in conservation, such as protecting key areas of a watershed — also referred to as green infrastructure — than traditional water treatment plants— also referred to as gray infrastructure.

They also found that different messages related to climate change, global warming, extreme weather events and decaying infrastructure affect people’s willingness to contribute to projects.

The study was led by Kent Messer, the Unidel Howard Cosgrove Chair for the Environment and director of the Center for Experimental and Applied Economics (CEAE) in the University’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR).

The results were recently published in the Agricultural and Resource Economics Review.

Beer Company Develops Edible Six-Pack Rings That Feed, Rather Than Kill, Marine Life

Read the full story at Amazyble.

In partnership with We Believers ad agency, the Saltwater Brewery in Delray conjured the brilliant idea to create edible six-pack rings that feed, rather than kill, marine life to offset the damage being done by plastic pollution.

Colorado River’s dead clams tell tales of carbon emission

Read the full story from Cornell University.

Scientists have begun to account for the topsy-turvy carbon cycle of the Colorado River delta – once a massive green estuary of grassland, marshes and cottonwood, now desiccated dead land.

“We’ve done a lot in the United States to alter water systems, to dam them. The river irrigates our crops and makes energy. What we really don’t understand is how our poor water management is affecting other natural systems – in this case, carbon cycling,” said Cornell’s Jansen Smith, a doctoral candidate in earth and atmospheric sciences.

Smith is lead author of “Fossil Clam Shells Reveal Unintended Carbon Cycling Consequences of Colorado River Management,” published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, Sept. 28.

 

Exploring Ecological Marine Units

A healthy ocean can reduce poverty, combat hunger, limit the impacts of climate change, and improve the global economy. To achieve these ideals and support ocean sustainability, it is necessary to have a baseline method for understanding of the ocean’s ecosystems and a framework to detect change. Ecological Marine Units (EMUs) are the baseline 3D mapped ecosystems of the ocean that have been classified through statistical clustering.