Read the full story in Future Structure.
Transit officials in Kansas City, Mo., plan to eliminate bus fares system-wide this year. Leadership views the move, which will erase about 8 percent of the agency’s revenue, as a boost to the local economy.
Month: January 2020
The past and future of the earth’s oldest trees
Read the full story in the New Yorker.
Bristlecone pines have survived various catastrophes over the millennia, and they may survive humanity.
Reading history in the soil
Read the full post at Behind the Scenes.
Illinois State Archaeological Survey postdoctoral researcher Rebecca Barzilai maps and collects soil samples from the floor of a religious shrine in Greater Cahokia, an ancient Native American settlement on the Mississippi River in and around present-day St. Louis.
Webinar: Ann Arbor Summer Festival (A2SF) Festival Footprint: Going Zero Waste
Apr 9, 2020 12:00 – 1:00 pm
Register here
In 2018, long-standing sponsor Toyota approached the Ann Arbor Summer Festival (A2SF) with a challenge to create social impact in southeast Michigan by changing community behaviors around sustainability and the environment. Over the past two seasons, A2SF has implemented a dramatic waste management transformation, created educational opportunities, and presented community-collaborative art programming. The operational goal? To become a zero waste event with 90% landfill diversion over three years.
About the speaker
James Carter (Programming & Operations Manager, Ann Arbor Summer Festival) divides his time between programming A2SF and managing staff in-season. He’s led the Festival Footprint Initiative to transform A2SF into a zero waste event, and his focus is social impact through artistic programming and community engagement. James has curated and produced performing and visual art for 19 years. He co-founded the Manhattan-based theater company terraNOVA Collective and presented world-class performers in its soloNOVA Arts Festival, such as Taylor Mac, W. Kamau Bell, Nilaja Sun, The Bengsons, Erin Markey, and Emily DeCola. James also served as Season Producer for the Ensemble Studio Theatre. As the editor for the Civilians’ Extended Play, he worked on Lynn Nottage’s immersive and interactive community created installation “This is Reading,” which was born of research for her Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Sweat.”
Native Illinois River Fish Are Dying Younger. “Why” Isn’t an Easy Question to Answer
Read the full story from WGLT.
Sportfish in the Illinois River are dying younger.
That’s the conclusion of a paper released last fall by the Illinois Natural History Survey. Between 1993 and 2017, catch rates for many sportfish species have markedly declined. The losses are most prevalent among older, larger fish.
INHS Field Research Coordinator Levi Solomon is one of the researchers who studied the populations of six species of bass, bluegill, and crappie along the LaGrange stretch of the river, which stretches roughly 80 miles from the Peoria Lock and Dam in the north to the LaGrange Lock and Dam near Quincy.
Of those species, only black crappie are regularly living to age 3. Only yellow bass have seen a jump in catch rates over the two-decade window.
Solomon said this could have a big impact on river towns which rely on fishing tourism.
E-Cycle Wisconsin reports program results
Read the full story in Recycling Today.
The state’s electronics recycling program, started 10 years ago as the result of a landfill ban, continues to evolve and improve.
Can the Super Bowl go zero waste?
Read the full story in National Geographic.
This Sunday, Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium will try to eliminate its need for a landfill.
How China is choking the Mekong
Read the full story in the Washington Post.
A river journey reveals displaced villages and a ruined ecosystem
Sainsbury’s net zero pledge: EU retailers ramping up the pressure for sustainable food system transition
Read the full story from Food Navigator.
Sainsbury’s is investing to make its operations carbon neutral by 2040. The news comes as further evidence that sustainability is an important issue for the food industry’s European retail customers and consumers, contributing to mounting pressure on suppliers to act.
Why Action on ‘Forever Chemicals’ Is Taking So Long
Read the full story from Bloomberg News.
What do you do about lab-made chemicals that are in 99% of people in the U.S. and have been linked to immune system problems and cancer? Whose bonds are so stable that they’re often called “forever chemicals“? Meet PFAS, a class of chemicals that some scientists call the next PCB or DDT. For consumers, they are best known in products like Scotchgard and Teflon. For businesses, PFAS are a puzzle that has already created billions of dollars worth of liabilities. But 70 years of unchecked proliferation may be ending as both the U.S. Congress and the Environmental Protection Agency have signaled a new willingness to take them on, even as regulators missed a self-imposed deadline at the end of 2019.
Environmental News Bits 