Get rid of old, broken, and unused devices—even Lightning cables—without adding to the e-waste problem.
https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-responsibly-dispose-electronics/
Author: admin
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New York Times: Want to Help Feathered Friends Beat the Heat? Get a Birdbath.
A well-placed, properly maintained birdbath can be a vital resource for birds and other wildlife, and needn’t attract mosquitoes
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Bees Get All the Love. Won’t Someone Think of the Moths?
LOOK, WE GET it—bees are fantastic. As more people keep piling into cities over the coming decades, we’ll need more of these insects to pollinate urban green spaces, which provide fresh produce and the biomass that can cool a metropolis. But while deploying as many flowering species as possible to attract bees, cities risk sidelining an underappreciated champion of pollination: the humble moth.
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Removing Barriers: Converting Culverts to Bridges for People & Wildlife
Undersized, damaged, aging culverts can limit access to important stream habitat for fish and other aquatic organisms. They can also seriously affect transportation if a culvert fails or negatively impacts the road above. Replacing a culvert with a larger, more suitable structure like a bridge is a win-win for fish, water quality, transportation, and the economy. At Peterson Creek, a tributary to the Miami River in Tillamook County, Oregon, upgrading the undersized, perched culvert improved access to 6.2 miles of upstream habitat for ESA listed coho salmon, as well as Chinook, chum, steelhead, cutthroat and lampreys.
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How we get tree planting wrong | It’s Complicated
In the face of the impending climate catastrophe, there has been a growing clamour to repopulate the trillions of trees our planet has lost over the centuries.
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How concrete could become a climate solution; reducing concrete carbon emissions
Humans’ dependency on concrete has a long history, but concrete carbon emissions from its production it in the 21st has negative impacts on the Earth.
It’s an ancient technology. Roman engineers routinely ground up burnt limestone and volcanic ash around the 2nd or 3rd century BCE to make caementum. Caementum is a powder that would start to harden as soon as it was mixed with water. Fast forward 2,000 years and humanity’s thirst for concrete has exploded, particularly over the last century.
Modern concrete is a 19th-century innovation known as Portland cement. It’s made in energy-intensive kilns that generate more than half a ton of carbon dioxide for every ton of product.
In 2021, concrete carbon emissions accounted for 8 per cent of all global greenhouse gas emissions. While there’s no silver bullet for reducing the environmental impact of creating concrete, research and development is underway to find new approaches that could make a significant difference.
Sources: BBC News, Ars Technica
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You Can Turn Your Backyard Into a Biodiversity Hot Spot
From Wired: New research shows that if done right, urban farms and gardens can support all kinds of species—for the good of people and the environment.
PEOPLE HAVE LONG stoked an urban-versus-rural rivalry, with vastly different cultures and surroundings. But a burgeoning movement—with accompanying field of science—is eroding this divide, bringing more of the country into the city. It’s called rurbanization, and it promises to provide more locally grown food, beautify the built environment, and even reduce temperatures during heat waves.
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Can Fuel Made From Coconut Waste Briquettes Reduce Deforestation?
From Insider Business: Alhaji Siraj Bah researched how to reduce deforestation and realized many trees were being cut to create fuel. He discovered a way to produce biomass briquettes from coconut waste for use as an alternative to wood for cooking fuel. Learn more about his company Rugsal Trading, which also produces paper bags.
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Wolves have returned to Belgium after 100 years, sparking controversy
Wolves have returned to Belgium; reintroducing species can sometimes be a challenge, as this news report from the BBC documents.
“Wolves have settled in Belgium for the first time in more than 100 years – raising concerns among livestock owners. Wolves were once widely hunted in Europe and folklore suggests the last wolf in Belgium was shot by the nation’s King Leopold II in the 1890s. Estimates vary but around 15 to 20 wolves are currently thought to be in the country, with one pack in Flanders plus another in southern Wallonia, as well as a newly settled pair. Dietary analysis in the area has found that the wolves mainly eat roe deer and wild boar. But around 15% of their diet is livestock – which is causing concern among farmers.” -
The Economist: “Climate change: what is ocean acidification?”
Video – The threat of ocean acidification. From The Economist: As carbon emissions change the chemistry of the seas, ocean acidification threatens marine life and human livelihoods. How worried should you be about climate change’s so-called “evil twin”?