Over 15 years of ocean science and conservation online
It’s the second week of Science and Sustainability month, and this time we want to know what you have done to lead a more sustainable life. Be as specific or as general as you want. Do you reuse items that you’d normally throw away, bike instead of drive, compost your trash? Have you made dramatic … Read More “What steps have you taken to lead a more sustainable life?” »
We launched Science and Sustainability month with an open thread, asking our readers “What does sustainability mean to you?” We received several truly stellar comments, but can, unfortunately, only choose one to be our comment of the week. Congratulations to Mark Gibson, who said:
Read More “Science and Sustainability Comment of the Week” »
The world is rapidly approaching 7 billion people and the challenges of food supply, security, and sustainability will, along with climate change, be the defining issues of the 21st century. While the issues of the wealthiest nations revolve around the quality of our food, the environmental impact or our farming practices, and the value we place on a perceived degree of “naturalness”, the rest of the world is simply concerned with having enough to eat. What we chose to value in our society affects the rest of the world, and perhaps the most visible, and most dramatic difference between the developing and developed world is the ways in which we treat our pets.
Hans Rosling has an important and often overlooked message about how the decisions made by the wealthiest affect the poorest and where we need to focus our goals when we talk about sustainability.
The winner of “Best Conservation Message” at the 2011 Beneath the Waves Film Festival came from Laura Hutchinson, a graduate student at Texas A and M’s Harte Research Institute. Sink Your Shucks explains the ecological importance of oysters and how people can help to restore oyster reefs.
As part of our month of Sustainability and Science, we’re raising money to help complete Bonehenge. Bonehenge is the skeleton of a Sperm Whale that stranded on Cape Lookout several years ago. Over the last three years, Keith Rittmaster and an army of volunteers from the North Carolina Maritime Museum have been working to re-articulate the skeleton for a display at their Gallants Channel campus.
The protect is a shining example of outreach and community engagement. School groups tour the assembly facility regularly and get a first hand look at the process of reconstructing a full sized whale. Over the course of the project, several new discoveries about sperm whale physiology have been made, including the extreme degree of asymmetry that results in one side of the whale have fewer and smaller bones than the other.
During this month we will match all donations up to $250. There is a widget to your left to make donation through paypal. Even a couple of dollars goes a long way towards making this exhibit a reality.
While I often disagreed with former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, her “green the capitol” initiative was admirable. Serving local foods in the cafeteria and providing diners with compostable utensils and cups helped make the House of Representatives a model eco-friendly workplace. Now that Republicans have retaken the house, they have decided to abandon these policies.
Read More “Republican House leaders abandon Pelosi’s “green the capitol” initiative” »
Every time I see the slogan “drill baby drill” appear as a response to recent rises in gas prices, I think back to the short time I lived in Alaska. Spanning the summer of 2007, my short adventure in Fairbanks left me with much to think about. One of the most surprising was the lessons learned from $5.30 gas prices – in a state that pays its residents dividends from its large oil production.
Long story short, Alaskan oil isn’t the cleanest – in fact, refineries in the U.S. don’t touch the stuff. Alaskan oil is thick and heavy, to the point where the pipeline has a special cleaning tool known as a pig to keep the oil flowing. Most of the oil is then shipped to relatively nearby markets in Japan and Korea, while oil in Alaska itself is either put through a more rigorous processing or shipped from elsewhere in the world.
In a world where greenwashing, overfishing, bycatch and pirate fishing run rampant, it can be difficult for eco-conscious consumers to know what to buy. Many eco-certification agencies exist, but they often offer conflicting advice. Who should you listen to?
Read More “MSC considering granting sustainable status to a fishery with high shark bycatch” »
Biodiversity matters, even in the heart of one of America’s largest cities. New York City is possibly one of the most altered environments in which humans live. Even here, among the towering buildings of the concrete jungle, there are green spaces, and in these green spaces, biodiversity thrives.
Read More “Biodiversity Wednesday: The Green Spaces of New York” »
