Tag: global warming

Five Apps for the Tech-Savvy Environmentalist

Posted on by robbie

So you want to fix the environment? That’s a big job. Absent clear policy change from the powers-that-be, the onus is on all citizens to do their part and pitch in as much as they can. How much time and energy each one of us can devote to the cause varies, of course. Which is why we’ve rounded up five eco-friendly apps that will help put anyone, no matter their individual circumstances, on the path to sustainability.

SKEPTICAL SCIENCE

Here’s an alarming statistic: In a 2018 study, Yale researchers found that more than a quarter of Americans believe that global warming is naturally occurring (and, worse, 14 percent think that it’s not happening at all). If you happen to strike up a conversation with such a denier, the Skeptical Science app is your secret weapon. Run by a team of volunteers who have a wealth of combined expertise in climate science and environmental issues, the organization’s app lists common climate-denier arguments — such as “lack of consensus on who is causing climate change,” and “animals and plants can adapt” — next to true statements and then links those statements to science-based, peer-reviewed research that support them. Not only will you be able to fact-check the discussion in real-time, you’ll be armed with a wealth of knowledge and statistics that will either keep your heated banter going — or provide some big-picture food for thought that just might turn each skeptic you encounter into a climate-change believer.

DROPCOUNTR

Unless you live in a place where water conservation is mandatory — as was the case in California, for example — chances are you don’t give much thought to every drop you use throughout the day. That’s a mistake, even if droughts aren’t an issue where you are: A decrease in our water supply can lead to increased pollution from over-irrigation, and the destruction of pollution-filtering wetlands. What’s more, monitoring the amount of water you consume in your home can cut your monthly water usage by up to 9 percent, which can translate to serious utility savings and rebates. That’s where Dropcountr comes in: The free app partners with utility companies to track and analyze your home’s monthly water output, alerting you of leaks and usage by the gallon. The easy-to-understand graphs and charts also compare your household with others in the area, alongside data of what’s considered “efficient use” — hey, if a little guilt-tripping gets you to turn off the water when you brush your teeth, we’re game! While it’s only available in a handful of states — search by zip code to see if the app is available where you live — you can email your utility company to request it.

Environment Apps 1
Seafood Watch helps diners find fish that were caught in environmentally sustainable ways.

SEAFOOD WATCH

If you’re eager to add more fish to your diet but are concerned about the environmental impact of doing so, Seafood Watch is here to help. Developed by scientists at California’s Monterey Bay Aquarium, the app is a pocket guide to finding fish caught or raised in an environmentally sound way that protects the long-term health of the species — info that’s not always easy to come by when buying seafood (or dining at your favorite sushi restaurant). Search for sustainable fisheries near you by inputting your zip code, or look up specific types of fish by name. The latter produces a shockingly comprehensive list of fish by type, ocean location and catching method, along with colored fish icons that indicate your best option. Overwhelmed by the amount of choices? Research your favorites before going out, and you’ll have no need to worry about putting your waiter or fishmonger on the spot.

GOOD GUIDE

If you’re confused about whether there’s anything toxic in the products you use on your body or in your home, you aren’t alone. A quick trip to the FDA’s website underscores the problem: “Under U.S. law, FDA does not have the authority to require cosmetic manufacturers to submit their safety data to FDA,” it reads. “The burden is on FDA to prove that a particular product or ingredient is harmful when used as intended.” That leaves a loophole the size of the Kardashian empire for cosmetic and household-product manufacturers to walk through — and walk through it they do.
Needless to say, much of this has a direct impact on the physical environment. Common cleaning products like this one contain chemicals that persist in the environment and are toxic to many forms of life; microbeads from a vast array of products end up in our oceans, absorbing toxins as they enter our food chain.
Enter Good Guide and its product-rating system. The Good Guide team assesses personal care, cosmetic and household products — more than 75,000 to date and counting — and gives each product a score from zero to 10. Scores hinge on what a product contains and the degree of transparency from the company regarding those ingredients (for example, “fragrance” is about as specific as “natural” when it comes to describing what exactly is in that bar of soap you just bought).
The app is easy to use, and you may be surprised by what you discover. Procter & Gamble’s Magic Eraser, for instance, scores a 10 (the least toxic rating) while Little Twig Organic Baby Powder gets a big fat zero (meaning, run for the hills!). Speaking of babies, there’s a special “Baby & Kids” section, so that you can keep your kiddos clean — and safe.

OROECO

There’s been much hand-wringing over our carbon footprint here in the U.S., and there’s good reason for it. We are the biggest carbon polluter in history, ahead of the EU and even China, and our per capita fossil-fuel consumption still dwarfs every other country by comparison.
If you’re looking for a way to reduce, or just track, the size of your climate footprint, Oroeco is a bit like the MyFitnessPal of the eco-app space. Oroeco allows you to see how so many disparate aspects of your life contribute to the warming of our planet — even things you might not necessarily think much about, like the clothing you choose and the entertainment you consume. The app then turns that data into a game of sorts. Users can track performance, set goals and compete with friends to see who can hit the lowest carbon “score.”
In order to benefit from its full range of services, Oreoco requires a bit of a lift upfront — you need to input a variety of info, including your salary range; the average number of miles you fly per year; how much you eat; and the amount you spend on goods and services. But the results should present you with a pretty good idea of how you measure up to your peers and where you can shave off a few points to win the game. In the process, you’ll become a more responsible global citizen — and that’s a win for everyone.

The Surprising New Threat to the U.S. Military

Posted on by robbie

Even though climate change has been brushed off as a liberal conspiracy in some political corners, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has once again stressed that the evidence for a warming planet is not only real — but that it’s also an increasingly dangerous threat that the U.S. military needs to be prepared for.
Hagel recently released a 20-page report (called the 2014 Climate Change Adapation Roadmap) describing how the Pentagon is taking immediate steps to respond to rising sea levels, increasing storms and other natural disasters and phenomena linked to rising temperatures here in the U.S, as well as beyond our borders.
Hagel called climate change a “threat multiplier” that can potentially exacerbate political unrest and infectious diseases across the globe. “Rising global temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, climbing sea levels, and more extreme weather events will intensify the challenges of global instability, hunger, poverty, and conflict,” he says in the report’s introduction. “They will likely lead to food and water shortages, pandemic disease, disputes over refugees and resources, and destruction by natural disasters in regions across the globe.”
MORE: The Military Is Devoted to Something That Will Totally Shock You
According to the New York Times, the Department of Defense will begin to integrate “plans for climate change risks across all of its operations, from war games and strategic military planning situations to a rethinking of the movement of supplies.”
For several years now, the U.S. military has focused on climate change as a security risk. The first time that the Pentagon addressed the growing threat was in its 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review that described climate change’s major role in accelerating global instability and conflict.
As we previously reported, as the largest energy consumer in the United States, the Department of Defense is also deeply committed to reducing its own carbon footprint and has a 2025 deadline to produce a quarter of all energy from renewable sources.
DON’T MISS: 5 Very Simple, Practical Things You Can Do to Curb Climate Change

Yet Another Reason to Love Leonardo DiCaprio

Posted on by robbie

After marching with more than 400,000 individuals at the history-making People’s Climate March on the streets of Manhattan, Leonardo DiCaprio urged world leaders at the United Nations Climate Summit to take action.
“As an actor I pretend for a living. I play fictitious characters, often solving fictitious problems,” says the newly-appointed U.N. Messenger of Peace. “I believe mankind has looked at climate change in that same way, as if it were fiction, as if pretending climate change was not real it would somehow make it go away. But I think we all know better than that, now.”
The “Wolf of Wall Street” star isn’t just bringing a little Hollywood pizazz to a room full of suits and politicians. DiCaprio is a noted philanthropist and environmental activist, who started the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation that’s dedicated to protecting the planet.
In his speech, he urged the leaders to enact taxes on carbon emissions, as well as eliminating government subsidies for coal, gas and oil companies. “We need to end the free ride that industrial polluters have been given in the name of a free-market economy, they don’t deserve our tax dollars, they deserve our scrutiny,” he says. “For the economy itself will die if our eco-systems collapse.”
Someone give this man an Oscar already.
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The full transcript:
Thank you, Mr. Secretary-General, your excellencies, ladies and gentleman, and distinguished guests. I’m honored to be here today, I stand before you not as an expert but as a concerned citizen, one of the 400,000 people who marched in the streets of New York on Sunday, and the billions of others around the world who want to solve our climate crisis.
As an actor I pretend for a living. I play fictitious characters often solving fictitious problems.
I believe humankind has looked at Climate Change in that same way: as if it were a fiction, happening to someone else’s planet, as if pretending that Climate Change wasn’t real would somehow make it go away.
But I think we know better than that. Every week
, we’re seeing new and undeniable Climate Events, evidence that accelerated Climate Change is here now. We know that droughts are intensifying, our oceans are warming and acidifying, with methane plumes rising up from beneath the ocean floor. We are seeing extreme weather events, increased temperatures, and the West Antarctic and Greenland ice-sheets melting at unprecedented rates, decades ahead of scientific projections.
None of this is rhetoric, and none of it is hysteria. It is fact. The scientific community knows it, Industry and Governments know it, even the United States military knows it. The Chief of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Command, Admiral Samuel Locklear, recently said that Climate Change is our single greatest security threat.
My Friends, this body – perhaps more than any other gathering in human history – now faces that difficult task. You can make history…or be vilified by it.
To be clear, this is not about just telling people to change their light bulbs or to buy a hybrid car. This disaster has grown BEYOND the choices that individuals make. This is now about our industries, and governments around the world taking decisive, large-scale action.
I am not a scientist, but I don’t need to be. Because the world’s scientific community has spoken, and they have given us our prognosis, if we do not act together, we will surely perish.
Now is our moment for action.
We need to put a pricetag on carbon emissions, and eliminate government subsidies for coal, gas, and oil companies. We need to end the free ride that industrial polluters have been given in the name of a free-market economy, they don’t deserve our tax dollars, they deserve our scrutiny. For the economy itself will die if our eco-systems collapse.
The good news is that renewable energy is not only achievable but good economic policy. New research shows that by 2050 clean, renewable energy could supply 100% of the world’s energy needs using EXISTING TECHNOLOGIES, and it would create millions of jobs.
This is not a partisan debate; it is a human one. Clean air and water, and a livable climate are inalienable human rights. And solving this crisis is not a question of politics. It is our moral obligation – if, admittedly, a daunting one…
We only get one planet. Humankind must become accountable on a massive scale for the wanton destruction of our collective home. Protecting our future on this planet depends on the conscious evolution of our species.
This is the most urgent of times, and the most urgent of messages.
Honored delegates, leaders of the world, I pretend for a living.
But you do not. The people made their voices heard on Sunday around the world and the momentum will not stop. And now it’s YOUR turn, the time to answer the greatest challenge of our existence on this planet… is now.
I beg you to face it with courage. And honesty. Thank you.
DON’T MISS: Watch What a Climate Change Debate Should Really Look Like
 

Could Olive Trees Save California’s Drought-Stricken Farmers?

Posted on by robbie

The olive branch — a timeless Greek symbol of peace — could now signal a new beginning for drought-stricken California. All but completely built for total dryness, these trees are mighty impressive and may just save America’s biggest agriculture state, according to Grist.
With small, waxy leaves and the ability to sense drought and go dormant during rain-free times, olive trees are the perfect crop for California’s future – a future that soon enough, may not be able to support the crops currently growing.
That’s because California’s drought is very real — and goes far beyond a simple slowdown in rainfall. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Governor Jerry Brown has called for residents to voluntarily reduce water use by 20 percent, and a recently passed law makes wasting water illegal.
READ MORE: How Fog Could Solve California’s Drought
“[Farmers] are coming to the stark realization that, no matter what they do, there won’t be enough water to keep their trees alive,” Peter Fimrite of the San Francisco Gate writes.
Which is where olive trees come in.
Dan Flynn, executive director of the UC Davis Olive Center, told Grist that “there’s 10 times more California-grown olive oil than we had 10 years ago,” meaning an oil boom — olive oil, that is — already has legs and is off and running. That’s because the California climate is becoming nearly identical to the native habitat of olive trees: the Mediterranean. This makes them incredibly easy to farm, as they are significantly more sustainable than the almond tree, which, in many cases, they will displace.
Especially with the advent of almond milk, that nut has been in high demand. Almond trees require a lot of water, though, which makes them bad crops for the new California.
Health fanatics shouldn’t worry, though, as olive oil has been shown to be extremely good for you. Another plus is that an increased domestic supply could make for olive oil that’s both higher in quality and better tasting.
So what does all this mean?
We get tastier olive oil and become healthier as a country in the process? Yes. Most importantly, however, is that California can continue on as an agricultural powerhouse even as the climate changes.
This olive branch is bringing peace. Peace of mind, that is, that we don’t have to give up in the face of drought.
DON’T MISS: The Silver Lining To California’s Terrible Drought

5 Inspiring Green Initiatives Moving America Towards a Bright Future

Posted on by robbie

Stranded polar bears. Rising sea levels. Extreme weather. By now you know the devastating impacts of climate change, and it’s pretty easy to get disheartened by it.
Fortunately, there are some pretty smart cookies here in America who have come up with positive solutions that might change how you feel about our warming planet. Perhaps, you might even feel inspired to take action yourself.
Recyclebank has ranked the 10 most inspiring sustainable innovations happening from coast to coast. We’ve picked five of our favorite projects, but you should really head on over to EcoWatch for the whole list. (The polar bears will thank you!)
MORE: Can I Recycle This? 5 Things You Should Always Recycle (and 5 Things You Shouldn’t)
1. Organic food in La Farge, Wis.
 We’ve already told you how the food industry is a big environmental nightmare in so many different ways. But at Organic Valley (aka the biggest organic farm co-op in the country) food and farmers are truly treated with respect. Its 45,000 square-foot barn (constructed from locally-sourced materials, naturally) sells sustainable food and hosts workshops and exhibits to help educate the entire community. As the company boasts on their website: “The central mission of our cooperative is to support rural communities by protecting the health of the family farm — working toward both economic and environmental sustainability.”
2. Xeriscaping in Denver
This form of water-wise landscaping might sound unfamiliar to you, but here’s why it’s important: Drought. For water-pinched states in the southwest, xeriscaping is not only a beautiful alternative to water-intensive lawns, it conserves much more water, too. As EcoWatch reports, Denver’s water board has put up free downloadable instructions so you can remodel your own yard.
3. Green building in Chicago
As we’ve mentioned before, it literally takes a lot of energy to go to work. The EPA found that commercial buildings in Chicago are responsible for 70 percent of the city’s carbon emissions. But in an effort to reduce its carbon footprint, Chicago has a Green Permit Program that promotes, expedites and reduces the cost of green architecture. In fact, the Windy City has the most LEED-certified projects in the U.S. at 295.
4. Alternative transportation in Portland, Ore.
Light rail, streetcar, bus, biking, smart cars. If there’s one place you want to be without a smog-emitting automobile, it’s probably Portland. Thanks to the Portland Bureau of Transportation and the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, it’s one of the most bike-friendly cities in the country.
5. Wind Energy in Corpus Christi, Texas
Back in 2002, Texas deregulated its electricity market, which meant that consumers could pick their own energy provider. That’s when Corpus Christi decided to pave the way for wind power. The city is now home to the county’s first on-port wind farm that ships wind turbines to all other states. By using the power of all-natural wind, Texas now saves more than 8.1 billion gallons of water and avoids 22 million metric tons of CO2 emissions each year.
DON’T MISS: Watch What a Climate Change Debate Should Really Look Like

While Our Actions Sometimes Say Otherwise, This New Survey Reveals That We Really Do Care About the Earth

Posted on by robbie

What do you care about more, the environment or your bottom line? As it turns out, Mother Nature is finally trumping bank account balances for most Americans.
A recent survey by the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor found that Americans care (or at least say they do) more about the environment than energy affordability. In the past, many studies have asked about this subject by posing it as a trade off — a would you rather, in a sense, pitting dollars and cents over birds and bees.
This time around, the research team led by John DeCicco went about it quite differently. By clearly inquiring about the importance of energy cost and environmental impact separately from each other made respondents show their true beliefs, untainted by how they feel about the other.
By asking respondents how they feel about environmental impact, DeCicco was able to show that “roughly 60 percent of respondents said they worried a ‘great deal’ or ‘fair amount’” about it, according to Fast Company. This even held true across multiple income levels.
What’s so groundbreaking about these results? They show that caring about the environment is a natural and popular opinion, which should put more people in support of individual and communal environmental efforts. A similar study was done in October 2013, with results coming in about even, which was impressive at the time, but this newer study shows a great trend in our collective thinking.
So whether it be oil spills or hurricanes or just hotter summer days, Americans seem to be caring more about the place around them. Which is certainly good news for the planet.
MORE: Inspiring the Next Generation of Energy Conservationists
 

What Is the Battery of the Future Made Of?

Posted on by robbie

From powering pacemakers to kids’ toys and everything in between, we rely on batteries every day.
But with lithium — the material we use to make batteries — becoming a less viable resource, how are we going to power our gadgets?
Turns out, there’s an alternative energy source that grows quite abundantly: Algae.
Sounds like a crazy idea, right?
Not to Adam Freeman and his team at alGAS in California.
Algae, which forms in large blooms on the water’s surface, can be harmful to fish living below, but it has huge potential in the battery-powered world. The prototype creator says that his algae battery is powerful enough to run anything — even a Tesla!
Not only would an algae battery be incredibly versatile, but it could also charge in a fraction of the time that current, lithium batteries do. Turns out, the incredibly thin fibers found in algae are much more conducive for ions to flow through, making charge time as quick as eleven seconds, according to Tech Crunch.
While this innovation is certainly eco-friendly and time efficient, it is also cost efficient: the lithium imported for batteries not just nonrenewable, but it has to be shipped from China — making batteries more costly.
Although still in testing phases, Freeman says he would be able to make a functioning battery prototype with $1,500 more in funding; $5,000 more and an algae-powered battery it could be ready for mass production.
Between Freeman’s work and this experiment that transformed algae into crude oil, this water plant is on track to become a significant part of America’s renewable energy landscape.
DON’T MISS: The Top 5 Ways to Fight Global Warming

The Top 5 Ways to Fight Global Warming

Posted on by robbie

By now you know that global warming is one of the most serious threats we face. So what the heck are we supposed to do about it?
According to an announcement from the UCLA Newsroom, for the first time, scientists ranked all the various strategies that could slow down climate change.
The study, which appears in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, narrowed the vast list down to the top five approaches based upon feasibility, cost, risk, public acceptance, governability, and ethics.
MORE: Watch What a Climate Change Debate Should Really Look Like
Here are the top five, ranked from least to most effective.
Stimulate the growth of algae in the ocean. This means adding iron to the ocean to promote the growth of carbon-consuming underwater plants. It’s ranked as the least viable approach because it’s not very efficient and letting algae grow wild could harm sea life.
Create more shade with solar reflectors in outer space or artificially increase the earth’s cloud cover. Injecting more water droplets into the atmosphere to create more clouds reduces the amount of sunlight hitting the planet. Sounds neat, huh? But, as Daniela Cusack, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of geography at UCLA says, “Cloud seeding sounds simple but we really don’t understand what would happen to the climate if we started making more clouds.” (Perhaps we shouldn’t take that risk then.)
Confine carbon by converting CO2 into liquid form and pumping it underground. This however, could be prohibitively expensive or dangerous due to leakage. “No one wants to live next to a huge underground pool of carbon dioxide that might suffocate them or their children — no matter how small the risk,” Cusack says.
Sequester carbon by leaving it up to Mother Nature’s all-natural CO2 suckers: Plants. We’ve got to leave our precious forests alone. And we have to promote regrowth and planet-friendly agricultural practices, too.
Cut emissions. It’s really the most obvious solution. While the Obama administration recently announced a historic push to cut harmful carbon pollution from power plants — the biggest source of CO2 — it’s only a start.
As Grist puts it, cutting carbon means conserving energy, improving efficiency, and curbing our reliance on fossil fuels by adopting renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.
Besides, the authors found that using all the technology we already have could reduce seven gigatons of carbon per year (humans release nine gigatons of CO2 a year). “We have the technology, and we know how to do it,” Cusack said. “It’s just that there doesn’t seem to be political support for reducing emissions.”
Now if we could only get everyone — regardless of political affiliation — on board.
DON’T MISS: 5 Surprising Things That Harm the Planet (and 5 Simple Ways to Help Save It)
 

When it Comes to the Planet, Children (Not the Government) Really Are the Future

Posted on by robbie

Warmer temperatures. Rising sea levels. Toxic air. Overflowing landfills. The world our children will inherit has taken quite a beating.
So with lawmakers unable to agree on plans to cut carbon, children are taking matters into their own hands.
In an inspiring (and ridiculously adorable) video from Good Will Students for Peace, students from Lincoln Avenue School in Orange, New Jersey aren’t just learning the basics of reducing, reusing and recycling.
With this semester’s theme, “My Home is the Planet Earth, Our Role as Environmentally Aware Citizens,” students are taking action and becoming leaders in their local community. Students upcycle paper, plastic bottles, cans and cardboard rolls, plus each classroom also has their own perennial garden.
MORE: How One School Is Using the Forest to Improve Education
They also really get their hands dirty with community clean-ups. In the video, one student poignantly points out after one such project, “To the people who didn’t participate in this activity…you should have, ’cause it was actually a fun experience.”
She adds, “This is your community — not just mine. We all live here and other people would like to live here but can’t because of the way we treat our community.” (Don’t you just want to give her a hug?)
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It’s not just the kids in New Jersey who are taking charge in saving the planet. It’s happening all over the country. As Al-Jazeera America reported last month, children as young as 13 are tying to sue the U.S. government for violating their constitutional rights for failing to develop a climate change recovery plan.
The suit — dubbed Kids vs. Global Warming — is backed by more than 30 climate scientists and legal scholars. The complaint reads, “The welfare of youth is directly affected by the failure of government to confront human-made climate change, and unless the government acts immediately to rapidly reduce carbon emissions … youth will face irrevocable harm: the collapse of natural resource systems and a largely uninhabitable nation.”
Looks like children can teach us a thing or two.

Here’s the Difference Between Weather and Climate

Posted on by robbie

As we’ve said before, there’s really no debate whether or not climate change is real. Despite the scientific consensus, however, some people still aren’t quite convinced that the planet is getting hotter. “If global warming is real,” a climate-skeptic might wonder, “why was I huddled under blankets until March?”
Well, if you watch this video from National Geographic, astrophysicist and Cosmos host Neil deGrasse Tyson elegantly shuts down that argument in two minutes.
With the help of an enthusiastic dog, he illustrates that weather and climate change are measured in completely ways.
MORE: These Scientists Were Fed Up with Climate Change Deniers. Here’s What They Did About It
“Here’s the difference between weather and climate,” Tyson says as he and his furry friend walk along the beach. “Weather is what the atmosphere does in the short term, day to day. Climate is the long-term average of the weather over a number of years.” He points out that dog’s restless wandering represents the daily fluctuation of weather, while he, walking in a steady forward pace, is the long-term trend of climate.
“Weather is hard to predict, like my friend here,” he says about the wandering pup. “But climate is predictable. Climate has changed many times in the long history of the Earth — but always in response to a global force.” By the way, that “force” is the increase in carbon dioxide from our burning of fossil fuels.
ALSO: Would Your State Survive a Climate Change Catastrophe?
We explained in a previous post that as we continue driving our cars and burning fuel at factories and power plants, CO2 gets released into the atmosphere as “blocks” like in the game of Tetris (also known as the greenhouse effect). And just like the video game, if we can’t clear up these CO2 blocks, they’ll just build up faster and faster until it’s game over.
It’s a bit doomsday, but it’s the hard truth. But we suppose climate-skeptics don’t need to worry about the future of the planet in its fight against climate change. After all, as Tyson said, the earth will survive — only we won’t.
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