In an environmental communication class that I took at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the classroom activity one week was to watch four different ads trying to persuade individuals to engage in pro-environmental behaviour. One of these ads on reducing plastic consumption can be found below: After watching this ad, all of us in the room …
Continue reading “It’s More Than Education: Knowing Your Audience’s Environmental Attitudes”
On the Colorado River and crossing the border between Nevada and Arizona lies Lake Mead, a reservoir first created in the 1930s as part of a US Bureau of Reclamation project. At the end of June of this year, Lake Mead dropped to 35.17% of its capacity, the lowest level ever recorded since construction. By …
Continue reading “The Growing Water Crisis in the US Southwest”
Over two-thirds of Americans are served by investor-owned utilities (IOUs), energy providers whose mission involves the necessity of providing profits to their shareholders. A much smaller number of individuals in the country get their power from consumer-owned utilities (COUs), who are not pressured to put the profit of their shareholders over the financial welfare of …
Continue reading “Action for Consumer-Owned Utilities in Maine Stalled, but Not Defeated”
When people hear of Standing Rock, they likely first associate this area with the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) and the protests against this shale oil pipeline that began in early 2016. A proposed pipeline route through richer and whiter Bismarck, North Dakota, was rejected in favour of the route that ran close to critical drinking …
Continue reading “Standing Rock’s Proposed Wind Farm & The Quest for Environmental Justice”
I’d written this blog during the winter with the intention of publishing it during the summer months. I then decided on this Thursday since lawn-mowing season is in full swing. But then I saw on an environmental news site that there was a history of lawns piece published last week, so now I look like …
When you think about airships, the tragic disaster of the Hindenburg likely comes to mind. The catastrophe in question occurred in 1937 in New Jersey when the German-built airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire. The inferno, whose cause was unknown (although explanations range from sabotage, static electricity, lightning, and engine failure), killed 35 of the …
A vast volume of data exists to demonstrate that our current system of agriculture is unsustainable. The mass conversion of the Earth’s terrestrial area to farmland has resulted in many of these regions becoming carbon sources rather than carbon sinks. In addition, the land and resources we have devoted to agriculture mainly go towards producing …
Continue reading “Cultivating Our Underwater Forests: Seaweed in Future Agriculture”
A record number of people signed up this year for Veganuary, a global movement that encourages people to pledge to be entirely vegan in January. 525,000 individuals signed up for the challenge this year, demonstrating the increasing interest in and popularity of the plant-based diet. No longer is veganism a fringe movement that many people …
Happy New Year! With that pleasantry out of the way, let’s get to talking about what’s wrong with the world. Back in 2015, 196 parties adopted the Paris Accord, a treaty that has the goal of limiting Earth’s total warming to below 2°C, and if possible 1.5°C. As part of their contribution to this goal, …
Continue reading “EU Pledges Climate Action for the Paris Accord, Yet Promotes Beef”
The Paris Accord was signed in December of 2015 and has the goal of limiting warming since preindustrial times (1750) to 2°C, or 1.5°C if possible. The Earth has already warmed by 1°C since 1750. The Paris Accord was widely lauded at the time of its signing and was portrayed as proof that the international …
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