Ensia | Vital reporting on our changing planet
Ensia. Published at the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment, Ensia is a solutions-focused media outlet. reporting on our changing planet. Article How a popular hunting destination in Egypt is looking to become an ecotourism hot spot. Feature A huge park outside of Mexico City serves as a climate-adaptation model.
Landfills have a huge greenhouse gas problem. Here’s what we
But at the landfill, the food and yard waste that trash contains is decomposing and releasing methane, a greenhouse gas that’s 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Landfill gas also contributes to smog, worsening health problems like asthma. Globally, trash released nearly 800 million metric tons (882 million tons) of CO2 equivalent in ...
Ongoing conflict threatens efforts to save this endemic tree | Ensia
2024年1月29日 · On Yemen’s Socotra island, poverty and political disruption hinder efforts to give its prized dragon’s blood tree a future. January 29, 2024 — Editor’s note: This story is part of a collaboration between Ensia and Egab exploring environmental efforts by communities facing potentially more urgent concerns such as war and poverty.
The term “resilience” is everywhere — but what does it really mean?
2019年5月7日 · Two key ideas come out of this definition of resilience. First, resilience in human and natural systems is often associated with sustainability in the face of constant change. Second, resilience involves two kinds of response to that change. The first, adaptation, supports the resilience of a system by helping it stay in essentially the same ...
Banned in Europe, safe in the U.S. - Ensia
2014年6月11日 · In the U.S., Minnesota has banned in-state sales of children’s personal care products that contain the chemical. Use of lead-based interior paints was banned in France, Belgium and Austria in 1909. Much of Europe followed suit before 1940. It took the U.S. until 1978 to make this move, even though health experts had, for decades, recognized ...
What can we do about salinization of soils? | Ensia
2019年4月11日 · Soil salinity can be reversed, but it takes time and is expensive. Solutions include improving the efficiency of irrigation channels, capturing and treating salty drainage water, setting up desalting plants, and increasing the amount of water that gets into aquifers. Mulches to save water can also be applied to crops.
Why are harmful chemicals showing up in children’s toys? | Ensia
July 26, 2019 — Environmental and children’s health advocates breathed a sigh of relief when, over a decade ago, U.S. manufacturers began to phase out a number of flame retardant chemicals from furniture, electronics, textiles and other everyday items. Polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs, were facing increasing scrutiny (and some had ...
Can Australia rehabilitate its thousands of legacy mine sites? - Ensia
As Australia’s mining boom wanes, rehabilitation of abandoned mines offers lessons for the world. Across the globe, countries are figuring out how to bring plants and animals back to abandoned mines. With as many as 60,000 such sites, Australia could offer important lessons. October 11, 2018 — The 1986 Australian film “Crocodile Dundee ...
OPINION: As climate changes, we need the arts more than ever
2018年2月1日 · Bad art with a valid social message is still bad art, and it will take far more than just an increase in the number of climate change-themed TV series, movies, operas, dystopian novels, county-western songs, art installations, hip-hop verses, and performance pieces to show us the way. Artists will need to dig deeper, observe more closely and ...
How Khonoma became India’s first Green Village | Ensia
2019年3月29日 · India’s First Green Village. These age-old, sustainable agricultural practices along with the conservation success of Khonoma, drew the attention of the tourism ministry of the Indian government, which, in 2005, named the village India’s first “green village,” accompanied by a grant of 30 million rupees (equivalent to about US$700,000 ...