Current estimates of carbon emissions from melting Arctic permafrost rely on a model of a gradual melt. New research has found abrupt thawing of permafrost which means carbon emissions estimates should be doubled. The rate at which permafrost is thawing in the Arctic is gouging holes in the landscape, according to a new study published […]
No longer will the options when we die be a choice between just burial or cremation. Soon it will be possible to compost your remains and leave your loved ones with rich soil, thanks to a new funeral service opening in Seattle in 2021 that will convert humans into soil in just 30 days, as […]
By Claire O’Connor Agriculture is on the front lines of climate change. Whether it’s the a seven-year drought drying up fields in California, the devastating Midwest flooding in 2019, or hurricane after hurricane hitting the Eastern Shore, agriculture and rural communities are already feeling the effects of a changing climate. Scientists expect climate change to […]
By Paul Brown When countries run short of food, they need to find solutions fast, and one answer can be urban farming. That was the remedy Cuba seized with both hands 30 years ago when it was confronted with the dilemma of an end to its vital food imports. And what worked then for Cuba […]
Twenty years ago, Shawn and Beth Dougherty had trouble finding land to farm, so they bought a plot that was designated by the state of Ohio as unsuitable for agriculture. “And we just had to set about disproving that,” Beth Dougherty says. The land was overgrown but too steep for a tractor, so the couple […]
By Brian Barth There’s something of a civil war brewing in the organic movement. On one side are industry boosters boasting about how organic has gone mainstream. These folks are fine with a Big Ag version of organic agriculture — enormous monocrop fields and global distribution to every Walmart across the land. On the other […]
The ocean isn’t the only ecosystem threatened by microplastics. A first-of-its-kind study published Wednesday in Environmental Science and Technology found that particles from the kind of plastic commonly used in bags and bottles stunt the growth of earthworms, a finding with major implications for soil health, The Independent reported. Check out our latest paper on […]
By Kristin Ohlson From where I stand inside the South Dakota cornfield I was visiting with entomologist and former USDA scientist Jonathan Lundgren, all the human-inflicted traumas to Earth seem far away. It isn’t just that the corn is as high as an elephant’s eye — are people singing that song again? — but that […]
Food production must change drastically and immediately in order to sustain ourselves through the ongoing climate crisis, says a new United Nations report put together by more than 100 experts from 52 different countries, according to The New York Times. The special report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that efforts to curb […]
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