"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you imagined." -Henry David Thoreau
Protecting pollinators is critical to maintaining healthy ecosystems and human food supply. Bees, for example, pollinate 70 out of the top 100 crops globally. And roughly 1 in 3 bites of food we eat is derived from plants pollinated by bees. Unfortunately, modern pesticides are killing bees. In 1947 there were 6 million honeybee hives …
Biodiversity is a word thrown around by a lot of environmental groups as something really important. What is it, exactly? It’s short for biological diversity, and it refers to the entire variety of life on earth that comprise of all the ecosystems and elements that make the planet “work.” From mushrooms to minke whales, corals …
In my last post I mentioned palm oil. What’s that? It’s an industrial agriculture commodity. Uhh…what? A commodity is typically a raw material or product that is bought and sold. Industrial agriculture refers to large-scale farming. The rationale behind massive monoculture like palm oil is that it’s efficient and can keep pace with the rapidly …
Did you know that some plants and animals can be traded legally? Their trade is regulated by an international convention that most countries are a party to, called the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). However, many species are traded illegally, and that threatens many endangered animals, from elephants and pangolins to sharks …
Last year, a study produced by the UN announced that one million species were at risk of extinction under current climate change trajectories and given humans' impact. One year later, an updated study out of the US’s National Academy of Sciences found that initial estimates on mass extinction were conservative. We have only 10-15 years …
One in four living things on the planet are endangered. A significant cause of species becoming endangered is habitat destruction, which is typically at the hands of humans for development of agricultural land, infrastructure, and business or home. In the US, the Endangered Species Act, signed in 1973, was the first law of its kind …
I give a damn about the planet, about the connectedness of the environment with our daily lives. And I want everyone else to give a damn. So I’ve come up with a blog series I’m calling #WhyItMatters about different elements of the environment and how they’re tied to us living full, equitable, healthy lives.Each blog post will …
A quick review of recent air travel during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The scenery is pretty idyllic, but moving to Maine hasn't been perfect. I know I'm pretty privileged to have dropped everything—a pretty awesome life in Washington DC—to move to Vacationland in search of "more." But that's because I live by "Carpe That Fucking Diem." I live with urgency: tomorrow is not guaranteed, and I want …
