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Story Archives of 'Environment'New Hampshire EnvirothonBy Deborah Schachter on Saturday, August 22, 2009.In New Hampshire Envirothon students work in teams to solve real-life environmental and natural resourcss problems. Cliff Lerner is the Envirothon team advisor at Keene High School, and says the program is one of the most motivating activities for his students. Lakes Region Conservation TrustBy Deborah Schachter on Saturday, July 11, 2009.John Oliver grew up with a sense of awe and respect for the land outside his farmhouse window. Now, he helps the Lakes Region Conservation Trust care for and protect that land – nearly 2600 acres on Red Hill in Moultonborough. Ecocide in the CongoBy Virginia Prescott on Thursday, July 2, 2009.
The Romans blighted the fields of Carthage with salt back in 146 BC. The flattened villages of Flanders...Agent Orange stripping the jungles of Vietnam...the burning oil wells in Iraq. These are just a few illustrations of the long term environmental ruin left after battle. There’s a term for it, in fact: ecocide, literally meaning the killing of the environment. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, 12 years of conflict have cost more than five million human lives. One million people have been displaced, many living in over-crowded camps with little food and little hope. More tragic still, the enduring toll on the environment will likely affect citizens for generations to come. Washington Post reporter Delphine Schrank spent a year in the DRC as an International Reporting Project fellow. She witnessed the bloodshed and the ecocide and joined us on the line from New York with more. The Atlantic: As Go The Hippos... (Photo by *Simian* via Flickr/Creative Commons) Decomposting the DeadBy Virginia Prescott on Thursday, July 2, 2009.
A Swedish company is taking the concept one step further. Promessa Organic AB has developed a technique for composting bodies completely. It involves freezing the corpse with liquid nitrogen until it becomes brittle, then vibrating the cadaver until it breaks down into a fine powder. After a few more steps, family members receive a box of remains that will biodegrade in a shallow grave within twelve months. The process is called promession and clearly, it’s kind of creepy to explain. So far it’s only been tried on pigs and cows. But the first promatorium could open in Sweden as early as next year. James Glave told us more. He’s a freelance journalist who wrote about promession in the July/August issue of Walrus Magazine. He joined us from Bowen Island, British Columbia as part of our Next Green Thing series. Walrus Magazine: Decomposting Bodies: What's the Greenest Way to Dispose of Human Remains? (Photo by hubb-a-dubbs via Flickr/Creative Commons) Man-Made Reef May Help Stem Oysters' DeclineBy Amy Quinton on Wednesday, July 1, 2009.A new report finds that New Hampshire’s Great Bay Estuary has lost more than 90 percent of its oyster reefs over the last 15 years. Sewage HappensBy Amy Standen on Wednesday, July 1, 2009.
Think your city has a sewage problem? You haven't seen the half of it. San Francisco's Bay Area sits on top of a ticking time bomb: a vast network of disintegrating sewage pipes, some of them made of clay and dating back to the Gold Rush. KQED Quest's Amy Standen visited the frontlines of the war on sewage: plumbers who make their living off of busted pipes, as well as a city official with an unenviable job: trying to sell the city on a multi-billion dollar plan to fix the system. Listen to Standen's Report at the Public Radio Exchange (Photo by liltree via Flickr/Creative Commons) You Say Potato, I Say Environmental DeteriorationBy Virginia Prescott on Tuesday, June 30, 2009.Re-branding is not such a subtle art. Remember when Kentucky Fried Chicken became "KFC"? Or when the scandalized Blackwater security firm ditched its name altogether and became "XE"?
Now environmental PR firms are re-working their language to push people who are on the fence about climate change over to their way of thinking. A Pew study in January found that climate change ranks at #20 on a list of people's concerns. The term turns people off, fostering images of shaggy-haired liberals, economic sacrifice and complex scientific disputes. As part of our Next Green Thing series, we’re turning to Jonathan Hiskes. He reports on climate politics for Grist and he recently detailed some of the new terminology being advised by the non-profit PR firm EcoAmerica and why that language is setting off peoples' truth detectors already. Grist: It's Got A Ring To It, No? New York Times: Seeking to Save the Planet with A Thesaurus (Photo by Peter Beazley via Flickr/Creative Commons) Damanhur: Laboratory for the Future of HumanityBy Virginia Prescott on Monday, June 29, 2009.
Unlike some spartan eco-villages, people in Damanhur meditate in lavish underground temples with elaborate tunnels and hidden chambers. There they also record music made by plants, and believe they can leave their physcial bodies to travel along the astral plane using technology from the lost city of Atlantis. Residents call Damanhur "a laboratory for the future of humanity." A three-part documentary on Damanhur is now screening on VBS TV, the free online TV channel of Vice magazine. We've invited the film’s director and producer, Santiago Stelley, to describe this unique social experiment. VBS TV: Damanhur: Laboratory for the Future of Humanity (Photo by Alex Jarvis via Flickr/Creative Commons) Economics of RecyclingBy Christine Parrish on Monday, June 29, 2009.
Do insulating paints save energy?By EarthTalk on Sunday, June 28, 2009.
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