Environment

We asked youth radio groups from Portland, Maine, to Seattle, Washington, to pick a product or a pastime and size up its green credentials. What they learned surprised us - like this piece from Zoe Sheinkopf from public radio station KUOW’s weekday high radio training program in Seattle, Washington. She followed the leftovers from a local university cafeteria to a distant compost heap to find out what becomes of all that waste, and to weigh the economic and environmental advantages of composting over just chucking garbage in the trash.

We're hearing from teens across the United States who are getting to the heart of what’s really good for the planet… and what just might look that way. Here’s one Maine high school student’s critical take on greenwashing, the corporate practice of making green claims about products and services that might or might not live up to their marketing.

Isaac Woodbury High is a reporter from Blunt Youth Radio in Portland, Maine, a youth radio program that hosts a weekly public affairs call-in show. Isaac took a look at Wal-Mart’s green initiatives and filed this story.

Eitan Stern-Robbins and Camara Langford from Terrascope Youth Radio at MIT put together a contest of sorts. Which is better for the environment: turf, or grass?

A look at access to fresh water from youth producer Dolna Smithback from the Youth Media Project in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which celebrates youth voices and fosters youth-produced media. In 2009, Dolna traveled to the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Melbourne, Australia, to find out how other nations value water—and cope with its scarcity.

In the second special from NHPR, Generation PRX and Terrascope Youth Radio at MIT, youth radio producers reflect on this question and seek out programs and efforts designed to have a positive impact on the environment.

This historic piece of legislation created the country’s eastern national forests and New Hampshire’s own White Mountain National Forest. We talk with a US Forest Service expert on how the act has influenced New Hampshire’s environment and why it has remained such an important part of the country's conservation landscape.

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Today is the 100th anniversary of the passage of the Weeks Act, which permitted the federal government to purchase private land, protecting forests and watersheds in the Eastern United States. The act has been called one of the most successful pieces of conservation legislation in the nation’s history. It safeguards habitats for hundreds of species, and recreation space for millions, including miles of the Appalachian Trail. The trail meanders through twelve states and thousands of acres of federally conserved land.

On March 1st, 100 years ago President William Howard Taft signed the Weeks Act into law.

The historic legislation led to the creation of our eastern national forests.

Much of the effort to pass the law began here in New Hampshire, as a reaction to widespread deforestation.

New Hampshire Public Radio’s Amy Quinton has this look back.

Some historians dub the Weeks Act one of the most important pieces of environmental legislation in the 20thcentury.

This week, NHPR’s Amy Quinton has been taking a look at some of the challenges facing the Great Bay estuary.

Earlier she reported on how pollution is killing the bay’s eelgrass, a source of food and habitat for wildlife.

But the Bay also has lost most of its oysters, which help filter the water.
Pollution, disease, and overharvesting have all played a part.

All this week, NHPR’s Amy Quinton has reported on some of the challenges facing the Great Bay.

Pollution is threatening the health of the estuary, but officials are discussing ways to prevent further deterioration.

In the last part of her series, environment reporter Amy Quinton takes a look at possible solutions.

(nat sound..squawking)

It’s quiet here on the Great Bay .

At mid-morning on this clear day, the water is almost as blue as the sky.

This week NHPR’s Amy Quinton has been taking an in-depth look at the New Hampshire’s Great Bay.

The estuary is one of the state’s natural treasures.

But it’s in trouble.

Yesterday, Amy told us about the role wastewater treatment plants have played in polluting the bay and how they now face tougher clean water standards.

The Environmental Protection Agency has designated New Hampshire’s Great Bay as officially impaired.

That means the 14 New Hampshire wastewater treatment plants that discharge into the estuary face tougher clean water standards.

And that could cost ratepayers millions.

In the second part of her series on the challenges facing the Great Bay, NHPR’s environment reporter Amy Quinton reports.

At 18 miles long, the New Hampshire coastline is the shortest in the country.

But if you include the Great Bay, the state’s meager coast grows by about 144 miles of tidal shoreline.

The rare inland estuary, where salt water meets fresh, spans more than 13,000 acres.

And nearly a quarter of the state’s population lives within its watershed.

Here’s something to chew on from vegetarian Manon Bonnet and vegan Liam Midgely from Terrascope Youth Radio in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Manon and Liam wanted to know if the choice they have made for themselves not to eat meat—or, in Liam’s case, even wear animal products—is also the better choice for a greener planet.