Tag Archives: author

The Wild Trees – Richard Preston

by Myrna Posted on December 24, 2016

READ GREEN WITH E-BOOKS

The Wild Trees

A Story of Passion and Daring

Richard Preston

Genre: Earth Sciences

Price: $1.99

Publish Date: April 10, 2007

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group

Seller: Penguin Random House LLC


Hidden away in foggy, uncharted rain forest valleys in Northern California are the largest and tallest organisms the world has ever sustained–the coast redwood trees, Sequoia sempervirens. Ninety-six percent of the ancient redwood forests have been destroyed by logging, but the untouched fragments that remain are among the great wonders of nature. The biggest redwoods have trunks up to thirty feet wide and can rise more than thirty-five stories above the ground, forming cathedral-like structures in the air. Until recently, redwoods were thought to be virtually impossible to ascend, and the canopy at the tops of these majestic trees was undiscovered. In The Wild Trees , Richard Preston unfolds the spellbinding story of Steve Sillett, Marie Antoine, and the tiny group of daring botanists and amateur naturalists that found a lost world above California, a world that is dangerous, hauntingly beautiful, and unexplored. The canopy voyagers are young–just college students when they start their quest–and they share a passion for these trees, persevering in spite of sometimes crushing personal obstacles and failings. They take big risks, they ignore common wisdom (such as the notion that there’s nothing left to discover in North America), and they even make love in hammocks stretched between branches three hundred feet in the air. The deep redwood canopy is a vertical Eden filled with mosses, lichens, spotted salamanders, hanging gardens of ferns, and thickets of huckleberry bushes, all growing out of massive trunk systems that have fused and formed flying buttresses, sometimes carved into blackened chambers, hollowed out by fire, called “fire caves.” Thick layers of soil sitting on limbs harbor animal and plant life that is unknown to science. Humans move through the deep canopy suspended on ropes, far out of sight of the ground, knowing that the price of a small mistake can be a plunge to one’s death. Preston’s account of this amazing world, by turns terrifying, moving, and fascinating, is an adventure story told in novelistic detail by a master of nonfiction narrative. The author shares his protagonists’ passion for tall trees, and he mastered the techniques of tall-tree climbing to tell the story in The Wild Trees –the story of the fate of the world’s most splendid forests and of the imperiled biosphere itself. From the Hardcover edition.

Link:  

The Wild Trees – Richard Preston

Posted in alo, Anchor, Crown, FF, GE, ONA, Presto, PUR, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Wild Trees – Richard Preston

We Live in a Gentlemen’s C- Universe

by Penny222167 Posted on October 25, 2016

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Physicist Eugene Wigner is the author of a famous paper called “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences.” Brad DeLong comments:

We are all, potentially, the Friends of Wigner. It has always seemed to me that anyone with the empathy and imagination to think of him or herself as one of the Friends of Wigner is then driven inescapably to either “quantum mechanics is totally wrong wrong wrong wrong and just predicts well for incomprehensible reasons” or “many-worlds”. There really are no other alternatives, or at least what alternatives there are are even stranger.

Au contraire. I consider quantum mechanics to be evidence that we are all constructs in somebody else’s virtual reality. All of the peculiarities of quantum mechanics are easily explainable if the universe is merely a computer-generated world subject to the whims of a programmer.

The only question left is why the programmer has created such a world. Whimsy? Amusement? As a test of some sociology theorem? Bad design?

Perhaps the last one is most likely. In reality, quantum mechanics is a desperate, ugly patch glued onto a poorly working universe by a stressed freshman at 2 am. Basically, the poor kid waited until the last minute, as freshmen everywhere do, and hadn’t really understood much of the text for the required “Plenum Creation and Maintenance” class. The result was a mess that kept falling apart even for small taus of only a few billion years. One thing led to another, and eventually the whole project became a Rube Goldberg monstrosity of black holes, 11 dimensions, wavicles, arbitrary speed-of-light caps on velocity, and observer-induced wave collapse as a last-ditch way of reducing the computing power needed to run it.

In the end it received a gentlemen’s C- from a sympathetic professor. That’s the universe we live in.

Excerpt from: 

We Live in a Gentlemen’s C- Universe

Posted in FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on We Live in a Gentlemen’s C- Universe

This Simple Change Slashed England’s Plastic Bag Use By 90%

by MaeChatterton9 Posted on October 12, 2016

Although the mere suggestion of making people pay a fee to bring their groceries home in a plastic bagcauses nothing short of outragein most American communities, a fellow developed nation’sexperiment with just such a bag fee recently provided definitive proof that such “taxes” can be shockingly effective.

See, we have this idea that plastic bags are free, a bonus gift provided by the store so that we can get our eggs home in one piece. Truthfully, thecost of offering disposable bags is simply passed on to the consumer in the form of higher product prices.(According to The Wall Street Journal, the estimated cost is somewhere around$4 billion.)

We say “cost” in the traditional sense, of course, becauseif you factored in the cost of what these bags are doing to the environment AFTER our eggs are safely in the fridge, it would make your eyes water.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, over 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps are consumed in the U.S. each year.

Producing all of these bags requires upwards of 2.2 billion pounds of fossil fuel and 3.9 billion gallons of fresh water. The manufacturing of these bags alone produces a billion pounds of solid waste and 2.7 million tons of CO2 per year. And that’s all BEFORE the bagger at the grocery store tucks your eggs inside.

Most of those 380 billion plastic bags are only used for 12 minutes, before being tossed into the trash (few recycling programs accept them) and making their way into our waterways.

“The mass consumption of plastic products has created a plastic wasteland in our oceans. Globally, there is now more plastic in our oceans than plankton, with 46,000 pieces of plastic in every square mile of ocean. Marine and avian are choked and strangled by discarded bags, and are killed by consuming partially broken-down plastic pieces. This plastic pollution negatively impacts 267 species of marine life,” reports Citizens Campaign for the Environment.

If you feel like shouting “STOP THE MADNESS!” you’re not alone.

So how do you get billions of people around the world to start bringing their own reusable bags to the store? Hit ‘em where it hurts: their wallets.

England instituted a 5 pence (approximately 7 cents USD) fee for bag in October 2015, and since then, around 90 percent of people now take their own bags with them when food shopping as a result of the plastic carrier bag charge.

NINETY PERCENT!

In addition to this shocking drop in plastic bag use, less than 1 in 15 shoppers (7 percent) are now regularly taking single-use carrier bags at the checkout as opposed to 1 in 4 shoppers before the charge.

Accordingresearchers at Cardiff University, the study indicates that thecharge made shoppers stop and think whether they really need to use a single-use plastic bag for their shopping.

And the answer, contrary to what many in the plastic bag industry might say, is a resounding ‘no.’

Image Credit: Thinkstock

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Link – 

This Simple Change Slashed England’s Plastic Bag Use By 90%

Posted in alo, Citizen, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, PUR, Radius, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on This Simple Change Slashed England’s Plastic Bag Use By 90%

Why Is the US Economy Sort of Sluggish?

by PhilomenaRawson Posted on October 10, 2016

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

A new paper from a trio of Fed researchers suggests that our recent sluggish growth is mostly a result of demographic changes and technological slowdown. The retired share of the population has increased, which means the working share of the population has decreased. Since workers are the ones who produce goods and services, it makes sense that GDP growth will slow down in an economy with fewer adults of working age. Ditto for an economy in which technological progress is slackening.

I’ve pointed out the same thing before in the case of Japan, and it makes sense. But how about in the US? The easiest way to see the rough shape of the river is to simply look at GDP per working-age adult. That eliminates most of the demographic issues. When you do this for the US, you get a trendline that still shows a decline in GDP growth: it’s down by about one percentage point since 1978.

You can also look at total factor productivity, which gives us an idea of the effect of technological change that’s independent of demographics. Over the past 60 years, it’s been pretty flat.

Both of these are volatile series, so take them with a grain of salt. That said, productivity hasn’t changed much, but GDP per working-age adult has steadily decreased anyway. This suggests that neither demographics nor technological progress really explains things. So what does?

NOTE: This bit of amateur economics was made possible by a grant from the Committee to Prevent Endless Blogging About Donald Trump. The author thanks them for their generosity.

View original article: 

Why Is the US Economy Sort of Sluggish?

Posted in FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Why Is the US Economy Sort of Sluggish?

41 Insane Facts About Tesla Motors

by MarquisNarvaez4 Posted on October 1, 2016

It can sometimes feel like 21st century history is being written by a handful of entrepreneurs and their organizations: chances are that generations to come will talk of Elon Musk in the same way that we rememberHenry Ford, who famously said “The remains of the old must be decently laid away; the path of the new prepared. That is the different between revolution and progress”. Both are visionaries who have changed the way we think about vehicle manufacture and performance, and each has embraced the spirit of their time and applied it to their business and engineering strategies. But while Ford is by now an established historical figure, Musk is still living out his story.

The entrepreneursdual background in economics and physics, combined with a canny eye for the zeitgeist, has provided the right chemistry to cook up his $12.1 billion fortune. And while Paypal is long behind him and space tourism plays a big part in his future plans, Musks Tesla Motors concern remains very much in the present. The manufacturers first half-decade ended in failure, with thescrapping of their flagship Roadster vehicle but Musk and his organization have never lost faith in the inevitability of the dominance of electric cars. With a staff of 14,000 and a market value of $33.5 billion from which Musk draws a salary of just a dollar a year Teslas wedge of the industry has grown to reflect the vision of its iconic boss.

Of course, bubbles have burst before, and weve seen many a hubristic entrepreneur wade too deep into a river of their own hype; but like Ford before him, Musks success and his potential rests on his informed vision of not just how the world will look tomorrow or next year, but in ten, twenty, fifty years time. Teslas lithium-ion battery Gigafactory, for example, will be powered by 100% renewable energy remarkable, considering it will be the second largest building in the world. Such scale, vision and conscientiousness is why Tesla is a major, major company to keep an eye on and you can begin by checking out some of the startling facts and figures in this smart new infographic.

This post originally appeared on Jennings Motor Group.

Photo Credit: Herman Caroan/Flickr

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Link:

41 Insane Facts About Tesla Motors

Posted in FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, PUR, Radius, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on 41 Insane Facts About Tesla Motors

Coffee Pod Sales Will Soon Surpass Regular and Instant Coffee

by JeannaEdmonson1 Posted on September 12, 2016

Theyre calling it the Clooney effect. Single-use coffee pods are flying off supermarket shelves at a faster rate than ever before, possibly aided by actor George Clooneys persuasive good looks in European Nespresso advertisements since 2006 and, more recently, in the United States.

Kantar Worldpanelrecently announced that coffee pod sales of brands such as Nespresso, Tassimo, and Dolce Gusto (owned by Nescaf) willsoon overtake standard roast and ground coffee after an increase of 29.5 per cent over the last 12 months, bringing sales to 137.5 million. During the same period, sales of roast and ground varieties rose by only 2.5 per cent to 167 million.(The Telegraph) In its report, based on data from 986 million households across 35 countries, Kantar goes on to explain that the global market has expanded 16 percent in the past year, with particularly strong growth in France and Spain.

Photo Credit: Daniel Lobo/Flickr

This is sad news for those of us who wish that more sustainable consumer practices would infiltrate the mainstream. There is nothing green about coffee pods, no matter what the manufacturers tell you. The recycling claims aremostly bogus, as the used pods are a mix of plastic, aluminum foil, and coffee grounds that must be separated by hand in order for recycling to occur. It remains, as Lloyd wrote earlier, design for unsustainability, regardless of how manufacturers want to spin it.

Shipping pods across the country to make the world’s most expensive compost out of the coffee and lawn chairs out of the plastic doesn’t make a lot of sense. As for the people who try to separate the components themselves, there are not that many of them; if they are willing to do that, they probably have the time and energy to make a real pot of coffee.

Change did seem imminent. Earlier this year thecity of Hamburg, Germany, banned the purchase of all coffee pods using council money in an attempt to reduce waste. A YouTube video called Kill the K-Cup got many others thinking about where their used pods end up long after the cup of coffee has been finished. Even the Keurig cup inventor hasexpressed regretat unleashing such an environmental nightmare into the world. And yet, Kantar reveals that sales continue to climb, likely due to the sheer convenience of having to do nothing but press a button.

Coffee capsules have helped create the holy grail of marketing: a new category combining the indulgence of caf culture with the convenience and speed of the capsules.

Nespresso advertises on a historic building in Turin, Italy. Photo Credit: Lloyd Alter

This, despite the fact that pods are ridiculously expensive compared to high quality beans. Pods can work out to cost between 30 and 50 dollars per pound, which is a vast difference from the $16 I shell out every couple weeks for a pound of fairtrade, shade-grown beans.The Telegraph citesKantar analyst Ed John: An average cup of regular instant coffee costs only 2 pence (3 U.S. cents). A caf-style instant is 17p (23) while the fastest growing sectorpodscost an average of 31p (41) per cup.

Pods makes no sense for any reason other than convenience, and even that could be argued: its not that difficult to boil water and push down a French press. But, like so many other environmentally destructive practices, people need to be willing to put in a tiny bit more effort in order to lessen their footprint significantly and yet, Kantars findings show that people really dont seem to care. How sad.

Written by Katherine Martinko.This post originally appeared onTreeHugger.

Photo Credit: Tim Lossen/Flickr

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

See more here: 

Coffee Pod Sales Will Soon Surpass Regular and Instant Coffee

Posted in FF, GE, Keurig, LAI, LG, Nespresso, ONA, peroxide, PUR, Radius, Tassimo, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Coffee Pod Sales Will Soon Surpass Regular and Instant Coffee

Survival Tips For Green Parents Dealing With Information Overload

by RalfFitzgerald Posted on September 4, 2016

BPA in bottles!

GMOS in baby food!

Toxic chemicals in toys!

Disposable diapers are the devil!

Raising a healthy kid in today’s polluted world is anything but easy.

Every parent wants the best for their child, and if you happen to be an eco-conscious parent, the stakes are even higher. You have both your children and the planet that they’ll someday inherit to worry about.

The struggle to protect our children while also being a good child of Mother Nature is front and center in a new book aimed at helping green-minded navigate the often shifting landscape of healthy parenting.

Called Spit That Out! The OverlyInformedParents Guide to Raising Healthy Kids In The Age OfEnvironmentalGuilt, the bookis part parenting handbook, part autobiography, and overflowing with humorous stories that all parents will relate to.

With chapters like “The Precarious World Of Poo Maintenance” and “Can I Afford To Be This Conscious?” author Paige Wolf seeks to cut through the avalanche of conflicting information, providing parents with humorous anecdotes full of useful tips for staying sane and healthy in an increasingly toxic world.

Chock full of staggering statistics (more than 50 of the one million annual child deaths from acute respiratory infections are attributable to indoor air pollution); hilarious realizations (“Goldfish feel to me like a gateway drug to toddler junk food”); and advice from green living experts (never buy plastic toys with the numbers 3, 6 and 7 on them, they’re likely to leak dangerous chemicals and can’t be recycled), Spit That Out!is aninformative read whether you’re a parent yet or not.

Care2 recently caught up withWolf, an eco-chic green living expert, blogger and advocate, to learn more about what she hopes parents will gain from reading her book.

Care2: What inspired you to write this book?

Wolf: “When I was pregnant with my first child I was overwhelmed by all the conflicting information and constant barrage of things to worry about! What was in the food, the cleaning products, the shampoo, the toys? Could we pull off cloth diapers and breastfeeding? Talking with other new parents I realized I was not the only one up Googling these things every night. Many of us feel paralyzed by all of the eco-anxiety and green guilt and I wanted to find straight answers and real ways to make green and healthy living more manageable, practical and affordable. The book is part commiseration/part solution!”

Care2:What’s the biggest life change (eco-wise) you made when you become a parent?

Wolf:I was making small changes for years leading up to becoming a parent. It started with just basic recycling and then composting, eating a more natural and organic diet and swapping out personal care products. I dont know that there was a specific switch that happened in correlation with becoming a parent it has been more like making more small changes and upgrades everyday.

“For instance, I remember thinking I had gotten rid of all the nonstick pans years ago and it suddenly occurred to me that my George Foreman grill was coated in Teflon. Opening a cabinet and saying, Why are we still buying conventional raisins? Its a constant learning experience and balancing act trying to create a more sustainable and health-conscious home while also making peace with the fact that my kids are going to find a way to eat Munchkin Donut holes at least three times a week.”

Care2:What’s one thing “green” parents stress about that you wish they wouldn’t?

Wolf: “There isnt really one thing its just the greater idea of doing everything perfectly. We all have our parenting differences. Some of us feel guilty for not breastfeeding long enough or at all, others for not cloth diapering and many for not feeding our kids organic all the time. Its important that we dont ignore the significance of these things and at least TRY to make an effort, but we also have to realize that we cant live in a bubble. We have to do the best we can with the opportunities available to us. Fortunately, though, many of these opportunities are becoming more accessible and affordable.”

Care2:What’s THE most important piece of advice you’d give to environmentally-minded parents in today’s world?

Wolf: “Perfect is unattainable but better is always possible.”

Connect with Spit That Out! author Paige Wolf on Facebook, Twitteror Instagram.

Spit That Out! The OverlyInformedParents Guide to Raising Healthy Kids In The Age OfEnvironmentalGuilt is available wherever books are sold.

Image Credit: Thinkstock

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

See original – 

Survival Tips For Green Parents Dealing With Information Overload

Posted in FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, organic, PUR, Radius, Smith's, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Survival Tips For Green Parents Dealing With Information Overload

The Tricky Thing About Labeling Foods as Locally Grown

by ArletteMacdermot Posted on September 4, 2016

Were living in an age of conscious consumption. For many of us, settling for the cheapest, quickest option doesnt cut it; we want to know that our purchases arenot contributingto economic or environmental degradation.

One of the best places to spot this trend? Our food shopping habits. Weve learned about the demise of the small farmer, the incredible distances most ingredients travel to our plates, and the damage industrial farming is doing to our soil and airand we want something different. Recent polling shows that for most Americans, purchasing food from local producers is a high priority. According to a2014 survey by Cone Communications, almost three-quarters of Americans stated that buying locally was a significant factor in determining what they buy, and 77 percent of shoppers consider the sustainability factor of what they purchase.

According to anothersurveyfrom Consumer Reports, two-thirds of shoppers specifically look for a label indicating that a product has been grown locally. In New York, shoppers can now pick up a product and see on the label if its beengrown in-state. The new Empire State label goes beyond just identifying food origins, though. According to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, it indicates that a product has been inspected for the highest level of food safety and environmental sustainability standards.

New York State Grown & Certified is the first state program in the nation to combine modern food safety standards with environmental stewardship to achieve a premium level of certification, reads theNew York Governorswebsite. By certifying food at this level, New York is providing consumers with an assurance of quality in how and where the food is grown and produced while promoting New York State producers who are meeting a growing market demand for foods that are safely handled and grown in an environmentally responsible manner.

But pinning down what locally grown means can be adifficult task. There is no standardized definition provided by the United States Department of Agriculture, only corporate and state-level definitions. Vermont considers anything grown within its borders or 30miles outside them; a locally grown label in large states like California or Texas could mean a product has traveled as much as 800 miles from its source. Its clear that a local label has its limits, and if it goes unregulated by the USDA could become as meaningless as an all-natural label.

So whats a conscious consumer to do? Get educated about the food youre buying. After all, your local farmer might be cranking out beautiful producethats loaded with pesticides and GMOs. Shop local and organic as often as you can, and meanwhile, support producers that might not be local but use sustainable practices.

Written by Steve Holt. Reposted with permission from Thrive Market.

More from Thrive Market:
The Olympics Are Still Flooded with Junk Food Ads
Test Your Strength and Flexibility with Gymnastics-Inspired Moves
5 Surprising Places You’ll Find Fast Food

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

View the original here: 

The Tricky Thing About Labeling Foods as Locally Grown

Posted in FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, organic, PUR, Radius, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Tricky Thing About Labeling Foods as Locally Grown

How Oyster Farming is Cleaning Our Water

by pauletteguajardo Posted on August 10, 2016

American palates are becoming more and more refined these days, with trends like pescetarianism and the farm-to-table movement increasing the demand for locally raised fish and shellfish. Overfishing remains a huge problem and so do contaminated waterwaysbut there may be a simple, natural solution on the horizon: oysters.

Increased Demand for Local Shellfish

Oyster farming on the East Coast has doubled in the past six years, according to NPR, and its no mystery why. Americans who can afford to do so are becoming increasingly interested in where their food comes from. They want local, sustainable, organic, antibiotic-free food and this desire has made a big mark in both foodie culture and agriculture.

“As much food as possibly can go on my plate at the least amount of money I can spend used to be the way things were,” says Jimmy Parks, a chef and owner of the Butcher Station in Winchester, Virginia. “Now people are getting away from that, and they’re gravitating toward … cleaner sources.”

For some species, like salmon and tuna, this trend may be alarming. Fish farms are notoriously dirty and bad for the planet, with antibiotics, unnatural fish feed, overpopulation and huge amounts of waste putting a strain on oceanic and river ecosystems.

Oysters, however, are a different story.

Oysters as Natural Water Filters

For one thing, oyster farming has an extremely low carbon footprint. According to the environmental news blog Grist, oysters are one of the cleanest animal protein sources you can eat in terms of carbon emissions.

Additionally, oysters act as natural water purifiers. According to The Nature Conservancy, roughly 40 percent of U.S. waterways are currently considered too polluted for swimming or fishing. Oysters can help change that. Grist reports that a mature oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water every day. That means that just one acre of populated oyster territory can filter 140 million gallons of water per day.

The mighty bivalves are ocean filters, Grist reports. Oysters soak up nitrogen through their flesh, turning the nutrient into a benign gas. They absorb nitrogen into their shells, too, and can store it there for decades, or even centuries, long after the little creature inside its shell is dead. At their most plentiful, the Chesapeakes oysters were capable of filtering all 18 trillion tons of bay water in about a week, rendering it nearly crystal clear.

Gulnihal Ozbay, an oyster researcher at the University of Delaware, told NPR that oysters not meant for consumption could be added to polluted waterways to help purify them, hopefully making them more appropriate for swimming, drinkingand fishing down the road.

Rebuilding Ecosystems and Economies

Finally, oysters stand to improve the health of some very important ecosystems: those of local waterways and our own human economies.

“The coolest thing is within our cages we see these little shrimp-like creatures that actually eat the pseudofeces of the oysters, Tim Devine, a Maryland-based oyster farmer, tellsNPR. And then things like seahorses and crabs and other things eat those little guys, and then the food chain has begun.”

This helps create a reef-like ecosystem within the waterway, bolstering aquatic populations and filtering water to boot.

From a human population perspective, these mighty little mollusks also play a strong role in maintaining balanced local economies. For years, Chesapeake Bay fisherman survived on proceeds from oyster hunting and sales. When oyster populations collapsed due to overfishing, many oystermen considered making career changes.

I tell you, there was nothing left, fisherman Johnny Shockley told Grist. We knew every spot there was in this river that was a good oyster bottom, and they were all gone.”

Maryland only legalized aquaculture (oyster and clam farming) as recently as 2009. Since then, the economy around oysters and other shellfish has begun to recover, to the relief of many local fisherman and their families.

Oysters are small creatures, but they sure can make a big impact, and its tiny steps that could add up to big changes for our oceans and waterways.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Visit link – 

How Oyster Farming is Cleaning Our Water

Posted in aquaculture, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, organic, PUR, Radius, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on How Oyster Farming is Cleaning Our Water

How to Choose the Right Solar Charger for Your Camping Trip

by XJQVince2158536 Posted on August 8, 2016

If you can’t bear to be unplugged when you go camping or backpacking, never fear. Now you can plug into a bevy of light, portable solar chargers to power your phone, camera, batteries, music player or other mobile device.

But first, what should you look for in a solar charger?

Portability

Portable solar chargers come in a wide variety of sizes that range from the dimensionsof a mobile phone to some as big as a small rug or medium-sized briefcase. Before you buy, be clear onhow much power you’ll need to to generate at any given time. If you’re backpacking, you’ll want lighter equipment. If you’re driving to your destination and setting up camp, you can take a heavier and more elaborate system.

Capacity

Hand-in-hand with size goes capacity. What kind of device or devices you’re charging, how many devices you need to charge and how many days, weeks or even monthsyou’ll need power willdetermine the size of the charger you’ll need. Inhabitat has put together recommendations for everyone, from “light packers” to “extreme adventurers” and more.

Price

Solar chargers come in all price points. Once you figure out how much capacity you need and the size charger that will do the job, compare prices and ratings online to get the most affordable charger to fit your budget. Outdoor Gear Lab’s ratings overview does a good job here.

Compatibility

Just about all solar chargers come with USB ports so you can charge any kind of phone or tablet that also has a USB port. However, some battery packs may only recharge using a wall outlet in which case your solar charger will be useless. Check to besure that your devices can plug into your charger before you buy.

Flexibility

Will your charger only collect sunlight if it’s lying on a flat or angled surface? Or does it some in a case with a grommet so you can clip it to your backpack and let it charge while you’re hiking? Can you clip a few chargers together to maximize your solar collection time?

Durability

What happens if you drop your solar charger? Does it come in a case to protect it from damage? Especially for devices the size of a cellphone, make sure they will be protected against breakage. Also, check the warranty on the product as well as online performance reviews to get consumers’ feedback on how well a device does its job. And if you need something that’s waterproof, you can find it on this list.

Weather and Sun Availability

An important consideration as you ponder your trip has to do with the sun itself. If you’re going to Costa Rica during the rainy season, I can tell you from personal experience that you can’t count on your solar charger to stay powered up. On the other hand, if you’re heading to the desert or just going camping when it’s likely to be mostly sunny, you won’t have any trouble recharging. The point is, a solar charger will operate most effectively when it can tap into solar power. There are lots of reasons to check the weather report before you leave on your trip. Add this one to the list.

Back-Up Battery Pack Instead?

If you’re going on a relatively short trip, say three days or less, a fully charged back-up battery pack for your phone and tablet may work just fine. Ifweight isn’t an issue, you may want to take both an extra battery and a solar charger. Plan your trip in advance so you can make an informed decision.

Or…simplify the entire process and just leave your mobile devices home. Isn’t that what getting into nature is all about?

Related:

5 of the Best Ways to Recharge Batteries
Solar-Powered Backpack Charges Gadgets

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Continue reading here:

How to Choose the Right Solar Charger for Your Camping Trip

Posted in Everyone, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, PUR, Radius, solar, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on How to Choose the Right Solar Charger for Your Camping Trip