GreeniacsArticles Wildlife
Biodiversity can simply be defined as the variation of life at a given site or ecosystem. However, it is through this diversity that natural systems adapt, evolve, and thrive. This link is so strong that the term biodiversity is regarded as synonymous with ecosystem health. Diverse ecosystems usually have “increased stability, increased productivity... 
Urban beekeeping is on the rise! Urban communities have started a fairly new movement—beekeeping in small plot backyards, on rooftops, in hotels, restaurants, and in small urban gardens. Honeybees are an instrumental part of our global food system and our natural environment. These little creatures are responsible for pollinating over one-third of the crops...
This decade has brought a number of environmental issues to the forefront of public consciousness, words like global warming, carbon footprint, and deforestation have become part of our everyday vocabulary. As these environmental issues have become more prominent, so have others receded, with mantras of “save the rainforest” and “save the...
We are currently witnessing the 6th major mass extinction in the planet Earth’s history. While the reasons for this decline in life are many, one of the biggest causes is global warming. Global warming is directly affecting our planet’s biodiversity,and if carbon dioxide levels continue to rise at their current rate, “over 35 percent of our...
The tenacious eating machine, the Asian Carp, was imported by catfish farmers to eat algae to clean their ponds and released into the rivers during floods of the early 1990s. Since then, they have steadily created a stronghold on the Mississippi river system, growing and reproducing at staggering rates. Along some stretches of the Illinois...
It’s not news that our bee population is declining; beekeepers have slowly seen the crisis unfold for years. The New York Times reports statistics on just how bad the decline is: “Bee losses are ranging from 30 to 60 percent on the West Coast, with some beekeepers on the East Coast and in Texas reporting losses of more than 70 percent...
On October 28, 1805, explorers Lewis and Clarkencountered what they named the “Beautiful Buzzard of the Columbia.”1 On February 16, 1806, they captured a live one of these birds—a “relic of the ice age”—and measured its wingspan at nine feet two inches. Less than two centuries later, in 1967, the massive bird that had become known...
As discussed in the previous Greeniacs article titledEndangered Species, over 350 species across the world will likely be affected by climate change in the coming years if we do not reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon dioxide is the most abundant heat-trapping greenhouse gas in our atmosphere, and if we do not control it...
On January 8th, 2010, the TERRA podcast revealed a two part program titled “Angels of the Forest: Silky Sifaka Lemurs of Madagascar.” Produced by Sharon Pieczenik and Erik Patel, the program discusses his efforts to conserve the unique Silky sifaka Lemurs in Madagascar. The program notes that about 98% of land animals in...
I am sitting in a wooden long-tail boat with Thomas, a Lao man whose white teeth contrast with near-black skin as he creases his face into a smile. From beneath the shade of his billowing hat, Thomas (his adopted English name) tells me that he was born, and will also die, on Don Det, one of Laos’ Four Thousand Islands. The Four Thousand...
Although the debate around climate change still continues, many species around the world are being affected by warming temperatures. Some may argue that the Earth is going through a natural warming cycle, while others may argue that the warmer temperatures are a product of global warming and excessive greenhouse gases in our...
Jellyfish are, indeed, increasing in number thanks to at least three different things we humans have done. First off, many of the jellyfish's natural predators and competitors for food have been over-fished, allowing jellyfish to thrive and grow in population in their absence. Second, nitrogen and phosphorus run-off into the ocean creates areas...
An invasive species can be defined as a non-native species that adversely affects the ecosystem, usually by out-competing native species. Over 50,000 non-native species have been introduced to the United States alone, either intentionally or unintentionally, and cost an estimated $130 billion annually. Almost half of the species...
Spring is the time of year that many people are getting their gardens ready for the warm summer weather and sunshine. For many of you, this time of year also means planting and planning your gardens strategically to avoid deer and other pests from eating your blooms. Small insects like mites, grubs, and aphids or even large pests like rabbits and...
Ninety percent of the world's big fish are gone or over fished. Yikes. Quite a heavy opening liner, I know, but declining fisheries is one serious topic. If you thought the first fact was grave, digest this one: the world takes out a half a billion pounds—yes that is billion with a “b”—of seafood from the oceans every single day! How...
Reconciliation ecology is the idea that humans and endangered species can live side by side, even in advanced civilizations. Humans now occupy over 95% of terrestrial earth, and other species are being enclosed into smaller and smaller spaces. The more humans contribute to habitat loss, the more species are lost. Reconciliation ecology...
The winter of 2008 saw a heavy decline of bat population in the Northeastern United States. Hibernating bats in caves across New York, Vermont, Connecticut, and Massachusetts were dying in numbers of up to tens of thousands. The species affected include little brown bats, Indiana bats, and northern long-eared, tri-colored, and small-footed...
It is a hard thing to explain and an even harder thing to imagine. The disappearance of millions of honey bees across the United States with no tangible explanation and no dead bees left behind to examine. Bees are simply vanishing. But before you declare a spiteful “good riddance” from all those stings or embarrassing situations where you run...
This year voters were faced with a series of controversial issues on their November ballots. In particular, Californians were given the opportunity to vote on environmentally related issues explicitly and implicitly. One initiative that may have been an implicit vote for the environment was Proposition 2, also known as the Standards for Confining Farm Animals...
Very literally translating to mimicking biology, biomimicry is an old idea emerging as a new sustainable method of smart design at a time where industries are searching for more eco-friendly ways to produce their goods and services. Biomimicry is the idea that imitating nature's design, either through species design or ecosystem function, people...
It seems that every time you look, another species is being added to the endangered list. Just recently, the federal government placed the beluga whales in Alaska's Cook Inlet under the protection of the United States Endangered Species Act. A decade-long recovery program has failed to assure their survival, mostly due to development and a range of economic and...
Since we moved to our "rural-burban" neighborhood, I've noticed that we're not the only ones calling this spot home. Take our bird population: the grackles appear in April to setup their raucous housekeeping in our river birches. During the summer, I can also count on robins, cardinals, chipping sparrows, cedar waxwings, wrens...
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Green Facts
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A laptop consumes five times less electricity than a desktop computer.
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It takes 6,000,000 trees to make 1 year's worth of tissues for the world.
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Washing your clothes in cold or warm instead of hot water saves 500 pounds of carbon dioxide a year, and drying your clothes on a clothesline six months out of the year would save another 700 pounds.
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Americans use 100 million tin and steel cans every day.
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American workers spend an average of 47 hours per year commuting through rush hour traffic. This adds up to 23 billion gallons of gas wasted in traffic each year.
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Bamboo absorbs 35% more carbon dioxide than equivalent stands of trees.
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One recycled aluminum can will save enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours, or a TV for 2 hours.
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Recycling 1 million laptop computers can save the amount of energy used by 3,657 homes in the U.S. over the course of a year.
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82 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. come from burning fossil fuels.
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Refrigerators built in 1975 used 4 times more energy than current models.
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Recycling 100 million cell phones can save enough energy to power 18,500 homes in the U.S. for a year.
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In California homes, about 10% of energy usage is related to TVs, DVRs, cable and satellite boxes, and DVD players.
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Glass can be recycled over and over again without ever wearing down.
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States with bottle deposit laws have 35-40% less litter by volume.
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Due to tiger poaching, habitat destruction, and other human-tiger conflicts, tigers now number around 3,200—a decrease in population by about 70% from 100 years ago.
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Every week about 20 species of plants and animals become extinct.
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You’ll save two pounds of carbon for every 20 glass bottles that you recycle.
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Rainforests are being cut down at the rate of 100 acres per minute.
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Current sea ice levels are at least 47% lower than they were in 1979.
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Shaving 10 miles off of your weekly driving pattern can eliminate about 500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year.
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Recycling for one year at Stanford University saved the equivalent of 33,913 trees and the need for 636 tons of iron ore, coal, and limestone.
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Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial fleet of airplanes every 3 months
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The World Health Organization estimates that 2 million people die prematurely worldwide every year due to air pollution.
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77% of people who commute to work by car drive alone.
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In the United States, automobiles produce over 20 percent of total carbon emissions. Walk or bike and you'll save one pound of carbon for every mile you travel.
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You will save 100 pounds of carbon for each incandescent bulb that you replace with a compact fluorescent bulb (CFL), over the life of the bulb.
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Turning off the tap when brushing your teeth can save as much as 10 gallons a day per person.
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Less than 1% of electricity in the United States is generated from solar power.
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You will save 300 pounds of carbon dioxide for every 10,000 miles you drive if you always keep your car’s tires fully inflated.
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A steel mill using recycled scrap reduces related water pollution, air pollution, and mining wastes by about 70%.
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Nudge your thermostat up two degrees in the summer and down two degrees in the winter to prevent 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.
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Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year.
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A single quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to 2,000,000 gallons of fresh water.
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A tree that provides a home with shade from the sun can reduce the energy required to run the air conditioner and save an additional 200 to 2,000 pounds of carbon over its lifetime.
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Recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy used to make the material from scratch.
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If every U.S. household turned the thermostat down by 10 degrees for seven hours each night during the cold months, and seven hours each weekday, it would prevent nearly gas emissions.
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An aluminum can that is thrown away instead of recycled will still be a can 500 years from now!
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For every 38,000 bills consumers pay online instead of by mail, 5,058 pounds of greenhouse gases are avoided and two tons of trees are preserved.
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Americans throw away more than 120 million cell phones each year, which contribute 60,000 tons of waste to landfills annually.
