Unplugging
Unplugging is back, baby! A whole new generation of back-to-the-landers are getting away from it all and living off the grid.
Jim Motavalli
Posts by Jim Motavalli:
Climate For Change: England Gets Serious About Global Warming
Climate change has yet to make it onto the radar screens of most Americans. The opposite is true in England, where the science is hotly debated.
On Global Warming: A Cool Breeze from Britain
January 2005 was the second-warmest January of the past 27 years, according to the Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama. It was almost a full degree Fahrenheit warmer than seasonal norms.
Catching the Wind
Wind energy is zero-emissions energy, a renewable resource that is one of our last, best hopes for staving off devastating climate change. Wind energy is the fastest-growing energy source in the world, mushrooming 28 percent annually over the last five years.
Mary Pearl: Looking for Hot Spots
Mary Pearl discusses how healthy ecosystems are the basis for human wellbeing, and how conservation medicine can engage people who didn’t see the relevance before.
Last Stand for Hawaiian Birds
In 1910, German-born Ralph Hosmer planted 86 varieties of non-native trees in Maui, including the eucalyptus trees that have now grown to great heights in the grove named after him.
Flora, Fauna and the Deep Blue Sea: Bermuda Works to Recreate its Natural Past
It is peaceful on Nonsuch Island, a 14-acre nature preserve at the eastern entrance to Bermuda’s Castle Harbor. Migratory songbirds flit through canopy trees, their calls disturbed only by the distant and distinctly incongruous whine from a motorcycle track on the mainland. With its Bermuda palmetto, olivewood and cedar forests, scuttling Sally Lightfoot crabs and nesting Bermuda petrel seabirds just offshore, the island represents a rare opportunity to experience Bermuda as its first visitors saw it.
The Learning Tree
Tow-headed Thomas Wolff, a first-grader on a field trip from Stratfield School in Fairfield, Connecticut, was the first to spot the Canadian goose family, which was busy improving the view at the Connecticut Audubon Society’s six-acre Birdcraft Sanctuary.
Wild and Free: Maine Fights to Restore Wild Atlantic Salmon Runs
Although it’s not generally known, commercial fishing of wild Atlantic salmon has almost ended, and it’s strictly forbidden in the rivers of Maine.
Pulp Friction: Debating the Paper Alternatives
Hemp- and kenaf-based paper, often made with imported pulp, is now widely used in environmental circles, but there are a fair number of dissenters.