A look at our planet and all its incredible, wild, natural beauty…

This blog post originally appeared on December 31st, 2011, in the Huffington Post Canada. Subscribe to all of Ron Dembo’s blog posts by signing up to the RSS feed.

Early in December I was sitting in the middle of Milne Bay, off the coast of Papua New Guinea, eating my breakfast. To my left at the table was Charlie Veron, one of the world’s most preeminent scientists on extinction. We were on our way to see ocean vents where pure carbon dioxide is leaking from the ocean floor—a reminder that we are sitting on the edge of a ring of fire, one of the most active volcanic areas of the world.

It is always true that the future is here for us to see. We only have to look for it.

Susan DeFreitas
November 29th, 2011

Zero waste. Better batteries. Less money. That’s what earthCell has a plan for, and — with a little help from you, via Kickstarter — perhaps even the cash to make it a reality.

Yale Environment 360
May 26, 2011

In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Charles Saylan, co-founder and executive director of the Ocean Conservation Society, asks: What can the U.S. educational system do to improve students’ understanding of the environment and its importance in their lives?

Their view? The U.S. educational system is failing to create responsible citizens who consider themselves stewards of the environment.

World Trade Magazine
April 2, 2011

In the transportation and logistics sector, carbon footprinting has become firmly rooted in companies’ operations over the past few years. Sustainability reports, participation in the U.S. EPA’s SmartWay program, and addressing “green” practices in RFPs are common today.

Likewise, water footprinting is quickly becoming the next discipline that companies have begun embracing on their quest for true sustainability.

UofT Magazine
April 4, 2011

“Neighbourwoods” uses Google Earth to share info about the health of city trees

It’s now possible, thanks to a program designed to protect and sustain urban forests. Although local governments take care of trees in parks or on streets, the vast majority are found in people’s yards. Homeowners are responsible for sustaining the trees on their property, but all residents suffer when urban trees decline.

Grist
March 10, 2011

Lord Nicholas Stern, one of the world’s most prominent climate economists, believes that failure to address global warming could eventually lead to World War III. In 2006, he produced the “Stern Review” on behalf of the British government, clearly laying out the potentially catastrophic economic consequences of failing to address climate pollution. Since then, the scientific understanding of the damages from global warming has grown, and Stern has warned that his report “underestimated the risks.”

GOOD Environment
February 28, 2011

A longer-than-usual melt season in 2010 proved a record-setter in Greenland. Melting started early, and lasted longer than usual, and in all, melting lasted 50 days longer than average. This map image shows last year compared to number of melts days on average between 1979 and 2009.

TreeHugger
January 21, 2011

Do you get into contentious discussions with your conservative uncle over whether global warming is real or not? Or argue with your co-workers about why climate change isn’t just “natural cycles”? Or do your best to bite your tongue when your mother-in-law refers to the warming climate as “some Al Gore nonsense”? Do these debates, arguments, and spats piss you off? If so, perhaps this will offer a little solace: The fact that the topic is already entrenched in common discourse means the battle is already half won.

Discovery
January 10, 2011

Global warming may wipe out three-quarters of Europe’s alpine glaciers by 2100 and hike sea levels by four meters (13 feet) by the year 3000 through melting the West Antarctic ice sheet, two studies published on Sunday said.