August 25, 2016 | (Photo Credit: SPUR via Flickr) By David Suzuki with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Senior Editor Ian Hanington. Humans are fast becoming city dwellers. According to the United Nations, “The urban population of the world has grown rapidly from 746 million in 1950 to 3.9 billion in 2014.” Sixty-six per cent of us will likely live in urban…
Published by the US EPA Photo Courtesy of www.thenation.com Extreme weather and climate events are: Events that typically don't happen very frequently, such as droughts or floods that have historically occurred on average only once in 100 years. Events that vary from "the norm" in severity or duration, like heat waves. Events whose impacts are severe, like hurricanes. Key Points Extreme weather…
Debbie Carlson Aug 25th 2016 11:00AM Photo Courtesy of BBC.Com Renewable energy has made significant inroads into the U.S. energy system and even in the era of low fossil fuel prices, costs for solar and wind installations are down dramatically. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, the solar industry trade group, costs to install solar panels fell by more than 70…
By Chris Mooney August 10 North Miami buildings are seen near the ocean. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) This story has been updated. On a warming Earth, seas inevitably rise, as ice on land melts and makes its way to the ocean. And not only that — the ocean itself swells, because warm water expands. We already know this is happening — according…
Plopped Into Water, a Tiny Device Triggers the Formation of Chemicals that Kill Microbes in Minutes August 15, 2016 Menlo Park, Calif. — In many parts of the world, the only way to make germy water safe is by boiling, which consumes precious fuel, or by putting it out in the sun in a plastic bottle so ultraviolet rays will kill the…
The only gender inequality that ever impacted on me and left a lasting impression was the fact that, as I wasn't a woman, I couldn't make babies, and that caused me to feel deprived. Being born a male had deprived me of the capacity of creating human life. I resented being deprived of this capacity. The prospect of being a sperm…
by Robina Tower Rain pelted down in large opaque drops. Great trees flung across the river so that the canoes and their contents had to be pulled over them. At first getting used to the verdant green hurt the eyes, eventually they focused on the many hues of green and then the browns of tree trunks and branches, flowers of every imaginable…
Despite being as poor as church mice and suffering occasional hunger due to the war and our low income, the one thing I wasn't deprived of was a quality education. How I got it was very elaborate and that is a story in itself, and it earned me the highest professional qualification attainable in my country, which is another story in itself, and gave…
Jeffrey Gutman (Cover Photo) and Nirav Patel Monday, August 15, 2016 While cities worldwide continue to see rising levels of economic growth and inequality, inclusivity has emerged as a key goal for global leaders looking to encourage more sustainable urban development. The United Nations has outlined strategies in support of this effort – namely through its Sustainable Development Goals – but the…
By Colin I. Bradford “The Earth in the coming decades could cease to be a ‘safe operating space’ for human beings,” concludes a paper by 18 researchers “trying to gauge the breaking points in the natural world,” published in Science in January 2015. That our planetary environment seems to be approaching “breaking points” is but one of several systemic threats looming on…