By Lindsay E. Brown
Bees are tasked with performing one of the most critical naturally occurring acts our food system relies on; one in every three bites of food a human takes comes from sources once pollinated by bees. But bees are also peaceful and complex little creatures, despite their reputation as short-fused stingers.
I spent an afternoon tending to bees at a conservancy in Brooklyn recently, and share my foray into beekeeping in this story.
20 Colleges Leading the Way on Green Roofs
As students trickle back to colleges across the country in the next few weeks, here’s a look at some of the trailblazing universities who are creating more sustainable campuses in a host of ways.
White House Sets Fuel Economy Target of 54.5 MPG by 2025
The Obama Administration announced yesterday that it had finally issued the 54.5 MPG rule after delays — the new regulation was first proposed in 2011 — with the goal of reducing fuel consumption and curbing greenhouse gas emissions.
The White House projects that the new standards “will save American families more than $1.7 trillion dollars in fuel costs, resulting in an average fuel savings of more than $8,000 by 2025 over the lifetime of the vehicle. These programs will dramatically reduce our reliance on foreign oil, saving a total of 12 billion barrels of oil and reducing oil consumption by more than 2 million barrels a day by 2025 – as much as half of the oil we import from OPEC each day.”
Burned by Health Warning, Defiant Tanning Industry Assails Doctors, Sun Scare Conspiracy
People are still faking and baking, believe it or not. Here’s one that might shock you: There are more tanning salons in the U.S. than McDonald’s restaurants, according to this article.
The $4.9 billion industry is fighting against critics by trying to discredit doctors and health groups, who warn fake tanning can be dangerous, as part of a “sun scare” conspiracy.
Arctic Sea Ice Sets Record Low
As of Sunday, there is less sea ice covering the Arctic ice cap than there has ever been since satellite observations began in the 1970s. The National Snow and Ice Data Center announced the new record low yesterday, but the sea ice coverage will likely dip even lower because are still two or three weeks left in melt season.
Nature Reclaims a Trash-Strewn Beach, Inspiring Hope and Its Opposite
After years of tossing junk onto “Glass Beach” in Mendocino County’s Fort Bragg, the community decided to turn things around. Hopefully other communities will clean up and replant where there once was trash.
Drought Disrupts Everyday Tasks in Rural Midwest
Nearly 63 percent of the country is now officially suffering from this summer’s massive drought, according to the New York Times. In some parts of the Midwest, residential wells are drying up, making it hard for people to fill up a coffee pot, wash the dishes, or flush the toilet. An estimated 13.2 million households across the U.S. use private wells. The lack of water from the wells poses even more of an inconvenience when it’s hot and dry outside.
Have a tip you’d like us to include in our next roundup? Tweet @LauraSeydel and @LindsEBrown using hashtag #EcoRoundup
Photo Credit: Lindsay E. Brown
