In this illustration, the blue ball represents the volume of all the water on earth, relative to the size of the earth. The tiny speck to the right of the blue ball represents Earth’s fresh water. CREDIT: David Gallo/WHOI
via unknownskywalker:
Pet peeve: companies that water the sidewalk in front of their buildings.
I’m all for watering the flowers, but this sidewalk washing (which was going on in front of at least four buildings on my morning commute) is such a waste of clean water. The sidewalks in Foggy Bottom aren’t very dirty to begin with. It’s not accomplishing anything that an old-fashioned broom wouldn’t.
And besides, there’s rain in the forecast for Wednesday!
The average American uses the paper equivalent of almost six 40-foot (12-metre) trees a year.
» via infoneer-pulse: The Economist
In Focus: A World Without People
For a number of reasons, natural and human, people have recently evacuated or otherwise abandoned a number of places around the world — large and small, old and new. Gathering images of deserted areas into a single photo essay, one can get a sense of what the world might look like if humans were to vanish from the planet altogether. Collected here are recent scenes from nuclear-exclusion zones, blighted urban neighborhoods, towns where residents left to escape violence, unsold developments built during the real estate boom, ghost towns, and more.
See more. [Images: AP, Reuters]
For those seeking sustainability.
New England Aquarium’s approved fish list
- There’s very little consensus about sustainable seafood. Here is a partial list that gets the New England Aquarium’s seal of approval.
![theatlantic:
Chart: America’s Gardens Are Warmer in 2012
One way to tell that the world (or at this country) is warming is to take a look at the map the USDA puts on the back of seed packets, which shows that winter temperatures have risen pretty much everywhere in the U.S. The Department of Agriculture released an update to the 1990 version of its “Plant Hardiness Zone Map,” which reveals much milder winters than in the past. Read more.
[Image: USDA]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyfawcweXb1qcokc4o1_500.png)
Chart: America’s Gardens Are Warmer in 2012
One way to tell that the world (or at this country) is warming is to take a look at the map the USDA puts on the back of seed packets, which shows that winter temperatures have risen pretty much everywhere in the U.S. The Department of Agriculture released an update to the 1990 version of its “Plant Hardiness Zone Map,” which reveals much milder winters than in the past. Read more.
[Image: USDA]
(via absurdlakefront)
Fairyfly wasp thriving after sneaking into U.S. 2 years ago
The invasive insect poses no threats to humans and is providing a natural way to control the leafhopper population.
I don’t know the deals of this wasp, but whenever “poses no threats” is mentioned in relation to invasive species, I think of the story of mongoose in Hawaii.
(via im-just-sayin)
Pollution over China can be seen from space
Fog and haze blanketed the North China Plain on January 10, 2012, making travel difficult. The Beijing airport cancelled 43 flights and delayed 80 more in the morning hours, when visibility dropped to 200 meters, according to state news reports. Provinces across the plain reported low visibility.
The haze decreased visibility in satellite images too. A milky, gray pall entirely blocks the ground from view in the top image, taken in the early afternoon by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite. Patches of white fog or low cloud hang below the gray haze. Winds had already begun to push the haze out of Beijing in the north, but the rest of the North China Plain still suffered from poor air quality. By the next day, when Aqua MODIS acquired the lower image, skies were mostly clear across the region.
Yikes!
This Map Shows Where All The Trees Are In The US
NASA’s Earth Observatory just released a map illustrating where all the trees are in America. The map was created over six years by Josef Kellndorfer and Wayne Walker of the Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC) in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Geological Survey. The dark swaths of green represent parts of the country with the greatest concentration of biomass. You can see dense tree cover in the Pacific Northwest as well New England, which has been reforested after intensive logging in the 18th and 19th centuries.
(via themattsmith)
A world with no maple syrup would be a lot less sweet.
No maple syrup by 2100? Meet the 65-year-old New Hampshire farmer trying to save breakfast.
The largest urban park in the contiguous United States is coming to Chicago.
A new project, backed by at least $17 million from the state, aims to turn 140,000 acres of under-used and post-industrial land along the Second City’s southern rim into a public recreation hub called the Millennium Reserve.
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn hopes to add private funding to the project, figuring the reserve will boost the economy and create hundreds of jobs. Environmental groups have been calling for a makeover for the Calumet region for years. “The Millennium Reserve Plan represents the first viable, large-scale attempt to protect and enhance the Lake Calumet area through an integrated, cooperative approach to land and resource management,” the Sierra Club of Illinois said in a statement.
An impressive maneuver to reclaim land that has lain vacant, and to protect it for future generations.
Can This Baby Polar Bear Save the Species?
Because we can’t get enough of Siku, a polar bear cub born in captivity in Denmark. We just couldn’t NOT post another big picture of the baby cub.
The Scandinavian Wildlife Park is developing a new information program about climate change, sea ice in the Arctic Sea and polar bears. As the program evolves, Siku “will become an Ambassador for his wild cousins living in the Arctic,” continued the site, “Because the Scandinavian Wildlife Park has some of the best and largest polar bear facilities in the world, we are convinced that it will be possible for SIKU to become a normal functioning polar bear within a few years.”
Celebrity Clause For A Cause of the Day: To promote his clean water initiative Water.org, actor Matt Damon dressed up as Santa Claus and attempted to convince American children that the water bottle was this holiday season’s “must-have toy.”
Not surprisingly, they wanted an Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle instead.
[reddit.]
