When investigators in the UK recorded the calls of migratory thrushes at night, they found that call rates were up to five times higher over the brightest urban areas compared with darker villages. The findings, which are published in Ibis-International Journal of Avian Science, provide support to previous and ongoing research indicating that artificial light at night affects migratory birds. “We harnessed the respective strengths of citizen science, passive acoustic monitoring, and machine learning to gather evidence of the impact of artificial light at night on migratory birds,” said corresponding author Simon Gillings, Ph.D., of The British Trust for Ornithology. “Finding that even modest urban areas without high-rise buildings can influence migration…
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Fix it Forward
When we first moved into our home 40 years ago, the front door lock didn’t work quite right. One day I decided to fix it. Ha! I learned that it just wasn’t that simple. In order to fix it, I needed to understand how it worked. If you want to fix something, it is wise to take the time to find out how it works, how all the pieces fit together. It has become evident that many, many things are out of balance and fundamentally needs fixing: the economy, health care, the food system, partisan politics, climate change and environment, social and racial inequities, and education. This long list can…
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Just Enough
“…..we – you and I, and our government – must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for our own ease and convenience the precious resources of tomorrow. ” — – Dwight D. Eisenhow One beneficial consequence that comes from things getting uncomfortable is that it forces change. That is true whether you get a cramp from sleeping in a funny position, or when the recycling market collapsed after China no longer accepted the world’s discarded plastics. As uncomfortable and distressing as it is not to be able to recycle as we did before, we are now forced to acknowledge all that stuff we bring into our homes.…
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A Waste Free Life in PDX
When people think of Portland, Oregon, they think of bridges, bike paths, microbreweries, and coffee houses. The word “eco-friendly” comes to mind.
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Change Yourself Change the World
Sometimes I think, “Wouldn’t it be great to change the way things are?” Well, yes it would, aside from the huge responsibility were it possible.
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Apartment Composting Made Easy
If you are passionate like me about managing your home waste, but live in an apartment, Bokashi composting may be your answer to your food waste dilemmas. Bokashi is a Japanese method of composting that essentially uses live microbes to “pickle” food waste.
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Rethinking the Perfectly Manicured Lawn
For many, lawns have become a status symbol. In exchange for a sea of green, homeowners are expected to provide water, gasoline for mowers, time for maintenance, and often herbicides.
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Voluntary Simplicity
Think about it this way: if you buy a $4 coffee every workday, that’s approximately $1000 a year spent on coffee. If you make $10 an hour, that equates to 100 hours of work just to buy coffee. Voluntary Simplicity is about making conscious choices.
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Moving to a New Home, the Green Way
Moving is not a fun task, and a move can become wasteful, considering all the non-recyclable material and household goods being tossed out as garbage.
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Save Gas With Hypermiling
Gas-saving driving habits, called hypermiling, can help you achieve up to 40 percent more miles per gallon (mpg) than your car’s official fuel economy estimate. Take, for example, a 2005 Honda Accord, a best-selling sedan with a mpg rating of 24 (21 city, 31 highway). According to Wayne Gerdes — who coined the term “hypermiling” and is considered by many to be its leading expert and trainer — an Accord driver who is savvy to hypermiling can expect to get about 35 mpg. Dedicated hypermilers can achieve 50 percent or better improvement over their vehicles’ estimated mpg figures. Last year, Gerdes set a world record for distance in a gas-powered,…
