The Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative is a partnership between the State of Hawaii and the U.S. Department of Energy that was launched in 2008 and has the bold goal of attaining a 100 percent renewableContinue reading
Rewilding Efforts Restore Ecosystems and Landscapes… But Not Without Pushback
When people consider environmental disasters and humankind’s effect on ecosystems, climate change and pollution are often the first issues mentioned. While climate change and pollution deserve our undivided attention, and are proven to damage ecosystemsContinue reading
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch: A Final Call for Help?
“In this sense, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is, in the end, merely the most dramatic outward symptom of a far deeper problem of enormous volumes of human waste reaching places where it was neverContinue reading
Why Ethics Matter in Environmental Issues: The Sewage Crisis in Lowndes County, Alabama
The ethical and moral considerations needed to address environmental issues are often forgotten. The scientific and economic aspects of these problems often lead the conversation, yet these aspects are just a part of the frameworkContinue reading
Duke CHP Plant: Heated Controversy
Note: As of April 6th, 2018, Duke has indefinitely delayed its plans for a new CHP plant, as described here. This post was written as a class assignment prior to that announcement, as well asContinue reading
The Next Steps for North Carolina’s Plastic Bottle Recycling Plan
Recycling has always been an important part of my life. Growing up in North Carolina, I remember trips to the local recycling station and the bag of plastic bags in my kitchen that were destinedContinue reading
The Future of Renewable Energy Lies in the Hands of the Government
When people think of exciting new technologies they often think of Silicon Valley companies like Tesla and Google. However, some of the most important advances in technology are coming from government-funded projects. Many people haveContinue reading
Fracking: An Environmental Justice Issue
You hear the “slish-slosh” as millions of gallons of water, sand, and other chemicals rush beneath the surface of the Earth. You are standing by a hydraulic fracking well, one of tens of thousands distributedContinue reading
What Happens When Water is No Longer Considered a Renewable Resource?
In an era of accelerated climate change, many natural systems and processes are changing rapidly and unpredictably, and things we thought to be true about the natural world are proving otherwise. For example, the ideaContinue reading
A Freer Pass for Hunters, A Death Sentence for Elephants & Lions
There is a photo that surfaced earlier this year of Donald Trump Jr. holding an African elephant’s severed tail. It was from the very African elephant that he shot and killed during a big gameContinue reading