The Adirondack North Country Association’s (ANCA) 2021 annual meeting will bring together experts in environmental justice, food systems, clean energy and climate action to discuss the importance of climate justice in shaping the region’s economic future, on Friday, September 17th. [Read more…] about ANCA Annual Meeting Focuses on Climate Justice
Climate Change
How Trees Cause – and Mostly Prevent – Pollution
In 1981, former President Ronald Reagan famously pronounced “Trees cause more air pollution than automobiles do,” a statement which garnered endless ridicule.
Even though he also said “Facts are stupid things” during a 1988 interview, it turns out his claim about dirty trees was partly correct. [Read more…] about How Trees Cause – and Mostly Prevent – Pollution
Northeast Mountain Ecology: A Primer
Hikers climbing the Northeast’s highest peaks will traverse several different vegetative zones along the way. On the summits, they’ll likely encounter plants so hardy that many also grow in the Arctic, thousands of miles to the north. [Read more…] about Northeast Mountain Ecology: A Primer
Indulging Reforestation, Protecting Woodlands
As a child in a devout Catholic household I was intrigued by “Indulgences,” a way for sinners to avoid penalties in the afterlife by paying a fee commensurate with their bad deeds. This was years before Heaven went digital, of course, and as a youngster I assumed these bookkeeping adjustments were made in such a way that God didn’t notice the erasure marks in the Eternal Ledger. [Read more…] about Indulging Reforestation, Protecting Woodlands
Maples on the Move
Unless trees are wondrously furtive, I’m pretty sure they can’t migrate. Yet a report from the US Forest Service’s Northern Research Station indicates that 70% of Eastern tree species have already begun to shift their ranges to the north. [Read more…] about Maples on the Move
Spruce Blues and Wet-Weather Woes
When I’m asked to diagnose tree problems, folks naturally want the remedy. Sometimes the only solution is tree removal; other times it’s a cable brace, pest management, corrective pruning or fertilizing. But increasingly, the diagnosis is climate change. If anyone knows how to solve that through an arboricultural practice, please let me know. [Read more…] about Spruce Blues and Wet-Weather Woes
State Funding Carbontech Entrepreneurial Fellowships
New York State has announced more than $9 million is available to establish the Carbontech Entrepreneurial Fellowship Program to support scientists who have breakthrough innovations to contribute to building New York as a hub for carbon-to-value technology.
The new program is expected to provide technical expertise that bridges research and development with the commercialization of products, grow entrepreneurial training for scientists, expand the State’s innovation ecosystem, and accelerate economy-wide deep decarbonization. [Read more…] about State Funding Carbontech Entrepreneurial Fellowships
Tracking Your Internet Carbon Footprint
According to the International Energy Agency, global internet usage and time spent online has skyrocketed in recent years, seeing a 40 percent increase in just two months beginning in February 2020. [Read more…] about Tracking Your Internet Carbon Footprint
Science Knows No Gender: Eunice Newton Foote And Climate Change
The presentation Science Knows No Gender: Eunice Newton Foote and the Cause of Global Warming, by University of California Santa Barbara Visiting Scholar John Perlin, has been made available online.
Eunice Newton Foote, born July 17th, 1819, was an American scientist (including biology, especially botany), an inventor, and a women’s rights campaigner from Seneca Falls, New York. She died on September 30th, 1888. [Read more…] about Science Knows No Gender: Eunice Newton Foote And Climate Change
Birds of New York: Scientific Cataloging In Historical Context
In 1844 New York State published a volume on birds in Natural History of New York. Written by James E. DeKay with hand-colored lithographs by John William Hill, it was the State’s first attempt at a comprehensive scientific cataloging of New York’s birds. At the time about 301 species of birds were known to be present in the state.
Sixty years later another effort was made to bring together the State’s bird knowledge. The first of the two-volume of Birds of New York – Water Birds and Game Birds – was published to much acclaim. The book was a collaboration between wildlife artist Louis Agassiz Fuertes and author Elon Howard Eaton. Birds of New York listed an additional 100 species – several of which were then “well known,” but unknown in the 1840s. The book would serve as a model for those that followed.
[Read more…] about Birds of New York: Scientific Cataloging In Historical Context