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Most of what we buy is packaged, and that can only be bad news for our environment because all that paper and plastic needs energy, water and oil to create and lots landfill space to get rid of it. Even wore is the fact that the vast majority of it is used only once, making this waste even more abhorrent.
A preoccupation with cleanliness, however, is fuelling ever-greater demand for packaged food products and other goods. While wrapping meat, for example, demonstrates good hygiene, packaging individual bananas and dried fruits is clearly insane!
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by 
Chris Jordan has previously created art pieces utilizing garbage and junk to emphasize the role of consumerism in modern society. For his most recent project he has photographed the carcasses of albatrosses on Midway Island to document the deleterious effects of plastic on wildlife in the Pacific Ocean.
To document this phenomenon as faithfully as possible, not a single piece of plastic in any of these photographs was moved, placed, manipulated, arranged, or altered in any way. These images depict the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world’s most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent.
There are several dozen additional photos at the artist’s website.
Efforts are underway to revive damaged Pacific coral reefs by actively gardening them (propagating and transplanting the coral).
This video was directed and produced by Jonathan Clay for the BBC’s Natural History Unit as part of their “South Pacific” documentary. The resolution is high enough to make the video enjoyable at full-screen magnification.
Marine biologist and blogger WhySharksMatter presents the latest in his "ethical debate" series, picking a hot topic from the field of conservation biology, presenting both sides, and letting his readers argue it out. Since his readers include scientists, conservationists, students, and laypeople from around the world, these conversations are always interesting.
This week’s ethical debate… in order to let depleted stocks recover, should we pay fisherman to not fish the same way we pay farmers to not grow certain crops? Is it right to blame fisherman for overfishing?
Anyone concerned about the origin of their seafood dinner or the future of our planet’s threatened oceans has a stake in this… join in the discussion!
“If the Federal government is telling people that they aren’t allowed to earn a living anymore, should the government in some way compensate these people for lost wages? If not for this government decree, these people would be earning money to feed their families and pay their bills. Does the government not owe them something in return for cutting off their source of income?”
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by 
Marine biologist and blogger "WhySharksMatter" has created a list of four things everyone needs to know about sharks. Full of thought-provoking facts and cool pictures of sharks, this post will be interesting to the ocean lover in all of us.
“Human beings are better off with sharks than we are without sharks, and we are in danger of losing them forever… but you can help!”
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by
While it seems most establishments with drive-thru windows are in agreement that bicycles are forbidden, and refused service, Washington-based restaurant Burgerville is leading the way to change that. All 39 of their stores now allow cyclists in their drive up lanes, giving free smoothies to the first batch earlier this month.
The intention of our Bike Friendly Service program is to create a consistent policy and experience for our guests in the drive thru. To support this program, a cross-functional team, including members from Hawthorne Burgerville and community members from the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, have designed and are beginning the implementation of the first phase of the program.
Link via BikePortland
Washing dishes in a full-loaded dishwasher without pre-rinsing saves water (particularly expensive hot water) over washing by hand. This steam dishwasher designed by Vincent Liew saves even more water and energy!
As the title suggests, this dishwasher uses pressurized steam to dislodge food particles on dishes and sanitize them. A hearty rinse after the cleaning process gives you squeaky clean dishes!
Now for the Eco-friendly part. Since no detergents are used, there is less of “ozone depleting solvents” going around. The water used in the steam and rinsing is collected in the recycling bay and using “Membrane Technology” (read more info on this here), the grime and food particles are separated from the water. The clean water is recycled to be used again for the next wash.
Contaminated water, too harsh for reusing is discarded via an outlet and only then is a fresh load of water consumed.
Invasive Asian carp are populating the Great Lakes and forcing native species out of their traditional habitats. Scientists are taking steps to contain the invaders without affecting other species. They’ve developed an underwater “wall of sound” that takes advantage of the physical differences between Asian carp and native fish.
In a tributary near Havana, about 200 miles from Chicago, ecologist Greg Sass is testing a barrier that injects beeping sounds into an effervescent wall, which captures and magnifies the noise. The chirping bothers only the carp because it hears higher frequencies than native species do; a series of tiny bones connecting the carp’s swim bladder to its auditory system amplifies sound. In hatchery trials, the acoustic “fence” stopped 95 percent of the invasive fish.
Still in the concept stage, the Phyto-Purification Bathroom and Shower would make your bathroom more environmentally friendly:
Using a natural filtering principle called phyto-purification, the bathroom becomes a mini-eco-system by recycling and regenerating the wastewater.
The water from the shower and the washbasin is filtered through an organic system before being re-used.
Phyto-purification is a natural water-recycling process which is commonly used in ecological purification systems.
Ever wanted to swim in a lake full of chemicals, toxic algae, and junky electronic equipment? Sounds like good times for sure.
If you’d rather not risk disgusting infections and other diseases, leave the sludge swimming to Christopher Swain, who’s spent years of his life swimming through some of America’s most disgusting waters to raise awareness of environmental pollution. He’s currently swimming from Boston to the noxious harbor waters of Washington, DC, stopping in at hundreds of schools along the way to help kids learn about recycling.
Environmental hero, or just an idiot? You be the judge.
Swain has been focused on his mission for quite some time. In 2003 and 2004, he swam the length of four of America’s polluted waterways: the Charles River, Lake Champlain, the Hudson River, and the Columbia River, typically swimming about seven miles every day. Each day, Swain took photographs of the dirty waterscapes, and jotted extensive notes in a journal about each of the trips. “The water boasts the bouquet of a pond life smoothie: notes of mud, plants, tannin, poop, and gasoline, are all in evidence,” he wrote of his journey down Lake Champlain.
Swimming in this sort of pollution sounds like it could be hazardous to your health, and Swain knows for a fact that it is: despite taking frequent breaks to gargle with hydrogen peroxide, he’s gotten countless ear, respiratory, and lymph node infections. But, as he told ABC News in 2004, “I realized that if somebody doesn’t put themselves on the line, nothing changes.”
Link (Photo by Carrie Branovan)
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by gatsbyhawk.
In a series of photos taken by NASA, you can observe the dramatic disappearance of the Aral Sea in a relatively short period – between 2000 and 2009.
In a series of dramatic photos, NASA has been able to capture the disappearance of the Aral Sea from space. In the 1960′s Russia diverted water from several major rivers to irrigation projects for growing cotton and other crops. The result has been the complete destruction of one what was once the fourth largest inland sea in the world.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by mrsmojorisin.
The futuristic new HQ of Norway’s StaoilHydro features five separate wings piled on top of one another in a seemingly haphazard manner. It saves energy by utilising renewable geothermal heat in its district heating and cooling system. Hot water (or cold depending on the depth from which it is extracted) is pumped out of a nearby disused coal mine straight into the offices’ radiators. Once the water in the radiators has cooled, it is pumped back into the mine to be naturally reheated by the Earth.
Link – via thrivecore
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Arby.
The remarkable Rainbow Finch is found in Australia yet there are only around two thousand of them left in the wild. Although conservation attempts are ongoing the question now seems to be whether or not this beautiful species will persevere for very much longer in its own original habitat.
There is something about the Rainbow Finch that makes it look like an animal made up, using Photoshop, for an April Fool joke. The colors seem too bright to be real and each garish hue ends abruptly to be replaced by one equally as preposterous for a wild animal. The main part of its body looks like some psychedelic Neapolitan ice cream.
Link – via webphemera
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by taliesyn30.
Shopkeeper Yvonne Froud was fed up with all the trash strewn around her village in Gloucestershire, England, so she decided to do something about it. Whenever a kid buys treats from her shop, she writes the child’s name on the packaging …
Mrs Froud said if named wrappers were found on the streets, she had a chat to the “offender” who was temporarily banned from the shop or asked to pick up some litter as a consequence.
“On the whole the feedback has been good.”
The clean-up campaign began four weeks ago when the children were encouraged, with the incentive of an Easter egg, to pick up sweet and crisp packets.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Minnesotastan.
The accepted belief is that once destroyed, tropical rain forests could never be restored. But is that really the case or just a myth?
In 1993, researchers from the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Sciences at Cornell University began replanting a parcel of worn-out Costa Rican pasture land with seeds collected from native trees found in the community, often racing to gather the seeds before the monkeys got to them.
The result? Many people thought that they had done the impossible:
Ten years after the tree plantings, Cornell graduate student Jackeline Salazar counted the species of plants that took up residence in the shade of the new planted areas. She found remarkably high numbers of species — more than 100 in each plot. And many of the new arrivals were also to be found in nearby remnants of the original forests. [...]
Fully rescuing a rain forest may take hundreds of years, but Leopold, whose findings are published with Salazar in the March 2008 issue of Ecological Restoration, said the study’s results are promising. “I’m surprised,” he said. “We’re getting impressive growth rates in the new forest trees.”
Link – via holeinthedonut
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by baweibel.
How many animals do you suppose we pass in nature and never notice? Masters of evading humans and other predators, many creatures avoid being seen even at close range. Some of these are color-changers with amazing abilities to mimic not only their natural environs but even, in some cases, the behavior and movement of other species so they can pass as predators rather than as prey.
The ability to change color seems like an animal superpower at times – some of them can alter their appearance to blend with the colors, materials and textures of virtually any surroundings. For some this ‘costume change’ happens quickly, for others it is seasonal – for many it helps them avoid predators, for a few it enables them to sneak up on prey. Culled from around the animal kingdom, here are seven of most impressive color-changing species in the world.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Urbanist.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by whitespace.
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