During the summer, I love to visit the Smoky Mountains to enjoy the fresh mountain air and to get away from the pressures of life. However, on a recent trip, I ran into a surprising fact on a small placard: the Smokies have the highest deposits of sulfur and nitrogen of any monitored national park.
Ever wonder where those little plastic beads in your face wash end up? Or what happens to all the plastic bottles that don't wash up on your local beach? Well, they may end up in one of the five oceanic garbage gyres, or they may just wander about in the water column or on the
“Scientists Announce That The Great Barrier Reef Is Officially Terminal.†This is the jarring headline for a recent article citing some of Australia's top coral researchers on the realities of one of the world's most coveted natural systems. This type of prognosis has become eerily familiar in recent years as we've learned about the resounding
Cover photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/121935927@N06/13579500953/ Water is something we all use every day in Athens. We shower with it, brush our teeth with it, water our gardens with it, and of course, we drink our tap water, too. Most of us don’t even think twice about taking a drink from our taps, but at the same time,
This year's overwintering monarch butterfly population experienced a 14.77% decrease from the previous winter, following the trend of steady decline observed over the past two decades. These overwintering monarchs represent the individuals that survived the long-distance migration from as far north as Canada all the way down to Mexico. Causes of Decline There are several
Once upon a time, thousands of panthers roamed throughout the North American continent. Puma concolor are a highly adaptive species that inhabited a variety of habitat types. However, within 200 years after European colonization, they were eliminated from the entire eastern half of North America due to hunting and habitat loss. All that remained was
Sometimes, in the debate around climate change, we forget that it has a real impact on real people who we care about. Sometimes, we forget about the effect it can have on us, such as I did when I opened the news one summer morning in 2015. It was a real shock for me to
“Stand in the place where you live. Now face north. Think about direction, wonder why you haven't before.†Stand—R.E.M. Did you know that everyone with a smartphone carries around a small homing device in his or her pocket? Once the height of top secret military technology, global positioning systems (GPS) are embedded into a lot
Birds are typically known for their grace and elegance. They emerge from the lingering chill of winter to soar gracefully overhead, surprise us with brilliant plumage, wake us at ungodly hours with their joyful pre-dawn chorus…
And then there's the waxwings.
George had a problem. He was at least 100 years old and had been living in the same place for 40 years. He led a relatively simple life, though was somewhat overweight and had not left his confining compound since 1972. What was the most unusual thing about George was that he was under enormous
You turn on your television, and the news anchors are talking about it: “2016 was the hottest year on record.†You're sitting in traffic and you hear it again: “The outbreak of hurricanes this year is a direct result of climate change.†The causes of these phenomena are always the same. Coal-fired power plants, internal-combustion cars, manufacturing plants. You've heard all of these a thousand times over, but has anyone ever told you that a global warming contributor could be the termites crawling around in your backyard, and you didn't even know it?
Will Harris is the fourth-generation owner of White Oak Pastures, his family's 2500-acre farm near Bluffton, Georgia. When he took over the farm from his father in 1995, it was solely a cattle ranch, utilizing modern, industrial methods to raise livestock. However, Harris wanted a more ‘natural' enterprise, and so began the transition from a modern cattle ranch to an organic, food-producing ecosystem. Today, White Oak Pastures raises cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, rabbits, chickens, turkeys, guinea fowl, ducks, and geese in a system that emphasizes animal welfare and environmental stewardship. Unfortunately, his earth-friendly ambitions have also turned his farm into a gory battlefield between Bald Eagle and chicken.
