Get Started with Standup Paddleboards
Paddleboards. You’ve seen them everywhere, eyeing them longingly as they glide effortlessly through the water like waterborne angels. “It’s not for me,” you thought, eyeing the ground as you plod about like a boar, “standup paddleboards are for other people; special people. There’s no way I could do that”. Well I’ve got news for you, […]
Pacific NW
Space Needle ‘Spacelift’ elevates visitor experience
The Space Needle, one of the world’s most recognizable landmarks, is undergoing a 360-degree “spacelift” and the majority of renovations are now open to the public. Privately funded, the 56-year-old tower’s $100 million renovation, Century Project, has elevated the visitor experience by dramatically enhancing the view with more than 176 tons of glass. The Space […]
A fire lookout with style in Oregon
Located in Tiller, on 40 acres of meadows and surrounded by 160 acres of Umpqua National Forest, the fire lookout features wooden interior decked out in Pendleton
Tips to avoid disposable packaging
Caption: Green-minded grocery shoppers spend more time in the bulk aisle than your average consumer given their preference for avoiding disposable packaging on single-use food items and products. Credit: leyla.a, FlickrCC. Dear EarthTalk: Any tips for reducing the amount of disposable plastic I use for food storage? -- J. Spencer, Gaithersburg, MD Analysts estimate that of the over six billion tons of plastic produced worldwide since the Ti1950s, we have recycled only nine percent of it and incinerated another 12 percent. The remaining, some 4.8 billion tons of plastic is either still in use, filling up landfills, or littered into streets,Coronavirus may devastate great apes
Caption: Coronavirus could be the knock-out punch for African mountain gorillas already on the brink of extinction. Credit: Francesco Ungaro, Pexels. Dear EarthTalk: I overheard someone saying the Coronavirus could drive mountain gorillas extinct? Is this because they are susceptible to the virus?-- Spencer S., Tukwila, WA While we don’t know for sure whether mountain gorillas or other great apes are susceptible to coronavirus, no one wants to find out. Damian Carrington reports in The Guardian that the coronavirus could potentially wipe out already threatened populations of chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans — our closest living relatives with whom we share 98
Silkworms may help build our future
Caption: The best-known example of Neri Oxman’s work to date in "Material Ecology" is the so-called Silk Pavilion whereby 6,500 silkworms were fed and released onto a human-designed, robot-created cocoon-like dome structure, eventually completing the human/natural architecture by weaving a silk cover. Credit: Mediated Matter Group, MIT. Dear EarthTalk: Can you explain the concept of “Material Ecology” as advertised in a new Museum of Modern Art exhibit?-- Nancy R., New York, NY Israeli-born designer and architect Neri Oxman, founding director of the Mediated Matter Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, coined the term Material Ecology to describe a process
Top 3 Best Sleeping Bags for Camping in 2020
It’s that time of year. The northwestern soil begins to dry and the near ever-present miasma of inclement weather lifts for the fleeting weeks of summer. And you, trapped inside throughout the spring, trapped and taunted by those tantalizing days of forbidden sunlight, you need to get out. Need to explore and reconnect with the primal roots you thought long forgotten. It’s time to escape. It’s time to camp. But before you slip the surly bonds of suburbia, you need to make sure you’re prepared for the realities of your return to nature; specifically, it gets pretty freakin’ cold at night.World loosing millions of forest lands
Caption: The worst years on record for primary tropical forest loss across the Amazon and beyond were 2016, 2017 and 2019. Credit: Tom Fisk, Pexels. Dear EarthTalk: How are we doing in the battle to stop or slow deforestation, especially in the tropics where forests store so much of the world’s biodiversity?-- M. Lark, Neptune, IA In short, not so good. Global Forest Watch, a project of the non-profit World Resources Institute (WRI) which uses satellite data to track global forest loss, found that the world lost some 3.8 million hectares of tropical primary forest (defined as forests of native trees
Sustainable decking is attractive, low-maintenance option
Caption: Kebony is a sustainably-harvested pine product that is modified at the molecular level to be stronger so it can last 3-5 times as long as other decking materials. Credit: Kebony.com. Dear EarthTalk: I am adding a deck onto my house this summer and wonder which decking materials (wood or otherwise) are the greenest?-- Bill A., San Francisco, CA As the weather warms up, we gravitate toward the outdoors, and what better way to enjoy the sunshine than on your very own deck. If you are building a new deck or sprucing up an existing one, you have the opportunity to
Researchers find pesticides shorten honeybee lives
The lives of honeybees are shortened – with evidence of physiological stress – when they are exposed to the suggested application rates of two commercially available and widely used pesticides, according to new Oregon State University research. In a study published in the journal PLOS ONE, honeybee researchers in OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences found […]
OSU expands Coronavirus testing to Newport
TRACE-COVID-19, the groundbreaking Oregon State University project to determine community prevalence of the novel coronavirus, expanded to include two days of sampling in Newport on June 20-21. The addition of Newport to the study follows the positive tests of more than 120 workers at Pacific Seafood, which operates five processing facilities in the city. In […]
Powerful crystal may someday power homes
Photo caption: Researchers at the University of Oxford in the UK are experimenting with perovskites as the semiconductor in these small tin solar cells that could someday be on your rooftop supplying your home with free electricity. Credit: University of Oxford Press Office FlickrCC. Dear EarthTalk: What is perovskite-based solar all about, and how does […]
Portland tech firm creates virtual COVID-19 screening
Photo Caption: A novel coronavirus, named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China in 2019. The illness caused by this virus has been named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Portland-based Bright.md has helped health systems evaluate and treat tens of […]
Portland’s Elephants Delicatessen honored
The National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF) honored Portland-based Elephants Delicatessen during a special VIP dinner in Washington, in early March where they shared their story of giving back to the community and being a good neighbor to the planet. The NRAEF’s Restaurant Neighbor Award (RNA), developed in partnership with American Express, highlights outstanding local […]
