Category Archives: Sustainability

NPR piece suggests that economics are pushing us towards nutrient recycling

NPR All Things Considered “Cities Turn Sewage Into ‘Black Gold’ For Local Farms” This is a really interesting piece because it suggests that the costs associated with properly disposing of human waste are beginning to incentivize municipalities to repurpose this … Continue reading

Posted in A Minor Post, Closed Loop Systems, Economic sustainability, Pollution, Radio & Podcasts, Sustainability, Sustainable Agriculture | Leave a comment

Envirolutions asks the Pratt community to identify where there is “room for improvement”

During this year’s Green Week celebration, Envirolutions club members brought their Room for Improvement campaign to the campus, asking members of the Pratt community to identify where the campus has the most “room to improve” in terms of sustainability. Two enticements incentivized participation: those … Continue reading

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Envirolutions club launches its “Room for Improvement” campaign

This week, students in Pratt’s Envirolutions club launched their newest campaign for on-campus sustainability. Called “Room for Improvement”, the campaign seeks to lower the environmental footprint of the school caused by resource consumption. The posters that advertise the campaign are themed … Continue reading

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Dumb radio ads provide smart insight into the diverse nature of human societies

Do everyday people have any sense of their place in the world? Human beings live in incredibly complex societies undergirded by convoluted economies and overwhelmingly diverse cultures. Do we have a sense of how these societies came to be, or … Continue reading

Posted in A Major Post, Behavior, Cooperation, Economic sustainability, Ethics, Gene-Culture Coevolution, Group Selection, Human Evolution, Political Science, Public Policy, Radio & Podcasts, Social Diversity | Leave a comment

“Earth Hour” seeks to re-focus our attention on all the earth provides

World Wildlife Fund Earth Hour Will an hour of darkness give us the time to contemplate both the importance of ecosystem services and how our voracious energy consumption threatens those services? It is certainly worth a try.

Posted in A Minor Post, Activism, Anthropogenic Change, Climate Change, Cooperation, Environmental Justice, Public Policy, Sustainable Energy | Leave a comment

Quantifying the climate value of that 40-acre woodlot

The New York Times “Tree Power“

Posted in A Minor Post, Articles, Climate Change, Closed Loop Systems, Public Policy, Quantitative Analysis, Sustainability, Temperate Rainforest | Leave a comment

Green port policies yield big decreases in the ecological footprint of shipping

National Geographic “California Ports Go Green” This is a nice infographic showing that changes in policy can have a big impact on the sustainability of commerce. It is amazing how much efficiency improvements can lower ecological impacts.

Posted in A Minor Post, Articles, Economics, Information Design, Public Policy, Sustainable Transportation | Leave a comment

Production on marginal lands can meet only 25% of our biofuel mandates

Nature “Bioenergy: Biofuel production on the margins” & “Sustainable bioenergy production from marginal lands in the US Midwest” This is fascinating, and provides further evidence that even the smartest biofuel production methods are not going to be enough to mitigate our … Continue reading

Posted in A Minor Post, Articles, Climate Change, Grasslands, Public Policy, Quantitative Analysis, Sustainability, Sustainable Agriculture, Sustainable Energy | Leave a comment

Charlotte Douglas International Airport employs worms to close the loop on airport waste

NPR All Things Considered “One Airport’s Trash Is 2 Million Worms’ Treasure“

Posted in A Minor Post, Closed Loop Systems, Composting, Decomposition, Radio & Podcasts, Resource Consumption, Sustainability | Leave a comment

Fracking study retracted after the discovery of a massive conflict of interest

All Things Considered “Positive Fracking Study Was Funded By Gas Company” 1.5 million dollars is a lot to receive from a corporation with interest in your research! Scientists can be bought, and transparency is the only thing that prevents profit-driven … Continue reading

Posted in A Minor Post, Anthropogenic Change, Ethics, Pollution, Radio & Podcasts, Resource Consumption, Scientific Fraud, Sustainable Energy, Water Supply | Leave a comment

Freakonomics takes the quantitative knife to how we produce and consume food

Freakonomics Radio “You Eat What You Are” This piece delivers a much needed kick in the self-righteous pants to the locavore movement. It systematically disassembles the assumptions of the local food movement, ending by discussing the minimal quantitative ecological benefits … Continue reading

Posted in A Minor Post, Anthropogenic Change, Belief, Carrying Capacity, Climate Change, Cultural Anthropology, Cultural Evolution, Ecological Footprinting, Economics, Ethics, Food, Greenwashing, Hunger, Hypothesis Testing, Life Cycle Analysis, Philosophy, Population Growth, Public Policy, Quantitative Analysis, Radio & Podcasts, Resource Consumption, Subsistence, Sustainability, Sustainable Agriculture, Vegetarianism | Leave a comment

Pratt Envirolutions Students Bring Recycling Bins to Campus

Culminating over three semesters of work, Pratt’s Envirolutions student club chose Election Day to celebrate the launch of eleven new recycling bins on the Brooklyn campus grounds. President Schutte joined students to cut the ribbons on the new bins, which … Continue reading

Posted in A Major Post, Center for Sustainable Design Studies, Envirolutions, Greenwashing, Pratt Institute, Resource Consumption, Sustainability | Leave a comment

Envirolutions students release Trash Tetris video to promote recycling bin launch

The students in the Pratt Envirolutions club have worked tirelessly to get a set of recycling bins placed on campus. Please join these students and President Schutte for a ribbon-cutting ceremony on November 6, 2012 in front of the Engineering Building lawn @ 4 PM. … Continue reading

Posted in A Minor Post, Closed Loop Systems, Envirolutions, Pratt Institute, Resource Consumption, Sustainability | Leave a comment

Governor Cuomo makes the connection between natural disasters and climate change, calls for building in resilience

In an election season when global climate change has been a subject that neither Obama nor Romney seem interested in discussing (see reports by The New Yorker and The Huffington Post), along comes Hurricane Sandy. With the arrival of the … Continue reading

Posted in A Major Post, Anthropogenic Change, Articles, Belief, Climate Change, Cultural Evolution, Economic sustainability, Environmental Justice, Memetic Fitness, Political Science, Resilience, Reviews, Risk & Uncertainty, Sustainability, Sustainable Transportation, Web | 2 Comments

Want to know where the Presidential candidates stand on science? There’s a site for that!

Science Debate dot org “The Top American Science Questions: 2012“

Posted in A Minor Post, Astronomy, Biodiversity Loss, Climate Change, Economic sustainability, Economics, Ecosystem Services, Food, Grants & Funding, Health & Medicine, Marine Ecosystems, Political Science, Public Policy, Resource Consumption, Science (General), Space Travel, Sustainable Agriculture, Sustainable Energy, Web | Leave a comment

Michael Ruse on James Lovelock’s Gaia of 2012

The Chronicle of Higher Education “Saving Gaia From the Greens“

Posted in A Minor Post, Anthropogenic Change, Articles, Biography, Climate Change, Ecological Modeling, Ecosystem Ecology, Ecosystem Services, Religion, Survival, Sustainability | Leave a comment

Rogue iron fertilization? Things have gotten weird!

The New York Times “A Rogue Climate Experiment Outrages Scientists“

Posted in A Minor Post, Anthropogenic Change, Articles, Biodiversity Loss, Citizen Science, Climate Change, Community Ecology, Ecology, Ecosystem Services, Environmental Justice, Ethics, Food, Marine Ecosystems, Polar Marine, Public Policy, Sustainability | Leave a comment

Barry Commoner, pioneering scientist and environmentalist, is dead at 95

Barry Commoner was an exceptional scientist and human being. Below are some nice tributes to him: The New York Times “Scientist, Candidate and Planet Earth’s Lifeguard” The New York Times “Barry Commoner’s Uncommon Life” The Los Angeles Times “Barry Commoner … Continue reading

Posted in A Minor Post, Anthropogenic Change, Articles, Biodiversity Loss, Biography, Climate Change, Ecosystem Services, Environmental Justice, Obituary, Pollution, Public Policy, Sustainability, Sustainable Energy | Leave a comment

Climate and Clean Air Coalition unites air pollution concerns

Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants This is another example of how considering air pollution from the perspective of both climate change and human health might begin to inspire global action.

Posted in A Minor Post, Climate Change, Environmental Justice, Health & Medicine, Pollution, Public Policy, Sustainability, Sustainable Energy, Web | Leave a comment

Reductions in fertilizer use are now worth carbon credits

American Carbon Registry “ACR Approves MSU-EPRI Carbon Offset Methodology for Emission Reductions from Agricultural Nitrous Oxide“

Posted in A Minor Post, Pollution, Sustainable Agriculture, Web | Leave a comment