Greenzone Online

The Oasis That Was Sahara

This article about the Sahara being green several thousand years ago gave me a fresh perspective on climate change. It turns out that climate change is, after all, a natural and cyclical process our planet undergoes every few thousand years or so. Deserts becomes forests and vice-versa. Rivers dry out and new ones appear in [...]

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Dead Zones

WASHINGTON — Like a chronic disease spreading through the body, “dead zones” with too little oxygen for life are expanding in the world’s oceans. “We have to realize that hypoxia is not a local problem,” said Robert J. Diaz of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. “It is a global problem and it has severe consequences [...]

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More Jellyfish Stings Show Our Mistreatment of Ocean Life

Jellyfish stings are beginning to be the song of the canary in the coal mine for our oceans. A rapid increase in jellyfish stings is illuminating a rise in jellyfish populations, which in turn is revealing the damage we’re doing to our oceans through over-fishing, global warming, and pollution. According the International Herald Tribune, a couple [...]

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A Barrel of…Rain

Sometimes, it’s so obvious. Why wouldn’t you stick a large barrel outside during a rainstorm and collect the water? It’s a great way to save your city’s resources and your own bill. It’s easy and it’s not easy (of course). Instead of just putting your kid’s sandbox bucket on your patio, this is what you’ll need: -A [...]

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Asian Carp: If We Can’t Beat ‘Em, We Better Eat ‘Em–and fast!

Originally introduced in the early 1970’s by southerners to control algae blooms in catfish farms, bighead asian carp were washed into the Mississippi River after major flooding in the region starting in the 1980’s. These ravenous fish have fought their way upstream ever since, causing much concern to a plethora of ecosystems along the way. [...]

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Stanford Environmental Law Clinic helps to protect our waters

Yesterday, the Environmental Law Clinic at Stanford Law School announced that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of environmental organizations seeking to force the U.S. EPA to regulate ship discharges under the Clean Water Act. This decision follows a 2005 lower court ruling that the EPA had illegally exempted ship discharges [...]

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