This week in PLoS One, a group of researchers coordinated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), published a new framework for assessing threats to ecosystems. This study offers the theoretical foundation for the Red List criteria for ecosystems, which like its predecessor, the Species Red List, will aim to inform government and society about the current status of biodiversity and provide the data necessary to develop strategies and priorities for conservation.
Eric Dalski, a student in the Earth Institute Executive Education Certificate Program in Conservation and Environmental Sustainability is building vegetative layers grown on a rooftop. Learn more about his perspectives on the Certificate Program.
Coastal Wetlands provide homes for migrating and native birds, protected areas for hatcheries, flood mitigation and an unrivaled biodiversity of microorganisims that serves as the basis of the marine food chain. Nature here works hard to compensate for an increasingly heavy human footprint.
Learn more about Mike Misner, a 2006 graduate of the Certificate in Conservation and Environmental Sustainability at the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC).
Can mushrooms help clean up oil spills? Can oysters filter sewage pollution? Industrial waste is being injected into the planet’s soil and water as a result of human activity. Pioneers in the field of conservation and sustainability are employing nature’s own biological task force to help clean up.
Scientists are close to restoring the extinct passenger pigeon and along with it her native habitat.
According to the 2012 Zagat dining survey, New Yorkers eat out an average of three times a week. Since people in the city eat out so often, they may be able to reduce their carbon footprint by supporting more green certified restaurants.
Imagine if each of the 4.3 million daily commuters on the New York City subway took an international flight. Now think of each of those people on flights spewing jet fuel emissions, guzzling canned soda from plastic airline cups and water from plastic bottles, tossing hotel toiletries into non-recycling bins, blasting hotel air conditioners, and so forth. Despite this apparent mess, is responsible travel possible?
Many of us have clothing, accessories, and linens that we haven’t used in years. Instead of letting them take up valuable storage space in your home, help them find a second home through recycling.
Across the country, in distressed urban centers, hundreds of thousands of industrial sites have been left lying fallow. These properties, known as brownfields, embody the story of America’s twentieth-century industrial might and bear the mark of that period’s unenlightened practices. Their closing and subsequent abandonment culminated in the loss of well-paying manufacturing jobs, the creation of urban blight and the legacy of environmental contamination. However, research suggests that brownfields may be the missing link in the emerging green economy and one of the keys to America’s economic comeback.
State of the Planet is a forum for discussion on varying viewpoints. The opinions expressed by the authors and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Earth Institute or Columbia University.
