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Mindfulness is a buzzword today. It refers to the notion that we should strive to keep our minds fully attending to and totally aware of what’s happening and what we’re doing on a moment-to-moment basis.
Called the “lungs of the world,” our planet’s forests store more carbon dioxide in their leaves, soil and wood than is contained in the Earth’s entire atmosphere—often for hundreds of years. Forests keep the Earth cool and give off oxygen, making it possible for us to live here.
Recently, in late 2016, hundreds of tufted puffins washed up dead on shores along the Bering Sea in Alaska. Earlier last year, tens of thousands of dead common murres were found on beaches from California to The Last Frontier state. The reason? Climate change and its resultant warming oceans.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, planned to hold a Climate and Health Summit, set for February 14-16, 2017.
It’s the beginning of a brand-new year, and—in geological terms—it may be the start of a new name for our era.
From employing dogs to protect our airports and track endangered species to using ravens to replant the forests we destroy, using animals to do our work isn’t a new idea.
Traditionally, throughout the world on New Year’s Eve, we all join in the singing of “Auld Lang Syne.” The song, whose title roughly translates as “for old times’ sake,” is appropriate for the end of the year because it evokes nostalgia for the past and a longing to preserve longtime friendships.
While dogs have been working at airports around the country for some time as narcotics officers and runway-geese police, some animals are now finding gainful employment in terminals in, well, more “fluffy” roles. But the seemingly softer nature of their careers doesn’t mean their positions are any less consequential.
In the past few decades, rapid climate change has certainly revealed a lot about how our planet is being reshaped and modified. Global warming has been linked to wars, the death of the world’s largest coral reef ecosystem, and it has even altered our farming techniques.
In the environmental-action and wildlife-conservation world—the two go hand in hand, as we need healthy environments for the animal kingdom to prosper—there’s a lot of talk about preserving our planet and its biodiversity for “future generations.” A lot of what we do, we say, is in their name.
Climate change. It’s been on my mind for almost 20 years now.
We are losing animal species at an alarming, unprecedented rate, and our wild places are increasingly coming under attack.
