Author name: Stephen Hanley

Steve writes about the interface between technology and sustainability from his home in Rhode Island. You can follow him on Google + and on Twitter.

Canada Investment In Alberta Tar Sands Is Money Down The Drain

Since 2009, Canada has invested more than $200 billion into extracting oil from the Alberta tar sands. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that his country had agreed to purchase the Trans Mountain pipeline from Kinder Morgan for $4.5 billion. It will cost Canadian taxpayers at least that much or more to complete

Smart Wood: Bio-Engineering Trees For Specific Purposes

For the past decade, researchers have been experimenting with switching individual genes on and off to determine what effect they have on growing trees. But they say they can now model the effects of switching all 21 lignin genes on or off in the lab, which will greatly reduce the amount of time needed to “design” trees that are suitable for particular purposes.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Enzyme Chews Through Plastic Waste

Sometimes, new products get invented by accident. Potato chips, for example. The microwave, the ink jet printer, and the implantable pacemaker are on the list. My personal favorite involves scientists searching for a powerful new adhesive that could be used to glue airplanes together. They failed miserably and created one of the weakest adhesives ever

America’s Pledge — To Stop Global Heating

The United States is now the only country in the world not committed to the carbon reduction goals announced in Paris at the COP21 climate change summit in 2015. But that doesn’t mean all Americans have abandoned the fight. At the COP23 climate conference in Bonn, Germany, last week, more than 100 people from the

How Global Gag Rule Will Punish Women And Speed Climate Change

For too long, there has been an unwritten rule that religion is off limits as a discussion topic when it comes to global warming and climate change. The new book Drawdown examines the 100 best policies that humanity can implement to reduce the effects of climate change. The empowerment of women is in the top

Beans For Beef: The Climate Change Initiative That Anyone Can Do

Our #FakePresident has removed the United States for the Paris climate accords, leading some Americans to experience ecoanxiety. That’s a relatively new term that American Psychological Association used to describe the feelings of dread and helplessness the follow from “watching the slow and seemingly irrevocable impacts of climate change unfold, and worrying about the future

Massive Dead Zone In Gulf Of Mexico Blamed On Meat Industry

A dead zone larger than New Jersey is expected to appear in the Gulf of Mexico later this year. Similar dead zones are found in the Great Lakes and the Chesapeake Bay. A report by Mighty, a global environmental group headed by Henry Waxman, a former US Congressman, claims the dead zones are the result

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