Here is a great article about what happened to the World's Ozone Hole. It has shrunk and there is hope it will be back to pre 1980 levels in the mid century. Good news, though dwarfed right now because of the climate crisis. Also, so of he chemical solutions to the expanding ozone hole have actually contributed to the climate crisis. This is a good example of working together to solve a world climate issue though over all.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220321-what-happened-to-the-worlds-ozone-hole
Been thinking that while most people get that we need to stop burning fossil fuels, most people do not realize that we also must start re-wilding where we can, even in the cities. That reducing atmospheric carbon won't save us when rampant development has stomped out species.
The answer is biodiversity. And biodiversity comes from a radical respect for nature.
I keep thinking about this, and I've learned that when I can't stop thinking about something, it's my intuition, spirit guides, or both, talking to me.
I keep thinking about how we all need to re-wild the lawns -- in our yards, in our parks and public spaces, and around commercial buildings. They are dead zones for wild life and help contribute to the great extinction going on.
And as @Lovendures recently showed that we have reversed the ozone hole over the Arctic, so too we can reverse the mass extinction if we start re-wilding and get out of nature's way.
One big step that keeps .
I keep thinking about biodiversity, and rewilding as critical to saving our planet (and therefore saving us). And I've learned that when I can't stop thinking about something, it's my intuition, spirit guides, or both, talking telling me to pay attention.
I keep thinking about how we all need to re-wild the lawns -- in our yards, in our parks and public spaces, and around commercial buildings. Lawns are dead zones for wild life and help contribute to the great extinction going on.
As @Lovendures recently posted that we haven succeeded in reversing the ozone hole over the Arctic, so too can we reverse the mass extinction if we start re-wilding and get out of nature's way.
I haven't totally eliminated my lawn yet, but a good place to start is to let leaves remain on the lawn in the fall, and let the dried flower heads remain on the stems. We need to stop tidying up the lawn, like my husband and my father before him (and all my neighbors) like to do in the fall. I'm now sending him articles that explain that if we just leave the lawn alone, the birds can use those seed heads for food, and underneath those leaves are moth pupae who, as moths, are good pollinators.
It is such a negative cycle when you have a lawn, remove the leaves in fall, and cut back the flower heads. Then you discover that the price of bird seed is now astronomical because of droughts in the mid West and West. One disrespect for nature, causes another and another. But if I just re-wild the lawn, the birds will have enough and the flowers will get pollinated next summer.
Next spring I'm going to follow an Audubon suggestion to plant native shrubs around the lawn, until, well, the lawn is gonzo.
I am not an expert on this topic. So fire away with corrections and articles. I never cease to be amazed at the level of knowledge in this community.
This one's for you oh fearless leader, protector of the environment.
I LOVE THIS !!!!
A new study from has just come out linking the adoptions of electric vehicles to less air pollution and improved health! The health benefit aspect is really encouraging!! Yay!!
A team of researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of USC have now begun to document the actual impact of electric vehicle adoption in the first study to use real-world data to link electric cars, air pollution and health.
Yes, EV's DO help the environment and improve the health of people who are in the zip codes with the greatest EV usage. More information on this interesting study can me found here.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-02-links-electric-vehicles-air-pollution.html
In recent years, many studies confirm that even small amounts of air pollution affect human health negatively. Apparently, the potential savings in health care could more than pay for a lot pollution reduction. The difficulty is that the two pocket books, health care and emission reduction efforts, do not intersect. (Hmm, a mixed metaphor?)
Anyway, I would like someone to figure out how to get insurance companies to pay to reduce air pollution including carbon emissions.
Yes, tailpipe emissions are terrible for people. Moreover, when sunlight interacts with emissions, ground level ozone is created which creates additional health threats for people, animals and even plants, and also unpleasant haze.
Meanwhile, Manchin is trying to rain on the EV parade:
@lovendures Loved that article. When I first learned about EV cars, I realized that once they take off, people living near highways would be able to breathe again. The environmental injustice of highway pollution near poor neighborhods would diminish. I love that the researchers in the article you linked are showing how it's coming true.
Jeanne, I'm passionate about rewilding and biodiversity, too.
A book you might be interested in is Planting in a Post-Wild Word by Thomas Rainer and Claudia West.
Have you read any of the books of Doug Tallamy? He's a leader in the new movement to reclaim a bit of wildness for our world.
I also learn a great deal from the Instagram account of the Xerces Society. They are a wonderful organization devoted to the preservation of pollinators in the US.
Where I am in Austin, the Native Plant Society of Texas is an incredible resource of plant and wildlife knowledge and is always offering plant sales, walks, lectures, and symposia. I'm not sure if the Native Plant Trust ( https://www.nativeplanttrust.org/) fulfills a similar role in New England?
These are the resources that come to mind straight away. I'll continue to think of others and share them here.
One of the most crucial things that people can do, in addition to leaving plants to overwinter, is to not use pesticides. People are afraid that if you don't use insecticides, that you'll be overrun by pests. I use absolutely no pesticides in my garden and haven't for 20 years, and have had no infestation whatsoever. If pests do attack a plant, it's usually because it's weak and dying, or not well adapted to the area or climate. (I don't vegetable garden, so I'm not looking for specific outcomes from my plants, like a perfect tomato, etc..)
Have a great weekend!
@gbs I live in Florida and try to grow veg in the summer. The bugs and humidity (causing fungus) make it challenging. Fortunately there are many options to traditional toxic pesticides.
I use remedies such as soap spray, neem oil, and BT (bacillus thuringiensis). BT is for tobacco hornworm caterpillars, which will completely skeletonize the leaves of a tomato plant within a few days if left unchecked. It's safe for pollinators (just not for their caterpillars if they ingest it).
@jeanne-mayell Here's a link to the USDA Forest Service climate change tree atlas, for the Northeast US. It lists trees and notes how they are going to fare with climate change, so you can plant trees small or large that have the best likelihood of thriving.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/nrs/atlas/combined/resources/summaries/NCA/NCA_Northeast.pdf
Also, I just checked out a book in the library American Roots: Lessons and Inspiration from the Designers Reimagining Our Home Gardens. by Nick McCullough et al. Of course it is full of images of garden eye candy that I could never accomplish but each one comes with tips some of which are useful.
@marigold Thanks for sharing that!
currently industrialization in my county is destroying hundreds of acres of trees and habitat ... causing so much harm to the land, the air and the wildlife and precious resources. It causes me great pain to see the hundreds of years old growth forest go down.. polluting our local creeks and river and forever changing the face of the earth here for industrial buildings, paved parking lots, and high density areas with no green space left 😭
Extracting methane for energy from animal waste is a mixed bag. Bio-digesting manure is better than not using manure for energy, however, large amounts of cow manure suggests very large animal-farming operations which is not always humane and creates other environmental issues. The smallest bio-digester costs over a million dollars so it isn't a practical solution for a typical farm.
Yes, @marigold, thanks for sharing the climate change tree atlas.
Here is the url for the climate change atlas home page: https://www.fs.usda.gov/nrs/atlas/
They also have a bird atlas, links to all the regions in the US, and other resources. I found it on the website of my town's Shade Tree Commission.
@gbs Thanks for your comment about Doug Tallamy, a local hero here where I live, and the book you cited. I will check it out, especially because we will be planting in a month, weather permitting, and I have plans for my yard to become a forest.
@gbs Thanks for your comments about biodiversity and rewilding. You mentioned Doug Tallamy whose work inspired people around here to rewild their yards and our town's public lands. When I think of rewilding my grass yard, I think of Tallamy's chart of how much rewilding we homeowners can do by converting our yards to native foests. I will check out Planting in a Post-Wild World too, especially because we will be planting in a month, weather permitting, and I have plans for my yard to become a forest.
The most daunting challenge for me, however, is keeping rabbits out of my yard so the new plants can grow large enough that they won't devour them.
Hi Jeanne, Doug Tallamy is indeed extremely inspiring. The Thomas Rainer-Claudia West book is more about big concepts and ideas, although it does have planting guides, but hopefully it will be useful to you.
Wish I could help with the rabbits–we don't really get them down here.
I am so excited that you're planting your forest and can't wait to see pictures of it. You know what they say about a garden over the first three years of a new planting: first it sleeps, then it creeps, then it leaps. I have to continually remind myself to be patient and that the plants are putting down roots that first year or so.