Tag Archives: Trees

Green Design, Reviews, Sustainability, Technology, Videos

World Economic Forum: Top Stories – Oct 7, 2023

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World Economic Forum (October 7, 2023) – This week’s top stories of the week include:


0:15 Start-up turns trees destined for landfills into products – Every year, US cities lose 36 million trees. They succumb to old age or disease or are felled to make space for development Much of this wood could be made into useful products but instead it’s turned into woodchips or used as firewood and 12 million tonnes end up in US landfills each year. To prevent this, Cambium Carbon partners with sawmills, arborists, and manufacturers to build local, circular supply chains. Wood destined for landfill is diverted and upcycled into siding, flooring, furniture and more. Cambium calls its product ‘Carbon Smart Wood’.

1:55 These solar panels work even on snowy days – A new coating causes snow to slide off panels ensuring they can generate power all year round. The coating was developed by a team at the University of Toledo. It can be easily retrofitted to existing equipment.

3:28 US women pay billions more for healthcare than men – Researchers at Deloitte analyzed data on 16 million workers with health coverage. They found women spend $15.4 billion more every year on healthcare than men,. That works out to a premium of $266 for the average womanor around 18% more than men. This discrepancy exists for all women of working age.

4:57 French supermarket launches packaging return scheme – Customers in 100 Carrefour stores can buy products in reusable packaging. They pay a small deposit which is refunded when they drop the empty packaging back at the store. This system is called Loop. It’s the brainchild of waste management firm TerraCycle

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The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. We believe that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to make positive change.

Magazines, Podcasts, Previews, Research, Reviews, Science

Research Preview: Science Magazine – August 4, 2023

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Science Magazine – August 4, 2023 issue: DNA was sequenced from 27 African Americans buried at Catoctin Furnace, Maryland, where enslaved people labored between 1774 and 1850. The tree trunk forms a double helix comprising 27 segments representing each sequenced individual.

‘We’re changing the clouds.’ An unforeseen test of geoengineering is fueling record ocean warmth

Pollution cuts have diminished “ship track” clouds, adding to global warming

Tropical trees deter similar neighbors

Tropical forests host an unusually high diversity of tree species. Strong interactions between individuals are hypothesized to create these patterns. A tree is more likely to survive when surrounded by different tree species with different resource needs, diseases, and herbivores. Kalyuzhny et al. found patterns consistent with this mechanism in a long-term forest plot in Panama. Adult trees in this site are more distant from members of their own species than from other species and more distant than would be expected by chance or by the limits of seed dispersal. This study shows that distances between conspecifics are maintained in adult trees, helping to explain the high diversity of tropical forests.

Arts & Literature, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Reviews

Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – May 29, 2023

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Marcellus Hall's “Open House” | The New Yorker

The New Yorker – May 29, 2023 issue:

Stephen Satterfield Puts Black Cuisine at the Center of U.S. History

A portrait of Stephen Satterfield.

The host of Netflix’s “High on the Hog” draws seductive stories from a bittersweet legacy.

By Dorothy Wickenden

Stephen Satterfield, the host of the Netflix food-history series “High on the Hog,” was bent over the stove in his parents’ kitchen, near Atlanta. It was one o’clock on a February afternoon, and he was preparing Sunday dinner for the family. Most of the meal was canonical Black Southern food: turnip greens simmered for hours, cheese grits, biscuits baked in a cast-iron skillet. 

What We Owe Our Trees

A black and white photograph of a dense forest.

Forests fed us, housed us, and made our way of life possible. But they can’t save us if we can’t save them.


By Jill Lepore

The woods I know best, love best, are made of Northern hardwoods, sugar maple and white ash, timber-tall; black and yellow birch, tiger-skinned; seedlings and saplings of blighted beech and striped maple creeping up, knock-kneed, from a forest floor of princess pine and Christmas fern, shag-rugged. White-tailed deer dart through softwood stands of pine and hemlock, bucks and does, the last leaping fawn, leaving tracks that look like tiny human lungs, trails that people can only ever see in the snow, even though, long after snowmelt, dogs can smell them, tracking, snuffling, shuddering with the thrill of the hunt and noshing on deer scat for dog treats. 

Two Weeks at the Front in Ukraine

A Ukrainian sniper positioned in a trench aims a rifle.

In the trenches in the Donbas, infantrymen face unrelenting horrors, from missiles to grenades to helicopter fire.

By Luke Mogelson

A twenty-two-year-old Ukrainian sniper, code-named Student, stuffed candy wrappers into his ears before firing a rifle at the Russians’ tree line. He’d been discharged from the hospital two weeks earlier, after being shot in the thigh.Photographs by Maxim Dondyuk for The New Yorker

History, Travel, Videos, Views

Spring 2023: Jacarandas Blooming In Mexico City

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March 26, 2023: For nearly 100 years, Mexico City residents have enjoyed jacaranda season: a “fascinating sorcery” that brings a little bit of the Amazon rainforest to urbanites’ doorstep, as Alberto Ruy Sánchez wrote in his 2019 book “Dicen las Jacarandas.” And when the flowers fall, “the sky blooms on the ground,” an unexpected burst of color at one’s feet.
Conservation, Ecosystems, Travel, Videos, Views, Wilderness

Views: Celtic Rainforests In Eryri, Snowdonia, Wales

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National Trust (March 20, 2023) – In this episode of The Wild Life, a new series of nature films from the National Trust, presenter Jules Hudson heads to Eryri (Snowdonia) to learn about a tree planting project that will help to protect the landscape for the next hundred years and beyond.

Join Jules on his visit to Hafod Garregog – a Celtic rainforest and reclaimed seabed along Afon Glaslyn (River Glaslyn). National Trust rangers have planted native saplings here to store carbon, slow the flow of water and provide a boost for nature and wildlife. Jules discovers that local tree species such as willow, aspen and hornbeam are less susceptible to diseases and can adapt better to the climate.

These trees will also create homes for warblers, moths, bats and nearby otters, as well as encourage a diverse variety of plants to grow. You’ll also discover how the National Trust works with volunteers to plant trees and find out more about the charity’s wider ambition to plant and establish 20 million trees by 2030.

Conservation, Ecology, Ecosystems, Travel, Videos, Views, Wilderness

Ecology: Planting Trees To Cool Scotland’s Rivers

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The Woodland Trust – River woodland is key to tackling

the twin climate and biodiversity crises – reducing flooding, improving river health and restoring the ecosystem. We’re working in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to plant and restore river woodland for people and wildlife.

In Scotland, this particularly means fish. Salmon, to be exact. Whole upland river catchments devoid of trees are seeing Scotland’s rivers warm to a point that could see salmon disappear in just 20 years. These fish need clean, cold water to thrive, and river woodland is the way to return it to them. The Woodland Trust is working across river catchments to expand native woodland alongside rivers and burns.

Trees provide shade and cover for young salmon and trout, stabilize riverbanks, slow the flow of water downstream and create wildlife corridors. A key part of this work involves working with landowners to plant and restore river woodland on their land, advising on the initial planting and empowering them to monitor their river woods into the future.

Culture, Magazines, Previews, Stories, Travel, Views

Previews: Country Life Magazine – Oct 5, 2022

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The capital according to… Howard Jacobson tells Harry McKinley about the perfect bagel Trees for life. On the 50th anniversary of the Woodland Trust, Clive Aslet visits the Devon home of its farsighted founder, Ken Watkins. Speaking truth to power, British politicians have been at the mercy of cartoonists for centuries, finds Charles Harris.


Country Life Preview 60

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Nature, Travel, Videos, Views, Wilderness

Soundscapes: California’s Giant Redwood Forests

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Redwood National and State Parks are a string of protected forests, beaches and grasslands along Northern California’s coast. Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park has trails through dense old-growth woods. Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park is home to Fern Canyon, with its high, plant-covered walls. Roosevelt elk frequent nearby Elk Prairie. Giant redwood clusters include Redwood National Park’s Lady Bird Johnson Grove.

An #OurGreenPlanet co-production with The Listening Planet, in association with The Moondance Foundation.

Cities, Documentaries, Ecosystems, Evolution, Nature, Videos

Evolution: How Nature Is Adapting To Urban Sprawl

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It’s a new and surprising chapter in the theory of evolution. According to recent studies, it’s in our cities, of all places, that animals and plants adapt particularly quickly to changing living conditions.

Nature’s response to the spread of cities is astonishing: Why do catfish in the river of a French city systematically prey on urban pigeons on the banks? Why do female birds on a university campus in California suddenly change their mating behavior? How do mice in New York’s Central Park cope with an altered diet of human food waste? How have killifish in the Atlantic built up resistance to deadly chemical waste?

And, is it possible for moths to adapt to nighttime light pollution? New research provides surprising new insights into Darwin’s theory of evolution. Nowhere else do animals and plants adapt so quickly to new living conditions as in cities. Biologists have long known that animals and plants occupy new habitats in the vicinity of humans.

But now, new genetic analyses show that these adaptations are accompanied by significant changes in DNA. Even more surprising: these evolutionary changes have not occurred over periods of millennia, but within just a few decades. The process has amazed scientists, who watch as nature transforms even our most hostile man-made interventions — pollution, light pollution, noise, garbage and dense development — into creative energy for new adaptations. Some researchers believe that our cities may soon develop their own, brand-new life forms. What are the implications of these developments for the balance between humans and nature on our planet?