Well, an article in the October 2, 2009 issue of The Week caught my attention. It’s titled “Soft toilet paper: Environmental threat?” If you’re not familiar with The Week, it draws from multiple sources to give an idea of the news and opinions currently filling newspapers, magazines, and our airwaves. One of the sources quotedContinue reading “Six Reasons Why Fancy TP is No Big Deal”
Author Archives: Norm Benson
Perhaps that Sahara Plantation Could Power Itself
University of Washington researchers have produced electricity from a tree. Perhaps once they plant the Sahara with those eucalypts to alleviate global warming, the trees could deliver the power to provide their water. Or maybe not. According to their online article,”The custom circuit is able to store up enough voltage from trees to run a low-power sensor.”
Planting a Forest in the Sahara to Save the World
Should we spend two trillion each year in afforestation costs in the Sahara Desert to potentially reduce global warming? Scientists say it’s feasible. Read here.
Natural Resources Communication Workshop
My friend Jon Hooper has asked that I pass along the word that his Natural Resources Communication Workshop will be given January 11-15, 2010. Jon’s course is well worth it. His admonition for all presentations (CBS–Colorful, Bold, & Simple) has stuck with me lo these many years. NATURAL RESOURCES COMMUNICATION WORKSHOP January 11-15, 2010 The Natural ResourcesContinue reading “Natural Resources Communication Workshop”
Extending THP Time
An article on the California Progress Report website says that California Assembly Bill (AB) 1066 would weaken environmental protections provided by the the Z’berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act. Taking An Ax To Forest Protection: Legislature Poised To Weaken Timber Harvest Plans was written by Traci Sheehan, Executive Director of the Planning and Conservation League. She contends, “Even after severalContinue reading “Extending THP Time”
Green, Inc.
Fear motivates. Fear was the reason I got into forestry. When I was in college (I grew up in the 1960s and graduated high school in 1969), Martin Litton’s iconinc picture of a boy looking out over a large clearcut of redwoods caused a number of us to take action. The Photos Were a SnapshotContinue reading “Green, Inc.”
Paper or Plastic, why ereaders are not the right choice
I have seen in posts, comments, and letters to the editor statements that ebook readers will save trees. On a APM Marketplace segment, Kevin Pereira of cable TV’s G4 network, called the Amazon Kindle, “the savior to many, many forests in the future.” What an Ebook Reader is These handy electronic devices can display textContinue reading “Paper or Plastic, why ereaders are not the right choice”
The Anthropocene Epoch
Stop Trying to Save the Planet is an interesting op-ed by Erle Ellis Ph.D., the director of the Laboratory for Anthropogenic Landscape Ecology. “[Nature] was gone before you were born, before your parents were born, before the pilgrims arrived, before the pyramids were built. You are living on a used planet…We now live in theContinue reading “The Anthropocene Epoch”
Tree Planting
What’s wrong with this picture of two women planting a tree? Take a look and put your answer in the comment section. Odwalla is donating $1 per click toward the purchase of trees for planting in a state parks in one of eleven states (including California). The promotion runs until the end of 2009. IContinue reading “Tree Planting”
Get your facts first
and then you can distort them as much as you please.– Mark Twain Are U.S. forestlands “currently being lost at a rate of 150-million acres annually”? An RSS feed from the Pacific Forest Trust titled, “New Climate Research Supports Forest Protection, Reveals CO2 Storage Potential of Temperate Forests” caught my eye a few weeks back.Continue reading “Get your facts first”
Nullius in Verba 