People are starting to build more eco-conscious residences, and zero-net-energy homes are becoming increasingly popular. They can be designed in any style or size, connect to a traditional power grid, and are suitable in all climates. Their versatility makes them incredibly attractive, especially to those looking to save on their utility bills.
It turns out that when it comes to saving the planet, you don’t have to trade in your gas-powered car or even shell out a bunch of cash – you can do it right from the comfort of your own home. In fact, making a few small upgrades to your home and tweaking your everyday behaviors around the house can leave a bigger impact over time than you realize.
The construction industry has a significant negative impact on the environment. To mitigate this harm and improve sustainability, many builders in the sector have turned to recyclable materials.
Gloves, sample tubes, bottles, and vials – the world’s labs produce millions of tonnes of waste each year. Alice Bell meets the scientists who are finding less polluting ways to work.
Will our species go extinct? The short answer is yes. The fossil record shows everything goes extinct, eventually. Almost all species that ever lived, over 99.9%, are extinct.
Some left descendants. Most – plesiosaurs, trilobites, Brontosaurus – didn’t. That’s also true of other human species. Neanderthals, Denisovans, H. erectus all vanished, leaving just H. sapiens. Humans are inevitably heading for extinction. The question isn’t whether we go extinct, but when.
Geothermal energy taps into and harvests the heat released from below the surface of the earth. It’s a renewable energy that doesn’t contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. Geothermal energy reduces our carbon footprint and doesn’t take up a structural footprint, either. Unlike the endless fields of wind turbines or solar panel arrays, most of the energy generation happens out of sight and underground.
Adaptation to climate change will be the most significant disruption to our personal and social lives since the last Ice Age. Green living decisions are already affecting the way we construct our homes, get to work, and travel abroad. As our personal habits adjust to include carpooling, recycling, and energy conservation, so too are social traditions like burial rites changing.
Did you know that there used to be palm trees in the Arctic? It was 56 million years ago, but it was caused by greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere at an alarming rate. It’s hard to imagine palm trees swaying in a place we think of polar bears and glaciers, but due to the greenhouse gas effect, that was a reality.
Since people are becoming more conscious about the impact of meat consumption on our planet, we are beginning to shift our diets from “normal” to pescatarian, flexitarian, vegan, and so on and so forth. According to a recent study conducted at the University of Oxford, we should be eating 75% less beef and 90% less pork if we wanted to survive the global warming phenomenon, which is why people are starting to take action in this direction. If you are on the verge of becoming vegetarian yourself but enjoy your meat way too much to say stop, maybe fake meat is something you should consider.
Urbanization is just one of the many effects of overpopulation here on Earth, along with the rapid dwindling of the natural environment as a whole. The general consensus across the scientific community is that a number of factors have contributed to global overpopulation. More than 7.7 billion people live on Earth as of 2020, largely due to longer life expectancies, improved sanitation, and advancements in medicine over the last few centuries.