72 Articles found
Ensia Articles
-
When planting trees does more harm than good
Note to anyone who thinks planting trees is the bees’ knees: Grasslands are important, too. With forests disappearing at record rates and the carbon sequestration and other benefits of vegetation getting increasing visibility, tree-planting ...
-
Can bats reduce nut farmers’ pesticide use?
Ecologist Katherine Ingram is on a quest to quantify the economic value of insect-eating bats in walnut groves. For the past three years, Katherine Ingram has had a most unusual summer job: catching bats and studying their droppings to see what ...
-
New study shines a light on bird loss due to illegal logging in Ghana
The combination of legal and illegal logging in southwest Ghana’s tropical forests is having a devastating impact on bird populations in the region, according to new research published recently in the journal Biological Conservation. Between ...
-
Surprising ways Kenyans are embracing climate-smart agriculture
In rural Kenya, where it may only rain twice per year, farmers and herders are embracing so-called “climate-smart” agriculture. The video above, produced by the World Bank, begins by showing how John and Mary Obuom have transformed ...
-
Phosphorus runoff is a big problem, but Florida is getting closer to a solution
Excess phosphorus runoff and emissions from urban areas and croplands, animal feedlots, sewage treatment plants, and combustion of fossil fuels has been blamed for the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, toxic algal blooms in Lake Erie and problems in ...
-
From the American prairie, a conservation success story
From rhinos to #CecilTheLion, we live in a world where stories of species loss and illegal wildlife trade dominate the conservation headlines, so a good news story every now and then is a welcome surprise. Three years ago, 63 bison originally from ...
-
Extreme Makeover: Photosynthesis Edition
Plants are far better than humans at turning sunlight into food. But they’re not nearly as good as they could be: Thanks to quirks in the systems that have evolved to capture solar energy and use it to build sugars from carbon dioxide and ...
-
What role should humans play in returning forests to their natural state?
While forests still cover nearly 30 percent of the Earth’s surface, clear cutting presents a particular threat to many ecosystems. The video above explores the role humans can play in returning forests to their natural state, but also forces ...
-
How to grow more food with less water
Scientists and farmers collaborate on a quest for more efficient irrigation This story was co-published with Civil Eats, a daily news source for critical thought about the American food system. From reading the weather to choosing a crop, ...
-
Let’s stop treating our soil like dirt
One of the most underappreciated resources on our planet, soil does much more than grow crops The United Nations’ International Year of Soils is hardly a media darling. Maybe it’s because many people are like me, who recall Mom’s ...
-
Is organic farming climate friendly?
Think organic farming is climate friendly? You might want to think again. A study published recently in the journal Agriculture and Human Values suggests that as organic agriculture emulates conventional industrial agriculture, the environmental ...
-
Does one of the world’s most abundant animals need protection from our appetite?
As demand grows and habitat disappears, scientists ponder tighter controls on the Antarctic krill harvest. Barely longer than your thumb, weighing under an ounce and nearly translucent, delicate crustaceans known as krill are vital to ocean ...
-
Can Latin America do palm oil right?
As western hemisphere oil palm plantations boom, environmentalists eye ways to avoid repeating the devastation in Southeast Asia. What do soap, Ben & Jerry’s and Kit Kat bars have in common? They all contain palm oil — produced by ...
-
Agroecology can help fix our broken food system. Here’s how.
The various incarnations of the sustainable food movement need a science with which to approach a system as complex as food and farming. This story was co-published with Food Tank, a nonprofit organization focused on building a global community for ...
-
To everyone’s surprise, forests are returning to Malawi. Here’s why.
The East African country of Malawi epitomizes the global problem of deforestation. Now, there are signs it could epitomize the solution, too, as government, community members and grassroots organizations tackle the problem together. Some 95 percent ...
-
Crop gene banks are preserving the future of agriculture. But who’s preserving them?
As climate change makes crop diversity even more important, gene banks struggle to stay afloat. During the past few years of civil war in Syria, rebel fighters have destroyed Shia mosques and Christian graves, and burned and looted Christian ...
-
The market incentives that are keeping trees standing in Brazil
And now for some good news: It looks like some market-driven agreements around beef production in Brazil may be slowing deforestation in the country’s rainforests. That’s the finding reported by Holly Gibbs, an assistant professor of ...
-
A win for farmers and the environment
Is it possible to reduce pesticide use without compromising crop yields? Yes — and then some, according to a new study published in the journal Insects. Researchers at the University of Essex in the United Kingdom measured pesticide use and ...
-
The 11 most important forests in the world
You might not think of eastern Australia as one of the hot spots of global deforestation. But it ranks right up there with the Amazon and Sumatra in a new report by WWF highlighting key areas of focus for efforts to protect forestlands around the ...
-
Urban farming is booming, but what does it really yield?
City-based agriculture produces 15 to 20 percent of food globally. In the U.S., its benefits go far beyond nutrition. This story was produced in collaboration with the Food & Environment Reporting Network, a non-profit investigative news ...