Fischetti, Mark. “Trees That Pollute.” Scientific American June 2014: 14. Print. Though trees are thought to be beneficial, oxygen-emitting resources, some apparently become less eco-friendly in the presence of nitrogen oxide. Released by vehicle fumes, the nitrogen oxide combines with trees’ volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to create ozone, which influences asthma, bronchitis and other respiratory […]
pollution
Plastic Bottles as Art
Clarke, Matthew James. “6,000 Plastic Bottles and LEDs Used To Make Glowing Labyrinth in Poland.” thecreatorsproject.vice.com. Vice Media Inc., 12 June 2014. Web. 16 June 2014. http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/an-illuminated-plastic-labyrinth-installed-in-poland Luzinterruptus, an anonymous Spanish art group, built an 11-foot-tall labyrinth made from plastic bottles in order to promote environmental awareness in Poland. The plastic labyrinth was built in Poland […]
Representations of Nature in Spike Jonze’s movie Her
Her. Dir. Spike Jonze. Perf. Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson, and Amy Adams. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2013. DVD. I’ve recently watched Spike Jonze’s movie Her , trying to approach it from an environmentally focused perspective. At first I thought it was a visually stunning film with pseudo sci-fi undertones, but after watching it with the environment in […]
France pays workers to cycle
De Clercq, Geert. “France experiments with paying people to cycle to work.” planetark.org. Planet Ark, 3 June 2014. Web. 9 June 2014. http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/71641 France has started a six month trial period of paying select employees (roughly 10,000 people) to bike to work. The employees are paid 25 euro cents (34 US cents) per kilometer biked to work. […]
Soluble Circuits to Reduce E-Waste
Hsu, Jeremy. “Building Soluble Circuits To Help End E-Waste.” popsci.com. Popular Science, 9 May 2014. Web. 9 June 2014. http://www.popsci.com/article/science/building-soluble-circuits-help-end-e-waste?dom=PSC&loc=recent&lnk=5&con=building-soluble-circuits-to-help-end-ewaste John Rogers, a scientist from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has invented a type of silicon ribbon thin enough to dissolve in water in roughly ten days. Rogers’ creation is a response to the amount […]
Plastic in the Arctic
Hand, Eric. “Trillions of Plastic Pieces May Be Trapped in Arctic Ice.” sciencemag.org. AAAS, 22 May 2014. Web. 23 May 2014. http://news.sciencemag.org/earth/2014/05/trillions-plastic-pieces-may-be-trapped-arctic-ice This article reveals that small pieces of plastic have been found frozen in ice in the arctic. Rachel Obbard, a materials scientist from Dartmouth College, found that there’s been more plastic found frozen in […]