Category: Uncategorized
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One Man’s Trash is Another Man’s Burden: Eco-Fads Strain on Low-Income Communities
The Oxfam 2020 report, “Confronting Carbon Inequality”, concluded that between 1990 to 2015, the wealthiest ten percent of the world’s population (630 million people) were responsible for 52% of atmospheric emissions. [1] Understandably this statistic caused international outrage as individuals and news sources called for the global wealthy to cut their emissions and even revived…
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Friends, Not Food: How Altering Your Diet Can Help Combat Climate Change
What is your first thought when you hear the word vegan? Are you instantly repulsed or disgusted? Are you left wondering where they get their protein or if they miss your favorite meat filled products? Has anyone ever asked a meat eater who is questioning a vegan if they know their carbon footprint just by…
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Cleaning the Air One Plant at a Time
In 1970 legislatures passed The Clean Air Act (CAA); a federal law targeted towards regulating air emissions from different forms of hazardous pollutants. [1] The act would allow The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the power to establish National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). [2] The purpose of the act was to force each…
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Building the Home of Tomorrow, Today
Homebuilding companies are constructing more sustainable homes each and every year. For a good reason, might I add! It’s no secret that homes use a lot of energy. Power plants are the source that generate electricity to power the homes we live in. [1] The fossil fuel natural gas generates about 40% of the United…
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TIMMBEERRRR!!
What is timber? Is it just wood? Is it only what a lumberjack says when she sends a tree tumbling down? [1] Or maybe it is also one of the most energy efficient materials we can use when building a home! [2] According to New Energy Works, a company that specializes in design, builds, and…
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Is There A Solution To Plastic Pollution?
Off the coast of California and extending all the way to Japan exists the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. [1] The Great Pacific Garbage patch is not just one sole patch of garbage in the ocean as the name may allude to, but multiple patches of marine debris dispersed across the Pacific Ocean. [2] Marine debris…
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Climate Change Brings a Rise of Poppy Fields in Afghanistan
As the United States says so long to Afghanistan and the Taliban rises to power, the world has been left confused and wondering what the future holds for this country. A major battle Afghanistan will have to continue to fight is climate change. Afghanistan is currently the sixth most affected country by global warming, and…
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Why It’s Crucial To Minimize Plastic Pollution
Have you ever used a plastic straw and wondered where it ends up when you’re done using it? What if I told you that plastic straw you just used to sip on your Starbucks drink, ended up in an ocean and a sea turtle mistakenly thought that straw was food and ingested it. Currently, seven different species…
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A Powerful, Green Way to Use Wind
Twenty-seven miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, Dominion Energy is using wind to create environmentally friendly energy. [1] This electric utility company is the first of its kind to have constructed an offshore windfarm in the United States. [2] Offshore wind energy provides an alternative, green way to create energy. [3] In order to…
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Return to the Earth: Washington’s Revolutionary Human Composting Statute
Confronting our own mortality can be challenging, but there is no shaking the truth that we will all die someday. As depressing as that is, the sooner we accept that fact, the sooner we can begin to plan for what we want to happen to the physical body we leave behind and share that plan…
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Environmentally Safe Spring-Cleaning
Ah, the spring. Whether you are reminded that spring is back by the undying urge to be outside or the now ever-present reminder of allergies. No matter the reason, we know that spring is back and that brings along the desire to open the windows and clean everything. As we appreciate the change in weather…
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Brightfield Projects Could Be on the Rise After President Biden’s Executive Order
Recently, on January 27, 2021, President Biden took executive action to revitalize energy initiatives in communities that have been adversely impacted by brownfield sites. [1] Through the recent executive order, President Biden created an Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization. [2] The recently developed Interagency Working Group is co-chaired by…
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Re-Fortifying the Dunes: The Beach Dune Restoration Project of Flagler Beach, FL
Sea-level rise is just one of the numerous effects human-induced climate change has brought upon the planet, with average sea levels having swelled over eight inches since 1880, and about three of those inches gained in the last twenty-five years. [1] Although the current rise in sea levels may seem miniscule, the potential effect this poses to…
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Return to Fire: Native Americans’ Work to Reclaim Their Right to Fire
2020 saw one of the deadliest wildfires in California. At the end of the year, 10,000 fires burned over 4.2 million acres of land. [1] One wildfire in August, called the Complex fire, began as 38 separate fires that combined into the first “gigafire” due to its burning of over 1 million acres of land. [2] In addition, there…
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The Fall of the Monarch
In elementary school, I was taken back by the beauty of butterflies, specifically the monarch butterfly that my teacher, Mrs. Luman, used to teach us about the process of metamorphosis. Twenty years later, I am still just as amazed when I cross paths with the vibrant orange beauties who are bordered with white spots and…
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Last Minute Holiday Shopping – Sustainable Gift Ideas
Sustainability, a constant buzz word circulated through environmental activists and gurus. The word’s meaning has been come to known as something that is within social justice, conservationism, and internationalism. [1] The goal of sustainability is to meet our own needs without affecting future generations in meeting theirs. Businesses have a natural negative effect on the environment. [2] Businesses need to…
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Choosing Hemp
Hemp, the sober cousin of marijuana, is known to be the one of the most versatile plants in the world. It has been cultivated for more than 10,000 years and is said to have over 25,000 uses. Hemp was so popular that it was mandated for farmers to grow hemp seed during the colonial years.…
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Love for Animals Wins
Undoubtedly the spread of COVID-19 throughout the world in 2020 has presented numerous challenges, to say the least. On Wednesday, November 11, 2020, the United States, unfortunately, set a new record for coronavirus daily cases, with 140,543 reported [1]. This disease is persistent, but the expectation of a vaccine keeps us hopeful for better days…
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Save Our Trees v. Private Property Owner Rights – an Insight to Florida’s Tree Removal Legislation
This week marks the first anniversary of when House Bill 1159 was brought to the attention of the Florida Legislature. The bill, called “Private Property Rights,” provides for private property owners to have more autonomy over their land. The cost of this new right, however, came at the expense of one of the most vulnerable…
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Water, Water Everywhere, Nor Any Drop to Drink
While visiting my extended family recently, I had to opportunity to catch up with one of my cousins with whom I had lost contact. As it goes in these situations, we exchanged pleasantries, talked about our families and major life events since our last contact over a decade ago, and discussed our current careers. I…
Barry Law Environmental and Earth Law Journal 