Please invest in Our Daily Planet today, by making a one time or monthly contribution.
We do not charge our readers a subscription fee for our content. We want to continue to grow our readership, particularly among millennials and public servants. Voluntary contributions from readers will help us employ interns and freelance journalists, expand our content, and reach a larger audience.
If you make a contribution of $150 or more, you will become an official “Friend of the Planet” and receive a Friend of the Planet T-shirt or water bottle.
Hundreds of giant sequoia trees were killed in the Castle Fire in California, according to experts. Despite being naturally resistant to fire, sequoias, the world’s most massive trees, the intensity of recent wildfires has done more damage than the trees can handle.
Why This Matters: The fiery death of these trees is a canary in a coal mine.
Continue Reading 551 words
by Amy Lupica, ODP Contributing Writer According to a 2020 U.N. environmental report, seagrass “prairies” play a massive role in the health of the world’s oceans and if nothing is done to stop their decline, the world will face serious consequences. Seagrasses support rich biodiversity that sustains a whopping 20% of the world’s fisheries, and […]
Continue Reading 493 words
A new study found that the ocean is showing signs of intensifying stratification, a phenomenon in which the layers of water in the ocean become more distinct and mix less.
Why This Matters: The mixing of ocean layers is crucial to sea life and human life.
Continue Reading 555 words
An innovative way of decreasing our carbon footprint that is gaining acceptance is sequestering carbon in prairies, The Washington Post recently reported.
Why This Matters: To avoid the effects of global warming, scientists believe the world would need not only to cut out 50% of its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, but also remove existing carbon from the atmosphere.
Continue Reading 436 words
A recent study demonstrated that perennial vegetables are very important in preventing and mitigating soil erosion and climate change, Virginia Gewin reported last month for Civil Eats. This category of vegetables, which grow year-round, goes beyond simply artichokes and asparagus — they studied over 600 species. And they were able to demonstrate a “full accounting of their potential to pull carbon from the atmosphere.”
Why This Matters: As the authors of the study contend, “Perennial vegetables are a neglected and underutilized class of crops with potential to address 21st-century challenges.”
Continue Reading 491 words
New research by the Center for American Progress (CAP) takes this analysis the next step and calculates the carbon sequestration benefits of various nature-based solutions being contemplated as part of the effort to conserve 30% of the U.S. lands and waters by 2030. Forests and other lands in the United States, if properly conserved, have the potential to store an additional 1,000 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent annually.
Why This Matters: We need to use our full arsenal of tools to sequester carbon.
Continue Reading 475 wordsSubscribe to the email that top lawmakers, renowned scientists, and thousands of concerned citizens turn to each morning for the latest environmental news and analysis.
