Category: Reduce – Reuse – Recycle
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High levels of microplastics in human brains appear to be increasing
Human brains contain higher concentrations of microplastics than other organs, according to a new study, and the amount appears to be increasing over time. In the study, published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine, University of New Mexico Health Sciences researchers found microplastics in human brains have increased 50% over the past 8 years. They also found that…
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Drought Mitigation: Should We Be Farming in the Desert?
Irrigated farmland in the desert of the Imperial Valley. (Photo credit: Steve Proehl, Getty Images) Throughout the Colorado River Basin, ongoing drought is pushing agricultural technology to its limits. Just north of the U.S.-Mexico border, California’s Imperial Valley is both a desert and an agricultural wonder. Bordered by sand dunes and barren mountains, the region…
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Growing Food Instead of Grass Lawns in California Front Yards
Photo: Morgan Boone, a volunteer with Crop Swap LA, harvested lettuce at the La Salle microfarm in the View Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Front yards transformed to tiny crop farms in Los Angeles provide vegetables to dozens of families and use a fraction of the water needed by grass. On a corner lot in…
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LAist: New study raises questions about heavy metals in fire retardants
Over the past decade, about 67 million gallons of fire retardant have been dropped on wildfires across California, according to the U.S. Forest Service. If you’ve ever wondered what’s in the bright red goop that’s used to protect homes and hillsides, a new study out of USC offers clues beyond what the manufacturers show on their official…
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Every last drop: Zero-waste water builds water resilience
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Reusing wastewater could be the solution to Europe’s growing water scarcity problem. The 34 dairy cows chewing the cud on a floating platform in the port of Rotterdam probably aren’t thinking about water scarcity—a major challenge in the world today—but they are participating in a Europe-wide effort to find solutions to this modern-day dilemma.…
