The TREE Podcast: Random Rantings on Science & Philosophy: Recent Episodes
Jordan Flagel
Exploring any and all aspects of the world. It's science. It's philosophy. It's what TREE does. Check out www.treexploration.com for blog content, videos, and the thing we do best: TREE trips.
We spend a lot of time obsessing over trees. We’re always talking about how to protect them, how to develop the communities around them, and how our life-changing trips support their conservation.
But just to really make sure that you understand why we do that, Click A Tree has written a nitty-gritty guest post all about the social, economic, and ecological benefits of planting trees.
As one of the oldest and most pristine on earth, the Guyanese rainforests are biodiversity treasure troves.
Join us for a Webinar with the folks at Terra Incognita, Treexploration, & Iwokrama on Covid-19 & The Future of Ecotourism | Oct 14th
I’ll admit it.
I don’t understand climate change.
I have two M.Sc. degrees in environmental science and sustainable resource management, with climate change being a major focus of both (including a thesis that looked at funding carbon sequestration in tropical rainforests). Still, I don’t really understand this complex and confusing phenomenon.
But I do know it’s real.
I know you can’t put centuries’ worth of carbon dioxide into the air and not have an effect on the global climate. Some people think we don’t have the power to alter the global atmosphere, but I doubt these people know...
Alberta needs to complete a system of protected areas throughout all of Alberta’s diverse natural regions and the species at risk that live within them. Achieving representative protection is not only possible, but essential to our health and wealth.
At the moment, the best method for reducing carbon emissions seems to be to electrify everything – but electricity must come from carbon-free sources in order to do that successfully. Natural gas is a step up from coal, though it is far from ideal. Wind and solar appear to be what everyone is focusing on, which is good, except that two important sources are often overlooked. One is carbon-free and non-renewable, with a whole host of issues that won’t be discussed here. The other is carbon-free, renewable, and supplies massive amounts of energy. Canada has already tapped into the latter immensely. Hydro power provides the majority of Canadians with their electricity due to Canada’s abundance of hydro resources. However, the areas within the country that lack these resources are currently scrambling to find ways to produce carbon-free power. The question must be asked: Why don’t we all share? Norway and Denmark share, and they’re two different countries. Why can’t Canadian provinces share with each other, within the same country? A Western Canadian electricity grid is not a new idea; it has been around for more than half a century. There are a lot of unresolved technical and political arguments that have prevented this grid from becoming a reality. But is it possible? The answer is simple, yet utterly complicated.