At first, MJ Robinson may seem an unlikely choice as community gardener in residence for the City of Providence Parks Department, a position created by the city to determine how best to serve the city gardens. MJ found the position through sheer chance while looking over a city job board for opportunities for a friend. […]
Almond milk is the latest food product to come under scrutiny as a destroyer of the environment and killer of honeybees. But the reality is that almond milk is just one of many manmade food crises decaying the planet’s ecology and eradicating populations of wild pollinators across the globe. The scrutiny surrounding almond milk began […]
Educational experiences that create awareness and connections between personal actions and the natural world are helping kids to develop perception and values regarding their environment. Schoolyard Habitats, the program that provides grants to create green spaces on school grounds, shows that when kids have informative experiences within the natural world, they begin to understand their own connection to nature. However, these experiences infrequently happen organically as kids stay […]
Imagine a February without a snowfall. And then imagine a January without any significant snowstorms. Finally, take your mind back to December 1, the date when the last snow of any note fell in our backyard. During that period, the average temperature was 49.6F (historically, the average temperature in December-February is 40F), with an unseasonably […]
Note: This continues our series on environmental education. For part one in the series, go to motifri.com/a-new-generation-of-environmentalists As I begin to uncover what encourages environmental stewardship in young people, my first thought turns to one question: What’s being incorporated into education that inspires a sustainable mindset toward nature? The importance of this became clear to […]
Some of the best benevolent ideas can come from unlikely and unexpected places. A few years ago, Bonnie Combs, marketing director for Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor, was crossing a city intersection that was covered with litter. She took note of the quote stenciled on it: “Keep it Clean, Protect Your Water” and took […]
The last ice piles finally melted back to reveal more than a little bit of trash marring the face of our fair state. Luckily, there are local organizations willing to gather a few folks and get the job done. We asked Save the Bay, URI Flow and Clean Ocean Access to provide some images of […]
Parenting in the age of climate change can be overwhelming. As I try to raise my young children to be environmentally conscious citizens, I use the theory of environmental education David Sobel writes about in his book Beyond Ecophobia– we must first teach children to love the earth, then we can teach them to protect […]
The sands of time are shifting in Rhode Island, and not just metaphorically. Coastal erosion is a problem in the Ocean State, with the impact of climate change and the lack of replenishment of lost materials making for an uncertain future. Brian Caccioppoli is a researcher in marine geology and coastal geology at the University […]
For decades, Rhode Islanders have been working diligently to restore Narragansett Bay. By the 1980s, much of the bay’s waters had become fouled from more than a century of pollution by manufacturing waste and raw sewage. Since then, a focus on undoing this harmful legacy has brought back the health of the bay. Shellfishing beds and […]