Expanded polystyrene has proven stubbornly uneconomical to recycle, but Augusta, N.J.-based Foam Cycle has an affordable solution that can be added at any municipal transfer station or community location. Earth911 talks with Foam Cycle founder and CEO Lou Troiano about the self-service foam collection and recycling system his company has installed in several communities around the country. Expanded polystyrene, also known as expanded plastic #6 or by the Dow Chemical trademark Styrofoam in its b...
Apr 19, 2021•24 min
Young people are stepping into leadership roles in the climate restoration movement. Earth911 talks with Ashley Meeky, the first youth ambassador on the board of the Foundation for Climate Restoration, a non-profit working to encourage global support for the development and deployment of carbon capture and sequestration technology. A student at Vanderbilt University, Ashley got involved with the organization in 2019 and participated in creating its 12-week leadership program that trains youth to...
Apr 16, 2021•23 min
What would the world look like if we could turn post-consumer waste, including food scraps, paper, packaging and other materials into a bio-based plastic? Tato Bigio, cofounder and CEO of Tel Aviv-based UBQ Materials, which makes a low-carbon bioplastic using the waste headed for landfills. It's UBQ material can be used to make rigid plastic components for buildings, shipping palettes, and even food service trays at McDonald's restaurants. Bigio explains how each ton of UBQ bioplastic reduces CO...
Apr 14, 2021•24 min
Director Joe Gantz's new film, The Race to Save the World, captures the energy and personal emotional challenges faced by people to take direct action as part of the climate protest movement. It follows the stories of protesters who blocked oil trains and oil drilling equipment in Washington state; Michael Foster, the activist who shut down the Keystone pipeline in North Dakota; Aji Piper, a young environmentalist from Seattle who sued demanding state environmental protections be enforced, and; ...
Apr 12, 2021•30 min
Earth911 talks with oceanographer John Englander, author of the new book Moving to Higher Ground: Rising Sea Level and the Path Forward. His 2014 TED Talk provides stark examples of close relationship between CO2, climate temperature and coastlines -- Florida was half the size it is now during the last warm period in Earth's history and twice the size it is today during the last Ice Age. In his new book, Englander describes the challenges of sea level rise (SLR) and urges humans to prepare to ad...
Apr 07, 2021•27 min
Author Kathy Freston joins Earth911 to talk about her new book with co-author Gene Stone, 72 Reasons to Be Vegan: Why Plant-Based. Why Now. The book explains the benefits of plant-based eating and exposes the unhealthy, often gross truth about our inhumane industrial meat and dairy complex. Freston explains the health and environmental impacts of the meat and dairy industry in detail in the book and the facts shares here will make anyone think twice before eating a hamburger. But being "veganish...
Apr 05, 2021•24 min
Omvits is a four-year-old British nutritional supplements company with a deep commitment to sustainability. Earth911 talks with Shameek Upadhya, a cofounder of the company about why they focused on making vegan vitamins, including an algae-produced Omega-3 oil supplement and vegan Vitamin D, and delivering it in the most sustainable packaging possible. Omega-3 oils are difficult to get in a vegan diet. Upadhya shares how he and his team learned that global fish supplies could collapse by 2048 an...
Mar 24, 2021•25 min
On World Water Day, we talk water recycling with Stephen Katz, Market Development Manager at SUEZ Water Technologies & Solutions. The company, which built the Suez Canal in the 1860s is a leader in water recycling, particularly in industrial settings but also, increasingly, to augment local drinking water supplies. More than 2.7 billion people around the world experience water scarcity each year and climate change, along with growing human and farm animal populations, stresses available fres...
Mar 22, 2021•28 min
Danny O'Malley, founder and CEO of plant-based meat alternative company Before the Butcher joins Earth911's Mitch Ratcliffe to talk about transforming the carbon footprint of human food systems. The company's UNCUT and Mainstream branded vegan, gluten- and GMO-free soy-based meat alternatives to beef, chicken and pork in a variety of forms -- patties, chunks, tips and ground for use in recipes, as well as shredded versions -- can replace meat in a variety of recipes. O'Malley shares why he start...
Mar 20, 2021•29 min
The energy crises of the 1970s have continued to shape U.S. energy and climate policy ever since, and historian Jay Hakes was part of the story. Earth911 talks with the author of Energy Crises: Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Hard Choices in the 1970s about how Presidents Nixon and Carter responded to the oil embargoes and Middle East conflicts that led to long gas lines and a focus on keeping oil prices low, often despite the potential for conflict. Hakes was the Department of Energy's chief energy an...
Mar 15, 2021•22 min
Earth911 talks with Jennifer Maynard, CEO and cofounder of Nutrition For Longevity, a healthy and environmentally-friendly meal plan subscription service for vegan and pescatarian eaters. Most of the food is grown using regenerative farming techniques in New Jersey. Jennifer contributed an article to Earth911 last week, Zombie Soil: The Harmful Result of Industrial Farming, and we began with a conversation about the environmental impact of industrial farming. Take a few minutes to learn the diff...
Mar 12, 2021•35 min
Carbon capture technology is a keystone investment in restoring the climate to pre-industrial CO2 levels. Earth911 talks with Rick Parnell, CEO of the Foundation for Climate Restoration about his recent Newsweek and Washington Post op-eds calling for investments in the technology and setting a price for carbon. He and his co-authors, Kathleen Rogers of EarthDay.org and Sir David King of the Center for Climate Repair at Cambridge University, point out that climate change-related health issues wil...
Mar 08, 2021•25 min
Earth911 talks with Tessa Wardley, author of a handy new guide to reducing your environmental impact, The Eco Hero Handbook: Simple Solutions to Tackle Eco-Anxiety. Young and older people are increasingly battling a paralyzing fear for the future, known as eco-anxiety, but they don't have to feel trapped. Taking the time to do research about the carbon footprint of your daily activities to make simple earth-friendly decisions, such as reducing plastic use in the bathroom or choosing a slower for...
Mar 01, 2021•19 min
Every region has its unique sustainable living challenges. Earth911 talks with Dorie Morales, publisher of Green Living Magazine based in Scottsdale, Arizona. The desert region last year broke records last year with 16 days and nights when the temperature stayed above 90F degrees. The region already sees 175 days a year of daily highs above 90F degree days. Morales shares how residents struggle to stay cool, find shade and preserve water, which is especially precious in the Southwest. She cofoun...
Feb 26, 2021•20 min
Waste at restaurants and grocery stores contributes to society's overall food waste problem. Josh Goodman started PourMyBeer in 2012 to make beer and beverage dispensing a self-service experience. Now, the company helps serve beer, wine and soft drinks to customers at Whole Foods, Dave & Buster's, Caesars Entertainment locations and military bases in 24 countries. It also won an investment from Coca-Cola's European bottling business to help develop solutions to reduce single-use containers f...
Feb 22, 2021•17 min
As shopping from home grows, packaging waste is piling up. Loop offers an alternative, a delivery service for food and home goods that picks up used product packaging, cleans and the reuses it to eliminate trash. Earth911 talks with Heather Crawford, global vice president of marketing and e-commerce at Loop, about the company's expansion into Canada. Loop now offers service in the U.S., U.K. and France -- it's Loop Tote bag is dropped off and picked up by FedEx, and it will soon offer in-store T...
Feb 15, 2021•19 min
Environmental doom hangs over the youngest generations, who need a clear path to climate recovery to regain their optimism. Earth911 talks with Dr. Erica Dodds, chief operating officer of the Foundation for Climate Restoration, a young expert in climate anxiety and international development working to raise awareness about direct air carbon capture technologies. Her organization believes that aggressive investment in scaling up current early-stage carbon capture strategies can restore the enviro...
Feb 12, 2021•20 min
As more people look to move out of cities, a new, environmentally-friendly communities may be their next home. Earth911 talks with Scott Austin, a cofounder of the Olivette Riverside Community and Farm, a 346-acre planned "agrihood" along the French Broad River near Asheville, N.C. His team built "a community in which our interactions with water, nature, food, community and lifelong learning are seamless and foster sustainable living." It introduces a unique lifestyle that includes a farm funded...
Feb 05, 2021•27 min
Earth911 talks with Hannah Bacon, a 27-year-old woman who decided to start a seven-month journey across the U.S. to raise awareness about climate change. She will walk from California to Virginia, and we caught up to her in New Mexico after two months on the road. Hannah was inspired by David Wallace-Wells’ book, "The Uninhabited Earth," while flying cross-country. She realized her non-essential travel was harming the planet, so she decided to walk home. Hannah’s “Miles for Movement” walk starte...
Feb 01, 2021•22 min
Join another Earth911 conversation about the critical divides in U.S. politics and climate policy with Kevin Wilhelm of Sustainable Business Consulting and Danielle Butcher, Chief Operating Officer, Executive Vice President of the young-conservative organization, the American Conservation Coalition. We discuss the differences in the right- and left-leaning climate policy debate, the role of generational change in the future of U.S. climate regulations, and the potential for establishing a new ce...
Jan 25, 2021•37 min
Earth911 talks with Dr. William Ripple, Distinguished Professor of Ecology at Oregon State University and director of the Alliance of World Scientists, who is the lead author of a call for action in response to the catastrophic climate damage the world experience during 2020 in Scientific American. Pointing to record global temperatures, a historically long hurricane season that caused more than $46 billion in damages in the United States, and wildfires that burned more than 4 million acres in C...
Jan 20, 2021•24 min
Making home energy use improvements can be challenging without information about how the furnace, appliances, refrigerators, and other electronics around the house consume power. The Sense Energy Monitor brings all that data, and information about your utility, solar, and comparable home energy use to your smartphone to help you reduce your carbon footprint and electric bill. Earth911 talks to Sense CEO Mike Phillips about the latest Sense monitor upgrades and his 2021 home energy trends predict...
Jan 18, 2021•24 min
Cyanobacteria algal blooms are a growing problem worldwide. As humans use more fertilizer and the climate warms, freshwater lakes are more likely to be overwhelmed by these essential but deadly bacteria. Earth911 talks with Eyal Harel, CEO of Berlin-based BlueGreen Water Technologies Ltd about the causes and adverse impacts of blue-green algal blooms. Cyanobacteria produce oxygen during the day, but at night consume so much oxygen that fish and other lake life die off until the bacteria controls...
Jan 08, 2021•24 min
Environment and Earth Sciences at Victoria University, Wellington New Zealand, joins Earth911 to discuss the prospects for coastal flooding due to climate change. He shares troubling but important insights into how much seas have already risen since the 1800s -- about one foot -- and the potential for up to two feet more flooding in the coming century. He also reports the UNIPCC will acknowledge that the critical 1.5C warming threshold is locked in unless the world takes radical action to reduce...
Jan 01, 2021•31 min
Catherine Brahic, the environment editor at The Economist, joins Earth911's Mitch Ratcliffe to discuss her November 16, 2020, editorial, "The world could turn a corner on climate change." She explains the United Nations' upcoming COP26 meeting, when world leaders will renew and update their climate change commitments, was postponed to Fall 2021. Brahic shares her assessments of climate progress to date and the pivotal roles of China and the United States in 2021, when scientists and policymakers...
Dec 28, 2020•28 min
Earth911 talks with Paul Bloom, vice president of Sustainable Materials at Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), about the food and plant-based maker’s sustainability goals and changes to how they make food and plant-based products. He shares with Earth911’s Mitch Ratcliffe how ADM has invested to create sustainable alternatives to synthetic and petroleum-based materials. Bloom leads the company’s efforts to develop new renewable, plant-based sustainable solutions for food production and ingredients use...
Dec 21, 2020•28 min
Todd Myers, Director of the Center for the Environment at the conservative Washington Policy Center joins Kevin Wilhelm, CEO of Sustainable Business Consulting, and Earth911's Mitch Ratcliffe to discuss the common planks of a renewable energy policy shared by both sides of the political divide. Myers in the author of Eco-Fads: How the Rise of Trendy Environmentalism Is Harming the Environment, as well as a member of the Puget Sound Salmon Recovery Council and former staff at the Washington State...
Dec 16, 2020•42 min
After another election fought over by parties committed to winning and sidelining the opposition for four years will not heal the nation or provide the basis for constructive conversations about progress toward a fair and sustainable net-zero society. Mitch Ratcliffe, publisher of Earth911.com, and Sustainable Business Consulting's Kevin Wilhelm introduce a series of conversations that cross the right-left, urban-rural, technologist-Luddite, low- and high-income, racial and enthnic divides that ...
Dec 09, 2020•16 min
Author Marc Schaus talks with Earth911's Mitch Ratcliffe about his new book, Our Livable World: Creating the Clean Earth of Tomorrow, a hopeful book about addressing climate change through improved energy efficiency and new, clean electricity generation technologies. Schaus explains that many new technologies are appearing that can help pivot the economy to renewable energy, and this is a source of hope. In addition to historically cheap solar power, waste-free nuclear fusion and tidal energy ar...
Dec 02, 2020•26 min
Steve Groff, author of The Future-Proof Farm, the creator of widely used regenerative farming techniques known as cover-cropping, joins Earth911. He talks with us about the importance of improving soil health and explains the changing relationship between the farm and grocery store. America lost more than one-third of its topsoil during the last 150 years, and Steve says his technique mimics nature to restore all the carbon, living organisms, and nutrients that are lost by modern farming in just...
Nov 30, 2020•28 min
