Dawn Attride

1 month ago | sentientmedia.org | Dawn Attride

At the supermarket, you’re often met with a choice: organic or not? Organic foods — largely free of synthetic pesticides, hormones and antibiotics — are synonymous with sustainability in the minds of many shoppers. But sustainability is a fraught and complex measure — does it mean better for you or for the planet? And how do farm animals, farmers and workers fare? About the only measure that’s simple here is the nutrition, which remains the same whether you buy organic or conventional foods.

1 month ago | sentientmedia.org | Dawn Attride

At the depths of the seafloor, life moves and grows eerily slowly. Under crushing pressure and shrouded in darkness, banks of sprawling corals form nurseries for schools of deep-sea fish while the crystalline limbs of 15,000-year-old glass sponges filter bacteria from the water. While most of these habitats are unexplored, some of what we know about species from these ancient ecosystems is dredged up to the surface, caught in the fishing gear of vessels that bottom trawl along the seafloor.

1 month ago | whyy.org | Dawn Attride

This story is from The Pulse, a weekly health and science podcast. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Find our full episode on loneliness here. When 86-year-old Anthony Niemiec’s wife passed away, he found himself isolated and struggled to fill his days with activity. “I was married 57 years, and I always had action. And she was very active. And all of a sudden, being alone, it’s difficult,” Niemiec said.

1 month ago | sentientmedia.org | Dawn Attride

Hundreds of climate workers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have now been fired for the second time after the Supreme Court reversed a lower court decision on an initial dismissal. This move brings the total toll of fired federal employees up to about 16,000 –– jeopardizing vital work at NOAA, including marine pollution research, weather forecasting for hurricanes and tornadoes and decisions for local fisheries that help guard against overfishing.

2 months ago | sentientmedia.org | Dawn Attride

Methane isn’t exactly the sexiest greenhouse gas. It’s often trumped in the climate conversation by carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas known for its longevity in the atmosphere. Yet, methane is more potent –– it traps about 80 times more heat over a 20-year period. Human activities are responsible for about 60 percent of methane emissions, with the largest offender being food, such as cows belching out methane during digestion.