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Dec 20, 2024 | 
theearthandi.org | Mark Smith
Since the dawn of civilization, humans have used wood as a primary building material. Strong, bountiful, easy to shape—its suitability for construction is well-established. Other materials, such as steel and concrete, have long supplanted wood as staples of the building and architecture sectors, but both steel and concrete leave enormous carbon footprints.
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Nov 15, 2024 | 
thedispatch.com | Joseph Polidoro |Gil Guerra |Mark Smith |Kevin Williamson
It’s been 60 years since Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove satirized fears about water fluoridation. Butan insistent minority within the scientific community that has questioned its safety is getting renewed attention, raising concerns about whether fluoridation has outlived its purpose. Earlier this year, fluoridation had its day in court—and lost, to fluoridation skeptics.
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Oct 25, 2024 | 
thedispatch.com | Kevin Williamson |Mark Smith |Will Rinehart |Nick Catoggio
Opportunity is knocking, louder than bombs. Published October 25, 2024 By all means: Escalate. To try to follow the Israel-Hamas-Hezbollah-Iran war through the American press is to read through a glass darkly—and the U.S. press is, in this regard, better than its British and European counterparts. We should try to wipe some of the dust off the glass, that we may see more clearly.
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Oct 20, 2024 | 
theearthandi.org | Mark Smith
From bumblebees rolling wooden balls for fun to crayfish exhibiting traits of anxiety, animal behaviors have some experts concluding that creatures actually possess consciousness. Philosophers, neuroscientists, conservationists, biologists, and experts from many other fields have weighed in on the discussion over the years, but the signing of the Cambridge Declaration of Consciousness in 2012 was seen as a milestone.
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Aug 20, 2024 | 
theearthandi.org | Mark Smith
From Acadia to Yellowstone, Bryce Canyon to Yosemite, national parks are jewels in America’s ecological crown. The US has more than 60 national parks that support natural habitats and preserve plant and animal species. But one organization is on a mission to create a national park to dwarf them all—and it relies on everyday citizen gardeners to help make that dream a reality. Homegrown National Park (HNP) is not located on any one site—it cannot be driven to or hiked through.
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Jun 22, 2024 | 
theearthandi.org | Mark Smith
They say home is where the heart is, but for someone’s heart to be at home they need to feel safe and secure. What happens when that safety and security are upended? What happens when natural disasters like flooding or wildfires wreak havoc? Do people and communities stay and rebuild, or do they face this new reality and move away and start again? This leave-or-stay dilemma is gripping ever-increasing numbers of communities that are faced with elements of the current climate crisis.
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Apr 19, 2024 | 
theearthandi.org | Mark Smith
Crayfish. ©giocalde/iStock Not all alien invaders are found in sci-fi books and movies. Some of them, like the red swamp crayfish, are very real and can be very local. Nature is filled with ecosystems, many of them delicate, where fauna and wildlife have evolved over time to form a balance. And when something disturbs that balance, the effects can be devastating.
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Feb 22, 2024 | 
theearthandi.org | Mark Smith
Chef Claire Vallée. ©Anne-Emmanuelle Thion“In nature I find a friend, a companion, and a mother. My job is to pay tribute to her, to preserve her, and present her to the world.”—Claire ValléeIt can be hard to stand out in the culinary world when one hails from a nation synonymous with fine cuisine. But French chef Claire Vallée is a true gastronomic pioneer.
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Dec 29, 2023 | 
news24.com | Mark Smith
Organisational benefits do not happen by chance, and managers and owners had to adapt their leadership style and behaviours to foster a more productive environment, writes Mark Smith. For more financial news, go to the News24 Business front page. With the first findings of the four-day week pilot in for South Africa, it joins many countries around the world who have tested this working time innovation.
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Nov 4, 2023 | 
timeshighereducation.com | Mark Smith
South African universities are struggling after a tumultuous period. The protests of the fees-must-fall era had already destabilised the sector before, as in all higher education sectors, the pandemic exacerbated inequalities among individuals and institutions. The country has a handful of universities that are able to compete globally and produce world-class research: the formerly white-only universities.
