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  • Heat dome hit these Vancouver neighbourhoods hardest — could planting more trees save lives?

    Stefan Labbé

    September 28, 2021 |

    North Shore News |

    Text |

    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: Canada, Vancouver, British Columbia

    The “Greenest City Action Plan” aimed to reduce the effects of extreme heat by planting 100,000 trees. Shade from trees acts as a thermal buffer during extreme heat and cold and a lack of trees disproportionately impacts low-income communities. The program surpassed its goal by planting trees in parks and along streets, as well as by buying small plots of land to create “pocket parks” with trees providing shade. The city subsidized trees for homeowners, who were banned from cutting down mature, healthy trees on their properties, and ran education programs to increase resident buy-in.

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  • A shot of recycled water revives a flourishing ecosystem on the Santa Cruz River in Tucson

    Ian James

    September 08, 2021 |

    AZ Central (The Arizona Republic) |

    Multi-Media |

    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Tucson, Arizona

    By rewetting part of the Santa Cruz River in Tucson, the city has been able to revitalize an ecosystem that was once thought to be lost. Through collaboration and research, hundreds of species of creatures have returned to the river. This restoration project could serve as a model for other cities that want to help their desert rivers and sustain wildlife habitats.

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  • A San Francisco Airport Site Is Crawling With Snakes—And That's a Good Thing

    Ashley Stimpson

    July 27, 2021 |

    Atlas Obscura |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

    The endangered San Francisco garter snake has made a comeback due to conservation efforts at the San Francisco International airport. They built ponds and wetlands to make the conditions ideal for the snake to thrive and as a result, approximately 1,300 snakes call the property home. While there are still issues with invasive plants and industrial runoff polluting the area, the ecological improvements have helped the snake population’s rebound.

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  • Could miniature forests help air-condition cities?

    The Economist

    July 03, 2021 |

    The Economist |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Japan

    The Miyawaki method of planting miniature natural forests in cities as a way to reduce air pollution and cool down temperatures is gaining ground throughout the world. The process involves planting a variety of trees in a particular way that allows for them to grow rapidly. While this method is very labor intensive and can be difficult to scale, there are more than 1,500 of these types of forests in Japan, India, and Pakistan.

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  • Chocpocalypse Now! Quarantine and the Future of Food

    Nicola Twilley Cynthia Graber Geoff Manaugh

    June 22, 2021 |

    Gastropod |

    Podcast |

    Over 15 Minutes

    Response Location: Australia, Barrow Island, Western Australia

    Off the coast of Australia, the energy company Chevron is experimenting with new quarantine management techniques to ensure that any plants and pests don’t hitchhike to new places, which can devastate the global food economy. They’ve redesigned shipping containers to make it harder for insects to tag along and they’ve created a video game to train workers on how to be better at finding these pests in their inspections. Some creatures and plants can slip through the process, but these tools have been successful and could be used in other ways.

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  • The Big Idea: using AI to breed more sustainable crops

    Freya Pratty

    June 22, 2021 |

    Sifted |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Israel

    For the past 200 years, crops have been bred for yield, for feeding livestock, rather than nutritional value. However, as more people shift away from meat the industry is looking to produce crops for flavor and nutritional value. Yet, finding the right crops with the right traits can take a long time. One company is trying to speed up the process. Equinom, is a company that is using AI technology to select the best genes from each plant and then predict the outcomes. The technology has resulted in 100k acres of specialized crops.

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  • People in Solitary Confinement and Volunteers Team Up to Garden, Imagine a World Without Prisons

    Roshan Abraham

    May 27, 2021 |

    Next City |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, New Orleans, Louisiana

    The Solitary Gardens project started in New Orleans and has been copied in multiple other places as a combination art exhibit and therapeutic link between incarcerated people and the outside world. People on both sides of the prison walls collaborate in pairs to design a garden that grows flowers and herbs chosen by the incarcerated person. The gardens match the tiny dimensions of a solitary-confinement cell. The healing herbs are used to help others, and the exercise overall gives incarcerated people a sense of connection to the earth, part of the project's prison-abolition message.

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  • Is Seaweed The Key To Carbon Offsets?

    Teresa Carey

    April 17, 2021 |

    Freethink |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Maine

    Running Tide Technologies, a shellfish hatchery in Maine, is betting on kelp forests as a way to store carbon deep in the ocean and sell that carbon to corporations looking to combat climate change and offset their own emissions. The startup is growing mini-farms of kelp on biodegradable floats and after a few months, they sink to the seafloor. More research is needed to see if it works, but they already have about 1,600 floats adrift in the ocean and the e-commerce company Shopify is the first to buy carbon offsets from them.

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  • The rice of the sea: how a tiny grain could change the way humanity eats

    Ashifa Kassam

    April 09, 2021 |

    The Guardian |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Spain, El Puerto de Santa María

    A Spanish chef piloted a project to start a “marine garden” — cultivating eelgrass and obtaining grains it produces to be used in different recipes. The grain has healthy benefits, including 50 percent more protein than rice, and growing the seagrass can transform salt marshes into biodiverse ecosystems that can also capture carbon emissions. They are working to scale the project to understand the ideal conditions to grow the plants.

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  • Nuts for coco de mer: islanders rally to save world's biggest seed

    Anne Pinto-Rodrigues

    April 05, 2021 |

    The Guardian |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Seychelles

    A public-private scheme between the Seychelles Islands Foundation and a government agency is allowing residents to plant seeds of the coco de mer, or sea coconut, as a way to save the endangered tree species. So far, 96 seeds have been planted on 26 properties. Despite its extremely slow growth rate, island residents are excited to grow trees for future generations and protect them from poachers.

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