Results tagged “environment” from Daily Link

The National Park Service is looking to stimulate summer vacations at national parks.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Tuesday that entrance fees at 147 national parks and monuments -- including the Grand Canyon and Yosemite -- will be waived on three weekends this summer. The weekends are June 20-21, July 18-19 and August 15-16.
"During these tough economic times, our national parks provide opportunities for affordable vacations for families," Salazar said at a news conference at Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio. "I encourage everyone to visit one of our nation's crown jewels this summer and especially to take advantage of the three free-admission weekends."
Most Americans live less than a day's drive from a national park, Salazar said. Last year, national parks attracted more than 275 million visits, generating an estimated $10.6 billion for local economies and supporting more than 213,000 jobs, he said.
For the Park Service, the free weekends will mean a loss of an estimated half-million dollars a day from entrance fees that range from $3 to $25. A total of 147 parks and monuments charge entrance fees; the nation's other 244 parks are already free.
Kendra Barkoff, a spokeswoman for Salazar, said the lost revenue should be more than offset by an increase in park tourism. Many tour operators, hotels, restaurants, gift shops and other vendors near national parks will offer other discounts and special promotions on the free weekend dates, she said.
The waiver applies only to entrance fees and does not affect charges for camping, reservations, tours or concessions, Barkoff said.

It's summer concert season, which means more nonstop tours, festivals and basically more fun. But with artists leaving behind a massive carbon footprint at every site they visit, many are taking their fun more seriously, from running their tour buses on biodiesel to turning everything green, from cups to plates to food, and even their merchandise. And with over 80 percent of a concert's CO2 footprint coming from fans' commute, they're naturally calling on their fans to join in on the effort.

Reverbrock.org is the place where artists and fans can converge on this front. The Web site connects with artists such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dave Matthews, Andrew Bird, Norah Jones, Jose Gonzalez and many more to make their shows more eco-friendly. So far, they have "greened" 50 tours, with a total of 754 events. They've reduced 37,619 tons of CO2 and 264,453 gallons of biodiesel. They're involved with 1,396 enviro-groups and have reached more than 4.6 million fans.

So how can you hop on the biodiesel bandwagon? Say you're going to the Dave Matthews concert-- just visit PickupPal , and you can choose whether you'd like to drive or catch a ride with someone. You already know you have something in common, so you can argue about how Dave Matthew's first album was totally better than his third all the way to the show.

If you're really into it, you could go that extra mile and volunteer, giving you a chance to spread the word and catch your favorite show free of charge.

ABC asks the bold question: What will the world look like in the year 2100? How will human civilization continue in the face of rising populations, depleting natural resources and changing climates? ABC News is asking for the public's input for Earth 2100, a two-hour broadcast to air in prime time this fall.

The first installment asks about the near future, in the year 2015. Video submissions can be entered until Sunday. So far, prognostications have been made about gasoline being at over $9 a gallon -- at American prices -- and foods becoming at least three to five times more expensive than they are now.

Scenarios are set up for every region in the world. In Africa, global climate change leads to increasing desertification and more Darfur-like violent clashes among tribes.

Deforestation and destruction of natural habitats will be exacerbated in Latin America.

China and India, which each have populations of over 1 billion, will struggle to keep their populations fed.

As for the United States, major population centers on the East Coast will be ravaged by storms and the Southwest will become a dust bowl.

How will the world adapt? Let Earth 2100 know.

Seafood Watch, a program run by the Monterey Bay Aquarium helps consumers help the ocean by educating them about how to buy seafood from sustainable sources. The program writes annual regional "pocket guides" you can download and carry with you. The guides break the most common types of seafood into three categories: "Best Choices" (abundant and fished or farmed in environmentally friendly ways), "Good Alternatives" and "Avoid" (overfished or fished in a way that harms other marine life).

Download a printable guide for the West Coast.

Download the lists into your phone.

Sign up for a monthly Seafood Watch newsletter.

Learn how different types of seafood are fished and farmed.

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Just in time for the first day of spring, a story in Thursday's Breeze details the effect of global warming on season's flora and fauna. A group of scientists is hoping to create a network of "citizen scientists" to help document the changes. You can help by tracking bud bursts in your own backyard. Here's how from The Associated Press:

The National Phenology Network is enlisting volunteers to help track early spring blooms and eventually changes in animals caused by global warming. It’s called Project BudBurst. When it debuted last year, thousands of people participated in 26 states.
“All people can contribute to it by tracking the timing of flowering events or leaf-out events for plants and animals in their back yard,” said phenology network director Jake Weltzin. He calls the volunteers “citizen-scientists.”
The idea is that tracking flowers blooming — especially lilacs which everyday people have helped track for decades — is fairly simple. The Web site gives directions on what to look for in different parts of the country.