Category: Healthy Planet

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Healthy Planet Stewardship Student Research

Green mulch

Plastic mulch — those shiny sheets spread across row upon row of veggies, strawberries and other crops — enables farmers to produce more types and greater quantities of food. It makes farming more profitable, preserves soil moisture, reduces weeds and saves on labor costs. But this type of mulch lasts for only a single growing season. After that, it gets dumped in landfills or is torched in the field — right here in the Willamette Valley and as far away as China.

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Healthy Planet

Wood or Oil?

“Compare that to getting that heat or fuel from a hydrocarbon, renewable only on a scale of many millennia. Both create jobs and cause environmental effects, and both are heavily subsidized. Where are those jobs most desired, where do environmental effects have the least impact and what subsidies are most reasonable? We can expect more to come on these questions as the research rolls in.”

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Healthy Planet

Toward a scholarly embrace

Ambling along the oaky trails at Finley Wildlife Refuge last Saturday morning — one of the first days without rain in a long, long time — my two friends and I paused at the edge of a pond along Woodpecker Loop.  Just under the murky surface, several rough-skinned newts were swimming in slow motion, their bodies undulating in rhythm with the rippling of the water and the dappling of the sun.

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Healthy Planet Stewardship

From concert hall to lecture hall

James Cassidy doesn’t fit the stereotypical image of a scientist. Two star-shaped earrings dangle from his left ear. A fetching fedora is perched on top of his head. He’s swapped his white lab coat for a charcoal sports jacket. A chic checkered shirt peeks out underneath. His alert grey eyes are framed by dark glasses. When he walks into a lecture hall, students notice. Undergraduates and graduate students alike praise his engaging style, his passionate lectures and his dedication to dirt.

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Healthy Planet

Climate roulette

If you like to gamble, you might think that nature is bluffing. With each passing year, it appears she is not.

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Healthy Economy Healthy Planet Innovation

Taking stock of wave energy

These are the formative years of a West Coast wave energy industry, and scientists are working with businesses, communities and policymakers to gather environmental data, test new technologies and consider the options.