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holiday

How To Tackle The Holiday Season Sustainably To Help Protect The Planet 

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The holiday season is busy for all of us, and in the US, it’s expected that spending will hit a record high this year. According to the National Retail Federation, 2025 is set to be the first time America collectively spends over $1 trillion on gifts during the last month of the year. 

One thing that often gets overlooked during the chaos of the holidays is how much waste and planet-warming gases are emitted into our atmosphere due to increased manufacturing, traveling, one-time material use, and more. 

There are many easy ways, however, that we all can help make the holidays greener to help give our planet the gift of environmental protection. 

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Going homemade can not only become a fun holiday activity and tradition, but it helps reduce waste. Sandra Goldmark, associate dean of Columbia Climate School’s Office of Engagement and Impact, told AP that one of her favorite gift-giving options is providing an act of service for a loved one. She gave the example of how one year, her husband took the time to organize all of her passwords for her, something that may seem mundane to some, but is so personal and helpful it became one of her favorite gifts. 

“It was not something easy to wrap and put under the tree, but believe me, it was meaningful and really helped me more than any additional object cluttering up my home could have,” she told the publication.

Something more general that everyone enjoys is the gift of good food. A trend that has been taking over the holiday season in recent years is buying ingredients in bulk and packing them in Mason jars. Cookie mix, soup mix, spices, bread starters, and more can be easily packaged in cute jars which can then be adjourned with ribbon, stickers, and cute recipe labels. 

Goldmark also emphasized that by simply buying less stuff, we work towards a greater sustainability goal. “The advice starts out simple: Buy less stuff. The best way to give gifts more sustainably is to buy fewer new things.” 

Additionally, gifting experiences rather than a physical gift has become more and more popular in recent years. Concerts, local festivals, spa days, museums, zoos, etc. all are great options and it’s been shown that having experiences together work to strengthen relationships even further than material gifts. 

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“There is so much that you could do by just saying, ‘I would prefer if you just made me a nice meal or took me out for some sort of adventure,’” said Atar Herziger, environmental psychologist.

Sustainable living educator Sarah Robertson-Barnes recommends looking into secondhand gifts as they involve less manufacturing, packaging, and shipping. 

“I bet somebody has the thing that you’re looking for and they would love to get rid of it. We do have a weird cultural thing where new is better and used is gross. I suggest reframing used gifts as vintage,” she said.

Herziger said “secondhand options might be received better when they’re items that can’t be bought new, such as a family heirloom or a collectible that isn’t produced anymore.”

“Focus on items that are high-quality, long-lasting, repairable and really needed. That ensures that it’s worth investing in and reduces the chance that it gets returned. Look to buy locally, rather than ordering online, to reduce how far it travels,” Goldmark stated. 

Finally, every year millions of pounds of wrapping paper end up in landfills, and a lot of it can’t be recycled due to the fact that many pf them are made with non-recyclable materials. There are, however, plenty of recyclable wrapping paper options out there, just make sure to check labels when you buy them in store or specifically search for it if you’re ordering online. 

Gift bags have also long been reused, especially ones that are intricately designed, so when it can call for it, opt for a bag over paper to wrap up your gifts. 

Getting creative with your wrapping paper is also a great option. Newspaper and brown paper offer a unique aesthetic to your gifts while making it easy for the recipient to recycle them afterwards.

hubble

Astronomers Detect Water Vapor On Small Exoplanet In “Landmark Discovery”

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Astronomers have utilized the Hubble Space Telescope to make a “landmark discovery” of water molecules on a small exoplanet located 97 light-years away from Earth, according to reports from CNN. 

The planet is scientifically named GJ 9827d, and is about twice Earth’s diameter, and according to a new report published last week in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, is the smallest exoplanet that has been found to have water vapor in its atmosphere. 

While the presence of water on any planet could be a sign of life, the astronomers involved in this research said it was unlikely that this planet has life on it due to its hot temperature that likely turns the water in the atmosphere to steam. 

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“Water on a planet this small is a landmark discovery. It pushes closer than ever to characterizing truly Earth-like worlds,”  said study coauthor Laura Kreidberg, managing director of the atmospheric physics of exoplanets department at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, in a statement.

The planet itself is reported to reach temperatures of 800 degrees Fahrenheit (427 degrees Celsius), hence the conclusion that it’s inhospitable. 

“This would be the first time that we can directly show through an atmospheric detection, that these planets with water-rich atmospheres can actually exist around other stars. This is an important step toward determining the prevalence and diversity of atmospheres on rocky planets,” said study coauthor Björn Benneke, professor at the University of Montreal’s Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets, in a statement. 

“Our observing program, led by principal investigator Ian Crossfield of (the University of Kansas) in Lawrence, Kansas, was designed specifically with the goal to not only detect the molecules in the planet’s atmosphere, but to actually look specifically for water vapor. Either result would be exciting, whether water vapor is dominant or just a tiny species in a hydrogen-dominant atmosphere,” said lead study author Pierre-Alexis Roy, a doctoral student at the University of Montreal’s Trottier Institute, in a statement. 

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According to the study, astronomers have observed GJ 9827d during 11 transits within the past three years. 

“Until now, we had not been able to directly detect the atmosphere of such a small planet. And we’re slowly getting into this regime now. At some point, as we study smaller planets, there must be a transition where there’s no more hydrogen on these small worlds, and they have atmospheres more like Venus (which is dominated by carbon dioxide),” Benneke said. 

“Observing water is a gateway to finding other things. This Hubble discovery opens the door to future study of these types of planets by the James Webb Space Telescope. JWST can see much more with additional infrared observations, including carbon-bearing molecules like carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and methane. Once we get a total inventory of a planet’s elements, we can compare those to the star it orbits and understand how it was formed,” said study coauthor Thomas Greene, astrophysicist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. 

“We can hardly wait to see what those data reveal. Hopefully, we can now settle the question of water worlds once and for all,” Kreidberg stated.

mars

Ancient Mars May Have Been Teeming With Life

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Ancient Mars may have had the right environmental conditions to support a subterranean world filled with microscopic organisms, researchers say. These microbes are known to thrive in extreme conditions on earth.

Scientists at the University of Arizona determined that if primary life forms did ever exist on Mars, they would have drastically altered the planet’s atmosphere, resulting in an ice age that would have led to their own extinction.

The study, which was published in the journal Nature Astronomy, analyzed the habitability of Mars around 4 billion years ago. Lead author Boris Sauterey and his team used climate and terrain models to simulate the temperatures at the surface and crust of the red planet.

“This allowed us to evaluate how plausible a Martian underground biosphere would be. And if such a biosphere existed, how it would have modified the chemistry of the Martian crust, and how these processes in the crust would have affected the chemical composition of the atmosphere.”

At the time, the planet is believed to have had a much denser atmosphere, rich in carbon dioxide and hydrogen. The temperate climate would have likely led to a planet teeming with water, capable of better sustaining life than it is today.

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The areas that were free of ice could have housed these organisms in a manner similar to early earth. Methanogens, known to exist in low-oxygen, extreme temperature and high-pressure conditions on earth, may have thrived underneath a thick layer of dirt protecting them from incoming radiation.

The atmosphere would have been thrown off kilter with the amount of hydrogen consumed from its carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere, causing temperatures to drop by nearly 400 degrees Fahrenheit. The atmosphere “would have been completely changed by biological activity very rapidly, within a few tens or hundreds of thousands of years,” Sauterey said.

The microorganisms living near the surface would have burrowed deeper into the crust in an effort to survive the rapidly dropping temperatures.

“The problem these microbes would have then faced is that Mars’ atmosphere basically disappeared, completely thinned, so their energy source would have vanished, and they would have had to find an alternate source of energy. In addition to that, the temperature would have dropped significantly, and they would have had to go much deeper into the crust. For the moment, it is very difficult to say how long Mars would have remained habitable.”

This evolution of the atmosphere would have been different from earth, where microbes helped maintain the proper temperatures in an atmosphere dominated by nitrogen.

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Kaveh Pahlevan of the SETI Institute led another study that suggested Mars had warm oceans that persisted through millions of years. The hydrogen-dense atmosphere would have served as a greenhouse gas, trapping heat. Much of the hydrogen would eventually rise and dissipate into the atmosphere.

“This finding is significant because H2 is known to be a strong greenhouse gas in dense environments. This dense atmosphere would have produced a strong greenhouse effect, allowing very early warm-to-hot water oceans to stabilize the Martian surface for millions of years until the H2 was gradually lost to space. For this reason, we infer that—at a time before the earth itself had formed—Mars was born wet.”

The University of Arizona study analyzed the influence microbes had on Mars’ atmosphere during a different period when it was primarily dominated by carbon dioxide.

Pahlevan added in an email to The Guardian, “what their study makes clear, however, is that if life were present on Mars” during this earlier period, “they would have had a major influence on the prevailing climate.”

Future exploration projects on Mars may provide a clearer picture of potential life on early Mars. Researchers identified Hellas Planitia, a plain formed by the impact of a giant asteroid early in Mars’ history, as a site for possible evidence. However, the plain is home to some of the planet’s strongest dust storms, making it too challenging to be explored by autonomous rovers right now.

Arrow

Easy Ways To Live A Greener Life In 2020

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One of the most popular New Year’s resolutions to date is to live a healthier lifestyle. Whether that means a change in diet, an increase in exercise, or the purchasing of a gym membership, so often we always set a goal to live a life that is mindful and healthy. However, when it comes to living a healthier life, what about the planet that we’re living on? Climate change is moving faster than ever and causing atmospheric conditions to worsen, forests to burn, oceans to flood and fill with plastic, and lead more and more animals to a path towards extinction. If we want to live a life that’s healthy and thriving, shouldn’t we want the same for our planet? So this year, live your best healthy life by living a greener one!

Remember, no one is expecting you to save the planet all by yourself, and we all know in order for the environment to really bounce back, actual systematic change needs to come from the people in power, however, it never hurts to reduce your own carbon footprint and do the best you can at living a more sustainable life. At least at a community level you know you’re doing your best to make a difference. 

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Single-use plastic products are one of the biggest contributors to ocean and land pollution. While the use of reusable straws may have been all the rage this year, straws only make up about .02% of ocean pollution, so buy a reusable cup, utensils, dishware, etc. to go along with your straw to really up the ante. When you’re making food to put onto all of your reusable dishware, try to use ingredients/produce that’s locally grown, as opposed to mass distributed.  

“If you are buying lettuce or another type of produce or even meat that was produced states away, then it takes gas to ship that food to where you are, to your grocery store, to your home. And in addition, it takes time so if you are buying something is locally grown, then you are getting something that is fresher. So even if you are spending a couple of bucks more, you are actually doing something that is better for the environment, and it is going to last longer in your fridge,” said Jen Ashley, an editor with a local South Carolina daily newsletter.

Ashley also suggests trading out the light bulbs in your house for LED bulbs. These are typically more expensive upfront, however, in the long run they use much less energy than standard bulbs, which means a cheaper light bill for you monthly. Additionally, these bulbs are more sustainable, and will last way longer than a regular bulb. 

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An amazing thing that you can do that will not only help the planet, but contribute to your healthy lifestyle new years resolution, is to walk or take a bike ride as opposed to driving to places that are a short distance away. Reducing your personal carbon footprint is one of the best ways you can help the planet, besides recycling. So instead of driving a few blocks to Starbucks for your afternoon pick-me-up, go for a nice walk there instead. Since it is winter, the weather can sometimes make going for a walk or bike ride a lot less desirable, so instead ask around and try to carpool to where you need to go. While this isn’t nearly as sustainable as just walking, it’s better to have three people share a ride to the same place instead of taking three separate vehicles there.

“It’s all about baby steps, and so you don’t have to save the world today. You don’t have to put on a cape and think that you are going to reverse the effects of climate change or lower the sea levels, all you have to do are little things” said Ashley. 

When in doubt, look around your home and find all the plastic products that you own, and recycle anything that you deem as unnecessary and a waste to the environment. Replace the things that are most manageable. Buy a reusable water bottle, tote bags for shopping, and look into sustainable brands with recyclable or biodegradable packaging. Like Ashley said, no one is expecting you to save the planet by yourself, but doing your part will not only help the planet, but lead you into a healthier and more mindful life for the new year.

Cleaning up Plastic

Plastic Bank Is Cleaning Up The Planet Of All Plastic, One Country At A Time

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When it comes to climate change, one of the biggest man-made contributions lies in our single-use plastic consumption. Plastic floods our oceans, litters our forests, and distributes micro plastic pieces throughout our bodies. Efforts are always increasing to make the planet more green, and less artificial, now, Plastic Bank, a relatively new “social enterprise” based in Canada, is monetizing recycling plastic to benefit the planet, and the people in more underdeveloped areas of the world in which plastic creates the most issues. 

According to CNN, the overall goal of Plastic Bank, is to motivate individuals in underdeveloped areas of the world to collect and recycle plastic products in exchange for cash, goods, and services such as food, clean water resources, and even tuition for children struggling to afford education. 

“After collection, plastic is weighed, sorted, chipped, melted into pellets and sold on as ‘raw material feedstock’ to be manufactured into everything from bottles for cleaning products to clothing. I saw an abundance; I saw an opportunity. We inherently reveal the value in this material,” CEO David Katz told an audience at the Sustainable Brands Oceans conference in Porto, Portugal. 

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Katz went on to explain that the company began back in 2013, and started in one of the poorest countries on the planet, Haiti. Now, there’s over 2,000 individuals working for Plastic Bank in the country and all those individuals are, on average, 63% above the poverty line thanks to income they’ve made recycling! The business is able to pay its workers through an app based system, which has also helped a lot of those individuals open their first bank account, (CNN). 

Plastic Bank has reported on their website that since 2013, the company has expanded into the Philippines, Indonesia, and most recently Brazil. Through their efforts and now multiple collaborations with major corporations such as S.C. Johnson, they’ve recycled over 13 million pounds of plastic! The company also reported that in 2020 they plan to expand into parts of Egypt, Colombia, and Vietnam. Egypt and Vietnam have been on the Bank’s radar for quite some time, both the Nile River in Egypt, and the Mekong River in Vietnam are responsible for up to 90% of plastic debris travelling into the planets seas, (CNN). 

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While the business is constantly growing and helping reduce the massive amounts of plastic littering our natural world, there needs to be more done on the opposite end, in terms of plastic manufacturing and distribution. In order to truly clean up the planet and help make a real major difference, more plastic alternatives need to be introduced and mass produced. Single-use plastic is one of the number one culprits in terms of pollution, general society can help by switching to more paper-based, or any other biodegradable alternative for those single use products.  

“If we add large streams of other bio-materials … and we eliminate the value of what’s already on the planet [single use plastic], and nobody goes to collect any of it, and no one wants to trade it, then what? An increase in plastic alternatives has to occur while not interrupting or degrading the value of the plastic that’s already on the planet. What we need to do is get away from traditional capitalism where shareholders benefit first. Companies that stand forward to repair the damage will win. The regeneration economy is emerging,” Katz discussed at the conference. 

At the end of the day, Katz says his company’s mission is clear, we know the world has all the resources, and means to end excessive plastic use and production, and increase much greener options while remaining economically stable. It’s about everyone coming together and agreeing upon a plan to help save our planet and all the individuals habituating it.