By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org. Carbon footprint size is often talked about, but what about agriculture’s footprint? Farming of crops and livestock uses more than 38 percent of the planet’s ice-free land.  Humans have cleared land that amounts to nearly the size of South America to grow crops and to raise livestock, cleared an area almost
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org There has been much news lately on the 270 Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped last month by the terrorist organization Boko Haram.  It took some time to hit the airwaves, and it partly took a Twitter campaign that began in Nigeria to make the headlines. Once it did, advocates from Michele Obama to
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Wildfires are already raging in southern California, as the state drought worsens.  The impact on residents will be great, but what about the ecosystem itself?  With May 16th designated as Endangered Species Day, what will be the fate of wildlife trying to cope in a world of climate extremes? According to a 2012 California Department
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org All one really needs to take away from the 800-page National Climate Assessment (NCA), mandated every four years by the U.S. Congress, is this: Human-induced climate change is projected to continue, and it will accelerate significantly if emissions of heat-trapping gases continue to increase. As published in the NCA, “The magnitude of climate
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org The number of American teenagers getting pregnant is at an historic low.  While this is good news, the U.S. teen birth rate is still highest in the industrialized world. Rates of teen pregnancy, birth and abortion have declined dramatically in the United States since their peak in the early 1990s.  According
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org Consumer knowledge on the destructiveness of palm oil production – found in everything from ice cream and crackers to detergents and cosmetics, is rising.  Increased awareness is sorely needed, as more and more forests are cleared to make way for palm oil plantations. There are a lot of questions around the
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