This week’s eBook is a children’s book published in 1872 about insects: Comic Insects. The illustrations were done by Berry F. Berry, the text by F.A.S. Reid, engraved by Dalziel Brothers and published by Frederick Warne & Co (who later published Beatrix Potter’s books). The book is a pleasant example of the history of publishing…of children’s books…of illustration!
The August Plastic Awareness news from Stream Teams United arrived in my inbox recently. It was full of recent plastic related news…highlights of what interested me the most are below. You can sign up to get the newsletter here.
Researchers tested more than 75 Texas waterways for microplastics. Nearly all had them
Kera News
A new study by Dallas-based researchers finds that nearly all the region’s waterways are polluted with microplastics.
Tiny Plastics, Big Problem: The Hidden Risks of Plastic Pouches for Baby Food
May 2026
Human biological matrices such as blood, placenta, lung tissue, and stool have been demonstrated to contain microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs), indicating...
Kansas City Current & Bold Reuse Set a New Standard for Sustainability at CPKC Stadium
Bold Reuse
In March of 2024, CPKC Stadium, home of the Kansas City Current, opened as the first stadium in the world purpose-built for...
Great waste in the Great Lakes: How plastic pollution is clogging our waters
Chicago Tribune
More than 40 million people in the United States and Canada depend on the Great Lakes for drinking water. Each glass of treated lake water is laden with...
Microplastics and Nanoplastics as Potential Metabolic Disruptors
July 2026
Human biological matrices such as blood, placenta, lung tissue, and stool have been demonstrated to contain microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs), indicating...
The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.
08/24/2026 The Washington Post Leaked memo shows how U.S. aims to weaken global limits on plastic pollution – Depressing and sad for so many reasons.
08/25/2026 Inside Climate News The Biggest Carbon Polluters Are to Blame for Half of U.S. Western Water Lost to Climate Change - Dozens of states and cities across the U.S. have sued large oil and gas companies for environmental damages associated with emissions from their products. This study supports plaintiffs’ position in those cases as they seek to put a price tag on climate change for fossil fuel companies.
08/26/2028 Yale Environment 360 Access to Urban Woodlands Linked with Lower Use of Antidepressants - A study from Scotland found that living near an accessible urban woodland significantly lowered the likelihood of being prescribed antidepressants. A host of prior studies have found that living near green spaces can reduce stress, improve moods, and lower the risk of developing anxiety or depression. Some research has even found that exposure to nature can help reduce violent crime. Considering the well-documented benefits of living near green spaces, the World Health Organization recommends urban planners establish at least 1 acre of green space within 1,000 feet of every home.
08/26/2026 Smithsonian Magazine See 16 Stunning Animal Images from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards - The 62nd Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, developed and produced by the Natural History Museum in London.
08/26/2026 NWF Blog U.S. Workers Deserve Protection from Extreme Heat - Comprehensive heat rules that protect all workers require shade, paid rest, and cold water along with a written heat stress prevention plan that includes science-based temperature triggers, annual training, acclimatization, retaliation protection and emergency response procedures. America’s workforce keeps our country moving—delivering mail, teaching our children, constructing new buildings, maintaining infrastructure, and more.
08/26/2026 The Conversation Tiny house villages are increasingly responding to the homeless crisis in America’s fast‑growing cities - The proliferation of tiny house villages across the U.S. is occurring at a time when many cities are attracting new residents and investment, while struggling to provide housing that remains accessible to all.
08/23/2026 Science Daily Scientists left this farm field alone. Thousands of orchids appeared - An abandoned farm field became a flourishing wildflower meadow within little more than a decade, with plant diversity doubling and thousands of orchids appearing naturally. Aside from a traditional annual hay cut, the field was largely allowed to recover without intervention. The discovery suggests that simply giving nature time to recover could be a powerful and inexpensive tool for restoring biodiversity.
08/24/2026 Smithsonian Magazine ‘Only One of Its Kind’ Jellyfish Museum Astounds Visitors with Awe-Inspiring Displays of Sea Nettles Safely Behind Glass - The Florida-based museum opened in the spring and was founded by two aquarium experts who fled the Russia-Ukraine war.
08/26/2026 Clean Technica Photovoltaic Windows Have Been Heating Water in a Bucharest Apartment for Two Years - Solar electricity produced over several hours during the day is converted directly into heat and stored as hot water for use later. There is no photovoltaic battery and no solar inverter between the photovoltaic glazing and the heating element. The PV side operates off-grid and does not inject electricity into the public grid. When solar energy is insufficient, the controller switches the same water heater to the normal AC grid after sunset so that it can reach the thermostat setpoint.
8/27/2026 Yale Environment 360 A Hard-Won Rule to Cut Chemical Plant Pollution Is Being Unraveled - For decades, regulations on emissions of hazardous chemicals such as benzene, ethylene oxide, and vinyl chloride have been weaker than restrictions on more common pollutants, such as those emitted by vehicles. Toughening requirements on six different pollutants at more than 200 petrochemical plants, it was one of a slate of regulations enacted beginning in 2024 on air toxics, each covering a specific industry, from steelmaking to tire manufacturing. Recently, the EPA has invited companies to request exemptions from hazardous pollutant regulations. Also - an online data tool created to give communities located near petrochemical plants information about their operations, including their accident history, emergency response plans, and the chemicals they handle has been removed.
Twenty more books were added to my botanical print eBook collection in August – all are available for browsing on Internet Archive. There are 14 volumes of Mitteilungen der Deutschen dendrologischen gesellschaft (Communications of the German Dendrological Society) published from 1893 to 1925 followed by 6 books that continue the Carnivorous Plant Newsletters; there are 4 volumes per year, so this month includes 2021 to 2022; I’ll continue browsing this periodical in September.
My list of eBotanical Prints books now totals 3,423 eBooks I’ve browsed over the years. The whole list can be accessed here.
Click on any sample image from August’s 20 books to get an enlarged version…and the title hyperlink in the list below the image mosaic to view the entire volume where there are a lot more botanical illustrations to browse.
Enjoy the August 2026 eBotanical Prints!
Mitteilungen der Deutschen dendrologischen gesellschaft 1925 * Deutsche Dendrologische Gesellschaft * sample image * 1925
Mitteilungen der Deutschen dendrologischen gesellschaft 1902 * Deutsche Dendrologische Gesellschaft * sample image * 1902
Mitteilungen der Deutschen dendrologischen gesellschaft 1899 * Deutsche Dendrologische Gesellschaft * sample image * 1899
Mitteilungen der Deutschen dendrologischen gesellschaft 1915 * Deutsche Dendrologische Gesellschaft * sample image * 1915
Mitteilungen der Deutschen dendrologischen gesellschaft 1921 * Deutsche Dendrologische Gesellschaft * sample image * 1921
Mitteilungen der Deutschen dendrologischen gesellschaft 1905 * Deutsche Dendrologische Gesellschaft * sample image * 1905
Mitteilungen der Deutschen dendrologischen gesellschaft 1906 * Deutsche Dendrologische Gesellschaft * sample image * 1906
Mitteilungen der Deutschen dendrologischen gesellschaft 1905 * Deutsche Dendrologische Gesellschaft * sample image * 1905
Mitteilungen der Deutschen dendrologischen gesellschaft 1918 * Deutsche Dendrologische Gesellschaft * sample image * 1918
Mitteilungen der Deutschen dendrologischen gesellschaft 1893 * Deutsche Dendrologische Gesellschaft * sample image * 1893
Mitteilungen der Deutschen dendrologischen gesellschaft 1912 * Deutsche Dendrologische Gesellschaft * sample image * 1912
Mitteilungen der Deutschen dendrologischen gesellschaft 1896 * Deutsche Dendrologische Gesellschaft * sample image * 1896
Mitteilungen der Deutschen dendrologischen gesellschaft 1895 * Deutsche Dendrologische Gesellschaft * sample image * 1895
Mitteilungen der Deutschen dendrologischen gesellschaft 1924 * Deutsche Dendrologische Gesellschaft * sample image * 1924
Carnivorous plant newsletter v.50:no.1 (2021) * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2021
Carnivorous plant newsletter v.50:no.2 (2021) * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2021
Carnivorous plant newsletter v.50:no.3 (2021) * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2021
Carnivorous plant newsletter v.50:no.4 (2021) * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2021
Carnivorous plant newsletter v.51:no.1 (2022) * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2022
Carnivorous plant newsletter v.51:no.2 (2022) * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2022
After a lull the last few months, there are community actions shaping up for the fall and winter for our Beyond Plastics Ozarks group!
We have a February date for the show of the Plastic People movie sponsored by the City of Springfield and are gearing up to get the word out to the community and recruit some people for the panel discussion after the movie.
There are 2 reducing plastics presentations coming up – one in November and one in December…and participation in an interest/experience activity (plastics is one of six ‘tables’).
I am glad there are things to feel positive about locally since a headwind of a story came out in the Washington Post this week (“Leaked memo shows how US aims to weaken global limits on plastic pollution”).
August was a great month of summer activities – trying to dodge afternoons that were way too hot to be outside!
Great cohort signed up for Missouri Master Naturalist core training. I’ve been working on the core training curriculum since last spring and everything began to come together in August….ready for the start of the course in September. I am particularly celebrating the existing Master Naturalists that signed up for all the volunteer tasks I identified!
Webinars when I was traveling. I am celebrating two excellent webinars (creating habitat that works and building a native plant movement in your community) that I watched from my hotel when I travelled to Texas.
Dancing oakworm catepillars. I celebrated getting a video of oakworms in action…and then being able to share it with peoole visited our table after the caterpillars themselves had worn themselves out (i.e. were no longer dancing).
Stone edge installed around my native plant garden. Getting the edge around my native plant garden was a great addition. I’m celebrating how great it makes the front yard look!
Dark chocolate. Recently I remembered starting my day with a small serving of dark chocolate years ago…and I am celebrating every morning that I revive that tradition!
Mississippi Kites at Lake Springfield. I celebrated the 4 Mississippi Kites that were hunting for breakfast near the Lake Springfield Boathouse one morning I was there. They were finding plenty to eat!
Salmon for lunch. I’m still a little surprised about how easy it is to prepare! I celebrated a lunch on my own while my husband was away.
Sunlight through the spikenard leaves in the morning. The plant is leaning but I celebrate that its fruit is developing and it is still my favorite plant viewed through my office window.
Insectorama and an Io caterpillar. There was a sign that said “don’t touch” for the Io caterpillar and no one did. I celebrated that the visitors got to see it with no negative event!
Yard work done. In August I feel like I need to dodge high temperatures and the sprinklers to get yard work done….so I celebrate with I finally can just do it.
The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.
08/15/2026 BBC Future The controversial story of the North American raccoons wreaking havoc in Germany - One morning in April 1934, the records show, the animals were released from two crates to the south side of Lake Edersee near Vöhl, around 50km (30 miles) to the south-west of Kassel. This population grew and grew. Today, Kassel has been called the "raccoon capital of Europe", with an estimated urban population of around 30,000 of the animals.
08/21/2026 Smithsonian Magazine An ‘Extremely Rare’ Half-Male, Half-Female Bird Temporarily Took Up Residence Outside of Chicago - An eye-catching bobolink with both male and female characteristics temporarily took up residence at a nature preserve just west of Chicago. The bobolink is what’s known as a “bilateral gynandromorph.” Because of a genetic anomaly, the right side of its body is male while the left side is female, with a straight vertical line dividing the two halves. It’s believed to be the first documented gynandromorphic bobolink. The bird behaved like a male, eventually wooing a mate and raising fledglings.
08/21/2026 Science Daily Archaeologists discover mysterious 400-year-old Indigenous pot in Florida - The pot was compact enough to fit in a palm, with a simple rim, a smooth dull gray surface, and no decoration. Its original purpose is unknown, as is the number of people who may have used it. What archaeologists do know is that the vessel survived for centuries underground
08/21/2026 Artnet Why Louis Comfort Tiffany Still Dazzles Collectors - Louis Comfort Tiffany‘s lamps are coveted and his stained glass is celebrated, but the artist behind the famous brand has remained stubbornly in the shadows. Two new exhibitions aim to throw the spotlight on his full talents.
08/21/2026 Clean Technica Sunrun Shifts Away from Affiliates to Direct Sales - Sunrun has been the #1 rooftop solar power installed in the United States for several years now.Sunrun installed 19,793 subscriber systems in the second quarter of this year, which is an amazingly high number. However, the bad news is that this was down 31% from Q2 2025. Yikes. On the plus side, the company had a higher percentage of its solar power systems get energy storage add-ons than ever before — a whopping 74%. That’s up from 70% in Q2 2025. Sunrun has surpassed 266,000 total storage systems installed, accounting for 4.6 GWh of capacity. That includes the 332 MWh installed last quarter.
08/19/2026 NASA Elephant Butte Reservoir Runs Low - Elephant Butte Reservoir, the largest reservoir in New Mexico, is at its lowest level since 1971. My husband and I took a birding field trip in a boat on the reservoir in November 2016; they told us it was low then…and I wonder what has happened to the birds (pelicans, grebes, coots, and cormorants) that won’t find much water when they return to the area this fall.
08/19/2026 The Prairie Ecologist The Notorious (and other) Visitors to Our New Prairie Garden – Lots to photograph in a native plant garden!
08/19/2026 Planetizen To guarantee residents fresh water, Tijuana looks to the sea - The project is expected to produce 2,200 liters of fresh water per second — about 190,000 cubic meters a day — and increase available freshwater in the region by 45%. Construction is set to begin on Aug. 18, one day after signing the contract but nearly three weeks after the project's intended start date of Aug. 1. It is expected to be complete in 2029.
08/18/2026 Yale Environment 360 Collapse of Atlantic Currents Could Drive a Surge in Warming - A vast system of Atlantic currents appears to be weakening, and scientists say its collapse could lead to dramatic cooling in northern Europe. A new study suggests an additional risk: a surge in warming across the rest of the globe.
08/21/2026 BBC Future India is turning to ancient water systems as modern ones run dry - In recent years, India is increasingly looking to revive ancient water structures as a way to help address the country's looming water crisis. Baoris, or ancient stepwells – large scale tiers of carved stone with steps that descend into the water table, allowing access to groundwater – are the most striking. Thousands of disused subterranean stepwells, built from the 7th to the mid-19th Centuries, famously dot India's landscape. From New Delhi to Jodphur, dozens have been restored in recent years. Open traditional structures like stepwells do not escape evaporation completely, but by helping to move water beyond reach of the Sun into aquifers they allow it to stay both cool and reachable by any well or handpump nearby.
This week I am featuring a journal (Tulane Studies in Geology and Paleontology) from the Department of Geology at Tulane University published between 1962 and 1997. There are some volumes available via Internet Archive (links and a sample image from each one below). The collection of the complete run of the journal is available from https://journals.tulane.edu/tsgp/index although it is a bit more challenging to browse them since each article is in an individual PDF.
Tulane studies in geology and paleontology V 29-30 (1996-1997)
Tulane studies in geology and paleontology V 22-23 (1989-1990)
August was a good month to be outdoors…even though it required effort to avoid the hottest parts of the day. The photos I selected for this post were taken at Lake Springfield, along Bull Creek southeast of Springfield, in my Nixa MO yard, the Roston Native Butterfly House at the Springfield Botanical Gardens, the Springfield Conservation Nature Center, and Lewisville, Texas. As always – plants dominate but there are caterpillars, dragonflies and butterflies too!
The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.
07/30/2026 Project Drawdown Is climate change unfolding faster and fiercer than scientists expected? - Climate change is driving unprecedented extreme weather around the world, from catastrophic floods and prolonged droughts to blistering heat waves and raging wildfires. While these events are unprecedented, they were not unpredicted and largely align with what scientists have been warning about for decades. Climate science tells us that things will get worse as long as humans keep emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. But the science also shows us that a better future is still within reach.
08/07/2026 Smart Cities Dive For local governments, full benefits of ROAD to Housing Act could take years - The bipartisan legislation promises sweeping regulatory reforms and funding incentives designed to increase housing development. Of the 124 implementation actions detailed in the bill, HUD is responsible for 88, or 71%.L ocal governments can begin assessing what regulatory changes — such as updating zoning, building codes and permitting policies — they will need to enact to take advantage of federal funding once it becomes attainable.
08/09/2026 Cool Green Science Bug Highway: The Hidden Paths Used by Insects - Many important pollinators have home ranges no larger than 400 or 500 meters. Some are even smaller. So, in order for them to survive, they must find something to eat within their home range, the distance they’re willing to stray from their nests. And that means every window box, every garden, every bit of green space could be what some insects need to survive.
08/10/2026 Our World in Data 138 million children are in child labor. What does this actually mean? - Child labor is work that is done by a child and is likely to be harmful. This general principle was first codified in international legal conventions more than a century ago, and a series of them in the 20th century made its scope more precise, linking harms to work that endangers children’s “health, safety, or morals” or work that interferes with their schooling. It spans children working in exploitative and dangerous conditions, as well as children who are counted not because of the conditions they work in, but because they are too young to be working at all, even if that means helping on a family farm for only a few hours a day.
08/05/2026 NASA The Paradox of Lençóis Maranhenses National Park - The coastal dune system in Lençóis Maranhenses National Park in northeastern Brazil is among the most surreal landscapes on Earth: rows of sparkling white quartz dunes, some rising 30 meters (100 feet), soar over a mosaic of blue and green freshwater lagoons.
08/11/2026 My Modern Met Mini Wildlife Portraits Made with Plastic Toys and Other Materials That Threaten Real Animals Today – Look at the pictures and watch the 6-minute video about how they were created.
08/10/2026 Smithsonian Magazine Spinal Deformities in Saber-Toothed Cat Fossils Reveal How the Now-Extinct Felines May Have Spent Their Final Days - Thousands of years ago, sticky tar pits in modern-day Los Angeles, California, became the graveyard for prehistoric felines struggling with deformities and disease. 3,722 vertebrae from at least 849 saber-toothed cats were examined. CT scans revealed a significant number of developmental abnormalities in the feline spines. The team identified 32 vertebrae with arches that hadn’t completely developed, 48 “block” vertebrae where bones had fused together and 226 “transitional” vertebrae that hadn’t formed correctly. Perhaps most notably, three vertebrae from different individuals contained enlarged holes that allowed nerves and blood vessels to thread through them. The holes’ sizes and smooth remodeled surfaces hint that the cats had spinal nerve tumors.
07/24/2026 Project Drawdown Reversing soil degradation 10% could feed 70 million more - Human-caused damage to soils is a limiting factor for food production on agricultural lands. Soil degradation can be slowed or reversed. Reversing degradation by 10% could make it possible to feed 70 million more people while also enhancing soils’ ability to pull greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and reducing pressure to turn forests into farmland.
08/11/2026 NASA Bountiful Roebuck Bay - Roebuck Bay's tidal range can reach a remarkable 9 meters (30 feet). Rising and falling tides repeatedly inundate and expose expansive mudflats, flood broad mangrove forests and salt marshes, and feed branching networks of tidal drainage channels. The bay's dramatic tidal and seasonal changes are striking from above, and they also support a bounty of life on the ground. The mangroves serve as nurseries for crustaceans and fish, and the mudflats teem with dozens of types of invertebrates, including snails, worms, crabs, clams, and cockles. Shells and snails can reach an abundance of 2,500 per square meter. The bay, one of the most important sites for migratory birds in Australia and a key stop on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, regularly hosts hundreds of thousands of birds, including plovers, godwits, and knots.
08/10/2026 BBC Future We're getting mealtimes wrong - here's the best time to have dinner - Aim to eat at regular times and eat fiber-rich carbohydrates such as whole grains, legumes (beans, peas and lentils) as well as fruit, earlier in the day when the body is better able to process them. In the evening, opt for a lighter meal, ideally one rich in protein….making lunch the largest meal.
The book of the week is a magazine – Metalsmith from SNAG (Society of North American Goldsmiths)! I browsed the magazines and exhibitions in print from 2011-2023 on Internet Archive and picked an image from each issue to encourage you to browse the issue by following the link….so many beautiful pieces. There are more issues to browse on Internet Archive…. back to 1980 – they are in my digital ‘to read’ pile!
Metalsmith magazine 2011: Vol 31 No 2
Metalsmith magazine 2011: Vol 31 No 3
Metalsmith magazine 2011: Vol 31 No 5
Metalsmith magazine 2012: Vol 32 No 1
Metalsmith magazine 2012: Vol 32 No 2
Metalsmith magazine 2012: Vol 32 No 3
Metalsmith magazine 2012: Vol 32 No 4
Metalsmith magazine 2013: Vol 33 No 1
Metalsmith magazine 2013: Vol 33 No 2
Metalsmith magazine 2014: Vol 34 No 1
Metalsmith magazine 2014: Vol 34 No 2
Metalsmith magazine 2014: Vol 34 No 3
Metalsmith magazine 2014: Vol 34 No 5
Metalsmith magazine 2015: Vol 35 No 1
Metalsmith magazine 2015: Vol 35 No 2
Metalsmith magazine 2015: Vol 35 No 3
Metalsmith magazine 2015: Vol 35 No 5
Metalsmith magazine 2016: Vol 36 No 1
Metalsmith magazine 2016: Vol 36 No 2
Metalsmith magazine 2017: Vol 37 No 1
Metalsmith magazine 2017: Vol 37 No 2
Metalsmith magazine 2017: Vol 37 No 3
Metalsmith magazine 2017: Vol 37 No 5
Metalsmith magazine 2018: Vol 38 No 1
Metalsmith magazine 2018: Vol 38 No 2
Metalsmith magazine 2018: Vol 38 No 3
Metalsmith magazine 2018: Vol 38 No 4
Metalsmith magazine 2019: Vol 39 No 1
Metalsmith magazine 2019: Vol 39 No 2
Metalsmith magazine 2020: Vol 40 No 1
Metalsmith magazine 2020: Vol 40 No 2
Metalsmith magazine 2020: Vol 40 No 3
Metalsmith magazine 2020: Vol 40 No 4
Metalsmith magazine 2021: Vol 42 No 1
Metalsmith magazine 2021: Vol 42 No 2
Metalsmith magazine 2021: Vol 42 No 3
Metalsmith magazine 2021: Vol 42 No 4
Metalsmith magazine 2022: Vol 43 No 1
Metalsmith magazine 2023: Vol 44 No 1
Metalsmith magazine 2023: Vol 44 No 2
Metalsmith magazine 2023: Vol 44 No 3
Metalsmith magazine Exhibition in Print 2011: Vol 31 No 4
Metalsmith magazine Exhibition in Print 2012: Vol 32 No 4
Metalsmith magazine Exhibition in Print 2013: Vol 33 No 4
Metalsmith magazine Exhibition in Print 2014: Vol 34 No 4
Metalsmith magazine Exhibition in Print 2015: Vol 35 No 4
My shifts in the Roston Native Butterfly House in August were relatively pleasant. I remembered to wear/turn on a neck fan that my husband had bought – and it keeps the heat tolerable. I hydrate well before the shift, drink some water during the shift, and finish off the rest of my water on the drive home! I am volunteering once a week and realizing that there are some shifts that the house is not open because there are not enough volunteers available. I am going to volunteer a bit more for the remainder of the season even though I have a lot of other commitments in September and October this year.
During a lull in visitors, I took macro pictures of great spangled fritillaries and giant swallowtails…
And a tiger swallowtail caterpillar on tulip poplar leaves and a black swallowtail caterpillar that had wandered off its carrot top. I took a video of a black swallowtail caterpillar that was actively feeding but it wasn’t in sharp focus.
All the images were taken with the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.
08/01/2026 Science Daily Scientists detect a sharp acceleration in global warming - After removing the effects of El Niño, volcanic eruptions, and solar cycles, researchers found that the planet has warmed at roughly 0.35°C per decade over the past ten years, compared with just under 0.2°C per decade from 1970 to 2015. The acceleration, which becomes visible around 2013 to 2015, appeared across five major global temperature datasets with more than 98% statistical certainty. Whether the acceleration continues will depend heavily on future carbon dioxide emissions from coal, oil, and natural gas.
07/28/2026 BBC Future The devil worm is the deepest-living animal. It's redefining life at its limits - Before the 1980s, most biologists didn't think that life existed more than 30cm (1ft) or so below the ground. The detection of deep-dwelling bacteria – and the 2011 discovery of the devil worm – represented a seismic shift in our understanding of the Earth's depths. The devil worm and its subterranean brethren may well be some of the most enduring kind of life on Earth. Studying the deep biosphere could help us better understand the conditions under which living things first came into existence, and even help inform searches for extraterrestrial life; if there is life on Mars, it's probably lurking under the surface.
07/30/2026 Smithsonian Magazine A Man Unearthed a Mysterious Metal Object Sticking Straight Up from the Ground. It Turned Out to Be a 2,700-Year-Old Sword - Measuring nearly two feet long, the sword dates to between roughly 900 and 700 B.C.E., according to a statement from the Provincial Office for the Protection of Monuments (PUOZ). At that time, it was likely quite valuable. Experts think that it once featured a handle made from organic materials like wood or bone. The handle hasn’t survived, but the engraved patterns decorating the blade are still visible.
07/27/2026 Clean Technica This New Underground Energy Storage System Supports Wind and Solar Power - Flywheels are marking out space in the somewhat rarified world of long duration energy storage. Going by a benchmark set by the US Department of Energy, that means a capacity of at least 10 hours, though ideally long duration technology can stretch into multiple days and longer.
07/16/2026 Yale Environment 360 In Steel Country, the Fight for Clean Air Faces New Obstacles - A Japanese steel giant has pledged billions in new investment in Pennsylvania’s Monongahela River Valley, raising hopes that it would clean up pollution from its steel mills in the region. But documents show that its plans to ramp up production will worsen local air quality.
07/02/2026 Science Daily Eating less protein could slow aging - The findings suggest that protein guidance may be most effective when it takes both age and activity level into account, rather than applying the same recommendation to everyone.
07/26/2026 Clean Technica Every Day in Every Way, Attribution Science Is Getting Better & Better - The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, engineering, and medicine. They operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln. This week, the organization published a report that claims attribution science — which seeks to define the connection between human activity and alterations in the climate — has made great strides forward since the last report a decade ago. That report backs a growing body of scientific knowledge that could help governments hold oil, gas, and coal companies responsible for the damage caused by extreme weather.
7/19/2026 BBC Future Scientists are regrowing human teeth - A visit to the dentist could one day involve regrowing damaged teeth tissue or even an entire tooth, rather than repairing it with synthetic materials or yanking it out – an appealing prospect not only because of its novelty, but also because teeth play a greater role in health and well-being than many may realize.
07/17/2026 Yale Environment 360 Drained Under Soviet Rule, Aral Sea Has Become a Huge Source of Emissions - The Aral Sea sits between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and was once the fourth-largest inland body of water on Earth. For the past 60 years, though, humans have bled it nearly dry irrigating cotton crops, leaving behind a salty plain the size of Ireland. Its loss has long been seen as an ecological and humanitarian problem, but new research shows that it has also been a significant driver of climate change. When a lake dries up, stored carbon from organic matter on the floor of the old lake bed is released as the dust blows away.
07/16/2026 Science Daily New “living plastic” self-destructs in just 6 days without leaving microplastics - Researchers have created self-destructing living plastic that uses engineered bacteria to completely break itself down when activated. The material degrades in just six days without creating microplastics, offering a potential new solution for single-use plastic waste. (Note that this research was done in China with funding from Chinese government.)
Continuing my look at Life Magazines on Internet Archive….
As I looked at the issues from 1949, the advertisements often stood out (for fossil fuels, Pillsbury, Lionel trains, train travel, World Book Encyclopedia) …and also items that were the beginnings that of things that have developed since then: farmers using lady bugs to control insects on crops, the launch of Viking II, Prince Charles (now King) as a baby, shale oil, a pipeline in Saudi Arabia, big oil in west Texas). Some articles referenced back to World War II: art depicting the Germans trying to burn out London and war babies starting first grade. Evident the cold in the first months of 1949 were very damaging in the Midwest and there was heavy snow in the Cascades in May!
The Life pictures are windows into what the publishers (and a lot of other people) thought was newsworthy in 1949.
Life Magazine 1949-01-03 - Farmers use ladybugs to control mealy bugs
Life Magazine 1949-01-11 - Picture of 28-day old Prince Charles
Life Magazine 1949-01-17 - Death through the Midwest from winter storms
Life Magazine 1949-01-23 - Puerto Rico housing, hotel, dam
Life Magazine 1949-01-30 - Truman inaugural, toddler sleeps in stroller afterward
Life Magazine 1949-02-07 - Mr. Churchill on holiday in Provence
Life Magazine 1949-02-14 - West fights worst winter in history
Life Magazine 1949-02-21 - Mauna Loa erupts
Life Magazine 1949-02-28 - Firemen’s paintings recall how the Germans tried to burn London out
Life Magazine 1949-03-07 - Longwood Gardens Conservatory (called DuPont greenhouse in the article)
Life Magazine 1949-03-14 - Natural Bridge…Navajo sheep
Life Magazine 1949-03-21 - How oil builds for tomorrow (interesting that the illustration for the ad looks rather dystopian)
Life Magazine 1949-03-28 - Trans-Arabian Pipeline in Saudi Arabia
Life Magazine 1949-04-04 - Barcelona slum…and a palace
Life Magazine 1949-04-11 - Spring in Mississippi
Life Magazine 1949-04-18 - Weighing less than pie meringue, plastic froth can float on gas
Life Magazine 1949-04-25 - Hazford Rubert LXXXI – the grand old man of Hereford bulls
Life Magazine 1949-05-02 - Texas bluebonnets
Life Magazine 1949-05-09 - Blue Bell play clothes
Life Magazine 1949-05-16 - Volkswagen Factory
Life Magazine 1949-05-23 - African Animals (flamingo and crowned crane)
Life Magazine 1949-05-30 - Snow drifts in May (Cascade Mountains)
Life Magazine 1949-06-06 - Niagara Falls paintings
Life Magazine 1949-06-13 - Go by Train! (advertisement)
Life Magazine 1949-06-20 - Skyline Drive (Shenandoah National Park)
Life Magazine 1949-06-27 - New Harvest adds to big wheat harvest
Life Magazine 1949-07-11 - Grasshopper plague from Illinois to California
Life Magazine 1949-07-18 - Oil is mined in Colorado (oil shale)
Life Magazine 1949-07-25 - Yosemite National Park
Life Magazine 1949-08-01 - Jackie Robinson
Life Magazine 1949-08-08 - Arms for Europe
Life Magazine 1949-08-15 - Polio (uncontrollable disease)
Life Magazine 1949-08-22 - Earthquake in Ecuador – 5,000 dead
Life Magazine 1949-08-29 - Margaret Mitchell dies (after being hit by a car)
Life Magazine 1949-09-05 - Swiss watchmaker
Life Magazine 1949-09-12 - Tito defies the Kremlin
Life Magazine 1949-09-12 - The war babies hit the first grade
Life Magazine 1949-09-26 - Soviet citizen prisoners marched off by the thousands
Life Magazine 1949-10-03 - The Viking’s flight
Life Magazine 1949-10-10 - Robert Oppenheimer
Life Magazine 1949-10-17 - Fall tree lined road in New Hampshire
Life Magazine 1949-10-24 - How to choose your Christmas cards (Grandma Moses)
Life Magazine 1949-10-31 – Petra
Life Magazine 1949-11-07 - World Book Encyclopedia (advertisement)
Life Magazine 1949-11-14 - Holiday cooky (Pillsbury)
Life Magazine 1949-11-21 - Deformed fish reveal radiation effects
Life Magazine 1949-11-28 - Lionel train (advertisement)
Life Magazine 1949-12-05 - West Texas taps a big oil pool
Life Magazine 1949-12-12 - US constructs 60,000 miles of highway
Life Magazine 1949-12-19 - Christmas lights
Life Magazine 1949-12-26 - Armstrongs see the country…. (road trip)
Last January I posted about what I had done over the later part of 2025 to reduce plastics around my house and the advantages we were observing. We are still benefiting from the investments I made without a lot of additional investments since January. I’ve notice that our grocery lists are generally shorter and we have less trash and recycle….and we aren’t feeling the full bite of inflation as much as I thought we would.
Trying to reduce plastic in all my purchases has encouraged more thoughtful purchasing. It slows me down enough to decide not to purchase something…realize that the item is not a ‘need’ and that I don’t really want it enough to purchase it. Identifying (and avoiding) ultra-processed food is another goal that seems to correlate with plastic reduction! What’s not to like about reduce costs and eating better at the same time.
I’ve refined some of my behaviors over the past few months that have reduced plastics further:
I have a collection of cleaned out/reused peanut butter (glass) jars that I use for making sugar water for my hummingbird feeder and am reusing the lovely green glass bottles (lemon juice) for storing filtered water in the refrigerator (or for the ice chest when we travel).
Our store has catsup in glass bottles again – and we have started purchasing it rather than the larger plastic bottles. It works well for us since we do not use it as often as we have previously.
I have enlarged my ‘favorite salad dressings’ to include honey – lemon….and am able to easily find honey in a glass jar and lemons in a bin without packaging at the store. I haven’t bought salad dressing since my original decision to avoid plastics in close contact with acidic or oily foods!
The net plastic is sometimes less or similar between fresh and frozen foods. I have started buying frozen broccoli, corn, and peppers/onions rather than fresh. They reduce prep time for stir fry and there is no wasted food (i.e. something going bad before I can use it). The plastic is probably not degrading into the food since it is cold! I never cook the frozen vegetables in the bag even if the bag advertises that it is OK to use it to steam the veggies in the microwave.
I had planned to use violets in salads this summer and it worked well. The cyclosporiasis outbreak is an added motivation for me to continue to use this green – although this late in the season the leaves are better cooked than raw.
The main area of investment now is clothes. I am gradually replacing things that are 100% synthetic (i.e. plastic: polyester, rayon, nylon, etc.) with equivalent items that are 100% natural fibers or a blend that is dominated by natural fibers. It is unfortunate that Amazon searches tend to return synthetic items – overriding the search terms completely! Sometimes local stores have what I want….and I am checking their stock more frequently now.
Progress is slower now…but I am still enjoying discovering ways to reduce plastics in my life!
The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.
07/29/2026 NASA Sizing Up the Sargassum Belt - Sargassum, a type of brown floating algae, has shifted its range in recent decades, thinning out in the North Atlantic’s Sargasso Sea while proliferating in the tropical Atlantic. That trend, underway since 2011, continued in 2026 as the algae, commonly known as a type of seaweed, reached its annual peak in June across a stretch of ocean known as the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt. The belt’s Sargassum abundance in June 2026 made it the second-highest Sargassum year in the satellite record, slightly behind 2025, according to scientists at the University of South Florida (USF) College of Marine Science. Regionally, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of America (Gulf of Mexico) both hit record highs, according to USF’s June 2026 Sargassum outlook. The western and eastern Caribbean saw 3.6 and 9 million metric tons, respectively, while the Gulf saw 5 million metric tons—nearly double its previous record, also set in 2025.
07/29/2026 Smithsonian Magazine A Metal Detectorist Discovered Tiny Tiles in a Farmer’s Field - John Hill was surveying a farmer’s field in southwestern England when his metal detector identified a Roman-era coin hidden beneath the soil. Now, almost two decades later, archaeologists have returned to the site and excavated the ruins of an ancient villa—complete with a lavish mosaic floor. Stretching across roughly 130 square feet, the mosaic is located near Halberton, Devon. Experts think it dates to the fourth century C.E. The thousands of colorful tiles, each measuring less than half an inch, form a flower with eight petals. This design is bordered by a guilloche pattern, featuring two bands woven together.
07/28/2026 Science Daily 4 in 5 toddler foods are ultra-processed - A grocery-store audit found that many foods marketed for toddlers may be far less healthy than parents expect. Of nearly 2,800 products examined in Texas, 81% were ultra-processed, and almost half failed at least one World Health Organization nutrient standard, often because they contained too much sugar, sodium, fat, or too many calories.
07/29/2026 Planetizen BLM could allow oil leases near sacred New Mexico Indigenous sites - The Bureau of Land Management is considering several options for opening up oil and mineral leases near Chaco Culture National Historical Park, a massive complex of Native American ruins and a sacred site in New Mexico. In 2023, the agency withdrew roughly 336,000 acres surrounding the area from leasing for 20 years, explains Marni Rose McFall in Newsweek. Now, the agency could keep the protections in place, reduce the protected area to a 5-mile (instead of 10-mile) buffer, or remove the protections altogether.
07/29/2026 NPR The Trump administration's move to end subsidies for Medicare drug plans could cost consumers - Project 2025 was pretty blunt about wanting to push more people into Medicare Advantage…One way to really accelerate that is to make it very expensive to stay in traditional Medicare.
07/29/2026 The Conversation Ten simple and proven ways to reduce your exposure to pollutants in your home - Reducing environmental exposures does not require major lifestyle changes. Small, everyday habits can help create a healthier home environment. For example: Avoid synthetic fragrances and Cut down on Plastics.
07/28/2026 Archaeology Magazine New Thoughts on Wall Paintings in Japan’s Kyushu Tombs - Dated to the sixth and seventh century A.D., the tombs are horizontal stone chambers that could be reopened and were reused for generations. They were decorated with colorful images of spiral circles, horses, boats, and stick-like people. These stick figures were often depicted without faces and shown as smaller than other objects in the paintings. A new study suggests that the images are not portraits of the dead, but anonymous figures who symbolize the journey undertaken by any dead person.
07/28/2026 Yale Environment 260 In Germany, Wind and Solar Overtake Fossil Power - Together, wind and solar generated 44 percent of Germany’s electricity, while fossil fuels generated roughly 43 percent. Germany shut down its last remaining nuclear power plants in 2023. It is aiming to wean off of coal power by 2038, though experts say it will likely achieve that goal much sooner. By 2045, its target date for net zero emissions, Germany plans to convert any remaining gas-fired power plants to green hydrogen.
07/28/2026 BBC Future The spotted lanternfly is ravaging the eastern US. Pet dogs are coming to the rescue - Frequently found plastered across windscreens along the US's Atlantic coast, spotted lanternflies are an invasive pest and a multimillion-dollar disaster for the US's wine industry. A citizen-science program is training pet dogs on demonstration plots like this to find the eggs before they hatch so they can be destroyed. It's revealing the surprising power of pet dogs' noses, with even unconventional sniffer-dog breeds like the humble pug able to play their part.
07/26/2026 Clean Technica Renewables Provide More Than 30% of US Electricity - New data just released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), and reviewed by the SUN DAY Campaign, reveal growth of more than 10% in electrical generation by renewable energy sources in the first five months of 2026. Moreover, solar, wind, and battery storage are projected to add about 83.0 gigawatts (GW) of new generating capacity in the U.S. by May 31, 2027 while total fossil fuel and nuclear power capacity will fall by almost 4.7-GW. By comparison, the electrical output of the nation’s nuclear power and natural gas plants experienced much slower growth — just 1.3% and 2.5% respectively. Electricity produced by U.S. coal facilities fell by 10.9%. The combination of just wind and solar, including small-scale solar, provided over 22.2% of domestic electrical production.
Twenty more books were added to my botanical print eBook collection in July – all are available for browsing on online (mostly on Internet Archive). 15 of the books are a continuation of the Carnivorous Plant Newsletters; there are 4 volumes per year so this month includes 2017 to 2020; I’ll continue browsing this periodical in August. There were a few miscellaneous volumes at the beginning of the list – with a wide range of publication dates (1787 – 2025).
My list of eBotanical Prints books now totals 3,403 eBooks I’ve browsed over the years. The whole list can be accessed here.
Click on any sample image from July’s 20 books to get an enlarged version…and the title hyperlink in the list below the image mosaic to view the entire volume where there are a lot more botanical illustrations to browse.
Enjoy the July 2026 eBotanical Prints!
The Philosphy of Botany * Thornton, Robert John * sample image * 1799
Cours de botanique * Alyon, Pierre Philippe * sample image * 1787
Boccone Museum rariorum plantarum : nominibus linnaei specificis * Cabrini, Aloysio * sample image * 1791
Hortus Cliffortianus plantas exhibens quas in hortis tam vivis quam siccis, Hartecampi in Hollandia * Linne, Carl von * sample image * 1738
Carnivorous plant newsletter v.46:no.2 (2017) * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2017
Carnivorous plant newsletter v.46:no.3 (2017) * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2017
Carnivorous plant newsletter v.46:no.4 (2017) * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2017
Carnivorous plant newsletter v.47:no.1 (2018) * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2018
Native Plants for Stormwater Management Projects - Species Selection for the Lower Midwest * Shaw, Daniel; Schmidt, Daniel * sample image * 2025
Carnivorous plant newsletter v.47:no.2 (2018) * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2018
Carnivorous plant newsletter v.47:no.3 (2018) * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2018
Carnivorous plant newsletter v.47:no.4 (2018) * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2018
Carnivorous plant newsletter v.48:no.1 (2019) * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2019
Carnivorous plant newsletter v.48:no.2 (2019) * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2019
Carnivorous plant newsletter v.48:no.3 (2019) * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2019
Carnivorous plant newsletter v.48:no.4 (2019) * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2019
Carnivorous plant newsletter v.49:no.1 (2020) * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2020
Carnivorous plant newsletter v.49:no.2 (2020) * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2020
Carnivorous plant newsletter v.49:no.3 (2020) * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2020
Carnivorous plant newsletter v.49:no.4 (2020) * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2020
The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.
07/22/2026 I’m Plastic Free 8 Plastic-Free School Supplies & Zero-Waste Tips for Students – Some good ideas for reducing plastics for the beginning of the school year.
07/22/2026 Clean Technica It’s Time to Adopt a New Mindset About the Planet - The author suggests: Begin with the Billionaires. Oil companies must clean up their pollution. Chemicals need to be reined in, not excused. Accountability for climate change. Returning rivers, streams, and the oceans. Vote!
07/21/2026 BBC Future A stranding in Ireland sheds new light on the long, slow, ice-cold life of a deep-sea shark – Some species factoids: The Greenland shark, the longest living vertebrate on the planet, can live for around 400 years; Greenland sharks are among the world's biggest sharks, measuring up to 5m (16ft); Greenland sharks are slow-swimming, solitary scavengers and predators. The post documents the study of a Greenland shark carcass that washed up on an Ireland beach in April.
07/21/2026 Yale Environment 360 Long Presumed Dead, a Thriving Coral Reef Is Discovered in West Africa – A paragraph in a 1960s report…and then no investigation again until recently. Researchers have classified the site as a mesophotic coral ecosystem (MCE). Such systems are light-dependent communities existing at the lower limits of reef-building corals. At more than 175 feet below the surface, the coral garden they discovered appears patchily scattered on a rocky substrate.
07/20/2026 Cool Green Science The Bird That Needs Fire: What Bachman’s Sparrow Can Teach Us About Restoration - Long before most people spot one, a Bachman’s Sparrow announces itself from a patch of native grasses, delivering one of the first songs of the season. Small and easily overlooked, it has become one of the most important indicators of whether longleaf pine forest ecosystems are functioning as they should.
07/17/2026 Science Daily Tiny plastics in drinking water may be making dangerous bacteria stronger - New research suggests nanoplastics can actually help harmful bacteria survive by strengthening the slimy biofilms they form inside water systems. These tougher biofilms become more resistant to disinfectants, making them harder to remove and potentially increasing public health risks.
07/17/2026 Smithsonian Magazine These 16 Splendid Aerial Views Capture Wildlife from Above, Revealing the Beauty and Mystery of Nature - A selection of the photos that spotlight animals from a new perspective – from the Second International Aerial Photographer of the Year contest.
07/15/2026 My Modern Met Tennessee Introduces Anti-AI Seal Supporting Photographers Taking Real Photos of the State - Tennessee tourism has been booming, breaking new records in recent years for the Volunteer State. In 2024, they brought in 147 million visitors and $31.7 billion. This was the fourth consecutive year to break the record in tourist spending, which has surged 36.6% since 2018, more than double the national average. It is important to the state that “what you see is what you get.”
07/23/2026 Science Daily Goodbye, cavities? New gel could regrow tooth enamel - Inspired by the proteins that guide enamel formation in infancy, the gel fills microscopic cracks and draws calcium and phosphate from saliva to grow a new mineral layer that closely matches healthy enamel. After the gel is placed on a tooth, it forms a thin but durable coating that penetrates the tooth's surface and fills small cracks, pores, and other damaged areas. This coating then acts as a framework for rebuilding the mineral structure of enamel. When applied to exposed dentine, the gel can grow an enamel like mineral layer over the surface. This could help reduce tooth sensitivity while also creating a stronger surface for dental restorations to bond to.
07/23/2026 The Prairie Ecologist Those bugs are eating my flowers! What do I do? - If a species is reducing the resilience of a site - mitigate that. Stepping back to put that scene in context with the broader area usually helps answer the question about whether or what to do anything about it. After all, one of the benefits of facilitating ecological resilience is that it gives prairies the ability to adapt and absorb impacts, including Japanese beetles shredding some plants here and there.
I was browsing through the December 1909 issue of McClure’s Magazine when I found A Child’s World – A Series of Pictures by Jessie Wilcox Smith. I always enjoy her illustrations and it was a pleasant surprise. There are only 5 illustrations – one shown in this post to entice you to follow the link to the others for the quick ‘book of the week.
A Child’s World (in 1909)
The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.
07/13/2026 Science Daily Why are healthy young non-smokers developing lung cancer? - Younger Americans under age 50 who have never smoked and consume more of fruits and vegetable than average may face a higher risk of developing lung cancer. Commercially grown (non-organic) fruits, vegetables, and whole grains generally contain higher levels of pesticide residues than dairy products, meat, and many processed foods. There is also previous research showing that agricultural workers with long term pesticide exposure experience higher rates of lung cancer. The next phase of the research will involve measuring pesticide levels directly in patients' blood or urine samples. That work could help determine whether certain pesticides are more strongly associated with lung cancer risk than others.
07/09/2026 NWF Blog Spark Joy in Your Outdoor Events by Blending Forest Bathing, Nature Appreciation, and Wildlife Education - Learn more about the practice of forest bathing and to access tips and resources on how to level up your outdoor events this summer through forest bathing, nature appreciation, and wildlife education.
07/08/26 Archaeology Magazine Scythian DNA Study Examines Elite Family Ties - The remains of 38 of the Scythians were recovered from kurgans that also contained elite weapons and gold artifacts, while the other 47 were recovered from smaller kurgans that lacked gold grave goods. The elite Scythians were 11 times more likely to be related to each other than to the other Scythians. Nearly half of the elite individuals in our dataset were female, indicating that women held high social status within Iron Age Scythian society.
07/08/2026 Smithsonian Magazine Sperm Whales Living in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea Seem to Have Developed a Distinct Dialect from Those in the West - From Southern drawls to Irish brogues, humans can sound very different while speaking the same language. It turns out that some whales might have similar regional variations in their vocalizations, too. Sperm whales living in different parts of the Mediterranean Sea appear to have their own distinct dialects. Scientists think that about 20,000 years ago, a group of intrepid sperm whales swam into the Strait of Gibraltar and entered the Mediterranean Sea, where they’ve remained ever since. The individuals living in the Mediterranean rarely leave the sea—and other sperm whales don’t often enter the area—so they’re considered a genetically distinct subpopulation.
07/07/2026 Clean Technica New York Now at 8 Gigawatts of Distributed Solar Power - New York has just reached 8 gigawatts (GW) of installed solar power capacity in the “distributed” solar market — rooftops and small-scale installations. The state has a target of reaching 10 GW by 2030, and this new milestone puts them ahead of schedule. Just from lowering electricity demand on the power grid during times of peak demand, solar power is estimated to have saved New York $90 million last summer. Greater savings will come this summer.
07/08/2026 Yale Environment 360 What Do We Actually Know About the Microplastics Inside Us? - I know it is easy to say we don’t have enough information yet, but we do know about [the health risks from] these chemicals that are in all the plastics that your food is wrapped in. From that perspective, it is still a good idea to reduce plastics or eliminate them where possible. – Cassandra Rauert
07/07/2026 The Conversation Island life changed how Brazil’s Noronha skink reproduces, but the lizard’s strategy might be failing in a rapidly evolving world - Reproduction occurs during a relatively narrow period of the year, in the dry season. Not all females reproduce annually: our data suggest that many reproduce only every two or even three years. When they do, they produce only two eggs at a time — a very low number for lizards in this group. These eggs, however, are large relative to the mother’s body size, indicating a high investment in each offspring.
05/20/2026 PLOS One Skeletons in the permafrost: Exploring climate-driven heritage loss and occupational health at the early modern whaling burial site of Likneset, Svalbard - Rapid Arctic warming is accelerating the degradation of permafrost-preserved archaeological sites, threatening both cultural heritage and the scientific information it contains. Early modern whaling burial sites on Svalbard are particularly vulnerable due to their organic-rich burial contexts and exposed coastal settings.
Homegrown National Park How to build a mosquito bucket – A non-toxic way to control mosquitos in your yard.
Leaf & Limb 7 Ways to Help Your Trees and Shrubs During (and After) a Drought – My area of Missouri is not in drought right now….but it has been in previous summers. The suggestions in this post can be done any time….and keep trees healthier ahead of the next drought!
Copyright © 2026, Gwen Morrison. All rights reserved.
Celebrating the whole of life....
Thanks for visiting my blog! Enjoy the photo picks from last month:
Copyright © 2026 Gwen Morrison. All rights reserved.
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