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“I want to have the freedom to follow my curiosity and adventurous spirit
so that I can experience a new world and discover new sides of myself.”
Honda wants to support such desires of people, and Honda wants to continue to be
the “power” that supports people around the world who are trying to do things based on their own initiative.
We strive to realize the joy and freedom of mobility by seeking “zero environmental impact.”
It may not be an easy goal to achieve. Because it is difficult, Honda will continue taking on challenges without giving up.
Since the 1960s, Honda has been taking a proactive approach in resolving environmental issues.
Honda’s goal is to realize carbon-neutrality for all of its products and corporate activities by 2050.
From the perspectives of both Honda and our stakeholders, Honda has organized and clarified key challenges we must address globally.
Key environmental challenges Honda has identified are: addressing climate change and energy issues, efficient use of resources, and conservation of clean air.
As such, Honda will strive to realize zero environmental impact not only with its products, but throughout the entire product lifecycle including all corporate activities.
In order to realize carbon neutrality by 2050, Honda established its “Triple Action to ZERO” concept.
Honda’s environmental initiatives will center around “Triple Action to ZERO,” which focuses on three areas: carbon neutrality, clean energy, and resource circulation.
Honda will strive to realize by 2050 a circular / recycling society aiming for zero environmental impact through not only its products but throughout the entire product lifecycle including all corporate activities.
For its initiatives to introduce energy-saving facilities, Honda will continue reducing energy use and CO₂ emissions by introducing the latest energy-saving technologies and know-how at its new and renewed production plants.
Honda will also increase carbon-free electricity usage, proactively utilizing clean energy.
Honda’s motorcycle, automobile and power products businesses have set their respective targets for the ratio of electrified products to global unit sales in 2030, and have been accelerating electrification through various measures including collaboration with other companies, while expanding and enhancing the lineup of electrified products.
Considering the importance of coexisting on this planet, Honda is taking on the challenge to reduce consumption of finite natural resources, and move to a circular value chain. Honda aims to achieve zero environmental impact from procurement of raw materials to product disposal.

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James Madison University has once again received national recognition though inclusion in The Princeton Review’s Guide to Green Colleges, 2024 edition. The University has been selected every year since the guide was first published in 2010. This free, online guide is presented as a resource for college applicants who are looking to attend schools that foster a culture of environmental responsibility.
Using primarily survey data from administrators at 683 colleges in 2022–23 with more than 25 survey data points, the 2024 edition of the Guide features profiles of 522 schools that “have exceptional programs, policies, and practices related to sustainability and the environment” [Source]. Profiles include details of each school’s green distinctions, such as environmental academic offerings, students working to advance sustainability, and waste minimization and diversion, as well as general information of interest to prospective students, such as admission requirements.
The Princeton Review editors tallied Green Rating scores for the schools on a scale of 60 to 99, and colleges with a score of 80 or higher were selected for the Guide. JMU received a Green Rating of 93, which can be found along with sustainability highlights in JMU’s profile under the tab “Campus Life,” subtopic “Sustainability” in the Guide.
“Since we debuted our Green Guide 14 years ago, we have also seen dramatic growth in the number of colleges committing to sustainability-related practices — from sourcing food from local purveyors to constructing LEED- certified buildings to making fossil fuel-free commitments,” stated Rob Franek, editor-in-chief, The Princeton Review, in the press release for the Guide.
According to The Princeton Review’s 2024 College Hopes & Worries Survey, 61% of college applicants responding selected that “a college’s commitment to the environment would contribute to their decision to apply to or attend the school” [Source]. According to Amanda Bodle, program manager for the Institute for Stewardship of the Natural World at JMU, “As students become increasingly concerned about the environmental impact of the schools they attend, JMU has continued to be committed to environmental stewardship and sustainability in education, research, service, and operations.”
The Institute for Stewardship of the Natural World coordinates environmental stewardship efforts across campus, advocating for priorities and challenging all members of the James Madison community to think critically about their role in achieving the long-term stewardship of Earth. JMU’s efforts are furthered by affiliations with Tree Campus USA and Bee Campus USA, a Bicycle Friendly University designation, and green buildings led by Facilities Management. In 2022, JMU was listed No. 27 among The Princeton Review’s Top 50 Green Colleges based on a combination of school-reported data and student opinion.
JMU sustainability highlights for 2021-2023 can be found here. More information on campus sustainability can be found on the ISNW website.
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by Cas Dumas, ISNW graduate assistant and WRTC graduate student
Published: Wednesday, March 20, 2024
Last Updated: Monday, April 1, 2024
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April is known as Earth Month. This year, Earth Day will be celebrated on April 22, but WHRO Public Media has ways that you and your family can celebrate all month long. Throughout the month, we will feature programs and resources to learn about nature, weather, climate change and more. 
This year’s Earth Month theme, according to earthmonth.org, is “Planet vs. Plastics,” to raise awareness of the health and environmental risks associated with plastics. 
As you make plans to celebrate this year, check out our list of learning resources from eMediaVA for teachers or parents to help children learn about science and the environment, a schedule of TV premieres of new PBS programs for families and a list of on-demand programs you can stream anytime.
Help your kids learn about nature, environmental science, climate change and more.
Earth Day Elementary Resources
Celebrate Earth Day and Earth Month in April with fun and informative resources for elementary classrooms. (Grades PK, K, 1-8)

Above the Noise: Earth Month Collection 
These 12 resources help engage students in discussions around climate conservation. (Grades 6-12)
Batten Environmental Education Initiative K-5 Interactives 
A collection of 16 interactive games from WHRO Education designed for environmental education fun.(Grades K-5)
Radiolab for Kids | Terrestrials 
Terrestrials is a podcast that explores the strangeness that exists right here on Earth. (Grades K, 1-8)
Living Organisms & Nonliving Things Collection 
Explore resources to help early learners understand the differences between living organisms and nonliving things. (Grades PK, K, 1-5)
Soil Collection 
Explore our elementary resources on soil and growth! (Grades PK, K, 1-12)
Science Trek | Environment 
Learn more about the environment. (Grades K, 1-8)
Gather the family to watch these new PBS programs that highlight the science, solutions and personal stories around climate change.
Independent Lens: A Thousand Pines – Monday, April 1, 10 p.m.
Over a grueling eight months, a crew of Oaxacan guest workers plant trees across America. This intimate portrait shows how hard it is to balance the physical demands of reforestation and extreme isolation while staying connected to family back home.
A Brief History of the Future – Wednesday, April 3, 8 p.m.
“Beyond The Now” – Join Ari Wallach on his journey to seek the individuals and ideas that can shape a better, more sustainable future for each generation can build upon.
NOVA: Great American Eclipse – Wednesday, April, 9 p.m.
Explore the spectacular cosmic phenomenon of a total solar eclipse. In April 2024, the Moon’s shadow is sweeping from Texas to Maine, as the U.S. witnesses its last total eclipse until 2044, and scientists scramble to unlock the secrets of our Sun.
Speaking of the upcoming Total Solar Eclipse on April 8 — do you have viewing plans?
Check out our tips and resources.
Independent Lens: One with the Whale – Tuesday, April 23, 10 p.m.
Hunting whales is a matter of survival for Alaska Native residents of St. Lawrence. A family is blindsided when animal activists target their son, the youngest ever to harpoon a whale for his village – a hunt that feeds the community through winter. Also included is the short film “Everything Wrong and Nowhere to Go.” Exploring the field of “climate psychology,” this is a candid and comedic self-portrait in which the filmmaker turns the camera on herself and goes in search of a cure for her crippling climate anxiety.
Against the Current – Wednesday, April 24, 8 p.m.
Against the Current provides a powerful glimpse of how Virginia’s Eastern Shore residents are subject to the challenges of rising water’s effects on their lives and livelihood and through resilience and perseverance learn to co-exist and celebrate their rural home. How can this unique community shed light on the national conversations happening around these climate issues?
PBS KIDS celebrates Spring with an action-packed one-hour special from Wild Kratts and an all-new movie from Nature Cat.
Wild Kratts: Our Blue and Green World – Premieres April 1, 8:30 a.m. on WHRO TV 15, and 6 p.m. on WHRO Kids
While doing their annual Laundry Day, the Kratt brothers disagree on what” better: blue oceans or green forests. Can the gang get Martin and Chris back in sync in time to save Planet Earth from Zach and Paisley Paver’s villainous plans?
Watch more Wild Kratts episodes on-demand.
New Episodes of Wild Kratts on WHRO Kids:
No Name Dream – April 2, 6 p.m.
Martin has a dream that he’s forgotten to name some baby animals and awakens in a sweat. He makes it his mission to go back and name all the “unnamed” and along the way, learn more about their “creaturenality.”
Backpack The Camel – April 3, 6 p.m.
The gang travels to the Gobi Desert to discover the last remaining wild camels in the world. They experience the harshness of the desert landscape and are rescued from it only by the wild Bactrian camels and their amazing survival skills.
Fish Out of Water – April 4, 6 p.m.
After a Creature Power Disc mishap, the bros become marooned in the world of the mudskipper, a fish that can walk on land. They must find their discs within a foreign world of intense competition, with unexpected dangers at every turn.
Nature Cats Nature Movie Special Extraordinaire – Premieres April 22, 12:30 p.m. on WHRO TV 15, and 4:30 p.m. / 8 p.m. on WHRO Kids
Nature Cat and his pals realize they’ve come to the end of their Nature Curiosity List. Meanwhile, Sir Galahad gives himself the title of King and moves into a barren castle and steals pieces of nature to make his castle look more beautiful. Oh no!
Watch more Nature Cat episodes on-demand.
GreenBeats
GreenBeats℠ is a WHRO-produced series of animated shorts that focuses on critical environmental issues and themes. The 10-part series promotes environmental education and stewardship and is targeted toward children grades 3 through 5. Stream the entire series.

Project: Earth
Project: Earth takes a deep dive into the environmental science issues that impact our daily lives. Host Hales Parcells gives viewers an in-depth look at the issues that affect our world, how our activities are changing the planet, and the people who are working to protect the environment.

Human Footprint
Earth has never experienced anything like us: a single species dominating and transforming the planet. Biologist Shane Campbell-Staton travels the globe to explore our Human Footprint and to discover how the things we do reveal who we truly are.
Evolution Earth
At the front lines of climate change, animals have a surprising story to tell. Traveling to the far corners of the world, we discover the extraordinary ways animals are adapting to our rapidly changing planet. We witness nature’s remarkable resilience, as our perception of evolution and its potential is forever transformed.
The Green Planet
Sir David Attenborough travels the globe to reveal the secret lives of plants. Using pioneering camera techniques, the series takes viewers on a magical journey inside the hidden world of plants, on which all animals — including humans — are dependent.

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UK prime minister delays ban on sale of new petrol and diesel cars as he pushes back net zero goals
Rishi Sunak has announced a major U-turn on the government’s climate commitments as he promised to put his party on a more radical path in an attempt to close the gap with Labour before the next general election.
In one of his biggest policy changes since taking office, Sunak confirmed the UK would push back the deadline for selling new petrol and diesel cars and the phasing out of gas boilers, prompting furious condemnation from the automobile and energy industries.
Some senior Tories, led by Boris Johnson, criticised the move, with the former prime minister warning his successor that he “cannot afford to falter now” because heaping uncertainty on businesses could drive up prices for British families.
The move was met with despair by climate scientists and environmental experts who said it would cost consumers more in the long run and threaten the UK’s global leadership on the issue. The former US vice-president Al Gore said Sunak was “doing the wrong thing”.
At a Downing Street press conference, Sunak insisted his scaling down of climate policies was “not about the politics”, even though the Conservatives’ conference slogan adorned the lectern and party insiders said the move was about creating dividing lines with Labour.
The prime minister said he was “absolutely unequivocal” about sticking to the commitment to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 but that he wanted to take a “more pragmatic, proportionate and realistic approach”. However, he set out little detail on what measures he would now bring in to help meet that target.
Environmental groups are expected to challenge in court the decision to water down the commitments as the government has a legal obligation to set out in detail how it will meet its 2050 target with clear carbon budgets for different sectors.
Sunak said he was trying to “bring the country along with us” and save families thousands of pounds by delaying the green pledges. Yet, businesses and environmental experts have warned that his plans could end up costing them more in the long run.
The prime minister billed his approach as a middle road between those who want far tougher climate action and those who do not believe humans are causing climate breakdown at all, adding that the UK was already ahead of other countries in taking action.
“I’ve got an opportunity to change things and what I don’t want to do is make yet more short-term decisions, easy ways out and ultimately not be straight with the country about what those mean for them,” he said.
“If we continue down this path, we risk losing the consent of the British people. The resulting backlash would not just be against specific policies but against the wider mission itself, meaning we might never achieve our goal.”
However, polls have consistently shown that the majority of people back the transition to net zero in order to limit climate breakdown, although that support starts to wane if costs are piled on consumers.
Sunak indicated that the net zero announcement was the first of several big consumer-focused policy shifts he is expected to outline in the coming weeks, as he attempts to set out his vision for the country and boost the Tories’ poor poll ratings.
“This is just the start. What we begin today is bigger than any single policy or issue. We are going to change the way our politics works. We are going to make different decisions. We won’t take the easy way out. There will be resistance, and we will meet it,” he said.
No 10 sources said the U-turn had been driven by Sunak himself with the guidance of Tory election strategist Isaac Levido, who has been focused on drawing dividing lines with Labour ahead of the next election.
“This is not a new thing since Uxbridge [byelection] or something that has been forced upon him by Isaac or the others: there’s definitely a bit of: ‘We need to let Rishi be Rishi,’” one Tory insider said. “They’ve done the caution bit; it’s not been hugely successful, so we might as well let him do what he wants to do.”
Most Tory MPs were supportive, with some vocally backing the policy. Labour condemned the plan, and sought to use the speech to link the prime minister with his predecessor Liz Truss, who called on the government to row back on its green commitments just days ago.
Ed Miliband, the shadow energy secretary, said: “This is an act of weakness from a desperate, directionless prime minister, dancing to the tune of a small minority of his party. Liz Truss crashed the economy and Rishi Sunak is trashing our economic future.”
However, the party admitted it would not fully restore the targets now junked by the government. Shadow ministers said they would bring back the 2030 deadline to phase out petrol and diesel cars, but would not restore the targets to eliminate gas boilers.
“Labour isn’t going to put people’s bills up,” said Steve Reed, the shadow environment secretary.
Mark Maslin, a professor of climatology at University College London, said: “Sunak’s excuse again and again is not to put the cost burden on the public – as if it is individuals that have to pay for the net zero transition.
“He seems to forget government is there to enable major infrastructure changes and the switch to renewable energy, electric cars, and heat exchangers should be supported because all of them in the long run save people money and improve people’s health.”
Sunak’s announcement came after a chaotic 24 hours, during which details of his planned speech were leaked, causing the prime minister to bring it forward by 48 hours and call an emergency cabinet meeting to sign off the plan.
The most significant rollback is a delay to the deadline for phasing out the sale of new petrol and diesel cars, from 2030 to 2035, in line with other European countries, with those vehicles still allowed to be sold secondhand after that date. The move will require a vote in parliament.
Carmakers have spent hundreds of millions of pounds over the last few years investing in electric vehicle manufacturing to prepare for the 2030 deadline, and many of them reacted angrily to news of the delay.
Lisa Brankin, the chair of Ford UK, said on Wednesday morning: “Our business needs three things from the UK government: ambition, commitment and consistency. A relaxation of 2030 would undermine all three.”
The prime minister also announced a delay to the target for eliminating the sale of gas boilers to homes. Under his new policy, homeowners will only have to replace their gas boilers with electric heat pumps when they are replacing their boilers anyway.
Boiler upgrade grants will be doubled to £7,500 and many homes will be exempt from the demand altogether. Energy efficiency targets for landlords will also be scrapped, along with planned insulation requirements for homeowners.
Before the speech, Chris Norbury, the chief executive of energy supplier E.ON, said: “We risk condemning people to many more years of living in cold and draughty homes that are expensive to heat, in cities clogged with dirty air from fossil fuels, missing out on the regeneration this ambition brings.”
The prime minister also said there would be no new taxes to discourage flying or on eating meat – even though neither of these is government policy – and ruled out proposed recycling schemes with multiple bins or compulsory car-sharing.
The government’s claim that the UK has done better than other countries on cutting emissions is based on decarbonisation carried out decades ago, not under the current government.
Emissions cuts are measured from 1990, and the UK’s dash for gas, which displaced coal for power generation in the 1990s and 2000s, delivered the lion’s share of the roughly 50% fall in carbon emissions since then.
Under this government, while emissions from power generation have continued to fall, those from transport, homes and farming have remained high.

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Human activities are driving the global warming trend observed since the mid-20th century.
Scientists attribute the global warming trend observed since the mid-20^th century to the human expansion of the “greenhouse effect”¹ — warming that results when the atmosphere traps heat radiating from Earth toward space.
Life on Earth depends on energy coming from the Sun. About half the light energy reaching Earth’s atmosphere passes through the air and clouds to the surface, where it is absorbed and radiated in the form of infrared heat. About 90% of this heat is then absorbed by greenhouse gases and re-radiated, slowing heat loss to space.
A vital component of the atmosphere, carbon dioxide (CO₂) is released through natural processes (like volcanic eruptions) and through human activities, such as burning fossil fuels and deforestation.
Like many atmospheric gases, methane comes from both natural and human-caused sources. Methane comes from plant-matter breakdown in wetlands and is also released from landfills and rice farming. Livestock animals emit methane from their digestion and manure. Leaks from fossil fuel production and transportation are another major source of methane, and natural gas is 70% to 90% methane.
A potent greenhouse gas produced by farming practices, nitrous oxide is released during commercial and organic fertilizer production and use. Nitrous oxide also comes from burning fossil fuels and burning vegetation and has increased by 18% in the last 100 years.
These chemical compounds do not exist in nature – they are entirely of industrial origin. They were used as refrigerants, solvents (a substance that dissolves others), and spray can propellants.
FORCING: Something acting upon Earth’s climate that causes a change in how energy flows through it (such as long-lasting, heat-trapping gases – also known as greenhouse gases). These gases slow outgoing heat in the atmosphere and cause the planet to warm.
Water vapor is the most abundant greenhouse gas, but because the warming ocean increases the amount of it in our atmosphere, it is not a direct cause of climate change.

_{Credit: John Fowler on Unsplash}
FEEDBACKS: A process where something is either amplified or reduced as time goes on, such as water vapor increasing as Earth warms leading to even more warming.
Over the last century, burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil has increased the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂). This increase happens because the coal or oil burning process combines carbon with oxygen in the air to make CO₂. To a lesser extent, clearing of land for agriculture, industry, and other human activities has increased concentrations of greenhouse gases.
The industrial activities that our modern civilization depends upon have raised atmospheric carbon dioxide levels by nearly 50% since 1750². This increase is due to human activities, because scientists can see a distinctive isotopic fingerprint in the atmosphere.
In its Sixth Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, composed of scientific experts from countries all over the world, concluded that it is unequivocal that the increase of CO₂, methane, and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere over the industrial era is the result of human activities and that human influence is the principal driver of many changes observed across the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

The panel’s AR6 Working Group I (WGI) Summary for Policymakers report is online at https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/.
Scientists use a metric called Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) to measure the changes in energy the Earth receives from the Sun. TSI incorporates the 11-year solar cycle and solar flares/storms from the Sun’s surface.
Studies show that solar variability has played a role in past climate changes. For example, a decrease in solar activity coupled with increased volcanic activity helped trigger the Little Ice Age.
But several lines of evidence show that current global warming cannot be explained by changes in energy from the Sun:
1. IPCC 6^th Assessment Report, WG1, Summary for Policy Makers, Sections A, “The Current State of the Climate”
IPCC 6^th Assessment Report, WG1, Technical Summary, Sections TS.1.2, TS.2.1 and TS.3.1
2. P. Friedlingstein, et al., 2022: “Global Carbon Budget 2022”, Earth System Science Data (11 Nov 2022): 4811–4900. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4811-2022
3. IPCC 6^th Assessment Report, WG1, Chapter 2, Section 2.2.1, “Solar and Orbital Forcing”

IPCC 6^th Assessment Report, WG1, Chapter 7, Sections 7.3.4.4, 7.3.5.2, Figure 7.6, “Solar”

M. Lockwood and W.T. Ball, Placing limits on long-term variations in quiet-Sun irradiance and their contribution to total solar irradiance and solar radiative forcing of climate,” Proceedings of the Royal Society A, 476, issue 2228 (24 June 2020): https://doi 10.1098/rspa.2020.0077
_{Header image credit: Pixabay/stevepb
Four Major Gases image credit: Adobe Stock/Ilya Glovatskiy}
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News and commentary about the American food system.
In this week’s Field Report, we explore media coverage of a climate study on growing food in cities. Plus: food system impacts of the Key Bridge collapse, a new approach to rice farming, and more.
By Lisa Held
April 3, 2024

Market Garden youth interns tend to small-crop production at the Rivoli Bluffs Farm in St-Paul, Minnesota, Sept. 28, 2022. (USDA photo by Christophe Paul)
At the end of January, multiple publications including Modern Farmer and Bloomberg ran eye-catching stories on the results of a research study published in Nature. Forbes declared that, “Urban Farming Has a Shockingly High Climate Cost,” a headline that was outright wrong in terms of the study’s findings. Earth.com led with a single, out-of-context data point: “Urban agriculture’s carbon footprint is 6x greater than normal farms.”
On Instagram, urban farmers and gardeners began to express anger and frustration. Some commented on media company posts; others posted their own critiques. In February, students at the University of Michigan, where the study was conducted, organized a letter to the researchers pointing out issues with the study.
The issue most cited across critiques was simple: When urban farms were separated from community gardens in the study, the higher rate of greenhouse gas emissions reported essentially disappeared.
Now, two months later, national advocates for the multi-faceted benefits of growing food and green spaces in cities are working to counter what they see as harmful narratives created by a study they say had design flaws to begin with and was then poorly communicated to the public. Of special concern is funding for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) fledgling Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production, which Congress has been shorting since it was established. A coalition of groups have been pushing to change that in the upcoming farm bill.
“We hope the damage isn’t already done, but we fear that publicity around this paper will minimize the advocacy of urban farmers and partners over the past many years and possibly undermine the continued and necessary investment in urban agricultural communities,” reads a letter sent to the study authors by Michigan Food and Farming Systems, the Organic Farming Research Foundation, Pasa Sustainable Agriculture, and the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association.
“We hope the damage isn’t already done, but we fear that publicity around this paper will minimize the advocacy of urban farmers and partners over the past many years…”
Their overall critiques of the study start with the sample set of “urban farms.”
In a conversation with Civil Eats, lead author Jason Hawes, a Ph.D. student at the University of Michigan, said this his team compiled “the largest data set that we know of” on urban farming. It included 73 urban farms, community gardens, and individual garden sites in Europe and the United States. At each of those sites, the research team worked with farmers and gardeners to collect data on the infrastructure, daily supplies used, irrigation, harvest amounts, and social goods.
That data was then used to calculate the carbon emissions embodied in the production of food at each site and those emissions were compared to carbon emissions of the same foods produced at “conventional” farms. Overall, they found greenhouse gas emissions were six times higher at the urban sites—and that’s the conclusion the study led with.
But not only is 73 a tiny number compared to the data that exists on conventional production agriculture, said Omanjana Goswami, an interdisciplinary scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), but lumping community gardens in with urban farms set up for commercial production and then comparing that to a rural system that has been highly tuned and financed for commercial production for centuries doesn’t make sense.
“It’s almost like comparing apples to oranges,” she said. “The community garden is not set up to maximize production.”
In fact, the sample set was heavily tilted toward community and individual gardens and away from urban farms. In New York City, for example, the only U.S. city represented, seven community gardens run by AmeriCorps were included. Brooklyn Grange’s massive rooftop farms—which on a few acres produce more than 100,000 pounds of produce for markets, wholesale buyers, CSAs, and the city’s largest convention center each year—were not.
And what the study found was that when the small group of urban farms were disaggregated from the gardens, those farms were “statistically indistinguishable from conventional farms” on emissions. Aside from one high-emission outlier, the urban farms were carbon-competitive.
“They call out the fact that that tiny sample of seven urban farms that are actually production-focused, competitive with conventional agriculture, but that one line just got buried,” said Hannah Quigley, a policy specialist at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC). This aspect was especially frustrating to urban farming advocates because, as the groups who sent the letter point out, one of their biggest challenges in working with policymakers in D.C. is to get them to “regard urban farming as farming.”
Hawes said he found the critiques around lumping community gardens and urban farms together “reasonable” but that he stood by the method. He hadn’t considered including backyard gardens in rural areas in the sample, he said, even though city gardens were. “We were not necessarily attempting to compare urban and rural food production,” he said. “In fact, we chose to use the word conventional specifically because it pointed to the sort of ‘conventional food supply chain,’ which is often what urban agriculture producers are attempting to intervene in.”
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Not only did taking the community gardens out of the picture change the emissions results, the researchers also found that 63 percent of carbon emissions at all of the sites came not from daily inputs or lack of crop efficiency but from infrastructure, such as building raised beds and trucking in soil. But using recycled materials for infrastructure cut those emissions so much, that if all the sites had done so, that would have been enough for them to close the gap and be competitive with conventional agriculture on greenhouse gas emissions.
“That problem can of course be solved by upfront funding,” said Goswami. “Then, bingo, according to the authors, you have systems with very comparable climate metrics.”
Overall, Hawes said he did regret some of the ways media coverage framed the study’s results but that he didn’t feel the framing of the study itself was problematic. “In my opinion, the most important sustainability challenge of our time is climate change, and if we’re gonna talk about sustainability in the context of urban agriculture, we have to talk about carbon emissions,” he said.
“The most important sustainability challenge of our time is climate change, and if we’re gonna talk about sustainability in the context of urban agriculture, we have to talk about carbon emissions.”
However, while climate scientists and sustainable agriculture advocates agree that addressing the food system’s 22 percent contribution to global greenhouse emissions is critical to meeting climate goals, whether carrots are grown in gardens in Detroit and Atlanta or only on huge commercial farms in the Salinas Valley (or both) won’t likely be a deciding factor.
At an event to kick off a new focus on food and agriculture last week, Project Drawdown launched a new series that will focus on food system solutions to climate change. There, Executive Director Jonathan Foley pointed out that the vast majority of food system emissions come from a few big sources: meat and dairy production, deforestation and other land use change (a large portion of which is linked to animal agriculture), and food waste.
As Goswami at UCS noted, that broader context is essential. “The authors . . . don’t at all zoom out to compare this to agriculture’s broader footprint,” she said, so even if there weren’t clear climate benefits to urban farming—which many say the study didn’t clearly conclude—prioritizing other benefits of growing things in cities might still make more sense. Especially given the climate resilience built into decentralizing and diversifying the food system.
Land use is particularly interesting, Quigley at NSAC said, because city farmers and gardeners often reclaim spaces that might otherwise be paved over and developed, adding carbon-holding trees and plants. “Folks who are maintaining community gardens and green spaces in cities to help with water run-off and urban heat island effect providing safe places for community gatherings . . . these are probably people that would be very concerned with their climate impact,” she said. “Can you imagine if they’re gonna be like, ‘Oh my god, should I not be gardening?’”
While NSAC did not sign on to the initial letter sent by the coalition of groups, Quigley is working with those farm groups and the members have since talked to Hawes. Disagreements on the study framing still abound, but they’re now working together on policy briefs that will be available to lawmakers if the farm bill process ever picks up again and conversations around funding urban farms are once again on the (picnic) table.
“Ultimately, one of the motivations behind this study was the fact that urban agriculture is largely discussed as a really useful sustainability intervention, and this study does not take away from that conclusion,” Hawes said. “I also think that to the degree that this starts conversations about the availability of resources for urban agriculture and the support that is available to urban farmers and gardeners for creating low-carbon solutions—I’m happy with that.”
Read More:
Congress Puts Federal Support for Urban Farming on the Chopping Block
Urban Farms Are Stepping Up Their Roles in Communities Nationwide
The IPCC’s Latest Climate Report Is a Final Alarm for Food Systems, Too
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Supply Chain Impacts of the Key Bridge Collapse. One of the most iconic elements of Baltimore’s harbor is the illuminated Domino Sugar sign, below which the sweet stuff can often be seen piled high on massive ships. Now, the sugar refinery is one of many food and agriculture companies that will likely be impacted by last week’s collapse of the Key Bridge, which shut down the shipping channel that leads to the city’s busy port. The port also handles imports and exports of commodity grains, coffee, and farm equipment. On Friday, representatives from the White House and USDA met with more than a dozen farm and food stakeholders including the American Farm Bureau Federation, the American Sugar Alliance, and Perdue Farms to discuss impacts on the industry. On Sunday, officials announced they are working on opening a temporary alternate shipping channel to get the port back open while the clean-up of the bridge and the stranded ship continues.
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Climate-Friendly Rice. “My dad taught me to continuously flood a rice field. If you saw dry ground in a rice field, you were in trouble,” said fifth-generation Arkansas farmer Jim Whittaker at a USDA event last week. Now, Whittaker practices a technique that alternates his rice fields between wet and dry, a system he said has cut water use and methane emissions in those fields by 50 percent. Whittaker is one of 30 farmers whose rice is now available in a two-pound bag sold by Great River Milling. It’s the first product to officially hit the market as a result of funding from the USDA’s $3 billion Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities project, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said at the end, holding up one of those bags. And the debut comes at a time when some lawmakers and environmental groups are lobbing criticism at the agency over its broadening definition of “climate-smart.”
Read More:
Could Changing the Way We Farm Rice Be a Climate Solution?
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Slaughterhouse Rulemaking. More than 800 comments were submitted before the comment period on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) contentious proposal to increase the regulation of water pollution from meat processing facilities closed last week. On one side of the issue, 45 environmental, community, and animal welfare organizations joined together to make a case for the most restrictive set of regulations proposed, arguing that the weakest option, which EPA has said it prefers, is “inconsistent with federal law.” “We call on the EPA to rise above Big Ag’s push to weaken this plan to reduce harms from the millions of gallons of pollution slaughterhouses and animal-rendering plants are spewing into our waterways,” said Hannah Connor, deputy director of environmental health at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a press release. Meanwhile, farm and meat industry groups including the Iowa Farm Bureau and the Meat Institute filed multiple sets of comments asking for an extension of the comment period and arguing for additional flexibilities to even the least restrictive regulatory framework proposed.
Read More:
Should a Plan to Curb Meat Industry Pollution Consider the Business Costs?
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Lisa Held is Civil Eats’ senior staff reporter and contributing editor. Since 2015, she has reported on agriculture and the food system with an eye toward sustainability, equality, and health, and her stories have appeared in publications including The Guardian, The Washington Post, and Mother Jones. In the past, she covered health and wellness and was an editor at Well+Good. She is based in Baltimore and has a master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of Journalism. Read more >


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A predictive mimicker for mechanical properties of eco-efficient and sustainable bricks incorporating waste glass using …  ScienceDirect.com
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Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
In this aerial image released by the Maryland National Guard, the cargo ship Dali is stuck under part of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the ship hit the bridge, Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in Baltimore. (Maryland National Guard via AP)
In this aerial image released by the Maryland National Guard, the cargo ship Dali is stuck under part of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the ship hit the bridge, Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in Baltimore. (Maryland National Guard via AP)
In this aerial image released by the Maryland National Guard, the cargo ship Dali is stuck under part of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the ship hit the bridge, Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in Baltimore. (Maryland National Guard via AP)
In this aerial image released by the Maryland National Guard, the cargo ship Dali is stuck under part of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the ship hit the bridge, Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in Baltimore. (Maryland National Guard via AP)
In this image taken from video released by the National Transportation and Safety Board, the cargo ship Dali is stuck under part of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the ship hit the bridge, Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in Baltimore. (NTSB via AP)
In this image taken from video released by the National Transportation and Safety Board, the cargo ship Dali is stuck under part of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the ship hit the bridge, Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in Baltimore. (NTSB via AP)
In this aerial image released by the Maryland National Guard, the cargo ship Dali is stuck under part of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the ship hit the bridge, Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in Baltimore. (Maryland National Guard via AP)
In this aerial image released by the Maryland National Guard, the cargo ship Dali is stuck under part of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the ship hit the bridge, Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in Baltimore. (Maryland National Guard via AP)
In this aerial image released by the Maryland National Guard, the cargo ship Dali is stuck under part of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the ship hit the bridge, Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in Baltimore. (Maryland National Guard via AP)
In this aerial image released by the Maryland National Guard, the cargo ship Dali is stuck under part of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the ship hit the bridge, Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in Baltimore. (Maryland National Guard via AP)
In this aerial image released by the Maryland National Guard, the cargo ship Dali is stuck under part of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the ship hit the bridge, Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in Baltimore. (Maryland National Guard via AP)
In this aerial image released by the Maryland National Guard, the cargo ship Dali is stuck under part of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the ship hit the bridge, Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in Baltimore. (Maryland National Guard via AP)
In this aerial image released by the Maryland National Guard, the cargo ship Dali is stuck under part of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the ship hit the bridge, Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in Baltimore. (Maryland National Guard via AP)
In this aerial image released by the Maryland National Guard, the cargo ship Dali is stuck under part of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the ship hit the bridge, Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in Baltimore. (Maryland National Guard via AP)
In this aerial image released by the Maryland National Guard, the cargo ship Dali is stuck under part of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the ship hit the bridge, Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in Baltimore. (Maryland National Guard via AP)
In this image taken from video released by the National Transportation and Safety Board, the cargo ship Dali is stuck under part of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the ship hit the bridge, Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in Baltimore. (NTSB via AP)
In this image taken from video released by the National Transportation and Safety Board, the cargo ship Dali is stuck under part of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the ship hit the bridge, Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in Baltimore. (NTSB via AP)
In this image taken from video released by the National Transportation and Safety Board, the cargo ship Dali is stuck under part of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the ship hit the bridge, Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in Baltimore. (NTSB via AP)
In this image taken from video released by the National Transportation and Safety Board, the cargo ship Dali is stuck under part of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the ship hit the bridge, Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in Baltimore. (NTSB via AP)
In this aerial image released by the Maryland National Guard, the cargo ship Dali is stuck under part of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the ship hit the bridge, Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in Baltimore. (Maryland National Guard via AP)
In this aerial image released by the Maryland National Guard, the cargo ship Dali is stuck under part of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the ship hit the bridge, Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in Baltimore. (Maryland National Guard via AP)
Authorities removing twisted wreckage from the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge are deploying nearly a mile’s worth of barriers in the water, testing samples for contamination and monitoring the Patapsco River for oil and other hazardous spills as they confront the potential for environmental fallout.
The Unified Command, which includes state agencies and the Coast Guard, said Thursday they have unfurled 2,400 feet (732 meters) of an absorbent containment device, along with another 2,400 feet (732 meters) of barrier to try to prevent the spread of any hazardous materials.
It’s a scenario that environmental experts are watching closely for a number of reasons, including the river’s location in a metropolitan area that plays an important role in commercial shipping, as well as for marine life and migratory birds moving northward at this time of year.
“Any time you have something like this happen, there’s a risk of some sort of hazardous material getting in the water. And I think the question really is how much and to what extent,” said Gary Belan of American Rivers, a national nonprofit that focuses on issues affecting rivers across the country.
The Baltimore bridge collapse today:

The possibility for a major environmental problem could arise from the bridge materials that fell into the river or from the containers aboard the cargo ship, the Dali, he said. But a big concern would be if the ship’s fuel container ruptured and spilled into the water.

“If that gets … into the river we’re talking about a pretty strong environmental catastrophe at that point, particularly going out into that part of the Chesapeake Bay,” Belan said.
First responders have observed a sheen in the water near the site, according to the Unified Command, which said Thursday there was “no immediate threat to the environment.”
The ship carried 56 containers with hazardous materials, and of those, 14 that carried perfumes, soaps and unspecified resin had been destroyed. It’s not clear if those materials had spilled into the water.
“We have been conducting air monitoring on the vessel and around the vessel with our contractor. No volatile organic compounds or flammable vapors were observed,” the Unified Command said in a statement posted online.
The Maryland Department of the Environment has begun sampling water up- and down-river and is on scene with first-responders to “mitigate any environmental” concerns, according to department spokesperson Jay Apperson.
Emily Ranson, the Chesapeake regional director for Clean Water Action, an environmental advocacy group, said it was too early to tell what the fallout could be. But she said the federal government should play a key role in enforcing regulations because of the interstate commerce at the port. The federal government has more tools than the state to enforce regulations, she said.
“The big thing to keep in mind is that it certainly reinforces the fact that we need to make sure that we have adequate protections and safety precautions with shipping with our port,” she said.
The crash happened in the early morning hours Tuesday, when the Dali, which had lost power, crashed into a pillar supporting the bridge, collapsing it moments later. The crash has closed off a major U.S. port and left six construction workers on the bridge presumed dead. Two people were rescued from the site.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

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2020 Best Eco-Friendly Car of the Year  Cars.com
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2019 Eco-Friendly Car of the Year  Cars.com
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