The time for carols, holiday baking and other vestiges of traditional holiday cheer is quickly approaching. Amongst the festivities these days comes an increased awareness of climate change and our impact upon it as consumers. An organic conversation regarding Christmas trees popped up during a recent Environment Team meeting. We asked ourselves: Is it...
I recently went on safari in the Balule Nature Reserve in South Africa. This reserve was created in the 1990s by private landowners to create a larger, open system for animals to move freely. In 2004, along with other privately owned reserves, Balule was incorporated into Greater Kruger National...
I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, just a few miles west of Portland, Oregon, which, in my mind, is the most beautiful place in the world. Every summer we’d head east, driving past massive waterfalls, through mountain ranges and along the majestic Columbia River Gorge to visit my grandmother. Other times there were...
Rudyard Kipling called Milford Sound, or Piopiotahi, “The Eighth Wonder of the World.” It was named by the Māoris after an extinct bird, the piopio, and means “a place for the singing thrush.”
Vivek and I flew 11,929 km to see this iconic natural phenomenon. When asked, “Is it...
I had the honor of heading the Environment Team’s April 2024 Global Issues Book Discussion featuring The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben (whose name in German means “good life”), and I wished to share my personal takeaway with a wider audience.
I have always loved trees and have organized or been involved in a...
Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a large group of synthetic chemicals characterized by a chain of carbon atoms that are bonded to fluorine atoms through a process called fluorination.1 PFAS are a class of thousands of chemicals known or suspected to be endocrine-disrupting chemicals. According to the Endocrine Society and the International...
