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Environment

Environment

  • Antonio Espinoza, a supervisor with the Gras Lawn landscaping company, uses a gasoline-powered leaf blower to clean up around a housing development in Brick, N.J. on June 18, 2024. New Jersey is one of many states either considering or already having banned gasoline-powered leaf blowers on environmental and health grounds, but the landscaping industry says the battery-powered devices favored by environmentalists and some governments are costlier and less effective than the ones they currently use.
    Wayne Parry
    /
    AP
    It’s a catch-22: if we want to get away from fossil fuels and use more green energy, then we need more critical minerals, like copper and lithium. These minerals, however, have to be dug up from mines, which can threaten natural ecosystems.
  • One of the beaver ponds along Bear Creek, with signs of the 2020 Mullen Fire clear on the horizon.
    Murphy Woodhouse
    /
    Boise State Public Radio
    Increasingly destructive wildfires are a major issue in the American West. However, some researchers say that land managers have an unlikely ally in their efforts to confront the crisis: the beaver.