Defend protected forests from road development
Last week, the U.S. Forest Service took its first step in the process to undo the Roadless Rule, a 2001 provision that safeguards 59 million acres of forests from road construction, road reconstruction, and timber harvesting. The agency posted a notice seeking public comment on its plans to assess the environmental impacts of a reversal. So what’s their argument? It centers on the need for access roads to combat wildfires. However, environmental advocates warn that the Forest Service’s position ignores nuance (fires, for instance, tend to be more likely to ignite near roadways) and masks the administration’s hunger for timber. “The areas that were left roadless, were left roadless for a reason,” former Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth told NPR. “Because they didn’t have the timber in there and because it was expensive to do road construction.”
What you can do: Speak up. There’s an unusually small window of opportunity to voice opposition to the plan: The comment period ends on Sept. 19, which allows only half as much time as the public had when the rule was enacted in the early aughts. To raise your hand, Backpacking Light has punched up a great how-to guide, including a template, for submitting a public comment.
A biodegradable plastic better than PET?
In the menu of plastics, PET (aka polyethylene terephthalate) is the one you probably interact with most every day. Signified by the number 1 in ye olde chasing arrows stamp on products, it’s the material that’s used to make water bottles and a range of food packaging. It’s also the most-potent source of microplastic pollution in the world’s oceans. Now, a team of bioengineers at Kobe University in Japan have trained a strain of E. coli bacteria to digest glucose into a material called PDCA that matches and even surpasses PET’s signature durability—and it’s biodegradable. Now, it’s far too early to expect PDCA bottles anytime soon: The team still has hurdles to navigate in fine-tuning their process, but their method is able to produce seven times more of the material than prior attempts.
What you can do: Take a moment and vibe out on the possibilities, but then continue to reduce the amount of single-use plastics in your everyday life. You can also follow our tips to avoid shedding microplastics into the environment. And, when you do encounter a scenario where plastic is the only option, educate yourself on which types of can safely go in the blue bin.
The red meat you should eat
You might have an emotional response to the idea of eating venison because of a little movie called Bambi. Here in the 3-D world, though, there are plenty of reasons why eating wild deer is beneficial—even essential—to ecosystems. Simply put, there are just too many deer, specifically whitetails. Humans have driven out natural predators like wolves and big cats, so there’s little left to keep herds in check. Those hooved masses are also major environmental pests: When they find something they like to eat, they won’t stop until the land is bare, which is bad news for both existing flora and attempts at reforestation. Deer are also ruminants like cows, which means they produce methane. Some estimates say they create more of the potent gas per-pound than bovines; some say the opposite. Either way, eating wild venison reduces methane. Full stop.
What you can do: As hunting season gets started later this month, take a minute to open up your mind to the idea of wild game. This essay on the The Guardian is a great place to explore the relationship between conservation and hunting. And, if you have a hunter friend and can get your hands on a bit of venison, think about giving it a try. This bolognese is a perfect entree.
AI-generated climate denial is ramping up
News aggregators are publishing stories from websites that traffic in AI-generated climate misinformation, reports DeSmog. MSN, for example, posted an article from the site Climate Cosmos citing a report taking down “alarmist” climate narratives. The problem? It was all fabricated—an example of “AI slop,” a catch-all term for nonsensical media made by generative models. DeSmog also found that Climate Cosmos’s footprint is expanding through citations from right-leaning orgs like the Heartland Institute and climate-denial outfits like CFACT. And, well, that’s far from the only misinformation making the rounds: Podcaster Joe Rogan continues to misquote a 2024 study in the journal Science as proof the world is actually cooling down. While it is true that the Earth has been hotter than it is now, if you pay attention to the chart he’s so fixated on, you’ll notice an incredibly steep spike in the present day.
What you can do: Brush up a bit on your media literacy, particularly around how to spot climate reporting you can trust. That starts with being very wary of anything that flies against the scientific consensus around human-caused climate change.