Earth 911, “Adventures In the Anthropocene…”by Gaia Vince, Eco-Hero Award Winner–Aarushi Wadhwa

EARTH 911

Earth911.com started its life in the early ’90s as an Arizona-centric recycling database, even before the World Wide Web came along. After almost 20 years, it remains the largest recycling database in the nation — probably the world. We work every day to help you make small, simple changes that will reduce the environmental impact of your life, work, and shopping. The people of Earth911 believe humans can successfully reduce their impact by using less, reusing more, and constantly making small improvements through their daily decisions.  So it’s mission is to work to make that complex story something anybody can understand and help to realize through your everyday actions. 

They believe big companies and governments need to change, but they will only follow citizens who act and communicate what they value. Your progress requires growing awareness of the consequences of workplace and shopping decisions. These actions most directly shape the human carbon footprint, and small changes by many of us do add up to huge improvements in environmental impacts. Earth911 is also a media platform, featuring a podcast and Earth911 TV, as well as quizzes and resources for recycling, sustainable traveling. 

No one is perfect, and everyone can make progress, so we focus on what you can do today by sharing insights into how to measure the carbon footprint of products, services, and lifestyles that need to change for humanity to thrive. 

DEEPER DIVE: Earth911

ADVENTURES IN THE ANTHROPOCENE: A JOURNEY TO THE HEART OF THE PLANET WE MADE, BY GAIA VINCE

 Before she wrote Nomad Century: How Climate Migration Will Reshape Our World, climate reporter GUY-ah Gaia Vince wrote Adventures in the Anthropocene: a Journey to the Heart of the Planet We Made. Here’s the pitch: We all know our planet is in crisis, and that it is largely our fault. But all too often the full picture of change is obstructed by dense data sets and particular catastrophes. 

Struggling with this obscurity in her role as an editor at Nature, Vince decided to travel the world and see for herself what life is really like for people on the frontline of this new reality. She travelled the globe for two years to investigate what we’re doing to it, and this heroic feat of reporting is the result. What she found was a number of people doing the most extraordinary things.

For example, she discovers a man who is making artificial glaciers in Nepal along with an individual who is painting mountains white to attract snowfall; and a man who’s making islands out of rubbish in the Caribbean. These are ordinary people who are solving severe crises in crazy, ingenious, effective ways. Why does Adventures in the Anthropocene…matter to us? Vince does not mince words regarding the challenging position our species is in. These wonderful stories, combined with the new science that underpins her expertise and research, make for a persuasive, illuminating—and strangely hopeful—read on what the Anthropocene means for our future.  

As Publisher’s Weekly wrote, “”Vince has produced a book, simultaneously deeply depressing and thoroughly uplifting, that is all but impossible to put down.” And Diane Ackerman, author of The Human Age wrote, “A fascinating tour of the human side of climate change, complete with its perils, and the inspired efforts ordinary people are nonetheless finding to adapt and survive with grace.”

 DEEPER DIVE: Adventures in the Anthropocene…, Adventures…On YouTube, Royal Society, Wikipedia

INTERNATIONAL YOUNG ECO-HERO AWARD WINNER, AARUSHI WADHWA

Action For Nature is a nonprofit international organization in San Francisco that promotes respect for nature and showcases environmental activism and the achievements of young people.   The International Young Eco-Hero Awards are issued to young people ages 8 to 16. Their achievements and areas of focus are varied. They include leadership, activism, and innovations. Some young people support wildlife protection and other environmental initiatives with funds from piggy banks and birthday gifts. 

Today we’re going to spotlight one, Aarushi Wadhwa, from San Jose, California. She created Aqua-Pods. Aqua-Pods are 100% biodegradable plant-based sponges containing a proprietary blend of natural ingredients like coffee grounds, potato and banana peels that are proven to increase soil fertility. When you water your plant, Aqua-Pods soak up the excess water, and when the plant needs water, the sponges release the previously absorbed water infused with nutrients to the plants using the scientific phenomena of diffusion and osmosis.

Why did Aarushi Wadhwa create Aqua-Pods, and why do they matter to us? Well, did you know that 1.2. TRILLION cubic meters of water is wasted annually on overwatering plants? That’s over 317 trillion gallons of water. Now an Olympic-size swimming pool holds about 660K gallons of water. So 317 Trillion gallons is more than 480K Olympic sized swimming pools. Lawdy that’s a lot of water!!!!  

DEEPER DIVE: Eco-Hero Awards, Aqua-Pods, YouTube, Conversion Table