10 Deforestation Facts You Should Know About

Since 1990, 420 million hectares of forest have been lost as a result of human activity including land clearing for agricultural farming and logging. As of 2020, forest cover accounts for about 31% of the world’s total land area. Though the rate of deforestation has decreased over the past three decades, we’re losing thousands of hectares more with every passing day. September 2022 went down in history as a record-breaking month for deforestation in the Amazon, the world’s largest and most important rainforest. Here are 10 stunning deforestation facts you need to know and why we need to protect our forests more than ever.

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This is what happens when a wind farm comes to a coal town

Sheila Wagoner is not a fan of the wind farm overlooking Keyser, West Virginia.

"I really don't care for those windmills," the 71-year-old says. "I guess I wasn't brought up with that kind of society. Like 50 of 'em together? Who likes all that?"

It's not just the visual contrast that Wagoner finds bothersome. She is from one of many families in Keyser — and throughout West Virginia — that relied on the coal industry for generations. Her late father worked as a railway engineer for coal trains that used to run non-stop through Keyser.

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Don’t forget about packaging in national food waste reduction strategy, trade groups say

Packaging groups are telling federal agencies fighting food waste to embrace packaging technology as a more prominent solution in a national strategy.

The U.S. EPA, Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration in December announced the Draft National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics. It’s meant to be a “whole-of-government” approach toward a joint goal of halving food loss and waste by 2030, against a 2010 baseline. It also aims to increase organics recycling. Implementation would begin this year.

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Funding Notice: Department of Energy Announces $29 Million to Drive Feedstock Innovation for Clean Energy Production

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) announced $29 million in funding to drive research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) of low-carbon-intensity, purpose-grown energy crops critical to accelerating a clean energy economy. The Regional Resource Hubs for Purpose-Grown Energy Crops funding opportunity announcement (FOA) will advance a domestic supply chain of alternative carbon sources necessary to produce biofuels and bioproducts to decarbonize the transportation and industry sectors, as well as innovate and grow the U.S. agricultural industry.

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BIOENERGY LESSONS

This series of lessons encompass the topics of bioenergy, biofuels, carbon impacts and life-cycle analysis. The lessons are designed for middle and high school students and have options for advanced students in each lesson. Additionally, the lessons meet Next Generation Science Standards. All these lessons can be adapted to meet the learning needs of grades 4-12.

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