At Home On Earth

SIMPLE / SMART / SUSTAINABLE / STORIES

“Under the gentle glow of the setting sun and rising moon, this giraffe gracefully bends to drink from a watering hole,” Yasmin Namini writes in this piece about her trip to Zimanga, a private game reserve in South Africa. Did you know that it’s risky for giraffes to lower their heads below their torsos for extended periods? See more of Yasmin’s wildlife photography here. And check out her video of giraffes “necking” (it’s not quite what you think it is). 

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“This one reproducing tortoise, in my opinion, isn’t going to do much for what’s going on in the wild in direct terms. But in indirect terms, if the zoo can promote the wonder of a 100-year-old reptile producing babies for the first time and use that as a vehicle to promote wonder among people and a conservation ethic, then so much the better.”

– Dr. Stephen Blake, assistant professor of biology at St. Louis University, speaking in the New York Times about Mommy, a tortoise who has lived at the Philadelphia Zoo since 1932. Mommy, and her mate Abrazzo, welcomed four tiny tortoises. If you’re a Galapagos tortoise (they belong to the Western Santa Cruz subspecies), giving birth at 100 is not that big of a deal — they can live to be 200 years old. But it was notable because the subspecies is critically endangered. To read more about how zoos can help endangered species recover, read What’s So Bad About Zoos?

• Tea Time with Elephants

• From Superfund Site to Wildlife Refuge

• Recipe: Protein-Packed, Plant-Based Salad

• Carousel Horses, Powered by the Sun

• Three of Our Favorite American Businesses

• New York Harbor’s Billion Oyster Project 

• A Sanctuary for Baby Belugas

• Giraffes Necking: The Movie

• A 100-Year-Old Mama Turtle

• What’s So Bad About Zoos?

• Dear Dot Contemplates the Sunset

• How Phoenix Responds to Extreme Heat

FEATURED STORIES

BIG IDEAS AND LOCAL CHANGEMAKERS

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 Bluedot Living Kitchen

We’re delighted to share that one of our favorite stories of this past year — Sun and Horse Power — just won Bluedot contributor Teresa Bergen a silver award from the Western chapter of the Society of American Travel Writers. Here’s how the judges described the story: “Following a nearly 100-year journey from Massachusetts to Ohio to New York, a refurbished carousel horse has found a new home on a solar-powered carousel on the Buffalo waterfront. The writing describes in detail the imagination, grit and artisan craftsmanship necessary to bring life to the story.” We just call it a great read about how creative — and beautiful — a climate solution can be.

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Dear Dot: Is Pollution the Reason for a Beautiful Sunset?

Dear Dot, 

I saw the most amazing sunset last night. Someone told me the beautiful red color is because of pollution? Is there any truth to that?

–Whitney

Dear Whitney,

We live in a timeline in which your question is both fascinating and heartbreaking. On the one hand, we all love a gorgeous sunset (just check out social media!). But on the other, it’s perfectly reasonable to wonder if air pollution is somehow altering these sunsets. I received your query — and wrote my response — during the summer of 2024 when unprecedented wildfires were raging across Canada, and smoke (i.e., pollution) from those fires was traveling at least as far south as Florida and across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. Was all that smoke changing our skies? It’s hard to imagine it wasn’t. But let’s hear from the experts.

Read on.

Got a question for Dot? Write her at deardot@bluedotliving.com.

BUY LESS/BUY BETTER: Made in America

If you make a purchase through our links, including from Amazon, we may earn a small commission.

At Bluedot, we love shopping local. What that means can vary. For some folks, it’s just checking out the shops in the local downtown area and seeing what’s new. For others, shopping local can mean supporting businesses within the same region, or looking for items made here in the good ol’ U.S. of A. This time of year, we want to highlight three of our favorite American businesses.

Luxe Linens

A long hunt for sheets that felt like the ones her grandmother used — weighty, soft, breathable percale — led our marketplace editor to American Blossom Linens. At this woman-owned, family-operated company, everything is grown, milled, spun, and sewn in the American South. Shop today or read our review. 

Craftsman Cookware

Lodge Cast Iron is a fifth-generation family company that's been operating in Tennessee since 1896. All of their cast iron is produced in the U.S., and over half of all the metal they use is recycled. Shop on Amazon or read our review. 

American-Made Athleisure

From milling to dyeing to sewing, Harvest & Mill is a farm-to-closet company with a fully American supply chain. They specialize in super-comfy organic cotton athleisure colored with natural dyes, such as pomegranate and indigo. Shop today or read our review.

What You Can Do

Although we missed #ShowYourStripes day (commemorated on the summer solstice), it’s never too late to talk about our warming planet with your friends, family, and neighbors. (They want to talk about it. Really!) Show Your Stripes was created by University of Reading Professor Ed Hawkins to provide a visual representation of the change in temperature as measured in each country, region, or city over the past century or so. Check out the changes in your region. And then, yep, talk about what you’re seeing … and what you’d like to do about it.

The Keep-This Handbook

It’s Getting Hot in Here

As I write this, there’s a heat alert blanketing much of the northeastern U.S. and parts of Canada. And though I continue to head to the woods each morning for my hike, I’m heading out much earlier, and I’m leaving my snow-loving Bernese Mountain Dogs behind. It’s easy for those of us, ahem, middle-aged folks to forget that we didn’t always need central AC, misting stations at amusement parks, and cooling centers in cities. 

Increasingly, however, our infrastructure is factoring in extreme weather conditions. Phoenix has an Office of Heat Response and Mitigation, offering not only tips for residents, but also cooling centers and the planting of urban shade trees. Ali Husnain, who watched air pollution shut down cities in his home country of Pakistan, brought his knowledge of green infrastructure to St. John’s, Newfoundland. New Delhi recently opened its first heat stroke clinic, due to a growing number of people requiring treatment.

Extreme heat isn’t just uncomfortable, it’s dangerous, particularly to those in lower-income neighborhoods, young and old people, and those who rely on certain heat-sensitive medications. Wherever you live, we hope you found a way to stay cool this week … and that more moderate summer temperatures give us relief.

– Leslie Garrett (and Jamie Kageleiry, Robin Jones, and — on vacation — Emily Cain)

Write us at editor@bluedotliving.com

Leslie Garrett has been covering climate stories for close to two decades.  She makes her home in Canada, west of Toronto. She’s still figuring out her favorite spot but it’s definitely near the water.

Jamie Kageleiry, a longtime magazine and newspaper editor from Martha’s Vineyard, says her favorite spot on earth is out on a kayak there, looking at birds.

Robin Jones is a Southern California native who served as an editor at Westways magazine for more than a decade. She lives in Long Beach and teaches journalism at Cal State Long Beach.

Emily Cain is a recent graduate of Cal State Long Beach, where she wrote and edited for the university’s award-winning magazine, DIG.

Our audience is informed, intentional, and tuned in to sustainable living. Reach our 300,000 readers by advertising here, or contact adsales@bluedotliving.com to reserve your space.

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