Tag: Wilderness

Rediscovering the wild at the NEW YORK WILD FILM FESTIVAL

5th Annual New York WILD Film Festival
Source: Eventbrite, New York WILD Film Festival

The weekend of February 22nd through the 25th marked the 5th Annual New York Wild Film Festival held at the Explorer’s Club in NYC. A few of us at the Office of Sustainability were fortunate to attend the Sunday Day Program of the Festival.

The films featured were BLUE, The Frozen Road, Ice Call: Backyards Project — Sam Favret, City on the Water, and Happening: A Clean Energy Revolution as well as NYU’s own “WILD in NY” Short Film Contest Finalist Unnatural. I interviewed my fellow NYU Office of Sustainability festival-goers to hear their thoughts on the inspiring and shocking footage we saw throughout the day. 

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Weekend getaways just a train ride away from NYC

Straight out of fairy tale, this is actually a power house for Boldt Castle on Heart Island, NY

It’s no secret Americans love vacations, in 2016 almost 67 million citizens traveled outside the country and 5,877 million gallons were used that year to fuel our international travel frenzy.

We all live and love everything NYC, but sometimes we need to get a breath full of fresh air. Before the fall semester starts and for the sake of saving gas and money, check out some of New York’s vacation hotspots- all accessible by public transport from NYC.

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Every Game of Thrones fan who cares about the environment should take this quiz

QUIZ

Every fan of Game of Thrones has probably heard the theory that White Walkers are a metaphor for climate change. I mean they’re a force that threatens to wipe out everyone in Westeros (and beyond) but everyone is too occupied in playing the Game of Thrones they don’t realize the real threat looms up North.

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Open letter to bees (from someone with an irrational fear)

Dear bees,

We’ve had a complicated relationship. For years I thought you were on the same level as It the clown and Freddy Krueger. I know those characters are imaginary and you are very real but you managed to scare me just the same.

https://giphy.com/gifs/bees-hfiZDm282PYFq

It’s an irrational fear or at the very least annoyance people seem to have with bees. If they get in your face you either swat them or in my case run away. It wasn’t until recent, very recent, that I begrudgingly accepted you as necessary and productive members of society. Read more

The UN wants us to stop desertification, here’s how we’re gonna do it

Desertification costs around $42 billion per year. You might be asking yourself why are we losing so much money? Whose allowing this to happen? And most of all what is desertification?

Desertification is simply defined by Allan Savory as “a fancy word for land that is turning to a desert.”And when land becomes desert, millions of people are left without food and water, and often forced to flee.

Droughts as a result of climate change and unsustainable farming practices are some of the reasons why 12 million hectares of land are lost each year. We are living in the official United Nations decade for deserts and the fight against desertification (2010-2020). So let’s review the facts. Read more