Exclusive-Enviro

  Everyday Environmental Impacts of Your Daily Routine How are your everyday habits affecting the planet? Imagine that you’re just waking up for the day. It’s true that for everybody, the first thing you do for the day is to step out of your bed and get ready for your day. Have you ever thought about how each and every action after that first step generally requires products and processes that affect the environment? Of course, we all know that using a gasoline powered vehicle will cause emissions that harm the environment; but what about something as simple as your breakfast? How can that affect the environment both at home and around the world? Let’s look closer at the minutiae of everyday life, going beyond the water we use, the cars we drive and the power we consume. Morning Toothpaste We’ve come a long way from using charcoal and oyster shells with mint and salt to clean our teeth. While our ancient predecessors used these locally sourced products to clean their teeth and gum...

  An Introduction to Rainforests 1 of 4 in our Rainforest Series What is a Rainforest? A rainforest consists of a diverse community of flora and fauna that reside amongst trees with a tall canopy, in an environment that sees more than 80 inches of rainfall per year. A rainforest is as much of its own ecosystem as the ocean. They are characterized as having four distinct layers: Emergent, Canopy, Understory and Forest Floor. Rainforests can exist not only in the tropical environment, but also in the temperate climates of the Pacific Northwest region of The United States. The Layers of the Rainforest The structure of a rainforest is made up of four distinct layers. Each layer contains plants that contain similar characteristics, especially those that determine what resources are used to promote life. The Emergent Layer The layer at the very top of the rainforest is called the Emergent Layer because this is where the tallest vegetation emerges above the upper canopy. In the tropical...