Julie Leibach's Posts
In my last post, I wrote about Beijing's attempts to go green during this summer's Olympics. Audubon's reporter Jess Leber has also zeroed in on another essential component of the games: The National Stadium, aka "Bird's Nest" stadium. In an Audubon web exclusive, she finds out if the sports complex lives up to its nickname.
Looks like China isn't just going for the gold in athletic events--the host of the 2008 summer Olympics recently received LEED®-Gold certification from the United States Green Building Council for its Olympic Village, the temporary home to 17,000 athletes from around the globe.
 Acadia National Park. (From the National Park Service) |
It's always been a requirement of mine: finding a moment of quiet solitude where I can commune, uninterrupted, with nature. Since moving to New York City, however, the quest isn't easy. So, when my Florida-based family invited me to join them for a week's getaway in Maine, they didn't have to ask twice.
The Red List of Threatened Species, published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), is one VIP roster you don't want to be on. This year, however, more than a thousand bird species have unfortunately made the cut, given a boost by climate change.
Last week my colleague, Rene Ebersole, blogged about "greening" her house with salvaged materials, such as French doors resurrected from the castoffs of a yacht club. To build on Rene's post, I'd like to make a hearty recommendation to patronize your local thrift store--particularly those associated with non-profit organizations.
A recent study appearing in the June 19th edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports that songbirds have a pronounced right-brain response to the sound of songs. Okay, great!...and this means what, exactly? Well, for the three million+ Americans who stutter, this could be a big deal: Basically, the finding suggests that scientists can use songbirds to study human speech disorders, like stuttering, in order to develop therapeutic remedies.
