Tag: environment/Archives

Bear in Back

Q (at dawn): Why was my dog backing like crazy early this morn?

A (after sunrise): Bear in backyard, prints all over neighborhood&heliip;

Water and Air

From the Science Photo Library:

Global water and air volume: Conceptual computer artwork of the total volume of water on Earth (left) and of air in the Earth’s atmosphere (right) shown as spheres (blue and pink). The spheres show how finite water and air supplies are. The water sphere measures 1390 kilometres across and has a volume of 1.4 billion cubic kilometres. This includes all the water in the oceans, seas, ice caps, lakes and rivers as well as ground water, and that in the atmosphere. The air sphere measures 1999 kilometres across and weighs 5140 trillion tonnes. As the atmosphere extends from Earth it becomes less dense. Half of the air lies within the first 5 kilometres of the atmosphere. Image by Dr Adam Nieman.

via TED Talk by Janine Benyus: Biomimicry in action.

Mapping Main St Mtns

The Mapping Main Street crew has come marching thru Montana. They stopped by HV HQ recently: We solved all the world’s problems over a bottle of Buffalo Trace, then headed for the Elkhorn Mtns, Helena National Forest.

Here’s Kara airborne, midway thru her 42-foot flight into Crow Creek Falls. Jesse’s below (w/ rescue dog?); and Ian’s above, next up on the runway, yelling “I can see Main St from here”:

 

photo: Jon Nehring

Bamboo BIkes

The Bamboo Bike Project:

“…aims to examine the feasibility of implementing cargo bikes made of bamboo as a sustainable form of transportation in Africa…

The bicycle is the primary mode of mobility for millions of people throughout many poorer parts of the world. In addition to individual transport, they see a vast number of applications including moving goods to market, the sick to hospital, and even the distributing medicines.

In Africa, very few people can own cars or even motorcycles and people without bicycles have to rely on inadequate and relatively expensive buses…

In this project, we will examine the feasibility of employing native bamboo for the bicycle frames, instead of the expensive and technically demanding carbon fiber material, or even the less expensive but also technically demanding aluminum or chromium-molybdenum steel that is commonly used to build bicycle frames… One key to a sustainable business is that the bamboo grows locally.”

via WUFM Blog.

Rwanda Gorillas- video

Jake makes a audio slideshow of his trek thru Rwanda to see the Mountain Gorillas (from his HV/NPR story), “Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda” photos and audio by Jake Warga:

More Jake pix: flickr | JakeWarga.com

HV057- Roof of the World

Hearing Voices from NPR®
057 Roof of the World: In the Himalayas
Host: Scott Carrier of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2010-07-07 (Originally: 2009-05-06)

“Roof of the World” (52:00 mp3):

Tibet and Nepal:

Walking a circuit alongside pilgrims, yaks and yogis, host treks one of the world’s most venerated — and least visited — holy sites, Mount Kailash. Produced for Stories from the Heart of the Land. Scott Carrier teaches Journalism at Utah Valley University in Orem.

And we climb to a remote Nepalese town of going up a mountain and back in time. Technical director: Flawn Williams, narrator: Joe Frank.

More Scott Carrier photos from Mount Kailash…

HV056- An Hour of Earth

Hearing Voices from NPR®:
056 An Hour of Earth— For Earth Day
Host— Barrett Golding of Hearing Voices
Airs week of— 2009-04-15

“An Hour of Earth” (52:00 mp3):

Walk on the wild side with earthly tales of animals, environments, and outdoor adventure:

We canoe Wyoming’s “Green River” (1994) with Scott Carrier.

Tom Lopez of ZBS records some samba “Singing Frogs” in Brazil, or are they toads?

Poet Andrei Codrescu, of The Exquisite Corpse, composes a microcosmic “Environment” based on burgers (from No Tacos for Saddam 1992).

“Subtext: Communicating with Horses” is Jay Allison‘s inter-species conversation, part of his 1985 series Animals and Other Stories.

And Sarah Vowell has subterranean supper in the Carlsbad Caverns’ “Underground Lunchroom”, from a 2001 This American Life.

HV051- Dog Tales

Hearing Voices from NPR®
051 Dog Tales: Barks, Bites, Best Friends
Host: Barrett Golding of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2010-04-07 (Originally: 2009-02-18)

“Dog Tales” (52:00 mp3):

A canine compilation — the dogs have their day:

The producer plays frisbee with a sightless German shepherd.

This commentator can’t connect with his family’s canine, off his collection of Stories off the Shallow End.

A musician mixes a multi-bark audio art composition.

In 1984 people told producer about their dogs and their dog’s dreams, produced with Christina Eggloff for their series Animals and Other Stories, with funds from the New York State Council for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

More…

HV047- Snow and Ice

Hearing Voices from NPR®
047 Snow and Ice: Winter Weather Advisory
Host: Barrett Golding of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2010-02-03 (Originally: 2009-01-21)

“Snow and Ice” (52:00 mp3):

Gliding, sliding, and speed (photo cc Tabbymom):

NPR Alex Chadwick invites America to share their stories of Flexible Flyers and downhill runs in a cross-USA audio Sledding Party, produced by Katie Davis. (Music: “Come to the Meadow” Roger Kellaway Cello Quartet (1974).)

Seven skiers go into the back-country, only six return; the story from the perspective of the survivors: Dave Carter, Dwight Butler, Alan Murphy, Chris Larson, and Larry Olson; in memory of Greg McIntyre.

A training day in the life of three women at the U.S. High Altitude Sports Center in Butte, Montana; with skaters Chantelle Bailey, Tara Laslo, and Mary Doctor, and trainers Michael Crowe and Susan Sandvig.

And the sounds of Iceland’s largest glacier, captured by field-recordist Chris Watson, on his CD Weather Report (Touch Music).

Watson’s Vatnajökull sounds were also used in this Sigur Rós film, “Heima” (trailer):

Christian the Lion

Sweet video my wife found, “Christian the Lion”:

From a movie by the Born Free Foundation (YouTube channel).

Yellowstone Elk

Nice photo by Sean Sperry in my local paper, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle:

Elk congregate in an area burned by the 1988 fires near Tower, in Yellowstone National Park.

© Sean Perry, Bozeman Daily Chronicle

Story of Stuff- HV

Airing this Weekend America: Annie Leonard spent a decade researching where our consumer stuff comes from, how its made, who the manufacturing effects, and where it ends up.

Among the results is a 20min. video, The Story of Stuff (also in chapters on YouTube), made by Free Range Studios, the same folk who exposed The Meatrix.

“From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view.”

“Story of Stuff” (7:38 mp3):

The video came out on the web a year ago and has since been viewed four-and-a-half million times. Time Magazine named Annie Leonard a 2008 Hero of the Environment. Our HV radio report is by Chase Sbicca.

Elk Season

A classic Montana scenario: Just got this email & photo from my hike-ski buddy Jim, about why he hasn’t been able to hike-ski w/ me of late. Lottie, mentioned below, is Jim’s daughter…

Got one, now we can leave this particular project behind and move on to XC skiing. Getting an elk this year was mighty hard. Finally was able to line Lottie up on a shot with the help of nephew Jake. She is pretty proud of herself. I’m off to work till the 20th, then will commence to moving around thru the woods without heavy weaponry.

Western Soundscape Archive -AP

HV’s Jeff Rice is interviewed in this Associated Press article “Recordings aim to capture calls of the wild West” about the Western Soundscape Archive:

Although it’s just a year old, the site already has more than 800 recordings. The goal is to catalog the nearly 1,200 species of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians that roam 11 Western states. It will also feature “ambient soundscapes” from wild places across the region.

Jeff recently hosted our Bugs & Birds HV hour.

Brooklyn Pigeons

Recently on NPR Day to Day— Like his father before him, Michael Scott breeds “primo” pigeons, trained athletes, in his native Brooklyn. One of his coops is in Canarsie, on top of his grandmother’s house. By producer Owen Agnew, for HV and SALT.

“Breeding Brooklyn Pigeons” (3:14 mp3):

Photos © Allison Lucas:

Mt Blackmore

Up Mount Blackmore the other day, 10,128 ft (Hyalite Range, Gallatin Forest). That’s me, Pogo, and Gus, with Capt. James Ortman workin’ the Nikon. Walked in snow the whole way. At the top guys were skiing. Fall equinox everywhere else, but here high in MT it’s the first taste of winter:

Fly Boys Fishing

The Fly Boys have a new excerpt from their fish-porn film, landing steelhead in BC:

Raising The Ghost (5 Min Cut)

HV025- Heat

Hearing Voices from NPR®
025 Heat: Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer
Host: Scott Carrier of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2012-07-11 (Originally: 2008-08-20)

“Heat” (52:00 mp3):

Five symptoms of heat fatigue:

A sound-poem for “Dead of Summer” in the city by Marjorie Van Halteren and Lou Giansante, read by Russell Horton.

Tuscon residents reflect the desert “Heat,” with author Charles Bowden, poet Ofelia Zepeda, and music by Steve Roach; produced by Jeff Rice.

The perfection of family, a crippled man on a blind man’s back, and a collective scream of “I’m not dead,” sweat it out in Joe Frank‘s “Summer Notes.”

Cats pulling pianos are “The Little Heroes” in John Rieger‘s Dance on Warning series.

And host Scott Carrier takes a long hot cross-country drive down “Highway 50,” the loneliest road in America.

Music by The Lovin’ Spoonful and Flying Lizards.

HV019- Life on the Mississippi

Hearing Voices from NPR®
019 Life on the Mississippi: River Towns
Host: Scott Carrier of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2010-06-02 (Originally: 2008-07-09)

“Life on the Mississippi” (52:00 mp3):

A Tour of the River Towns:

Hannibal, Missouri, birthplace of Mark Twain; a day on a tugboat; St. Louis showboats; and changing the course of mighty rivers. We spend the whole hour on this 1984 downstream trip through the history and mystery of the Big Muddy, with Larry Massett and Scott Carrier.

Earth Clock

Earth Clock from Poodwaddle.com.