Free Library of Philadelphia President Siobhan Reardon | photo by Jon Roemer By Marilyn Anthony In 2008, Siobhan Reardon, the first female president of the Free Library of Philadelphia, had some challenging ingredients to work with when she arrived: a 30 percent budget cut, a stalled capital campaign, pressure to close many neighborhood libraries and the astounding
MoreElementary students at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education get down in the mud during a hike | photo by Rebecca Dhondt by Justin Klugh As a child, environmental leader Mike Weilbacher can remember getting lost in the pine woods of Long Island. “That was our home,” he recalls. “We’d go off, two miles away from
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Endangered tigers and gorillas are now roaming the grounds at the Philadelphia Zoo. Can its consumer education programs make conservation activists of the humans walking among them?
MoreWe all know that the food we nourish ourselves with affects our bodies. But how often do we think about the fact that what, and where, we choose to eat affects the health of the local economy and environment? Our everyday food choices also reflect our personal values. When you choose to patronize businesses in
Moreby Emily Teel Mushrooms grow from a network, a web of interconnected genetic information called mycelium. Even though it’s invisible to the human eye, soil mycelium is constantly growing, individual spores sending out threads called hyphae and building connections to one another. Something similar happened when Dan Howling, Brian Versek and Tyler Case met. Mycopolitan, Philadelphia’s
MorePLANT-BASED PROFILECouncilman Kenyatta Johnson not only wants to be there for his constituents; he wants to be there for his infant son. “I can’t predict the future, but I do know that taking care of my body and eating healthy is one way to make sure I’m doing all that I can to be around
Moreby Rachel AtchesonHave you been inside a factory farm?” It’s the question I’m most often asked as I give presentations to students about large industrial farms. Until recently, the answer was “no.” Instead I relied on the experiences of two trusted friends who worked as undercover investigators at several facilities. At each one they witnessed
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An activist and scholar since the 1960s, Dr. Robert Bullard is the author of 17 books, and he has helped bring environmental justice to the fore with his groundbreaking 1990 work, Dumping in Dixie. He traveled from his post as dean of public affairs at Texas Southern University to lecture at Temple University this spring.
Moreby Katie BorhiPhiladelphia-based beekeeper Chelsea Thoumsin started the Pollinator Project as a simple answer to a complicated question. “A lot of people started asking me, ‘If I can’t keep my own bees, what can I do to help them?’”
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by Katherine Gajewski On a summer day in Washington Square Park, I exchanged rings in a made-up co-proposal with my now-husband, Ben, and we began our wedding planning adventure.
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