A couple of weeks ago, we did a show on how many greenhouse gas emissions are created by the fashion industry and that got us wondering which industries create the most emissions, but we quickly hit a problem- the numbers just don’t add up. Stephen Porder, our co-founder and the Assistant Provost of Sustainability at Brown University, joins the show to explain what’s going on.
Fatima Husain
Managing Producer for Possibly
Posted inEpisode, Possibly Podcast
Possibly: Should you buy organic cotton?
Whether you’re shopping for a t-shirt, bedsheets, or q-tips, you might have noticed that cotton products are more expensive if they’re organic. We wondered, is it worth it to pay the extra price?
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Possibly: How many trees do we need to breathe?
The truth is, we don’t need trees to breathe! You could get rid of all of the trees on the planet and we’d still have enough oxygen. That’s because a lot of the oxygen we breathe comes from tiny microorganisms in the ocean — many of which evolved billions of years before we even had land plants!
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Is it better to drink from a can or a bottle?
Drink from a can! It takes fewer emissions to make an aluminum can and fewer emissions to deliver beer that comes in cans. Cans are also more likely to be recycled, it takes less energy to recycle them, and they’re safer to pick up if they’ve been thrown on the ground.
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Do we need to refrigerate our eggs?
Here in the US, most of us put our eggs in the refrigerator. But in many other countries, eggs can stay on the counter. So, could we save energy here in America and just stop refrigerating our eggs?
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Should you use your car’s AC or roll down the windows?
It depends. When you’re driving slowly around town, it’s better to keep your windows down. But on the highway, it’s better to turn on the AC.
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The return of the Antarctic Blue Whale
Today we’re going to focus on some positive news — a bright spot.
Scientists have noticed something remarkable about blue whales— after years of near extinction, it looks like they’re coming back.
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Possibly – Can we get rid of driftnets?
Driftnets are fishing nets that have largely fallen out of fashion because they can accidentally catch other marine life. But it’s still legal to use driftnets in California to catch swordfish. Luckily, there are other types of gear fishers can use and many are taking advantage of this new technology.
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Should I use toilet paper or a bidet?
If you haven’t used a bidet before, it looks pretty much like a toilet bowl with a tap on one side that gives you a rinse after you go. Bidets or some version of them are already used a lot in Europe, Latin America and some parts of Asia.
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Possibly: What is methane and how does it relate to climate change?
Methane is a gas that’s created when something organic decomposes in a location that doesn’t have oxygen. The largest human-caused source of methane is actually cow burbs, but the second biggest human-caused source in the US is oil and gas production.
