Mary Catherine O'Connor

Outside: The Race to Build the World’s First Totally Green High-Performance Gear

July 8, 2016 by mcoc

Gear and apparel manufacturers are big chemical users. A new overhaul of the Toxic Substances Control Act has them scrambling to innovate—minus the toxins. Outside You might have missed it, but last month President Obama signed into law a bill that many consider the most significant environmental legislation to pass Congress in 25 years. The […]

Categories: Climate Change, Gear, Lifecycle, Policy, Recreation, Technology • Tags: epa, Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety, outdoor industry association, perfluorooctanoic acid, Toxic Substances Control Act

Outside: Patagonia’s New Study Finds Fleece Jackets Are a Serious Pollutant

June 20, 2016 by mcoc

The brand commissioned a study to find out how many synthetic microfibers—the tiny bits of plastic that marine scientists say could be jeopardizing our oceans—are shed from its jackets in the wash. The results aren’t pretty. Outside It all started on a beach in southwestern England in the early 2000s. Richard Thompson, then a senior […]

Categories: Action Sports, Climate Change, Gear, Lifecycle, Oceans, Recreation, Technology • Tags: Bren School, Jill Domain, mark browne, microfibers, microplastic, Patagonia, richard thompson, UCSB

Pacific Standard: The Pleasures — and Ecological Benefits — of River Snorkeling

June 14, 2016 by mcoc

In praise of river snorkeling, a pastime for fish obsessives that also reminds riparian activists what they’re protecting. Pacific Standard I’m like the reverse of a fish out of water — a floundering human in water, I think to myself and let out a nervous chuckle. This breaks the seal my mouth has formed around the snorkel’s […]

Categories: Action Sports, Climate Change, Food and Agriculture, Oceans, Policy, Recreation, Wilderness • Tags: Columbia River, Matt Collins, Native Fish Society, pacific northwest, Pacific Standard, riparian, river snorkeling, Russ Ricketts, salmon native, Tellico River, Wenatchee River

Wall Street Journal: Bringing Smart Technology to Old Factories Can Be Industrial-Size Challenge

June 8, 2016 by mcoc

Installing networked sensors to monitor performance and prevent problems is costly, and every case is different. Wall Street Journal It’s a tantalizing vision: Bright and shiny factories where robotic arms and conveyors never break down and production goals are never missed—all thanks to internet-connected sensors that monitor machine health and respond to the slightest supply […]

Categories: Energy, Lifecycle, Technology • Tags: general electric, harley-davidson, industrial automation, industrial internet, iot, retrofit, sensors

Outside: Terry Tempest Williams’s Dark Love Letter to the National Parks

June 2, 2016 by mcoc

The acclaimed nature writer’s portraits of 12 parks go beyond perfect postcard tributes, and the resulting book couldn’t have come at a better time. Outside I had expected Terry Tempest Williams’ latest book, The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks (MacMillan), would be a string of tributes to the sacred spaces within […]

Categories: Action Sports, Climate Change, Energy, Oceans, Policy, Recreation, Wilderness • Tags: Bakken, Centennial, Grand Teton National Park, National Park System, Terry Tempest Williams, Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Off the hook: can a new study in the Pacific reel in unsustainable fishing?

May 1, 2016 by mcoc

The Nature Conservancy-funded program will test how new hook designs and other practices could reduce bycatch while keeping the fishing business lucrative. The Guardian Within seconds of being hauled onto the Shen Lain Cheng, a 79-foot tuna fishing boat from China, the crew’s most senior member, whose deeply wrinkled face conveys more than his 58 […]

Categories: Climate Change, Oceans, Policy • Tags: longliner, lotus vermeer, Luen Thai, michael musyl, Palau, silkie shark, sushi, the nature conservancy, tuna, turtles, yellowfin tuna

Pacific Standard: Conservation in the Age of Climate Change: Why Scientists Are Banking on Drones for Tracking Coastal Climate Research

April 19, 2016 by mcoc

Scientists have been using drones for decades, but as they become more affordable and portable, they’re proving critical to studying—and saving—our most vulnerable environments. Pacific Standard Journalists like to lean on anecdotes to tell stories about climate change, but for climate scientists, data is everything. But data collection is seldom a quick or inexpensive task, […]

Categories: Climate Change, Gear, Technology, Wildlife • Tags: conservation technology, coral, David Johnston, DRONES, Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, eBee senseFly, Gijs DeBoer, James Maslanik, parrot, Steve Schill, the nature conservancy, UAVs

Can you put a price on nature? A Californian nonprofit thinks it can

March 13, 2016 by mcoc

Chemical giant Dow is testing new software that crunches data to help assign monetary value to the natural world and calculate the environmental impact of its work The Guardian Everyone agrees that nature has value. It clothes, feeds and shelters us – and provides a spectacular playground. Yet we have never put a value on […]

Categories: Climate Change, Energy, Oceans, Policy, Technology • Tags: earth genome, natural capital, the nature conservancy

‘Tools for Grassroots Activism’ Is Patagonia’s Guide to Saving the World

February 25, 2016 by mcoc

Yvon Chouinard thinks environmental activists could learn a thing or two from businesspeople, even if—as he puts it—businesspeople are sleazeballs. Outside Outdoor recreation can be a gateway drug to environmental activism. It certainly was for Patagonia founder and co-owner Yvon Chouinard, as he writes in the introduction to Tools for Grassroots Activism, a book the adventure […]

Categories: Climate Change, Energy, Oceans, Policy, Recreation • Tags: NGO, Patagonia, Tools for Grassroots Activism, Yvon Chouinard

Skateboarding for Change (and Gender Equality) in South Africa

December 11, 2015 by mcoc

After six months of temporary digs, Skateistan’s growing South Africa chapter has broken ground on a permanent home and skatepark. Vice Sports David Webster Park, in Johannesburg’s Troyeville neighborhood, is named after a local anti-Apartheid activist who was assassinated by the Apartheid police in 1989. The area’s quality of life has only deteriorated in the […]

Categories: Action Sports, Recreation • Tags: crime, johannesburg, poverty, skateboarding, skateistan

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