Green Future Episode 2

by The Providence Eye

Play podcast:   Our names are Eliza, Emma, and Eddie, and we are 8th graders who attend the Wheeler Cityside program in Providence. We are really interested in sustainability and climate activism. As young people, it sometimes can be difficult for us to help make [...]

Green Future Episode 1

by The Providence Eye

Play podcast:   Our names are Eliza, Emma, and Eddie, and we are 8th graders who attend the Wheeler Cityside program in Providence. We are really interested in sustainability and climate activism. As young people, it sometimes can be difficult for us to help make [...]

How Clean is Providence’s Air?

by Barbara Morin

Everybody breathes, so clean air is critical to everyone’s health. Poor air quality is especially dangerous to people who are active outside, particularly outdoor workers, and to sensitive individuals, including older adults, children, and people with cardiac and respiratory conditions. How is air quality classified? [...]

Garbage In; Garbage Out. Providence is Missing the Mark on Recycling–By a Long Shot

by Emily Smith

Trash in Providence is disposed of in one of three ways: it is recycled, it is diverted, or it goes to the Johnston landfill.  Providence recycles only 7.8% of its garbage, the worst recycling rate of all municipalities in Rhode Island.  (Second to last is [...]

The Public Maintaining Public Gardens

by Anna Browder

With the rise of industrialization and the growth of cities in the nineteenth century, the natural outdoors was increasingly seen as healthy, even curative. Without great expanses of nature, cities developed public gardens- beautiful green spaces, for the public’s benefit, some of the most famous [...]

Birders Flock to Swan Point Cemetery During Spring Migration

by Leslie Bostrom

  Every May my friend, Miriam Locke, visits from California, and one of the places we go birding is in Swan Point Cemetery on Providence’s East Side.. A few years ago, we were standing in bright warm sunshine with our binoculars focused on a blue-headed [...]

Providence’s Lack of Plastic Bag Ban Enforcement

by Emily Smith

On January 1, 2024, The Plastic Waste Reduction Act went into effect, making Rhode Island the twelfth state in the U.S. to ban single-use plastic bags. This may not seem like news, as 18 of Rhode Island’s 39 jurisdictions, including Providence, already had existing bag [...]

RI Nature Video Festival and Compost Conference Coming to RIC

by Greg Gerritt

About 11 years ago, I started making nature videos and putting them up on YouTube.  I started out videotaping Fowler’s Toad tadpoles and their breeding cycle and development, but pretty soon I was videoing every type of animal I could find in Providence, mostly filming [...]

Why Providence Cares About the Farm Bill

by Steven Stycos

Nearly 30% of Providence residents depend on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to buy their groceries. As Congress debates the Farm Bill, Rhode Island food advocates call for more money for SNAP, small farms and conservation programs. Millions of dollars could be available for [...]

Providence’s Food Scraps Are a Resource; Let’s Use Them.

by Emlyn Addison

Used books rarely belong in the trash. Instead, most belong in schools and libraries. Those dog-eared pages can feed imaginations and inspire new books. They have value. Food waste also has value. Decomposing scraps can feed the soil and grow new food. It’s why homeowners [...]