How to be a Better Ancestor
Dr. Kenneth Lacovara
Kenneth Lacovara, PhD is a paleontologist, TED speaker, and Explorers Club Fellow known for discovering Dreadnoughtus, one of the largest dinosaurs ever found. He uses modern technology and hands-on fieldwork to better understand ancient life and mass extinction. He is the Founding Executive Director of the Edelman Fossil Park & Museum of Rowan University and the founding dean of the School of Earth & Environment, where he leads work that inspires curiosity, learning, and care for our planet.
The Climate Crisis
Electrify your home: Heat Pump
One of the simplest ways to push back on the climate crisis is to electrify your home. Every state in the union, and every country around the world, now gets a portion of its electricity from non-fossil sources, such as solar, wind, and nuclear. That means when you switch your home's HVAC and appliances from fossil-fuel combustion to electricity, you instantly become as green as the grid. And as the grid gets cleaner, your lifestyle gets cleaner right along with it. The beauty of electrification is that you make one smart move, and then the benefits keep growing in the background. When the grid finally reaches 100% clean electricity, your home's energy become fully carbon net zero.
Electric range
Electrifying your home by installing an electric range comes with many advantages. Electric ranges can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, be more cost-effective, and improve indoor air quality and your health. Reduce your exposure, as well as Earth’s exposure, to dangerous gases, such as nitrous dioxide, by utilizing an electric range in your home.
Electric yard equipment
Using electric yard equipment is a more efficient, healthier, and quieter way to maintain your lawn and yard. Electric lawnmowers and other yard equipment perform efficiently without releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Additionally, gas-powered equipment releases fumes that are dangerous to people’s health. The greenhouse gases emitted not only cause significant negative effects on human health, but they also have consequential impacts on ecosystems and agriculture.
Plug-in electric car
Electric vehicles (EVs) are a cleaner alternative to gas- or diesel-powered vehicles. EVs run on batteries instead of gas-fueled engines, making them a cleaner option to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help the climate crisis. Other than environmental benefits, EVs are also generally cheaper to maintain. Even though there are some carbon emissions connected with EVs, they are still a healthier alternative for the climate.
The Climate Crisis
The Biodiversity Crisis
Re-Wild Your Yard
One of the simplest ways to push back on the biodiversity crisis is to rewild part of your yard. If Americans rewilded 50% of their yards, it would be like adding the equivalent of nine Yellowstone National Parks of habitat. And here’s the lovely part: you can do good by being lazy. Leave the leaves. Leave a brush pile for small creatures to shelter in. Stop using glyphosate, pesticides, fertilizers, and all the other chemicals that turn a yard into a toxic monoculture. The traditional tightly cropped lawn is a biological desert. A biodiverse yard filled with native plants is a living ecosystem. Mow less — maybe only once every year or two — water less, save money, and let nature do the work. It’s better for birds, bees, butterflies, fireflies, and all the small lives around us, and healthier for us too.
Leave some brush piles for small wildlife
You may see plenty of leaves, brush piles, plant stems, and fallen logs in your yard, but consider leaving some of it instead of throwing it all away. Areas that contain leaf litter, brush piles, or other kinds of vegetation, may actually be habitats for small wildlife, including beneficial pollinator insects, small mammals, and more. By cleaning up your yard and throwing away all the vegetative debris, you’re not only taking away habitats from these small animals, but you might be throwing them away, too.
Plant only native species
Planting native plant species has a significant impact on other native species, like insects, birds, and other animals, that depend on the native plants they evolved with. Invasive species, even plants, are a serious danger to native ecosystems, so remove any invasive plant species and replace them with native species to help rebuild the natural habitats. Planting native plant species will help maintain a healthy and diverse ecosystem for all.
Eliminate pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers
The use of fertilizers and different pesticides, like herbicides and insecticides, have caused severe declines in biodiversity. A healthy ecosystem is made up of various diverse species that depend on one another to survive, but the use of fertilizers and pesticides have disrupted the function of many ecosystems. The best way you can help the biodiversity crisis is to avoid using these chemicals. Instead, use safer, chemical-free alternatives that you can even make in your own home.
The Biodiversity Crisis
Most Importantly
Join Together
No one alone can solve the climate and biodiversity crises, but none of us is powerless. This is the moment to raise your voice, join with others, and support the hard and hopeful work of building a better future. If we want a better tomorrow for our children and grandchildren, we must strive for it. For them, we must be better ancestors.
Project Drawdown
An exemplary organization to support because it focuses on something we desperately need: practical, science-based climate solutions. It does not just describe the problem. It helps map real pathways forward. In a moment when climate change can feel overwhelming, Project Drawdown teaches us that there are smart, credible actions we can take right now to reduce emissions and build a better future.
LEARN MORE
Homegrown National Park
A powerful answer to the biodiversity crisis because it shows that conservation does not only happen in faraway wilderness. It can begin right outside your own front door. Their work helps people restore habitat by adding native plants and removing invasive ones in the places where we live, work, and play. It is a simple but profound idea: millions of small acts of restoration can add up to something enormous and meaningful.
LEARN MORE
Edelman Fossil Park & Museum.
Our mission is simple: Discover the Past, Protect the Future. We use the story of extinction at the end of the Age of Dinosaurs to help people confront the climate and biodiversity crises unfolding around us today. But we also work to offer something just as important as warning: wonder, connection, and hope. If people are going to protect the natural world, they first have to fall in love with it. That is the work we do every day.
LEARN MORE