In 1979, when President Jimmy Carter famously unveiled 32 solar panels on the White House roof, he remarked, “A generation from now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken or it can be just a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people.”
Despite his reputation as an often ineffective president, he had an enormous effect on the environment as an advocate for clean energy, protecting lands and regulating toxic chemicals.
Jimmy Carter was an early adopter of clean energy in an effort to reduce U.S. reliance on foreign oil following the oil crisis that preceded his presidency. Four years before Carter took office, the member nations of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries placed an oil embargo on the U.S. and several other western nations in response to their support of Israel during the Yom Kippur War. As a result, the price of oil rose by more than 300%, while American dependence on foreign oil was simultaneously rising.
After Carter took office, he responded by creating the U.S. Department of Energy. One of Carter’s major goals for the agency was to reduce the country’s dependence on fossil fuels by pushing for the domestic production of energy. While this push wasn’t perfect — part of his solution for the complex crisis included propping up domestic coal power — it was also a first-of-its-kind endorsement for clean energy, championing sustainable sources like solar and nuclear. “No one can embargo the sun,” Carter once said. “No cartel controls the sun. Its energy will not run out. It will not pollute our air or poison our waters. The sun’s power needs only to be collected, stored and used.”
In 1979, a second oil crisis hit, this time spurred by the decline in oil trade in the wake of the Iranian Revolution. Carter responded by laying out plans to expand renewable energy sources and made a pledge that 20% of American energy would be produced by renewable sources by 2000, but was voted out of office before many of these plans could come to fruition.
Carter also protected far more land than any U.S. president in history. In 1978, he advocated for the National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA,) which aimed to protect vast amounts of Alaskan wilderness from commercial use and destruction. After the bill failed due to a last-minute filibuster, Carter used executive authority to protect more than 56 million acres of Alaskan wilderness, designating those lands as National Monuments. This action alone would more than double the size of the National Park system.
Snowcapped mountains in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. In 1978, President Carter signed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act into law, creating 10 new national parks and preserves including this one, the largest U.S. national park. National Park Service
In December of 1980, roughly six weeks before Carter left office, ANILCA was debated again in Congress, and passed. Upon Carter’s signature, the law became the most expansive federal protection of American lands in history, granting protection to more than 157 million acres of Alaskan wilderness, which included further protections for much of the land Carter had protected two years prior. Of those 157 million acres, it also designated nearly ten million acres to the National Wildlife Refuge System, more than nine million acres to the Wilderness Preservation System, and more than three million acres to the National Forest System.
He was the first president to take notable action against federal water projects, arguing that building dams in the American West would harm river health. This stance was an extension of his conservation efforts as governor of Georgia, when, according to Stuart E. Eizenstat, his own domestic affairs advisor, he became “the first governor to block a Corps of Engineers dam,” and during his presidency was “the most consistently pro-environmental president since Theodore Roosevelt.”
Today, many rivers throughout the American West suffer from major droughts.
While it’s difficult to directly measure the impact his stance on these federal water projects had, these rivers would have surely been even worse off if it weren’t for Carter.
After Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring brought pesticides to the forefront of the public eye a little more than a decade earlier, Carter took broad steps to regulate pesticides. He passed major amendments to the Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIRFA) in 1978, requiring stricter registration of pesticides, and in 1976, he passed the Toxic Substances Control Act, giving the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency the authority to require reporting, testing and record-keeping of toxic chemicals.
Of course, Jimmy Carter is nearly as famous for his exceptional post-presidency as his actual presidency. Likewise, his impact on the world outlives his time in the Oval Office. He and his wife, Rosalynn, famously worked with Habitat for Humanity, personally helping to build, repair or renovate about 4,400 homes, according to the organization’s website, for instance.
The Carter Center, his own nonprofit, has also had a significant impact globally. When the organization assumed leadership in the global fight against Guinea Worm in 1986, there were 3.5 million cases in Africa and Asia, according to the Carter Center. By 2022, that number had dropped to thirteen. It is currently on track to become the second human disease to be eradicated in history, following only smallpox.
Some of the Carter Center’s other achievements include:
- Rallying against other diseases, like trachoma, river blindness, lymphatic filariasis, schistosomiasis and malaria;
- Increasing healthcare access in thousands of impoverished global communities;
- Pioneering “new public health approaches to preventing or controlling devastating neglected diseases in Africa and Latin America;”
- Observing elections in dozens of countries in an effort to strengthen democracies; and
- “Furthering avenues to peace in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Liberia, Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda, the Korean Peninsula, Haiti, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Middle East.”
Jimmy Carter has had a profound impact back in his hometown too. In 2017, nearly four decades after he had solar panels installed on the White House roof, Carter leased ten acres on the land he used to farm peanuts to build a 1.3-megawatt solar farm that’s been powering half of his hometown of Plains, Georgia ever since. Rather than a road not taken, it represents the life of a man who has perhaps paved too many roads to count.
The post What Is Jimmy Carter’s Environmental Legacy? appeared first on EcoWatch.
https://www.ecowatch.com/jimmy-carter-environmental-legacy.html
The first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970 — 56 years ago — and, goodness, how the world has changed since then. We’ve come a long way since the days of burning our trash and pumping our gas guzzlers with leaded gasoline. In honor of those 56 years, here are 56 important changes and milestones since the first Earth Day.
Legislation
The U.S. government has led much of the environmental charge, starting with the implementation of the EPA (1) in July 1970. Later that year, the Clean Air Act (2) targeted air pollutants, followed by the Clean Water Act (3) in 1972 and the Endangered Species Act (4) in 1973.
Some lesser-known national laws included the Safe Water Drinking Act (5) in 1974, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (6) in 1976, the Toxic Substances Control Act (7) in 1976, the National Energy Act (8) in 1978, and the Medical Waste Tracking Act (9) in 1988.
In some cases, states have led the charge. Oregon passed the first bottle bill (10) in 1971, Minnesota’s Clean Indoor Air Act (11) was the first law to restrict smoking in public places (1975), and Massachusetts required low-flush toilets (12) for construction and remodeling in 1988.
Green Innovations: The Early Years
In order to comply with all the laws from the 1970s, we needed new technology to ensure consumers could adhere to the new standards. Consider:
- The “Crying Indian” PSA debuts in 1971 (13)
- Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) gets banned in 1972 (14)
- The energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulb launches in 1973 (15)
- Cars begin displaying fuel economy labels in the mid-1970s (16)
- In 1975, all cars are manufactured with catalytic converters to limit exhaust emissions (17)
- Chlorofluorocarbons are banned from aerosol cans starting in 1978 (18)
- The first curbside recycling program begins in New Jersey in 1980 (19)
- In 1986, McDonald’s switches from foam to paper food containers (20)
- Mercury is removed from latex paint in 1990, providing a viable alternative to banned lead paint (21)
- Earth911 launches the first U.S. recycling directory in 1991 (22)
- Energy Star certification debuts in 1992 for appliances and electronics (23)
- The U.S. Green Building Council begins in 1993 (24)
The Political Movement
The Green Party (25) launched in 1984, which was just the beginning of green issues entering the mainstream. One Percent for the Planet (26) was founded in 2002 to challenge businesses to donate to environmental causes, and the ISO 14001 standard (27) established environmental management. Companies are now facing pressure to allow employee telecommuting (28).
Things really developed after the release of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth (29) in 2006. NBC debuted Green Week (30) in 2007. Carbon offsets (31) alleviated corporate green guilt. Bisphenol A (32) made us all question plastic purchases. Hybrid vehicles (33) generated tax credits and gas savings. Plastic bag bans gave rise to a reusable bag (34) craze. Fracking (35) and the Dakota Access Pipeline (36) were two of the most hotly contested news stories of the decade, at least until the 2016 election.
Green Tech: The Next Wave
In the past 10 years, emerging green tech has made eco-friendly a way of life, including:
- LED light bulbs (37)
- Portable solar panels on backpacks and watches (38)
- Plant-based plastics (39)
- Motion sensor lighting (40)
- Faucets with automatic shut-off (41)
- Low volatile organic compound (VOC) paint (42)
- Recycled plastic clothing (43)
- Ride-sharing mobile applications (44)
- Natural cleaning products (45)
- Biodiesel engine vehicles (46)
- Food waste composting (47)
- Portable air purifiers (48)
- Europe’s Green Deal introduced global recyclables shipping regulations to reduce pollution in low-income nations (49)
- Corporate borrowers headed toward $500 billion in bond financings for the renewables transition (50)
- President Biden rejoins the Paris Climate Accord on his first day in office. (51)
The Latest Five: 2022–2026
The pace of innovation has not slowed. Five more milestones have reshaped the environmental landscape since that 51st Earth Day:
- The Inflation Reduction Act (52), signed into law in August 2022, became the largest climate investment in U.S. history, directing roughly $370 billion toward clean energy tax credits, EV incentives, methane reduction, and domestic clean manufacturing. Analysts projected it will drive more than $4 trillion in cumulative capital investment over a decade and put the U.S. on track for a 40% emissions reduction by 2030. Sadly, many of its key provisions have been defunded or eliminated by the Trump Administration.
- The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (53), adopted by 188 governments in December 2022, set the most ambitious biodiversity protection commitment in history. Its headline “30×30” target calls for conserving 30% of the planet’s land, freshwater, and ocean areas by 2030, a goal that would require doubling current protected land coverage and quadrupling marine protections.
- America’s first commercial direct air capture plant (54), opened by Heirloom Carbon Technologies in Tracy, California in November 2023, marked the arrival of atmospheric carbon removal at commercial scale on U.S. soil. The plant uses limestone to absorb CO₂ directly from the air, with the captured carbon injected into concrete for permanent storage. In May 2024, Climeworks activated the world’s largest direct air capture facility, the Mammoth plant in Iceland, with a design capacity to remove 36,000 tons of CO₂ per year.
- Solid-state batteries (55), a next-generation alternative to conventional lithium-ion technology, moved from laboratory promise toward commercial reality between 2022 and 2026. Unlike liquid-electrolyte batteries, solid-state versions are less flammable, achieve higher energy density, and degrade more slowly. In early 2025, Mercedes-Benz began road-testing a prototype EV powered by a lithium-metal solid-state cell that extended driving range 25% over comparable liquid-battery models. Multiple automakers and cell manufacturers now target commercial production between 2027 and 2030.
- Perovskite and tandem solar cells (56), a new photovoltaic technology that pairs conventional silicon with thin perovskite layers, pushed solar efficiency into territory once considered theoretical. By 2024, tandem cells in laboratory settings exceeded 34% efficiency — well above the roughly 22% ceiling of standard silicon panels only a few years ago. manufacturers in Asia and Europe began scaling pilot production lines. Because perovskite cells can be printed on flexible substrates, they open the door to solar surfaces on buildings, vehicles, and everyday objects that conventional panels cannot reach.
The past 56 years have been huge when it comes to saving the environment. Expect more to come, including a resurgent EV industry, nuclear fusion, regenerative agriculture, restorative forestry, and more, as costs and the cool factor improve.
Editor’s Note: Originally published on April 18, 2018, this article was most recently updated in April 2026.
The post 56 Environmental Innovations in the 56 Years Since Earth Day Began appeared first on Earth911.
https://earth911.com/eco-tech/eco-friendly-innovations/
This week’s quotation is from Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd president of the United States: “A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.”
Earth911 inspiration posters: Post them and share your desire to help people think of the planet first, every day. Click the poster to get a larger image.
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https://earth911.com/inspire/earth911-inspiration-forests-are-lungs-of-land/
One gallon of water. That’s roughly how much a well-run aquaponics system uses to grow a kilogram of leafy greens. Compare that to the 30 or more gallons required by conventional soil farming, according to a 2024 comparative greenhouse study, and the benefits are inescapable.
That efficiency is why aquaponics — raising fish and growing plants in a closed-loop system — has moved from backyard novelty to subject of serious agricultural research. A 2025 review in Sustainable Environment Research documents how integrating AI, IoT sensors, and automation into aquaponics can significantly enhance system efficiency, increase food production, reduce operational costs, and minimize waste. For home gardeners in 2026, the barrier to entry has never been lower. All-in-one kits start under $100, water quality testing has become more accurate and affordable, and the science behind getting both fish and plants to thrive is well-established.
Nitrification is at the heart of every aquaponics system. Fish produce ammonia-rich waste. Beneficial bacteria convert that ammonia first into nitrite, then into nitrate — a form plants can absorb directly. The plants filter the water. The cleaned water returns to the fish. Once the system cycles, the main inputs are fish food and occasional water top-offs.
This article contains affiliate links. If you purchase an item through one of these links, we receive a small commission that helps fund our Recycling Directory.
1. Invest in Reliable Equipment
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The core hardware list hasn’t changed much — but what’s available at each price point has improved considerably.
Aquarium or tank. A 100-gallon tank remains the recommended starting point for a serious home system. It gives you flexibility in fish species, plant density, and system stability. Acrylic tanks are lighter and optically clearer; glass tanks are heavier but scratch-resistant. Expect to pay $300–$600 for a quality 100-gallon tank. Search current options on Amazon.
If you’re new to aquaponics, the AquaSprouts Garden Kit is a well-reviewed all-in-one beginner system that fits a standard 10-gallon aquarium. It includes a grow bed, submersible pump, mechanical timer, and light bar mounting system, and costs $75–$90. The aquarium itself is sold separately.
Canister filter. For a 100-gallon aquaponics tank, target 500–600 gallons per hour (GPH) of water turnover, well above what the tank volume alone would suggest, because the fish load demands high filtration. The Fluval FX2 (~$269 on Amazon) is consistently top-rated for tanks up to 100 gallons, featuring 4-stage filtration, Smart Pump technology that auto-adjusts flow, and a built-in water change system. A solid budget alternative is the Penn-Plax Cascade 1000 (~$199 on Amazon), which handles up to 100 gallons, recirculating the water more than twice an hour.
Air pump. Dissolved oxygen is critical for fish health and for the beneficial bacteria driving nitrification. A quality air pump — or a canister filter with an integrated spray bar — will keep oxygen levels stable. A 2025 review in Reviews in Aquaculture found that micro-nano bubble (MNB) aeration increased butterhead lettuce yield by 35% compared to conventional diffusers, and raised nitrate concentration in the water. MNB systems are commercially available but not yet mainstream for home setups, so a conventional air pump remains the practical choice for most beginners.
Grow lights (optional, system-dependent). Indoor systems need supplemental lighting. Full-spectrum LED grow lights have dropped substantially in price and energy draw. Look for LED bars with daylight-spectrum output (5000–6500K) sized to your grow bed. Search LED grow lights on Amazon.
Water heater (optional). Tilapia require 70–85°F. If your space runs cooler, a submersible aquarium heater is essential. Search aquarium heaters on Amazon.
2. Choose Your Setup
Three system types work at home scale. The choice depends on available space, target crops, and tolerance for complexity.
Media bed are recommended for beginners. Plants grow in a bed of inert media, such as expanded clay pebbles, gravel, or lava rock, positioned above or beside the fish tank. A pump floods the bed periodically, then drains back. The media supports roots and houses beneficial bacteria. Research from Texas A&M confirmed media beds are the most forgiving system for beginners and support the widest range of crops, including fruiting vegetables like tomatoes and cucumbers. The Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service provides detailed DIY build plans.
A 2025 study found that carbonized rice husks and cocopeat as grow media can yield five times more crop than traditional expanded clay aggregate (LECA), though they decompose over time and require more frequent replacement.
Nutrient film technique (NFT). A thin stream of water flows continuously through PVC tubes past plant roots dangling inside. Excellent for herbs, lettuce, and small greens in tight or vertical spaces; the tubes can be wall-mounted. Vertical aquaponics setups can increase productivity per unit area by up to 160% compared to horizontal systems, based on research with strawberries and basil. NFT kits are available on Amazon for both DIY and complete systems.
Raft (deep water culture). Plants float on foam rafts with roots submerged directly in nutrient-rich water drawn from the fish tank. They produce a higher yield than NFT for leafy greens, but requires more robust filtration because solids aren’t removed by a media bed. More common in semi-commercial operations than small home setups. Check options on Amazon.
A growing range of IoT sensors let you track pH, dissolved oxygen, ammonia, and temperature continuously from your phone. WiFi pH/EC meters designed for hydroponic and aquaponic systems are now in the $60–$120 range. For beginners, manual weekly testing is fine. For anyone running a system unattended or scaling up, continuous monitoring significantly reduces the risk of a water quality crash.
3. Add the Fish
An aquaponics system will support many species of fish. Several of the most popular options are:
- Tilapia: The most common aquaponics fish for good reason. Tilapia tolerate temperature swings, pH variation, and elevated ammonia better than most species. They grow quickly (typical harvest: 6–8 months), are inexpensive to stock, and provide a dual harvest of vegetables and protein. Best for warm indoor or greenhouse systems (70–85°F).
- Koi: Popular ornamental choice. Koi tolerate poor water quality and are hardy once established, but they’re susceptible to a range of pathogens and aren’t typically harvested for food. Well-suited to media bed systems where water quality is easier to maintain.
- Bluegill, perch, and catfish. Solid edible alternatives to tilapia in cooler climates where tilapia’s warmth requirements are a challenge. Texas A&M’s fish species selection guide covers temperature ranges, feed conversion ratios, and disease susceptibility for home-scale species in detail.
These are great options, but you can also consider carp, perch, largemouth bass, bluegills, guppies, and more. Purchase fish from a reputable aquaculture supplier or local fish hatchery when possible — disease-carrying fish is one of the fastest ways to crash a new system. Pet store fish are not certified disease-free.
4. Add the Plants
Like fish, the options are endless when deciding which vegetables to grow in your aquaponics system. Some popular options include broccoli, celery, cucumbers, and basil.
But because different plants require different conditions, you’ll want to select plants that will thrive in your setup. As Go Green Aquaponics explains, it is important to consider the following:
- System: What type of aquaponics system you will use – plants with no root structure do well in a raft setup, while root vegetables do well in a media bed.
- The optimal temperature and pH level for your fish and your plants – the closer the match, the more successful you’ll be.
- Environment: the amount of light, temperature and – if you’re setting up your system outside – rain the plants will get.
- How much space you have for plants versus how much space the plants need to grow.
- Plant-to-fish ratio: The more fish you plan on having, the more plants you need to absorb the nutrients.
5. Maintain Your System
Keeping healthy plants and fish will require regular maintenance. Some tips include:
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Feed your fish two to three times daily in small amounts. Overfeeding is the most common cause of ammonia spikes in home systems. Uneaten food decomposes rapidly and overwhelms the beneficial bacteria that keep the system in balance.
Test pH weekly. Target range is 6.4–7.4, with most systems running best around 6.8–7.0. The API Freshwater Master Test Kit (~$35 on Amazon) tests pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate in one kit — the standard recommendation for aquaponics monitoring. For more serious systems, the LaMotte Aquaponics Water Test Kit (~$85 on Amazon) covers nine parameters including dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide, and comes with a rugged carrying case. To raise pH naturally, dissolve a tablespoon of food-grade potassium carbonate (potash) in a bucket of system water, add it slowly to the tank, and retest after 24 hours before adding more.
Test ammonia and nitrate weekly or biweekly. Ammonia should be below 2 ppm; nitrates should stay under 160 ppm. Elevated ammonia: feed less, increase aeration, or reduce fish density. High nitrates: add more plants or remove some fish.
Mind the cycling period. A new system takes 4–6 weeks to fully cycle and for the bacterial colony to establish and nitrogen conversion to stabilize. Don’t increase fish load or plant density during this period. Ammonia and nitrite readings near zero consistently is your green light.
The following video from Rob Bob’s Aquaponics provides guidance on how to check the pH, ammonia levels, and nitrate levels.
Get Some Fish In Your Garden
Aquaponics is an easy and environmentally conscious way to grow produce and raise fish at the same time. It can be used to grow all your favorite leafy greens, and there are endless varieties of fish that will adapt well to this system. Just keep up with regular maintenance and aquaponics will prove to be a viable and sustainable new way to garden.
The science of aquaponics is advancing quickly. Three developments from recent peer-reviewed literature are worth knowing about, even if most aren’t yet practical for home systems:
Algae co-cultivation. Reviews in Aquaculture reports that introducing macroalgae such as Spirogyra spp. can nearly double plant yields compared to traditional aquaponic systems. Co-cultivating microalgae (Chlorella) with plants in raft systems also controls ammonia at twice the efficacy of non-algal systems. This is emerging research — not yet mainstream for home growers — but a promising direction for anyone looking to push yields further.
Decoupled system design. Research from the Journal of the World Aquaculture Society (2024) documents that decoupled systems, which separate the aquaculture unit from the hydroponic unit, allow optimized conditions in each component, resulting in better nutrient utilization and increased productivity compared to coupled designs. Decoupled systems allow independent pH management for fish and plants, which is otherwise a constant compromise in standard coupled setups. Commercially available decoupled systems are beginning to become available; for DIY builders, it’s a worthwhile design consideration when scaling up.
AI and IoT integration. A 2025 Sustainable Environment Research review emphasizes that monitoring strategies using artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and renewable energy can significantly enhance aquaponic system efficiency. For home growers, this means the WiFi monitoring systems mentioned in Step 2 are part of a broader wave of automation coming to small-scale aquaponics. The good news: prices will continue to drop.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on March 17, 2021, and updated in April 2026. Feature image of outdoor aquaponics system courtesy of Vasch~nlwiki, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
About the Author
David Thomas is founder and editor-in-chief of Everything Fishkeeping, a fishkeeping and aquascaping magazine. He has been keeping fish since he was a child and has kept over 12 different setups. His favorite is his freshwater tank with Tetras and Loaches.
The post How To Grow Vegetables With Aquaponics appeared first on Earth911.
https://earth911.com/home-garden/grow-vegetables-with-aquaponics/
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