Enviro

Woods Hole, Mass. January 8, 2024 – With plastic pollution posing a significant threat to ecosystems and human health, various strategies to lessen this type of pollution include reducing the production of plastic, decreasing the generation of plastic waste, and improving the material and product design of plastic items.   Now, researchers have developed a sustainability […]

WASHINGTON, DC — In 80% of African countries, moved toward rivers and into cities during drought, increasing the number of people living in flood-risk areas in recent decades, according to a new study. This resettlement pattern will likely intensify in coming decades as climate change is expected to make droughts more frequent and severe. “It’s a […]

December 18, 2023 – The Earth is a wonderful blue and green dot covered with oceans and life, while Venus is a yellowish sterile sphere that is not only inhospitable but also sterile. However, the difference between the two bears to only a few degrees in temperature. A team of astronomers from the University of […]

December 18, 2023 – Early 2024, the European Parliament will take a final vote on the ‘Nature Restoration Law’ (NRL), a globally unique but hotly debated regulation that aims to halt and reverse biodiversity loss in Europe. An international team of scientists led by the University of Duisburg-Essen investigated the prospects of the new regulation. […]

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, December 15, 2023  — The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday ruled in favor of farmworkers and public-interest groups’ call for reversal of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) approval of the medically important antibiotic streptomycin as a pesticide on citrus crops. In the ruling, the court determined the EPA’s 2021 decision to allow spraying of […]

Researchers have sequenced the whitebark pine genome, presenting new opportunities to help the threatened, high-altitude tree endure environmental challenges. “Sequencing the whitebark pine reference genome is an important scientific contribution,” said project lead David Neale, professor emeritus in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis. “It is the first step in […]

December 8, 2023 – A Cal Poly Humboldt professor is partnering to research whether biochar can help tackle climate change by improving forest soils. Biochar is one of many possible solutions to help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It’s a kind of charcoal that results from heating dry plant-based materials at high temperatures without […]

December 6, 2023 – Stressful childhoods can affect an individual’s adult years and influence future generations. Scientists at the University of California, Davis, found a similar pattern holds true for red abalone exposed as babies, and again as adults, to the stress of ocean acidification. Their study, published in the journal Global Change Biology, found […]

December 4, 2023 – The cool of the forest is a welcome escape on a hot day. This is especially true for mammals in North America’s hottest regions, according to a study from the University of California, Davis. The study indicates that, as the climate warms, preserving forest cover will be increasingly important for wildlife […]

Nov. 27, 2023 – The intensity and frequency of extreme rainfall increases exponentially with global warming, a new study finds. The analysis by researchers from the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research (PIK) shows that state-of-the-art climate models significantly underestimate how much extreme rainfall increases under global warming – meaning that extreme rainfall could increase […]

November 27, 2023 – Nearly a third of the world’s mine tailings are stored within or near protected conservation areas, University of Queensland research has found. A study led by UQ’s Bora Aska, from the Sustainable Minerals Institute and School of the Environment, said these waste facilities pose an enormous risk to some of earth’s most precious species and landscapes. […]

A global study of major crops has found that farmworkers are being increasingly exposed to combinations of extreme heat and humidity during planting and harvest seasons that can make it hard for them to function. Such conditions have nearly doubled across the world since 1979, the authors report, a trend that could eventually hinder cultivation. […]

CHARLESTON, W.Va. Nov. 9, 2023 — The Center for Biological Diversity and Appalachian Voices yesterday sued the U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to protect highly imperiled wildlife from the devastating harms of coal mining in Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia. The agencies have failed to implement […]

Irvine, Calif., Nov. 6, 2023 — Agriculture is one of the hardest human activities to decarbonize; people must eat, but the land-use practices associated with growing crops account for roughly a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine and other institutions evaluate a new solution to this problem, one that […]

Washington, DC, October 23, 2023 — As climate change warms the Earth, higher-latitude regions will be at greater risk for toxins produced by algal blooms, according to new research led by Carnegie’s Anna Michalak, Julian Merder, and Gang Zhao. Their findings, published in Nature Water, identify water temperatures of 20 to 25 degrees Celsius (68 to 77 […]

Bird populations are in rapid decline across North America. While climate change is just one of the many factors influencing North American birds, its effects are significant and can interact with other stressors, such as habitat loss. A team of University of California, Davis, researchers found that the effects of extreme temperatures on avian reproduction […]

Measurements from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite show that this year’s ozone hole over Antarctica is one of the biggest on record. The hole, which is what scientists call an ‘ozone depleting area,’ reached a size of 26 million sq km on 16 September 2023. This is roughly three times the size of Brazil. How we […]

October 2, 2023 – Using a new analysis method for satellite images, an international research team, coordinated by the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) and INRAE, mapped for the first time annual changes in global forest biomass between 2010 and 2019. Researchers discovered that boreal and temperate forests have become the main […]

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining is a lifeline for many who live in Madre de Dios, a region in southeastern Peru, where poverty is high and jobs are scarce. But the economic development in this part of the Amazon basin comes at a cost, as it causes deforestation, build up of sediment in rivers, and […]

Rome – Methane emissions are increasingly identified as a turbocharged driver of the climate crisis, catalyzing interest in how they can be mitigated in key agricultural sectors. To bolster awareness of possible actions that can be taken, and support Members with a menu of solutions, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) […]