A look at our changing environment.
Poor air quality is a major global problem. According to the World Health Organization, exposure to air pollution is linked to the premature deaths of an estimated seven million people every year. In fact, 9 out of 10 people breathe air that contains more pollutants than what the WHO considers safe. Air pollution is the […]
Palm oil is the most important source of vegetable oil in the world. The oil itself and ingredients based on it are found in approximately 50% of the products on supermarket shelves, including both food and non-food items. Many of the mysterious chemicals that show up on ingredient lists such as sodium lauryl sulfate are […]
Plastic pollution is particularly pernicious because plastics can take hundreds of years to degrade in the environment. For this reason, researchers across the globe search for ways to shift from petrochemical plastics to ones that are biodegradable. Producing biodegradable plastics is challenging both from the standpoint of the methods needed and from the results obtained. […]
The future potential impacts of anthropogenic climate change on global agricultural systems has been well studied, but how human-caused climate change has already affected the agricultural sector is not as well understood. But a new study led by researchers at Cornell University and supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the […]
Peat fires are a global threat to both economies and the environment. They generally burn a smaller area than fast-moving forest fires, but they can burn up to ten times more fuel matter per acre, producing far more smoke and far more carbon emissions. They ignite very easily, are notoriously difficult to put out, all […]
California’s network of almost 4,000 miles of aqueducts is the world’s largest water conveyance system. It serves the state’s Central Valley which produces a quarter of America’s food. About 20% of the nation’s groundwater demand is pumped from Central Valley aquifers. A recent study by the University of California Santa Cruz and UC Merced has […]
Global mean sea level has risen nearly 9 inches since 1880, with over two inches of that over just the last 25 years. The rising water level is primarily due to two factors: additional water in the oceans coming from melting glaciers and ice sheets; and the thermal expansion of seawater as it warms. Climate […]
The global hydrogen market generates about $150 billion dollars a year. The bulk of the market consists of hydrogen used to produce ammonia, refine oil, and produce methanol. Advocates for hydrogen foresee a $600 billion a year market based on power and industry uses, mobility and transport uses, chemical feedstocks, and construction. But the problem […]
Air pollution is deadly. Studies have found that particles from air pollution can enter our lungs and bloodstream, contributing to major health conditions including heart disease, stroke, cancer, and kidney disease. Globally, air pollution is responsible for the premature deaths of millions of people every year. The first line of defense against air pollution is […]
For people in the Los Angeles area, it is a familiar sight to see oil wells pumping away on hillsides, in residential neighborhoods, and other places. In fancier parts of town, oil wells are hidden behind facades located next door to dry cleaners and lamp stores. Every year, more than 140 million barrels of oil […]
Giant sequoia trees are some of the most remarkable living things on earth. They can live up to 3,000 years. The tallest specimens tower over 300 feet, but it is their girth that really sets them apart. They are usually 20 feet in diameter, and some are up to 35 feet across at the widest. […]
A recent study at North Carolina State University has shown that it can be feasible to use see-through solar panels in greenhouses to generate electricity. The idea is to use semi-transparent solar panels on greenhouses that allow some of the light to get in for the plants to grow while making the greenhouses energy neutral […]
The proliferation of global plastic waste continues to be a growing problem for the world. Hundreds of millions of tons of plastics are produced each year and most of it is used once and then discarded. The properties that make plastics so attractive – durability and chemical stability – make it difficult to do anything […]
Climate change is leading to warmer winter weather throughout the southern U.S., providing opportunities for many tropical plants and animals to move north. A new study by scientists at UC Berkeley looked at the changing distribution of tropical species driven by the warming climate. Some species are appreciated in their new locations, such as sea […]
According to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, more than a third of the farmland in the U.S. Corn Belt has completely lost its carbon-rich topsoil due to erosion. The affected area is nearly 100 million acres and the amount of carbon loss is nearly 2 million tons. […]
A study by the University of Vermont, the University of Cambridge, and several other institutions compared the value of protecting nature at particular locations with that of exploiting it. The study concluded that the economic benefits of conserving or restoring natural sites outweigh the profit potential of converting them for intensive human use. The study […]
Electrical transmission lines and their support towers tend to be a blight on the landscape but are something modern society cannot avoid. Power transmission networks – with towers every 200 meters or so of line – are in place throughout the world’s developed nations. Another common feature of developed nations is the fragmentation of animal […]
The world is dealing with two serious problems affecting the atmosphere: the growing levels of carbon dioxide leading to a warming climate and the effects of air pollution on human health. It turns out that these two things are connected in complicated ways. Countries around the world are racing to mitigate global warming by limiting […]
Environmental groups, governments, and automakers are all promoting electric vehicles as an important technology to combat climate change. For example, GM plans to stop selling gas-powered cars by 2035 and Volvo intends to be all-electric by 2030. There are still those who question how green electric vehicles actually are. All products and technologies do have […]
The majority of solar panels in use today are made from either single-crystal or polycrystalline silicon, the same stuff used to make the ubiquitous chips in computers, cell phones, and countless other devices. In addition, a growing fraction of solar panels utilize thin-film technology, which offers cost and flexibility advantages. Monocrystal silicon still provides the […]