A look at our changing environment.
The US Geological Survey recently published a comprehensive review of geological carbon storage in sedimentary rocks through carbon mineralization. That is the process by which carbon dioxide becomes a solid mineral, such as a form of carbonate. Certain rocks undergo a chemical reaction when exposed to carbon dioxide and turn into different minerals as a […]
East Antarctica is the coldest place on Earth. It makes up two-thirds of the continent, is home to the South Pole, and has vast ice sheets that have been around for tens of millions of years and are nearly three miles thick in places. Temperatures there hover around 67 degrees below zero. In 2010, a […]
Today is Earth Day. On April 22, 1970, millions of Americas took to the streets in peaceful demonstrations in favor of environmental reform. Since that first time, Earth Day has now become a global event each year. Estimates are that as many as a billion people in 192 countries take part in Earth Day events. […]
Coal is the most harmful fossil fuel for the environment and, furthermore, for human health. Its use has stubbornly persisted because it is so plentiful and, therefore, cheap. As a result, a big part of efforts to fight climate change is finding a way to remove the carbon dioxide dumped into the atmosphere by the […]
The Ivory Coast has lost more than 80% of its forests in the last 50 years, mainly as a result of cocoa production. The Ivory Coast is a West African country the size of New Mexico and it produces more than a third of the world’s cocoa. But around 40% of the country’s cocoa crop […]
We all spend time sitting at red lights – sometimes it seems like a whole lot of time. There is a fair amount of science applied in the design of traffic signals that at least has the aim of easing congestion and improving traffic safety. Signals in modern cities are timed using optimization models that […]
The shade of a single tree is a welcome source of relief on a hot summer day. But even a relatively small patch of woods can have a profound cooling effect. A new study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison looks at the role trees play in keeping towns and cities cool. According to the study, […]
According to a new study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, concentrations of pharmaceuticals in rivers and lakes have dramatically increased across the globe over the past 20 years. Traces of medicines get passed into waterways through the excretion of active drugs in human waste, the disposal of unused medicines down drains, and runoff […]
A Rutgers University-led study published in the journal Science has shown that climate change has taken a toll on many of the world’s fisheries and that over fishing has magnified the problem. Seafood has become an increasingly important source of nourishment as the global population grows, especially in coastal, developing countries where it provides as […]
Two things we have heard a lot about in recent years have been the persistent drought in California and the terrible wildfires the state has experienced. Along the way, the state has had some pretty wet and snowy winters. This past winter, the California snow pack has seen incredible levels building up, which is great […]
Burger King, the global hamburger fast food giant, recently made a huge announcement: Customers will soon have the option to select either a beef patty or a plant-based patty when ordering the iconic Whopper sandwich. Burger King’s plant-based patty will be made by Impossible Foods, a California startup founded in 2011 with the explicit goal […]
According to a new study, more than one-quarter of the planet’s land vertebrates die because of humans. This is a “disproportionately huge effect” on the other land vertebrates that share planet’s surface with us. Researchers from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and the U.S. Department of Agriculture reviewed 1,114 published studies in […]
The increasing reduction of sea ice in the Arctic is changing the behavior of polar bears. Because they are spending more time on land, they are interacting with people much more frequently, occasionally with deadly results. A study, published in 2017, looked at 144 years’ worth of polar bear attacks on humans in the Arctic. […]
Coral reefs around the world have been suffering in recent years from warming ocean temperatures as well as from increasing ocean acidification. Corals are very sensitive organisms that can only tolerate relatively slight changes in their environment. Thus, the majority of reef-building corals are found in tropical and subtropical waters with favorable conditions. New research […]
The 1450-mile-long Colorado River begins in the Rocky Mountains and wends its way to the Gulf of California, creating the Grand Canyon along the way, and providing water to some 40 million people. The amount of Colorado River water promised to users is far more than actually flows between its banks, and that amount is […]
Illegal trafficking in endangered flora and fauna is a topic of great interest and concern. We hear a lot about elephant ivory, rhino horn, and even pangolin scales. It turns out that the most trafficked form of flora or fauna in the world is actually rosewood. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and […]
In discussions of the environment, we don’t hear much about sand mining. But sand mining is the world’s largest mining endeavor, responsible for 85% of all mineral extraction. Sand and gravel are mined on a huge scale around the world. The UN estimates that the total exceeds 40 billion tons a year. Most of this […]
A new policy perspective published in Science by researchers at seven prestigious institutions looked at the role of natural science solutions in stabilizing the Earth’s climate for people and ecosystems. While they asserted that it is imperative to ramp up natural climate solutions, they also concluded that natural solutions alone will not be sufficient. Natural […]
There are about 6,000 offshore oil platforms in the world’s oceans. They have an immense presence physically, financially and environmentally. As these massive structures extract hydrocarbons from deep beneath the sea, they also undergo a remarkable transformation under the water. The enormous substructures that support the platforms become vertical reefs, home to millions of individual […]
Toxic algal blooms have been a growing problem in recent years associated with warming waters and nutrient-rich agricultural runoff in lakes, rivers, and oceans. In 2014, an algal bloom in Lake Erie left half a million residents of Toledo, Ohio without safe drinking water for three days. The most common toxic substance released by algal […]