A look at our changing environment.
Plastic debris comes in all different shapes and sizes, but pieces that are less than five millimeters in length are called microplastics. Microplastics are everywhere, including in the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe. Much of the oceanic microplastic pollution comes from the breakdown of plastic litter. Another source […]
Any conversation about climate policy and energy in the United States has to take Texas into consideration. Texas leads the nation in energy production, providing more than one-fifth of U.S. domestically produced energy. Texas also uses more energy than any other state and accounts for almost one-seventh of total U.S. energy consumption. The state’s industrial […]
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, global sea levels have been rising over the past century, and the rate has increased in recent decades. Sea levels are currently rising about one-eighth of an inch every year. Sea level rise is caused primarily by two factors related to climate change: the added water from […]
A massive but unintended experiment in animal conservation has revealed an unexpected result. Thousands of desert tortoises moved to a translocation site in Nevada had a greater chance of surviving if they had lots of genetic variation. From 1997 to 2014, over 9,000 Mojave desert tortoises were moved to a 39-square-mile translocation site in the […]
Several different clean technology trends may come together on farms across the country where wind turbines could power devices that produce green ammonia for fertilizer and zero emission fuel. Distributed wind is a kind of renewable energy that doesn’t get much attention. It refers to turbines that are used to generate electricity for on-site use, […]
Composting is popular as a way to keep solid waste out of landfills and many people turn much of their kitchen waste into rich soil amendments. Cities and towns across the country have composting programs that collect waste from residents to produce large quantities of compost rather than adding the waste to landfills. A new […]
With their characteristic tall dorsal fins and black and white color patterns, orcas are one of the ocean’s most iconic species. Measuring up to 32 feet long and weighing as much as 6 tons, orcas have one of the largest geographic distributions of any species. They live in all latitudes, in all oceans, from the […]
Global insect populations have been in decline since the beginning of the 20th century. The decline accelerated during the 1950s and 1960s, and it has reached alarming levels during the past 20 years. The causes of plummeting insect populations include habitat destruction, deforestation, climate change, light pollution, and the rise of industrial agriculture. This so-called […]
Thousands of contaminated sites exist nationally due to hazardous waste being dumped, left out in the open, or otherwise improperly managed. These sites include manufacturing facilities, processing plants, landfills, and mining sites. A Congressional act in 1980 established authority by the EPA to ultimately clean up these “Superfund” sites. According to a government survey last […]
By mid-November, the Arctic stays dark around the clock and twilight does not return until the end of January. But even as winter darkness descended upon the Arctic this year, record-breaking high temperatures in the region continued. In late November, temperatures across the entire Arctic basin were 12 degrees Fahrenheit above normal and some locations […]
Ash trees are some of the most important plants along riverbanks and in wetlands. There are three ash species in North America: the white, green, and black ash. Unfortunately, all three species are critically endangered because of the emerald ash borer. The emerald ash borer is an exotic beetle from Asia that first showed up […]
Climate change is a serious threat to species whose sex is determined by temperature. Among these are sea turtles. Whether marine turtles are born male or female turns out to depend on the temperature of their nest during incubation. Sea turtle nests need to be around 84.6 degrees Fahrenheit on average to produce a 50:50 […]
Superstorm Sandy was the deadliest hurricane of 2012 and one of the most destructive hurricanes ever to hit the United States. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Superstorm Sandy caused an estimated $74.1 billion dollars in damages. That figure made it the fourth-costliest storm in U.S. history, trailing only Hurricane Katrina in 2005 […]
In 2019, New York generated more electricity from renewable sources than all but three other states. The 39.4 million MWh of renewable electricity generated in New York was the largest of any state east of the Mississippi. New York has been a leader in renewable power long before it became a topic of great interest […]
A new study published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology has found that the total mass of electronic waste generated by Americans has been declining since 2015. Given that electronic devices are playing an ever-growing role in our lives, this finding seems rather surprising. It also seems like pretty good news, but the underlying facts […]
For decades, there have been mysterious deaths of Coho salmon. The salmon return from the Pacific Ocean each year to spawn along the West Coast. They can be found from Alaska all the way down into California. After heavy rain events each fall, fish have been turning up dead in huge numbers before they spawn. […]
Coral reefs around the world have been suffering from warming seas and increasing acidification, both a result of human activity. In the Caribbean, a new threat has emerged in the form of invasive algae. New research published in Scientific Reports explains how an aggressive, crust-like alga is overgrowing shallow reefs and taking the place of […]
The blades of modern wind turbines can be longer than the wing of a Boeing 747. Their useful lifetime is perhaps 20 years and after that, they can’t just be hauled away. They end up being cut up with special industrial saws to create pieces small enough to be strapped to a tractor-trailer. Then, they […]
Self-driving cars require a variety of sensor systems in order for the cars to safely navigate roads and deal with the wide range of objects and conditions that they encounter. Two competing technologies that cars use to identify and locate objects on the scene are radar and LiDAR. Radar uses transmitted radio waves to locate […]
Plastics have been described as the “ubiquitous workhorse material of the modern economy.” But their versatility, pliability, and durability comes at a heavy price to the environment. Plastic pollution is quite literally everywhere. Plastic debris and microplastic particles can be found in every corner of the globe, including the Arctic and Antarctic. The scourge of […]