A look at our changing environment.
Researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the U.S. Geological Survey have developed a radar-based volcano monitoring system. The purpose is to provide situational awareness of volcano behavior and identify volcanoes that are becoming restless before other more obvious indications like earthquake activity occur. The system is called VolcSARvatory and makes use of interferometric […]
Peatlands are a special kind of wetland that have enormous potential for helping to mitigate climate change. They are great at capturing carbon because their constantly soggy soils deprive decomposer organisms of the oxygen they need to break down dead plants. Living plants absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and incorporate the carbon into their […]
There are about 16,000 operational desalination plants, located across 177 countries, which generate an estimated 25 billion gallons of fresh water daily. For every gallon of drinking water produced at a typical desalination plant, one and a half gallons of brine are produced. Much of it is stored in ponds until the water evaporates, leaving behind […]
Atmospheric mercury is a toxic pollutant released into the air from natural sources—such as volcanoes and wildfires—and from human activities like coal burning and gold mining. Once in the atmosphere, mercury can travel long distances before settling onto land or into water, transforming into toxic forms that threaten ecosystems and human health. But tracking atmospheric […]
Honey fraud is a significant issue for the food industry. What is honey fraud? Typically, it involves mislabeling where honey was produced or what types of flowers the bees collected nectar from. Honey made from a single type of flower is often more expensive because of the unique flavor it provides or from potential health […]
Boise is the capital of Idaho, and the Idaho Statehouse is the only one in the United States to use geothermal heat. Geothermal heating is possible in Boise because of fault lines that expose its groundwater to hot rocks. The underground water supply in Boise is heated to around 170 degrees Fahrenheit. It is the […]
Household products such as laundry detergents and dishwasher tablets are an indispensable part of everyday life, but such products contain all sorts of chemicals that have undesirable properties. Many are difficult to break down when they enter the environment, and some add nutrients that trigger environmentally harmful algal blooms. The ingredient lists for even what […]
The majority of commuter trains in the U.S. are powered by diesel fuel. This is despite the fact that electric trains are quieter, more reliable, and produce fewer greenhouse gases than diesel locomotives. A new study has found that electric trains are healthier for passengers as well. Caltrain carries millions of passengers a year along […]
Climate change is causing more frequent and intense heat waves in the United States. Studies show that not only are heat waves now occurring more often, but that the average heat wave season is nearly 50 days longer now than it was in the 1960s. The overall rise in temperatures, linked to climate change, has […]
Mountain lions – also known as pumas, cougars, and even sometimes panthers – are the most widely distributed wild land mammal in the world. They are found from Canada to South America. There are an estimated 30,000 mountain lions in the United States, mostly in the West, but there are also mountain lions from the […]
Climate change is endangering many native plant species. As the climate warms, many species will need to establish themselves in new places that are more hospitable than their historic ranges. But many native plants in the U.S. cannot move themselves by natural forces quickly enough to avoid climate-change driven extinction. For such plants to survive […]
Cargo ships are significant sources of global air pollution because of their fuel oil. Most ships burn heavy fuel oil that is loaded with sulfur, so when it is burned it produces noxious gases and fine particles that can harm human health and the environment. The International Maritime Organization enacted a mandatory cap of 0.5% […]
The iconic image of the “perfect” tropical beach is fine white sand, a few coconut palm trees, a gently sloping beach, and unobstructed views of the blue sea. This image came about to a great extent from fascination with Polynesian scenery at the time of World War II. And because of this imagery, beach resorts […]
Every year, millions of tires from cars and trucks end up in landfills. Just in the U.S., more than 270 million tires were scrapped in 2021 and more than 50 million of them ended up in landfills. Discarded tires take up huge amounts of space but, more importantly, create environmental hazards. They leach chemicals into […]
Biodiversity is under threat. More and more plant and animal species are disappearing and humans are to blame. Humans cause biodiversity loss through habitat destruction, invasive species, pollution, direct exploitation, and climate change, all of which are significantly influenced by human activities. But until now, drawing broad conclusions about human impacts on biodiversity has been […]
Plastics are pretty much everywhere in the modern world including places we want them to be and places where we don’t. Conventional plastics are not biodegradable and instead cause increasing problems wherever they end up after their useful life. As a result, there are global efforts to find environmentally friendly replacements for petroleum-based plastics. An […]
The current administration in the United States is adversarial towards renewable energy and highly supportive of the use of fossil fuels. Unquestionably, this will create rough waters for the clean energy industry and, unfortunately, will throw a monkey wrench into the world’s efforts to mitigate climate change. But it cannot stop what has become a […]
Microplastics come from the breakdown of larger plastics in the environment as well as from direct use in various products such as certain cosmetics. They are found everywhere, from oceans and mountain peaks to the air and water, and alarmingly, in our bodies. They are ingested by all sorts of organisms, from tiny plankton to […]
Researchers around the world are working on what some call the ‘de-extinction’ of iconic animals of the past such as the wooly mammoth, the dodo, and the Tasmanian tiger. The idea is to decipher the genome from DNA of preserved specimens and, using the tools of modern genetic engineering and cloning technology, alter the DNA […]
The White House is considering an executive order that would fast-track permitting for deep-sea mining in international waters and allow mining companies to bypass a United Nations-backed review process. Deep sea mining is the extraction of minerals from the seabed in the deep ocean. Most of the interest is in what are known as polymetallic […]