A look at our changing environment.
In 2012, Superstorm Sandy’s storm surge combined with a high tide and buried lower Manhattan under 13 feet of water. Across all five boroughs, subways, highways, and parking garages flooded and homes and businesses were destroyed. Sandy caused nearly $20 billion in damages in New York City alone and more than 50 people died. Ever […]
Researchers are increasingly placing microphones in forests and other ecosystems to monitor birds, insects, frogs, and other animals. Advances in technology are enabling the wide-spread use of bioacoustics as an important research tool. Studying animals in their natural habitat Is often a difficult task. For one thing, many animals are difficult to find, and the […]
Qatar, a small country in the Middle East with a population of about 2.5 million has the highest per capita income of any country in the world. This is largely a result of being one of the world’s top producers of natural gas. The upshot of that is that the tiny country has the dubious […]
The leading cause of crop failures worldwide is drought. Ironically, the very close runner-up is flooding. Facing a changing and increasingly erratic climate, farmers need all the help they can get in protecting their crops. Researchers at the University of California, Riverside, have created a chemical to help plants hold onto water, which could stem […]
The term El Niño refers to a large-scale ocean-atmosphere climate interaction linked to a periodic warming in sea surface temperature across the central and east-central equatorial Pacific Ocean. Amazingly, the phenomenon was originally recognized by fishermen off the coast of South America in the 1600s, with the appearance of unusually warm water in the Pacific […]
We don’t think about hydrogen peroxide very often. Perhaps we have a bottle of it under our bathroom sink that we haven’t touched in a few years. But it is an important product manufactured in the millions of tons each year and the basis of a $6 billion global business. Hydrogen peroxide is widely used […]
According to a new study from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the warming climate may render emperor penguins extinct by the end of this century. The study, which was part of an international collaboration between scientists, finds that emperor penguins will likely experience an 86% decline by 2100 if the global climate continues to warm […]
Photosynthesis is the process used by plants, algae and certain bacteria to harness energy from sunlight and turn it into chemical energy. It is often described as the green engine of life on earth. For quite some time, there have been extensive research efforts around the world in the area of artificial photosynthesis. The goal […]
Since the industrial revolution, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased due to the burning of fossil fuels and land use changes. The ocean absorbs about 30% of the CO2 that is released in the atmosphere. As the levels of atmospheric CO2 increase, so do the levels in the ocean. When CO2 […]
Japan is facing a looming financial problem as a result of heavy investments in coal technology that may quickly become stranded assets as renewable energy sources become increasingly inexpensive. Japan is gradually adding more ambitious policies with regard to climate change including goals to reduce emissions and to have renewables become the main source of […]
Community solar projects allow customers to benefit from the economic and environmental attributes of solar energy when they don’t have the ability to invest in their own system for any number of reasons. Florida Power & Light company is proposing to build the largest community solar program in the United States, pending regulatory review. The […]
Green roofs are roofs on buildings that are partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, generally planted over a waterproofing membrane. The modern version of these roofs began in Germany in the 1960s and spread to many other European countries over time. With concerns about climate change and shrinking natural resources rising, […]
Canola is one of Canada’s most valuable crops. In fact, Canada is the world’s largest exporter of canola oil. The international market for canola oil is $27 billion a year. The oil is very popular because it has a relatively low amount of saturated fat, a substantial amount of monosaturated fat, and is very neutral […]
Lightning is one of the most unpredictable phenomena in nature. Approximately 100 lightning bolts strike earth’s surface every second, and each lightning bolt can contain up to one billion volts of electricity. Lightning regularly kills both people and animals and sets homes and forests on fire. It’s also been known to ground airplanes. Researchers at […]
The global demand for copper and gold continues to grow. Copper is widely used in building materials, plumbing, and electronics. Gold is still highly valued for jewelry and coinage, but nearly a third of the world’s gold is now used in electronics. Both of these metals are getting increasingly difficult to find as many of […]
Hydrogen is frequently touted as an excellent source of clean energy that could be used as a fuel in vehicles, or as a storage medium for energy generated by wind and solar power. The challenge is that hydrogen is rather difficult and expensive to attain, and the most economical methods are not clean and green. […]
Solar geoengineering is a theoretical strategy for curbing the effects of climate change by introducing aerosol particles in the upper atmosphere to reflect some of the Sun’s radiation back into space and thereby cool the planet. It would basically be intentionally tinkering with the climate system on a global scale. The concept is fraught with […]
Globally, poor air is a serious problem. According to the World Health Organization, exposure to air pollution is linked to the premature deaths of an estimated 7 million people every year. In fact, 91% of the people on the planet live in places where air pollution exceeds WHO guideline limits. In the United States, air […]
In 2016, the City Council of Phoenix, Arizona adopted eight Environmental Sustainability goals for 2050 that lay out the desired long term requirements in order to become a Sustainable Desert City. Recently, a group of researchers from Arizona State University assessed how urban agriculture can help Phoenix, a desert city of 1.6 million people, meet […]
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre is the world’s authoritative source of data and analysis on internal displacement. Internal displacement refers to people being forced to flee their homes or places of habitual residence but who remain within their country’s borders. Such displacements can be the result of conflict, violence, development projects, natural disasters, or climate […]