A look at our changing environment.
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 […]
We have previously reported on the important role that offshore oil platforms seem to play for fish. In short, the support structures of offshore oil platforms that often rise hundreds of feet through the water column create essentially a prefabricated reef for marine life. According to a new study recently published in the British journal […]
Scientists have been closely monitoring multiple cracks and chasms that have formed in the 500-foot-thick Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica over the past few years. In late 2019, a new crack was spotted in a portion of the shelf north of an area known as the McDonald Ice Rumples. The rift was monitored by satellite […]
The fruits and pads of opuntia, better known as prickly pear cactus, find their way into people’s diets in many arid and semi-arid places around the world. In Mexico, the pads are known as nopales and are used in a variety of dishes. The pears themselves are used in jams, salads, and juices. A five-year […]
The goal of the Paris Climate Accord is to limit warming to below 2 degrees Celsius and if possible to stay as close as close to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. Nations around the world have made commitments to drastically reduce their carbon dioxide emissions from the use of fossil fuels that are in large […]
A new study led by the University of Bristol in the UK measured for the first time how much nectar is produced in urban areas to gauge the role of residential gardens in providing nutrients for pollinators. They discovered that home gardens accounted for the vast majority of the crucial nutrients for pollinators; in fact, […]
A carbon tax is a fee imposed on the burning of carbon-based fuels, like coal, oil, and gas. It’s one way to make the users of carbon fuels pay for the climate damage caused by releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. According to a new study by researchers at Ohio State University, putting a price […]
A group of researchers at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia is exploring a novel technology to improve the health of corals. Around the globe, corals are being stressed by pathogens, toxins, and warming waters leading to widespread bleaching events. The new idea is to introduce beneficial bacteria to the […]
For thousands of years, thick canopies of kelp formed an underwater forest spanning the coast of Northern California. Kelp is the cornerstone of a rich subtidal community, providing food and habitat for all sorts of marine creatures. But in recent years, a shocking transformation has occurred. Satellite imagery reveals that the area covered by kelp […]
A national coalition made up of more than 230 organizations has launched an initiative called the 30 Million Solar Homes campaign. The goal is to add enough rooftop and community solar energy to power 30 million homes across the U.S. over the next five years. That would be the equivalent of one in four American […]
Offshore wind capacity has been growing rapidly in recent years, especially in Europe and China. Globally, there is now more than 30 GW of offshore wind and industry experts predict that there will be well over 200 GW of installed capacity by 2030. Meanwhile, the U.S. has only two small pilot projects, one with five […]
The country of Ghana has an ambitious plan to recycle and reuse as much plastic waste as it produces each year (which is over a million tons) by 2030. As part of this plan, they have started to pave roads in Accra, the capital city, with asphalt containing a slurry of used plastics – shredded […]
A new study from Clark University has found that deforestation does not always contribute to planetary warming, as is generally assumed. The researchers have found that there can be places where removing trees actually cools the planet. Forests soak up carbon dioxide from the air and store it in the trees themselves and in the […]
According to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an addition to the many hardships that climate change is causing around the world is the fact that it is making allergy season worse. Researchers have found that there is a strong link between planetary warming and pollen seasons. The […]
Wind-powered electricity has been increasing its contribution to the American energy mix for years as the number of installed turbines has rapidly grown. In the final months of 2020, wind power set a number of new records. Strong wind conditions in November and December, especially in the central states, led to record output from wind […]