A look at our changing environment.
Wearable technology is an ever-increasing part of our world. Fitness trackers have become commonplace for people of all ages. Smart watches perform a growing range of functions. There are wearable health monitoring systems of many types for assisted living, elderly patients, and people with specific health problems. Virtual reality headsets are increasingly popular and there […]
For decades, conservation biology has characterized the movement of species into new habitats as potential invasions of alien species that pose serious dangers to local ecosystems and resident species. Wild species are classified as either native or alien. But this way of looking at the natural world is becoming increasingly controversial. As the world warms, […]
The Arctic is warming faster than any region on Earth and mostly we’ve been hearing about the rapid disappearance of Arctic sea ice. But the land in the Arctic is also undergoing major changes, especially to the permafrost that has been there for millennia. Permafrost occurs in areas where the temperature of the ground remains […]
Acetone is a common organic solvent. It is used to make plastic, fibers, drugs, and other chemicals. It is commonly used by consumers as nail polish remover. Acetone is a manufactured chemical, but it is also found naturally in the environment in plants, among other places. There are now companies that produce acetone entirely by […]
The oil and gas sector is the largest ocean industry. It’s responsible for about one third of the value of the ocean economy. Sand and gravel, destined for the construction industry, are the most mined minerals in the ocean. And during the past 50 years, approximately 16,000 desalination plants have popped up around the world […]
Tropical regions grapple with the spread of diseases – such as dengue, yellow fever, zika, chikungunya, and malaria – by mosquitoes. A fairly successful strategy has been the Sterile Insect Technique, which is essentially insect birth control. The process involves rearing large quantities of sterilized male mosquitoes in dedicated facilities, and then releasing them to mate with females in […]
There is a growing body of research that shows that getting outdoors in nature can be good for people’s health and well-being. There are so many studies supporting this idea that policymakers, employers, and healthcare providers are increasingly considering this need for nature in how they plan and operate. A new study of 20,000 people […]
Capturing the carbon dioxide emitted from power plants and factories and safely storing it so it can’t enter the atmosphere has long been an attractive and desirable goal. Even though the use of renewable energy sources has been expanding rapidly, it will still be a long time before fossil fuel plants go away entirely. The […]
It is perhaps surprising to learn that more land is now being abandoned by farming than converted to it. In fact, abandonment of rural lands has become one of the most dramatic planet-wide changes of the modern era, affecting millions of square miles of land. In part, it is due to rural flight driven by […]
A data center is a building, dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and data storage systems. Data centers are the backbone of internet services and cloud computing, which together are increasingly dominant elements of modern life. Energy use is a central issue for data centers. Power used by them […]
For the past century, economies and geopolitics have largely been driven by our insatiable appetite for oil and fossil fuels in general. As we gradually make the transition to a low-carbon energy future, the focus on oil will shift to sustainable supplies of essential minerals and elements. The use of solar panels, batteries, electric vehicle […]
Spending vacation time in a disaster zone seems like a crazy idea, but so-called volunteer tourism can actually be a big help to communities trying to recover from natural disasters. It can also be a unique and rewarding experience for the volunteers. Such volunteer tourism should not be confused with “disaster tourism”, the unfortunate practice […]
Food waste is a big problem. According to the United Nations, approximately one-third of the food produced globally – more than 1.4 billion tons – goes to waste. If food waste was a country adding carbon to the atmosphere, it would be the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases – behind only the U.S. […]
Many states and countries have established goals to generate at least half of their electricity from renewable sources by some future date, typically 2030. A number of countries have already been able to achieve 50% or greater renewable generation for brief periods measured in days. Australia did it this past November. Germany has seen it […]
Animal-based agriculture has endured a great deal of criticism with regard to its contributions to climate change and its other environmental impacts. But its contributions to a sustainable food system are by no means all bad. In fact, livestock play important roles in sustainable, regenerative agro-food systems. Animals’ natural biological processes enable them to consume […]
There are various ways to generate renewable energy from the world’s oceans, most obviously from the power of tides and waves. But there is also an oceanic energy source called osmotic or “blue” energy. Osmotic energy uses the differences in pressure and salinity between freshwater and saltwater to generate electricity. When freshwater and saltwater are […]
Human civilization consumes vast amounts of material. The Circle Economy think tank actually puts some numbers on it. According to their latest report, the amount of material consumed by humanity has passed 100 billion tons every year. So, on average, every person on Earth uses more than 13 tons of materials per year. That number […]
Many of the negative effects of air pollution are well documented. Studies have shown that exposure to air pollution is associated with an increased risk of lung cancer, stroke, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, and so on. Now, according to a new study in India led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), exposure to […]
Teeth and particularly narwhal tusks are getting some unusual press recently when one of them was the weapon of choice to fend off the London Bridge attacker, which was a good choice according to Harvard dental researcher Dr. Martin Nweeia. Turns out that narwhal tusks have some pretty amazing physical features. They exhibit both extreme strength and […]
Global sea level rose by about 6 inches during the 20th century. It is currently rising more than twice as fast and accelerating. The rate of rise was 2.5 times faster from 2006 to 2016 than it was for nearly all of the 20th century. Sea level rise occurs when glaciers and ice sheets lose […]