Air and Water
A New Oil Repellant
As long as we continue to transport oil around the world in ships, there is going to be the danger of oil spills, which have been some of our worst environmental disasters. While preventing such spills from happening at all is the first line of defense, we also need better approaches in cleaning up the spills that do occur.
The Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
Are you a smoker who is trying to stop? Or are you helping a loved one kick their tobacco habit? Whether you’ve quit or tried to get someone else to, it is almost certainly because you know that smoking is unhealthy.
Leaky Pipes And Polluted Waters
Most of us don’t spend a lot of time thinking about our wastewater. We want our toilets to flush and our dirty wash water to go down the drain. We assume this water is efficiently routed to a treatment facility, where it is cleaned up and returned to the environment. But reality doesn’t measure up to our expectations.
Spring Flooding Shapes Streams
In the Northeast, streams once covered in ice are flowing again. The floods that often accompany spring thaw bring big changes to these ecosystems.
Desalination And California’s Drought
Four years of drought in California have created a serious water crisis. 2014 was the third driest year in 119 years and was also the warmest year in recorded history. California’s Sierra snowpack, which provides a third of the state’s water, is at its lowest level in 65 years.
Human Pollution And Fish
We recently spoke on this program about how up to 28 billion pounds of plastic debris enters the world’s oceans every year. Well now a new study has shed some light on how this and other human-caused pollution may be impacting deep-water marine fish.
The Tragedy Of The Atmosphere
More and more, arguments against the scientific consensus that humans are changing the Earth’s climate are not about science at all. Instead, they focus on loss of personal liberties and distrust of increased government regulation.
Cleaning Up With Mussels
Zebra mussels are one of the most pernicious invasive species in the United States having infested the Great Lakes in the 1980s and then having spread to 29 states by hitching rides on boats on inland waterways.
Time To Hug A Tree
Forest preservation is essential to combating climate change. Growing trees absorb carbon dioxide, storing it in their wood. Forest destruction is responsible for about 20% of human-caused carbon dioxide emissions into the Earth’s atmosphere.
Accounting For Sea Level Rise
Several years ago, North Carolina’s legislature voted to ignore sea level rise when setting rules for coastal development. Here is the science that conservationists hope will influence future decision-making.
Growing Wind Power
The global wind power industry had a banner year in 2014, installing more than 50 GW of new capacity. To put this in perspective, the total amount of wind power capacity in the world ten years ago was only 60 GW.
Why Did The Frog Cross The Road?
Here in the Northeast, after a long winter signs of spring have finally arrived. Many of us are tuned into budding plants and migratory birds. It’s also a great time to take a hike and observe the awakening of amphibian life.
Why Volcanoes Are Not Driving Climate Change
Once in a while, one will hear the argument that volcanoes are to blame for rising carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere. There are several reasons why this can’t be the case.
[Read more…] about Why Volcanoes Are Not Driving Climate Change
The Value of Woodland Pools
Woodland pools are small, seasonal wetlands. In the Northeast, they are typically covered with ice and snow in the winter. In the heat of summer they dry up. And in the spring and late fall they contain standing water. Now is a great time for exploring the diversity of life in woodland pools.
McDonald’s And Antibiotics
McDonald’s – the world’s largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants – recently announced plans to source chicken that is free of human antibiotics. The corporation, which is one of the country’s biggest buyers of chicken, is trying to shake its image of offering unhealthy and unnatural foods. The transition to this cleaner meat will take two years.
Designer Wetlands
Drinking water supplies around the world often contain trace amounts of pharmaceuticals, agricultural and industrial chemicals, and other synthetic compounds that can harm reproduction in fish and may be linked to adverse health effects in humans. Many of these chemicals enter the water supply by passing through our bodies, entering the sewage system, and finding their way into rivers and other bodies of water. There are currently no US regulations for medical drugs under the Safe Drinking Water Act, so it is important to attack this problem proactively.
Tough Times For Amphibians
It’s a tough time to be an amphibian. Around the world, millions of frogs, toads, and salamanders are dying from two emerging diseases. The first plague appeared in the 1990s, and is so deadly to amphibians that it is causing what has been described as the most spectacular loss of vertebrate biodiversity due to disease in recorded history.
Are Weed Killers Killing Us?
The U.S.-based agrochemical giant Monsanto finds itself at the forefront of another controversy. Monsanto, which dominates the agriculture market with its genetically modified seeds and herbicides, has drawn unwanted scrutiny after a new report linked one of its most popular herbicides to potential health hazards.
A Giant Marine Preserve
