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Facing a Health Crisis, Cities Implore Courts to Limit Pollution
The coronavirus is a case study in the limits of federalism. Where the federal government has declined to gather and distribute masks, gloves and ventilators, states and cities have been forced to compete for medical supplies, paying exorbitant prices to secure needed equipment. Where the federal government has been slow to ramp up testing, states andREAD MORE
Thawing Permafrost Is Letting Scientists Study Long-Dead Diseases
For decades, the Inuit woman, a victim of the 1918 Spanish flu, lay buried in a mass grave under six feet of Alaskan permafrost. But when the frozen ground began to thaw in the 1990s, the Inuit town of Brevig Mission gave scientists permission to dig her up. Her ample body fat kept her lungs insulatedREAD MORE
As California Forests Heat Up, Birds Are Flocking to Higher Ground
Forests are critical to slowing climate change because they soak up huge amounts of heat-trapping carbon dioxide. Birds help keep forests healthy by eating insects that spread tree-killing diseases. Birds also scatter seeds that give rise to new trees. If birds leave, the forests could be in trouble. “Without birds, forests would be more vulnerable toREAD MORE
In Mississippi, the Costs of Coastal Flooding Are Adding Up (VIDEO)
Ankle-deep in the overflow of the river that drew her here two decades ago, Calinda Crowe looked across her land, envisioning the future. She didn’t like what she saw. “You wake up to this,” she said, gesturing toward the water submerging everything but the concrete foundation of her raised home. “It upsets you, you know, becauseREAD MORE
It Ain’t Easy Selling Green
When Morgan Poor gave birth to her son, she and her husband shopped around for the perfect diaper, hoping to find one that was both effective and environmentally friendly. They tried a few so-called “niche” brands, like Seventh Generation and Honest Company, which tout their green bona fides, but the diapers Poor liked best came fromREAD MORE
Students Are Terrified of Climate Change. Some School Boards Say It’s Too Political to Talk About.
Burning book pages aren’t supposed to rain from the sky. But for students growing up in the age of climate change, it’s now a familiar sight. “Sonoma County kids know that when there’s a big wildfire, there are pieces of paper that fall out of the sky,” said Park Guthrie, who teaches sixth grade at aREAD MORE
The Killer Argument for a Profoundly Dangerous Climate Fix
The UN Environment Assembly recently considered a proposal to research solar geoengineering, as it’s known, an outlandish scheme to cool the Earth by blanketing the heavens with aerosols — chemicals that would reflect a small measure of sunlight back into space, lowering the average global temperature. The measure failed, not because countries were wary of investigating geoengineering, butREAD MORE
Cars Are Giving Millions of Children Asthma
Children spend a lot of time outdoors playing tag, shooting hoops or climbing trees. If they live in cities, they might run around near busy roads. Parents always teach their kids to watch out for oncoming cars and never run into the street — but no one tells them not to breathe. Just being outside near traffic canREAD MORE
How a Few Small Fixes Could Stop Climate Change
When thinking about new ways to tackle climate change, University of Oxford researcher Thom Wetzer first points out how a modest rise in temperature could push the Earth to a tipping point that yields dramatic climate change. A little warming, for example, could cause Arctic permafrost to melt, unleashing enough heat-trapping methane to cook the planet.READ MORE
Filling Potholes Cuts Pollution
With Democrats in control of the House of Representatives and Republicans in control of the Senate, Congress is unlikely to produce any significant legislation on divisive issues like climate change. However, lawmakers may tackle the carbon crisis by other means, including through legislation on infrastructure, one possible area of compromise. Even if Congress fails to investREAD MORE
Consumers Don’t Know Jack About Electric Cars (VIDEO)
This article is part of a series about barriers to the widespread adoption of electric cars. The telephone should have been an instant hit. It revolutionized human communication overnight, and yet it took decades to catch on. AT&T president Theodore Vail blamed meager sales on public ignorance. No one knew how to use the phone, heREAD MORE
Seed by Seed and Bus By Bus (VIDEO)
Wildfires, sea level rise, air pollution, asthma — you don’t have to go far to find communities living with climate change impacts. But there are also climate solutions everywhere you look. This summer, the Freedom to Breathe Tour visited communities across the country that are working to reduce carbon emissions and make their communities healthier and more resilient.READ MORE
Climate Change Is Creating an Affordable Housing Crisis in Miami (VIDEO)
Miami ranks among the most valuable real estate markets in the country. Palatial homes astride warm, teal waters sell for millions. But it’s not Miami’s ocean-front neighborhoods where property values are rising fastest. Housing costs are climbing more rapidly in neighborhoods that lie a little higher up along a ridge that runs parallel to the shore.READ MORE
Extreme Heat Is Killing Farm Workers. The Government Won’t Protect Them. (VIDEO)
In the Lake Apopka region of Florida, a typical August day might yield a high temperature of 92 degrees F, a heat made all the worse by the stifling humidity. The weather is bad enough for office workers who spend most of the day next to an air conditioner. For farm workers, who spend their AugustREAD MORE
Trees Are Migrating West to Escape Climate Change
An individual tree has roots and, of course, it doesn’t move. But trees, as a species, do move over time. They migrate in response to environmental challenges, especially climate change. Surprisingly, they don’t all go to the Poles, where it is cooler. As it turns out, more of them head west, where it is getting wetter.READ MORE
A Power Boost for Formula E
Cars zipped past at blistering speeds, only slowing to round the hairpin turns etched into the waterfront course in New York City. Spectators lined up at the edge of the roadway, close enough to see the drivers strain against their steering wheels. From that distance, fans could smell the burning rubber and feel the rush ofREAD MORE
Will Climate Change Make the Next World Cup Too Hot to Handle?
After four weeks of fanfare, the 2018 World Cup has come to a close. France’s victory in Sunday’s final marked the end of a summer filled with thrilling victories, surprise defeats, national pride (and disappointment), penalty kick-induced panic and many other emotions associated with soccer. Fans, unfortunately, will have to wait longer than usual to experienceREAD MORE
Televised Sports Capture Climate Change Along the Course
Pieter De Frenne is a big cycling fan who likes to watch coverage of the Tour of Flanders, a one-day bicycle race held every spring in Belgium. He is also the consummate scientist. So it’s not surprising that he noticed startling changes in the trees and shrubs framing many of the cobbled streets that have beenREAD MORE
Water, Water Everywhere, Any Drop to Drink
A winter of exceptionally meager snowfall has revived California’s water woes. Snowpack typically supplies the state with much of its water during the spring and summer, but this year, snow is in short supply, spurring Gov. Jerry Brown to instate permanent conservation measures. Thanks to climate change, the problem is only going to get worse, leavingREAD MORE
Cosmos Offers Clues to the Fate of Humans on Earth
Astrophysicist Adam Frank sees climate change through a cosmic lens. He believes our present civilization isn’t the first to burn up its resources — and won’t be the last. Moreover, he thinks it’s possible the same burnout fate already might have befallen alien worlds. That’s why he says the current conversation about climate change is all wrong. “WeREAD MORE
A Holistic Approach to Disaster Recovery
Jianguo “Jack” Liu believes that all natural disasters bring universal truths with them. By this he means they all carry the potential to destroy homes, cause death and change lives, often forever, “whether it’s a terrible earthquake in the mountains of rural China, or hurricanes that devastated Puerto Rico, and wreaked soggy havoc to other places,READ MORE
In a Warming World, Deadly Bacteria Are More Resistant to Antibiotics
Tom Patterson became ill in 2015 while vacationing in Egypt. He was felled by Acinetobacter baumannii, an often deadly bacterium resistant to every antibiotic his doctors tried. Patterson, a University of California San Diego psychiatry professor, should have died, but didn’t. Experimental infusions of bacteria-killing viruses known as bacteriophages ultimately saved his life. However, his near-deathREAD MORE
The World Cup of Climate Change
The World Cup starts today. Billions of people around the world are expected to tune in to the greatest show on earth. Everyone from economists to an octopus have tried to predict who will win. Germany, Brazil and Spain are early favorites to take the cup. But, which countries are tackling climate change, kicking out fossilREAD MORE
American Geophysical Union Goes Net Zero
The American Geophysical Union (AGU), a nonprofit professional scientific organization whose members come from different fields of Earth and space sciences, has a guiding philosophy grounded in a single notion: “science for the benefit of humanity.” So when the systems inside its aging Washington, D.C. headquarters began to crumble, AGU officials had a decision to make.READ MORE
Interfaith Leaders Bless Electric Vehicles (VIDEO)
On a recent Monday morning, Rabbi Abraham drove to Newark, New Jersey to bless some electric cars. He pulled into the lot behind Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, parked his Chevy Volt beside two Teslas and headed inside. It may sound unusual, but many faiths have ceremonies for blessing a vehicle. In Hinduism, a puja ceremony isREAD MORE
Healthcare Starts with a Healthy Environment
Patients, doctors and nurses at facilities in Escambia County, Florida, know what they’ll get when they turn on any faucet in the buildings — cold water. Yet nobody seems to mind, since the county saves about $14,000 a year by shutting off its hot water. It was John Lanza’s doing — he’s the county’s chief health officer — and it’s one ofREAD MORE
States Promised to Fulfill the Paris Agreement. Here’s How They’re Going to Do It.
A year ago today, President Trump announced the United States would exit the Paris Climate Agreement. His decision drew harsh criticism from world leaders, CEOs and U.S. elected officials, both Democrats and Republicans. In the days that followed, hundreds of cities, states, businesses and universities pledged to do their part to uphold the Paris Agreement. Now,READ MORE
A Clever Fix to the Biggest Climate Problem
Climate change is a big, unwieldy problem with no easy fix. To stem the rise in temperature, we need to transform how we power our homes, fuel our cars, grow our food and get rid of our waste. The change won’t happen overnight, and time is running perilously short, which is why we need to prioritizeREAD MORE
Plants Find a New Way to Fight Climate Change — Nap
N umerous plant species have found a novel way to cope with environmental dangers, such as a prolonged climate change-induced drought. They sleep through it. An international research team has discovered at least 114 species capable of living dormant under the soil for up to two decades. Dubbed “Rip Van Winkle plants” by scientists, they areREAD MORE
City Trees Are Disappearing
Forests are essential to combating climate change. They drink up huge amounts of planet-heating carbon from the atmosphere and provide shelter for species struggling to adapt to global warming. For that reason, experts have called for measures to protect forests. But what about trees in cites? We hear much less about them. Yet the trees thatREAD MORE
Ring. Recycle. Repeat.
How often do you swap out your old smartphone for a new one? Every two or three years? Every year? Today, phone companies make it easy with deals to trade in your old phone for the newest version. But those discarded phones are becoming a huge source of waste, with many components ending up in landfillsREAD MORE
Researcher Brainstorm Leads to Charging in Rainstorm
Anyone watching Swedish scientist Anja Lund working out on an aerobic stepper recently might have thought it a strange way to get fit. She was stepping while holding a shoulder bag, its arm strap dripping with water. In this case, exercise was secondary to science. Lund wasn’t attempting to break a sweat — rather, she was trying toREAD MORE
Unforgettable Sights of Our Changing World
President Trump’s proposed 2019 budget would slash funding for NASA’s Earth Science Division, and while his budget hasn’t gained traction in Congress, it is an important statement of the administration’s priorities. In a nod to his allies in the fossil fuel industry, Trump is calling for the elimination of vital programs that monitor carbon pollution andREAD MORE
Extreme Temperature Fluctuations Tied to Increase in Heart Attacks
Temperatures along the East Coast began fluctuating wildly last month, from winter-like cold one day — which is normal for February — to summer-like hot the next day — which is anything but. This is a portentous harbinger of global climate change, and an irksome turn of events, as it forced people to switch their clothes, thermostats and ceiling fans from oneREAD MORE
The Aesthetics of Wind Energy
The semester kicked off with a one-question pop quiz — hot or not? Psychologists at the University of Texas asked students in a small class to rate the desirability of their peers. At the start of term, students tended to agree on who was attractive. But, when asked again three months later, their answers diverged. After getting toREAD MORE
Drug Abuse Linked to Extreme Weather
America’s opioid epidemic has dominated the news media in recent years, as drug overdose deaths have escalated, decimating lives and families. And while climate change may not be top of mind in discussions about how to effectively deal with this crisis, it’s a factor that shouldn’t be ignored. Global warming spawns extreme weather, which begets destructionREAD MORE
Cutting-Edge Design On Display at Super Bowl LII
Early one December morning in 2010, the inflatable roof on the Minnesota Vikings’ old stadium in Minneapolis ruptured and collapsed under the weight of 17 inches of wet snow. No one was hurt, but the incident was a wake-up call for the Vikings’ front office. The team needed a new facility that could withstand the rigorsREAD MORE
In Puerto Rico, Solar Offers Hope to Hospitals Without Power (VIDEO)
More than four months after Hurricane Maria tore across Puerto Rico, over 450,000 people are still without power. For critical facilities like hospitals, the lack of electricity has meant cutting services and relying on generators until power is restored. Nexus Media joined Vittoria Energy, a team of clean-energy evangelists, for a trip around Puerto Rico inREAD MORE
The Surprising Upside of Being a Homebody
Ellen Crupi lives in Bethesda, Maryland, but works for a startup company in Minnesota. She does everything online from sales pitches to video conferences. Working at home means she doesn’t have to dress up, wear makeup, buy new work clothes or go out to lunch. When she’s not working, she also shops online, and streams moviesREAD MORE
The Curse of ‘Green Gentrification’
Sunset Park, Brooklyn wasn’t always so nice. Today, it boasts a waterfront park replete with baseball fields, tide pools and a seaside esplanade, but not long ago that park was a hazardous waste site. The credit for that transformation rests, in part, with the residents of Sunset Park, who pushed the city to clean up theREAD MORE