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Another Hole in the Ozone Layer? Climate Change May Be to Blame.
You may have heard about the hole in the ozone layer, which hovers over Antarctica. It has shrunk over time thanks to policies that curbed the use of ozone-depleting chemicals. In the nearly 40 years that NASA has kept track, it has never been smaller. That’s the good news. The bad news is that a separateREAD MORE
Climate Change Could Frustrate Efforts to Stop the Coronavirus
While there is some preliminary evidence that sunlight, heat and humidity could slow the spread of the coronavirus, the summer months also promise a host of new risks, The Washington Post reports. Soaring temperatures will either compel people wanting relief to go outside, where they could catch the coronavirus, or the coronavirus will force people 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
Scientists Use Underwater Speakers to Lure Fish to Dead Reefs
A healthy coral reef sounds like a bowl of Rice Krispies in milk. Snap. Crackle. Pop. “Thousands of invertebrates make this constant crackling, sizzling, static-like sound as … shrimp snap their claws and sea urchins scrape over rocks,” said scientist Tim Gordon. “Punctuated throughout that, you can hear the grunts, whoops, and chatter of many different fishes.”READ MORE
Climate Change Could Mean Shorter Winters, But Longer Flu Seasons
The flu has a paradoxical relationship with the weather. In the United States, the flu thrives in the winter, when the air is cold and crisp, and then ebbs in the spring, when the disease is stymied by hotter temperatures. However, in tropical countries, where it is usually warm, humid and rainy, people get sick withREAD MORE
Century-Old Ship Logs Show How Much Ice the Arctic Has Lost
When retired Canadian meteorologist Michael Purves transcribes the handwritten notes from an ancient ship’s log, he finds himself transported back in time a century, imagining he is on board an old cutter, a fast-moving patrol boat, as it sails through the Bering Sea. In August 1919, for example, the cutter Bear, one of the forerunners ofREAD MORE
Powerful Storms Create an Opening for Invading Plants
Powerful winds can topple trees and tear up shrubs in the forest. And this can create an opening for invaders, plants that don’t belong there. To learn more about this post-storm phenomenon, scientists decided to take a look — up close and personal. But this can be grueling, as Eric Larson and Melissa Daniels discovered. For Daniels, whoREAD MORE
Cool Ideas to Clean Up the Pollution from Cars, Trucks, Ships and Planes
Nearly a century ago, German engineer Anton Flettner launched a ship into the ocean. “Without sails or steam, like a ghost ship, it moved mysteriously through the water with no apparent means of propulsion,” according to a 1925 article that appeared in Popular Science Monthly. The ship cruised in silence, without spewing anything into the air.READ MORE
There’s a Fungus Among Us — And It’s Deadly.
Most of us know that those mushrooms we love on top of a pizza are a fungus. But not everyone realizes that some fungi also cause disease, unless, of course, you’ve suffered through a bout of athlete’s foot or a pesky yeast infection. For the most part, however, the fungi that cause severe illness have aREAD MORE
Island Trees Have Nowhere to Run From Climate Change
Kyle Rosenblad was hiking a steep mountain on the island of Maui in the summer of 2015 when he noticed a ruggedly beautiful tree species scattered around the landscape. Curious, and wondering what they were, he took some photographs and showed them to a friend. They were Bermuda cedars, a species native to the island ofREAD MORE
Steak Made From Insect-Inspired Lab-Grown Meat? Yum!
Edible insects are a great source of protein. But it’s probably folly to think that more than a few people want to swap crickets for steak on the dinner plate. Chomping on a sautéed cricket or savoring a spoonful of caterpillar stew just wouldn’t be the same. Natalie Rubio, a doctoral student and researcher at TuftsREAD MORE
Invisible Heroes of the Sea (PHOTOS)
For nearly two centuries, scientists have pondered “Darwin’s Paradox,” the enduring mystery of why coral reefs thrive in tropical waters, which are woefully short on nutrients. Reefs are teeming oases in aquatic wastelands, and researchers have puzzled endlessly over how they flourish. One answer may come from the thousands of species of tiny colorful fish, rarelyREAD MORE
Plastics Are Sealing The Planet’s Fate
It’s impossible to imagine modern life without plastics. From the moment the day begins, we are using plastic. It’s in our toothbrushes, our shower curtains and our phones. We use it on on the way to work in bus seats, car dashboards and bicycle helmets. We see it at lunch in takeout containers and disposable utensils.READ MORE
Weather Affects Mood, and Thus, Restaurant Reviews
It’s hard to talk about mood without invoking the weather. When people are cheerful and happy, their outlook is “sunny.” But when they are sad or depressed, the world seems “dark” and “gray.” Moreover, when they are angry, their temperament can be “stormy.” These descriptions are no accident. Research shows that weather does, in fact, shapeREAD MORE
Tropical Forests Will Lose Their ‘Enchanted’ Mist
The gnarled and twisted trees in these tropical forests are cloaked in clouds and mist, much like the fairy tale forests drawn by British illustrator Arthur Rackham for the Brothers Grimm. But these are not the spectral woods traversed by Little Red Riding Hood or Hansel and Gretel. These are real. They attract curious visitors andREAD MORE
Winter Is Coming — But Not For NYC’s Rats
In 2015, a rat dragged a piece of pizza the size of its body down the subway steps in New York City and won the hearts and minds of people across the world. Pizza Rat represented our basest instincts — to survive in a dirty, hellish world, to venture into the abyss, to stuff ourselves with pizza. TheREAD MORE
Helping Flint Cope With Lead Pollution
The poisoning of Flint is a tragedy without end. Five years after learning their water supply was laced with lead, the residents of this Michigan town 66 miles northwest of Detroit still are reeling. And they may be doing so for a long time. “We were and remain in deep trauma… grasping for hope,” said BobREAD 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
Tree Rings Reveal Climate Secrets of the Forest
Neil Pederson’s introduction to tree rings came from a “sweet and kindly” college instructor, who nevertheless was “one of the most boring professors I’d ever experienced,” Pederson said. “I swore tree rings off then and there.” But they kept coming back to haunt him. As a future forest ecologist, he needed to learn more about theREAD MORE
NASA Is Using Lasers in Space to Measure the Size of Trees on Earth
There are a couple of ways to study forests. Scientists can work on the ground, in nature, detailing the size and shape of trees. As of late, they can also outsource their research to space, using a laser imaging system that is 250 miles above the Earth and traveling more than 17,000 miles per hour toREAD MORE
An Opportunity for Farmers In a Green New Deal
This month, a group of Democratic lawmakers called for an ambitious plan for the United States to reach net-zero carbon pollution. While experts debate whether the proposal is technologically or politically feasible, the so-called Green New Deal is about more than shifting to cleaner, more advanced forms of energy sources. It’s also about shifting to moreREAD MORE
Pioneering Black Scientist to Win Nobel Prize of Climate Change
Warren Washington can trace at least one of the origins of his extraordinary scientific career —more than half a century of groundbreaking advances in computer climate modeling — to a youthful curiosity about the color of egg yolks. “I had some wonderful teachers in high school, including a chemistry teacher who really got me started,” he said. “OneREAD MORE
Climate Change Is Cooking Salmon in the Pacific Northwest (VIDEO)
The Tulalip Indian Reservation sits on the east side of the Puget Sound, about 40 miles north of Seattle, Washington, where the change in seasons is marked by the arrival and departure of salmon. At the heart of the reservation is Tulalip Bay, where salmon return every spring and fall before swimming upstream to spawn. InREAD MORE
Wildlife Under Siege at the World’s Oldest Lake
Lake Baikal is the world’s oldest and deepest lake. It’s at least 20 million years old, and roughly a mile deep at its lowest point. The Siberian lake contains holds more water than all the North American Great Lakes combined, what amounts to more than one-fifth of all the water found in lakes, swamps and rivers.READ MORE
This Powder Could Cheaply Capture Carbon Pollution from Power Plants
A recent UN report found that to prevent catastrophic climate change, humans will not only need to drastically cut emissions in just a few short years. People will also need to generate power from wind and solar, and they will need to upgrade remaining gas- and coal-fired power plants with carbon capture technology — a means of trappingREAD MORE
Why Are Sea Levels Rising Unevenly?
Scientists know that sea levels have risen more in some places during the past century than in others. They’ve gone up faster along the Mid-Atlantic States, particularly near Cape Hatteras and the Chesapeake Bay, compared to north along the Gulf of Maine and south along the South Atlantic Bight. But why? “Sea-level rise affects us all,”READ MORE
Climate Change Gets Personal for Shellfish Growers
A great wine is the product of many things, from the strain of yeast used in fermentation, to the variety of wood used in the casks, to the soil, climate and topography of the region where the grapes are grown—factors collectively known as “terroir.” Terroir is the reason why wine made in Santa Barbara has aREAD MORE