Record low snowpack last winter along with aridification have made water levels so low at the two main reservoirs on the Colorado River that officials have canceled a “cool mix” release meant to protect native fish.

The Bureau of Reclamation has canceled the release of cool water from Glen Canyon Dam as it had done in 2024 and 2025 to protect the endangered humpback chub (Gila cypha), a native fish found only in the Colorado River Basin. |  Credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

In 2024 and 2025, the Bureau of Reclamation opened outlets at the bottom of Glen Canyon Dam, in part to control smallmouth bass that thrive in warm water. Despite their name, the fish can open their mouths wide to feed on native humpback chub (Gila cypha), decimating their population. The humpback chub is native to the river and evolved three to five million years ago. Its body is specially formed to survive in fast and turbulent waters and the hump behind its head acts as a stabilizer that maintains its position.

Releasing cooler water from the depths of the reservoir to protect fish would hinder the ability of hydropower turbines to generate electricity. Because the water supply is limited and getting lower, hard decisions, like canceling the cool water release, must be made, John Berggren of the nonprofit Western Resource Advocates told the Associated Press. If the water were released to protect the fish, utilities that buy power generated by Glen Canyon Dam would have to seek alternative energy sources which could increase costs to their customers. 

According to Science magazine, before Glen Canyon Dam was completed more than 60 years ago, floods occurred in the Grand Canyon every spring. To mimic those floods, in the past, the Bureau has released water to build up sandbars to provide habitat for fish—but those releases have also been canceled. 

Paraquat dichloride, commonly known as “paraquat,” is one of the most widely used herbicides in the United States. It is so highly toxic—one small sip can be fatal—that it’s banned in 70 countries, including China, the UK, and the EU. 

California’s Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) announced it will begin phasing out the herbicide paraquat, citing risks to human health and organisms. 

While the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency prohibits its use around homes, schools, parks, and golf courses, the agency still allows its application in agriculture—and no state sprays more than California, where millions of pounds are used annually, primarily in the San Joaquin Valley.

But that’s about to change. Last week, California’s Department of Pesticide Regulation announced it will begin phasing out the weedkiller, citing its preliminary reports linking paraquat exposure to thyroid impacts and birth defects. They also found the pesticide may adversely affect other organisms, most significantly birds. Several studies have linked the weedkiller to Parkinson's disease.

Manufacturers had the option to submit new studies to address risks, but most opted to voluntarily withdraw their products from the market, including Sygenta, one of paraquat’s largest manufacturers, which said it was phasing out the product globally for commercial reasons.

The state’s decision was opposed by agricultural groups, such as the California Farm Bureau, which told the Los Angeles Times that the phase-out will present challenges for growers, leaving them fewer tools, higher costs, and less access to innovation. However, organizations working to fight Parkinson’s disease applauded the decision, saying science, advocacy, and public health policy are moving in the same direction.  

California’s action follows Vermont’s first-in-the-nation ban and momentum is growing across the country. In June, Representatives Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican from Florida, and Chellie Pingree, a Democrat from Maine, introduced the Paraquat Prevention Act, which would require the EPA to cancel approvals for the herbicide.

It takes a lot of water to build Trump’s $46-billion-wall in four states bordering Mexico. Some of the water is used to mix cement, build new roads, and suppress dust. Now, farmers and ranchers are angry because contractors drilled to take groundwater that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection has no right to take.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has drilled water wells in Luna County, New Mexico, allegedly without any required permits from the state. |  Credit: Patrick Alexander/Creative Commons

State officials are threatening to cancel the licenses of two companies that have been drilling into aquifers. The state’s top official in charge of water, Elizabeth Anderson, told WBUR’s Here and Now that they have a permitting process which protects the groundwater that families and farmers depend on, and they enforce it rigorously. More than half of the water in New Mexico comes from aquifers, and like other states in the Southwest, there has been long-term drought. 

Farmers, ranchers, and community members got together about a month ago to discuss the federal drilling. A rancher whose property is on the border said that the drilling is going to pump them dry, and that when livestock needs to be watered, they can’t wait. A statement from Customs and Border Protection said that it is committed to working collaboratively with local landowners to ensure that construction activities do not adversely impact their water needs.

As of last week, the New Mexico Engineer’s Office said eight wells had been drilled without permission on the southern border, and there could be more. Officials said that they had sent violation notices to two drilling subcontractors involved in the unlawful activities. Each could be fined up to about $3,500 a day, and their licenses could be revoked. They were told to plug the wells and remediate them.

The Trump administration said that it had ordered crews on the wall to stop drilling; however, there was no indication the wells already drilled would stop pumping, according to the Associated Press. There were reports that when inspectors visited sites late last month, several wells were still pumping water.

Starting Friday, August 7, people living in Puerto Rico began having their water rationed. Authorities in the U.S. territory issued a ​plan that forces hundreds of thousands of people in the capital San Juan and surrounding communities to go without water for 48 hours at a time on a rotating schedule. 

San Juan had its driest month in more than 120 years and its second hottest on record. Now, thousands of people in the capital San Juan and surrounding communities will have to go without water ‌for 48 hours at a time.  

San Juan had its driest month in more than 120 years and its second hottest on record. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, nearly 68 percent of the island is experiencing some form of drought from moderate to extreme. Governor Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon blamed the weather for the shortages, but residents have been contending with low water pressure and spotty service for the last year. Most residents say the chronic water problems are due to poorly maintained infrastructure stemming from the island's budgetary problems and also its history of corruption. 

The Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer ​Authority says roughly 65 percent of the water it produces is lost, much of it through leaks and aging pipes. The agency said ⁠it would deploy water trucks to affected communities, with priority given to hospitals and long-term care facilities. They urged customers to avoid any non-essential uses of water and to boil it for at least three ⁠minutes once ​service resumes as a precaution against possible contamination.

The long-term weather forecast does not look to bring relief. A meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Juan told the Associated Press that a milder 2026 hurricane season with dry conditions will persist until at least September. CBS News reports that government officials have not said when the rationing could end and have warned the outages could be extended to 72 hours if necessary.

Stroll down most aisles in your local grocery store and it’s hard to miss products boasting about the amount of protein they contain. 

Researchers at the University of Otago in New Zealand have developed a protein-enriched ketchup using freshwater algae. |  Credit: Chandlervid85

From cereals and snack bars to pastas and beverages, many products are upping their protein content, perhaps to jump on the “protein maxxing” craze on social media where influencers claim that leveling up protein can boost metabolism, manage weight, and build muscle. Heck, there’s even “Muscle Mayo” and “Super Salsa” on the market, but most condiments don’t contain protein…yet.

Researchers at the University of Otago in New Zealand have developed a protein-enriched ketchup using algae to catch up on the trend. Specifically, they incorporated extracts from freshwater microalga called Chlorella vulgaris into the typical ingredients such as plum tomatoes, sugar, salt, vinegar, spices, and citric acid. They did a taste test with panelists to get the algae content just right—and found that samples with just one to three percent retained the familiar sweet, tangy, and mildly spiced flavor, with a subtle algal note.
 
Because Chlorella vulgaris can be cultivated rapidly throughout the year using comparatively little land and fresh water, the team (and other researchers) say it is a potentially more sustainable protein source than many terrestrial crops. Additionally, their fortified ketchup contained higher amounts of essential amino acids, minerals, and antioxidants, as well as potassium, magnesium, calcium, and iron—which could make you feel less guilty when you order fries at the drive-through window.

Buyer beware: the American Medical Association warns that high-protein diets are not universally good for everyone and it's best to consult with your healthcare advisor before following any fad diets.

The study was published in ACS Food Science & Technology.

The federal government released a framework that would require three states in the Colorado River Basin—California, Nevada, and Arizona—to take significantly less water from the river to avert a crisis in the drought-stricken region. 

The Interior Department released an impact statement that will determine how deep the cuts will be to states depending on the Colorado River. |  Credit: Scott VanderKooi U.S. Geological Survey

The Bureau of Reclamation’s plan for the next two years is expected to be finalized in the coming weeks, and those three Lower Basin states together might be forced to cut their usage each year by three million acre-feet—an amount that would serve 25 million people. The Arizona Department of Water Resources said in a statement that this amount was unacceptable and would devastate Arizona’s water users and its economy.

Every two years, the Department of the Interior will issue operating guidelines, unless the states in the Basin have agreed on longer-term plans, something that so far has been very difficult. The proposal has “guardrails” about how water should be conserved and stored in reservoirs. 

The three states required to take less water have a plan that the Associated Press reports would halve the total, after which priority water rights would determine the rest—a system that generally benefits seniority of California users. Every two years, the Bureau would consider reductions based on the situation in the Colorado River Basin. Low snowfall this past winter in areas that feed the river resulted in the two largest reservoirs in the country, Lake Powell and Lake Mead, falling to their lowest levels on record.

As H2O Radio reported last week, it’s been expected that Arizona will suffer the greatest cuts to its Colorado River allocation. Sources told the Los Angeles Times that the state’s share could be cut by 31 percent. Currently, the Bureau of Reclamation plan does not impose any cuts on the Upper Basin states of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico, but it did analyze voluntary conservation of 200,000 acre-feet in the short term.

Gary Wockner, a vocal critic of the Bureau’s plan and executive director of the organization Save the Colorado, said in a statement that the proposal will continue to pay farmers and cities not to use water, while trying to save Glen Canyon Dam, which ignores the science of climate change that makes the dam obsolete.

The Bureau of Reclamation plan can be found here.

California grows one-quarter of the food sold in the U.S. So, when a historic drought struck the state’s Central Valley between 2020 and 2022, farmers pumped vast amounts of water from wells to keep their crops alive—so much water that a new report says one aquifer may have crossed "the point of no return."

A bridge in Merced County affected by subsidence from excessive groundwater pumping in the San Joaquin Valley. New research has found that groundwater pumping in the Sacramento Valley to the north caused land to subside by more than half a meter in two years—possibly permanently.  |  Credit: California Department of Water

Researchers at UCLA found that in the Sacramento Valley, which is at the northern end of the Central Valley between Sacramento and Redding, California, the huge withdrawals reduced the water pressure within the porous sediments where water collects in the aquifer, causing them to compact and land surfaces to sink by more than half a meter. 

This kind of subsidence can be reversible or “elastic” once rains return, but in the Sacramento Valley, the aquifer compacted so quickly and extensively the researchers say it likely permanently lost its capacity to store water.

The team used high-resolution satellite measurements together with local monitoring well data to reach their conclusions. They say compaction within the Sacramento Valley will likely continue for years to come and recommend that state officials consider declaring the aquifer as “critically overdrafted.” That would allow them to impose limits on groundwater pumping as they did in the San Joaquin Valley, which subsided by as much as nine meters in the 20th century, in some places, permanently.

Land subsidence does more than reduce storage capacity. It raises the risk of floods and threatens irrigation canals, roads, and other infrastructure. However, the team says using real-time satellite monitoring could give land managers an early warning to slow pumping—before it does irreparable harm.

The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Many areas around the globe are feeling the consequences as the current El Niño strengthens and the climate crisis continues unabated. Massive wildfires, droughts, floods, and extreme heat are devastating communities and ecosystems. But there’s a less visible casualty as our planet overheats—the world’s blood supply. 

The American Red Cross has declared its second-ever national blood supply crisis and  blame extreme heat, poor air quality, and widespread foodborne illnesses for low donations. |  Credit: Vegasjon/Creative Commons

Last week, the American Red Cross put out an SOS for only the second time in its 145-year history that it’s running out of blood and blamed extreme heat, poor air quality, and widespread foodborne illnesses for low donor turnout this summer. As the nation's largest provider of blood products, the Red Cross now has less than a one-day national supply of type O positive blood—the most commonly transfused blood type. To ensure that there is enough blood available for patients facing critical, life-threatening emergencies across the country, the Red Cross has begun limiting distributions of type O blood to individual hospitals.

Nicole Maul, with the American Red Cross, told E&E News that the crisis is being exacerbated by heat, wildfires, storms, floods, and other disasters affecting attendance at blood drives or shutting down collection events. Severe weather and heat can also make it harder to transport blood to hospitals. 

To make an appointment to give blood—of any type—visit RedCrossBlood.org or call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767). 

The federal government has decided to cut the amount of water that California, Nevada, and Arizona will be allowed to draw from the Colorado River—a short-term way to address the crisis in the Southwest. Climate change and drought are reducing flows in the Colorado River Basin, resulting in a huge gap between the water supply and the demand by farms, cities, and industry.

The Central Arizona Project that delivers Colorado River water to Arizona could lose nearly one-third of its allocation under new Bureau of Reclamation plans.  |  Credit: Ted Wood/The Water Desk

The largest cut will be to Arizona, which will lose 31 percent of its allotment, according to sources who spoke to the Los Angeles Times. Nevada would see its share drop by 28 percent and California by 12 percent through 2028. The plan is consistent with what the three states offered earlier this year to reduce their combined withdrawals from the river by more than three-million-acre feet. 

Those Lower Basin states could have lost more. Earlier this year, the Bureau of Reclamation released a draft impact statement that could have cut Arizona’s supply by 77 percent and perhaps even higher by 98 percent. According to the Times, the federal government will not impose cuts to the allocations of the four Upper Basin states of Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado—for now.

The water levels at the river’s two large reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, have reached historic lows, and for many months, the seven states in the Basin have been trying to come to an agreement on how to manage the river but with no luck.

Donald Trump has made no secret of the fact that he doesn’t like offshore wind. He’s done everything in his power to stop the developments, which he calls ugly, by having his administration deem them to be national security risks. 

Bluecore Energy has delivered its first barge and electric test reactor to its headquarters at the Port of Long Beach in California. If approved by regulators, it would deliver power directly to ports and nearby infrastructure—with zero greenhouse gas emissions. |  Credit Bluecore Energy

But you’d be wrong to assume Trump doesn’t like offshore development, period. His Department of the Interior has moved to open federal waters ​to other industrial activities, including offshore spaceports and deep-sea mining, 

Now, his administration has announced it wants to put nuclear power projects in the ocean. Last week, the Marine Minerals Administration (MMA) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that establishes a framework for how they would evaluate future nuclear energy projects on the outer continental shelf of the U.S. 

The MOU does not authorize nuclear development in the ocean. The goal is to be ready because Trump aims to quadruple U.S. nuclear power capacity by 2050, in part to meet power demands of data centers. Also, there’s growing interest in developing nuclear projects. 

One interested company is a startup called Bluecore Energy, which raised $10M to put small nuclear reactors (SMRs) on floating barges. Having only launched six months ago, Bluecore has established operations at the Port of Long Beach in California and is building a test reactor that it says, if approved, would deliver reliable power directly to ports and nearby infrastructure—with zero greenhouse gas emissions.

The ocean is a naturally noisy place. Icebergs calve, marine life clicks and calls, and waves crash. But humans have added to the din with sounds of military sonar, shipping, and drilling, and that’s making it harder for ocean creatures to communicate. 

Researchers with Project CETI say that sperm whales change "vowel" sounds when ships are near.  |  Credit: Project CETI

One such group are sperm whales. They converse through energetic and rhythmic clicks called codas to maintain social bonds and coordinate activity.  Now, new research from Project CETI, a nonprofit studying sperm whale communication, suggests shipping noise is changing the messages sperm whales are sending and may even be altering what they receive, according to National Geographic. 

Think of it as how you would talk to a friend at a super noisy party—not only would you have to talk louder, you might also limit your conversation to essentials instead of having an in-depth conversation. David Gruber, founder and CEO of Project CETI (the Cetacean Translation Initiative) and a National Geographic Explorer, who co-authored the new study, thinks this may be what’s happening among sperm whales. 

His team analyzed more than 1,000 vocalizations recorded from 15 whales over four years in the eastern Caribbean, and found that when ship noise was present, the whales both shortened and switched the codas they use. Furthermore, National Geographic reports that CETI scientists have identified two vowel-like codas in sperm whale communication, longer a-codas that resemble our a’s, and shorter i-codas analogous to how we say the vowel i. The team found that when there was shipping noise, the whales switched to a-codas.

The question is whether the whales were “talking” about the ships or adapting to their presence so they could be heard, Gruber told the Guardian. We don’t yet know, but the finding shows that noise pollution is causing animals to change their tune, which could send a loud and clear message to humans to put a sock in it.

The study was published in the journal Ecological Informatics.

As many listeners know, the two largest reservoirs in the U.S. are Lake Powell and Lake Mead on the Colorado River. Last week, their combined water levels fell to the lowest they have been in 70 years even before Glen Canyon Dam, which formed Lake Powell, was finished, according to experts. The Colorado River Basin had the lowest snowpack on record last winter, and much of the West is in a long-term drought exacerbated by global warming.

Bathtub rings on a rock face in Lake Powell where the water has dropped and left mineral deposits behind.  |  Credit: SBSC/Public domain

Lake Powell is very close to reaching “dead pool,” where the reservoir does not have enough water to turn hydroelectric turbines to produce electricity. What remains in the lake would simply sit there—not flowing downriver to farms and millions of people.

While officials in the seven states in the basin are working on a short-term agreement on how to manage the river’s water, they have been unable to agree on how to share cuts to allocations. Still, efforts are being made to mitigate the shortage. Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming officials are coming up with a program funded by the Bureau of Reclamation, which runs the two reservoirs, to compensate farmers and ranchers for conserving Colorado River water. 

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has agreed with the federal government to keep 200,000-acre feet of water in Lake Mead this year in return for $65 million. In Aurora, Colorado, adjacent to Denver, officials have fined almost 170 customers who have violated water restrictions. Warnings have been issued to 2,500. 

The question remains whether it makes sense to continue to operate the two large reservoirs that are soon to be about 80 percent empty. Eric Balken of the Glen Canyon Institute told the Salt Lake Tribune that a lot of people are scratching their heads and saying at what point should we consider saving one of them, pointing out that Lake Powell is being propped up by sacrificing Lake Mead and Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Wyoming and Utah. He added that it’s time to think about reengineering the infrastructure at Glen Canyon Dam. Still, that won’t deliver any water, and Balken said the entire basin needs to figure out how to consume less.

In 2001, President Bill Clinton issued the National Forest Roadless Area Conservation Policy, better known as the “roadless rule.” It prohibited new road construction, maintenance, and commercial logging in designated roadless areas within the National Forest system. 

A historic fire lookout in Utah’s Ashley National Forest. Nearly 60 percent of the total river length within the forest is protected by the roadless rule, contributing to the water supply for Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Diego, according to researchers at University of Washington. |  Credit: US Forest Service.

Last year, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins launched the process to rescind the rule, which would remove protection for nearly 59 million acres of wilderness, saying, in part, that the current directive made it difficult to protect forests from wildfire. 

The science says otherwise. According to Environment America, roadless areas do not burn at significantly higher rates than other areas of national forests. A study in 2025 found that wildfires in national forests are more likely to start in proximity to roads and that building more of them could increase human-caused ignitions. 

After Rollins announced her intent, more than half a million people submitted public comments, of which 99 percent were in opposition to the plan. Now, Republicans are trying another tactic to repeal the roadless rule by attaching an amendment to the Wildfire Prevention Act, which supports prescribed burns and forest thinning to fight megafires. It’s currently stalled in the Senate.

So, what are the consequences of losing the roadless rule? A new study from the University of Washington and Conservation Science Partners, says plenty—starting with their finding that the roadless rule supports the drinking water supply for 25 million Americans. Furthermore, their research shows that forested lands provide higher quality water because soil microbes and plant roots filter contaminants before the water arrives at treatment facilities. Cleaner water requires less processing, reducing costs for public utilities. 

Roads can also harm biodiversity by spreading invasive weeds that are carried on tires and by fragmenting habitats that wildlife rely on. Most roads cross streams and rivers, which require culverts to allow fish to pass. However, according to researchers at Michigan State University the culverts rarely work, which leads to declines in the health of aquatic populations.

More than 4.2 million miles of public roads crisscross the lower 48 states—enough to reach the Moon and back nearly nine times, leaving only around five percent of the nation’s land roadless. Another thing researchers say we’d lose if the roadless rule is gone? Quiet. These protected wilderness areas are one of the few places on Earth you don’t have to worry about hearing the hum of traffic. 

The study was published in the journal PLOS Water.

In July 2024, the tech giant Meta announced it was building a new 715,000-square-foot data center known as “Project Cosmo” in Cheyenne, Wyoming. At the time, the company said it wanted to be a good neighbor by investing in the energy grid and supporting local water restoration projects. For example, Meta said it would work with Black Hills Energy to add new resources to the grid, including renewables and partner with Laramie County Conservation District to help restore Crow Creek, which serves Laramie County and recharges Wyoming’s portion of the vital Ogallala Aquifer.

A 715,000-square-foot data center being built by Meta in Cheyenne, Wyoming, was found to have contaminated wastewater.  |  Credit: Meta

But things have not gotten off to a good start. In February of this year, officials at the Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities discovered that one of the subcontractors building the massive data center, Goat Systems LLC, discharged a bacterium into the city’s reclaimed wastewater treatment system. The bacterium called Cupriavidus gilardii is rare and found naturally in soil and water. It’s mostly harmless but could be deadly if ingested by the elderly and people with weakened immune systems.

According to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, which first reported the incident, the contamination happened during “fill-and-flush” operations, where purified water is circulated, then flushed, to eliminate construction debris and residue to prepare large cooling systems before they launch.

Upon discovery of the bacterium, officials suspended Cheyenne’s reclaimed water irrigation program, permanently terminated Meta’s discharge privileges, and adopted a new policy prohibiting wastewater discharges from data centers using closed-loop cooling and fill-and-flush systems. Officials stressed that the bacterium was never found in drinking water, only recycled water used at parks and other locations like golf courses. However, that did not quell public concern that the bacteria could be inhaled from aerosolized droplets from irrigation systems.

The incident comes amidst growing backlash against data centers nationwide. A recent Gallup poll found about 70 percent of Americans somewhat or strongly oppose having data centers in their area, citing environmental concerns, such as high water use. 

Farmers are currently using satellite imagery and drones to collect data about their crops, including information about greenness, soil moisture, pest damage, temperature, and other big picture measurements of plant stress. But these systems are measuring conditions that may affect plants in the future, not what the plants are undergoing at the moment.

A leaf tattoo sensor can act like a wearable to provide an early warning about how plants are responding to stress. |  Credit: Nafize Hossain/Tufts University

Now, scientists at Tufts University have designed wearables—just like your smartwatch—that attach to crops to provide information about a plant’s health. Borrowing from the Japanese art of paper cutting—kirigami—the scientists have made a band that wraps around a plant stem and monitors whether it is growing by sensing changes in electrical resistance as it expands or contracts. Stems shrink when under stress.

They also developed a tiny tattoo-like sensor that adheres to leaf surfaces and measures temperature and humidity. In a release, the lead researcher, Nafize Hossain, said that this sensor shows how the plant is responding in real time, before signs of stress appear.

The researchers say that it is important to have both a stem and a leaf sensor because plants can show stress on different time scales—a leaf being faster than a stem. The sensors could be worn in a network across a field to alert farmers that plants are thirsty, diseased, or not getting enough nutrients. Instead of drones or satellites giving farmers a bird’s-eye view, these wearables could provide a plant’s-eye view. 

The study was published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

As the expression goes, leopards can’t change their spots, but many organisms on Earth can modify their appearance on the spot. These masters of disguise include octopuses and squid, which can transform their color and texture to blend into sand, rocks, or coral to evade predators.

Camouflaging snails change color in the rain to avoid predators.  |  Credit: Taro Yoshimura/University of Tokyo 

But there’s a new Houdini on the block. Researchers in Japan say some snails disappear when it rains—and now they know the trick of how they do it. A team from the University of Tokyo say that two snails, the Hypselostyla camelopardalis from the Philippines and Reinia variegata from Japan, escape being eaten by birds by having their shells turn from a light-colored pattern to dark brown when it rains, to seemingly disappear into damp tree bark.

The snails can pull off this feat of camouflage because the outermost layer of their shells is porous like a sponge. When water fills the holes, it changes how light bounces off, making a second darker layer below more visible. It’s an example of hydrochromism—where a material changes color when it reacts with moisture and reverses when it dries—maybe a trick Houdini could have included in his act by just adding water.

The study was published in the journal Zoological Letters.

In 1977, the federal government developed guidelines (Dietary Goals for the United States, also known as the McGovern Report) that promoted a shift toward a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet, which encouraged people to consume less meat and eggs and switch from whole milk to skim milk. 

Heat stress on dairy cows impacts more than just the quantity of milk produced, warming temperatures also reduce the fat and protein content of the milk, new research finds.  |  Credit: Keith Weller/USDA

The recommendations were rooted in the concern that saturated fat and excess calories were fueling an epidemic of obesity and heart disease. However, recent research suggests that dairy fat’s correlation to heart health is more complex, and people could consider incorporating whole milk into their diets—provided they can find it in the future.

A new study from Cornell University says human-caused climate change is skimming the amount of fat and protein in milk and reducing the volume of milk a cow can produce. Lead author Ariel Ortiz-Bobea told H2O Radio, that heat-stressed cows pant more, eat less, and shift blood flow in ways that change how nutrients are used, so they synthesize less fat and protein.

His team analyzed data on the milk production of around 6.5 million cows from 2007 through 2016 and compared it with weather records with precision down to 2.5-mile grids across 43 states. They found that the amount of milk cows produced dropped sharply at a certain threshold of heat and humidity, but the negative effects on milk composition—its fat and protein—began much sooner and increased as temperatures rose.

That could spell trouble for dairy farmers in the U.S., most of whom are compensated based on the milk’s fat and protein content quantity (in kg) according to the Federal Milk Marketing Orders pricing structure, not the volume they deliver. Milk compensation is already low, so changes in its quantity and quality could lead to farm closures or more consolidation and also cause changes to land use in rural areas. 

What can be done? Ortiz-Bobea says the usual tools are cooling the animals with fans, misters, sprinklers, and shade. Producers can also adjust feed and rations and keep production in cooler regions. He adds that there’s little evidence cows can be bred to be more heat-resilient—even as they’ve become more productive through genetics.

For shoppers, the problem might show up first in products that depend on fat and protein, like cheese, butter, and yogurt, and eventually affect supply chains and prices as temperatures rise. 

The study was published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

Wind turbines have long been a target of President Trump. In January last year, he signed an executive order withdrawing all offshore areas from further wind development and freezing permitting for all land-based wind projects.

Map showing onshore wind energy in the U.S.  The Trump administration appears to be blocking new wind projects through the Department of Defense.  |  Data source and map: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Survey, April 2026

Attorneys general from 17 states then filed a case challenging the order, and last December, they won when a federal judge ruled that Trump’s action was arbitrary and capricious. The administration appealed, but then earlier this month the Department of Justice requested the appeals court to dismiss the case, which it did last week.

Now, the administration’s attack on wind is coming through the Department of Defense, which since April, stopped reviewing more than 150 wind projects, citing national security. Typically, wind projects are considered for potential interference with flight paths and military radar. A group of energy organizations has sued to force the government to perform the reviews that had been delayed.

Renewable energy, particularly solar, is booming. The amount of clean power capacity including wind and solar that came online last year in the U.S. was the equivalent of the output of 25 Hoover Dams, according to a report from the Environmental Defense Fund. The report shows that a record of nearly 80 gigawatts of clean power will come online this year; however, wind projects may continue to face difficulties in 2026 despite there being a rebound in planned developments on land.

Last week, the largest wind farm in the country, the SunZia Wind Project in New Mexico, came online consisting of 916 turbines in three counties that will supply power to Arizona and California.

The U.S. Supreme Court decided last month to continue allowing the abortion pill Mifepristone to be delivered through the mail. Using the drug together with Misoprostol is the most common form of ending a pregnancy in the country, particularly in states that have banned abortions.

A Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) kit containing abortion pills, showing outer packaging and blister pack with one mifepristone and four misoprostol.  |  Credit: Plancpills/Creative Commons

Now, a group of Republicans is taking a different tactic to end access to this drug by alleging it harms water. Attorneys general from 14 states and 19 Republicans in Congress are asking the EPA to classify Mifepristone as a water contaminant. The two groups sent letters to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, claiming that metabolites in the drug stay active after they are excreted, persist in the water supply and the environment, and are a growing threat to the country’s waterways. 

However, as Stateline reports, health experts say there is no evidence that the drug in wastewater causes harm to humans or the environment. According to the Center for Biological Diversity’s website, there’s no evidence that medication abortion is affecting the country’s water systems, including drinking water and aquatic wildlife. 

The current effort is not the first time that this water contamination tactic has been used. According to the Guttmacher Institute, last year, anti-abortion lawmakers introduced bills in seven states to target medication abortion using deceptive claims about water pollution. 

These efforts are made at a time when hazards to water from pesticides and PFAS (also known as "Forever Chemicals") are being ignored by EPA. Just last month, the agency said it would drop limits on PFAS compounds, which have been linked to kidney cancer, immune system harm, and developmental delays in babies and children.

“I want you to imagine putting a wall through the Grand Canyon. That is how we in Texas feel about building a wall through Big Bend. Not only does it not make sense, but it would destroy a national treasure.” Those were the words of Representative Veronica Escobar of Texas during a house committee debate about banning the Trump administration from building a border wall through Big Bend National Park.

Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin issued a decision on Monday, June 8, waiving over 24 federal conservation, environmental, and resource protection laws to speed up border wall infrastructure in Big Bend National Park. |  Credit: Michael from Minnesota/Creative Commons

The park, located along the Texas-Mexico border, encompasses the largest protected area of the Chihuahuan Desert and includes 118 miles of the Rio Grande River with natural walls taller than the Empire State Building, so hardly an ideal place to sneak across the border. 

In fact, according to Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, in fiscal year 2025, apprehensions by Border Patrol in the Big Bend sector accounted for just 1.3 percent of the total recorded across the entire U.S.-Mexico border.

That didn’t stop Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin issuing a decision on Monday, June 8, waiving over 24 federal conservation, environmental, and resource protection laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Migratory Bird Conservation Act, among others to speed up construction of roads, and potentially, a 30-foot-high steel wall along the river. 

Locals and environmental groups reacted with outrage, saying border infrastructure poses a risk to the region's wildlife, dark skies, and tourist economy. They say the wall would sever wildlife migration routes and heighten flood risk. The Big Bend area is also home to several endangered species and numerous petroglyphs. 

Conservation groups led by the Center for Biological Diversity amended a previous lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security to challenge what it calls an unconstitutional waiver. On June 10, a proposal that would have prevented the Department of Homeland Security’s budget from being used to construct barriers within the park died in the U.S. House Appropriations Committee on a party-line vote.

Over the years, there’ve been numerous devices that can pull water from thin air—known as atmospheric water harvesting—but they’re often bulky or stationary contraptions that you couldn’t carry with you on a hike or to remote regions of the world. 

The jacket,specially engineered hydrogel fabric made from biomass-derived materials, produced between 400 and 900 milliliters of drinkable water per day, about 14 to 30 ounces, depending on humidity levels.  |  Credit: University of Texas at Austin

Now, an innovation developed by the University of Texas has your back. They’ve developed a jacket that uses a specially engineered hydrogel fabric made from biomass-derived material to collect water vapor from the air. It then takes that moisture and funnels it to detachable harvesting units that are heated by sunlight to produce water. 

Compared with conventional water-harvesting materials, the textile showed a three- to ten-fold improvement at scale, producing between 400 and 900 milliliters or about 14 to 30 ounces of drinkable water per day, depending on humidity levels.

The team says the jacket would perform best in many of the world’s most water-stressed areas, including parts of North Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. That makes this technology especially promising for remote communities, emergency responders, and other settings where conventional water systems are difficult to build or maintain.

The researchers say there’s also potential to use the fabric for backpacks or tents, which could be deployed during disaster response. So, perhaps they could call the material a “life jacket”?

The study was published in the journal Science Advances.  

Is it possible that the reservoirs on the Colorado River, which serve 40 million people and 5.5 million acres of farmland, could go nearly dry? That’s one of the predictions that Colorado River experts are making in a new report, if there is another warm and dry winter like this past one.  

Water supplies from the Colorado River are drying up, and now some agencies in Nevada and Arizona have entered an agreement with San Diego to share resources.  |  Credit: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation

The snowpack last winter was much worse than predicted, according to experts from the University of Colorado, Arizona State University, Utah State University, and the University of New Mexico. Even if next winter is wetter with more snowfall, there would not be enough water to pull the basin out of a massive drought caused by climate change. A better, wetter year, like 2023, would provide only about two years of relief before the basin is in the same situation it’s in now, according to these experts. But there is no guarantee that will occur.

The authors of the report say that while the federal government is attempting to avoid major risks to hydropower operations at Glen Canyon Dam, the basic problem remains—there’s more demand for water than the river can supply.

The report implies that water users in the basin are not focusing on that imbalance but, rather, looking solely at the legal arguments over what users are entitled to on paper. Their conclusion is that consumptive uses across the Colorado River Basin must be reduced by municipalities, industry—and chiefly by agriculture, which uses the most. The authors appear critical of efforts by individual states in the basin—Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and California—and individual water users for not prioritizing the prevention of collapse of the entire system over their individual interests.

As that report was released, the federal government and some agencies in California, Arizona, and Nevada, reached a pioneering understanding to explore water sharing across state borders. The San Diego County Water Authority will discuss selling some of its allocation from the Colorado River to suppliers in Arizona and Nevada and make up the difference using surpluses from its ten-year-old desalination plant.  

The memorandum of understanding was signed by the Bureau of Reclamation, San Diego County Water Authority, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Southern Nevada Water Authority, the Arizona Department of Water Resources, Central Arizona Project, and Salt River Project.

Data centers are very unpopular. According to a Gallup poll in March, about 70 percent of U.S. residents oppose the construction of the facilities, which have been widely criticized for, among other things, heavy water consumption.

People in Monterey Park, California, voted to ban data centers—the first city to do in the country.  | Credit: Nandaro/Creative Commons

Now, for the first time, residents of a city have voted to ban data centers permanently. Last week, voters in Monterey Park, California, a suburb of Los Angeles, weighed in on whether to stop a planned center to protect air quality, drinking water, and public health, as well as to prevent impacts to electricity and water rates. They voted overwhelmingly to approve the ban, and it was not even close—86 percent said they didn’t want the facilities.

Resistance to the development came after an Australian firm had pushed to build a 250,000-square-foot project—in a residential area—that would have included a new electrical substation and about two dozen diesel generators to guard against power interruptions. 

According to SFGate, a local group organized residents to resist the plans and won a city council vote to place a moratorium on the centers after dozens lined up at an hours-long council meeting to express their concerns. The council unanimously decided to put the issue on the ballot.

Project proponents said it would be an economic engine and accused resistance organizers of “rage-baiting an uninformed mob.” It turns out that “mob” was successful in arguing that the center would create noise pollution, use a lot of electricity, and lower property values, all of which would outweigh the benefit of a few permanent jobs.

Electronics and electric vehicle batteries use lithium, most of which is currently mined in Chile and Australia and then refined in China, so the search is on in the U.S. to find sources of the mineral at home. 

Lithium mining in the U.S. threatens water resources in areas already parched.  |  Credit: James St. John/Creative Commons

There are efforts under way to increase lithium mining in Texas and Nevada. Last month, the United States Geological Survey published a study concluding that the Appalachians from the Carolinas north to Maine contain enough of the mineral to meet the nation’s growing needs.

Mining lithium is water intensive. One extraction method pumps up brine from thousands of feet underground and then evaporates it, leaving the mineral. Another method is to crush hard rocks and extract the mineral. Both can disturb ecosystems.

A study from Northwestern University published last week showed that most lithium mines proposed in the U.S. could face significant water shortages both from climate change as well as increased demand from farms, cities, industry, and power generation. Researchers found that the most severe shortages could be in southern California and across Nevada—areas already parched.

In more news about lithium, a separate group of researchers from MIT have developed a process to get the mineral out of rock that does not use the usual method of baking rock at over 1,000 degrees C and then using a chemical process. The new method uses water and a chemical that dissolves the rock into useful forms of lithium, alumina, and silica. The researchers say the water solvent can be recovered and used again making it a closed loop. They add that this process costs half of the current hard rock extraction method and would be competitive with brine water methods.

The MIT study was published in the journal Science.

Hailstorms don’t generate the same headlines as wildfires or hurricanes, but data show that hail has become one of the most financially destructive natural hazards facing property owners, according to a recent report by the data insight organization Cotality. 

A team of researchers from China and the U.S. found that climate change will create larger and more damaging hailstones.  |  Credit: Raysonho/Creative Commons

In their 2026 Severe Convective Storm Risk Report they found that last year the U.S. recorded 142 days with damaging hail—seven more than in 2024 and well above the 20-year average of 122 days. During those events, hailstones two inches or larger struck more than 600,000 homes, representing reconstruction costs comparable to a Category 4 hurricane.

Now, a study out last week says things could get worse as the planet warms. A team of researchers from China and the U.S. found that climate change will create larger and more damaging hailstones. That’s because as we heat up the atmosphere with greenhouse gases, the air can hold more water vapor and be capable of producing hail. The team found that hail larger than a marble will increase by up to 47 percent by the end of the century.

To reach their conclusion, the researchers built a computer simulation evaluating 14,000 hailstorms between 2014 to 2021 and how atmospheric conditions affected hail production. They then used their model to predict how future storms might behave in a warmer world.

The study co-author, John Allen, of Central Michigan University told the Associated Press that Argentina, Europe, Canada, and the Northern Plains in the U.S. will likely see the biggest increase in hail size, while areas near the equator could see fewer hailstones because the ice inside them will likely melt before they reach the ground.

The study was published in the journal Nature.

Zombies. They’re not real...or are they? A sea cucumber would like a word on the matter. 

Scientists accidentally discovered that sea cucumber tissue heals itself and can survive for years after being detached from its body.  |  Credit: Sara Jobson/Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador

Scientists at Memorial University in Newfoundland and Labrador had sea cucumbers (Psolus fabricii)—a species native to the North Atlantic Ocean—living in a tank at their lab. Several years ago, one was removed for research, but its tentacles were strongly attached to the glass and broke off. That’s not unusual, as echinoderms like sea cucumbers, which are related to starfish and sea urchins, can lose body parts and regrow them. What was unusual was that the fragments left on the glass did not die. 

Startled by this, the researchers took off a few samples from the sea cucumber’s feet, body, and tentacles and placed them in seawater. They found that fragments grew and continued to produce cells—despite not having a mouth or gut to take in nutrients. They also showed signs of an immune system and responded to stimuli, earning them the “zombie” nickname by the team. 

Although over three years the fragments did not evolve into new sea cucumbers, research lead Rachel Sipler, PhD said in a press release, “We know some lizards can grow new tails; we’re talking about whether the tail can grow a new lizard.”

This case of “tissue immortality” could be useful not only in biomedical research but also in helping us to better understand ocean health. It’s a reminder, Sipler says, of how much is yet to be discovered in the marine environment and how important it is to protect these vital ecosystems.

The study was published in the journal Science Advances.

Sea levels around the world are rising because of human-driven climate change, but exactly where the water is coming from has been a stubborn mystery. 

Since 1960, 43 percent of global sea level rise can be attributed to thermal expansion of water, just 3 percent to a reduction in land water storage, and the remainder from melting ice and glaciers.  |  Credit: Zheng et al., Science Advances (2026) 

A new study has determined that warming ocean water is the leading cause of rising sea levels, accounting for 43 percent of the increase since 1960. That’s due to a process called thermospheric expansion, where seawater expands as it absorbs heat from the atmosphere and takes up more space. Melting ice and glaciers contributed to the rest of sea level rise with mountain glaciers accounting for 27 percent, the Greenland Ice Sheet 15 percent and Antarctic Ice Sheet 12 percent.

A more troubling finding of the international study, led by researchers in China at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was the determination that sea level rise is accelerating every year. It was 2.06 millimeters per year averaged between 1960 and 2023 but doubled to 3.94 millimeters per year averaged between 2005 and 2023.  So, sea levels aren’t just rising, they’re rising faster than they were just a couple of decades ago.

Unfortunately, the team says that even if greenhouse gas emissions were slashed today, the large inertia of the ocean and the world's ice would push sea levels higher for centuries to come. 

The study was published in the journal Science Advances. 

It’s nearly summer and you’ll want to lather on the sunscreen before heading outdoors. However, many sunscreens carry an environmental cost—harming marine organisms or being derived from fossil fuels.

Many fish make their own natural sunscreen with a UV-protective compound called gadusol, which is found in the eggs of several species. The researchers biosynthesized gadusol from zebrafish.

What to do? Do what fish do. Fish make their own natural sunscreen with a UV-protective compound called gadusol. This compound is found in the eggs of several fish species such as cod, salmon, and zebrafish but is otherwise rare in nature.

So, even though gadusol was discovered over 40 years ago, it’s never been brought to market as a sunscreen because it would be difficult to extract in a scalable and environmentally sound way. But researchers in China have been able to use E. coli (Escherichia coli) bacteria as mini “biological factories” to synthesize gadusol from zebrafish. In experiments, their process increased the yield by nearly 93 times.

In an interesting twist, they found gadusol showed antioxidant activity comparable to that of vitamin C, which helps to neutralize the damage UV exposure causes cells. So, one day their method could be a green and sustainable way to both protect and repair skin. 

The study was published in the journal Trends in Biotechnology.

Much attention has been paid to the aridification of the Colorado River Basin, but other parts of the country are suffering from low precipitation. Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina have been experiencing the most severe drought category with the Southeast now being called “ground zero” for some of the worst dryness in the country, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. The National Weather Service describes these conditions as a once-in-a-100-year event that can cause critical water emergencies, agricultural losses, wildfires, and profound ecosystem damage.

Parts of the Southeast U.S. are experiencing the severest category of drought.  |  Credit: U.S. Department of Agriculture

Zachary Handloss, of the Georgia Institute of Technology, wrote in The Conversation that parts of the Southeast have been in drought since last July. In March and April this year, the areas received less than 25 percent of normal precipitation. Temperatures have been warmer than usual, which has dropped relative humidity, and a high-pressure system has prevented the formation of clouds and precipitation. This system was brought on, Handloss writes, by a northward bend in the jet stream, the fast-moving current of air several miles above Earth, which brought southeasterly winds.

All these conditions add up to what is needed for wildfire—dried out vegetation, high winds, and low humidity. The spread of fire in the region has been fueled by leftover debris from hurricanes that have struck the region—like Helene in 2024 that rapidly intensified over the ocean where temperatures were warmer probably because of climate change. Georgia governor Brian Kemp declared a 30-day state of emergency for 91 counties because of the wildfires.

Inside Climate News reports that as climate change accelerates, it’s expected that Southeastern droughts will be more common. A climate scientist told NBC that these wildfires are yet another sign that climate change is wreaking havoc on natural ecosystems and increasing fire activity across the country even in historically humid landscapes.

Goldfish (Carassius auratus) are an iconic first pet for many children and a common classroom companion. While they may look harmless and sweet in an aquarium, they can take down an entire lake ecosystem should they get loose in the wild.

A new study shows that goldfish can trigger dramatic ecological collapse in freshwater lakes, threatening native wildlife at every level of the food web.  |  Credit: Pogrebnoj-Alexandroff/Creative Commons

A new study from the University of Toledo and the University of Missouri found goldfish, which can grow to nearly two feet long when not confined to a tank, can trigger dramatic ecological collapse in freshwater lakes, threatening native wildlife at every level of the food web. The researchers introduced goldfish, which are related to carp, into two experimental lake types—one nutrient-poor (oligotrophic) and the other nutrient-rich (eutrophic). They then monitored the consequences over time. 

The results were stark. Water quality degraded rapidly as the fish churned up bottom sediments. Native species like snails and small invertebrates, which form the foundation for healthy aquatic ecosystems, declined as they fell prey to the goldfish, had their habitat destroyed, or suffered as they competed for food. 

A “regime shift”—the scientific term for when an ecosystem rapidly reorganizes into something fundamentally different, and often worse—was documented in their study. Once triggered, the team says these shifts are notoriously difficult and expensive to reverse.

So, if you have a goldfish that you’ve outgrown, the researchers say to return it to the pet store or find a friend who is willing to adopt it.

The study was published in the Journal of Animal Ecology.

By now, everyone has heard that the Strait of Hormuz is closed because of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. But there’s another strait that could be closing, which would block shipping traffic between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean…in about 20 million years. 

The Strait of Gibraltar separates the European nation of Spain from the African nation of Morocco and connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Medirrranean Sea.  | Credit: NASA

The Strait of Gibraltar sits between Europe, in southern Spain, and Africa in Morocco, connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea. At its narrowest it’s only around 13 kilometers or nine miles wide. A computer-model by the University of Lisbon says things are shifting—tectonically speaking—and that the plate beneath the Strait of Gibraltar may be slowly sliding toward the Earth’s interior, in a process called subduction.

According to the Geological Society of America, subduction zones have more seismic and volcanic activity. Currently, the Atlantic Ocean has fewer subduction zones than the Pacific, which has the active and famous Ring of Fire, so any geologic activity around the strait gets the attention of researchers—and, they say, should warrant the attention of countries in the region.

Although subduction in the strait is probably creeping along at around 2” per year, it still raises the risk for earthquakes, landslides, and tsunamis. Scientists advise that now’s the time for stricter building codes, emergency planning, and public awareness campaigns.

The tap water of almost 20 percent of people in the U.S. may contain elevated levels of nitrate contamination, which has been linked to birth defects and cancer risks. 

A new report shows that 20 percent of Americans may have nitrates in their tap water.  |  Credit: Shixart1985/Creative Commons

A study from the nonprofit Environmental Working Group (EWG) showed that, between 2021 and 2023, 62 million Americans were exposed to the pollutant, likely from fertilizers in agricultural runoff, manure from feeding operations, and wastewater discharge. Nitrates are invisible and odorless and have also been associated with thyroid disease and preterm births.

The report showed that almost two-thirds of water systems with nitrate levels at or above the legal standard were in California, Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma, which have large agricultural industries. The report also says that drinking water across the U.S. contains hundreds of chemicals, heavy metals, and radioactive substances, often at levels higher than what scientists consider safe, even if it’s in compliance with federal standards.

The group says that people can protect their drinking water and reduce risks by using a carbon filter or a reverse osmosis system.  Also, people can contact their local water supplier to learn about treatment methods and whether there are violations of standards.

The sound of rain on a windowsill can be soothing for humans, but if you’re a dormant seed underground, it can be a vexing wake-up call. That’s according to new research from MIT, which found that vibrations caused by raindrops can awaken seeds and signal that it’s time to get growing.

In experiments with rice seeds submerged in water, MIT researchers found that the sound of falling droplets shook the seeds out of a dormant state, stimulating them to germinate more quickly than seeds that were not exposed to the same sound vibrations.  |  Credit: Cadine Navarro/MIT

We know that plants respond to stimuli—some recoil when touched, while others fold inward when exposed to heat or toxins. And of course, most plants respond to light, reaching toward the sun to help them grow. Plants also understand gravity—knowing to send roots down and to send shoots up. They do this through their “statoliths”—envelopes of starch at the bottom of certain cells. When statoliths are jostled, sprouting kicks into gear.

To test whether rain could be enough to affect the statolith, the team experimented with rice seeds, which grow in shallow watery fields. Previous studies had found that sound waves are stronger in water than air because it’s denser. 

The team exposed the seeds to water droplet sounds that would occur in light, moderate, or heavy storms. They found that those seeds germinated 30 to 40 percent faster than ones in quiet conditions. They also found that seeds that were closer to the surface could better sense the rain and grow faster, compared to more submerged ones. 

“Hearing” rain can be a biological advantage for seeds, establishing a “Goldilocks Zone” that’s close enough to the surface to feel raindrops but deep enough to soak up the moisture.

The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports.

“Hot as Hades.” “Hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk.” “A real scorcher.” Those are phrases commonly used to describe intense heat. But in Japan, which experienced its hottest summer on record last year, its Meteorological Agency (JMA) has an official lexicon for forecasts. 

The El Niño phenomenon could arrive by May—and be strong—according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). |  Credit: Guian Bolisay/Flickr

Currently, the word natsubi describes a typical summer day around 25 C, manatsubi for a midsummer day around 30 C, and mōshobi, introduced in 2007, for an extremely hot day over 35 Celsius or 95 degrees Fahrenheit. With recent heat waves, however, it became clear that a new term was needed. 

On April 17, the agency introduced Kokushobi for days surpassing 40 Celsius or around 104 Fahrenheit. The word koku means cruel or harsh and was chosen following a government survey of nearly half a million respondents to help raise awareness about keeping safe in extreme heat. 

Kokushobi might come in handy this summer. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) just announced that El Niño conditions could return as early as May, causing above-normal temperatures nearly everywhere on the planet. And, models suggest it might be a whopper.

El Niño refers to above-average sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, and the phenomenon often brings a range of impacts from drought, wildfires, and floods. Extreme weather events and heat waves are becoming more common and intense with climate change, as we burn fossil fuels—creating conditions for which there may one day be no words to describe.

After a virtual meeting held with the governors of seven western states and their delegates last Friday, the federal government announced emergency measures to increase the water level at Lake Powell on the Colorado River, the country’s second largest reservoir. 

The Bureau of Reclamation has ordered the release of water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir.  |  Credit: DimiTalen/Creative Commons

The Bureau of Reclamation will release nearly 670,000 acre-feet of water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Utah and Wyoming, upstream of Lake Powell—an amount that could serve around 1.5 million households. Two other reservoirs on the Upper Colorado, Blue Mesa and Navajo, will not be required to release water at this time due to their low levels.

In a statement, the Bureau said that the Colorado River storage system has been reduced to about 36 percent of its capacity due to long-term drought, very low snowpack, and record-breaking heat in March. The likely flow into Lake Powell is forecast to be less than 30 percent of its historical average.

In addition, the Bureau will significantly reduce releases from Lake Powell to Lake Mead, which holds water for Arizona, Nevada, and California. The goal is to ensure that Glen Canyon Dam can continue to generate electricity for more than five million people.

In response to the crisis, the Upper Basin states of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and New Mexico, said in a release that they will immediately implement voluntary conservation and efficiency measures and impose mandatory and uncompensated reductions by strict regulation of water rights. 

The seven states in the Colorado Basin, which also include Arizona, California, and Nevada, have been unable to reach an agreement on how to cut back allocations in the long term, and negotiators have not met in person since January. The Los Angeles Times reports that the federal government had no choice but to impose this emergency release.

A yearslong effort to remove a ban on mining for minerals near more than 1,000 pristine lakes in northern Minnesota was approved last week by the U.S. Senate. It’s a major blow to those who view the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area as fragile and worthy of protection, and it will likely lead to mining in 350 square miles of federal land within the watershed. 

The Senate has approved mining near the pristine Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness.  |  Credit: Knowltp/Creative Commons

The wilderness area runs for about 150 miles in the Superior National Forest along the border with Canada and has thousands of lakes and streams, rugged cliffs, and sandy beaches carved by glaciers. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that the wilderness currently attracts about 150,000 campers and canoers every year.

The vote on the measure, which overturns the 20-year ban on the industry, was close—passing 50 to 49—and follows last month’s approval by House Republicans. It now goes to the president for his expected signature.

While mining is not allowed inside the Boundary Waters wilderness, previously it had been forbidden in the adjacent watershed because mining pollution could stream into protected areas. A federal study in 2022 found that water pollution could affect aquatic life and tourism, as well as harm Native American communities disproportionately.

A Chilean company, Twin Metals, has sought to mine for copper, cobalt, platinum, and nickel just south of the wilderness area. The parent company of Twin Metals was recently fined by the environmental regulator in Chile for failing to comply with water regulations at a copper mine.

The executive director of MiningMinnesota, an industry group, told MinnPost that the vote was an important step for workers, communities, and domestic mineral supply chains, but Ingrid Lyons of the advocacy group Save the Boundary Waters said in a statement that it was a dark day for America’s most beloved wilderness area.

The war in Iran might convince more people to buy electric vehicles. But with a growing number of models on the market, brands might need to offer up some snazzy features to sway customers—say, perhaps, an onboard commode?

The Chinese luxury EV automaker, Seres, has patented a voice-controlled "in-vehicle toilet" that slides out from under the passenger seat.  |  Credit: China IPO

It could happen. The luxury Chinese EV carmaker Seres was granted a patent for what it’s calling an "in-vehicle toilet." The loo, which sits below the passenger seat, is voice-activated and slides in and out like a drawer, according to a filing with the China National Intellectual Property Administration seen by the BBC. 

The car commode will have an exhaust fan to expel odors and a heating element to dry and evaporate waste, which collects in a tank that would need to be emptied manually. 

The Chinese electric vehicle market is so intensely competitive that other EV automakers are trying to woo customers, offering features like in-cabin karaoke systems, built-in refrigerators, and seats with massage functions. 

Although Seres has not indicated that the toilets will be available soon, one can kinda see the appeal—maybe if you’re stuck in traffic, miles from a rest stop on a long drive, or even camping. But if it’s your day to drive carpool and nature calls, that could get a bit awkward.

The Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973 to protect and conserve imperiled plants and animals from human activities that could destroy their critical habitat. 

Rice's whales are one of the rarest whales in the world. The Trump administration has put the animals at risk of extinction.  |  Credit: NOAA Fisheries 

In 1978, the act was amended to create an Endangered Species Committee that could address “extremely rare situations” in which proposed federal action conflicted with the protection of an endangered or threatened species but where no workable options existed to protect wildlife. 

The committee is comprised of seven voting members: the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of the Army, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, the administrator of NOAA, one individual appointed by the president, and a representative from the affected state. The committee was nicknamed the “God Squad” for its authority to make life or death decisions about endangered animals and has convened only three times since its inception—that is until Tuesday, March 31, when its members voted to exempt oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
 
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth claimed the exemption was imperative for “reasons of national security" as the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran has all but closed the Strait of Hormuz, sending fuel prices soaring. As the war dragged on, Hegseth said environmentalists’ lawsuits against the oil and gas industry were threatening to hobble domestic energy supplies. 

For their part, environmental groups say an exemption could accelerate the extinction of rare Rice's whales, found only in the Gulf of Mexico, where an estimated 51 of the animals remain. A 2025 National Marine Fisheries Service analysis determined that oil and gas operations in the gulf were likely to harm several species of whales, sea turtles, and Gulf sturgeon, which face potential harm from ship strikes, oil spills, and other impacts.

Environmental groups are suing the administration to block the exemption. Pat Parenteau, an emeritus law professor at the Vermont Law School, who helped write the original provision in the law, told CNN that the administration’s rationale in the case is weak from a legal standpoint because the Endangered Species Act is not currently threatening or blocking oil supplies in the U.S.

A new kind of power plant has opened in Japan that generates electricity not by burning coal or gas, or by using wind or solar, but instead by mixing saltwater with fresh water. 

The Osmotic Power Plant in Fukuoka, Japan.  |  Credit: Fukuoka Area Waterworks Agency

The facility in Fukuoka uses osmosis to make electricity by the movement of water from areas of low salt concentration through a membrane to areas with high salt concentration.

As the fresh water moves to the saltwater, the additional volume increases pressure on the concentrated side, which drives a turbine to generate electricity. The Japanese plant, which produces no CO2 and can run day and night in any weather, will generate enough power to operate a desalination facility in addition to more than 200 homes. The fresh water used comes from treated wastewater. The desalination facility will supply brine from its process to run the power plant.  

ZME Science reports that other pilot projects using the osmotic method are being pursued in Qatar, Spain, South Korea, and Norway. A demonstration plant began testing in France in 2024 using fresh water from the Rhône and seawater from the ocean. At that location all fresh water and saltwater is returned to the Rhône estuary with an intermediate salinity, according to the Paris Polytechnique Institute. The first osmotic plant opened in Denmark about three years ago. Some estimate that these systems could eventually generate almost 20 percent of the world’s electricity needs.

If you had a broken toilet, you’d probably call a plumber, right? But that could be a bit of a surcharge when the loo is on its way to the moon.

On April 3, 2026, NASA astronaut Christina Koch is illuminated by a screen inside the darkened Orion spacecraft on the third day of the agency's Artemis II mission. To the right of the image's center, CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen is seen in profile peering out of one of Orion's windows. Lights are turned off to avoid glare on the windows. |  Credit: NASA

On April 1, shortly after takeoff, astronauts aboard NASA’s Artemis II mission reported a blinking fault light on their Orion spacecraft’s toilet. Mission Control determined the malfunction was a controller issue, and the crew was able to troubleshoot it within a few hours.

The Universal Waste Management System, as NASA calls it, is not just any old commode. It’s a real toilet—an upgrade from Apollo missions in the 1960s and ‘70s that didn’t have a toilet, let alone a bathroom with an actual door. In those days, crews collected their waste in bags.

To use Orion’s bathroom, which is technically called the "hygiene bay" and similar in size to a bathroom on a passenger jet, astronauts float in and strap in. Personalized funnels draw in urine and there’s a seat for solid waste. Automatic air flow, which helps reduce odor, pulls the waste away from the body and into storage containers. The suction is so loud that the crew wears ear protection while inside.

During longer missions, like aboard the International Space Station, astronauts recycle their liquid waste into potable drinking water. But given the Artemis II mission is a quick trip around the moon and back, the crew will vent urine into space. What’s that look like? On NASA’s live feed, the crew showed viewers a wastewater dump, which looked like sparkling stars passing by Orion’s window. 

Soils are made up of minerals, water, organic matter, and countless microbes that work together to support life on Earth. Soils filter water, allow plants to grow, provide habitat for animals, recycle dead stuff, and sequester carbon from the atmosphere. 

Credit: Christine Sandu / Unsplash

If that weren’t enough, there’s another reason not to treat soils like dirt. In every gram, there are about 1,000 different species of bacteria, some of which are precursors to modern medicines. More than half of the world’s antibiotics come from soils, and they’re used to treat a long list of illnesses from tuberculosis and meningitis to leprosy and Legionnaires’ disease. 

Unfortunately, we are reducing the effectiveness of antibiotics by over prescribing them—and in more troubling news—a new study out this week by researchers at CalTech found that drought may promote antibiotic resistance as well.

Microorganisms live in the watery part of soils and produce antibiotics to defend themselves against each other. Humans have harvested these antibiotics to fight disease. But as lead author Xiao Yu Shan told H2O Radio, when soils dry out, the amount of antibiotics gets concentrated. So, if you’re a microbe that has resistance to that antibiotic, you survive.

That has potentially far-reaching public health consequences, Shan says because climate change is increasing droughts around the world. It means more people could be exposed to antibiotic-resistant bacteria just through everyday activities like playing at a park, gardening, or he says, through breathing dust in the air or eating food. He said his research shows that environmental and human health are inseparable.

The study was published in the journal Nature Microbiology.

Rare earth minerals are critical for many products, such as electric vehicles, smart phones, and wind turbines. However, mining them is expensive, can rely on child labor, and produces toxic waste that can leak into water systems. 

Credit:  Ben Stern  / Unsplash

Now, researchers at Trinity College of Dublin University have found a new way to harvest rare earths using oyster shells. In the lab, the team crushed shells from mussels, cockles, and oysters and exposed them to solutions containing rare earth elements.  

The result was that chemicals in the shells were dissolved and turned into new minerals that contained the rare earth elements and became crystals locked inside the shell material. Oyster shells were the best at capturing more rare earths compared to other shells. The authors say that the shell waste could be used as a low-cost way to treat contaminated water and even to recover valuable metals from industrial streams.

Rare earth elements in rivers or lakes can disrupt plants, animals, and microorganisms. Many streams, lakes, and rivers have become contaminated by runoff from abandoned coal mines or precious metal mining. Given that millions of tons of shell waste are produced every year by the aquaculture industry and end up in landfills, this discovery could help clean up those environments in a natural way. 

The study was published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

Could tennis help us to ace the climate crisis? According to a new study from New York University (NYU), it could, but it depends on what type of court the game is played on. 

NYU researchers found that green clay courts can absorb massive amounts of carbon dioxide through a process called “enhanced rock weathering.”  |  Credit: Aleksandar Kyng / Unsplash

Tennis courts come in three types—hard courts made from concrete or asphalt, grass courts like at Wimbledon, and clay courts made of either crushed brick, which are red, or from metabasalt, which are green.

The researchers found that green clay courts can absorb massive amounts of carbon dioxide through a process called “enhanced rock weathering.” Enhanced rock weathering is the acceleration of a natural process in which rocks absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere when it rains and lock it away for thousands of years. It’s been used as a climate solution in agriculture where crushed volcanic rock called basalt is spread on farm fields.

So, the team asked, how much could green clay courts sequester since they are made with metabasalt? They analyzed 17,178 green clay courts in the U.S., factoring in carbon emissions during mining and processing, transportation to court locations, construction, and maintenance.

They found green clay courts sequestered more than 25,000 metric tons of CO2 per year and would take only 3.5 years to become “net negative” where they have compensated for the carbon involved in their production. Replacing existing hard courts with green clay courts could edge us closer to game-set-match for the climate.

The study was published in the journal Applied Geochemistry.

Those thin, wispy contrails that follow airliners in the sky come from condensation formed by engine exhaust particles in high humidity zones above 25,000 feet. The trails may last only for a while, but, according to Yale Environment 360, they create an often invisible thermal blanket that has a daily impact on atmospheric temperatures—contributing as much as two percent of global warming, according to Contrails.org.

Credit: John Robert McPherson/Creative Commons

Last week, American Airlines and Google announced that they had found a way to significantly reduce the effect of contrails by using an AI tool to forecast altitudes where they would develop during flights. Using a Google tool, the airline allowed its pilots to adjust altitudes or pick alternative routes to avoid areas where contrails would likely form.

On 2,400 flights between the U.S. and Europe—an area prone to forming contrails—half of the flights served as a control group, and the other half were given options to avoid conditions leading to contrails. About 110 flights flew on the optional course, and researchers observed that there was more than a 60 percent reduction in formation of the clouds compared to the other flights—and with no significant difference in fuel consumption. A representative of the airline told the Associated Press that the tests showed it wasn’t difficult for dispatchers and pilots to fly alternative routes to avoid forming contrails.

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive, neurodegenerative disorder caused by a loss of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain. Symptoms can include tremors, stiffness, and mobility issues. 

Credit: Streetwise Cycle/Creative Commons

L-DOPA, or Levodopa as it’s known to patients, is the gold-standard medication used to alleviate symptoms, but creating L-DOPA relies on fossil fuels and generates significant waste. Also, Parkinson’s cases are increasing with aging populations and manufacturing supply chains have hit snags.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh are solving that bottleneck with bottles—plastic bottles that is. They’ve made L-DOPA from PET plastic using another environmental hazard: E. coli bacteria.

E. coli bacteria are found in tainted water or food and can cause infections that result in diarrhea, vomiting, and fever. PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic is used in a range of products from food packaging to shampoo bottles and clothing. The often single-use plastic is made from oil and gas and is contributing to the global plastic pollution crisis, with some 50 million tonnes produced annually.

The team broke down the plastic into terephthalic acid that was then fed to engineered E. coli bacteria, which ultimately synthesized the L-DOPA. It’s an example in the growing field of “bio-upcycling” where, in this case, the valuable carbon in plastic is repurposed into medicine. The plastic waste would have otherwise contaminated waterways or gone to landfills where it would leach toxins into soils and groundwater.

This isn’t the first time researchers from the University of Edinburgh have converted PET into medicine. As H2O Radio reported in June 2025, they used E. coli to convert the plastic into acetaminophen aka Tylenol. Using a fermentation process similar to brewing beer, they were able to make the drug in under 24 hours, at room temperature, and with virtually no carbon emissions.

The study was published in the journal Nature Sustainability.

Tree rings, ice cores, fossils. There are lots of ways to learn about past environments, but scientists have discovered another method to understand history—turtle shells. 

Green turtle (Chelonia mydas)  |  Credit: Evan D'Alessandro, PhD

A new study led by the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science shows that scutes, the hard plates that make up a turtle’s shell, grow continuously and preserve chemical signals of marine conditions over time. 

By analyzing shell layers, scientists can determine where turtles foraged, their diets, and how marine stress events might have affected them. Sea turtle scutes are made of keratin—the same material found in human hair and nails—and each layer remains unchanged once it develops, behaving like tree rings that preserve the history of environmental conditions. 

The team used radiocarbon dating to analyze layers from 24 stranded sea turtles—loggerheads (Caretta caretta) and green turtles (Chelonia mydas)—collected along the Florida coast between 2019 and 2022. Each layer was radiocarbon dated and compared with the mid-20th-century “bomb pulse,” a spike in carbon released during nuclear weapons testing that serves as an environmental tracer of carbon in the marine environment. 

In many of the turtles, they identified periods when growth slowed simultaneously. Several of those slowdowns coincided with major marine disruptions in Florida’s waters when food was hard to find, such as during harmful algal blooms known as “red tides” and large Sargassum seaweed events.

Sea turtles live long lives and spend much of their time in the open ocean, so studying them is often difficult. This new research shows that the animals carry a history book on their backs that can tell us not only how well they’ve survived past events but also what’s needed to protect them in the future.

The study was published in the journal Marine Biology.

Before the war started, Iran had already been suffering from water shortages caused by drought, climate change, mismanagement of infrastructure, and overuse by agriculture. The ten million people who live in the capital city of Tehran had little rain last year, and its reservoirs were stressed.

Tehran, Iran on the fourth day of the war, March 3, 2026  |  Credit: Avash Media/Creative Commons

Last weekend, “black rain” fell in the city. The rain was soaked with oil caused by fires producing smoke clouds following airstrikes by the U.S. and Israel on oil depots, according to CNN. Euronews reports that the plumes of toxic contamination likely contained precursors to acid rain and carcinogenic compounds from the burning hydrocarbons. 

Residents were urged to stay indoors. People said they had difficulty breathing and their eyes and throats burned. Long-term health risks from the smoke include neurological and heart conditions, birth complications, and cancer. The pollutants can stay on buildings and get into waterways, affecting ecosystems for a long time.

In the war in the Middle East, Iran’s attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz to prevent oil tankers from moving through the region has sent gas prices soaring. That’s making people look to buy electric vehicles and install residential solar panels, according to EnergySage, a comparison-shopping marketplace for clean energy systems.

PFAS compound can go from toxic trash to battery treasure. |  Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University

If demand grows—despite the Trump administration killing the rebates and incentives put in place under Biden—it will require more lithium for car batteries and energy storage. 

Although EVs and renewables have lower environmental impacts, harvesting lithium—whether through open-pit mines or brine ponds—can deplete fresh water, pollute ecosystems with toxic chemicals, and release greenhouse gases.

A team of researchers at Rice University might have found a win-win solution. They are using toxic PFAS compounds, also known as “Forever Chemicals,” to extract lithium from briny water. The compounds are destroyed in the process—solving two problems at once.

PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are synthetic chemicals. They’re everywhere—in our air, our water, and us—because they’re used in so many products from cookware to waterproof clothing and food packaging for their ability to resist heat, grease, and water. Studies have linked them to liver damage, reproductive disorders, immune system disruption, and certain cancers. 

Granular activated carbon (GAC) filters are used to remove PFAS from water and firefighting foam, but as James Tour of Rice University told H2O Radio, the carbon is often thrown in the garbage and the PFAS ends up in the environment again. So, he and his team decided to turn that trash into treasure. In their study, they took PFAS-saturated carbon and mixed it with brine. They then flash-heated the mixture, which produced lithium fluoride that can be used in batteries. Any leftovers from their process are nontoxic.

Tour and his team tested the lithium fluoride in lithium-ion batteries, and it not only worked well but also showed increased stability and performance. They say their approach uses less energy and water than the two most common methods used to extract lithium from brine. Additionally, they say it will likely have lower operating costs and be faster—taking only a few minutes rather than months to complete.

The study was published in the journal Nature Water.

Do you know your warblers from your sparrows? Finches from flycatchers? If so, your brain is likely aging well. 

Public domain

That’s the conclusion of a new Canadian study that looked at the brains of birdwatchers and found that expert birders had more structurally compact areas related to attention and perception than the rest of us who might be able to recognize only a duck from a seagull.

Birding requires a keen eye and strong memory, but as we age, our brain's structure becomes less complex. The team says that birdwatching can build neuroplasticity, which is the brain's ability to change, reorganize, or grow neural networks.

The study used MRIs to track how water moved through brain tissue to determine its density. Denser areas are associated with processing working memory, spatial awareness, and object recognition. They found that expert birders had denser tissue compared with novices even though they were roughly the same age. That doesn’t mean birders will avoid cognitive decline, but it might happen more slowly, giving new meaning to the word birdbrain.

The study was published in JNeurosci, the Journal of Neuroscience.

In 1909, President Theodore Roosevelt established the Superior National Forest in Minnesota, which contains the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness—an area described as one of the country’s most remote and beautiful places, extending 150 miles along the Canadian border, with 1,100 lakes.

The Senate is scheduled to vote on allowing mining near Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, which is feared to threaten environment.  |  Credit: Gregg Bruff, Chief of Heritage Education

Now, the Trump administration wants to allow a Chilean firm to mine for copper and nickel in the area, which conservationists say could contaminate the watershed. Antofagasta, the parent company of the firm, was fined in late January by the Chilean government for $775,000 because of its failure to comply with water management regulations at one of its copper mines.

In January, the House passed a bill to undo a Biden administration decision that protected the wilderness from development. The Senate is scheduled to vote on the measure during the week of February 23.

Descendants of Roosevelt sent a letter to senators saying the decision ignores sound science that shows the threat to the ecosystem and will put other public lands at risk for similar irresponsible actions. In their letter, which was obtained by the New York Times, they said that promoting mining is the opposite of “America First,” Trump’s claimed basis for many of his policies. The Roosevelt relatives say that the foreign-owned company will use Chinese smelters and then sell the extracted minerals on the open market. 

If you live in the West, you’re probably all too aware of how little snow has fallen in the Rocky Mountains. Snowmelt from the peaks is the source for the Colorado River, which provides water to millions of people and agriculture.

Water shooting out of bypass tubes during 2023 High Flow Experiment at Glen Canyon Dam.  |  Credit: NPS/Taryn Preston

The “snow drought,” as it’s being called, could make a bad situation worse for Lake Powell on the Utah-Arizona border and one of the two large reservoirs on the river. It’s already suffering from low water levels. As of February 20, it was at 25 percent of capacity. The latest monthly report by the federal Bureau of Reclamation paints a bleak picture, saying that by September the amount of water flowing into the reservoir could be about 52 percent of average—or even as little as 37 percent.

Those projections could affect whether Glen Canyon Dam, which impounds the reservoir, could function. By December 2026, the report says water levels could drop below 3,490 ft, the minimum pool needed to produce hydropower. By March 2027, the report says, Lake Powell could reach the lowest elevation on record, potentially limiting the dam’s ability to release water.

The grim news comes as the seven states in the Colorado River Basin failed to agree by a February 14 deadline on how to share the system’s water.  The Bureau of Reclamation has proposed five options and could impose its own solution if no deal is reached before October 1, 2026, the start of the 2027 water year, an outcome which would likely trigger lawsuits that could end up before the Supreme Court. 

Three athletes were disqualified at the Winter Olympics, not for performance-enhancing drugs—but for using other substances—so-called “forever chemicals.” 

Competitors in past winter Olympics were able to wax skis and snowboards with PFAS compounds but no more.  |   Credit: Jon Wick/Creative Commons

“Forever chemicals” are compounds made from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly known as PFAS. They’re valued for being water resistant, so they are used in outdoor clothing, food packaging, dental floss—and on ski gear. In 2019, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) announced it would outlaw fluorinated ski waxes—a “fluor ban”—made with PFAS, saying it gave athletes a competitive advantage—and because of mounting evidence about the chemicals' harm to human health and the environment.  

One can see the appeal. The waxes decrease friction, enabling competitors to reach unmatched speeds—but it’s a slippery slope with a cost.  PFAS compounds have been linked to health conditions such as cancer, kidney and liver damage, developmental and reproductive harm, and immune system toxicity. When skiers and snowboarders treat their equipment with fluorinated wax, it sheds tiny particles in the snow, which can then contaminate soils and waterways. Because the chemicals have strong bonds, they can persist in ecosystems for decades, if not longer.

This year’s Winter Olympics are the first since the ban, costing two South Korean cross-country skiers and a Japanese snowboarder their chances to medal after their equipment tested positive for PFAS. All three maintain they followed the rules and did not intentionally use the products. 

PFAS chemicals are so widespread that an estimated 98 percent of the U.S. population has detectable concentrations in their blood, making the compounds an Olympic-sized problem that we’re in a stiff competition to defeat.

The seven states in the Colorado River Basin did not reach an agreement by Valentine’s Day on how to manage the river as climate change and a long-term drought diminish snowfall and water. Secretary of the Interior Doug Bergum, had imposed the deadline after a meeting two weeks ago with governors of six of the states and a representative of California's governor Gavin Newsom. 

The seven states that comprise the Colorado River Basin failed to come to an agreement on water usage by a Valentine’s Day deadline imposed by the federal government.  |  Credit: Utah Division of Water Resources

As the date passed, there were separate statements issued by governors from Upper Basin and Lower Basin states. Lower Basin governors from California, Nevada, and Arizona, said that management of the river must be based on shared contribution and innovation with all users stretching to conserve. They maintained that they have already offered reductions in their share, which are firm and fair. Upper Basin governors from Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and New Mexico said that they already live within the means of the river by adapting every year based on supplies.

However, the director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, Tom Buschatzke, was critical of his Upper Basin neighbors, saying in a statement that they were opposed to any offer they Lower Basin had made to compromise no matter how dire the conditions of the river may be. Representing Colorado in the process, Becky Mitchell said in a release that the Upper Basin is being asked to solve a problem they did not create with water they don’t have, adding that their approach is in line with hydrologic reality and they are ready to move forward.

If the seven states cannot agree on how to manage the river’s water, the federal Bureau of Reclamation could mandate its own proposal later this year that would probably lead to years of litigation.

In the meantime, Gene Showcroft, Utah’s representative to the negotiations said at a press conference on Friday, February 13, 2026, that the Upper Basin states are working with the bureau on a plan to release water this summer from Flaming Gorge and other reservoirs to prop up Lake Powell, the second largest reservoir in the country. That development comes as forecasters expect the small snowfall this winter will cause big problems this summer.

Weather patterns in the Colorado River Basin and around the globe could be affected by a shift from current La Niña conditions to El Niño later this year. La Niña and El Niño are climate patterns driven by ocean surface temperatures in the Pacific. 

In the U.S., El Niño and La Niña usually have their biggest impacts on winter weather, but if El Niño develops fast enough, it could drive hotter temperatures and extreme rainfall this summer.  |  Credit: NOAA

During a La Niña year in the U.S., when ocean waters are cooler, winter temperatures are warmer than normal in the South and cooler than normal in the North. La Niña conditions can lead to a more severe hurricane season.

A shift to warmer ocean conditions during El Niño pushes the Pacific jet stream south, leading to the northern U.S. and Canada being drier and warmer than usual. In the Southeast, conditions are wetter than usual, with the risk of increased flooding. One silver lining is that El Niño conditions can limit the number and intensity of hurricanes forming in the Atlantic due to stronger wind shear.

For this spring and summer, forecasters at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center say there’s a 56 percent probability that we will be in neutral conditions between La Niña and El Niño—likely shifting to El Niño by autumn with the caveat that it's hard to model with certainty this far out.

So, what to expect over the next few months? Weather.com says cooler-than-average temperatures from the Northern Rockies to the Northeast and warmer than average temperatures in the Southeast and Southwest. Depending on how fast the El Niño develops as well as its strength could drive severe storms, extreme rainfall, and drought in many areas of the globe. According to climate scientist Dr. James Hansen, even a moderately strong El Niño may yield record global temperatures this year and into 2027.

Valentine’s Day just passed and for singles, you might have done your best to woo a potential partner with an attractive outfit or winning smile. But if you were a frog, finding love is all about the croak. 

The Sierran chorus frog aka Sierran treefrog (Pseudacris sierra) changes it song according to water temperatures.  |  Credit: Thomas Honeycutt/U.S. Forest Service 

[ AUDIO: warm water frog sounds ]

That’s the sound of a frog telling females that the water’s just right for mating. According to a new study by the University of California, Davis, water temperature affects the sound and quality of male frogs’ mating calls. When it’s colder in the early weeks of spring, their songs are kinda sluggish and a bit of a put-off.

[ AUDIO: cold water frog sounds ]

But as the weather warms and the croaks pick up their pace, female frogs can’t resist an energetic crooner. They know that the song indicates that the water temperature is perfect to lay eggs that will survive. 

To reach their conclusions, the researchers recorded Sierran chorus frog or Sierran treefrog (Pseudacris sierra) at two sites in Northern California and compared how their vocalizations changed as water temperatures rose. They observed that male frogs arrive earlier to ponds than the females, so they can warm up their “voices” and be ready to belt out their tunes. 

However, the team says that climate change could affect this performance as temperatures rise and seasons shift. About 41 percent of amphibian species are threatened with extinction, making them the most endangered vertebrate class. Understanding when they breed, as global warming continues, will be critical to their conservation. 

The study was published in the science journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

According to a new report, there is a huge gap between predictions made by scientists and those by economists about how the world will be changed by global warming. One might think that governments, central banks, and institutional investors, such as retirement funds, would try to forecast the economic risks from climate change as accurately as they could to protect those they serve.  

Map showing the 16 climate tipping elements identified in a 2022 climate tipping points assessment, along with the global warming levels each have their best estimate threshold within. |  Credit: GLOBAÏA for Earth Commission, after Armstrong McKay et al. (2022).

However, a new report from the University of Exeter and Carbon Tracker says they are not, and are relying on models that increasingly understate the failures, shocks, and risks to the economic system as the world moves toward 2°C of warming above preindustrial levels. 

The report says that the current economic models do not capture what they call the cascading failures and shocks of the risks of a warmer world. The forecasting models used by governments, banks, and investors view global warming as just a rise in average world temperatures, and see the future economic system as stable, if marginally shocked—instead of factoring in tipping points and extreme calamities.

The lead author of the report, Jesse Abrams, said that some models say there will be a ten percent loss of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) if the world heats up above two degrees Celsius, but that does not take into consideration that climate scientists are saying the economy and society will cease to function as we know it, and that there won’t be manageable adjustments. Additionally, focusing on GDP can mask the full cost of climate disasters. That number can rise during recovery, while failing to account for human death, displacement, degradation of the ecosystem, and disruption of social life.

Tipping points, like the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, the collapse of Atlantic Ocean currents, or mass biodiversity loss, would have very serious effects on national economies and societies. According to Yale Environment 360, the world is about to pass the limit of keeping warming to just 1.5 degrees Celsius, because a three-year period ending last year breached that average for the first time.

Now, the fear is that climate change will occur suddenly, not gradually, as the planet passes tipping points beyond which things cannot be put back together. Predicting the timing of these tipping points is hard. The physical impacts of climate change are increasingly likely to disrupt multiple sectors at once across trade, finance, and migration, undermining the very foundations of economic growth, the report says.

The results of using outdated models for economic forecasting is widespread complacency and the continued underpricing of climate risks, according to the authors, among not only institutional investors but also policy makers. They urge that efforts need to be made to ensure that the financial system is resilient against destabilizing outcomes, and there needs to be greater focus on the effects of extremes and the vulnerability of the global economic system. 

The full report, Recalibrating Climate Risk, can be found here.

As part of the recent spending bill that was passed by Congress to avert a full government shutdown, legislators voted to cut in half the planned allocation of $250 million from programs to remove lead pipes from municipal systems.

Congress reduced funding for lead pipe removal program as part of recent spending bill.  |  Credit: Pixabay

Last December, about 45 Democratic members of the House of Representatives wrote to Republican leaders in the Senate urging them not to strip those funds, but their efforts were only partially successful. The Guardian reports that the cuts will hurt Michigan, Illinois, Texas, and New York the hardest, as they have highest levels of lead in pipes. 

The EPA has said that no level of exposure to lead is safe, particularly to children, who could have low birth weights, stunted development, and lower IQ scores. 

In the past, water utilities and the chemical industry have fought against rules to replace lead pipes, saying they were not feasible, and Republicans backed them up. However, according to E&E News, the American Water Works Association, which represents 4,300 utilities, recently asked Senate leaders to reject cutting funds for the program, warning that local communities would have to bear the burden. Nevertheless, Congress reduced the amount to $125 million in the February spending bill.

You wind some, you lose some. Last week, a federal court judge rejected yet another attempt by the Trump administration to halt offshore wind projects along the Atlantic seaboard—their fifth loss in as many weeks. 

Empire Wind is one of five offshore wind projects that the Trump administration has tried to halt, claiming national security concerns. When complete it is expected to generate electricity equivalent to more than 500,000 homes.  |  Credit: Empire Wind

Donald Trump has made no secret of his disdain for wind energy, calling turbines ugly and falsely implying they cause cancer. At Davos, in January, he called European nations “losers” for installing them. 

In December, his Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) issued stop-work orders for several offshore wind projects, claiming they were a national security threat, a premise judges seemed to find full of hot air.

Indeed, these projects had nearly a decade of federal reviews and coordinated with the Department of Defense before entering into contracts to provide clean energy to consumers. Ted Kelly with the Environmental Defense Fund wrote, “Because the East Coast relies so heavily on volatile natural gas, adding more cost-stable wind power to the grid is essential for increasing supply and keeping bills down.” He added that “Offshore wind delivers immense value during electricity crunches in the winter because ocean winds are often at their strongest.”

This latest ruling allows the Sunrise Wind project, some 30 miles off the coast of New York, to resume. It joins Coastal Virginia Wind, Empire Wind, Revolution Wind, and Vineyard Wind, all of which have been cleared to continue construction.

Hillary Bright with the offshore wind advocacy group Turn Forward estimated that collectively, the projects will generate six gigawatts of electricity, enough power for 2.5 million American homes and businesses.

Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, is hoping that the seven governors of the states in the Colorado River Basin find some love for each other and come to an agreement by Valentine's Day on how to share water shortages caused by long-term drought and climate change.

Colorado River Basin state governors meet with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on January 30, 2026.  |  Credit: Bureau of Reclamation

On Friday, January 30, the governors of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada met with Burgum in Washington, DC.  California governor Gavin Newsom had a personal commitment and sent the head of the state’s Natural Resources Agency. Before the meeting, the states had been working with no success to agree on new rules about who should give up more water as the Basin becomes drier. The current rules expire at the end of this year and the federal government has published four alternatives to solve the shrinking supply issue that affects 40 million people and agriculture for the entire country.

Although the meeting did not end with an agreement, there was some optimism. Colorado governor Jared Polis said in a statement that the discussions were productive and reflected the seriousness of the moment. He said he remains committed to working collaboratively to find solutions that protect the vitality of the Colorado River and everyone who depends on it.  

Governor Katie Hobbs of Arizona said on social media that she was encouraged to hear Upper Basin governors express a willingness to turn water conservation programs into firm commitments and that she looked forward to continued discussions. Colorado Public Radio reports that a source who is familiar with the discussions said that six of the states are close to agreeing on a framework, with Arizona as the outlier.

If the states cannot agree, the Department of the Interior has threatened to take over management of the river, which some say could lead to years of litigation.

Just over a month ago, the Trump administration announced its intent to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research or NCAR—a world- renowned hub for atmospheric and climate-related research based in Boulder, Colorado. It’s managed by a nonprofit consortium called the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), which consists of over 130 universities and colleges.

The Trump administration plans to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), including closing the center’s Mesa Laboratory in Boulder, CO.  |  Credit: C. Calvin, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR)

Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, and key architect of Project 2025, Russell Vought, dismissed NCAR as “one of the largest sources of “climate alarmism” in the country. So, as the Baptist News Global opines, “Trump has decided one way to fight alarmism is to halt funding of research that produces alarming results.” 

On January 27, the National Science Foundation, which funds NCAR, took the next steps toward dismantling the center, releasing a "Dear Colleague Letter" (DCL) requesting “transformative and creative concepts” on how to reassign NCAR’s capabilities to other agencies—and asking whether to transfer ownership of its iconic Mesa Lab building (designed by Ieoh Ming Pei) to “private use.”

As EOS, the science news magazine published by American Geophysical Union (AGU), explains, NCAR is not just another research center. It is designed to integrate observations, modeling, supercomputing, and applied research in ways that no single university, agency, or contractor could replicate on its own. 

So, what’s at stake if NCAR is broken up? Here are just a few consequences:

Airline Travel: Turbulence is one of the leading cause of injuries on U.S. commercial flights, and NCAR researchers helped improve how to detect and avoid it. Additionally, NCAR-developed deicing products are staples at U.S. airports, and their Low-Level Wind Shear Alert System has helped to make microburst-related plane crashes a thing of the past. Dismantling NCAR could break the integrated system that makes aviation safety research effective.

Weather and Disaster Preparedness: NCAR was created to respond to challenges in meteorology and atmospheric science during and after World War II. Since then, NCAR has made ground-breaking advances in weather, water, and climate science, including its Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF), a state-of-the-art atmospheric modeling system that provides crucial insights on severe storms, flash floods, drought, air quality, wildfires, climate, and solar energy prediction. NCAR-developed instrumentation collects real-time hurricane observations to help predict storm intensities and flood risks.

Public Health: Many global disease threats are related to weather and climate. NCAR scientists developed tools to track mosquitoes, whose populations could carry deadly viruses. They’ve also developed models that can predict and assess wildfire smoke, volcanic ash, and other types of hazardous aerosols in the atmosphere, which could affect public health.

Technology: NCAR was also an early leader in the development of light detection and ranging technology or LIDAR used by numerous industries to create high resolution maps above and below ground for use in forestry and agriculture to archeology. NCAR also manages the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory to monitor space weather, which could disrupt GPS and other communication technologies. NCAR is training future generations of the STEM workforce, learning about supercomputing, modeling, software engineering, data visualization, and much more.

Representative Joe Neguese whose district includes Boulder, is encouraging the public to email their thoughts about NCAR’s future to: NSF_NCAR@nsf.gov. The deadline to comment is March 13, 2026.

Despite warnings about the dangers of seabed mining from scientists and other countries, the Trump administration is speeding up permitting of the practice. Now, under a new process run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a company will be able to apply for an exploration license and a recovery permit, allowing it to harvest the potato-sized rocks.

Polymetallic nodules are found on the ocean floor, in the so-called "abyssal" depths, between 4,000 and 5,000 meters. These large, pebble-like nodules, which aggregate minerals present in the water, are formed from the precipitation of iron and manganese hydroxides in concentric layers around a nucleus.  |  Credit: Ifremer

A recent study from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa showed that there could be significant consequences from seabed mining to tiny animals that are at the bottom of the food chain, which would then affect fisheries and food for humans. However, Neil Jacobs, the administrator of NOAA said in a statement that deep seabed mining for minerals like copper, zinc, and more, is important to enable U. S. companies to access these resources quickly. Nevertheless, 37 countries have called for a moratorium or ban on the practice including, France, Canada, and Germany.  

On Thursday, last week, during a House of Representatives oversight hearing on seabed mining, Republican representatives from American Samoa and the Marianas spoke up in opposition to the Trump administration’s plans.

A Republican delegate from Samoa, Aumua Amata, said, "To the indigenous people of American Samoa, the ocean is not just the backbone of our local economy, it is sacred." And Kimberly King-Hinds, a Republican delegate said, "In places like the Marianas, American Samoa, and Guam, we don’t get the luxury of being wrong. Any decision impacting our ocean is permanent."

The administration’s new permitting process would allow companies to mine deep sea areas even outside the continental boundaries of the U.S., a position that will likely be opposed by other countries that are members of the International Seabed Authority, which has been working on rules for mining in international waters for many years.

Sabine Gollner, who is a marine biologist at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research told Eos in 2024 that once nodules are removed by mining, all the biodiversity and processes that depend on the minerals will be lost for millions of years.

Seabed mining is facing additional criticism after scientists discovered that the nodules at the bottom of the Pacific and Indian oceans are a source of oxygen.

An experiment on oxygen production by deep-sea nodules  |  Credit: The Nippon Foundation

It had been thought that sunlight and photosynthesis were required to produce oxygen on a large scale, but there’s no sunlight on the deep seabed, so how does it happen?

Scientists led by the Scottish Association for Marine Science propose that the so-called “dark oxygen” may be generated by the metals in the nodules that break down seawater into hydrogen and oxygen. The nodules have been measured to produce nearly a volt of power, a bit less than an AA battery. Now, the scientists have designed two crafts that will dive down to areas of the ocean where the pressure is about 1,200 times that on Earth’s surface. These so-called “landers” will help determine if the nodules interact with saltwater, causing electricity that then creates the “dark oxygen.”

The research could clarify how biological life occurs thousands of meters below the sea surface and challenge the view that oxygen production is linked to sunlight. New Scientist magazine points out that the research shows our knowledge of what’s going on at the bottom of the sea is still developing, and no mining should take place until we understand it better.

On January 7, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. unveiled the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025–2030. To “Make America Healthy Again (MAHA), he proclaimed, we must return to the basics and “eat real food.” 

The new food pyramid for the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025–2030 developed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr promotes consuming more meat and dairy.  |  Credit: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services/USDA

Eating real food means including fewer processed products and consuming less sugar, but the new guidelines also promote nearly doubling the amount of meat and dairy on our plates (than recommended by the National Academies’ Institute of Medicine) to increase protein uptake, flipping the iconic food pyramid upside down to be a high fat, high protein, low carbohydrate diet. The guidelines also promote cooking with beef tallow, butter, and lard, instead of plant-based oils despite decades of scientific evidence showing the health benefits of the latter. 

That advice is not only a hard pill to swallow for nutrition experts who say saturated fats from beef and full-fat dairy are linked to cardiovascular disease and some cancers but also environmental groups and climate scientists who say it’s not healthy for our planet. 

According to the World Resources Institute, an independent research organization, beef and lamb have high environmental footprints, requiring more land and generating more water pollution per ounce of protein than most alternatives. For example, producing one kilogram of beef protein requires 20 times more land than a kilogram of protein from chickpeas, beans, or lentils. 

The group warns that a surge in meat-eating by Americans could drive habitat and biodiversity loss through the conversion of forest lands into pastures. Ruminant animals like cows and sheep also emit a lot of the planet warming gas methane by belching. According to research from Stanford University, livestock production accounts for 14-18 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, including 32 percent of methane emissions worldwide.

Plant-based foods like beans, lentils, soy, nuts, and seeds—although great sources of protein and other important nutrients such as fiber and iron—were not emphasized in the new guidelines as much as beef, even though they’re typically more affordable. While many Americans will just ignore the guidelines, the new framework will have implications for federal nutrition and education programs as well as offerings at military and federal cafeterias.

Meanwhile, across the pond, a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) says the environmental impacts of meat consumption could be reduced by three to six percent if governments applied a full value added tax (VAT) on products such as beef, pork, and lamb, costing around 26 euros per year per household.

The federal government has invited all seven governors of the states in the Colorado River Basin back to Washington, DC, at the end of this month to attempt to reach an agreement on how to manage diminishing water supplies from the river. 

Bathtub rings on a rock face in Lake Powell where the water has dropped and left mineral deposits behind.  |  Credit: SBSC/Public domain

The Arizona Republic reports that the invitation comes from Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum after representatives of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and California met recently in Salt Lake City without coming to an understanding.

The states have been trying for more than two years to negotiate a plan to conserve enough water so that Lakes Powell and Mead—the two largest reservoirs in the U.S.—can continue to produce hydropower and supply downstream populations and farms in California, Nevada, Arizona, and Mexico.

About ten days ago, the Interior Department released a draft Environmental Impact Statement—1,600 pages in length—that discussed five alternative plans for dealing with scarcity affecting agriculture for the entire country and about 40 million people. Scott Cameron, acting commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, said in a press release that they expect any agreement among the seven states will incorporate parts or variations of the five alternatives for managing the river’s water.

As the negotiations continue, it is looking like the amount of water in the river is going to be far below normal for the second year in a row. Snowpack is at about 72 percent of normal for the Upper Colorado River Basin.

News about President Trump trying to take over Greenland might have you concerned that international cooperation is on thin ice. But thinning ice is, in fact, fostering cooperation elsewhere. On January 14, the first-ever Ice Memory Sanctuary was inaugurated in Antarctica. It will contain ice samples “rescued” from glaciers worldwide before they melt away, so they can become time capsules of bygone eras for future scientists to study. 

The Ice Memory Sanctuary was inaugurated on January 14, 2026 in an ice cave at Concordia Station in  the heart of the Antarctic Plateau.  |  Credit: R. Ascione-PNRA

Glacial ice stores atmospheres of the past, telling the story of particles of dust and minerals that were present at the time—information that, once lost, could never be recovered. The sanctuary is an ice cave around 115 feet long and sits nearly 20 feet below the surface where the cores will remain chilled at around -52°C/-61°F year round without need for refrigeration.

The initial ice cores for the sanctuary were extracted from Mont Blanc in France and Grand Combin in Switzerland and traveled by icebreaker and plane to Concordia Station, a remote Franco-Italian research base in Antarctica. Eventually, endangered ice cores from the Andes, Svalbard, the Alps, the Caucasus, and the Pamir Mountains in Tajikistan will call the sanctuary home. 

According to the World Meteorological Organization, since 1975, glaciers have lost more than 9,000 billion tonnes of ice—the equivalent of an ice block the size of Germany, 25 metres thick. Every year, 273 billion tonnes of ice are lost —an amount equal to 30 years of global human water consumption. This loss disrupts river flows, food production, and ecosystems. It threatens cultural heritage and, ultimately, human security. 

The Ice Memory Foundation, a consortium of European research institutes oversaw the development of the vault. Over the coming decade—designated as the UN Decade of Action for the Cryospheric Sciences—an international governance framework will be established to ensure that samples with their unique information remain accessible as a common lasting legacy for humanity. 

On January 17, the High Seas Treaty entered into force, meaning it will be legally binding for the 81 nations that have ratified it. Several major economies, such as China, Germany, Japan, France and Brazil, have ratified the treaty, but the U.S., UK, and India have only adopted the treaty and not yet ratified it, while Russia has neither adopted nor ratified the treaty.

Credit: Heidi Bruce/Unsplash

Officially known as the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement, the UN treaty covers ocean zones that lie beyond national waters and international seabed areas so they are managed sustainably for the benefit of all humanity.

The agreement was designed to address the so-called “triple planetary crisis” of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. It will allow for the designation of marine protected areas (MPAs) in the high seas and regulate the exploitation of marine genetic resources, which could be the sources for new biomedical breakthroughs. The agreement mandates that countries carry out assessments to determine if activities such as fishing or mining might harm marine environments in international waters.

The High Seas Treaty builds on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea—in effect the “constitution for the oceans,” which has set the rules for maritime and seabed exploitation and marine protection since it came into force in 1994.

Earth’s oceans are now the hottest they've ever been, not just at the surface, but down 2,000 meters below. According to a new study from a team of more than 50 scientists from around the globe, and led by Lijing Cheng at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, last year, the oceans absorbed more heat than in any year since measurements began in 1960.

A new study from a team of global scientists shows that Earth’s ocean is now the hottest it’s ever been.  |  Credit: Art Howard, Global Foundation for Ocean Exploration, NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2019 Southeastern U.S. Deep-sea Exploration

Oceans cover about 70 percent of Earth’s surface, influencing weather patterns by transferring heat and moisture into the atmosphere. The oceans absorb more than 90 percent of the excess heat in the atmosphere trapped by greenhouse gas emissions. Because of that, the oceans are an important indicator of climate change.

The increasing temperatures have regional variations that can be substantial. For example, part of the Northern Pacific Ocean has warmed very rapidly, while tropical areas have not, mostly due to the La Niña and El Niño cycle. Meanwhile, the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea are warming, and heat has been accumulating near both the North and South Poles.

Michael Mann of the University of Pennsylvania, one of the authors of the study, told Fast Company that, for each of the past nine years, ocean temperatures have set a new record, and that the heating of Earth won’t stop until we stop burning fossil fuels. Another author of the report, John Abrams of the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, told Wired, that last year was a bonkers, crazy warming year, joking that “bonkers” was a scientific term.

The study was published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences.

Last week was the first anniversary of the deadly fires in Los Angeles that erupted on January 7, 2025. Much sadness, frustration, and anger remain for residents about how the fires began, spread, and were fought. As many homeowners seek to rebuild, they’re looking for ways to reduce their risks, such as using flame resistant materials and sprinkler systems. 

The Palisades Fire erupted in Los Angeles, California, on 7 January 2025.  |  Credit: CAL FIRE

But one company asks, how about fighting fire with sound—no water required? That’s the premise of “infrasound fire suppression” technology by Sonic Fire Tech, a California company that uses acoustic waves to douse flames—no chemicals, suppressants, water, or power needed, which is important given many water systems and electric grids go offline during wildfire events. “It sounds like magic, but it’s just physics,” says the company in a promotional video in which a tree is set on fire and a man wearing a backpack with the system installed puts it out in seconds.

For a fire to exist, it takes three things: heat, fuel, and oxygen. Their “Sonic Home Defense” system emits powerful low-frequency sound waves that disrupt that combustion triangle, by vibrating the oxygen faster than the fuel can use it. To protect a structure, the company places an acoustic generator box on the premises. It will create sound waves that will travel through a duct system with sensors and emitters installed along the eaves of a home. The emitters turn on to release a cone of acoustic energy when a flame is detected nearby. 

There has been high interest from homeowners—who can afford it—as the system is not cheap, costing roughly two percent of a home’s value. There has also been interest from California utilities such as PG&E and Southern California Edison, which have contracts for demonstration projects, as well as from the state’s insurance commissioner, Ricardo Lara, according to the Orange County Register. 

The idea of using acoustic waves to fight fires is not new and is based on research, including studies conducted by NASA, but it’s timely, as water resources become scarcer. The company says the sound wave technology, which is not harmful to pets, would work best when paired with traditional strategies such as fire-resistant materials and maintaining defensible space around a home. 

What do humans and jellyfish have in common? We both sleep for around eight hours a day. Jellyfish don’t have brains or a spinal cord, but they do have a nervous system—or more specifically a decentralized nerve net so, when they get tired, just like us, they need to catch some Zs to keep their neurons healthy. That’s according to a new study from Bar-Ilan University in Israel.

The upside-down jellyfish (Cassiopea andromeda) in its natural habit in Eilat, Israel  |  Credit: Gil Koplovitch

While sleep is beneficial to animals, it’s also risky, leaving them vulnerable to predators and cutting into time otherwise spent foraging, mating, or caring for offspring. So why do it? Scientists long ago determined that sleep serves a biological function, since evolution has preserved it across all animals, so the researchers looked at two of the earliest animals with nervous systems, the upside-down jellyfish (Cassiopea andromeda) and the starlet sea anemone (Nematostella vectensis) to dig deeper.

They concluded that one of sleep’s core functions is to protect neurons from DNA damage and cellular stress, a function that began hundreds of millions of years ago before complex brains evolved. DNA damage increases the need for sleep, and sleep enables repair. 

The findings have broad implications for human health. Sleep is important not only for learning, memory, and clearing waste from brain cells but also for maintaining the health of nerve cells themselves. Sleep disorders are associated with cognitive decline and an increased risk of neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, conditions linked to DNA damage in nerve cells.

The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.

It may no longer be hurricane season, but the conditions that can lead to very strong typhoons and storms are heating up in the North Atlantic and Western Pacific Oceans, making it possible that a powerful “Category 6” hurricane could hit heavily populated areas. 

Typhoon Haiyan shortly before maximum intensity while approaching the Philippines on November 7, 2013  |  Credit: NASA/NOAA

Most weather agencies don’t recognize Category 6 and use Category 5 for a storm that exceeds 157 mph. Scientists have argued that there should be a higher category for storms that have sustained winds above 192 mph.

According to new research from National Taiwan University, most of the strongest Category 6 tropical cyclones have occurred in hot spots that are expanding. Climate change caused by humans could be responsible for as much as 70 percent of the expansion of the areas of stronger storms driven by warmer water that can reach well below the surface. When warmer waters occur in what would have been cooler subsurface areas, cyclones and hurricanes don’t have as much a chance to ratchet down. 

The study says that the largest hot spots are east of the Philippines in the Pacific and in the Atlantic around Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Florida.  

Now, an ode to clouds. These collections of water and ice float above us, and on any given day we barely give them much thought. Yet, they have a weighty influence on making Earth a habitable place, providing us with fresh water, shading us from the sun, and regulating global climate.

Satellite observations show a band of tropical clouds has narrowed over two decades, allowing more sunlight to hit Earth.  |  Credit: NOAA 

New research suggests we might want to give clouds their due. In a paper presented at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union last month, George Tselioudis, a climate scientist at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said that the world’s reflective cloud cover has shrunk in the past two decades by a small but tangible degree, allowing more light in and boosting global warming. 

In his research based on 35 years of satellite data, Tselioudis found that subtropical zones, where fewer clouds occur, have expanded. This is worrisome because in these areas close to the equator, it will allow more solar energy to hit the earth’s surface year round. In contrast, Earth’s cloudiest zones over the oceans, which typically cool the planet, have shifted toward the poles and shrunk, allowing more of the sun’s energy to reach and warm the seas. 

Because of increased human-caused greenhouse gases, Earth has a growing energy imbalance where the planet is absorbing more solar radiation than it reflects back into space. These new findings suggest that the loss of reflective oceanic storm clouds is a significant driver of that imbalance. Climate scientists like Tselioudis will next investigate whether increased greenhouse gases have caused cloud coverage to change and if we should expect the trend to continue. One possibility, long predicted by climate models, is that different rates of warming in the Arctic compared to the equator in recent decades may be the cause.

We think of evolution as a slow, lumbering process of changes in heritable traits across generations—but don’t tell that to a group of sparrows living on the UCLA campus in Southern California.

Dark-eyed juncos are a member of the sparrow family. Birds that have moved into urban areas have evolved to have shorter bills.  | Credit: Alex Fu/UCLA

A new study has found that offspring of medium-sized sparrows called dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis) developed longer bills during the COVID-19 pandemic when lockdowns were imposed. Juncos have historically lived in mountain forests near Southern California, but because of climate change and habitat loss many birds moved into urban areas such as around UCLA in the early 2000s. Juncos in the wild have long bills to help them dig and forage for bugs and seeds, but the urban birds developed short, stubby beaks because that’s all they needed to pick up food scraps, crumbs, and other morsels left by people. 

How quickly could they evolve their anatomy? Now, we know. Researcher co-authors Eleanor Diamant and Pamela Yeh at UCLA found that when everyone went into lockdown during the pandemic, the easy snacks left by students and staff disappeared, so the urban birds were forced to forage in shrubbery and grasses like their cousins in the mountains do.

In an example of the survival of the fittest, the juncos that still had slightly longer bills got more bugs and seeds and were able to survive and have babies. The team says that during the nearly two years (in 2021 and 2022) of reduced human activity during COVID—an “anthropause” as researchers call it—juncos were born with longer beaks. Remarkably, that adaptation didn’t last. Once campus life returned to normal, the bills in youngsters born in 2023 and 2024 had returned to the previous shorter shape, underscoring the immediate effect that humans can have on wildlife. 

Given that an estimated three billion birds have vanished over the past 50 years—of which about 168 million are juncos—this evolutionary versatility offers hope for their survival.

The study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

If you’re in the market to buy a new home, you probably want to find one that is safe from weather and climate change related threats like floods, wildfires, or high winds. That might be harder now because one of the nation’s largest real estate listing websites has removed data about the risk of extreme events to a property.

Zillow is removing weather and climate risk scores, such as for flooding and wildfires from its website.  |  Public domain

Zillow has started the trend to remove risk scores, and other similar websites are being pressured by the real estate industry to follow. According to a recent report for the real estate industry, almost 45 percent of homes in the U.S. are at severe or extreme risk of at least one type of climate or weather event such as flooding, winds, wildfires, heat, or hazardous air quality. Zillow had used data from the risk-modeling firm First Street. 

However, real estate agents said that those scores hurt sales, and home sellers also objected, saying there was no way to challenge the rating, according to the New York Times. The California Regional Multiple Listing Service, which has a large data base of homes for sale in the country, pressured Zillow, which is funded by real estate brokers and agents. The real estate industry is concerned that predictions of risk have ended up being very wrong about flooding in California. A statement sent to the Times by a Zillow spokesperson said that it is committed to giving consumers helpful information and now provides hyperlinks to the First Street website.

CNN reported that First Street’s risk models are secret and that they sell data to banks, corporations, and real estate companies. An expert at an outside firm told the news organization that risk modeling at an individual property level can have wide-ranging variations. Other companies in the climate risk industry also keep their models secret.

This holiday season, many people will have Christmas trees decorated or flocked to appear golden. But what if you could have a tree already laden with the precious metal? That tree exists, but you’d need a microscope to see the gold—and you’d have to travel to Lapland, Finland.

Gold nanoparticles in spruce trees cannot be seen with the naked eye or collected. Biomineralisation process is still not fully understood, and its study can help develop mineral exploration and water purification. |  Credit: Volodymyr Fedorychak/Unsplash

Researchers in Finland have found that Norway spruce trees (Picea abies) growing over gold deposits have gold nanoparticles in their needles. The team from the University of Oulu and the Geological Survey of Finland say that if gold is in soil, it’s likely in a liquid form. The trees were found to take up water infused with the gold through their roots and move it to their needles, where bacteria and microbes convert it back into solid, nanosized particles. 

Spruce aren’t the only gold-digging trees. Several years ago, the metal was found in the leaves of Eucalyptus trees. The process is called biomineralization and it’s where minerals, like gold, accumulate and solidify inside plant tissues as part of its defense mechanisms. 

In the Finland study, only four of 23 Norway spruce trees had the nanoparticles in their needles, which might indicate that roots were tapping into different water sources. For that reason, the team says the trees could offer a bio-based and environmentally friendly way to explore for minerals.

The study was published in the journal Environmental Microbiome.

Most of us want to live sustainably during our time on Earth, but how about after we die? Can we continue our environmental practices once we’re gone? 

Credit: Loop Biotech

The Loop Biotech company has got you covered, offering the world’s first mushroom coffin. The caskets are biodegradable and made from local fungi and upcycled hemp fibers. They fully decompose in just 45 days.

The coffins degrade because they rely on mycelium, the root network of mushrooms—nature’s most powerful recycler. The company offers caskets that can be buried or sit on a forest floor. They also offer urns for ashes, including ones for pets called Loop FurEver™ that can be decorated with organic paint to add a personal and loving touch. The Loop Biotech coffins are lined with moss and have jute handles so they can be carried to their final resting place.

That’s a stark contrast to traditional coffins that take decades to degrade. Many funeral homes offer caskets treated with lacquers or varnishes and contain pillows and mattresses. The box is then sealed with metal hardware. Several studies have found these coffins pollute soils and groundwater. 

Instead of those “dead” materials, the Loop company says mushroom caskets enrich the soil by releasing nutrients from our loved ones into the ground, which allows new life to flourish.

Sustainable end-of-life options are gaining popularity according to the ​Green Burial Council as an affordable, eco-friendly alternative to traditional funerals. One survey found that 84 percent of respondents said they would consider a green burial if it were offered to them. So, Loop Biotech asks—will you be waste or compost? They hope you’ll choose the latter and make your final act your greatest.

When the COP30 climate summit ended about ten days ago, there was a lot of frustration for many of the delegates over not reaching an agreement calling for a plan to end the burning fossil fuels heating up the planet. 

Credit: Cristhian Varela/Creative Commons

The chair of the European Parliament’s delegation to COP30 said that efforts to approve a real mitigation and phase-out of global warming fuels were stymied by a united BRICS-Arab front. The BRICS is an organization of 11 states that include Brazil, Russia, India, and China.

At the end of COP30, Irene Vélez Torres, the Minister in Charge of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia said that the conference could not end without a clear, just, and equitable roadmap for the global phaseout of fossil fuels. Delegates from more than 80 countries had hoped for that roadmap at the summit.

The frustration felt by countries that wanted such an agreement has led to a new course of action. The governments of Colombia and the Netherlands have announced that they will co-host the First International Conference on the Just Transition Away from Fossil Fuels in April 2026. Next year’s meeting will be held in Santa Marta, Colombia, a major port for coal exports. In 2023, Colombia’s largest exports were petroleum and coal. The country’s government said that hosting the event there will show that fossil-fuel-producing nations are willing to transition away from them, but it must be a fair process. 

Sophie Hermans, Deputy Prime Minister for Climate Policy in the Netherlands, said that recent history shows countries can transition away from fossil fuels responsibly and there is clear momentum toward that end. The Netherlands aims to eliminate coal-fired power by 2029. 

The new conference is intended to complement the UN’s COP process and hopes to attract governmental leaders, Indigenous Peoples, industry, and academia.

Data centers are putting stress on water and energy supplies to power and cool banks of computers, many of which are fueling the growth of AI. 

KAUST researchers propose an unconventional solution to maintain the ultra-low temperatures required by quantum computers: hosting quantum processors on stratospheric airships flying at around 20 kilometers, where temperatures can fall to –50°C.  |  Credit: 2025 KAUST

There are new chips on the block so to speak, called qubits, which facilitate the evolving world of quantum computing. They’re different from the chips we currently use in classic computers that store and process data in zeros or ones. Qubits can exist in both states at once, enabling quantum devices to solve complex problems faster and more efficiently. 

However, qubits require extremely low temperatures and lots of energy to run cryogenic cooling systems, so where on Earth could these data centers be located? Above the Earth, say researchers from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia (KAUST). The team is conceptualizing flying data centers that operate in the stratosphere.

The helium-filled blimps, or Quantum Computing-Enabled High-Altitude Platforms (QC-HAPs), could take some of the load off their earthbound counterparts by using solar energy to run servers and residing in temperatures qubits like around -58 °F. The airships would communicate with quantum data centers (QDCs) on the ground via light waves, a technique known as free-space optical communication. They could also migrate to locations in the Northern Hemisphere in June and Southern Hemisphere in December to optimize solar radiation and the daylight duration.

The team says the blimps could save up to 14 percent of energy requirements of terrestrial data centers and reduce their carbon footprint, given that many operate on fossil fuels.

The cart may be before the proverbial horse, as quantum computing still needs significant advancement. Also, there are numerous challenges to overcome, such as the qubit payload possible, maintenance, and the economics of operating nearly 12 miles above the ground—problems, the researchers say, might be solved by, you guessed it, AI. 

The study was published in the journal npj Wireless Technology. 

Did you have a cherry pie at your Thanksgiving meal? If so, thank a kestrel. The American kestrel is the smallest falcon in the U.S., and as birds of prey, they scour the ground for insects, mice—and fruit-eating birds. According to previous research from Michigan State University, kestrels help cherry growers by scaring away robins and other birds, like cedar waxwings that feast on the fruit.

American kestrel (Falco sparverius cinnamominus) juvenile male  |  Credit: Charles J. Sharp/Creative Commons

Now, new research from the team says kestrels provide another benefit—food safety. That’s because fruit-eating birds defecate. The mess they leave behind could contain pathogens that would make people sick.

In their initial research, the team had installed nest boxes near sweet cherry orchards in northern Michigan and found that when kestrels—which rely on tree cavities to raise their chicks—quickly moved in, robins, grackles, and starlings moved out. By intimidating the hungry visitors, kestrels naturally reduced the likelihood of cherry damage more than tenfold—and reduced droppings that could contain pathogens by three-fold.

The kestrels gained more than room and board in the studies. The birds are listed as a species of conservation concern. Their numbers are declining from climate change-related habitat loss affecting their migration routes. So, when growers deploy kestrels to protect their orchards, the cherry on top is that the orchards, in turn, are protecting the birds. 

The study was published in the Journal of Applied Ecology.

As the climate summit was taking place in Brazil last week, the Trump administration announced it would proceed with oil and gas leases covering immense areas off the coasts of Alaska, California, Florida, and in the Gulf of Mexico. The program is not yet final and must be reviewed further.

Offshore oil rigs in Southern California. The Trump administration wants to open the coasts of California, Florida, and Alaska to drilling.  |  Credit: Aerial Photography by Drew Bird Photography

The Natural Resources Defense Council said in a statement that the leases would open untouched Alaskan waters to drilling and revive the offshore oil and gas industry in California. The plan, according to NRDC, would damage the places and people not only in those areas but also off Florida and in the Gulf of Mexico, where drilling has not been allowed since 1995 over worries about spills. In California, there are currently some rigs but no new ones since the 1980s.

While blocking renewable energy from wind and solar, the Trump administration has pursued what it calls a policy of “energy dominance.” Additionally, about ten days ago, the administration said it would rescind federal rules that protect large regions of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska that are critical habitat for wildlife, including grizzly bears, migrating birds, and caribou. The Biden administration had restricted oil and gas development in the reserve, which is the largest single area of public land in the U.S.

The demand for oil in the U.S. is predicted to climb in 2025 to a level not seen in 18 years. The online publication Energy Now reports that the Trump administration is not solely to blame for this increase, which can be attributed to President Biden, Trump in his first term, and President Obama, when a wave of petrochemical plants started making many products including plastics and synthetic fibers. Still, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, gasoline for vehicles is the most consumed petroleum product in the country.

Climate change is affecting food security for people worldwide by driving extreme weather, droughts, and floods, as well as contributing to the decline of pollinators. But a new study says that—even if you have enough to eat—your food may be less nutritious because of global warming.

Credit: David Gardiner / Unsplash

Researchers at Leiden University in the Netherlands say increased carbon in the atmosphere is lowering the amount of nutrients in crops—but making them higher in calories, as CO2 boosts photosynthesis. 

People may feel full after eating, but they could be taking in less zinc, iron, and proteins, contributing to so-called “hidden hunger,” where people have sufficient calories but insufficient nutrition. Because the number of calories is increasing, climate change may also be contributing to obesity. Concentrations of harmful substances such as lead may also be increasing, although more data are needed, the researchers say.

The researchers analyzed and compared crop data from numerous studies and found that as CO2 levels doubled, so too did the effect on nutrients, with some decreasing by 4.4 percent on average and others as much by 38 percent. The team focused on 43 crops, including rice, potatoes, tomatoes, and wheat. Rice is the primary staple for over half of the world's population, and another 2.5 billion people depend on wheat.

According to the researchers, the study shows our diet is already less nutritious than a few decades ago when CO2 levels were at 350 parts per million (ppm). The team evaluated what could happen at 550 ppm—a level we can expect to reach in our lifetimes. The authors conclude that even if food security can be assured, nutrient security is not a given.

The research was published in the journal Global Change Biology.

In a typical TV crime drama, a corpse has been discovered dumped in a remote field. A sharp-eyed investigator arrives on the scene and, bingo, determines how long the person’s been dead. 

PhD student Alexa Figueroa holds a mixture of decomposing material and maggots obtained from the deceased black bear carcass, which was found by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and given to the Musah lab for research. |. Credit: LSU

“Reality is messier” says Rabi Musah, a professor in environmental chemistry at Louisiana State University. Critical clues about the deceased can be quickly erased by scavengers, humidity, and bacteria. But there are fingerprints at the scene if you know where to look—fingerprints left by flies—necrophagous insects that are nature’s first responders to death. 

Blow flies, specifically, can smell decay from nearly two kilometers away, and arrive within minutes to lay eggs. The larvae—also known as maggots—grow, pupate, and take off, but not without leaving behind tough, brown casings that linger for years. In the growing field of "forensic entomology" those casings can help determine the “post-mortem interval”—the time since the person’s passing—and mystery solved. 

Not quite. The problem is that there are a variety of blow fly species each with different life cycle rates, so you need to first identify the fly to make the forensics work. Musah and her team are doing just that. They’re building a database of chemical fingerprints for various species and their life stages.

All that detectives would need to do is drop an insect sample into a vial of ethanol and water, send it off for a two-minute analysis, and look for a match in Musah’s database. It’s akin to dusting for fingerprints. The tool can not only help with solving the time of a person’s death—it might also reveal if they died of an overdose or were poisoned. Musah says if you can retrieve maggots from remains, you can analyze them for traces of chemicals the person may have ingested. 

So, perhaps a new TV series is in the offing? CSI: Crime Scene Insects.

The study was published in the journal Forensic Chemistry.

Despite years of negotiating, the seven states that rely on water from the Colorado River have not reached an agreement on how to divide up the river in times of shortages caused by severe drought and climate change. The federal government had imposed a November 11 deadline. It manages the reservoirs on the river including Lake Powell and Lake Mead, and the current framework will expire next year.

The Colorado River near Grand Junction, Colorado. The Colorado River Basin provides water for more than 40 million people in seven states and nearly 5.5 million acres of farmland across the western U.S. and Mexico. | Credit: USGS

Because the Lower Basin states of Arizona, California, and Nevada, and the Upper Basin states of Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, and Colorado cannot agree, it is likely that the federal government, through the Bureau of Reclamation, will impose a plan that could mandate water cuts. Any plan from the bureau will have to go through a public comment period and an environmental review process. Thirty tribal governments are entitled to about one-quarter of the water in the river and must be involved in coming to an agreement.

As the deadline passed, there were two differing views leading to disagreement between the basins. Becky Mitchell representing Colorado, one of the four Upper Basin states, said at a conference that they would resist any cutback in their water allocation. On the other side, Arizona governor Katie Hobbs wrote in a letter to the Interior Department that it must impose cuts on the Upper Basin states. Mitchell said that she is still optimistic that the seven states could reach a consensus.

There’s some new buzz about beavers. Past research has shown that their dams can help create habitat for fish and store groundwater, but a new study says the critters can help boost pollinators.

A species of hoverfly (Sphaerophoria scripta). New research found that the pollinators can thrive in wetlands created by beavers. |  Credit: Michael Palmer/Creative Commons

A team from the University of Stirling in Scotland studied wetlands made by beavers and found they had a higher number of hoverflies and butterflies when compared to human-built ponds. Pollinator populations are plummeting worldwide from habitat loss, climate change, and pesticides, so the finding that beavers—nature's foremost ecological engineers—can build supportive environments for insects is welcome news.

The increase in hoverflies is particularly important because, according to the Wildlife Trusts in the UK, they are the unsung heroes of many ecosystems as the second most significant pollinator after bees, with some species visiting more flowers than bees. Hoverflies also protect plants from aphids, are food for birds, and even help break down organic matter in gardens. 

Beavers create habitat for hoverflies and other insects by randomly felling trees and grazing on herbaceous vegetation. Eager beavers boost biodiversity by continuously modifying both aquatic and terrestrial environments to keep soils moist, which provides ideal breeding conditions for insects. The authors say beaver wetlands can now be seen as a valuable and scalable tool to help reverse the decline of pollinators.

The study was published in the Journal of Applied Ecology. 

The shutdown has ended and air travel is slowly returning to normal, but there is a vexing problem that won’t go away—the amount of greenhouse gases that planes emit. Aviation contributes about 2.5 percent of total global carbon emissions, and air travel is expected to double by 2040. 

Credit: Freepik

A solution may be ready to take off. Researchers at the Harvard-China Project on Energy, Economy, and Environment and Tsinghua University in China say planes could soon run on garbage. They found that our trash—from food and plastics to paper and metals—can be converted into a sustainable aviation fuel that emits less carbon. Sustainable aviation fuels, which are currently derived from cooking oils or crops, have been slow to get off the ground, making up less than one percent of global jet fuels because of high production costs and low supply.

The team studied converting solid waste into jet fuel through gasification and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and say the potential is sky high. They found, in a lifecycle analysis, that the fuel could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80-90 percent compared with conventional jet fuel. This waste-based fuel would help reduce methane emissions and decrease water and air pollution by sending less garbage to landfills. Sustainable aviation fuel could also help cities move toward zero-waste goals.

The study examined how municipal solid waste could be converted into sustainable aviation fuel under several scenarios and found, in the most practical case, global municipal solid waste could yield around 50 million tons and cut aviation’s greenhouse gas emissions by around 16 percent. If green hydrogen were integrated into the process, it could supply up to 28 percent of global jet fuel demand and reduce emissions by as much as 270 million tons of carbon dioxide annually.

The main headwind would be scaling up gasification systems worldwide, and that would require investment and coordination by governments, airlines, fuel producers, and aircraft manufacturers to develop policies around waste collections and sorting, as well as the siting of gasification plants. However, the waste-based, low-carbon fuel can work in today’s engines, so cutting emissions can start immediately for an on-time departure.

The study was published in Nature Sustainability.

Almost 15 years ago, a study showed that the heart rates of two lovers would synchronize while they were sitting quietly together in a room or across a table.  When partners were switched so one of the pairs was a stranger, their hearts were not in step. Now, a new study shows that lovers aren’t the only ones whose heartbeats align.

People need to collaborate effectively when hunting together. Researchers at the University of Konstanz have discovered that this cooperation also affects their heart rates. The study observed a special group of fishers that hunt along with dolphins in Brazil.  |  Credit: University of Konstanz

Scientists from the University of Konstanz in Germany showed that heart rates can sync up among people fishing together. The scientists studied a group of fishers in Brazil who collaborate with dolphins. Standing in a line near the shore with nets ready, the people wait to throw out their nets until the dolphins drive the fish toward them. The dolphins dive, and then the fishers toss their nets.

The people must coordinate with each other to respond to the dolphins at just the right moment. The study found that when the fishers were close together, and were working longer with each other, their heart rates were highly synchronous, and that correlation was stronger, especially when they were watching and waiting together. If a fisher acted alone and threw out a net without the others, the synchronization decreased. The authors said that when people work closely together, their bodily rhythms as well as their movements and decisions match; in other words, cooperation is more than skin deep.

Interestingly, the researchers said that the humans’ closeness or interactions with the dolphins had no effect on the fishers. And surprisingly, when the fishers’ heart rates were in sync, they caught fewer fish. The researchers say the explanation could be that a high level of synchronization, including excitement and tension reduces the flexibility required for the group to succeed.

The study was published in Biology Letters.

During Halloween last Friday, some party decorations might have featured cartoon vultures sitting in trees poised to strike. For many ranchers around the country, vultures are no joke—black vultures (Cathartes aura)— specifically. The birds are showing up in new areas due to climate change and attacking livestock, especially defenseless calves shortly after birth.

Black vulture (Coragyps atratus)  |  Credit: Rangerbob13/Creative Commons

Prior to the 1990s, the birds were mostly found from the U.S. Southeast to South America. Now, they’ve expanded their range into the Midwest, Appalachia, and up the East Coast into Canada, as winters get warmer. Ranchers who’ve never had to contend with vultures are trying to respond with everything from scarecrows to noise making devices or motion-activated sprinklers. 

In Derry Township, Pennsylvania, where vulture numbers are soaring, a national research study between the USDA and Penn State is launching to investigate methods to manage the birds effectively and humanely. 

Black vultures are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, so if farmers want to kill a bird threatening their livestock, they would need to get a permit, which could be too late to save vulnerable animals. Earlier this year, the Black Vulture Relief Act was introduced in Congress that would remove the permit requirement to take out vultures, but ranchers would have to inform the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of their actions so they can monitor the populations.

Andrew Farnsworth, with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology told the Associated Press that making it easier to kill black vultures may not be a good idea because the birds fill “a super important role” in cleaning up “dead stuff.” According to the National Audubon Society, carcasses not scavenged by vultures decompose slowly and attract carnivores such as coyotes. Increases in populations of other scavengers may pose a greater threat to livestock than the birds. 

Also, black vultures may not be the actual killers but rather show up at the scene of the crime after the fact. Marian Wahl, a graduate student at Purdue University, who in 2021 coordinated a research program to gauge the scale of the problem, said the vultures “do a good job of making themselves look guilty.”

Scientists might have solved a puzzle called “Peto’s Paradox.” It questions why some large animals don’t get cancer even though they have zillions of cells that could mutate to cause disease. One possible answer came from researchers at the University of Rochester studying bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus), which can live over 200 years and grow to be over 62 feet long. 

Bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus)  |  Credit: Vicki Beaver, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, NOAA 

Human and animal DNA get damaged over time, which accelerates aging by impairing cell function and increasing the risk of developing diseases like cancer. However, the researchers discovered a cold-activated protein in bowhead whales that helps repair broken DNA. 

The protein is called CIRBP, and it plays a key role in repairing double-strand breaks in DNA, a type of genetic damage that can cause disease and shorten lifespan in a variety of species, including humans. Although humans have some, bowhead whales have CIRBP in spades.

The team tested adding bowhead CIRBP to human cell cultures and fruit fly cells. In both cases, DNA repair improved, and, in fruit flies, it extended their lifespan. However, the whales live in icy waters, which seems to trigger cells to make more CIRBP protein. The researchers don’t know the exact temperature or level of cold exposure that would be required to ramp up protein production in humans but speculate that things like taking cold showers might help.

Although bowhead whales are vital to humans and their ecosystem, they are threatened by loss of food sources, climate change, vessel strikes, entanglement in fishing gear, ocean noise, offshore oil and gas development, pollution, and predation.

The study was published in the journal Nature. 

Cooks can make all sorts of dishes using shiitake mushrooms, from soups to risotto to stir fry. Now, instead of using fungi in recipes, researchers at The Ohio State University have discovered a way to have them as ingredients in computers.

Fungal memristors could be ideal interfaces for high-frequency bioelectronics, researchers say.  |  Credit: John LaRocco/The Ohio State University

The scientists say that fungi can be cultivated and trained to act as “memristors,” which mimic the functions of semiconductor chips. Memristors remember past electrical states and are integral to data processing. The researchers cultured samples of shiitake and button mushrooms, and after they were mature and dehydrated, they were connected to special electronic circuits and then electrified at various voltages and frequencies. 

John LaRocco, the lead author, said in a release that the fungi can imitate actual neural activity, which means there is no need for a lot of standby power when the machine is not being used—something that’s a huge economic and computational advantage, and friendly to the environment.

Conventional memristors require costly rare-earth minerals and significant energy to produce, but these alternative organic options are more sustainable. Qudsia Tahmina, one of the co-researchers, said that it is surprisingly easy to program and preserve the mushrooms to behave in useful ways, and they are an example of how technology can advance when it relies on the natural world.

The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE.

West Nile virus wasn’t common in Utah before 2003, but infections are starting to rise, according to a new study by Utah State University. The disease is transmitted by infected mosquitoes—in this case the southern house mosquito, Culex quinquefasciatus, also known as “quinx.” Populations of quinx are expanding into areas of Utah not seen before because of human development and climate change, which are creating favorable conditions for the insects to thrive, the researchers say.

The female mosquito (Culiseta annulata) that Björn Hjaltason found on October 18 in Iceland. |  Credit: Björn Hjaltason 

That research doesn’t surprise Björn Hjaltason. He found three mosquitoes in his garden—in Iceland—the last place you’d expect to find mosquitoes. Hjaltason told the Iceland Monitor news site that he brought the specimens, two females and one male, to the Icelandic Institute of Natural History, which confirmed they were Culiseta annulata—a species found in Europe and North Africa. He suspects the insects came aboard a container ship from a nearby port city.

As climate change accelerates and causes increased droughts, heatwaves, floods, and rainfall, conditions for mosquitoes to breed and spread viruses are expanding into new areas at higher latitudes and altitudes. The Arctic and Antarctic were places—up until now—where one could expect to avoid mosquito bites. Time will tell if the insects are able to gain a foothold and survive the winter as rising temperatures take the ice out of Iceland.

Parents often turn to baby food to help infants get adequate nutrition early in life, but research out this week shows that a different set of youngsters could benefit too—corals.

Sterols, which are key to coral larvae survival, swimming capacity, and thermal tolerance, are in "baby food" developed by researchers at University of Technology Sydney.  |  Credit: at University of Technology Sydney | Credit: University of Technology Sydney/Communications Biology 

Scientists at University of Technology Sydney discovered that feeding coral larvae lipid supplements, including omega-3-rich oils and essential sterols, made it more likely they will survive and settle on reefs. 

Coral reefs are threatened worldwide by warming oceans, and there are countless efforts to restore them, but it’s been challenging to help young larvae succeed. Fewer than one percent of them typically make it past their first year. 

Of course, nutritional supplements alone won’t save coral reefs—action on climate change is crucial, but providing nutrition could give larvae a head start, supplying them with energy they need to swim and essential fats to help them grow and cope with stress. 

The team is taking their findings from the lab to the Great Barrier Reef, where they will directly feed coral spawn collected in the area. The work will be carried out in partnership with local Indigenous communities and other stakeholders to support not only the next generation of corals but also the next generation of reef stewards.

The study was published in Communications Biology.

Since the 1950s, there have been intense efforts to save green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) from extinction, including the use of devices that prevent them from getting caught in fishing nets, laws like the Endangered Species Act in the U.S., and international treaties. Also, conservationists have protected nesting females and their eggs. 

Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas)  |  Credit: Laszlo Ilyes/Creative Commons

Now, those efforts appear to have worked. Sea turtle numbers have increased around the globe by nearly 30 percent since the 1970s, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Last week, they announced that the turtles have been reclassified from “endangered” to “least concern.”

The population of the animals had plunged because, in addition to being trapped by fishing gear, they were used to make soup and their eggs for decorations. Bryan Wallace of the University of Colorado Boulder, leader of the recent assessment, told NPR that the turtles were once so abundant that sailors on Christopher Columbus’s voyages could navigate around land at night by the sound of the turtles’ breathing and their hard shells hitting the boats.

That level of abundance has not been reached, as the number of sea turtles is still significantly depleted compared to the pre-colonization era. There are worries about some turtle populations in the Indian and Pacific Oceans and lower nesting numbers in places like Costa Rica. However, the rebound of the sea turtles is cause for celebration and continuing other conservation efforts.

Renewable energy is soaring around the globe, but one obstacle to its growth has been how to store the electricity to use it when the sun isn’t shining or the wind’s not blowing. The solution to that problem may be blowing in the wind—in the air we breathe.

Credit: Highview Power

“Liquefied air” to be exact. It’s air that has been cooled to the point it liquefies and can be stored in a tank, acting like a battery. When electricity is needed, the air is heated and expands to drive turbines that generate power. It’s super-efficient because liquifying the air generates heat. This heat can then be used to help restore the liquid to a gas.

The liquid air energy storage (LEAS) technology was first developed in the 1970s but wasn’t put into use because it’s expensive. The growth of renewables means it could now be cost effective—and a faster way to get off fossil fuels. To that point, the BBC reports, the world's first commercial-scale liquid air energy storage facility is being built in Manchester, England. Its developer, Highview Power, expects the system to come online in 2027 and have the capacity to store enough electricity from renewables to power nearly half a million homes.

If it catches on, it could be a game changer for the storage aspect of the renewable energy paradigm. Currently, electrical grids rely on pumped hydro and lithium batteries for storage, but those have drawbacks. Pumped hydro relies on water and only works in certain locations. Lithium mining has environmental impacts, and the batteries last only around ten years. In contrast, liquid air storage facilities use above-ground tanks, which can be situated practically anywhere, and they store energy for longer. The best part, the process runs on air—an abundant natural resource. 

Did you know that billiard balls once helped to save elephants?

Hyatt Billiard Balls from the Albany Billiard Ball Company  |  Credit: Albany Institute of History and Art

Back in the 1800s, playing pool was a popular pastime, and billiard balls were made from ivory, which made for an ideal weight, roll, and rebound. Unfortunately, a single elephant tusk yielded only four or five balls, putting the animals at risk. So, in 1864, Scientific American announced a competition by a billiard-table manufacturer, offering $10,000 to anyone who could come up with a better ball. Also, according to the Albany Institute of History and Art, ivory aged and dried, causing the balls to crack and become misshapen.

As a recent edition of Scientific American explains, a New Yorker named John Wesley Hyatt won the contest with a solution made from celluloid—a moldable material made from cellulose, together with camphor and ground-up cow bones—the first plastic.

Instead of accepting the cash prize and calling it a day, Hyatt patented his invention and started his own company, which celebrated his billiard balls in advertisements as a conservation success story that offered an affordable substitute for wood, shell, and bone—and assured the survival of endangered animals.

The rest is history as they say. In 2023, conservation scientist Artur Neves called Hyatt’s invention the “founding object of the plastics industry.” Hyatt’s plastic, once lauded as a model of sustainability, has become unsustainable, and has led to our current microplastics problem, which not only threatens wildlife in our oceans but also human health—putting us behind the proverbial eight ball.

While the UN was discussing climate change at the General Assembly, a new report showed that seven out of nine critical limits for Earth’s health have now been passed.

Bleached staghorn coral in the Great Barrier Reef  |  Credit: Matt Kieffer/Creative Commons

The Planetary Boundaries Science Lab at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research revealed that last year, ocean acidification had breached a boundary for the first time. The increasing acidity of the ocean is caused by the absorption of excess CO2 from the atmosphere, which they said was driven mainly by burning fossil fuels made worse by deforestation. 

Acidification makes it harder for organisms like oysters and corals to build their shells or skeletons, disrupting marine ecosystems and potentially affecting food security and coastal protection. Corals, both in cold water and in the tropics are at risk, as are Arctic environments. 

Currently, the institute says there are only two planetary boundaries that are within safe limits—air pollutants and the ozone layer in the stratosphere—successes they attribute to international action on aerosol emissions, although parts of the world, such as South and East Asia, and parts of Africa and Latin America, are still experiencing dangerous particulate pollution.

The other boundaries that have been breached are climate shifts in temperature and weather patterns, changes in land systems like deforestation, freshwater use, biosphere functioning and resilience, biogeochemical flows such as water or nitrogen cycles, and novel entities like chemicals and microplastics.

Heat waves are becoming more frequent and intense across the U.S., so perhaps this summer you took a dip in a river to cool off. However, according to new research it might not have been as refreshing as it once was. 

Credit: Dillon Groves/Unsplash

A new study from Penn State found that heat waves are happening in rivers too, and they’re accelerating faster than and lasting nearly twice as long as the heat waves in the air. It’s a surprising finding, given that many rivers are fed by snowmelt and underground streams, but the team found that periods of abnormally high temperatures in rivers are becoming more common, more intense, and longer-lasting than they were 40 years ago. Lead author Li Li (李黎) wrote in The Conversation that the increased heat puts stress on aquatic ecosystems and can also raise the cost of treating drinking water. 

The team collected river data at nearly 1,500 sites in the contiguous United States between 1980 and 2022. They found that temperatures rose above 59 °F (15 °C)—a threshold that can stress many species—at 82 percent of study areas for an average of 11.6 days per year. The places where the waters warmed the fastest were in the Northeast, the Rocky Mountains, and Appalachia.

The authors say climate change is driving river heat waves, as rising air temperatures affect water conditions. Changing precipitation patterns with global warming are shrinking winter snowpacks, leaving less meltwater to support river health. Low, slow-moving water warms more easily and holds less oxygen, creating dangerous conditions for aquatic life and increasing the chances of large-scale die-offs. The study adds that human activities, such as dams and agriculture, play a secondary role in shaping how and where rivers are most vulnerable to these impacts.

The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

We’ve learned over the years that to have a healthy planet and fend off the worst effects of climate change, we need to lower our carbon footprint by reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from our activities and in the products we buy. But have you considered your “paw print”—the environmental footprint of feeding your dog? 

Credit: Freepik

The University of Nottingham has, and they’ve released a new study published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition - Nutrition and Sustainable Diets, saying that plant-based foods, rather than red-meat options, are best not only for man's best friend but also for the Earth.

The researchers looked at 31 different types of dry dog foods sold in the UK, from ones based in poultry, lamb, and beef to others that were vegan and vegetarian. They found that plant-based diets for pets had the lowest impact across several measures, including greenhouse gas emissions, the polluting effects of their production on soil and water, freshwater withdrawal, and the land needed to produce the foods.

For example, they say that over nine years of its adult life, if a 20 kg Labrador Retriever, currently the most popular dog in the United Kingdom, were fed a beef-based diet, it would require 57 football fields worth of land to grow its food. A dog fed a plant-based diet would require 1.4 fields.

Also, the plant-based foods were not inferior. A study the team published earlier this month in PLOS One found vegan dog food provided similar nutrition to meat-based fare in terms of its protein content and individual amino acids, fatty acids, major and trace elements, vitamin D, and all B-vitamins. Notably, deficiencies in plant-based diets mirrored those commonly seen in plant-based human diets, such as iodine and B vitamins.

According to experts, water policy makers and water users in the Colorado River Basin need to get their acts together to substantially cut amounts they take from the river.

At Lees Ferry where river trips, both recreational and scientific, launch.  |  Credit: public domain

In a new analysis, six experts—Jack Schmidt, Anne Castle, John Fleck, Eric Kuhn, Kathryn Sorensen, and Katherine Tara—released a report saying that immediate action is needed, especially if this dry year is repeated next year. They estimate that consumptive use will exceed the flow of the river by no less than 3.6 million-acre feet, and the two main reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, would absorb the bulk of that shortfall, causing them to be depleted and reduced to dangerous levels. Last winter’s snowpack was miserable, and the forecast for the coming season is for less precipitation and warmer temperatures.

However, leaders in the Upper Basin states of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Wyoming, have been unable to agree with their lower basin neighbors of California, Arizona, and Nevada on how to cut water usage along the river.  The two basins have been discussing how to allocate the shortages when the current rules expire next year. The experts who wrote the report are urging the federal government to impose cutbacks along the river, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The animosity between the Upper and Lower Basins appears to have torpedoed the Trump administration’s nomination of Ted Cooke to be the commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation charged with managing the river. Cooke had been a water manager in Arizona for more than 20 years, which was viewed as disturbing in the Upper Basin states, and would make him biased in favor of the Lower Basin, according to KUNC. 

The White House asked him to withdraw his nomination, which he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, was based on vitriol the likes of which he had never seen. He said that officials from Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and New Mexico had urged members of Congress to oppose his nomination.

In 1977, author John McPhee wrote his nonfiction classic “Coming into the Country.” It describes how he and a group of men canoed the Salmon River in the Brooks Range of Alaska to assess its potential for Wild and Scenic status—a designation that would provide long-term federal protection. On their trip, they found abundant Arctic grayling (Thymallus arcticus), chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta)—and as McPhee writes, “the clearest, purest water I have ever seen flowing over rocks,” which allowed them to “see down 15 feet in pools.”

In Alaska’s Brooks Range, rivers once clear enough to drink from now run orange and hazy with toxic metals.  |  Credit: Taylor Roades

Not anymore. These days, the Salmon River runs orange—contaminated with toxic metals. Not because of acid mine drainage—although the water has the same ocher color—but because of climate change. According to new research from the University of California, Riverside, permafrost—the frozen Arctic soil that has locked away minerals for thousands of years—is beginning to thaw with a warming planet. As it thaws, water and oxygen creep into the exposed soil, triggering the breakdown of sulfide-rich rocks and creating sulfuric acid that leaches naturally occurring metals like iron, cadmium, and aluminum from rocks into the river, which poisons fish and damages ecosystems. 

According to a press release, the team’s analysis confirmed that thawing permafrost was unleashing geochemical reactions that oxidize sulfide-rich rocks like pyrite, generating acidity and mobilizing a wide suite of metals, including cadmium, which accumulates in fish organs and could affect animals like bears and birds that eat fish. The authors say that levels for several of the metals exceed EPA toxicity thresholds for aquatic life. Additionally, the cloudy water reduces the amount of light reaching the bottom of the river and smothers insect larvae that salmon and other fish eat.

According to the study, the Salmon River is not alone. A recent inventory in the same mountain range identified 75 streams that have recently turned orange and turbid. The authors say it’s likely happening across the Arctic. Wherever there’s the right kind of rock and thawing permafrost, the process can start. Unfortunately, co-author, Tim Lyons, said once it starts, it can’t be stopped, calling it “another irreversible shift driven by a warming planet.”

The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Sometimes too much of a good thing can be bad. Take sargassum, the brown algae found in the Atlantic Ocean. The seaweed provides food and habitat for many marine species and can stabilize shorelines as well as provide nourishment to plants. 

Credit: Jonathan Wilkins

But in recent decades, blooms of the free-floating brown algae are booming because of human driven nutrient pollution and increasing temperatures. That’s led to piles of the seaweed washing up on beaches from the United States and the Caribbean to Brazil, where it rots and releases hydrogen sulfide, a gas that smells like rotten eggs and can cause respiratory irritation.

It's not great for tourism, fishing, and local biodiversity—and many communities cart the stuff off to landfills. Now, researchers say that’s a waste of waste they can put to good use. First, a team from the University of São Paulo in Brazil showed that the seaweed could be incorporated into ceramic clays for use in construction to reduce the weight of concrete, making it a lighter, greener option for building materials.

Second, Yiming Xi, a graduate student from the University of Miami says sargassum could make flatscreen TVs project sharper, cleaner pictures with more vibrant colors. Xi aerosolized particles of the algae into tiny droplets and then superheated them to 800 degrees Celsius, where they form carbon dots. Carbon dots are already being used in packaging to extend the shelf life of food and are being tested in other applications—from bioimaging to energy storage. Xi says the carbon dots can provide a nontoxic alternative to conventional quantum dots currently used in flatscreen displays. 

So instead of thinking that the next wave at the beach might be carrying stinking seaweed that will ruin your holiday, it might be time to think big picture. 

Some people who reside in the southern portion of San Diego County, California, say it stinks to live there. Literally. For years, residents have complained that odors emanating from the polluted Tijuana River, which flows from Mexico into the U.S. toward the Pacific Ocean, are causing eye, nose and throat irritation, respiratory problems, fatigue, and headaches.

A new study shows that turbulence in polluted waters of the Tijuana River transfers contaminants to the air. In this photo, culverts at the Saturn Boulevard river crossing generate high turbulence, enhancing the transfer of toxic wastewater pollutants. The location was identified by members of the local community as a source of particularly strong odors.  |  Credit: Beatriz Klimeck / UC San Diego

Now, a new study from scientists at UC, San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography; UC, Riverside; San Diego State University; the National Science Foundation; and National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) says the residents are not imagining things. The research found that the contaminated river is contaminating the air—releasing large quantities of the toxic gas hydrogen sulfide—commonly known as “sewer gas” because of its rotten egg smell.

In September 2024, the team had set up air quality monitors in San Diego’s Nestor community in the South Bay. One location was where water tumbles from a culvert, which as it falls, creates enough turbulence to send aerosolized particles of pollutants from the river into the air.

The scientists measured peak concentrations of hydrogen sulfide that were some 4,500 times what is typical for an urban area. In addition, they identified hundreds of other gases released into the air by the river and its ocean outflow, showing for the first time, a direct link between poor water quality and bad air quality—a connection lead investigator Kimberly Prather says had not been made before.

Untreated sewage and industrial waste have plagued the Tijuana River for decades, causing long-term closures of beaches. In July, the U.S. and Mexico signed a memorandum of understanding that requires both nations to expedite stormwater and sewage infrastructure projects on each side of the border.  

Last week, EPA announced the completion of a ten-million-gallon-per-day expansion of the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant in San Diego, which could help mitigate the issue, but as inewsource reports, it’s unclear as to when it will be operating at its new capacity.

The paper was published in the journal Science.

Depending on whom you ask, prairie dogs are either cute mammals of the plains or unwelcome neighbors. They can act as hosts for fleas that carry plague and they can be infected with tularemia, both of which can be passed to humans and other animals. If bitten, a person can get serious infections, including tetanus.

Prairie dogs eat grasses and forbs, which could help with wildfire prevention. |  Credit: NPS/Jeff Zylland

However, prairie dogs are a keystone species that provides food and habitat for more than 120 other species, and they are an important food source for hawks, eagles, and ferrets. Now, a new study shows that black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) can play a role in limiting the spread and intensity of wildfires.

While doing research on fire, birds, and grazing, scientists led by Courtney Duchard of the University of Arizona found that where prairie dog colonies were present in the Great Plains, wildfires behaved differently because the animals dig burrows, eat vegetation, and keep plants short.

Duchard said that in those colonies you can see a shift from grasses to small, flowering plants, and the dogs keep ground areas bare, acting as a kind of firebreak. The scientists noted there are conflicts when it comes to prairie dog management, but the animals may be providing ecosystem services that haven’t been quantified.

The study was published in the journal BioScience.

Sharks are one of the world’s most formidable hunters, able to grab and shred prey with their sharp teeth. But according to a new study, the predators could be less fearsome in the future—because of climate change.

Blacktip reef shark (Carcharhinus melanopterus) at Sealife Oberhausen, where teeth used in the study were collected.  |  Credit: Max Baum/Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU)

German researchers say that as more CO2 is released into the atmosphere and oceans become acidic, it's taking the bite out of shark teeth by making them brittle and weak.

Ocean water has stayed fairly basic (alkaline) for thousands of years, hanging out at around 8.1 pH on average, but it’s predicted to drop to 7.3 by 2300—which would be almost ten times more acidic than it is today. Acidification weakens corals and makes it harder for creatures like mussels, clams, and oysters to create their protective shells by reducing the availability of carbonate—an essential building block. So, the team wanted to understand what acidification could mean for sharks.

They studied freshly fallen teeth of blacktip reef sharks (Carcharhinus melanopterus) living in an aquarium in Germany. The blacktips are good candidates to study because they swim with their mouths open to breathe, constantly exposing their teeth to water. The researchers put the teeth in two tanks of water for eight weeks—one with the current ocean pH and the other at the projected pH of 7.3. They found that the teeth in more acidic water had surface damage such as cracks and holes, increased root corrosion, and structural degradation.

Although sharks can continuously replace their teeth, the authors say new ones may also be susceptible to deterioration. Even moderate drops in pH could affect more sensitive species with slow tooth replication, leader author Maximilian Baum of Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf said in a press release.

A caveat for the study is that it was conducted with sharks in captivity. Sharks in the wild could potentially remineralize or replace their damaged teeth more quickly, but the team says the process could cost the animals more energy in acidified oceans.

Sharks with fragile teeth could find it more difficult to feed and defend themselves, which would reduce populations and destabilize marine ecosystems. A toothless grin would add to the stressors the creatures already face, such as overfishing and plastic pollution. 

The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.

Feeling stressed? A new study says that drinking enough water could help your body process cortisol, its primary stress hormone. Researchers from Liverpool John Moores University found that chronic mild dehydration may intensify the release of cortisol, which can be a problem if it goes on daily for months or years.  Higher levels of the hormone have been linked to increased risks of heart disease, kidney problems, and diabetes.

Credit: syda_productions

The study tested two groups of young, healthy adults. For a week, one group had less than 1.5 liters of water a day and the others exceeded 2 liters for women and 2.5 liters for men. They were then put in public speaking situations and also had to do mental arithmetic. While both groups showed increased heart rates and felt nervous, those who were less hydrated had a more pronounced surge of cortisol, even though they did not say they were feeling thirsty. 

The authors write in The Conversation that water is not a cure-all for handling stress, however, it can help a body to be better equipped. The scientists say it could be a good habit to keep a water bottle close by if you have a deadline or a speech coming up.

The study was published in the Journal of Applied Physiology.

Water utilities are increasingly a target for cyberattacks by hostile foreign actors. Of the more than 50,000 systems in the U.S., many lack the staff, resources, or federal funding to defend themselves. In 2023, a Chinese state-sponsored group known as “Volt Typhoon” hacked into numerous utilities.

Cyber warfare operators set up their computer stations before a capture-the-flag competition during a DEF CON conference.  |  Credit: Tech. Sgt. R.J. Biermann/U.S. Air Force 

Enter “DEF CON Franklin”—a team of white hat hackers stepping up to identify vulnerabilities and weaknesses in water systems and fight back against black hats, or malicious actors. DEF CON is a conference for technologists, and DEF CON Franklin was announced at last year’s event to provide free cyber volunteers to help protect critical infrastructure, starting with water systems, wastewater facilities, and schools across the country. It was named for Benjamin Franklin, who started the first U.S. Volunteer Fire Department in 1736. Instead of fighting physical flames, the DEF CON hackers will move to extinguish cyber fires.

The good-guy volunteers offer hands-on support for operational technology (OT) mapping, password protocols, and vulnerability assessments. It’s cybersecurity as a public service—no mandates, no red tape. In its initial phase, hackers were paired with small water utilities across four states—Utah, Vermont, Indiana, and Oregon.

Now, they are scaling up their efforts in partnership with the National Rural Water Association (NRWA) to help small operators with meager budgets, outdated technology, and no dedicated cybersecurity personnel. Helping these utilities is important to national security because they often supply military installations.

Harkening back to Benjamin Franklin’s “Poor Richard's Almanack,” which provided practical information to the public, particularly farmers, in colonial America, DEF CON created the Hackers’ Almanack—a report that summarizes disclosed vulnerabilities and suggests interventions that lawmakers and policy experts can deploy to harden infrastructure.

What if you could pay for a meal at a restaurant not in cash but in trash? 

One of the first garbage cafes was started in Ambikapur in central India. It provides the hungry with meals in exchange for plastic waste.  |  Credit: Ritesh Saini/Ambikapur Municipal Corporation

That’s the idea behind “garbage cafes,” a growing phenomenon in India. The Municipal Corporation of Bhopal in central India launched two so-called “Kachra Cafes,” where residents can drop off plastic, paper, or even e-waste, and in exchange, get hot meals, groceries, or even cash. The waste, which can range from a cellphone or old fridge to milk cartons or clothes, gets weighed and then the customer is given “Kachra Currency” on their mobile phone, which then can be used to buy anything from the store.

Inaugurated by Mayor Malti Rai on August 13, 2025, the cafe is operated by women's self-help groups who produce eco-friendly items sold at the shops. The idea is to reframe waste as having value. The Kachra Cafes in Bhopal were inspired by a garbage cafe in Ambikapur to the east in central India. It was launched in 2019 to help feed the hungry and homeless who often gather plastic and other rubbish for money. According to the BBC, that cafe has collected almost 23 tonnes of plastic since it started, reducing the amount of plastic going to the landfill from 5.4 tonnes per year in 2019 to two tonnes per year in 2024. 

With a slogan “more the waste, better the taste,” the garbage cafes are one way to take a bite out of the plastic pollution problem.

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said the U.S. will revise earlier editions of the National Climate Assessment, which, since 2000, has been the foundation of the government’s findings about climate science.  

The coastal bluff along East Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz, California are especially vulnerable to rising sea level during big storms. Sometimes even the rip-rap, put in place to protect roadways and homes, cannot protect the bluffs from erosion. |  Public domain

In the past, the report, which was released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has been put together by hundreds of experts both inside and outside federal agencies. Recently, previous editions have been removed from government websites. The earlier assessments warned of the increasing risks to the country’s public health, economy, and infrastructure. In April, Trump took steps to dismiss scientists working on the report, which is mandated by Congress. 

Secretary Wright told CNN that earlier reports weren’t fair in their assessments of climate change and that the administration will be updating them. The climate reports have been used to discuss the latest climate science and the impacts of global warming in the U.S. Each report takes years to put together, and each goes through peer review by 13 agencies that do research on climate. The reports have been approved by the independent National Academy of Sciences.

The Hill reports that Secretary Wright is a former fracking company executive and has a history of downplaying the effects of global warming. In July, his department issued a report saying that greenhouse gases may be less damaging than previously believed, and supported the repeal of the “Endangerment Finding,” which was the basis for many regulations addressing climate change.

Last week, President Trump said he wants to impose a 100 percent tariff on imports of semiconductors and chips—but would exempt companies that make them in the United States. Details on a prospective policy were scarce—and also missing in the proposal are plans to address a concern vexing the industry—where’s all the water going to come from to manufacture chips in the U.S.?

Credit: Rob Bulmahn/Flickr

A single fabrication facility, or fab, can use tens of millions of gallons of tap water per day, which is cleaned to become “ultrapure” by removing any particles or salts that could damage the chips. Currently, the ultrapure water is used only once to make chips. The wastewater is used to cool the buildings, which get very hot, or in scrubbers that “shower off” gases and other chemical contaminants used in the manufacturing process. 

Several U.S. fabs are currently located in water-stressed areas such as Arizona, so can adding more plants in the country be achieved sustainably? Professor Paul Westerhoff at Arizona State University’s School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment told H2O Radio that fabs can be sustainable but would require companies to invest in ways to recycle water to continuously bring it back to an ultrapure state to avoid tapping into local supplies.

He and his colleagues are researching what reuse technologies and policies would be necessary to make facilitates “water neutral” or at least close to it, some of which would include protecting the watersheds where manufacturers operate.

Another problem in growing the semiconductor industry in the U.S. is climate change. Making semiconductors is energy intensive, so manufacturers would need to switch to renewables instead of fossil fuels to be sustainable. Otherwise, as global temperatures rise and severe droughts increase, the water upon which fabs rely may not be there when they’re ready. 

If you’ve traveled to Paris, you’ve no doubt seen the Eiffel Tower, which was built for the 1889 World’s Fair to commemorate the centenary of the French Revolution. It’s hard to miss at 300 meters tall (it was originally dubbed the Tour de 300 mètres)—and even harder to miss if you see it in the summer when it’s taller.

Credit: Joe deSousa/Creative Commons

Writing last week in The Conversation, Federico de Isidro Gordejuela of Universidad CEU San Pablo in Spain explains that when temperatures soar, the iron in the structure expands, adding between 12 to 15 centimeters, because hotter conditions agitate atoms inside the metal, increasing the distance between them. The tower not only grows, it also leans a skosh. It’s not Tower-of-Pisa-level leaning—but it does tilt a fraction of a degree when the metal expands more on the sunny than shaded side. It then straightens back out after dark.

The tower shrinks to normal in winter but there's no telling how it will grow and tilt with global warming. So, in addition to being a beloved symbol of Paris, the Eiffel Tower is also, in effect, a giant climate change thermometer.

Forests sequester about one-third of all human carbon emissions, helping to mitigate climate change by pulling CO2 out of the atmosphere during photosynthesis and incorporating some of that carbon into their wood. Tropical forests in particular do the heavy lifting, storing four times more than forests in temperate and boreal regions combined. However, according to a new study, those trees don’t work alone—they rely on animals to help save us from global warming.

Credit: Johan van Rensburg/Creative Commons

Forests provide food and shelter to wildlife, but researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) say it’s a two-way street. Animals eat fruits and nuts, and then poop them out far from the tree, helping to germinate the seeds and extend the forest to new areas. However, fewer animals could mean fewer seeds being dispersed, which could weaken the climate-mitigating power of woodlands. Research has shown that biodiversity worldwide is declining, so how much of an impact is the loss of wildlife having on carbon storage? 

To find out, the team used data from more than 17,000 vegetation plots to analyze where wildlife disperse seeds and how many they spread. They concluded that where animals had declined, forests lost the ability to absorb 1.8 metric tons of carbon per hectare, per year. Reforestation is often cited as a way to mitigate the effects of climate change, but the authors say that planting trees costs money and also leads to less diverse forests. Animals, on the other hand, naturally plant trees for free.

In a nutshell, so to speak, to protect forests and their climate benefits, we need to preserve the habitats of seed-dispersing animals and provide wildlife corridors to reduce the impacts of human activities.

The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Many people have doorbell cameras to see who’s there or whether a package has been delivered, but now those devices could tell you if your sprinklers need to run.

A new AI-powered irrigation system uses doorbell cameras to monitor rainfall and adjust lawn watering, helping homeowners save money and conserve water. Researchers say the technology can reduce water bills by up to $29 a month for a single home.  | Credit: Kaitlyn Johnson/Texas A&M University College of Engineering

Home irrigation systems are often programmed to automatically go on and off at set times and days, but when it rains, it’s not uncommon for sprinklers to run even when not needed. An innovation called “ERIC” developed by researchers at Texas A&M University claims to cut down on excess watering by turning doorbell cameras into rainfall monitors. 

It works by analyzing the camera footage using machine learning models to determine how much rain has fallen and automatically adjusts both the duration and day that the irrigation controller waters a lawn. 

The researchers say in a statement that their more precise irrigation schedule cuts down on excess watering and provides accurate rain data.  Some commercial irrigation systems do monitor if it rains but not how much. Their new AI-enhanced tool measures how much water has fallen in that precise location. The system was praised recently as being an incredibly creative method to utilize existing hardware.

The researchers published a paper on their innovation, saying it can save homeowners up to 9,000 gallons of water a month, using just the camera and a low-cost irrigation controller.

You say tomato, and I say…potato? I can, because a new study has revealed that the humble spud we love to mash, fry, and roast evolved from the tomato nine million years ago.

Credit:  United Soybean Board 

A team led by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences together with experts at the Natural History Museum in London says potatoes are the result of a chance encounter between ancestors of the modern tomato and a group of plants known as Etuberosum, a potato-like species. Back then, the two plants lived in very different environments in South America. The tomato liked hot and dry places while the potato predecessor preferred temperate conditions.

According to a press release by the Natural History Museum, the stage was set for the two to meet when the Andes mountains rose rapidly during an era when tectonic plates were actively shifting—in this case when the Atlantic plate was pushing beneath the South American plate. 

While neither of the parent plants on their own could make tubers—the underground organ that stores water and nutrients and that we like to eat—the combination of their genes meant their offspring could. This new tuber lineage—that would eventually become our modern potato—also used its parent’s traits to survive in the colder and drier conditions arising at the time.

Tubers reproduce without seeds or pollination, which allowed them to rapidly spread from mild grasslands to high and cold alpine meadows in Central and South America. There are now more than 100 wild potato species plus our common potato Solanum tuberosum that originated in South America. 

Understanding how potatoes evolved could ultimately help scientists breed more resilient versions that are resistant to disease and shifting climatic conditions. Better than that? We may now finally understand why some people like ketchup on their fries. 

The paper was published in the journal Cell. 

Dicamba is a herbicide that was twice banned by the courts, but now Trump’s EPA wants to put it back on the list of chemicals allowed for agricultural use. If the agency is successful at reregistering the weedkiller, then it would be allowed on soybean and cotton fields. 

Pesticides being sprayed on a soybean field in Iowa.  |  Credit: Eric Hawbaker, Blue Collar Ag, Riceville, IA/USGS

In 2020, environmental organizations sued the EPA to stop allowing the use of dicamba because, when it’s applied, it can drift and harm neighboring farms, communities, and ecosystems. A federal appeals court found against the EPA, ruling that it had understated the amount of damage from the herbicide and that its use would tear at the social fabric of farming communities. Then, the agency tried again to register dicamba, but another court prohibited its sale.

Now, the EPA plans to require practices that it says will minimize the impact on certain species and the environment, according to its website. The action was praised by the American Soybean Association, according to the Washington Post. A spokesperson for the Center for Food Safety said in a statement that allowing the chemical will decimate not only farmers and residents of rural America but also natural areas like wildlife refuges.

The Trump administration is taking away money from thousands of people in a California farming region, who cannot use their wells because the water is contaminated with pesticides. 

Agricultural fields in Monterey County, CA.  |  Credit: Ashley Spratt/USFWS

The Guardian reports that the Biden administration had granted $20 million for improving municipal sources and providing clean water to parts of Monterey County south of San Jose. Those areas are composed mostly of Spanish speakers, many of whom pick strawberries. The money would have provided safe drinking water to those who had contaminated wells or were on a public system that was failing.

In clawing back the money, Trump’s EPA said that it was a wasteful diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) program. The grant was one of hundreds the Trump administration sought to end because they were aimed at environmental and climate justice under the Inflation Reduction Act, passed under Biden, according to Inside Climate News. 

At least one pollutant is in more than 80 percent of the domestic wells in the region, and one can contain contaminants that can cause the skin of young children to turn blue by restricting oxygen flow. Some of the pollutants can create toxic fumes in a shower.

The state is stepping in to help around 400 residents of the thousands affected by helping to provide them with safe drinking water.

Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) are named after the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who saw the birds in 1519 during his first voyage around the tip of South America. While his crew used a quadrant and compass to find their way, they could have learned a thing or two about navigation from the penguins, says a new study.

Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus)  |  Credit: dfaulder/Flickr

Researchers from Swansea University and the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour say the flightless birds have a secret strategy for finding their way home after swimming far from land, which they do to find food for their chicks. 

The birds, which are just over two feet tall, can’t really get their bearings in rough seas by sticking their heads above the water to look for landmarks, so how did they know which way to go? To find out, the team put GPS devices on penguins from a colony living off Argentina’s coast and discovered that instead of swimming in a straight line back to shore, the penguins often followed curved, S-shaped paths driven by the currents. 

They say the birds seem to sense both the presence and strength of these currents—and to understand tidal cycles in which water moves first in one direction and then reverses. If the penguins were carried too far out by a tide, they seem to know they’ll be brought back in later.

The study found that the birds could stick the landing and arrive within 300 meters of their departure point—some even at night. This remarkable navigation strategy helped the penguins not only to conserve energy but also to increase the amount of food they gathered—simply by taking the long way home. 

The study was published in the journal PLOS Biology.

Earth’s glaciers and ice caps are melting rapidly because of climate change, which will cause sea levels to rise, influence weather patterns, and affect freshwater access around the globe. Another consequence of losing all that ice? According to a new study—more explosive volcanic eruptions. 

Lead author Pablo Moreno-Yaeger collects samples near the caldera of Mocho-Choshuenco.  |  Credit: Pablo Moreno-Yaeger/UW-Madison

Researchers led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison say that hundreds of dormant subglacial volcanoes worldwide—particularly in Antarctica—could become active as global warming accelerates melting. Thick layers of ice can keep a lid on eruptions by pressing Earth’s crust sitting atop magma chambers. Once a glacier retreats, the gases in the magma can expand—and the volcanoes explode. 

The team analyzed crystals in erupted rocks across six volcanoes in southern Chile, including the now dormant Mocho-Choshuenco volcano, to investigate how the Patagonian Ice Sheet’s advance and retreat influenced past volcanic behavior. They found that during the peak of the last ice age (around 26,000–18,000 years ago), thick ice cover suppressed the volume of eruptions and allowed a large reservoir of magma to accumulate. When the ice sheet retreated rapidly, the sudden loss of weight caused the crust to relax and gases in the magma to expand, which triggered explosive volcanic eruptions.

The link between glacial loss and volcanic activity has been known since the 1970s, when eruptions in Iceland were linked to retreating ice, but the team says it could happen elsewhere, like parts of North America, New Zealand, Antarctica, and Russia, so they warrant closer attention. Lead author Pablo Moreno-Yaeger says that eruptions can cool the planet— temporarily—but multiple ones can accelerate global warming by pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. That creates a feedback loop, where melting glaciers trigger eruptions, which in turn can further warming and melting.

The research was presented at the Goldschmidt geochemistry conference in Prague on July 8.

Ukraine is undergoing a rapid transformation to renewable energy in response to constant attacks by Russia on its energy infrastructure. Last week, the European Union announced it would finance about $700 million for Ukraine’s energy systems, transport networks, and businesses. Among other projects, the effort will finance and implement public infrastructure including solar, biomass, geothermal heat pumps, and battery storage. Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has suffered almost $21 billion in damage from the war, including the destruction of more than half of its power generation capacity, according to the UN.

Solar power at the Kharkiv Trauma Hospital. The EU announced support for renewable energy projects in Ukraine.  |  Credit: Repower Ukraine

The single largest loan from the EU of $140 million will be for repair to three plants belonging to the country’s biggest hydropower company. In another project, water is being pumped using power from 40 solar panels to supply a city, and utility managers are urging more such solutions to ensure drinking water is available 24/7.

FastCompany reports that Ukraine is already adding solar panels to school and hospital rooftops and placing batteries in their basements. Similar projects are being developed at multi-family housing buildings. Additionally, renewable technology education centers are launching—even in coal mining areas—for training on wind turbines, solar panels, and heat pumps. 

Solar power is growing worldwide but still faces challenges, in part because it’s affected by weather, atmospheric conditions, and changing sun angles during the year, which can make it difficult for grid operators to balance supply and demand.

Credit: Wikipedia

For more accurate forecasts, utilities rely on historical data to predict future performance, and recently this has meant using AI with Deep Learning. However, AI can be only as good as the data it’s fed, which can be scarce in rural areas, so researchers at Charles Darwin University in Australia investigated whether adding Indigenous knowledge to the mix would enhance accuracy, given First Nations peoples have been observing natural cycles for thousands of years.

The team integrated information from seasonal calendars of the Tiwi, Gulumoerrgin, Kunwinjku, and Ngurrungurrudjba First Nations communities in northern Australia and found that forecasts improved by 14.6 percent and had a 26.2 percent reduction in errors compared to a baseline model.

Unlike our modern calendars with four seasons, ancient ones developed by First Nations can range between three and seven seasons based on local ecological cues, such as plant and animal behaviors, which are closely tied to changes in sunlight and weather patterns. The authors say Australian First Nations or Aboriginal people are the original custodians of the land, with diverse cultures and knowledge systems that have been sustained for over 60,000 years. That wisdom can reflect nuanced environmental shifts that would make forecasts more precise.

The team’s new dataset, namely AliDKA,2 is the first to incorporate First Nations knowledge and could be a valuable tool for advancing solar in rural areas, especially in the places where Indigenous peoples live. 

The study was published in IEEE Open Journal of the Computer Society.

Last year, we told you about the southern resident killer whales, or orcas, that live in the Salish Sea, which borders Washington and British Columbia, engaging in a fad where they would wear dead salmon on their heads like hats. 

A screenshot from a video by scientists with the Center for Whale Research who observed "allokelping" by southern resident killer whales, where the marine mammals use kelp placed between their bodies for grooming. | Credit: Center for Whale Research, NMFS NOAA Permit 27038 

Now, scientists have observed another novel behavior in a pod of around 25 of the marine mammals—giving each other massages using kelp. Scientists from the Center for Whale Research used drones to observe orcas biting off stalks of seaweed and placing them between their belly and that of another whale and rolling it between their bodies for prolonged periods.

While whale species have been known to engage in “kelping,” where they drape seaweed over their bodies, possibly to remove parasites and maintain healthy skin, this new behavior, called “allokelping”—or kelping with another whale—is the first time marine animals have been observed creating and using a tool for social grooming.

Lead researcher Michael Weiss said in a press release that brown algae like the bull kelp whales are using, has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties that may benefit the whales’ skin. He says using the seaweed to groom a partner can also be a form of social bonding where, just like humans, touch moderates stress and helps to build relationships.

Researchers have long known marine mammals can make tools. Bottlenose dolphins, for example, detach marine sponges and wear them over their noses to protect them from sharp objects on the marine floor as they look for fish to eat. Whales will rub themselves on rocks to exfoliate dead skin.

According to the center’s latest count in July of 2024, just 73 southern resident killer whales now remain. Because they don’t breed with other killer whale populations, they are at risk of disappearing in part because climate change is reducing the salmon populations they eat. Now, scientists say it will be equally important to protect kelp forests because they facilitate important social behaviors that help the animals thrive.

The study was published in the journal Current Biology.

Acetaminophen, the most popular analgesic in the world and sometimes sold under the brand Tylenol® currently comes from chemicals in crude oil, coal tar, or other fossil fuels, but now a new study from the University of Edinburgh shows that it could be made from recycled plastic.

Credit: Streetwise Cycle/Creative Commons

The scientists used E. coli bacterium to transform a molecule derived from polyethylene terephthalate or “PET” commonly used in plastic bottles and food packaging into the active ingredient in acetaminophen. Using a fermentation process similar to brewing beer, they were able to make the drug in under 24 hours, at room temperature, and with virtually no carbon emissions.

Recently, there have been other methods found to make painkillers. Researchers at the University of Bath made acetaminophen and ibuprofen from a compound found in pine trees, which could be obtained as a byproduct of making paper. A team at the University of Wisconsin says they have developed a method to make the pain remedies from lignin, a compound in plants. However, this newer discovery touts being able to clean up plastic waste in the process of making the drug.

The study was published in the journal Nature Chemistry.

Would you recycle a bottle if it entered you into a lottery to win $1,000? A team of researchers from the University of British Columbia asked that question in a new study and the answer was not only yes, but it also supercharged recycling rates. 

A screenshot from a video about the popular Norwegian Recycling Lottery, where consumers can opt into a chance to win big prizes for each bottle they return. |  Credit: Pantelotteriet

The team ran experiments offering people who returned bottles the option of getting a typical ten-cent payout—or the small chance of winning a big cash prize. The result was that people recycled 47 percent more bottles. The study was conducted in Canadian cities where bottle deposit programs are already in place, but recycling rates were low. 

Lead author Dr. Jiaying Zhao, a professor in the department of psychology, said in a press release that the thrill of possibly winning a big prize is more motivating than a small guaranteed reward. It’s the same reason people buy lottery tickets. She and her team found that people felt happier about the chance of winning—a feeling called “anticipatory happiness”—and that even if they didn’t win, it made the recycling experience more enjoyable. That said, Zhao says it’s important to keep the guaranteed refund option for people who rely on it for income.

Currently, Norway is the only country in the world doing a recycling lottery and their bottle return rate is nearly 100 percent. They did it by installing “reverse vending machines” to let people return bottles and choose between redeeming it for cash on the spot or being entered into the lottery. It’s been popular partly because it’s a win either way—opting into the lottery means bottle return payouts go to a charity instead.

The team says the lottery model wouldn’t cost any more than a redemption system, making it easy for cities to adopt, which they estimate could help recycle millions more bottles and reduce greenhouse gas emissions equal to taking one million cars off the road each year.

The study was published in the journal Waste Management.

The UN Ocean Conference (UNOC) ended June 13, with some calling it a success and others urging greater and faster action. The major goal of the gathering was to advance conservation and sustainable use of the ocean, with the aim of safeguarding 60 percent of the seas that are not within a national boundary. 

Blacktip reef sharks live in the waters around French Polynesia. The territory announced the creation of the world’s largest Marine Protected Area (MPA) at the UN Ocean Conference in France (June 2025).  |  Credit: Sharp Photography/Creative Commons

The five-day conference in Nice, France—the third and largest ever, with over 15,000 people attending—included the leaders of 60 nations, along with thousands of environmentalists, scientists, and business leaders. Countries are working to ratify the High Seas Treaty, which is meant to protect thousands of species and has so far been ratified by 50 nations, 19 of which delivered their approvals last week at the conference. As soon as 60 nations confirm it, it will come into force.

Ocean health is declining due to rising global temperatures, overfishing, and acidification. According to Earth.com, countries that sign the High Seas Treaty are required to determine the potential effects of any planned activity beyond their national territory. 

At the conference, 95 nations signed a declaration calling for an agreement that would bind countries to end plastic pollution by placing a cap on production, but petrostates, including Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Iran, are against that, and they were supported by the U.S., China, and South Korea.

Currently, only eight percent of the world’s oceans contain Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), which restrict human activity to protect habitats and animals. At the conference, the governments of Tanzania, Chile, and Colombia said they would create or expand their MPAs, and French Polynesia announced it would create the largest MPA in the world, encompassing five million square kilometers.

Attendees of the conference also discussed seabed mining, a practice that French president Emmanuel Macron called madness, as he pressed for a global moratorium. Scientists have warned that there would be irreversible loss of ecosystems and habitats from the mining, not to mention destruction of carbon storage. Greenpeace posted on its website that progress made at the conference was hollow in the absence of more tangible commitments to end deep-sea mining. Recently, the Trump administration has taken steps to allow seabed mining even in international waters. 

When the High Seas Treaty was adopted in 2023, the U.S. actively participated in the process, but it sent only observers to the conference in Nice this June.

Some of the most devastating hurricanes to strike the U.S. in recent years have been notable for their rapid intensification, a pattern that researchers are trying to better understand to protect the public. 

An astronaut on the International Space Station used a handheld camera to capture this photo of Hurricane Idalia. Rapid intensification saw the storm develop from a Category 1 to a Category 4 in less than 24 hours. |  Credit: NASA Earth Observatory

Typically, hurricanes form—and grow—with the right mix of sea surface temperature, ocean heat content, and wind shear, but a team from the University of South Florida found that another factor can influence whether a storm will gain strength—rivers.

In a new study, researchers analyzed Hurricane Idalia, which jumped from a Category 1 to a Category 4 in less than 24 hours, as it raced toward Florida’s west coast in 2023. Right before Idalia formed, intense rain fell along the Florida Panhandle and coastal Alabama, dumping a massive plume of fresh water into the Gulf of Mexico. When that fresh water encountered the seawater, it formed a thick barrier that prevented deeper, cooler water from being brought to the surface by the hurricane’s winds, something that typically would weaken storms. Instead, Idalia fed off the trapped warm water and grew, causing widespread damage as it made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 3 storm. 

Meteorologists were caught off guard by Idalia’s rapid intensification, and while the researchers don’t want to overstate the role the rivers play in supercharging storms, they say it’s worth factoring local and regional river activity into forecasts to make them as accurate as possible.

The study was published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

Plastic bags are used only briefly, yet linger as pollution, often collecting on beaches, where marine life ingests them whole or as bits when they break down into microplastics. Over 100 countries have instituted bans or fees on plastic bags, and several U.S. states and cities have regulations, but up until now there hasn’t been research to determine if those laws are making a difference. 

The amount of plastic entering global aquatic ecosystems each year is expected to more than double by 2040 if no changes are implemented on how we produce, use, and dispose of plastic, according to a report by the PEW Charitable Trusts.  |  Credit: Ben Mierement, NOAA NOS

Now, a new study led by researchers from the University of Delaware and Columbia University says bag policies are working. The team analyzed data from thousands of shoreline cleanups across the U.S. and found that areas with bans or fees had fewer bags on beaches—and in turn, less of the waste entering the ocean. Because regulations across the U.S. vary widely, it made for a useful laboratory to compare the effects of different policies. They found that regulations led to a 25 to 47 percent decrease in the share of plastic bags collected in the cleanups relative to places without policies. 

While that’s good news, they say that laws or ordinances are reducing—but not eliminating—shoreline plastic bag debris, and are most effective in places where plastic was already a big problem. They also found that state-level policies were more successful than ones implemented by a city or county—and interestingly, fees on bags were more useful than bans at reducing the litter.

Despite one in three U.S. residents living in places where bag policies have been instituted, the researchers say the overall percentage of plastic bags is increasing in both places with and without policies. That’s because the pollution is growing in general, and policies can mitigate only so much. Nevertheless, their findings that regulations can make a difference will be useful evidence for the upcoming UN Environment Programme negotiations in August, when countries will gather toward finalizing an international plastics treaty.

The study was published in the journal Science.

A controversial plan to transport crude oil by rail along portions of the Colorado River is much closer to becoming a reality after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s decision blocking it. 

Amtrak's California Zephyr train travels along the Colorado River near McCoy, Colorado. |  Credit: Tony Webster/Creative Commons

Environmental groups and Eagle County, Colorado, home of Vail Ski Resort, had challenged an agency decision that permitted the two-mile-long trains to ship crude oil from Utah’s Uintah Basin to the Gulf Coast. They argued that the Surface Transportation Board did not weigh the downstream effects should a tanker derail and pollute the Colorado River, threatening the environment and communities. Additionally, they said the agency had not considered how refining five billion gallons of additional oil per year would exacerbate global warming.

An appellate court agreed, but the Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, with Justice Gorsuch recusing himself, decided that some judges have incorrectly reviewed an agency decision under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and used it to block or slow down many projects. All three of the Court’s liberal justices agreed with the decision, which has a much broader effect than just the potential of endangering people and the environment by oil tankers that could derail. 

Justice Kavanaugh, writing for the Court, said that overly intrusive judicial review has led to delay upon delay and higher costs. NEPA, he continued, is to inform decision-making, not paralyze it. NEPA requires federal agencies to assess the environmental effects of proposed major actions prior to making decisions. However, this case narrows the scope of all environmental reviews of major infrastructure projects like highways and pipelines.

Earlier, the Supreme Court severely reduced environmental regulation by limiting rules on water pollution and runoff and allowing long-standing agency actions to be challenged in court, according to the Washington Post. The Court has also cut away at the ability of the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.

The world’s oceans are getting darker. That’s the conclusion of a new study out last week that says there’s cause for concern. 

According to researchers from the University of Plymouth, 21 percent of the global ocean—an area spanning more than 75 million sq km—has darkened over the past two decades.  |  Credit: Naja Bertolt Jensen / Unsplash

“Ocean darkening” occurs when sunlight and moonlight can’t penetrate the upper layers of the ocean called the “photic zone,” which is home to 90 percent of all marine life and one of the most productive habitats on Earth. According to researchers from the University of Plymouth in the UK, over one-fifth (21 percent) of the global ocean—around 75 million square kilometers—has darkened over the past two decades.

Typically, darkening can occur near coastlines because of agricultural runoff and increased rainfall making the waters murkier. However, this new research shows that it’s happening in the open ocean, which they suggest could be from hotter temperatures causing increased algal blooms that reduce light penetration below the surface. It could also be the result of changes in ocean circulation patterns driven by global warming.

The researchers used data from NASA’s Ocean Color Web, which breaks the global ocean down into a series of 9km pixels, to assess the changes and found that the most prominent shifts in photic zone depth in the open ocean were at the top of the Gulf Stream and around both the Arctic and Antarctic—areas of the planet experiencing the most pronounced shifts as a result of climate change. Conversely, the team also found around ten percent of the ocean had become lighter during the same study period.

The authors suggest that a shrinking photic zone in the upper ocean where marine organisms grow, hunt, reproduce, and photosynthesize, would create intense competition for resources and negatively affect food webs and global fisheries.

The study was published in Global Change Biology.

The word kuleana in the Hawai‘an language means a responsibility, right, or privilege to take care of one another—and to take care of the ‘āina—the land. Those terms were invoked when, on May 27, Governor Josh Green, MD, signed into law Act 96 (Senate Bill 1396) that establishes a “Green Fee” that will add a tax on hotel stays to protect the environment in the face of climate change. It’s a first for the state—and for the country.

On May 27, Hawai‘i Governor Josh Green signed into law Act 96 (Senate Bill 1396) that establishes a "Green Fee" that will add a tax on hotel stays to protect the environment in the face of climate change. |  Credit: Hawai‘i Governor Josh Green, M.D./Flickr

The new “climate impact fee” is a response to the increased risk of natural disasters driven by global warming, like the wildfires on Maui in 2023. The revenue will provide a stable source of funding for environmental stewardship, hazard mitigation, and sustainable tourism, which together will enhance the islands’ resiliency.

The new law raises the amount of the current transient accommodations tax or TAT by 0.75 percent, or roughly $3 on a $400 hotel room per night. It will also apply to short-term rentals as well as to cruise ships—a sector that has long gone untaxed. The Green Fee is projected to generate $100 million annually, when it goes into effect in January 2026. 

As the online publication Travel And Tour World reports, Hawai‘i joins a list of places around the globe like Greece, Bali, and the Galápagos Islands, where fees are being implemented in recognition that tourism, while economically vital, must be managed responsibly to protect the fragile ecosystems—that many people come to see—from the growing impacts of climate change.

Is it possible that plants react to the sounds and vibrations insects make as they flap their wings, hover, land, and take off? A new study says plants do and they increase their nectar production in response.

A bee visits a snapdragon  |  Credit: Hartono Subagio/Pixabay

Francesca Barbero of the University of Turin and her colleagues, including sound engineers, entomologists, and plant physiologists, made sound recordings of buzzing pollinators, in this case the snail shell bee (Rhodanthidium sticticum), and played them near snapdragons. The scientists learned that the flowers increased both the amount of nectar and its sugar content when the bee sounds were played nearby. Further, the snapdragons changed their gene expression, especially those used in sugar transport and nectar production.

Being able to discriminate approaching pollinators by their vibroacoustic signals could be an adaptive strategy to improve a plant’s reproductive success, Barbero said. This would depend upon the response of the bee to the plant’s changes. In the past, the relationship between plants and pollinators has been studied primarily through smells and visual cues like color, but Barbero says there is growing evidence that both insects and plants can sense, produce, and transmit signals through vibrations and sounds.

The study shows that while it’s clear the buzzing can trigger a plant’s reaction, it isn’t so clear whether a plant’s acoustic signals can influence insect behavior, like whether the noise a snapdragon makes can attract a pollinator.

Antarctic ecosystems are stressed. Global warming is accelerating sea ice decline and shrinking ice shelves, which affects not only local wildlife but also climate patterns across the planet. One unlikely hero to help slow these effects is about two-and-a-half-feet tall, a great swimmer, and has a tuxedo-like appearance.

Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae)  |  Credit: Jason Auch/Creative Commons

Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae), which themselves could fall victim to shifts in Antarctica, may help to reduce the effects of climate change through their guano. The penguin poo contains significant amounts of ammonia, which plays a role in cloud formation, according to a new study. More clouds could help reduce surface temperatures and slow sea ice loss by reflecting sunlight back into space.

The discovery came from a team of researchers at the University of Helsinki who were studying a colony of Adélie penguins near Marambio Base, Antarctica. They say ammonia gas emitted from the guano reacted with sulfur gas produced by phytoplankton in the ocean to form aerosol particles upon which water vapor could condense to create clouds.

The scientists observed that after a strong wind blew across their study site where around 60,000 penguins were gathered, the number and size of aerosol particles sharply increased. Three hours later, fog emerged. While ammonia was already understood to contribute to cloud formation, it was unexpected to be found in the Antarctic, where there’s not a lot of decaying organic matter like vegetation.

More study is needed to fully understand the penguins’ impact on cloud formation and temperature, but if the birds are helping to mitigate climate change, they are protecting not only their own habitat but also ours.

The study was published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.

Marine heatwaves—periods of persistent warm ocean waters—are increasing and becoming longer and more intense because of global warming. These extreme climatic events threaten vulnerable marine life, which must adapt or perish. And, according to a new study, one fish has a plan.

Clown anemonefish (Amphiprion percula)  |  Credit: Nick Hobgood/Creative Commons

The clown anemonefish (Amphiprion percula) made famous in the movie Finding Nemo, shrinks to improve its chances of survival when the water gets too hot. Researchers from Newcastle University’s School of Natural and Environmental Sciences studied a wild population of the reef fish—recognizable for their orange and white stripes—in Kimbe Bay, Papua New Guinea, during a marine heatwave in 2023, which coincided with the world’s fourth global coral bleaching event, which caused temperatures in our study area to exceed the long-term average by 4°C.

They found that the clownfish would get shorter as temperatures rose, the first time a coral reef fish has been found to shrink in response to environmental conditions. In the study, 100 of the 134 fish they measured reduced their length, which increased their chances of surviving the heat by up to 78 percent. (At first, they didn’t believe the results, so they measured each fish repeatedly over a period of five months.) The authors say that shrinking helps the fish decrease their metabolic needs. Heat stress events can reduce food supplies and warmer ocean waters have less oxygen—two reasons it would be better to be small.

There are downsides to shrinking. Smaller fish lay fewer eggs and that could decrease birth rates at a time when many marine species are already experiencing population declines from overfishing, pollution, habitat destruction, and climate change.

Also, the clown fish aren’t the only creatures to become smaller during hard times. A few other animals do too, like marine iguanas, which reabsorb some of their bone material during periods of environmental stress.

In an interesting observation, the team found that if the clownfish shrank at the same time as their breeding partner, they both had a higher chance of survival because it reduced social conflict between the two where females are generally bigger and dominant.

Sounds like a potential plot for a future sequel called Finding Nemo—Climate Change Edition. “Clownfish that shrink together, stay together.”

The study was published in the journal Science Advances.

Imagine, a large, hollow concrete sphere, about 30 feet in diameter and weighing 400 tons that sits on the seabed floor, storing electricity.

Production of the 30m spheres for a StEnSea park.  |  Credit: Sperra

The spheres are part of a system called StEnSea (Stored Energy in the Sea) developed by the German Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Economics and Energy System Technology. The system works by opening a valve in the sphere to let seawater rush in, which given the high pressure on the seafloor drives a turbine to generate electricity. After the water fills the sphere, it can be pumped out using surplus renewable power from the grid, emptying and recharging the sphere for use when it is needed again.

The Institute plans to install a prototype off Long Beach, California, by the end of next year. They have already tested a smaller version in Europe and hope to be able to utilize a sphere that is about 100 feet in diameter.

The system is similar to pumped storage hydropower on land, where there are two reservoirs, one higher than the other. Water is released to the lower pool generating electricity as it falls. It’s then pumped back to the upper reservoir when excess renewable power is generated and not in high demand.

The company says its ocean storage system has an advantage over pumped hydro because it doesn’t take up land.

Coral reefs are suffering worldwide because of warming oceans and acidification from burning fossil fuels. Since 2009, the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network found that 14 percent of corals have disappeared, and things are expected to get worse.

Experiments for the study were conducted on the Hawai'ian stony coral species Montipora capitata.  |  Credit: Ryan McMinds/Creative Commons   

New research from Scripps Institution of Oceanography is offering hope by creating a scent that “smells like home” to baby corals, which will help them find a place to live and thrive.

Many corals reproduce through a remarkable phenomenon called “broadcast spawning,” where over days or weeks, male and female reproductive cells merge to form larvae. These larvae then float with the currents before eventually finding a hard surface to latch onto. Guiding them to a suitable neighborhood are chemical signals in the water released by algae. If the larvae don’t get a whiff of the right scent, they’ll just keep on drifting. The problem is that degraded reefs can’t release enough of the attractive smells and sometimes have algae with scents that turn baby corals off.

To solve this problem, the Scripps team developed a gel that releases some of coral larvae’s favorite “scents.” Samapti Kundu, a materials scientist involved in the work, told H2O Radio that the gel, called SNAP-X, was made from crustose coralline algae collected at a healthy reef in Hawai’i. When the gel was applied to substrates in lab experiments, it increased coral larvae settlement by up to 20 times compared to untreated surfaces.

Kundu said SNAP-X has the potential to help save reefs because it is like an extended-release drug that dispenses the attractive chemicals over time and for up to a month. They plan to test SNAP-X on an artificial reef during a spawning event this summer to see if larvae find it alluring.

The research, published in the journal Trends in Biotechnology, was conducted with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Reefense program, which seeks to develop self-healing, hybrid biological, and engineered reef-mimicking structures to protect coastlines and safeguard fisheries.

Ever wonder why, after a long swim in a pool, your fingers are all wrinkly and prune-like? Well, researchers at Binghamton University wondered too and they investigated whether, as it had been believed, it had to do with swelling under the skin.

Wrinkles form on fingers that have been submerged in water for a prolonged time. The pattern emerge the same way every time, according to new research. |  Credit: Brenderous/Creative Commons

It didn’t. Instead, in a study done in 2023, they found that wrinkles were caused by blood vessels contracting beneath the skin. But that wasn’t the end of the story. When they wrote about their research on the nonprofit news website The Conversation, a curious kid asked, “Do the wrinkles create the same pattern every time?”

That stumped the Binghamton team, so they investigated more, and, in a paper out last week, they say that, why yes, they do form the same pattern! As ScienceAlert explains, it’s because when water seeps into sweat ducts in our skin, it decreases the concentration of salt in the outer layer. Nerve fibers sense the change and trigger blood vessels to shrink, dragging our skin down with them. The authors say the reason the pattern stays the same is because blood vessels don’t change their position much on our hands.

During their research, the team also made an interesting discovery. They learned that people who have median nerve damage don’t develop wrinkles on their fingers. For the rest of us, the wrinkled response serves a purpose. It creates a more textured surface to grip objects or in the case of our feet, a way to walk safely on slippery ground.

While the study was conducted to answer a child’s simple question, the findings could have important implications for forensics, particularly in identifying fingerprints at crime scenes or bodies found underwater.

The study was published in the Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials.

In Congress last week, members of the House Natural Resources Committee sparred over whether potential seabed mining for critical minerals could lead to environmental damage. Scientific studies have shown that vacuuming up the seabed, especially below 200 meters to harvest minerals, could have devastating impacts on marine life and biodiversity by, among other things, creating sediment plumes and noise pollution.

The International Seabed Authority is headquartered in Kingston, Jamaica, and regulates seabed mining to ensure the marine environment is protected from any harmful effects.  |  Credit: James A.R. McFarlane/Creative Commons

The congressional hearing came just after the Metals Company, a Canadian firm, submitted the first application ever to the U.S. government asking for permission to mine the international waters of the Pacific between Hawai'i and Mexico. About ten days earlier, President Trump signed an executive order requiring the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to expedite permits for companies to mine in international and U.S. territorial waters.

At the House hearing, the ranking Democrat on the committee, Jared Huffman of California, said that the Canadian enterprise and the Trump administration were proceeding toward mining the seabed in a “reckless cowboy manner.” The New York Times reports that Huffman and other Democrats were skeptical of the need for cobalt and nickel from seabed nodules because electric vehicle manufacturers were shifting to batteries that did not use the minerals. The head of the Metals Company told the House committee that any damage to the seafloor would be far outweighed by growth in jobs and supply chains for the minerals that are controlled by China.

Trump’s order ignores an effort underway since 2014 by the UN International Seabed Authority, which has the responsibility of regulating mineral extraction on the seabed outside territorial waters. However, the U.S. is not a member of the organization. Other countries denounced Trump’s order. France has urged a moratorium on the practice until more is known about its impact. A French official told journalists that no one can claim the right to destroy the oceans, especially where they have no territorial rights.

A new study out last week found that plastic pollution is accumulating in all depths of the ocean, not just in swirling eddies at the surface, but all the way down to the sea floor. In that toxic mix are splintering fragments of water bottles, packaging, fishnets—and sanitary pads. Yes, disposable sanitary pads, which are composed of several layers of plastic, often end up in the ocean with an estimated 55,000 tonnes of the waste in North American water bodies each year alone.

Credit: Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition/Unsplash

Various sustainable alternatives have been promoted, but they’ve not gained market share due to higher production costs. However, a solution may be in the offing. According to a study published in the journal Sustainability Science and Technology, researchers have developed a biodegradable sanitary pad made from cornstarch.

The cornstarch yields a material called polylactic acid or PLA which can be extracted from corn, as well as from rice or sweet potatoes. Given that corn is one of the most widely grown crops in the world and cornstarch is easy to source, manufacturing the pads could be affordable and easily integrated into production methods.

There are some potential downsides. PLA could create a higher demand for farmland along with an increased use of fertilizers and pesticides. Also, the material requires industrial composting to biodegrade. That said, the sanitary pads would have a lower climate and environmental footprint than traditional ones that rely on fossil fuels and have a more toxic manufacturing process.

Throughout history, humans have reacted to solar eclipses with emotions ranging from fear to awe. Research has shown that animals respond, with some resorting to nighttime behaviors and others clustering together for safety. But according to a new study, trees also know something’s goin’ down. They can sense an eclipse long before it starts and send out warnings to younger trees who might not know what to expect.

Spruce trees in the Dolomite mountains of Italy synchronized their response to a solar eclipse. |  Credit: Monica Gagliano/Southern Cross University

Evolutionary ecologist Monica Gagliano from Southern Cross University in Australia led a study in which her team attached sensors to spruce trees (Picea abies) of various ages and sun exposures in the Dolomites of Italy to monitor their bioelectrical impulses during an eclipse in 2022. The movement of ions across cell membranes creates electrical currents in all organisms, including humans, which influences various biological processes.

They found that electrical activity of all trees became synchronized before and during the one-hour eclipse. These activities occurred at a microscopic level, such as inside water molecules of the trees, with older specimens having a more pronounced response, nearly 14 hours before younger ones. After the event ended, all the plants went back to business as usual.

In their paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, the authors suggest that trees might have sensed the eclipse because of gravimetric tides, which are subtle shifts in Earth’s gravity caused by the alignment of the sun and moon. During a solar eclipse when tides peak, the team says older trees with a more expansive root system could pick up on these changes—and remember them—similar to how plants might anticipate seasonal changes.

The authors say the trees’ electrical activity can influence an ecosystem’s resilience, biodiversity, and overall function by helping it cope with rapid and unpredictable changes, adding that the findings underscore the importance of protecting old-growth forests, especially in light of climate change.

This notion that trees communicate, in this and previous research by the team, has drawn some skepticism, but Gagliano insists this recent study furthers the science and the data show “we are watching the famous ‘wood wide web’ in action!”

This study will be featured in a new documentary, Il Codice del Bosco (The Forest Code), to be released this month.

There’s a massive wind power project that has been under construction since 2024 off New York’s Long Island coast, which when finished, could power 500,000 homes.

The Trump administration issued an order to stop construction of the Empire wind project, which could power more than half a million New York homes. | Credit: Empire Wind

Empire Wind 1, as it’s called, is being built by the Norwegian company Equinor. The project could have started supplying electricity next year, but it was halted last week by the Trump administration, after the contractor has already invested about $2 billion in it.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said through a social media post that the Biden administration had rushed the approval of the construction without sufficient analysis. However, no law or regulation has been cited to support Burgum’s claim. The environmental approval process for the Empire Wind 1 by the Bureau of Ocean Management started in 2021 and was completed about 2.5 years later after impact statements were issued and comment periods had run.

Reuters reports that currently the administration is speeding up environmental reviews for other projects after declaring a national energy emergency. Since his inauguration, Trump has issued executive orders aimed at propping up coal, oil, and gas. The president’s disdain for renewable energy, especially offshore wind, was shown just after his inauguration when he signed an executive order halting new leases in federal waters and suspending permits for all wind projects. In March, the administration revoked a permit for a wind project off New Jersey that had not yet started construction.

Recently, Trump falsely claimed that wind energy is harming whales, saying that it’s driving them “loco.”  The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration has concluded there is no evidence that offshore wind sites cause whale deaths.

Rice provides nourishment for nearly half of the world’s population, but according to a new study, climate change could make the staple toxic.

Credit: Angie/Creative Commons

Researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health say warming temperatures combined with rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels will cause higher concentrations of inorganic arsenic in rice, raising the risk of cancers and other conditions like heart disease and diabetes.

Arsenic gets into rice, partly because of how it’s grown. Farmers put seedlings in fields and then flood them so the plants can outcompete weeds. The rice sucks up the water—and everything in it—which can include both naturally occurring and pollution-based sources of arsenic.

The team says climate change will mean rice takes up more arsenic than it does now by altering the soil’s chemistry. More carbon and warmer temperatures will make arsenic-loving bacteria in soils more prolific and easier for the roots of rice plants to absorb. Given current projections for greenhouse gases and the likelihood that temperatures will exceed 2.0 C, the authors say that by 2050, there could be a sharp rise in lung and bladder cancers, especially for people in China who consume rice. 

There are a few things you can do to lower your exposure to arsenic. White and basmati rice tend to have less arsenic than brown. Also, rice from Nepal, north India or north Pakistan has less arsenic because those regions have lower amounts of the chemical in soils and water. On the agriculture side, the team recommends research into breeding plants that minimize arsenic uptake and improving soil management practices in rice paddies.

The study was published in The Lancet Planetary Health.

There’s a sh*t ton of plastic in landfills. Quite literally. Nearly 18 billion disposable diapers end up in dumps every year, which will take around 500 years to decompose. As they degrade, they leach chemicals into water and soils, as well as release methane, a potent greenhouse gas.  

Credit: Ip19216811/Creative Commons

There are alternatives, some made from cloth or others that are compostable, but a solution that uses the waste itself to decompose the diaper might be the hero we’ve been waiting for—hero as in HIRO Technologies, a startup in Austin, Texas, that’s made a diaper with plastic-eating fungi that feed off a baby’s poop.

According to the company’s kickstarter campaign, baby poop and urine are fertilizer for fungi, which as they munch, secrete enzymes that break down the carbon chains in plastic and convert it into soil. The HIRO “MycoDigestible” diaper is made with some of the same plastic as other brands, including polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polypropylene (PP), and polyethylene (PE), but the difference is that it comes with a fungi-filled pouch that’s placed in the diaper before it’s tossed in the garbage. After a few weeks in a landfill, the fungi awaken, and the magic starts to happen.

The HIRO solution comes on the heels of previous research and recent research around plastic-eating fungi that offers hope for tackling this outsized problem, in which microplastics are piling up in rivers, oceans, and even in us. Most experts say the goal should be to reduce the use of plastics in the first place. Additionally, current fungi-based solutions can’t yet be used at scale, something the HIRO company acknowledges and why their next step will be to work with landfills to add fungi to their operations. Perhaps with these new diapers, changing tables could be a place to start changing habits.

The Trump administration plans to abolish a key research division, the Oceanic and Atmospheric Research office of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA. The research office, which is said to be at the core of NOAA’s mission, focuses on oceans, climate, weather patterns, early warning systems for disasters, the Arctic, and even K-12 science education, among others.

Harmful algal blooms on Lake Erie are studied by NOAA's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory.  |  Credit: NOAA

According to a memo from the Office of Management and Budget, the elimination of the research office comes as part of a downsizing at NOAA, which would lose more than $1.5 billion from about a $6 billion budget. The research office allocation would drop from $485 million to about $170 million.

The downsizing was outlined in a memo obtained by Politico from current and former employees of NOAA which is aimed at balancing the federal budget. While the plans currently maintain spending levels for the National Weather Service, a part of NOAA, they are a step in the deconstruction of the agency, former NOAA Administrator Rick Spinard told Politico.

Project 2025, the conservative playbook for the first 180 days of a Republican presidency, said that NOAA should be disassembled because it creates much of the agency’s alarms over climate change. In line with Trump’s agenda, some of NOAA’s priorities are shifting away from activities like aquatic habitat conservation and restoration toward unleashing American energy and fossil fuel production.

With headlines of late being all about tariffs and their effects on global trade, here’s some news you might not have expected. Last Friday, April 11, over 100 countries reached a draft agreement to cut climate pollution from the shipping industry. That’s a remarkable development, given most goods involved in the current trade war move around the world on ocean-going vessels, which happen to belch a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions.

Credit: Luis Alfredo Romero/Creative Commons

Starting in 2028, ships over 5,000 gross tonnage, which collectively account for 85 percent of carbon dioxide emissions from the marine shipping fleet, will be required to increase their use of less carbon intensive fuels or face a penalty of $380 per metric ton exceeding a fixed emissions threshold, plus a penalty of $100 a ton on emissions above a stricter emissions limit. The agreement will reward vessels burning cleaner fuels. It will be formally adopted at an International Maritime Organization (IMO) meeting in October 2025.

The draft accord was signed at a meeting of the IMO and is expected to generate $40 billion by 2030—revenue that will be used to fund innovation in the shipping sector toward the UN agency’s goal to cut emissions 20 percent by 2030 and achieve net zero by 2050.

Most experts say those goals are not achievable. That sentiment is shared by Pacific Island nations, which are most affected by rising sea levels and who abstained from the vote, saying the agreement was too weak.

Oil-producing countries like Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Russia, and Venezuela also opposed the decision. Bloomberg reports that the United States pulled out of the talks, threatening to impose “reciprocal measures” against any fees charged to American ships. That’s probably more bark than bite because of the world’s 60,000 merchant ships, only 178 are U.S.-flagged, so not likely to affect revenues if they don’t comply.

Environmentalists criticized the deal, saying it will encourage destructive biofuels that can lead to deforestation, rather than more sustainable green hydrogen fuels. However, despite lacking unanimous support, the agreement marks the first time a global industry will pay a price on its climate pollution.

Flies. They can be so annoying, landing on our food, buzzing us like fighter pilots, and sometimes biting. Our reflex is to shoo them away or even swat them but researchers at the University of Exeter in the UK want us to show them more respect. They say all types of flies, ranging from houseflies, fruit flies, blowflies, hoverflies, and even mosquitoes, belong to an order called Diptera, which contains over a million species in total that keep ecosystems on Earth buzzing—in part because of the long distances they travel.

Blue bottle fly  | Credit: Philip Veater/Unsplash

When we think of migratory species, we think butterflies or birds, but until now, nobody really knew the extent to which flies were on the move. The authors say flies are the most numerous and ecologically important of all terrestrial migrants, and the ones making a pit stop at your picnic are simply fueling up, so they can carry out tasks ranging from pollinating crops, eating pests like aphids, transporting nutrients, and decomposing waste so the planet isn’t covered in rotting carcasses and animal dung.

The authors say that mostly females migrate, traveling through mountain passes high in the Himalayas, on ships hundreds of miles out to sea in the Gulf of Mexico, and in their millions migrating through western Europe. They grant that some species, like mosquitoes, carry disease and are increasing their range because of global warming, but for the most part, flies have a positive impact.

Unfortunately, like many animals on Earth, humans are making life difficult for flies through habitat destruction and pesticide use. Lead author Will Hawkes wrote in The Conversation that we need flies as much as we need the air we breathe. So, he says, “the next time you see a fly on your window, open it and let it out. It has a long way to go and important work to do.”

The study was published in the journal Biological Reviews.

There’s a drive in the U.S. to build small nuclear reactors that could meet the growing demand for electricity from artificial intelligence and other computing needs. SMRs, or small modular reactors, have a generating capacity of about one-third that of traditional nuclear plants. If permits are approved by the Nuclear Energy Commission, a firm will begin operating two small modular reactors in Michigan in 2030.

The Holtec Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan is the planned site for two small module reactors, which could begin operations in 2030.  |  Credit: Holtec International

The Associated Press reports that 25 states passed laws supporting nuclear energy last year, and high-tech companies like Google, Meta, and Microsoft view SMRs as meeting their electricity needs from low-carbon sources.

Those who support nuclear power say that it is cleaner than fossil fuels because it produces no carbon emissions. Some SMRs are designed to be cooled by light water, and others will use gas, molten salt, or liquid metal. The benefit of mini reactors is that they have simpler and more compact designs as well as reduced construction times and costs. They still produce nuclear waste, which takes thousands of years to break down. The Michigan facility plans to store waste onsite for up to 100 years. The Nuclear Energy Commission has said in a draft environmental assessment for the small Michigan reactors that they would not have a significant effect on the environment, including air quality, groundwater, and animal habitats.

There are still unanswered questions about safety of SMRs, especially disposal of waste. The Natural Resources Defense Council explained that the small reactors follow the same cycle as large ones, requiring preparation of the nuclear fuel and then the safe management and disposal of used but still radioactive fuels. The process could pose risks to workers and the public. As Inside Climate News reports, the U.S. does not have a plan for storing radioactive waste in the long term, and Edwin Lyman, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, told the outlet that there are serious questions about safety, efficiency, and reliability as claimed by the industry.

In 1990, the Clean Air Act was updated by Congress to eliminate acid rain by reducing power plant pollution. Unfortunately, acid rain could make a comeback.

Acid rain harms trees and other plants by stripping essential nutrients from the leaves and soil and by damaging roots.  |  Credit: alegria2014/Pixabay

Says who? Says the guy who identified it in the 1960s. Back then, Gene Likens conducted experiments in a New Hampshire forest showing the impacts of acid rain, which led to public outcry and, eventually, Congressional action. Last week, he told the Guardian that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under Trump is eliminating clean air and water regulations, which coupled with the administration’s desire to bring back coal, could drag the U.S. toward the toxic conditions of the 1970s.

Acid rain describes any form of precipitation—from snow, fog, hail, or rain—that contains high levels of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). While volcanoes can spew these chemicals into the atmosphere during an eruption, most airborne sources of these compounds are from burning fossil fuels—specifically from coal-fired power plants, factories, and vehicles.

When acid rain falls into streams, lakes, and wetlands it can harm fish and other wildlife. It’s also detrimental to plants and trees by robbing soils of nutrients and causing aluminum to be released in the soil, which makes it hard for trees to take up water. Acidic rain can even damage buildings and structures, causing them to corrode or to deteriorate.

Recent sampling of rainwater and soils in the White Mountains shows acidity levels have fallen by 85 percent since its peak in the 1970s, although Likens said the soil remains degraded and any return of acid rain to ecosystems in this fragile state would be disastrous. Working with Cornell University, Likens set up a monitoring system near New York’s Finger Lakes. It’s been running since 1976 but had its funding cut this month as part of the Trump administration’s effort to shrink the size of government.

Most of us have a healthy respect for lightning and will seek shelter during thunderstorms. But the almendro tree (Dipteryx oleifera), native to Central and South America, seems to dare nature to bring it on. According to new research by the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, the trees appear to thrive by getting zapped with millions of volts of electricity.

Also known as the eboe, choibá, tonka bean, or almendro, Dipteryx oleifera is native to Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and Ecuador. Its hard wood is used in construction, and it produces almond-flavored seeds that are edible and sold in local markets. A keystone species of Panamanian forests, D. oleifera fruits and seeds are a crucial food source for rainforest mammals such as agouti during the dry season.  |  Credit: Evan Gora/Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies

The discovery was made by lead author Evan Gora who, during fieldwork in Panama, noticed that the almendro had survived a lightning strike with little damage while more than a dozen neighboring trees died. He saw that the strike had not only left the tree mostly unscathed, it had also killed parasitic vines or lianas clinging to its branches.

His ensuing research of over 90 trees in Panama’s Barro Colorado Nature Monument concluded that seeking out lighting was a strategic move by the almendro to weed out competition for light and nutrients, both from other trees and the infesting vines. The team says almendros’ wide branching habit and height makes them natural lightning rods that are up to 68 percent more likely to get electrocuted than other trees, which in the end boosts the species’ ability to produce offspring by 14 times.

Climate change is increasing lightning in many regions, so that may give the almendro an edge. The team says that understanding lightning and its role in shaping the forests may be important for predicting changes in biodiversity and carbon storage and for informing tropical reforestation efforts. Given that the trees are very long lived—surviving up to one thousand years—they will likely be hit more than once, uprooting the idiom that lightning never strikes twice.

The study was published in the journal New Phytologist.

The U.S. has rejected a request made by Mexico for water from the Colorado River to help the city of Tijuana. Tijuana’s metropolitan area has more than five million people. It’s a manufacturing hub and depends on the Colorado River for about 90 percent of its water but suffers from leaky infrastructure and is now in drought as are other regions.

Tijuana  |  Credit: Cbojorquez75/Creative Commons

The State Department said the denial was because Mexico has not lived up to its obligations to deliver water to the U.S. under a 1944 treaty that benefits farmers in the Rio Grande Valley. Newsweek reports that Mexico had asked for the special delivery to Tijuana outside the framework of the treaty.

According to AFP, American farmers and lawmakers say that Mexico has been coming up short on its obligations to send water to reservoirs along the Rio Grande. Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, praised the State Department, saying he would work with the administration to pressure Mexico to get water to Texas farmers.

Climate change, population growth, and parched farmlands have made it difficult for Mexico to comply with its treaty obligations, according to its government. It’s the first time the U.S. has refused to help drought-stricken Tijuana.

Last Friday, March 21, was the first World Day for Glaciers meant to raise awareness about the critical role these massive frozen rivers of snow and ice play in our world. It coincided with World Water Day on March 22, which had the theme of glacier preservation.

Malaspina Glacier, Alaska  |  Credit: Jesse Allen/NASA Earth Observatory

Rising global temperatures are causing glaciers to retreat at a rapid rate, with five out of the past six years seeing the fastest loss on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Their State of the Global Climate 2024 report confirmed that from 2022-2024, there was the largest three-year loss of glaciers on record.  Sounding the alarm, they say much of what used to be called glaciers’ “eternal ice” will not survive the 21st century. A new report was released last week by the UN, “The United Nations World Water Development Report 2025, Mountains and glaciers: water towers.” The United Nations General Assembly declared 2025 as the International Year of Glaciers Preservation.

The WMO says preserving glaciers is not just an environmental and economic necessity. It’s a matter of survival. Mountains and glaciers—the water towers of the world—supply up to 70 percent of global freshwater. They also influence atmospheric circulation, shaping weather and precipitation, so their disappearance—and in many cases their irreversible retreat—will mean increased water scarcity, rising sea levels, and a higher likelihood of natural disasters like floods or landslides.

Glaciologists determine the health of glaciers by measuring how much snow falls on them and then how much melt occurs every year, according to UN partner the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) at the University of Zurich. The group estimates that based on their observations, glaciers (not including the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica) have lost a total of more than 9,000 billion tons since records began in 1975—the equivalent of an ice block the size of Germany, 25 meters thick. The largest annual mass loss on record happened in Scandinavia, Svalbard, and North Asia, but a study published last month in the journal Nature found that, at present melt rates, many glaciers in Western Canada, the U.S., Central Europe, and New Zealand will disappear by century’s end.

Part of the publicity for the first World Day for Glaciers included naming the first “Glacier of the Year,” which is the South Cascade Glacier in Washington state. The designation is meant to highlight the beauty of glaciers around the world and to honor the dedication of glaciologists who have been monitoring them for decades.

African penguins are an endangered species that live off the coasts of South Africa and Namibia. They’re threatened by depleted food sources from overfishing, climate change, and pollution.

Six African penguins at the New England Aquarium are settling into a new “retirement home” that is providing a comfortable environment as the birds age.  |  Credit: Vanessa Kahn/New England Aquarium

The animals can live up to 15 years, but in the wild it’s less likely because slowing down in old age can mean being eaten by a shark. But some lucky ducks…or penguins rather…who live at the New England Aquarium in Boston will reach a ripe old age because the facility has set up an old folk’s home of sorts for penguins—or perhaps an old flock’s home?

Last year, the Penguins and Pinnipeds department designated one island in their aquarium habitat specifically for the physical and behavioral needs of older birds. For the geriatric penguins, this means special treatment like being fed fish injected with water to promote kidney health, daily eye drops for cataracts, foot ointments to prevent infections, and even receiving acupuncture and physical therapy.

The tranquil island enclosure has some of the same accoutrements of human assisted living facilities, such as peace and quiet, as well as ramps and flat areas for birds with mobility challenges. Some of the oldest retirees are Harlequin, who’s 32, and Durban who’s 31, so the aquarium seems to be doing a good job at putting old age on ice.

Last week, the Supreme Court rejected the request of 19 Republican attorneys general, who wanted to block lawsuits brought against oil companies in state courts for financial damages from climate change.

A protester holds a sign about the climate change denial.  |  Credit: Johnny Silvercloud/Creative Commons

Five states, including Minnesota, California, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, have sued the corporations, including Exxon Mobil, BP, and the American Petroleum Institute, a lobbying group for the industry.

Some of the claims allege that the fossil fuel companies have deceived the public for decades about the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on global warming. The Republicans argued that the states are trying to determine national energy policy and will increase energy costs.

It’s the second time this year that the Supreme Court turned away attempts to get the court to intervene in this type of case. In January, a majority of the justices rejected the appeal of a decision from Hawai’i allowing Honolulu to sue Shell, among others. The New York Times reports that there are dozens of ongoing suits against fossil fuel companies to recover damages.  

Last week, nearly 200 environmental groups sounded the alarm that the fossil fuel industry may try to get Congress to pass legislation granting them immunity from being sued, similar to what gun manufacturers have obtained. In a letter to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the advocates warned that the industry will use the chaos of the new administration to pass laws that shield it from liability.

The Guardian reports that the fossil fuel industry has tried to obtain immunity for years, and now the companies are likely worried about new state laws aimed at making them pay to clean up the climate. Vermont and New York have passed bills that are modeled on the U.S. superfund program, and ten other states are considering such legislation.

Currently, there are some 11,000 satellites above the Earth that facilitate global communications, navigation, weather forecasting, and banking. That number is expected to grow rapidly with as many as 70,000 being launched over the next five years, according to Goldman Sachs Research.

The Antarctic aurora, photographed by ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst. Auroras primarily occur in Earth’s thermosphere, which is an upper layer of the atmosphere.  |  Credit: Alexander Gerst, European Space Agency

Suffice it to say, it’s getting crowded in the upper atmosphere, and there aren’t garbage trucks picking up dead satellites and other debris, ranging from old booster rockets, lost tools, and even paint flecks, which can cause severe damage to other spacecraft. Once out of commission, satellites are either catapulted into a so-called “graveyard orbit” thousands of miles above the Earth or allowed to fall toward the surface, burning up on their way down.

However, because of climate change, the number of satellites above the planet could be limited. MIT researchers have found that greenhouse gas emissions are causing the upper atmosphere called the thermosphere, (between around 60 to 600 miles above the ground), to shrink, leaving not only less space for future satellites but also making the ones already up there less able to fall to Earth. While greenhouse gases warm Earth's lower atmosphere, they cool the thermosphere and make it less dense. That decreased density reduces “atmospheric drag”—a force that pulls old satellites and other debris earthward where they encounter air molecules and incinerate.

Less drag means more space junk is going to pile up, reducing the areas to launch new satellites and making the likelihood of collisions even greater. The researchers predict that by the year 2100, the carrying capacity of the most popular locations to orbit Earth could be reduced by 50 to 66 percent.

The study was published in the journal Nature Sustainability.

The proverb “all's fair in love and war” could be on the mind of the male blue-lined octopus (Hapalochlaena fasciata) as he begins to make his move with the female of his species.

Blue-lined octopus (Hapalochlaena fasciata)  |  Credit: Totti/Creative Commons

The palm-size octopus, which lives in shallow reefs and tide pools on the east coast of Australia, needs to be calculating, not because the ladies are twice his size but because she plans to eat him after they mate. In her defense, lead author Wen-Sung Chung says eating males helps females to acquire the energy needed to produce eggs and then incubate them.

So, the male's strategy? Paralyze her before copulating. That’s according to researchers at the University of Queensland who observed a male biting the aorta of a female and injecting a venom called tetrodotoxin (TTX), causing her to turn pale and her breathing to slow. Within an hour she had returned to normal but not before the male had transferred his sperm and made his getaway.

The researchers note that the neurotoxin disabled the female only temporarily, but we should bear in mind that all octopuses are venomous to ward off prey. Humans should keep their distance—especially avoiding contact with a related species called the blue-ringed octopus—one of the ocean's most dangerous animals, whose tetrodotoxin venom can cause muscle paralysis, dizziness, vomiting, difficulty breathing, and even death. There is no known antidote. That said, this call to arms between the two sexes of blue-lined octopus is a bit confounding as both are believed to mate only once and die shortly after.

The study was published in the journal Current Biology.

Representatives of numerous countries resumed a UN biodiversity conference called COP16 in Rome last week after it had been suspended last year in Cali, Colombia, and they made some progress toward stemming extinction and environmental degradation. 

The nations, not including a delegation from the U.S., worked on the Global Biodiversity Framework with a goal of putting 30 percent of the planet and 30 percent of degraded ecosystems under protection by 2030. Because of human activities, as many as one million plant and animal species are at risk of extinction. An assessment concluded that climate change is a major driver of wildlife decline.
 
About three years ago, developed nations committed to deliver $20 billion for biodiversity finance by this year, which has not been met. In Rome, last week, conferees agreed to look for new financial paths and to urge development banks to increase biodiversity funding, according to the Guardian. They also agreed on how to monitor accountability of countries’ meeting their funding goals.

The conference launched the Cali Fund, which will receive contributions from companies that meet certain criteria on the amount of sales, profits, and assets. The fund, named after the host city in Colombia, will receive money from private sector companies that make profits using natural resources like plants in the rainforest to make medicines and other products.

The UN’s biodiversity efforts trace back to 1992, and talks have been ongoing among global representatives similar to COP meetings on climate change. In 2024, the biodiversity conference disassembled, after failing to reach an agreement.

One observer, Oscar Soria of the Common Initiative think tank, told the Associated Press that the representatives had made a positive step on funding, but the effectiveness will depend upon the implementation of commitments and the political will of countries to increase contributions.

The parties have yet to agree on limiting pollution and subsidies by governments that destroy nature, such as those received by the oil and gas sector.

Studies have shown that drinking tea can boost your immune system, fight inflammation, and even reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease. Now, according to new research, you can add another reason to enjoy a cup—tea leaves can remove lead and toxic heavy metals from water.

A cup of black tea  |  Credit: Sm faysal/Creative Commons

A team from Northwestern University found that tea leaves naturally adsorb heavy metals like lead, chromium, and cadmium, by trapping dangerous contaminants on their surface during brewing. The researchers experimented with a “typical” cup of tea—one bag steeped in hot water for three to five minutes—and found it remediated about 15 percent of the lead they added to the mug, even with concentrations as high as 10 parts per million.

Brewing for longer than five minutes adsorbed more lead, but let’s face it, that might not make for a very tasty drink. They tested several teas, including green, black, oolong, and white, as well as chamomile and rooibos and found that black tea had slightly better adsorption because its wrinkled leaves increase the surface area for uptake of the metals. It turns out the tea bag mattered. The team found cotton and nylon ones only adsorbed trivial amounts of the contaminants, while cellulose types worked much better.

We are exposed to lead from products like ceramics, cosmetics, toys, and household paint as well as through water pipes or fixtures. Long-term exposure to lead and other heavy metals is associated with several health impacts, including links to kidney disease, nervous system disorders, immune system dysfunction, birth defects, and cancer.

While the research may be good news for tea drinkers in developed countries with water utilities, it could be a significant finding for people living in areas with untreated water, who can brew tea leaves to naturally get the lead out.

The study was published in the journal ACS Food Science & Technology.

If you can’t beat ‘em—eat ‘em. That seems to be the plan at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is asking Americans to protect marshland ecosystems by eating giant, invasive rodents called nutria. Rather than just complaining about them, the agency says, let’s put them on the menu.

Nutria (Myocastor coypus) have voracious appetites for vegetation, which destroys marshland ecosystems.  |  Credit: Tambako The Jaguar/Creative Commons

Using the slogan: “Save a Swamp, Sauté a Nutria,” the agency showcased the critter, which looks like a cross between a beaver and an otter, during last month’s Invasive Species Awareness Week (Feb. 24-28, 2025) and enticed people to put the so-called river rats on their dinner plates, saying its meat is lean, mild, and “tastes like rabbit” or dark turkey meat.

Nutria (Myocastor coypus) were brought to the U.S. in the late 1800s from South America for their fur, but it didn’t take long for things to get out of hand. The animals, which can weigh up to 20 pounds and grow up to three feet long if you include their tails, now live in rivers, creeks, and ponds in 40 U.S. states.

Their voracious appetite for vegetation causes erosion, loss of habitat, and wetland destruction. According to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, nutria can consume up to 25 percent of their body weight in above- and below-ground vegetation each day. They also “serve as hosts for tuberculosis and septicemia, which are threats to humans, livestock, and pets. Additionally, nutria carry tapeworms, a nematode that causes a rash known as ‘nutria itch,’ and blood and liver flukes, which can contaminate swimming areas and drinking water supplies.”

Want to pitch in to eradicate the invaders? The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has got you covered with recipes for nutria sausage, chili, jambalaya, and gumbo. Whether you decide to barbecue, broil, or roast them, it could be one way to drain the swamp.

Ever since Trump announced that he wants the U.S. to acquire Greenland, it’s become clear that he covets the island in part because of its natural resources, including fossil fuels and critical minerals for electronics. However, even during a recent Senate hearing on the matter, the hazards to reaping those benefits were not examined.

The Ilulissat Icefjord, Greenland  |  Credit: Greenland Travel/Creative Commons

Writing in The Conversation, Paul Bierman of the University of Vermont explains that rapid global warming increases what is already a substantial personal and economic risk for those who would work there extracting resources, not to mention to the nearly 60,000 people who currently live there. A recent study by the University of Durham shows that the ice sheet is falling apart because of climate change, which threatens Greenland’s infrastructure. Record floods have destroyed 50-year-old bridges.

Bierman, a geoscientist explains that the coastline is prone to rockslides, and because ice, which stabilized nearly vertical walls has now melted, the deep fjords are prone to collapse. Also, with no system of paved roads, the only way to transport minerals, fuels, and equipment is by sea, which is vulnerable to tsunamis triggered by the slides. Global warming has also thawed permafrost underneath the island, destabilizing the landscape and weakening steep slopes. More melting leads to more icebergs calving, which pose risks to oil rigs at sea.

Bierman states that Greenland’s value to the world is not its fossil fuels and minerals, but its ice, which if melts in entirety, could raise global sea levels up to 23 feet.

In 2021, the European Union adopted its European Green Deal to become climate-neutral by 2050 and halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 in comparison to 1990. This would be accomplished by switching from fossil fuels and nuclear power to renewable energy. However, according to new research, that goal might hit some headwinds—or rather a lack of them. A new study shows global warming is reducing wind speeds during European summers, just as soaring temperatures are boosting demand for electricity to run air conditioners and refrigeration.

Credit: London Rachel, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Creative Commons

H2O Radio spoke with the lead author, Gan Zhang, a climate scientist at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He said that reduced wind speed, known as “stilling,” is happening as Earth’s land and troposphere (the part of the atmosphere closest to the planet’s surface) heat up. Zhang explained that winds are driven in part by the temperature difference between the cold air at the poles and warmer air at midlatitudes. As Arctic air warms because of climate change, the temperature gap between the poles and lower latitudes is shrinking, causing wind speeds to weaken.

How much? The study projects that wind speeds in Europe could decline by five percent between now and 2050. While that might not sound like much, it could be enough to affect wind power generation. If climate change goes unchecked, output from wind turbines during the summer months in the latter part of the century could drop by 25 percent. Zhang said that the phenomenon is also occurring in the other parts of the Northern Hemisphere, including North America and East Asia. The study emphasizes the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible so clean wind power can be deployed to its full potential.

The study was published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

In the Czech Republic, officials have spent seven years trying to develop a solution to protect the Klabava River, south of Prague, from sediment and acidic water spilling from nearby ponds contaminated by previous military activity. Officials determined that a dam would solve the problem, and as a bonus, create nature-rich wetlands, so they secured $1.2 million (30 million Czech koruna) to fund the project. However, it became stalled over permitting and land ownership disagreements.

Eurasian beaver  |  Credit: Marie and Alistair Knock/Creative Commons

Meanwhile, as Radio Prague International reported, seemingly overnight and without permits, plans, or patience for red tape—dams got built. Not by humans but by a colony of eight beavers who constructed several barriers exactly where humans wanted them—and for free.

Scientists often call beavers “ecosystem engineers” and Jaroslav Obermajer, head of the Central Bohemian office of the Czech Nature and Landscape Protection Agency, agreed, saying the rodents had intuitively selected the best location for their dams—better than what engineers had planned.

The Eurasian beavers, which were once hunted nearly to extinction, are being celebrated by environmentalists who say the wetlands and pools the beavers created will be excellent habitat for the rare stone crayfish, as well as numerous insects, fish, amphibians, birds, and other wildlife. Leave it to beavers.

As he did during his first term, Trump announced that he is pulling the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement on climate that aims to keep global warming at 1.5 C.  Now, the U.S. joins with just three others not participating—Yemen, Iran, and Libya. Despite Trump’s declaration, the governors of 24 states in the U.S. Climate Alliance, said they remain committed to the goals of the climate pact.

Michael Bloomberg is the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions.  |  Credit: Nikki Ritcher Photography/Creative Commons

While the U.S. is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases next to China, it may be better for the country to be out of the agreement while Trump is president, says Rebekkah Markey-Towler of the University of Melbourne. She writes in The Conversation that while the climate talks continue, the rest of the world can keep working on climate goals without Trump’s corrosive and destabilizing influence. She points out that if he had stayed in, the U.S. could try to weaken any agreements struck at future COP meetings as did Saudi Arabia at the last conference in Baku. She added that other nations like China and the EU will continue to lead on climate action.

Meanwhile, Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, said that his foundation will contribute the money owed by the U.S. to the UN for its financial obligations under the Paris Agreement. According to The Hill, the U.S. pays about 20 percent of the UN’s climate budget, which was about $7.5 million last year.

When the fires broke out in the Los Angeles area, researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and NOAA were conducting routine surveys of the coastal waters off Southern California, as they’ve done for over 75 years. The survey is part of the collaborative California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) program, which was initiated to understand why the state’s once prolific sardine population, made famous in John Steinbeck’s novel Cannery Row, had plummeted.

Several smoke plumes billow over the Pacific Ocean from Los Angeles-area fires in the days after their ignition. Photo on January 14, 2025.  |  Credit: NASA

According to a Scripps press release, on January 8—the day after the Palisades fire started—the crew could see large plumes of smoke in the distance and some of the ash was falling on the ship as it neared Catalina Island about 22 miles from the coast. Even as they made their way west to a sampling location past San Nicolas Island, some 100 miles offshore, the ashfall and burnt debris were still visible. Recognizing the opportunity to track effects of the fire on the marine ecosystem, the vessel changed course and headed toward shore, where the crew began collecting samples of the debris on the ship’s deck and in surrounding waters.

While ash from forest fires frequently deposits in the ocean, and some research has shown it can act as a fertilizer for a group of marine algae called diatoms, the L.A. fires were consuming not only vegetation but also massive amounts of urban infrastructure, potentially filled with toxic materials such as heavy metals like lead and arsenic, as well as asbestos fibers, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and microplastics.

According to project leader Julie Dinasquet of Scripps Oceanography, the team found that some pieces of charred material were up to five centimeters (two inches) long. To fully understand the impact, the team sampled both surface water as well as deeper layers down to 330 feet to see how far the particles were sinking.

Long after the fires are extinguished, testing will look for traces of toxic materials in the tissue of organisms from plankton to larger fishes, including anchovy eggs abundant in waters downwind of the fires. They have collected samples both before and after the eggs were exposed to ash and other debris, to look for any change in their number and distribution or any effects on their early development.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health issued an advisory urging residents to avoid swimming, surfing, and playing at certain L.A. beaches until further notice due to toxic ash from surface runoff and smoke. While rain is expected in the area and could help in firefighting efforts, it could also send more debris offshore.

Antibiotics have been used to treat bacterial infections since the early 20th century, but their overuse has led to superbugs that are resistant to many medications. Globally, nearly five million people die each year from antimicrobial-resistant infections and that number could rise to 40 million deaths by 2050, so there’s an urgent need to find new drugs.

Extracting hemolymph—the oyster's blood or circulatory fluid—during laboratory experiments  |  Credit Kirsten Benkendorff/Southern Cross University)

Turns out that oysters may offer pearls of wisdom. According to new research by Southern Cross University, proteins in the hemolymph (the equivalent of blood) of Sydney rock oysters (Saccostrea glomerata) can kill certain bacteria responsible for a range of infections.

Oysters, which are filter feeders, have evolved strong defense mechanisms against bacteria in their marine environments, and one such weapon is a protein in their blood that can prevent and disrupt biofilms—sticky substances created by bacterial cells to evade a host’s immune system and any antibiotics they may be taking. The researchers found that not only can the protein disarm biofilms, it can also significantly improve the effectiveness of antibiotics to which bacteria have become resistant, such as ampicillin and gentamicin.

While a new antibiotic drug derived from oyster blood is still some time off, the discovery brings hope for natural alternatives to treat infections. Until then, the researchers say don’t slurp oysters in place of using antibiotics but do go ahead and enjoy them. They contain zinc, fatty acids, and vitamins that can keep you healthy.

The study was published in the journal Plos One.

Currently, there are at least 44 cases around the country in which oil and energy companies are being sued for billions of dollars in damages caused by climate change. Some of those fossil fuel companies asked the United States Supreme Court to halt a case in Hawaii, but last week their request was denied.

U.S. Supreme Court allows Hawai’i lawsuit against oil companies for climate change damages to proceed.  |  Credit: Marielam1/Creative Commons

The decision means that the City of Honolulu’s lawsuit will move forward instead of being cut off at the knees, which Shell, Exxon, Mobil, and others had wanted. If the defendants had won, it is likely they would have asked that all the other climate cases be paused.

Across the U.S., states and municipal governments want to hold the fossil fuel companies responsible for the effects of floods, wildfires, and pollution that are made worse by climate change. In the Hawai’i cases, the city of Honolulu is suing the large oil companies for their involvement in increasing fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions that have caused damage. The state’s highest court had allowed the case to proceed and now, so has the Supreme Court. Lawyers for Honolulu will now proceed to get documents from the companies and question executives about their knowledge of how their products caused global warming and when they knew it.

The high court’s ruling last week does not mean the cases won’t still face an uphill battle when they get back to the conservative-dominated justices in the future.

A new study is floating the idea that, if we put solar panels on reservoirs around the country, we could generate up to 1,476 terawatt-hours of electricity—enough energy to power 100 million homes a year.

A floating photovoltaic power plant on a reservoir in Taiwan  |  Credit: Eric Deng/Creative Commons

Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have used detailed criteria to get a more accurate picture of the potential of using so-called “floating PV” atop federally owned or regulated reservoirs.

Not all reservoirs are equal when it comes to floating solar, and the team is the first to identify which ones would work best, in terms of being deep enough, not too cold, and not too steep to secure panels in place. Some reservoirs are not good candidates because boat wakes could damage mooring lines or impact an array’s infrastructure.

Floating PV has many benefits, such as not gobbling up lots of land for a solar installation. They can shade and cool reservoirs to help prevent evaporation and conserve supplies. In turn, the water can cool the panels to improve their efficiency and increase electricity output. Despite all this, there aren’t any large-scale floating installations over 10 megawatts currently in the U.S.

The team says that hydropower reservoirs could be ideal locations for floating solar since they are already connected to transmission lines. The floating PV could provide more reliable and resilient energy to the grid if, for example, a drought drops water levels too low to run turbines.

In their next study, the researchers plan to review environmental impacts such as how panels would affect aquatic plants and wildlife, as well as look at potential locations, like estuaries and even the ocean.

The study was published in the journal Solar Energy.

If dry conditions are on the horizon for your area this spring and summer, you might conclude that it would mean fewer mosquitoes, but according to new research, drought makes mosquitoes extra bitey.

UC postdoctoral researcher Christopher Holmes works with mosquitoes in a biology lab.  |  Credit: Andrew Higley/UC Marketing + Brand

Biologists at the University of Cincinnati say mosquitoes can weather prolonged droughts by drinking blood, which can help them boost their populations when it finally rains. Typically, female mosquitoes draw blood from a host—an animal or you and me—to fuel their egg production. About four days later, they lay their eggs and hunt for another blood meal to repeat the process.

But during drought, they will suck a lot more blood to stay hydrated before laying their eggs. This extra biting could give mosquitoes the chance to spread diseases like dengue fever, Zika, or malaria, said lead author Christopher Holmes. In particular, Aedes aegypti mosquitoes—known vectors of many viruses that kill more than 700,000 people annually—can survive long dry periods on blood alone and the females’ eggs can last for up to a year and then hatch when it rains.

Holmes adds that mosquitoes are benefiting from climate change as winters get warmer and extreme swings between drought and flood become more common. Also, the insects are highly adaptable. The oldest ones predate dinosaurs and no doubt annoyed prehistoric creatures too.

The study was published in the journal iScience.

President Joe Biden is moving to secure his green record. On Monday, January 6, he was expected to block future oil and gas drilling in more than 625 million acres of ocean off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

The Biden administration is planning to ban oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, where the Deepwater Horizon disaster occurred. The ban will also include parts of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.  |  Credit: U.S. Coast Guard

The ban will also include parts of the Bering Sea in Alaska and eastern regions of the Gulf of Mexico that have been eyed by the oil and gas industry to be part of its offshore plans. In total, the ban covers an area about equal to 25 percent of all U.S. land.  

The Washington Post reported that Biden’s action could affect the Gulf of Mexico the most. That area makes up around 15 percent of U.S. oil production centered in waters off Louisiana. The coasts of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina are already under an oil exploration moratorium imposed by President Trump during his first term.

While environmentalists were supportive of Biden’s intended move, industry criticized it, touting its safety record, but the ban might be hard to undo. President Barack Obama prohibited oil and gas exploration in parts of the Northern Bering Sea off the west coast of Alaska, and a federal judge ruled five years ago that the order could not be reversed except by an act of Congress. There is already some movement in Congress to do just that, with some, like Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) calling it a war on American energy.

In other actions, President Biden will go to California this week to designate two national monuments in regions that are sacred to Native Americans, the Chuckwalla National Monument in Southern California near Joshua Tree National Park and the Sáttítla National Monument near Oregon. The designations would prohibit drilling, mining, solar farms, and other industry in the monuments.  

Research has shown that many types of tea from green to black can boost your immune system, fight inflammation, and even reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease. But according to a new study, enjoying a cup could mean you’re taking in billions of pieces of microplastics with every sip.

Public domain

A team of researchers led by Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona analyzed tea bags made from three types of polymers: polypropylene, nylon-6, and cellulose. They found that, to varying degrees, each one releases micro and nanoplastics (MNPLs) during the steeping process.

Polypropylene shredded the most, infusing around 1.2 billion particles of plastic per milliliter, which is around 20 drops of tea. Bags made of cellulose released 135 million particles, and the nylon ones released 8.18 million particles per milliliter.

Where did all that plastic go? The team stained the particles and injected them into cells from a human intestine to track their movement. They found that certain digestive cells that produce mucus in the gut absorbed the highest amount of plastic, and that some of the particles had even entered the nucleus of the cells where genetic material is kept.

One of the study’s authors, Ricardo Marcos Dauder, told Newsweek that the research suggests that nanoplastics can easily "cross biological barriers" into the blood and then affect different organs.

Tea bags are just one of many ways we are exposed to plastics in our food. The particles have been found in water bottles, packaging, as well as the food itself, and scientists are just beginning to understand the health impacts. There are ways to minimize your risk from tea. Several brands claim they make bags without plastics, such as Traditional Medicinals, Yogi Tea, and Numi. You can also buy loose leaf tea instead.

The study was published in the journal Chemosphere.

Move over, pumpkin spice. Pistachio could be all the rage in lattes…not to mention cookies, casseroles, and even fashion—Glamour magazine says pistachio green will be the color of 2025.

Credit: Danielle Scott/Flickr

Wardrobe aside, pistachios are gaining popularity because of numerous health benefits from preventing heart disease, managing blood sugar, and reducing colon cancer risk to being a good source of protein, antioxidants, and fiber. A study from Tufts University last October found that lutein in pistachios can significantly improve eye health—especially by preventing macular degeneration.

But there is more than meets the eye, so to speak. U.S. pistachios, which are mostly grown in California, are very drought tolerant because they have deep roots that can sustain the trees during dry periods, making them an attractive alternative for farmers to grow instead of thirsty almonds. Their growing popularity, as the Guardian explains, is at the intersection of climate and the marketplace, where, as global warming makes periods of wet and dry conditions more extreme, sustainable crops are needed that can cope.

Pistachios generated nearly $3 billion in California last year, and in the past decade, the United States bypassed Iran to become the world’s top exporter of the nut—which technically is a drupe—a fruit similar to peaches, plums, and cherries where an outer fleshy part surrounds a pit with a seed inside. Hey, we don’t make the rules.

In other news last week, nothing happened. Nothing happened after two weeks of talking about how to deal with global droughts that are being made worse by climate change.

Human-driven climate change has sapped the equivalent of a full Lake Mead from the Colorado River Basin, according to research in AGU’s journal Water Resources Research. |  Credit: Silvia Fang/Unsplash

Representatives of nearly 200 countries were unable to agree on solutions at biennial talks organized by the UN to create requirements to combat desertification and droughts, particularly in Africa where people are impacted most. A report released last week from the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) concludes that the drying out and degradation of Earth is an existential crisis that might affect five billion people by 2100 and could force many to leave their homes and livelihoods. It said that farming was especially at risk.

The parties at the conference did say that any new agreement they make should be legally binding, however, Jex Weigelt of TMG, a sustainability think tank, told CBS News that he fears these drought talks suffered the same fate as climate and biodiversity COPs earlier this year.

Nothing also happened toward reaching an agreement among the seven states in the West that depend on the Colorado River, on how to reduce water use as the area faces increasing aridification.

At the annual Colorado River conference in Las Vegas, there were disagreements between two main groups, those states in the lower basin, California, Nevada, and Arizona, and those in the upper basin, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. The groups appeared to disagree even about whether representatives of the states would meet. The Los Angeles Times reported that Becky Mitchell, Colorado’s lead negotiator said she had expected them all to get together, but that did not occur. However, J.B. Hamby, California's Colorado River commissioner, said after the conference that the lower basin states had not denied any request to meet, and he blamed the upper basin states for stubbornly resisting participation in cutbacks to Colorado River water use.

Meanwhile, the Colorado River Basin continues to dry. Its water is over allocated, and the average flow has declined around 20 percent since 2000, with half of that caused by the burning of fossil fuels, according to scientists at UCLA.

In response to global warming, many cities are deploying the “nature-based solution” of planting trees to cool things down. Trees not only provide shade but also improve air and acoustic quality, support physical and mental health, and protect biodiversity.

A variety of trees may help to keep cities cooler both in the daytime and at night.  |  Credit: T. R. Shankar Raman/Creative Commons

However, according to a new study led by the University of Cambridge, some trees can make urban areas hotter—because of what happens at night. During the day, trees cool cities by blocking the sun’s rays, transpiring water during photosynthesis, and changing airflow with their leaves. At night, their canopies can trap urban heat at the ground level.

The authors analyzed 182 studies covering 17 climates in 110 global cities or regions published between 2010 and 2023, to produce the first comprehensive global assessment of urban tree cooling.

The researchers say that the type of tree, the city’s climate, as well as its urban structure can influence how much a tree can cool an area, both night and day. They found that cities with open layouts and a variety of deciduous and evergreen species of different heights were cooler, especially in temperate and tropical climates. In dense, arid cities like Cairo or Dubai, drought-resistant evergreen trees were most effective. The researchers developed an interactive map to help planners make decisions based on data from cities with similar climates and urban design. The study was published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.

Meanwhile, in another study also led by Cambridge researchers and published in the journal Nature Geoscience, they found that planting trees in the Arctic could make global warming worse. Climate change is making it possible to plant trees in northern latitudes, but that doesn’t mean we should. They say that soils in the Arctic tundra store more carbon than all vegetation on Earth and that planting trees there would soak up more solar radiation than white snow, which is already helping to cool the planet by reflecting heat back into space.

Both studies highlight the good intentions of tree planting schemes but that putting the wrong tree in the wrong place could backfire.

Last year, researchers in Israel revealed that plants make clicking noises when they’re stressed, injured, or dehydrated. These plaintive cries are at high frequencies imperceptible to humans, so who’s listening? According to a new study from the same team at Tel Aviv University—moths are.

Egyptian cotton leafworm moth (Spodoptera littoralis) will make sure a plant is healthy before laying eggs.  |  Credit: Katja Schulz/Flickr

When moths are deciding where to lay their eggs, the moms naturally want to choose a plant that’s healthy with leaves that can provide food for their caterpillars, so would they steer away from a tomato plant crying in despair?

To find out, the team put female moths called Egyptian cotton leafworms (Spodoptera littoralis) in an arena with two healthy, well-hydrated tomato plants on opposite sides of a room. They played recorded clicking sounds beside one of the plants, and the insects made a beeline to the plant that sat in silence. While indicative that sound played a role in insect’s decision making, the team says other cues could be at work such as scent, so studies in the real world are needed.

But enough about the moths. Didn’t it occur to anyone that the tomato plant was the hero here? It cried, leaf me alone...and it worked.

The research preprint was published at bioRxiv.

2023 was off the charts. Records were broken for sea level rise, Antarctic sea ice loss, glacial retreat, and global average temperatures that climbed to almost 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Clouds regulate the amount of solar radiation absorbed by the planet.  |  Credit: Lukas/Pexels

Scientists at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany sought to identify the cause of these sudden and unanticipated increases. They found that man-made greenhouse gases, volcanoes, and the El Niño weather phenomenon could explain much of the warming but not all of it. They noticed that last year was unlike any other because of its low albedo. Albedo is the fraction (percentage) of light or solar energy that is reflected into space. Albedo has been in decline since the 1970s, in part because of the loss of Arctic snow and sea ice and more recently the decline in Antarctic sea ice. As ice melts, the water or earth below it absorbs more energy and warms up. However, those snow and sea ice declines didn’t account for all the decrease in albedo.

Now, the researchers are suggesting that last year’s increase in warming was because Earth is less able to reflect heat from sunlight because certain types of clouds are disappearing that have high albedo, specifically ones that form at lower altitudes and in middle latitudes.

What’s leading to fewer of those clouds? Mostly it’s from greenhouse gas emissions, but some of the decline could be from more stringent regulations in the shipping industry to eliminate fuels with sulfur-dioxide, which reduced pollutants that, ironically, created low-level clouds.

The cloud study was published in the journal Science.

People living along the U.S. west coast understand they live in earthquake country and that one day “the big one” will strike, but they might not think it could include a wall of water.

Tsunami evacuation route sign San Francisco  |  Credit: Steven Lek/Creative Commons

On December 5, that possibility entered the consciousness of around five million people in Oregon and California following an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter Scale that struck off the coast of Petrolia, California—about 200 miles north of San Francisco. Shortly after, text alerts went to residents as far south as the Bay Area warning of a possible tsunami.

An hour later, the warning was canceled but not the lingering revelation that tsunamis, albeit rare, are a possibility. In fact, the California Geological Survey says that since the 1800s, about 150 have struck the coast with the majority being a whimper of a wave to others more devastating, the most recent of which followed a volcanic eruption near Tonga in the South Pacific and caused nearly $10 million in flood damage in parts of Santa Cruz and Ventura. In 2011, an earthquake in Japan resulted in over $100 million in damage to California marinas and harbors.

Tsunamis are not one but a series of waves, the first of which is usually not the highest that can be over 50 feet tall. Tsunamis can inundate land up to one mile from the shore, so beaches, lagoons, bays, estuaries, tidal flats, and river mouths are dangerous places to be.

The December 5 tremblor was a strike slip earthquake with lateral motion on the Mendocino fracture zone, where two plates move past each other in a side to side motion but not with much up and down movement needed to generate a tsunami.

In addition to official alerts, how would coastal inhabitants know if a tsunami is possible in their area? According to the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services, hearing a loud ocean roar and seeing water recede unusually far to expose the sea floor may indicate a tsunami is imminent and may last for several hours. If you live in California, the state publishes a Tsunami Hazard Area Map. Also, if there was a strong earthquake lasting longer than 20 seconds and you are in a tsunami hazard zone, evacuate to higher ground as soon as it is safe.

Thinking about buying an electric vehicle but concerned about finding charging stations to avert “range anxiety”? No worries. According to Mercedes-Benz, one day your car itself could be the charger.

Credit: Mercedes-Benz

The company is exploring coating vehicles with “solar paint” to harness the sun’s energy. The paint, which is actually a paste of solar modules thinner than a human hair, could produce enough electricity for a midsize SUV to travel up to 7,456 miles (12,000 kilometers) a year—whether it’s parked or moving. That figure would vary by location, but in sunny Los Angeles, it could mean drivers would never have to plug in again—or if they did, the surplus energy could power their homes.

The cars would have a typical paint job over the paste, although it would be a special nanoparticle-based concoction that would let solar energy pass through to charge the battery. Mercedes doesn’t reveal the ingredients of the paste, only that it has a high level of efficiency, contains no rare earth metals or silicon, and uses only non-toxic, readily available raw materials. They add that it’s recyclable and cheaper to produce than conventional solar modules.

Mercedes says the solar paint is still in R&D, and it could be a few years before we see vehicles coated with it in a showroom, but it begs the question: Why stop with cars? Maybe let’s apply it to buildings and roads? Now, that would be a “brilliant” solution.
 

Could Edible Plastic Reduce the Growing Scourge? (bonus content)

There have been two developments toward solving the plastic and microplastic problem. First, scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have made a new kind of material that is resilient and affordable and can be degraded by bacteria.  

They created a composite using an amino acid called tyrosine and cellulose to form a strong material. They hope it could meet the needs of various industries from cars to airplanes and bikes. They say their material is edible, both ingredients being found in cheese, but they say they don’t know if it's tasty, as their process was not done in hygienic conditions. The study was published in the journal ACS Nano.

Edibility is the feature of another new plastic replacement, which has been developed at MIT. Researchers there have made small particles that can replace plastic beads used in cleansers, cosmetics, and other beauty products. They break down into harmless sugars and amino acids and could also be used to fortify foods with nutrients, like vitamin A and iron, to help the nearly three billion people who have deficiencies.

They tested the particles’ use in cleaners by mixing them with soap foam and found it could remove permanent markers and even waterproof eyeliner from skin more effectively than just soap. The MIT scientists hope their particles could reduce the amount of microplastics released into the environment. The study was published in the journal Nature Chemical Engineering.

Generative artificial intelligence, or AI, is getting a lot of attention for the vast quantities of water and energy it uses, and now a new study shows that it will also create massive amounts of electronic waste.

Credit: Curtis Palmer/Creative Commons

Researchers at Reichman University in Israel found that generative AI applications alone could add 1.2 to 5 million metric tons of hazardous trash to the world in just five years, an amount which is about 1,000 times more than all the e-waste that was produced in 2023.

AI uses servers, storage devices, and graphics processing units that handle thousands of calculations. The hardware can last up to five years, but it’s often replaced just as soon as a new version is available.

E-waste consists of cell phones, computers, and many products with electronics. They contain toxins like mercury and lead, which can leach into water and soil when discarded. In 2022, the UN estimated that almost 80 percent of e-waste wound up in landfills or unofficial recycling centers. About five billion mobile phones are discarded each year.

According to Scientific American, each time AI produces an email or an image, much energy is consumed. Creating two images takes as much power as charging up a smartphone. One exchange with ChatGPT can require a bottle of water to cool a server. By 2027, worldwide AI may consume as much electricity as the Netherlands.

To address e-waste pollution, the authors of the study propose raising public awareness of the problem as well as solutions such as extending server lifespans and reusing components. They also suggest using biodegradable products in designs and add that local and national governments should set safety and efficiency standards for e-waste recycling.

The study was published in the journal Nature Computational Science.

Many creatures on Earth, such as penguins, prairie voles, and certain species of cockroaches, practice some degree of monogamy. For a monogamous songbird in the Seychelles Islands, bad weather can lead to divorce.

Seychelles warbler (Acrocephalus sechellensis)  |  Credit: Christian Hauzar/Creative Commons

Researchers at Macquarie University found that extreme events, both wet and dry, made Seychelles warblers (Acrocephalus sechellensis), medium-sized olive-colored birds with long tails, call it quits. Once on the brink of extinction, with just 26 birds left in the world, the species now has a stable population on Cousin Island after the entire island and surrounding sea was turned into a nature reserve in the late 1960s and early 1970s. There is concern that future extreme conditions could threaten their success.

About 90 percent of bird species are socially monogamous, often cohabitating, raising chicks together, and sharing food.  Warblers tend to stay together for up to 15 years, but, as humans know, relationships can be tough, so some birds do split up, most often from a failure to produce chicks and fledglings, which makes them reconsider their partner. However, sometimes birds divorce for no apparent reason, and according to new research, it might be because they were literally fair-weather friends.

As the researchers explain in The Conversation, after comparing a dataset about the relationship status of all the island birds with rainfall data over 16 years, the researchers found that divorce rates were closely associated with the amount of precipitation in the seven months leading up to and during the breeding season. Breakups spiked both when it was either extremely wet or extremely dry. For example, during a super El Niño in 1997 that caused exceptionally heavy rainfall, many Seychelles warblers divorced. They found more couples also broke up in drought years.

Extreme weather events are increasing with climate change, which affects food availability, habitat, and nesting conditions. The warbler study shows how global warming can destabilize relationships among wildlife and the ecosystems they support.

The study was published in the Journal of Animal Ecology.

The UK government has gone to the dogs—specifically to a canine named Ivor, who is helping the country in its mission toward “biosecurity.”

Ivor, a cocker spaniel and labrador mix, achieved an 89 percent first-time detection rate of the water mold Phytophthora ramorum.  |  Credit: Forest Research

Ivor is a six-year-old Cocker Spaniel and Labrador mix, who’s not tracking down bombs or drugs. Rather, he’s been trained to sniff out pathogens damaging and sometimes killing more than 150 plant species in the UK, including larch, important timber trees, in what’s been termed “sudden larch death.” There is no cure for a plant that’s been infected and the pathogen is also a problem in the U.S., especially in California and Oregon, where it causes “sudden oak death” and has killed millions of trees, primarily tanoak and coast live oak.

Ivor is a key player in the UK government’s Plant Biosecurity Strategy to combat pests and diseases, which are spreading rapidly as people and products move around the globe and also as climate change allows pathogens to take hold in new areas. The pooch was able to identify the water mold (oomycete) Phytophthora ramorum in soil, plants, and distilled water in controlled settings and then had a nearly  90 percent success rate finding the pathogen in real environments.

Ivor was initially trained by the Canine Assisted Pest Eradication organization as a water leak detection dog, so it was fitting that he would track down a pathogen that can spread for miles in mist, waterways, and raindrops. The pathogen can also be spread on shoes, tools, and vehicle wheels or by transporting infected plants.

Following the success of the initial trial led by the government's Forest Research organization, the program will expand to train dogs, whom they call “one of nature’s super-computers,” to sniff out destructive insects such as the eight-toothed spruce bark beetle. Using dogs to quickly identify threat locations should help foresters, so they don't waste time barking up the wrong tree.

A team of researchers has discovered a previously unknown chemical in drinking water—specifically water supplies that are disinfected with chloramines—compounds that are formed when ammonia and chlorine are combined.

Credit: PAN XIAOZHEN/Unsplash

Many water providers have been using chloramines to replace chlorine, which back in the 1970s, was shown to react with naturally occurring compounds and create toxic byproducts. Studies showed that people who drink chlorinated water over long periods of time had an elevated risk for bladder and colon cancer, as well as miscarriages. Chloramine was substituted for chlorine because it’s more stable and tended to last longer, but chloramine also created byproducts, most of which were identified and deemed safe—except one that has eluded scientific definition for 40 years and was simply known as "unidentified product."

Now, researchers at the University of Arkansas and ETH Zurich have unmasked the compound, which they are calling chloronitramide anion. About one-third of the U.S. population and millions of others globally drink water treated with chloramines. While chloronitramide anion’s risk to human health is not known, the team says its prevalence and similarity to other toxic compounds is concerning and warrants further study.

For anyone concerned about their tap water, the study’s authors suggested during a press conference to use BRITA filters until the toxicity of the compound is assessed.

The study was published in the journal Science.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has approved a wave energy project to be built in the Port of Los Angeles, which will be the first onshore wave power installation in the country. The company that will build the project, Eco Wave Power, announced the permitting last week, and it now can start installing eight floaters on an existing wharf structure.

An installation located at the Port of Jaffa in Tel Aviv was the first wave-powered energy station connected to an energy grid.  |  Credit: Eco Wave

The floaters rise and fall with the waves and drive pistons that compress fluid into an accumulator. That fluid is then released and turns a motor, which spins a generator that produces electricity. According to the company, the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that wave energy could generate enough electricity to power 130 million homes.

Meanwhile, another wave energy project in Oregon is taking shape offshore and could go online in the next few weeks. It’s expected to power tens of thousands of homes. The test site, led by Oregon State University, has four cables running 12 miles to shore that will bring electricity to the local grid. However, as ABC News reports, they still don’t know how the energy at this project will be harnessed, whether by buoys or other devices that resemble snakes that are moved by waves.

Unlike generators at dams, waves don’t go in a continuous straight line, so scientists will attempt to figure out the best way to capture the up-and-down and in-and-out movement of the ocean. They will also assess how they weather rough conditions and will measure the environmental impacts.

Because the wave projects cannot be seen from shore, they may be more popular than offshore wind. The Washington Post reports that the local fishing and crabbing community has been supportive of the wave project, although some areas will be off limits to it.

Climate change. War. Pollution. Things aren’t looking up for humans, so if we do go extinct, what could replace us? According to an Oxford University researcher, it will be octopuses.

New Zealand octopus (Pinnoctopus cordiformis)  |  Credit: Brian Gratwicke/Creative Commons

In an interview with The European, a business publication in London, Professor Tim Coulson—who is one of the world’s leading biologists previously at Imperial College London and Cambridge University in case you doubt his credentials to predict our fate—said cephalopods possess the intelligence, adaptability, and resourcefulness that would be needed to form a civilization in the event human self-annihilation.

Discussing his new book, The Universal History of Us, which traces evolution since the Big Bang, he says extinction is the fate of all species, including humans, and it made him wonder what might fill the void after our departure.

One might have presumed primates would rule—à la Planet of the Apes—but Coulson argues that most of our related hominids also depend on our current environment and would perish along with us. Octopuses, he says, with their decentralized nervous system and remarkable problem-solving skills could be well suited to dominate in Earth 2.0.

Whatever creature succeeds us, they would need to be dexterous, and octopuses have demonstrated they can handle tools with their thumb-like tentacles. They know how to open jars and were discovered to have unlatched doors to escape from tanks at research centers.

Their dexterity was most recently showcased in the new Netflix series “Our Oceans,” where an octopus was captured firing stones at predatory fish from its siphon like a skilled sharpshooter.

Our octopus friends might not yet be able to write books or do neurosurgery, but perhaps it’s only a matter of time.

Last week, the incoming president’s cabinet began to take shape, and the choices could be consequential for water, climate, and the environment. First, Lee Zeldin, a former Republican representative from Long Island, New York, was nominated to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. It’s a surprising choice since the lawmaker has a fairly thin record on environmental policy.

Lee Zeldin speaking at Turning Point USA meeting as a U.S. Congressman  |  Credit: Gage Skidmore/Creative Commons

In accepting the nomination, Zeldin thanked Trump, saying, “We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI. We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water.” The League of Conservation Voters—an organization that tracks positions on environmental legislation—gave Zeldin a 14 percent score for his congressional voting record.

That said, Laura Deehan, state director of Environment California told the Los Angeles Times that Zeldin did vote to oppose dumping toxic waste into the Long Island Sound, took action against PFAS chemicals, and supported permanent conservation funding in the bipartisan Great American Outdoors Act, which seeks to improve infrastructure and expand recreation opportunities in national parks and other public lands. As E&E News reports, when first elected to the House in 2014, Zeldin was a member of both the Conservative Climate Caucus and the Climate Solutions Caucus. He also voted against Republican amendments that would have cut funding for the EPA when the House was under Democratic control.

However, Zeldin voted against Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which has generated billions of dollars in clean energy production and manufacturing—especially in Republican districts. Zeldin also backed Trump’s 2017 exit from the Paris Climate Agreement.

Last Friday, November 15, the U.S. president-elect nominated North Dakota governor Doug Burgum to be Secretary of the Interior. Burgum has promised to unleash America’s energy dominance, and his state, which has a population of fewer than 800,000 people, is the country’s third largest oil and gas producer.

Credit: Library of Congress

The Interior Department manages millions of acres of federal lands, most in the West, including national parks and monuments, wildlife refuges, and wilderness and recreation areas. It also oversees the government’s relationship with Native American tribes and onshore and offshore drilling.

The Hill reports that when he was governor, Burgum set a goal for the state to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. However, he planned to meet that objective not by transitioning away from fossil fuels, but by using carbon capture technology.

There has been significant reaction from the environmental community to Burgum’s nomination, including from the Sierra Club, which said in a statement that he helped arrange a meeting of wealthy oil and gas executives at Mar-a-Lago where Trump offered to overturn dozens of rules and regulations in return for $1 billion in campaign contributions. At that meeting, Burgum reportedly said that on day one of his presidency, Trump could stop the hostile attack against American energy whether it’s oil, gas, or baseload electricity.

The Sierra Club warns that Burgum’s ties to the oil and gas industry run deep, and he will continue Trump’s efforts to sell off public lands to energy development. According to E&E News, Burgum is viewed as an ally to coal and mineral mining interests. Rich Nolan of the National Mining Association told the news outlet that he recognizes mineral production is critical to growing the nation’s economy.

The Center for Biological Diversity said that Burgum will be a disastrous Secretary of the Interior who’ll sacrifice the country’s public lands and endangered wildlife on the altar of the fossil fuel industry’s profits. Jennifer Rokala, of the Center for Western Priorities said in a statement that Burgum will find himself on the wrong side of history if he tries to turn America’s parks and national monuments into an even bigger cash cow for the oil and gas industry.

If confirmed, Burgum would also head a new National Energy Council, which Trump described as including all departments and agencies involved in all forms of American energy and charged with enhancing private sector investment and cutting red tape.

To address climate change, we need to not only reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, but also capture much of the carbon we’ve already emitted. There are many schemes to accomplish this, such as direct air capture, which chemically scrubs CO2 from the air and then sequesters it underground. The downside of most carbon capture tech is its high cost and energy demand. There’s also a concern that it could incentivize fossil fuel use.

The white spots in this microscopy image of the “Chonkus” cyanobacteria appear to be carbon-dense granules that the algae manufactures, which might explain why it grows so large in the presence of carbon and sinks so rapidly.  | Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University

A natural method of carbon sequestration is to use plants and algae to remove CO2 through photosynthesis, and in that vein, scientists led by Harvard have discovered a novel strain of cyanobacteria, or algae, that punches above its weight when it comes to carbon removal and storage—an algae they have named, “Chonkus.”

They discovered Chonkus off the island of Vulcano, in Italy. Shallow seawater there gets plenty of sun and has high levels of dissolved CO2 from nearby volcanic vents. They found that after Chonkus gorges on the CO2, it sinks to the ocean floor, fat and happy, socking away the carbon for good.

The team brought the algae to their lab and were able to generate two strains—one of which could be used for carbon capture. They also note that the more CO2 Chonkus takes in, the faster it grows. While Chonkus grows only in small numbers in the ocean, they could be cultivated at scale in industrial settings and be very useful to humans by feeding off our mistakes.

The study was published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

Following the presidential election, what could happen to water regulations? We can look both to Trump’s first term as well as to the Project 2025 report, a document produced by the conservative think-tank, the Heritage Foundation, that has been promoted as a roadmap for a Republican president.

Credit: Herbert Aust/Pixabay

As Bloomberg Law reports, in its first term, the Trump administration moved to reduce regulations based on the Clean Water Act and made it difficult to oppose construction projects that affected wetlands and waterways. It seems likely that Trump would seek to undo water protections put in place by Biden, such as the new Lead and Copper Rule Improvements regulation, finalized last month that mandates all lead drinking water pipes be removed by 2027.

Biden’s EPA set the country’s first drinking water standards for six types of PFAS compounds last April, after determining that almost no level of exposure to the substances is safe. Project 2025 calls to “revisit the designation of PFAS chemicals as “hazardous substances.” The report promotes the notion that decision-making should be risk-based rather than precautionary, according to an analysis of the major climate and environmental impacts of Project 2025 by UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment. In the view of Project 2025 authors, a pollutant could only be regulated if it was shown to cause harm, versus a policy of allowing just the chemicals that have been proven safe, known as the precautionary principle.

The document also calls to “revise groundwater cleanup regulations and policies” but does not elaborate. It does, however, call to repeal the Biden administration’s waters of the U.S., or WOTUS, rule, which defines “navigable waters.” Project 2025 states the rule must respect private property rights and can only refer to “relatively permanent, standing or continuously flowing bodies of water” as opposed to dry channels through which water flows occasionally or occurs intermittently.

Rivers and watersheds could be threatened, according to the organization American Rivers, as Project 2025 suggests lifting the ban on fossil fuel extraction on federal lands, which would put watersheds, rivers, and streams at risk from spills, leaks, and accidents.

Project 2025 calls for the dismantling of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which shapes international ocean, fisheries, climate, space and weather policies, which could leave the country vulnerable and unprepared for future hurricanes, storms, floods, or drought.

From the last week of October and into early November, almost all of the U.S. faced drought conditions, with Alaska and Kentucky being the only two states that did not suffer at least a moderate lack of water—a record for the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Unusually dry conditions gripped over half the contiguous United States in October 2024. On October 29, abnormal dryness and drought affected over 78 percent of the American population—the highest percentage in the U.S. Drought Monitor’s 25-year-long record.  |  Credit: NASA

Remarkably, the Southeast was in drought even after Hurricane Helene inundated the region. Since then, there’s been more evaporation and drier soils with warmer temperatures and not much rain.

Evaporation plays a major role in drought, particularly in the U.S. West, according to a new study from UCLA and NOAA. During the exceptional drought from 2020 to 2022, the scientists found that reduced precipitation only accounted for 39 percent of its severity, but evaporation accounted for 61 percent. The evaporation was due to high temperatures caused by man-made climate change, according to the authors. That conclusion suggests that the drying, or aridification, will become more severe as the climate warms.

Western droughts have historically been caused by a lack of rain and snow, and evaporation has played a small role. Now, climate change means more water is evaporating not only from lakes and reservoirs but also from soils and plants.

The researchers explain that as the atmosphere heats it holds more water vapor, which then might condense to form precipitation. However, more heat keeps water molecules moving and bouncing off each other, preventing them from condensing.  A cycle is created in which more water will evaporate, but a smaller fraction will return as rain.

One of the authors, Rong Fu, said in a statement that even if precipitation were normal, there is not enough water to keep up with evaporation, and building bigger reservoirs won’t help because more moisture will be sucked up. The researchers said droughts will last longer, cover wider areas, and be even drier with every little bit that the planet warms.

The study was published in the journal Science Advances.

When Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, lava incinerated every living thing for miles around. Once the ash and debris cooled, scientists wanted to help regenerate plant and animal life on the mountain, so they brought in volunteers—not human ones, but animals often maligned by gardeners, the gopher.

Seedlings of dwarf lupine, Lupinus lepidus, three years after the introduction of a northern pocket gopher, Thomomys talpoides, (inset) for 24 hours. For details, see Allen and MacMahon 1988, Mycologia 80:754-756.  |  Credit: Michael Allen/UCR

Two researchers, University of California, Riverside, microbiologist Michael Allen and Utah State University’s James McMahon—helicoptered to an area where the lava had turned the land into slabs of pumice and only a few plants had managed to begin anew. They set up two test plots and unleashed a few northern pocket gophers, Thomomys talpoides, and let them burrow for just one day. The theory being they would move deep soil, with its beneficial bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi, to the surface which would jumpstart plant recovery.

The results were astonishing. In the short span of 24 hours, the rodents had started a chain reaction that would transform the area. Within six years there were 40,000 plants thriving on plots where the gophers dug, while nearby untouched land remained mostly barren.

Now, in a recent study and over four decades later—the gophers’ gift keeps on giving—samples taken from the same plots indicated better soil health where gophers had worked.

The takeaway? When it comes to restoration efforts, if in doubt about the value of nature-based solutions, we should just gopher it.

The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiomes.

Until now, there’s not been an effective way to determine the global extent of plastic pollution on beaches without going to each one. Now, scientists in Australia have developed a new tool that will help coastal cleanup organizations remove the contamination and reduce the amount that gets into the ocean.

By spotting plastic on remote beaches, the technology could be used to help direct clean-up operations.  |  Credit: RMIT

The tool, created by researchers at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), can detect differences in the light reflected by sand, water, or plastics, allowing the pollution to be seen on shores all over the Earth from 400 miles above. In a release, the scientists explain that existing technology that spots garbage patches in the ocean doesn’t work as well on beaches, where plastics can blend in with sand.

The lead author of the study, Jenna Guffogg, said in a statement that just as it does on open water, plastic on beaches can have severe impacts on wildlife and habitat. Some animals mistake it for food and some can become entangled or trapped in things like plastic containers. She added that remote island beaches have some of the densest areas of plastic in the world.

The scientists at RMIT have also developed similar tools to monitor forests and wildfires from space.

The study will be published in December in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin.

There’s a freshwater fern that ducks love to eat, and according to new research, it might be just ducky for humans too and help alleviate world hunger.

Daniel Winstead, research technologist in the College of Agricultural Sciences, was lead author on the earlier Penn State study on azolla's nutrition and digestibility, and is a co-author on the recently published study suggesting the plant does not contain cyanotoxins. |  Credit: Penn State/Creative Commons

The water fern, also known as mosquito fern, ferry moss, and Carolina azolla, is able to double its biomass in two days as well as capture nitrogen from the air. Earlier this year, Penn State researchers studied Carolina azolla (Azolla caroliniana) that’s native to the eastern U.S. and found it had excellent potential to be a green fertilizer and feedstock for animals. The fern is fast-growing and requires minimal inputs and upkeep.

Azolla is also high in protein and nutrients like potassium, zinc, iron, and calcium, so could it be safe for human consumption? That was a vexing question because the fern contains cyanobacteria that might produce cyanotoxins, which have been linked to neurodegenerative disorders in humans, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, liver and kidney failure, muscle paralysis, and other severe health issues.

Last week, the researchers published a study showing that cyanobacteria living in azolla don’t have the genes to create toxins. While that is welcome news, they do not recommend that people scoop leaves off the surface of a pond and eat it. More research is needed, they say, but it does point to the plant’s potential to provide nutritious, easy-to-grow, low-cost food for humans, especially for smallholder farms and in low-income areas around the globe.

The study was published in the journal Plants.

They have names like Attenborough, Teddy, Desmond, and Thoreau—and like their namesakes, they are committed conservationists. However, these conservationists are rats—African giant pouched rats (Cricetomys ansorgei) to be exact—and they’re being trained to protect wildlife by sniffing out traffickers.

A new study shows that African giant pouched rats can detect illegally trafficked wildlife, even when it has been concealed among other substances.  |  Credit: APOPO

Pangolin scales, elephant tusks, rhino horn, and rare hardwoods are popular among illegal wildlife traders, but the rats—which weigh up to three pounds and are around 30 inches long—are now able to smell the contraband hidden in cargo. The animals have also been taught the odors of cotton socks, coffee beans, and peanuts, which are frequently used to mask trafficking operations.

The scientists have partnered with the nonprofit APOPO based in Tanzania, which has been using their so-called “HeroRATs” to detect landmines as well as the pathogen that causes tuberculosis. In this new research, eight rats were able to identify four commonly smuggled wildlife species among 146 non-target substances.

Now that the rats have honed their skills to detect contraband, the next step will be to deploy them to ports in Africa, where much of the trade originates. That will involve outfitting the critters with vests that have a small ball attached, which they will pull with their front paws to emit a beeping sound when they detect a target.

While the researchers say a rat’s sniffing ability is on par with a dog’s, Dr. Isabelle Szott, a researcher at the Okeanos Foundation and first co-author of the study, said rats might prove more agile in tight spaces like densely packed shipping containers. Co-author Kate Webb at Duke University said in a statement that wildlife smuggling is often conducted by individuals engaged in other illegal activities, including human, drug, and arms trafficking, so these vest-wearing animals may one day soon rat out illegal activities that exploit both animals and humans.

The study was published in Frontiers in Conservation Science.

The water cycle on Earth is a complex system, which can be understood by a simplified explanation—liquid water evaporates into the atmosphere, condenses to form clouds, and then falls as rain or snow.

A new report by international experts at the Global Commission on the Economics of Water says that the water cycle is out of balance for the first time in human history, and that worldwide demand could be 40 percent greater than supply by 2030. The water cycle has been disrupted by mismanagement, destructive land use practices, and human-caused global warming. Currently, half of humanity faces water scarcity, and it’s likely that more will, as the crisis worsens.

The authors explain that there are two types of water. One that is found in plants, soils, and aquifers called green, and the other found in rivers and lakes referred to as blue. Current management practices tend to focus on blue water, that which we can see.

Green water in plants and soils has been overlooked, they say, even though it generates about half the rain that falls. Green water is critical because plants store carbon and keep it from heating the atmosphere. However, the destruction of forests and wetlands is accelerating global warming, which then dries landscapes and can lead to wildfires.

The commission also reports that water has been underpriced in many regions, which allows it to be diverted to intense uses like data centers and to crops that are water-thirsty, like alfalfa.

Another startling conclusion of the study is that the amount of water needed for people to have a dignified life has been vastly underestimated. They say each person requires about 4,000 liters of water per day for nutrition and hygiene, compared to earlier estimates of a mere 100 liters.

The commission warns that more than half of the world’s food production could collapse in the next 25 years because of the growing crisis.

Tiny fragments of plastic called microplastics are everywhere—in the oceans, on land, in clouds—and now even in dolphin breath, according to new research. Scientists from the College of Charleston in South Carolina detected microplastic particles in exhalations of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), which indicate the animals are breathing in the contaminants from ocean air.

Exhaled breath is collected from a dolphin during a wild dolphin health assessment in Barataria Bay in Louisiana.  |  Credit: Todd Speakman/National Marine Mammal Foundation, CC BY-SA

Writing in The Conversation, the authors say it’s a troubling discovery because human studies have shown that inhaling microplastic can lead to lung inflammation, which can possibly cause tissue damage, excess mucus, pneumonia, bronchitis, scarring, and cancer.

Dolphins have large lung capacities and take really deep breaths, so they may be inhaling much higher doses than humans and be more vulnerable to the health impacts. Worse, the animals are likely already ingesting plastics in the water, adding to their exposure. Research in humans has shown that consuming plastics can affect reproduction, cardiovascular health, and neurological function. Since dolphins are mammals too, they might have similar risks.

To conduct their study, the team collected samples of exhaled air just above the blowhole of five bottlenose dolphins in Sarasota Bay, Florida, and six bottlenose dolphins in Barataria Bay, Louisiana. They found that all 11 dolphins had at least one suspected microplastic particle in their breath. Further analysis of the exhaled microplastic particles showed that they included both fibers and fragments and included several types of plastic polymers, including polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyester, polyamide, polybutylene terephthalate, and poly(methyl methacrylate), also known as PMMA.

The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE.

If we listen to the pundits, this election is all about immigration, abortion, and the economy. But could climate change change the outcome? According to the Environmental Voter Project, it just might.

Credit: Lorie Shaull/Creative Commons

The organization, a nonpartisan nonprofit, has been analyzing data on so-called “non-voting climate voters”—voters under age 35 who are mostly people of color and who’ve sat out elections. The project told CBS News, there's nearly five million of them in 19 states including crucial battlegrounds, where their ballots could be consequential.

For example, the organization has identified nearly 250,000 climate voters in Pennsylvania and almost half a million in Georgia. Nathaniel Stinnett, the founder of the Environmental Voter Project, told CBS that in 2020, Arizona was decided by fewer than 11,000 votes, yet his group has identified 230,000 potential first-time climate voters in the state.

Research by the University of Colorado Boulder earlier this year supports the Environmental Voter Project’s outlook. They found that views on climate change likely gave Democrats the White House in 2020.

Additionally, according to a new study from Florida Atlantic University, nearly 52 percent of Floridians surveyed said that a candidate with a record of reducing climate impacts was more likely to get their vote. The team’s Florida Climate Survey also revealed strong support for increasing renewable energy and teaching climate science in K-12 classrooms.

However, Jeff Chanton, a climate scientist at Florida State University, is skeptical. He told USA TODAY that despite the study, Republicans are leading in Florida polls. Still, the Environmental Voter Project says many climate voters they’ve been tracking have already cast ballots—and in larger numbers than the general electorate.

On Friday, October 11, the Biden administration designated more than 4,500 square miles off the central California coast as the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary. The new sanctuary runs along 116 miles of the shore and is the first such area nominated by a tribe, the Northern Chumash. It will be the third largest marine sanctuary in the U.S. system.

A kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) forest located near Point Conception, grows inside the new Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary and hosts a variety of invertebrates, fish, and marine mammals.  |  Credit: Robert Schwemmer, NOAA

National sanctuaries protect biodiverse habitats and cultural resources, as well as support local economies by promoting research, recreation, and tourism. The Chumash sanctuary is the nation’s 17th such site. Others are also on the Pacific coast, in the Great Lakes, along the Atlantic, and in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Chumash Peoples have lived along the California coast for at least 13,000 years. The name “Chumash” describes several coastal native groups who spoke similar languages. According to a release from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the new sanctuary will recognize the natives’ connection to the area and involve them in its management.

The boundary of the sanctuary extends nearly 60 miles from the shore and to a depth of more than 11,000 feet. The sanctuary includes kelp forests, underwater mountains, rocky reefs, and more than 200 shipwrecks. NOAA said that the boundaries for the sanctuary would not include areas where offshore wind turbines are currently planned to be built or where wind energy transmission cables are expected to be authorized.

It’s been dubbed a “floating megabomb.” The cargo ship Ruby is carrying 20,000 tons of ammonium nitrate and has been turned away from port after port over fears it could explode. Ammonium nitrate is used to make fertilizer, but it’s also the main component in mining explosives when it’s mixed with fuel oil and detonated. Hence the apprehension.

The MV Ruby may be carrying more than seven times as much ammonium nitrate than exploded in a warehouse at the Port of Beirut in 2020, killing more than 200 people and injuring over 6,000.  |  Credit: VesselFinder.com

Those fears are not unfounded. In 2020, 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse at the Port of Beirut in Lebanon exploded, killing more than 200 people and injuring over 6,000. The disaster is considered one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history, and the Ruby may be carrying more than seven times as much of the compound.

On August 22, the Malta-flagged ship began its journey from the Russian port of Kandalaksha headed for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.  Soon after departure, it ran aground during a storm, which damaged its hull, propeller, and rudder. Now, the vessel finds itself at the center of a geopolitical storm. Distrust of Russia has meant that several NATO states, including Norway, Sweden, Lithuania, and even Malta won’t allow the Ruby to dock and make repairs, fearing, according to the New York Times, that the ship could be a Trojan horse and potential act of Russian sabotage.

Newsweek notes that the ship also has expired seafarer employment agreements and deficiencies regarding International Safety Management. Currently, the Ruby is stranded 14 miles off the southeastern coast of the UK. The ship’s owner maintains that media reports are unfounded and have had a prejudicial effect on the vessel's ability to transfer the cargo to another ship so it can be repaired.

We know we need to safeguard the world’s biodiversity hotspots to protect all life on Earth. That means preserving coral reefs, rainforests, and…bathrooms?

New research found that one of the most biodiverse places might be in our bathrooms, where showerheads and toothbrushes contain hundreds of bacteriophage, or “phage,” a type of virus that target bacteria, not humans. |  Credit: Towfiqu barbhuiya/Pexels

Yes, according to new research, some of the most biodiverse places containing hundreds of viruses—are on toothbrushes and showerheads—essentially wet environments where microbes can thrive. But don’t panic, the researchers from Northwestern University say. These microbes are bacteriophage, or “phage,” a type of virus that targets bacteria, not humans.

Phage are not well understood but researchers are excited about their potential to treat antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. In fact, the team noticed a high number of mycobacteriophage among their samples, which go after mycobacteria germs that cause diseases like leprosy, tuberculosis, and chronic lung infections. One day, they hope to use phage found on plumbing fixtures to clear pathogens out of a person’s plumbing.

Lead author, Erica M. Hartmann used DNA sequencing to identify the viruses living on samples collected and found more than 600 different ones with no two samples alike, and most of which never seen before. The study was an offshoot of previous research called “Operation Pottymouth” in which Hartmann and her colleagues at the University of Colorado Boulder investigated whether a flushing toilet might allow aerosol particles to land on a toothbrush. Short answer, no.

The team wants us to chill and embrace our microbe friends. They’re everywhere, and the vast majority will not make us sick. If we attack them with disinfectants, the more they are likely to develop resistance or become more difficult to treat.

The new findings were published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiomes.

Clothing has a huge impact on the environment, with about 60 percent being made from synthetic plastic fibers like nylon, polyester, and acrylics that can get washed as micro particles into the ocean. Also, it takes a lot of water to make clothes. For example, a t-shirt and pair of jeans require the equivalent of about 12,000 one-liter bottles. Much of our clothing ends up in landfills—85 percent—where, according to the Guardian, it emits methane and releases chemicals and dyes into groundwater and soils.

About 85 percent of clothes end up in landfills after being discarded where they release methane into the atmosphere and toxins into groundwater and soils.  |  Credit: Alan Levine

To tackle this problem, the California legislature passed a bill last week requiring clothing producers to create a system for recycling their products when people are done using them. Soon, residents of the state will be able to bring unwanted and damaged apparel to collection sites including thrift stores and charities to be sorted and recycled. The law, signed by the governor, is known as the Responsible Textile Recovery Act and also covers towels, bedding, and upholstery but not mattresses or carpeting. The legislation was endorsed not only by environmental groups and municipalities but also retailers like Ikea and Everlane.

Manufacturers have until 2026 to establish a nonprofit organization to develop collection sites and other programs like being able to mail textiles back to a producer. The goal is to transition the industry, including “fast fashion” items worn just a few times, to a sustainable and circular economy.  Currently, the fashion industry is a leading polluter, emitting about ten percent of global CO2.

The sponsor of the bill, State Senator Josh Newman, said in a statement that it isn’t just about recycling but also transforming the way we think about textile waste.

Fluoride is a mineral found naturally in soil, water, and plants. Since 1945, many municipalities have added the compound to water supplies to strengthen tooth enamel and prevent cavities. Just under two-thirds of the U.S. population (209,135,866 people in 2022) currently has fluoridated drinking water, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but it’s not been without controversy.

A new study says water fluoridation may be less effective than it was in the past, given many toothpastes and mouthwashes contain the mineral.  |  Credit: Thegreenj/Creative Commons

Opponents have argued there’s a potential risk of toxicity in young children, and a court decision last week may boost their case. As the Associated Press reports, U.S. District Judge Edward Chen ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to further regulate fluoride in drinking water, citing uncertainty about whether high levels could pose a risk to the intellectual development of children.

Meanwhile, a new study out this week says water fluoridation may be less effective than it was in the past, given many toothpastes and mouthwashes contain the mineral. A team of researchers including the Universities of Manchester, Dundee, and Aberdeen, analyzed 157 studies that compared tooth decay in children living in communities with water fluoridation and without. They found that the benefit had declined since the 1970s, when fluoridated toothpastes became widely available.

The CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics still support fluoridation as an equitable and inexpensive way to prevent dental disease, noting that tooth decay disproportionally affects low-income and underserved communities. The researchers add that fluoridation can lead to small improvements in oral health but another issue to address might be the high amounts of sugar in our diets.

The research was published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.

If parents need another reason to nudge kids off smartphones and screens, new research has their back. It says getting children outdoors and away from devices will protect their vision.

Myopia or nearsightedness, an eye condition where a person can’t clearly see objects in the distance, is on the rise, and children spending too much time on devices is to blame, researchers say.  |  Credit: VanessaQ/Creative Commons

Researchers in China say that myopia, or nearsightedness—an eye condition where a person can’t clearly see objects in the distance—is on the rise, and children spending too much time on screens is to blame. A study published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology says that one in three children worldwide were nearsighted in 2023, but that number could rise to almost 40 percent by 2050. While genetics plays a role in myopia, it can’t account for the upswing.

The researchers found that children living in urban areas are more likely to develop the condition, particularly in Southeast Asia, where kids start school as young as age two and are often on screens doing “near work” in which they interact with close objects like phones and other devices. The researchers add that COVID-19 lockdowns might have contributed because youngsters spent more time on devices. While myopia can be managed with glasses, for some it develops into a far more serious condition called myopic maculopathy, which could lead to vision loss.  

What can be done? Get kids outside, the researchers say. A report last month by committee members at the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine in the U.S. said one of the best ways to prevent nearsightedness is to have children spend at least one to two hours outdoors every day. As the CDC explains, playing outside allows kids to look at distant objects and be in natural light. This lets their eyes recover from strain and fatigue. Also, being in nature benefits them physically and mentally, plus allows them to get vitamin D, which has been associated with a lower incidence of myopia.

The Environmental Protection Agency is calling it a “silver tsunami.” Many water utilities across the U.S. are losing experienced workers at an escalating rate as baby boomers retire.

La Crosse wastewater treatment facility  |  Credit: Wikideas1/Creative Commons

Professionals who work to provide safe drinking water and who handle waste and stormwater are aging out, and, as Michigan Public reports, finding young people to replace them is a challenge. A report six years ago by the Brookings Institution said that about 50 percent of the water workforce has only a high school diploma and will need training in digital tech and even cybersecurity.

The EPA is funding projects with $20 million to encourage undergraduates to look for opportunities in the water industry. The University of New Mexico is one recipient of the funds and is looking to prepare students to address climate change and to diversify the water workforce, as women and people of color are underrepresented.

The problem is worldwide. A report this month from the UN said there is deep-seated social, gender, and cultural discrimination in the water sector as well as limited education and training opportunities for women especially in the Global South.

If an island nation is swallowed by the sea because of global warming, is it still a country? For the over 11,000 people who live in Tuvalu in the South Pacific, the answer must be yes.

NASA scientists project that by 2050, daily tides will submerge half of Tuvalu's main atoll of Funafuti.  |  Credit: Aurélia Rusek/UNDP

In a speech before the UN General Assembly last week, the country’s prime minister Feleti Teo implored members to affirm that Tuvalu’s maritime boundaries and statehood are permanent and not subject to challenge “under any circumstances of sea level rise.” (quote at 11:30-minute mark).

NASA scientists project that by 2050, daily tides will submerge half of Tuvalu's main atoll of Funafuti, threatening not only the country’s culture but also its economy. Despite being only 26 square kilometers of land, Tuvalu’s maritime boundary is over 900,000 square kilometers—creating an exclusive economic zone with lucrative fishing rights. According to Reuters, foreign fleets pay about $30 million in licensing fees annually to access Tuvalu’s tuna-rich waters. The country also pulls in substantial yearly revenue by selling its .tv internet domain.

That could all go away if the nine atolls in the Pacific that make up Tuvalu are partially or completely submerged, because, according to the law of the sea, dry land has been a requirement for statehood. Tuvalu wants to change that definition and declare its boundaries fixed. It has the support of its island neighbors and Australia as well as several governments in Asia and Europe. However, officials worry that some foreign jurisdictions that operate fishing fleets are not on board.

The UN’s International Law Commission will issue a report on sea level rise next year but has already indicated its support for a “strong presumption” that statehood would continue where any nation’s land was totally or partially submerged by rising sea levels caused by climate change.

You may have noticed more CBD stores popping up with products claiming to reduce anxiety, improve sleep, or reduce inflammation and pain. Cannabidiol (CBD) is a chemical found in both marijuana and hemp plants, but items on store shelves are derived from hemp and don’t contain THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the psychoactive ingredient that produces a high.

The yellow fever–causing mosquito Aedes aegypti  |  Credit: Lauren Bishop/CDC

In fact, if you’re a mosquito, CBD could be a total downer. New research from The Ohio State University has found that the chemical can kill their larvae. Mosquito larvae are aquatic organisms often found in standing water. Typically, insecticides are used to kill them before they become adults that transmit diseases like dengue, Zika, and yellow fever.

However, widespread overuse has led to both insecticide resistance and other detrimental effects on the environment. So, better options are needed. With that in mind, the Ohio researchers tested CBD on two different strains of the yellow fever mosquito larva—one that was resistant to insecticides and another that was not and found the compound killed both within 48 hours. While this discovery could offer a natural, sustainable, and cheap alternative to synthetic products, further research is needed to ensure CBD would not harm beneficial organisms like pollinators.

The study was published in the journal Insects.

If you live in a rural area, you might not be getting as many summer storms as your counterparts who live in cities. A study by scientists at the University of Lausanne found that storms are generally more intense and frequent over large cities, which can change what would have been something like a sprinkler into a firehose, exacerbating flood risk.

More storms form over cities and their boundaries than over rural areas. They also release more intense and concentrated rainfall, according to new research in Earth’s Future.  |  Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Garry Knight/CCA BY-SA 2.0

The authors say that cities are warmer than their cool and vegetation-dense surroundings, which can cause air to be drawn toward the urban area and then uplifted. That warm, uplifted air then condenses into rain clouds over urban areas. City skylines can act like mini mountain ranges, making rain clouds around their peaks favorable environments to create storms.

Speaking of rain, there could be less of it in the U.S. West in the future, which is not unexpected, but researchers at The Ohio State University were surprised to find that, while the West is going to get drier, the Northeast will see an extensive increase in rainfall.

The middle section of the U.S. is going to see both. For the rest of this century, there will be higher precipitation in some years but extreme drought in others. An author of the study, James Stagge, said in a statement that in central U.S. states, drought might be really bad one year, and in five years, it might be the wettest period of rainfall in some time. The need to prepare for such extremes is a real challenge, one author said, and we might need to change the way we manage water.

The lead researcher, Kyungmin Sung, said that the scale of change we are seeing is dramatically larger than any natural climate variability. The research suggests that climate change has shifted precipitation patterns in extreme ways that were not experienced before the mid-1800s when industrialization began.

The urban rainfall study was published in the journal Earth’s Future. The U.S. rainfall study was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

There’s growing concern about a chemical that’s found almost everywhere. TFA, short for trifluoroacetic acid, is a type of “forever chemical” or PFAS. It's increasingly found throughout the environment, including in rain as well as in drinking water and groundwater.

Trifluoroacetic acid, or TFA, might be one of the most widespread "forever chemicals" in the environment.  |  Credit: Shttefan/Unsplash

Sarah Hale, a scientist with ZeroPM, told E&E News that the chemical is absolutely everywhere, and the next discussion in the U.S. will be about how it should be treated and what should be done.

The source of TFA is likely to be refrigerants that have been used to replace gases that depleted the ozone layer. The chemical may also come from pharmaceuticals and pesticides. Additionally, PFAS chemicals degrade into TFA when they are incinerated or treated at a sewage plant, E&E News reports.

The TFA molecule is very small and cannot be removed from water using traditional filtering methods. It’s similar to other PFAS compounds, in that it does not break down naturally.  

There is no scientific consensus that TFA is harmful to humans; however, other compounds in the PFAS family have been linked to certain cancers and health issues. In April, the EPA designated two of them as hazardous substances and issued drinking water standards for six PFAS chemicals. TFA moves through the human body quickly, unlike other forever chemicals that accumulate, and some researchers say it might not do as much damage.

Pharmaceuticals have been derived from many unusual sources. Penicillin was discovered long ago from mold and a new brain cancer drug candidate Marizomib is being sourced from microbes in ocean sediments. Even cosmetics have some interesting ingredients, such as snail mucin—also known as snail slime—which is promoted for its moisturizing and antioxidant properties.

Gut bacteria from the red seabream (Pagrus major) was found to strongly inhibit collagenase and tyrosinase activity.  |  Credit: Drawing and water colour from the Naturalis Biodiversity Center/Wikimedia Commons

Now, researchers found something even weirder to put on your face—fish gut bacteria. Researchers in Korea identified 22 molecules in the guts of red seabream (Pagrus major) and blackhead seabream (Acanthopagrus schlegelii) fish and evaluated each compound’s ability to inhibit tyrosinase and collagenase enzymes in the lab. Tyrosinase is responsible for melanin production, which causes hyperpigmentation in aging skin, known as age spots or liver spots. Collagenase breaks down the structural protein collagen, causing wrinkles.

Three molecules from the red seabream bacteria inhibited both enzymes the best without damaging the cells, making them potential brightening and anti-wrinkle agents for future cosmetics that could be scientifically sound and not some fishy gimmick.

The study was published in the journal ACS Omega.

Electric vehicles and renewable energy—not to mention all of our devices from smartphones to computers—rely on rare earth metals, which are finite resources. We can mine only so much lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese before we run out. Plus, geopolitics is adding a wrinkle because China controls much of the world’s supply and dominates the processing of metals.

Battery pack for BMW-i3 electric vehicle  |  Credit: Rudolf Simon/Creative Commons

Researchers with the Horsfall Group at the University of Edinburgh may have a solution. They’ve figured out a way to harvest metals from old batteries and discarded electronics—which would otherwise be dumped in landfills and pollute water resources—by having bacteria hunt them down.

The team told the Guardian that they learned various strains of naturally occurring bacteria will attach to atoms of metals inside waste electronics but then spit out the metals to avoid poisoning themselves. That spit, so to speak, contains nanoparticles which could then be used in new batteries or electronics. If put into practice, it would facilitate a circular economy solution in which we’d not only reuse these vital elements but also reduce the environmental impact of mining metals, which affects water resources, contaminates the environment, and harms biodiversity. 

In the last 100 years, antibiotics have drastically changed medicine, extending the average human life by 23 years, but there has also been a gradual decline in the discovery and development of new antibiotics since about the middle of the last century. A group of scientists warned earlier this year that there’s a crisis of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which makes it imperative to find new sources for the drugs in soils, plants, and deep hydrothermal vents, among other places.

Arctic Sea off Svalbard, viewed from the research vessel Kronprins Haakon  |  Credit: Yannik Schneider

So, it was welcome news last week when researchers led by the University of Helsinki announced they had discovered a totally new type of antibiotic, in, of all places, the frigid waters of the Arctic. The group traveled on a Norwegian research ship and gathered up invertebrates from which they took actinobacteria, a type of bacteria.

They analyzed the samples to see how they affected a type of E. coli pathogen that can cause severe diarrhea. The scientists found that four species of the actinobacteria could inhibit the E. coli’s virulence. As explained on Earth.com, rather than eliminating the bacteria, making them less virulent may reduce the evolutionary drive that makes strains antibiotic resistant.

The authors said in a statement that while 70 percent of all licensed antibiotics have been derived from a type of bacteria found in soil, most environments on Earth have not been searched for new ones.

The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology.

Birds of a feather will flock together—especially if they’re following a human inside a microlight aircraft cheering them on. That’s what’s happening right now somewhere between Austria and Spain, as “foster parents”—humans who have raised northern bald ibis (Geronticus eremita) chicks since they were a few days old—are helping the birds find their way to winter feeding grounds.

A flock of northern bald ibis, or Waldrapp, are guided to winter feeding grounds by "foster parents" riding in a microlight aircraft.  |  Credit: Waldrappteam Naturschutz & Forschung

The ibis, which have distinctive black-and-iridescent green feathers, bald red heads, and long curved beaks, were hunted nearly to extinction 400 years ago. But thanks to the conservation group Waldrappteam, colonies have gone from being critically endangered to endangered since they launched their program in 2002.

Unfortunately, when the group first attempted to reintroduce the birds into the wild, the animals lacked the instincts to know which direction to fly for the winter without the guidance of wild-born elders, and most disappeared or died soon after release.

So, the team stepped up to be their migration guides, having the ibis follow them south in their aircraft—which looks like a flying go-kart—while the foster parents wave and shout encouragement through a bullhorn. The birds obey because they had bonded with the humans since they were babies. Each chick had two foster parents who were their constant companions and who always wore yellow overcoats to help the birds recognize them apart from other humans.

This imprinting is key to the birds making the current 2,800-kilometer journey they started on August 13 to Andalusia, Spain, where they will settle in early October.  In 2024, it will be the 17th year the ibis have migrated with human guides, typically destined for Tuscany, Italy. However, starting last year, climate change has caused the birds to migrate later and forced them to cross the Alps in colder, more hazardous conditions, so the team now takes them on a longer, safer journey to Spain.

Eventually, the birds integrate with native flocks and no longer need their parents but when they fly north in spring, they often recognize their foster moms and dads years after they parted ways.

Reservoirs in the continental U.S. are experiencing longer periods of low water levels compared to several decades ago, and they are becoming less reliable and more vulnerable to climate change. A new study shows that these conditions are occurring in the east and southeast, but are most pronounced in western and central states where they tend to have longer and more variable periods of low water storage. (The study did not look at reservoirs in the northeast.)

Lewis and Clark Lake is the reservoir created by Gavins Point Dam on the Missouri River. In 2011, it was 30 percent full of sediment and could be half full by 2045.  |  Photo: Missouri Sedimentation Action Coalition

The scientists, led by the U.S. Geological Survey's Oregon Water Science Center, say that as natural storage such as snowpack diminishes and humans are pumping more groundwater, reservoirs are more important. Many of the 250 large dams studied were built between 1930 and 1970 and assumed that the climate and society would stay the same. However, drought and the buildup of sediment behind dams affects how much water can be stored in a reservoir. Now, there is uncertainty about whether they can be adapted to the changing conditions. One of the researchers said in a statement that the reductions in annual storage were widespread and many reservoirs aren’t filling to the levels they once did.

The study, published in Geophysical Research Letters, may be used to improve forecasting and help water managers make better decisions about the timing and releases of water.

DIG DEEPER: H2O Radio produced a series on reservoir sedimentation: Damned from the Start. Many U.S. Reservoirs Could Be Rendered Useless—And That Was Part of the Plan and The Dam Nobody Wants Just Won’t Go Away.

Over 40 percent of the world’s population lives in coastal areas, but sea level rise and extreme weather events caused by climate change are putting people and property at risk.

The Oceanside strand is soaked by waves during a King Tide on December 2022. The beach is all but gone from rising sea levels and coastal development. |  Credit: Mitch Silverstein, Surfrider San Diego

Beaches naturally protect shorelines, but they’ve been boxed in by buildings and roads. Additionally, sediment from rivers and canyons that would naturally replenish the sand are intercepted by development. Solutions have ranged from repeatedly adding sand to shorelines to so-called “gray solutions” like injecting cement into the ground or building sea walls, but those options are expensive and can accelerate the erosion that’s already gnawing away at beaches.

There may be a jolting solution. Researchers from Northwestern University have found that a mild zap of electrical current can instantaneously transform sand into a natural cement, which could keep a beach in place to defend the coast. The team drew inspiration from clams and mussels that use dissolved minerals in seawater to build their shells. While those critters rely on metabolic energy to make their exoskeletons, the scientists found that electricity can activate the same chemical reaction and cause particles of sand to glue together.

A 2020 study concluded that nearly 26 percent of the world's beaches will be washed away by the end of the century. This new solution could offer an inexpensive and sustainable way to shore up shorelines as sea levels rise.

The study was published in the journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment.

Glass is highly recyclable and can be used over and over. Unfortunately, many bottles and jars end up in landfills, but a new study says those glass containers could fill another purpose—growing vegetables.

A jalapeño seedling grown in 100 percent recycled glass at the university greenhouse |  Credit: Andrea Quezada/University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV)

Researchers at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley planted cilantro, bell pepper, and jalapeño—the ingredients for pico de gallo—in pots filled with pieces of glass that had been crushed and smoothed so they wouldn’t cut the plant roots or human hands. They also planted some of the fruits and vegetables in traditional potting soil as well as in a mixture of both glass and soil to see which worked best.

Initial results suggest that the plants in 100 percent recyclable glass grew faster and had better water retention, but soil contained higher levels of nutrients such nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, which are necessary for growth. Potting soil did have its drawbacks, including developing a fungus that stunted plant growth, whereas pots that had any amount of recyclable glass didn’t have fungal growth at all.

The experiment is wrapping up and it’s looking like a fifty-fifty ratio of soil to glass will work best, but they’re waiting until harvest time to confirm which mixture produces the highest—and tastiest results.

If successful, using glass-based soils could make agriculture more sustainable by requiring less water and avoiding the need for pesticides. It could also keep more waste out of landfills. So, you never know, your next salsa could have been grown in a glass half full—of old bottles that is.

The federal government announced that, for the next year, there will be no additional cutbacks of water allotments from the Colorado River for Arizona and Nevada, but they will have to maintain the current conservation guidelines in Level 1 Shortage Restrictions meant to protect Lake Mead, the country’s largest reservoir. This means Arizona will have to conserve about 18 percent of its annual allocation and Nevada about seven percent. Also, Mexico will need to continue to use about five percent less than the country’s annual allotment.

The Colorado River and its tributaries, (including the East River watershed, shown here), provide water to seven U.S. states and Mexico. But since 2000, water managers have struggled to predict how much water will come from snowpack.  |  Credit: Mark Stone/University of Washington

In making the announcement, Camille Touton, commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, said in a statement that the Colorado River system is showing significant improvements as a result of water savings from investments from the Inflation Reduction Act.

Since 2000, actual stream flows in the basin have been less than what water managers predicted, and a new study from the University of Washington may explain why. Their research says a lack of rainfall and warmer conditions in the spring cause plants and trees to act like giant straws, drawing up the water from snowpack and leaving less to flow into nearby streams. Sunnier skies encourage plant growth and also cause more water to evaporate.

April is typically the time when water managers estimate how much they can count on from snowpack, and the researchers say taking spring rainfall into account will make predictions more accurate.

The study was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

There’s a noisy underground party where earthworms, ants, beetles, and spiders are living it up in healthy soil. While barely audible to the human ear, researchers at Flinders University in Australia were able to listen in by sinking microphones into the earth and recording—then amplifying—the crackles, clicks, and pops that indicate good soil health and biodiversity.

Members of the the Flinders ecoacoustics team listening to soil (left to right): Dr Jake Robinson, Associate Professor Martin Breed, Nicole Fickling, Amy Annells, and Alex Taylor. |  Credit: Traci Klarenbeek (Flinders University)

Different creatures have different sound profiles based on their activity, shape, appendages, and size, the scientists say. A millipede with its many legs makes a different sound than an earthworm slithering along. Conversely, an absence of sound would indicate an area is degraded—in which case, silence would not be golden.

The authors note that almost 60 percent of Earth’s species live underground but nearly three-quarters of the soils they inhabit are in poor condition from deforestation, overgrazing, urbanization, and other destructive practices.

Determining if soils are degraded has typically relied on costly and time-consuming methods, such as counting the number of critters in a sample. But through the emerging field of "eco-acoustics"—where scientists are able to analyze sounds produced by animals, plants, and microbes both on land and underwater to gauge an ecosystem’s health—monitoring can be done without disturbing a single creature.

Think of it as akin to a doctor using a stethoscope to assess a patient’s health. Now, researchers can listen to the pulse of the soil, diagnose its condition, and recommend proper treatment.

The study was published in the Journal of Applied Ecology.

Popular surf spots around the world are coveted for conditions that produce ideal waves for a great ride, but these places to hang ten or get tubed are making researchers pretty stoked too.

Credit: The Last Minute/Creative Commons

That’s because many great breaks are located near mangroves, coastal forests, marshes, and seagrasses—places that store massive amounts of carbon, which, if protected, could help fight climate change. For example, in a single square mile, mangroves can stash away as much carbon as the annual emissions of 90,000 cars, not to mention providing habitat for numerous species and protecting biodiversity.

Scientists led by Conservation International (CI) and Oregon State University mapped 4,800 surf spots in 113 countries and found they store about 88 million tons of “irrecoverable” carbon—an amount roughly equivalent to the emissions from 77 million gas-powered cars. Irrecoverable carbon refers to the vast stores of carbon in nature that, if lost, could not be restored by 2050, the deadline by which the world must reach net-zero emissions to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

The hitch is that the vast majority of these carbon sinks—which are also biodiversity hotspots—are not protected from development and habitat destruction. The scientists say their study could be used to persuade local, state, and national governments to create what are known as “Surf Protected Areas” with formal regulations to safeguard them. According to CI, more than 70 surf breaks and their surrounding ecosystems now have legal protection from unsustainable tourism development, coral and sand mining, deforestation, overfishing, and other threats that could harm their biodiversity and ability to store carbon.

Creating these zones could not only help combat climate change and protect biodiversity but would also support the cultural heritage and economies of communities nearby—and of course, allow surfers to catch that epic wave.

The study was published in the journal Conservation Science and Practice.

We’re becoming more aware of threats to water systems, from aging infrastructure to cyber hacking, but an incident last week in New Orleans highlighted another danger—party balloons.

Credit: Bob B. Brown/Flickr

A Mylar balloon touched a power line near the Carrollton Water Treatment Plant and caused a brief power fluctuation—only about three minutes—but it was enough to put much of the city under a boil water advisory. According to Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans (SWBNO), the fluctuation took pumps offline and staff rushed to turn them back on.

Unfortunately, as one employee responded, they sustained serious injuries. Two other operators administered first aid while awaiting EMS, but the incident delayed efforts to manually turn on the pumps and caused the system to briefly dip below 20 pounds per second (psi) for about ten minutes. That triggered a precautionary boil water advisory in case any bacteriological contaminants entered the pipes during the time offline.

Mylar is a type of metallic foil, so it conducts electricity. More and more, runaway balloons are getting snagged in power lines and some cities are passing ordinances banning their outdoor release, including Las Vegas. California passed a law outlawing Mylar balloons starting in 2031, citing their risk to ignite wildfires and spark power outages.

Shark populations around the world have shrunk by more than 70 percent in the last 50 years, which could be devastating for ocean health. Over one-third of sharks and rays are threatened with extinction, but they play important and different roles in marine ecosystems, according to a new study from Florida International University.

A lemon shark in the Bahamas  |  Credit: Gerald Schömbs/Unsplash

For example, tiger sharks are the guardians of wide areas of seagrass by keeping them from being overgrazed by sea turtles. Writing in The Conversation, one of the study’s authors points out that in Bermuda, there has been an almost total collapse of seagrasses, a place where the sharks have declined.

Just having sharks near an ecosystem can be beneficial. White sharks off the California coast can force otters closer to inland waters, where they prey upon crabs that eat sea slugs. Sea slugs help seagrasses, which provide habitat for juvenile fish and shellfish, by removing algae from them.

Some sharks are an important food source for other animals. Orcas eat white sharks, a large species, and larger hammerheads eat smaller blacktip sharks. Sharks also provide nutrients to reefs by excreting their waste at ones located away from shore waters where they feed.

Humans are killing many shark’s species at unsustainable rates mainly through overfishing and using nets and long lines. The authors say there’s an urgent need for countries to refocus on where and how to conserve the animals.

The study was published in the journal Science.

Solving the climate crisis will mean getting more of our energy from renewables, but large-scale wind farms and solar arrays can take up lots of space. More and more, solar panels are being put over farm fields and parking lots, but a team of researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences realized that there are 1.9 million miles of highways on the planet, so what if we covered those with rooftop solar?

Covering Earth’s highways with solar panels could generate more than 60 percent of the world’s energy consumption each year.  |  Credit: Alex Kalinin/Unsplash

They did the math and calculated that it could generate more than 60 percent of global energy consumption every year, all while using land already set aside for transportation and giving it a dual purpose. What’s more, the team figured that by putting solar panels over major roads in the world, we could produce the same amount of energy that would otherwise be generated by fossil fuels, which was equal to two-thirds of greenhouse gases the U.S. released in 2022.

Covering roads with solar would be no small feat, requiring some 52.3 billion panels. But, if pulled off across the globe, it would generate up to 17,578 terawatt-hours per year, which is more than four times the annual energy output of the United States.

The authors say another benefit of putting photovoltaic roofs on highways would be a reduction in worldwide traffic deaths by 10.8 percent, especially in regions with high precipitation, by shielding drivers from rain and snow. Improved highway safety would additionally reduce the economic costs of traffic accidents.

The idea is not without its challenges. Installations on highways would be more expensive to set up than ground arrays, and the maintenance could be problematic—someone’s gotta climb up there to keep those panels clean.

The study was published in Earth’s Future, an open-access AGU journal that publishes interdisciplinary research on the past, present, and future of our planet and its inhabitants.

Earth has many saline or salty lakes, and they’re often found in arid regions or deserts, like the Great Salt Lake in Utah or the Aral Sea in Central Asia. Now, new research shows that, as these lakes dry out, they’re a significant source of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere—and unaccounted for in official records.

Sampling gas emissions from the lake bed of Great Salt Lake  |  Credit: Soren Brothers

Scientists at the Royal Ontario Museum and the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries found that human extraction of water from the Great Salt Lake coupled with the drying from global warming expose large areas of the lake bed, releasing massive quantities of greenhouse gases. Conditions have been made worse by the mega drought in the West for the last 20 years.

When it dries, the lakebed cracks and releases CO2. As the Washington Post reports, a full lake removes CO2 from the atmosphere, but one that has dried up allows oxygen to penetrate deep into the soil and activate microorganisms that feed on organic matter that then release the gas. The research concluded that the lakebed emitted 4.1 million tons of greenhouse gases—about a seven percent increase in Utah’s human-caused emissions.

The team also determined that the original lake was likely not a significant source of emissions. Water levels at the Great Salt Lake have shrunk by nearly half recently, but even after some gains, there are still immense areas of dry lakebed, and besides releasing CO2, the drying can lead to toxic dust and loss of bird habitat.

The study was published in the journal One Earth.

We expect records to be broken at the Olympics, but shattering old climate numbers are probably not what athletes and fans had in mind. From the start, the Paris games have displayed the fingerprints of a warming world. The week of the opening ceremony, Earth experienced the hottest day ever measured, according to NASA.

Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower, Paris 2024  |  Credit: Ibex73/Creative Commons

As events got underway, the city was drenched with an inch of rain, delaying the swimming portion of the triathlon in the River Seine. Paris, like many older cities, has a combined sewer system in which stormwater and wastewater flow in the same pipe. Prolonged downpours can tax the capacity of the infrastructure and send water—and its bacteria—into the river.

In preparation for the games, the city built a giant basin to capture excess rainwater to keep untreated waste from flowing into the river. They also renovated the sewage system and upgraded water treatment plants. As Le Monde reports, the rains filled only around 20 percent of the basin, so officials said the contamination likely came from wastewater upstream.

Next, in an extreme swing that scientists associate with climate change, the rains gave way to temperatures as high as 36 degrees Celsius (97 degrees Fahrenheit) from a heat dome parked across the Mediterranean. A new study from the World Weather Attribution group says the conditions would have been “impossible” without human-caused global warming.

“Yesterday, climate change crashed the Olympics,” tweeted Dr Friederike Otto, a climatologist at Imperial College London and part of the World Weather Attribution group. She wrote that if the atmosphere wasn’t overloaded with emissions from burning fossil fuels, Paris would have been about 3°C cooler and much safer for competition. She told the Guardian that while athletes were given ice packs and spectators sprayed with water, many people in the affected region don’t have air conditioning or cooling breaks at work, so the excessive heat can mean serious illness or even death.

Another study out last week presented solid evidence that intense downpours are occurring more frequently, while dry periods seem to last longer and become more severe because of human activity.

Over the years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has had mascots to communicate ways to protect the environment. Most of us are familiar with Smokey Bear who warned about preventing forest fires or Woodsy Owl, who messaged to “Give a Hoot! Don’t Pollute!” But do you remember Pestina, the anti-invasive species bug? Probably not.

Plant quarantine messaging with "Pestina" by the Agricultural Research Service, Plant Quarantine Division, U.S. Department of Agriculture, March 1970  |  public domain

According to a new article published in the journal Environmental History, Pestina was a cartoon insect created to educate travelers about the dangers of transporting contaminants to the U.S. mainland.  In her article, “A Coquettish, Hitchhiking Bug”: The Rise and Fall of Pestina, Symbol of Invasive Pests and Agricultural Quarantine, author Erinn E. Campbell writes that Pestina was designed after World War II, as international trade and travel increased and the USDA was struggling to monitor unprecedented numbers of pests and diseases moving across the globe.

The first iteration of Pestina was created in 1958 by a federal inspector in Hawai’i to alert hotel guests about the risks of taking plants to the mainland and featured a voluptuous insect wearing a hula skirt. The character was then repurposed in Puerto Rico, wearing "Latin American" attire.

Campbell (University of Cambridge) notes that  …[U.S.] agricultural officials initially designed her as a phytosanitary femme fatale, leaning heavily into sexist, racist tropes to attract attention and combat a perceived crisis of public ignorance. Depictions of Pestina as a curvaceous, “exotic” hitchhiker drew on mingled anxieties about immigration and women’s sexuality, translating the threat of pest invasion into a moralized visual language that travelers already understood.

Eventually, in the 1960s, Pestina donned a strapless dress with pearls, (not dissimilar, we noticed, to an outfit with a zig zag hemline of the same time period worn by Wilma Flinstone). Pestina appeared in numerous pamphlets, posters, and television spots.

Alas, her exotic and curvaceous look was a bit too coquettish for the changing attitudes around women’s sexuality as well as social anxieties about immigration. So, in 1969, the USDA changed course and rebranded Pestina as a bland public servant, but after a federal report complained that her appearance undermined her message, they abandoned her altogether.

Stingrays, with their wide flat bodies, don’t really look like fish, but they are cousins of sharks. They can grow up to about four feet across and have fins the length of their bodies. Most of the time, estuary stingrays (Hemitrygon fluviorum) stay in shallow waters near coastlines in warmer parts of the world, partially burying themselves on the ocean floor. Now, new research from the University of New Castle, Australia, shows they play an important function in the ecosystem by moving sand around.

Drone imagery of the study location, Pelican's Spot in the Brisbane Water estuary, where populations of the estuary stingray (Hemitrygon fluviorum) can grow to 130 centimeters (or about four feet) across and are found only in Australia.  | Credit: University of Newcastle PhD student Molly Grew

During one year in the Brisbane Water estuary off the coast of New South Wales, the rays’ graceful fins shifted an amount of sand equal to the mass of the Great Sphinx of Giza. Lead researcher Molly Grew told Australian Geographic that the rays’ turnover of sediment helps with nutrient cycling, but until her study, they did not know how much sand they stirred up. In a university release, she said that when feeding and sleeping, stingrays create pits that look like shallow divots in the ocean floor, and their burrowing process helps to penetrate oxygen into the sand, upon which many organisms rely.

The rays eat worms, invertebrates, and mollusks that hide under the sand. To find them, they flap their wings and spurt water, disturbing the sand to expose their prey. Grew calls the rays “ecosystem engineers,” and she said that without them, sediments become anoxic and lose the small animals living in the sand, which is a problem up the food chain.

Now, researchers are concerned about the loss of the animals, mainly from coastal development that can destroy habitat, and also from bycatch in commercial fishing. Estuary stingrays are now categorized as near threatened.

The study was published in the journal Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation.

Earth’s rotation is not constant. The interplay of the sun, the moon, and the planet’s core tweak the rate it spins and has done so for billions of years—that is until human-caused climate change entered the mix.

A tidewater glacier on the Antarctic coast  |  Credit: Jason Auch/Creative Commons

New research shows that by pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, we are making our days longer. The burning of fossil fuels leads to ice melting in polar regions, which sends more water into the world’s oceans—especially near the equator. This creates a bulge around Earth’s midsection—or more technically, a shift in mass—that’s causing the planet to rotate more slowly and lengthen the day.

How much? New research from ETH Zurich says it’s only a few milliseconds more than the current rotation of 86,400 seconds, but that can potentially affect computer systems, GPS, and even space travel, all of which rely on precise clocks. What’s more, the researchers found that the change in mass is also shifting Earth’s axis and movements in the planet’s core.

The study says that by the end of the century, global warming will have a greater influence on the Earth's rotational speed than the gravitational pull of the moon, which tugs at the oceans and has slowed the planet’s rate of spin for millennia.  

The study about Earth’s rotation was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PNAS

Tornado-chasing is having another moment in Hollywood with the release of the movie Twisters, but humans aren’t the only storm chasers on the planet. According to new research, a daredevil seabird living on an island in the Atlantic Ocean, will deliberately fly into hurricanes—and not for an Oscar. It’s all about food.