Environment

Climate

Despite volcanic setback, Antarctic ozone hole healing

The September extent of the Antarctic ozone hole has shrunk by about 4.5 million square kilometers since 2000, thanks in large part to the Montreal Protocol.

Climate

World will struggle to keep warming to 2 degrees by 2100

Current plans to curb climate change aren’t ambitious enough to limit global warming below 2 degrees Celsius by 2100, new research shows.

Earth

A third of the population can’t see the Milky Way at night

Light pollution conceals the Milky Way’s star-spangled core from more than a third of Earth’s population, a global atlas of artificial sky luminance reveals.

Climate

Volcanic rocks help turn carbon emissions to stone — and fast

A pilot program in Iceland that injected carbon dioxide into basaltic lava rocks turned more than 95 percent of the greenhouse gas into stone within two years.

Environment

Bikini Atoll radiation levels remain alarmingly high

Lingering radiation levels from nuclear bomb tests on Bikini Atoll are far higher than previously estimated.

Animals

Tiny plastics cause big problems for perch, lab study finds

Researchers have linked microplastics to feeding behavior changes and development issues in Baltic Sea perch.

Environment

Tiny plastics cause big problems for perch

Researchers have linked microplastics to feeding behavior changes and development issues in Baltic Sea perch.

Environment

Deepwater Horizon oil spill caused months-long ‘dirty blizzard’

Pollution from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill accumulated on the seafloor for months after the leak was patched.

Climate

Climate-cooling aerosols can form from tree vapors

Climate-cooling, cloud-seeding aerosols can form in the atmosphere without the sulfuric acid spewed from fossil fuel burning, new research suggests.

Oceans

Here’s where 17,000 ocean research buoys ended up

A combined look at 35 years’ worth of ocean buoy movements reveals the currents that feed into ocean garbage patches.

Environment

When measuring lead in water, check the temperature

Lead contamination in drinking water can be much higher during summer than winter, new research suggests.

Environment

U.S. oil and gas boom behind rising ethane levels

Oil and gas operations on North Dakota’s Bakken shale are largely to blame for a recent rise in global emissions of the greenhouse gas ethane, researchers conclude.