Environment
- Environment
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill ruined long-term shore stability
For at least eight years, the oil disaster continued to kill soil-retaining marsh plants along the Louisiana coast, accelerating shoreline loss.
- Climate
Many Antarctic glaciers are hemorrhaging ice. This one is healing its cracks
Scientists have explored the recesses of an Antarctic glacier that is currently stable, helping improve predictions of the continent’s fate.
- Environment
Air pollution made an impression on Monet and other 19th century painters
The impressionist painting style can be partly explained by the reality of rising air pollution from the industrial revolution, an analysis finds.
- Climate
Greta Thunberg’s new book urges the world to take climate action now
Greta Thunberg's ‘The Climate Book’ covers the basic science of climate change, the history of denialism and inaction, environmental justice and solutions.
- Oceans
50 years ago, scientists discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
In 1973, plastic bottles adrift in the North Pacific alarmed scientists. Fifty years later, more than 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic litter the area.
- Climate
Rapid melting is eroding vulnerable cracks in Thwaites Glacier’s underbelly
Thwaites is melting slower than thought, but the worst of it is concentrated in underbelly cracks, threatening the Antarctica glacier’s stability.
- Climate
Climate ‘teleconnections’ may link droughts and fires across continents
Far-reaching climate patterns like the El Niño-Southern Oscillation may synchronize droughts and regulate scorching of much of Earth’s burned area.
- Science & Society
Many plans for green infrastructure risk leaving vulnerable people out
Green infrastructure is one way to help combat climate hazards like flooding. But without equitable planning, only some communities will benefit.
- Life
How plant ‘muscles’ fold up a mimosa leaf fast
A mimosa plant revs up tiny clumps of specially shaped cells that collapse its leaflets, though why isn’t clear.
- Life
A new metric of extinction risk considers how cultures care for species
Conservation efforts should consider relationships between cultural groups and the species important to them, researchers argue.
- Climate
It’s possible to reach net-zero carbon emissions. Here’s how
Cutting carbon dioxide emissions to curb climate change and reach net zero is possible but not easy.
- Environment
Recycling rare earth elements is hard. Science is trying to make it easier
As demand grows, scientists are inventing new — and greener — ways to recycle rare earth elements.
