Feature Channels: Environmental Science

• share
• favorite_border

Electricity use has health benefits in diverse populations worldwide, but the relationship is not linear, and increasing use past a certain threshold may not add benefits. Additionally, those benefits may be offset by negative health impacts of the fuel used to generate electricity. A multitiered analysis published February 21 in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP) investigates the relationship between coal consumption, electricity use, and health impacts, as well as the related implications for climate and energy policy.

• share
• favorite_border

Introductory college science classes need to improve their coverage of issues related to sustainability, a noted chemistry educator told the American Association for the Advancement of Science today.

• share
• favorite_border

Ryerson University faculty members available to comment on current environmental issues including urban ecology, green roofs and international climate change policy.

• share
• favorite_border

Alaskan forests used to be key players in Mother Nature’s game plan for regulating carbon dioxide levels in the air. But now, American and Canadian researchers report that climate change is causing wildfires to burn more widely and severely, turning Alaska's black spruce forests from carbon repositories to generators of it.

• share
• favorite_border

For 30 years, two General Electric facilities released about 1.3 million pounds of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into New York’s Hudson River, devastating and contaminating fish populations. Some 50 years later, one type of fish—the Atlantic tomcod—has not only survived but appears to be thriving in the hostile Hudson environment.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists discover a genetic variant that allows a fish in the Hudson River to live in waters heavily polluted by PCBs.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study has identified a troubling change in long-term coral growth patterns on the world’s second largest barrier reef. The findings suggest that corals closest to the open ocean — and furthest from traditional land-based threats — are having the most trouble coping with environmental stress, from sources such as climate change and pollutants.

• share
• favorite_border

Rising carbon dioxide levels associated with global warming may affect interactions between plants and the insects that eat them, altering the course of plant evolution, research at the University of Michigan suggests.

• share
• favorite_border

As debate continues about potential policies to curb greenhouse gas emissions, new research shows the world is already committed to a warmer climate because of emissions that have occurred up to now.

• share
• favorite_border

Recalculating the global use of phosphorous, a fertilizer linchpin of modern agriculture, a team of researchers warns that the world’s stocks may soon be in short supply and that overuse in the industrialized world has become a leading cause of the pollution of lakes, rivers and streams.

• share
• favorite_border

Jamie Rotenberg, UNC Wilmington assistant professor of environmental studies, along with researchers at the Belize Foundation for Research and Environmental Education (BFREE), is studying what is thought to be the first active Harpy Eagle nest ever recorded in Belize, where the predatory birds were previously thought to be extinct.

• share
• favorite_border

A new analysis of sulfur emissions shows that after declining for a decade, worldwide emissions rose again in 2000 due largely to international shipping and a growing Chinese economy. An accurate read on sulfur emissions will help researchers predict future changes in climate and determine present day effects on the atmosphere, health and the environment.

• share
• favorite_border

New research shows a link between use of two pesticides, rotenone and paraquat, and Parkinson’s disease. People who used either pesticide developed Parkinson’s disease approximately 2.5 times more often than non-users.

• share
• favorite_border

A new, University of Georgia-led study co-authored by Florida State University oceanographer Ian MacDonald is the first to examine comprehensively the magnitude of hydrocarbon gases released during the Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico oil discharge. The study has found that up to 500,000 tons of gaseous hydrocarbons were emitted into the deep ocean.

• share
• favorite_border

ASU's Sustainable Phosphorus Summit was the first international gathering on U.S. soil and an important milestone in the emerging global dialogue around phosphorus scarcity and sustainability. A consensus statement, released Feb. 10, reflects the optimism coming out of the summit around solution-building.

• share
• favorite_border

Improving sustainability practices is a growing trend in businesses and organizations, with 62 percent of companies in 2009 reporting they had empowered internal teams to create eco-friendly workplaces. “It’s become part of our jobs to take time to think creatively about sustainability,” says Dedee DeLongpré Johnston, director of sustainability at Wake Forest.

• share
• favorite_border

The University of Chicago has received a $50,000 grant to help fund a green roof atop the new Chicago Theological Seminary building, now under construction at 1407 E. 60th St.

• share
• favorite_border

New, high-resolution ocean circulation models suggest that massive glacial meltwaters assumed to have flooded the North Atlantic 8,200 years ago, drastically cooling Europe, instead flowed thousands of miles further south. Results dramatically affect our understanding of what causes climate change.

• share
• favorite_border

Birds living near the site of the Chernobyl nuclear accident have on average 5 percent smaller brains, according to research led by a University of South Carolina scientist.

• share
• favorite_border

Brightly-lit Cowboys Stadium during Sunday’s Super Bowl XLV may symbolize one of the hottest new pieces of scientific intelligence about air pollution: Researchers have discovered — in a classic case of scientific serendipity — that the bright light from sports stadiums and urban street lights may boost daytime levels of ozone, a key air pollutant in many heavily populated areas.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists are reporting discovery of an environmentally friendly way to make a key industrial material — used in products ranging from paints to diapers — from a renewable raw material without touching the traditional pricey and increasingly scarce petroleum-based starting material.

• share
• favorite_border

Cultivating coca bushes, the source of cocaine, is speeding up destruction of rainforests in Colombia and threatening the region’s “hotspots” of plant and animal diversity, scientists are reporting in a new study.

• share
• favorite_border

A team of researchers America identified the most important questions that future generations will face when dealing with changes in soil structure. These questions will serve as a guide for direction of soil science research.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers investigating how large dams can affect local climates say dams have the clear potential to drastically alter local rainfall in some regions. The study—published in Geophysical Research Letters— marks the first time researchers have documented large dams having a clear, strong influence on the climate around artificial reservoirs, an influence markedly different from the climate around natural lakes and wetlands.

• share
• favorite_border

The La Nina Pacific Ocean cooling event continues to pull down temperatures, with the global average temperature falling below seasonal norms for the first time in 18 months and only the second time in almost two and a half years.

• share
• favorite_border

Vanderbilt University expert suggests environmentally friendly Valentine’s Day celebration alternatives.

• share
• favorite_border

American Thoracic Society President Dean E. Schraufnagel, MD, today expressed “grave concerns” with legislation released by House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-OK) to make changes to the Clean Air Act.

• share
• favorite_border

Complexity ever in the eye of its beholders, the animal with the most genes -- about 31,000 -- is the near-microscopic freshwater crustacean Daphnia pulex, or water flea. By comparison, humans have about 23,000 genes. Daphnia is the first crustacean to have its genome sequenced.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study by an international team including professor Mark Luckenbach of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science shows that the decline of oyster reefs is a global problem. The team's analysis shows that oyster reefs are at less than 10% of their prior abundance in 70% of the 144 bays studied around the world.

• share
• favorite_border

Wolverine habitat in the northwestern United States is likely to warm dramatically if society continues to emit large amounts of greenhouse gases, according to new computer model simulations carried out at NCAR. The study found that climate change is likely to imperil the wolverine in two ways: reducing or eliminating the springtime snow cover that wolverines rely on to protect and shelter newborn kits, and increasing August temperatures well beyond what the species may be able to tolerate.

• share
• favorite_border

A researcher at Missouri University of Science and Technology is leading a study to increase the amount of fly ash used in concrete. If successful, the effort could divert millions of tons of the waste product away from ponds and landfills and reduce CO2 emissions.

• share
• favorite_border

Oil spill expert Nancy Kinner is available to comment on a new study looking at the fate of dispersants used in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and on the science of dispersants in general.

• share
• favorite_border

Villanova’s College of Engineering has launched a new center of research that brings concepts of sustainability within the study and practice of engineering to life. The new Villanova Center for the Advancement of Sustainability in Engineering (VCASE) houses multi-disciplinary research and teaching in a number of emerging areas and seeks to protect and restore the environment through the systems-based integration of sustainability principles into engineering solutions.

• share
• favorite_border

Even minute amounts of lead may take a toll on pregnant women, according to a study published by Lynn Goldman, M.D., M.S., M.P.H., Dean of George Washington University’s School of Public Health and Health Services in D.C., and colleagues, in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. Although the levels of lead in the women’s blood remained far below thresholds set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and standards set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, women carrying more lead had significantly higher blood pressure.

• share
• favorite_border

Beginning March 1, 2011, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will no longer provide calibration services for mercury thermometers.

• share
• favorite_border

For two months, researchers launched weather balloons, drove instrument-laden cars and flew a glider to study winter inversions that often trap dirty air in Salt Lake City and other urban basins worldwide. The field campaign – part of a study led by the University of Utah – ends Feb. 7.

• share
• favorite_border

A new, independent non-profit organization tasked with developing and administering a sustainability rating system for North American infrastructure—the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI)—will hold its first board meeting later this week on February 8 and 9. The organization was founded by the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC), the American Public Works Association (APWA) and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

• share
• favorite_border

Professor Anton Ovchinnikov, who teaches Decision Analysis courses at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, has designed a new model to help companies determine which consumers would choose a refurbished product over a new one.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists from Stony Brook University are reporting new evidence that cultivating coca bushes, the source of cocaine, is speeding up destruction of rainforests in Colombia and threatening the region’s “hotspots” of plant and animal diversity.

• share
• favorite_border

To combat last year’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill, nearly 800,000 gallons of chemical dispersant were injected directly into the oil and gas flow coming out of the wellhead nearly one mile deep in the Gulf of Mexico. Now, as scientists begin to assess how well the strategy worked at breaking up oil droplets, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) chemist Elizabeth B. Kujawinski and her colleagues report that a major component of the dispersant itself was contained within an oil-gas-laden plume in the deep ocean and had still not degraded some three months after it was applied.

• share
• favorite_border

Intelligent GenerationTM (IG) will celebrate the launch of its new test site at Illinois Institute of Technology's University Technology Park on January 27, 2011.

• share
• favorite_border

The U.S. Green Building Council has granted LEED Platinum certification — the highest possible standard — to the Peggy Ryan Williams Center at Ithaca College.

• share
• favorite_border

Mercury contamination, a worldwide environmental problem, has been called "public enemy No. 1" in California's San Francisco Bay.

• share
• favorite_border

Natural resource policy is an emerging academic field that focuses on the people part of science. It straddles the social and environmental sciences. "People cause social problems; people are affected by them; people care about them; and it's people who have to fix them," says Michigan Tech Professor Kathy Halvorsen.

• share
• favorite_border

In a study funded by the U.S. EPA and administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, biologists at Virginia Commonwealth University measured the nutrient removal capacity of the Eastern oyster.

• share
• favorite_border

In a collaborative study the USDA-ARS Water Management Research Unit and Colorado State University, soil samples were analyzed to determine the extent of atrzine degradation in northeastern Colorado.

• share
• favorite_border

An international research team working with NIST scientists has suggested for the first time that mercury cycling in the flora and fauna of the Arctic may be linked to the amount of ice cover present.

• share
• favorite_border

Encroaching woody plants such as the eastern redcedar are affecting many privately owned grasslands in the Midwestern United States. The attitudes and behaviors of private landowners to redcedar expansion are essential to preserving the remaining tallgrass prairie. Landowners must join forces to identify management strategies that will minimize this threat to grassland ecosystems. However, the owners’ attitudes toward taking steps to manage the restoration of the grasslands may affect efforts to preserve the prairie.

• share
• favorite_border

A new Australian company has been established to produce commercial quantities of clean, "green" fuels from algae.

• share
• favorite_border

The year 2010 finished in a photo finish with 1998 for the warmest year in the 32-year satellite temperature record. 2010 was only 0.013 C cooler than 1998, an amount that is not statistically significant.