Feature Channels: Environmental Health

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Why does the world need so many types of mushrooms, or spiders, or birds, or any other species? The answer is wrapped up in the term biological diversity. Every species on Earth plays an integral part in the health of our planet. When an organism becomes extinct, a wide web of other organisms suffers, and we all suffer in the long run. The study of mushrooms has helped scientists understand the intricate connectedness all species have to the earth and to each other.

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In a sparsely furnished office in Kajiado, Kenya, large sheets of white paper cover nearly an entire wall. Quick illustrations, mind maps, color-coded charts, and task lists cram the pages with plans and strategies for grazing management orchestrated by the newly formed Kajiado Rangeland Carbon Project team. In the language of the local Maasai tribe, Kajiado means The Long River; the region is located south of Nairobi and bordering Tanzania. Staff on this project understand what is at stake and are eager to embark on an adventure that will help enhance their local economy while conserving wildlife and precious habitat.

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See how CSU faculty and students are studying ways to capture stormwater and strengthen drought resilience.

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In an effort to improve understanding of pulmonary fibrosis (PF) and interstitial lung disease (ILD), data from the PFF Registry is presenting researchers with opportunities to accelerate understanding of PF and ILD to improve patient outcomes.

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More than 1 million Californians live near active oil or gas wells, potentially exposing them to drilling-related pollution that can contribute to asthma, preterm births and a variety of other health problems.

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As the world faces increasingly extreme and frequent weather events brought on by climate change – such as droughts, floods, heatwaves, and wildfires – critical civic resources such as food, water, and energy will be impacted.

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A study has found that infrastructure worldwide is widespread in sites that have been identified as internationally important for biodiversity, and its prevalence is likely to increase.

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Outbreaks of zoonotic diseases, which are those transmitted from animals to humans, are globally on the rise owing to climate change.

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Access to safe water, proper sanitation and hygiene are essential for human survival. As the United Nations convenes its first major conference on water quality since 1977, researchers at the University of Rhode Island are seeking better ways to provide potable water and stop pollution from contaminating water supplies.

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Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have developed a new method that can easily purify contaminated water using a cellulose-based material.

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Research published in Environmental Research Letters has shown that methane emissions from urban areas are underestimated by a factor of three to four and that untreated wastewater may be a contributing factor.

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Digital Science has released its analysis of the global research response to climate change and animal-borne diseases, in the context of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on climate and health.

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A global treaty called the Minamata Convention requires gold-mining countries to regularly report the amount of toxic mercury that miners are using to find and extract gold, designed to help nations gauge success toward at least minimizing a practice that produces the world’s largest amount of manmade mercury pollution.

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Rising temperatures and higher CO₂ levels are fueling longer and more intense pollen seasons, negatively impacting the health of those with allergies. A medical expert and public health scientist both offer strategies to fight back.

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The editorial board of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal is honoring a pair of Florida State University researchers for their 2022 study which found that childhood exposure to lead has robbed Americans an average of 2.6 IQ points per person.

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The global scientific evidence of the multiple types of benefits that forests, trees and green spaces have on human health has now been assessed by an international and interdisciplinary team of scientists.

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Animal agriculture is a major source of water pollution in the United States, as manure runoff carries excess nutrients into rivers and lakes. Because of their non-point source nature, most farms are not regulated under the federal Clean Water Act. This leaves pollution control up to the states, resulting in a patchwork of different approaches that are difficult to evaluate.

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New study finds that found that the spread of the spotted lanternfly population is largely due to human-mediated dispersal via transportation. In other words, these expert hitchhikers are catching rides on our cars, trucks and trains.

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Farmers in Thailand still largely use chemical herbicides, especially paraquat and atrazine, to control weeds on their farms. According to research by the Office of Agricultural Economics, in 2019, Thailand imported almost 10 million kilograms of paraquat and close to 3.5 million kilograms of atrazine. The residues of these herbicides cause harm to the environment, living creatures, and our health.

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For the first time, leading researchers from the fields of healthcare, ocean science, and social science have collaborated to quantify plastic's considerable risks to all life on Earth.

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Renewable energy experts have come up with an environmentally-friendly plan to dispose of solar panels at the end of their life.

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When a family of five-ton elephants stomps and chomps its way through your crops, there’s only one winner. And in the central African nation of Gabon, farmers are getting fed up with the giant animals trampling their fields—and their livelihoods.

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A WCS-coauthored study reveals that global mountain forests – critically important to wildlife – are vanishing at an accelerating rate with an area twice the size of Norway lost between 2001-2018.

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Staphylococcus aureus, Clostridioides difficile, Candida auris, Drug-resistant Shigella. These bacteria not only have difficult names to pronounce, but they are also difficult to fight off. These bacteria may infect humans and animals, and the infections they cause are harder to treat than those caused by non-resistant bacteria. Antimicrobial resistance is an urgent global public health threat.

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New research shows that as wildfires are increasing in frequency, intensity and extent, and affecting air quality across the U.S., they are having a detrimental effect on people with and without skin conditions.

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Can your joints predict the weather? Well, actually, maybe, explains a bone specialist at Michigan Medicine.

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A new study is providing an unprecedented examination of oxygen loss on coral reefs around the globe under ocean warming. Led by researchers at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and a large team of national and international colleagues, the study captures the current state of hypoxia—or low oxygen levels—at 32 different sites, and reveals that hypoxia is already pervasive on many reefs.

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It's sleep awareness week, according to the National Sleep Foundation. It’s important to understand how sleep deprivation can impact your health. Most people recognize that if they don’t get enough sleep, their mood and memory will suffer the next day.

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When wildfire strikes a community, it can leave a path of destruction, and a chance for renewal. During the fire and in the immediate aftermath, residents and officials focus on protection and stabilization efforts. However, the availability of resources to support community recovery and promote resilience to future fires over the longer-term is less certain.

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Sandia National Laboratories engineers have developed a standardized screening method to determine the most important radioactive isotopes produced by an advanced nuclear reactor in the unlikely event of an incident.

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Scientists converted post-consumer high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic products into fully recyclable and potentially biodegradable material with the same desirable properties of the starting single-use plastic.

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Tibet is known as the “Water Tower of Asia,” providing water to about 2 billion people and supporting critical ecosystems in High Mountain Asia and the Tibetan Plateau, where many of the largest Asian river systems originate. This region is also one of the areas most vulnerable to the compounding effects of climate change and human activities. Michigan State University researchers are identifying policy changes that need to happen now to prepare for the future impacts projected by climate models.

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Johns Hopkins University has been selected by the U.S. Department of Transportation to lead a new University Transportation Center focused on solutions aimed at preserving the environment.

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Research shows connection between hospitalization rates for cardiovascular disease and proximity to fracking, providing evidence that exposure to airborne pollutants from unconventional natural gas development may impact human health

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Most studies on the effects of heavy metals on bacteria living in these environments have only focused on one metal at a time. In this study, researchers found that exposing bacteria to a mixture of metals caused their metabolism to change and led them to act as if they were starved for iron.