Planting lots of trees is one of many strategies being pursued to combat climate change. Trees are storehouses of carbon from the atmosphere and planting more of them helps remove carbon dioxide. But trees do more than that. Trees are natural air conditioners in cities. Trees significantly cool urban environments by providing shade and via […]…

Smoke from wildfires is well known to exacerbate health problems like heart disease, lung conditions, and asthma. People living in the vicinity of where fires occur face these dangers. But a new study at the University of Maryland has found that there are health impacts from wildfires occurring thousands of miles away. During the summer […]…

Heavy industries like cement, steel, chemicals, and paper require large amounts of heat and, for the most part, that heat comes from burning fossil fuels. Other sectors of the economy have been making progress in reducing carbon emissions, but heavy industry has not found easy answers for supplying the heat it needs for manufacturing. Researchers […

There have been commercial oil and gas wells across the United States for 170 years. Researchers estimate that there are between two and three million wells that have been abandoned. There are hundreds of thousands of them, across 27 states, that are “orphaned,” meaning that they are uncapped, unproductive, and nobody is responsible to manage […]…

Peaker plants are power plants that the grid makes use of during times of particularly high electricity demand. The power they supply is typically high in cost and usually high in greenhouse gas emissions. When operating the electricity grid, power sources are generally called upon in order of marginal cost. Only when demand is very […]…

The Florida scrub-jay is a medium-sized bird native to Florida, known for its striking blue plumage and distinctive call. It is the only bird species that is entirely endemic to Florida, found mainly in the scrubby, sandy habitats of the central and southern part of the Sunshine State. But extensive development, habitat fragmentation, and habitat […

Residential geothermal energy makes use of the constant, year-round temperature of the earth below the surface to efficiently provide both heating and cooling for a home. In the summer, the cool earth beneath a house sits at about 55 degrees and can be tapped into with a heat pump to provide cooling. In the winter, […]…

2023 and 2024 have been the hottest years since records have been kept. But above and beyond the upward march of average temperatures around the globe, there has been the phenomenon of distinct regions across the globe experiencing repeated heatwaves that are so extreme that they cannot be accounted for in any models of global […]…

Livestock is responsible for almost 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Most of that is in the form of methane that cattle release when they burp. Grazing cattle produce more methane than feedlot cattle or dairy cows because they eat more fiber from grass. There are 9 million dairy cows in the U.S. but more […]…

One concern that people have in replacing gas-powered vehicles with electric vehicles is the time it takes to charge them. Charging an EV at home from an ordinary 110V electrical outlet is a slow process; installing a 220V outlet speeds things up considerably but it still can take all night to fully charge a car. […]…

Climate change is a major threat to coral reefs around the world. Ocean warming triggers coral bleaching – a stress response where corals expel the symbiotic algae essential for their survival. If coral bleaching is severe, it can lead to coral death. A new study led by scientists from Newcastle University in England suggests that […]…

The wind and the sun are inexhaustible sources of energy, and we are tapping into them to produce electricity at a growing rate around the world. But neither of them is always available when we need them. When the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing, they don’t work. An opposite problem also exists. […]…

Florida is very proud of its manatees. It has a county named after them and has pictures of them on license plates. These gentle creatures are part of Florida culture. But recent research indicates that manatees – also known as sea cows – might only be relatively recent residents of the Sunshine State. Manatees have […]…

The world currently produces nearly half a billion tons of plastic each year. This is more than twice the amount it produced 20 years ago. Half of all plastics ever manufactured have been made in the past 20 years. Plastic waste is everywhere. About eight million tons of plastic waste escapes into the ocean each […]…

There are lots of extreme weather events of all kinds these days. But there have always been extreme weather events. Climate change results in more extreme weather but not all extreme weather should be attributed to climate change. So, how do we know if an extreme weather event is a result of the changing climate? […]…

Deforestation is one of the major causes of climate change and restoring and enhancing forests is a major activity around the world as a way to mitigate its effects. There are high-profile initiatives to plant millions of trees, but these projects are often ill-conceived and poorly managed. One of the most dramatic failures was the […]…

The transportation sector is responsible for about a quarter of human-generated greenhouse gas emissions. Most of the energy used by transport systems comes from fossil fuels. The transition to electric vehicles – cars, trucks, and buses – is making a real difference. However, the emissions from the aviation industry have continued to grow faster t…

Decarbonizing industries like steel and cement is a difficult challenge. Both involve emitting large amounts of carbon dioxide both from burning fossil fuels and from intrinsic chemical reactions taking place. A potential solution is to capture the carbon dioxide emissions and either use them or store them away. But this sort of carbon capture is […

The average American spends about 90% of their time indoors breathing the air in our workplaces, homes, or schools. The quality of this air affects our overall health and well- being. Indoor air quality is an issue because many sources can generate toxic materials, including building materials, carpets, and more. But high levels of carbon […]…

When farmers add nutrients to their fields in excess of their crops’ ability to utilize them, these excess nutrients can enter the surrounding environments and create environmental problems. The primary culprits are nitrogen and phosphorous. These fertilizer components emerge from fields and enter local waterways in surface runoff. Researchers at t…