EcoWatch: “In addition to the devastating death toll and widespread destruction of Russia’s war on Ukraine, the ongoing conflict has brought extensive climate damage to the planet. New research reveals that the first 24 months of the Ukraine war had a climate cost greater than the annual greenhouse gas emissions of 175 individual countries, adding… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Environmental Law
The 2024 Audubon Photography Awards
Winners and Honorable Mentions. Mating, fighting, dive-bombing for food: This year’s prize-winning images and videos are packed with avian action—now, in even more categories. Continue Reading
One in Four US Households Likely Exceed New Soil Lead Guidance Levels
Gabriel M. Filippelli, Matthew Dietrich, John Shukle, Leah Wood, Andrew Margenot, S. Perl Egendorf, Howard W. Mielke. One in Four US Households Likely Exceed New Soil Lead Guidance Levels. GeoHealth, 2024; 8 (6) DOI: 10.1029/2024GH001045 “Lead exposure has blighted communities across the United States (and the globe), with much of the burden resting on lower… Continue Reading
How Specialty Recycling Companies Reduce Plastic Waste
Civil Eats – “With the lack of a national recycling standard and a confusing patchwork of local rules, specialty recyclers are stepping in to take whatever traditional recyclers reject. We ask a lot of food packaging. It needs to look good and keep perishable food safe, intact, and unblemished as it travels from the producer… Continue Reading
A New Book About Plant Intelligence Highlights the Messiness of Scientific Change
The New Yorker [unpaywalled], In “The Light Eaters,” by Zoë Schlanger the field of botany itself functions as a character—one in the process of undergoing a potentially radical transformation: “During the nineteen-seventies and eighties, a researcher at the University of Washington started noticing something strange in the college’s experimental forest. For years, a blight of… Continue Reading
Check out these new ‘HeatRisk’ tools to stay up to date on US heatwaves
The Verge: “Extreme heat is in store for communities across the US this week, and the CDC and National Weather Service (NWS) have new tools to help people prepare for the health risks. Heat is the top weather-related killer in the US, a threat that’s growing worse with climate change. But even though heatwaves kill… Continue Reading
Climate Quick Reference Guides Now on Farmers.gov
“Even when data is at your fingertips it can sometimes still be hard to find what you’re looking for – especially when it comes to climate information. USDA’s Climate Hubs and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) are helping to meet that need by providing Climate Quick Reference Guides for agricultural producers and landowners seeking basic… Continue Reading
How the recycling symbol lost its meaning
Grist: “Today, the recycling icon is omnipresent — found on plastic bottles, cereal boxes, and bins loitering alongside curbs across the country. The chasing arrows, though, are often plastered on products that aren’t recyclable at all, particularly products made of plastic, like dog chew toys and inflatable swim rings. Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency… Continue Reading
Build it and they will come? The effects of a new infrastructure on cycling practices and experiences
Patrick Rérat, Aurélie Schmassmann, Build it and they will come? The effects of a new infrastructure on cycling practices and experiences, Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Volume 25, 2024, 101121, ISSN 2590-1982, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trip.2024.101121. Abstract: What are the effects of cycling infrastructure? This question is crucial as cities begin to give more space to cycling. In this… Continue Reading
What Animal Studies Are Revealing About Their Minds and Ours
TIME – “…The last few months alone have been something of a boom time for research into the intelligence and behavior of animals. German researchers discovered a sort of pre-verbal stage in finches—similar to the babbling stage in humans—that leads to their becoming fluent in song. Studies in Sweden and Vienna explored the role of… Continue Reading
All the place where you can now find microplastics
Washington Post [unpaywalled]: “Microplastics have popped up in rivers, oceans, soil, food, tea and even Antarctic snow — and now these tiny plastic particles are showing up in clouds. A group of researchers from Waseda University in Tokyo recently found microplastics in the clouds above Mount Fuji. In a paper published in Environmental Chemistry Letters,… Continue Reading
Meth-addict fish, aggro starlings, caffeinated minnows: animals radically changed by human drugs
The Guardian: “From brown trout becoming “addicted” to methamphetamine to European perch losing their fear of predators due to depression medication, scientists warn that modern pharmaceutical and illegal drug pollution is becoming a growing threat to wildlife. Drug exposure is causing significant, unexpected changes to some animals’ behaviour and anatomy. Female starlings dosed with antidepressants… Continue Reading
