🌱 Environment Press Releases

Green investors often boast that they can support sustainability without sacrificing returns. But new research from Texas McCombs suggests otherwise. It also offers governments opportunities to raise more money from those investors for sustainable projects. In Germany’s sovereign bond market, buyers are quietly paying a premium for green bonds — by accepting lower yields on them. So finds Aaron Pancost, assistant professor of finance, who calls the difference a “greenium.” Pancost’s central ...

Tsukuba, Japan—Waterpipe tobacco smoking—also known as shisha, hookah, or narghile—is a method in which tobacco is heated with charcoal and the resulting smoke passes through water before being inhaled. Although the practice originated in the Middle East during the late Middle Ages, it poses a significant risk of carbon monoxide exposure because the charcoal used for heating produces CO through incomplete combustion. Within the jurisdiction of Tokyo's Third Fire District Headquarters, which covers three southwestern wards of Tokyo, emergency services recorded approximately one case of acute CO poisoning related to waterpipe ...

During the winters of 2024 and 2025, widespread “spinning fish” events swept through the Florida Keys, impacting more than 80 marine fish species and likely killing hundreds of endangered large juvenile and adult smalltooth sawfish (Pristis pectinata). This mysterious phenomenon caused fish to swim in tight circles, lose balance and sometimes die, likely due to environmental stressors or neurotoxins from algae. These losses dealt a major blow to a species that has already suffered one of the most severe ...

An island bird species discovered in Japan looks just like a similar species from 1,000 km away, but has been genetically isolated for millions of years. Takema Saitoh, Per Alström, and colleagues report the existence of the Tokara Leaf Warbler, a small insectivorous songbird with an olive-green back and a silvery gray breast from the Tokara Islands in Japan. The Tokara Leaf Warbler is a cryptic species that looks identical to Ijima’s Leaf Warbler (Phylloscopus ijimae) from the Izu Islands. However, genetic analysis reveals that the lineages diverged around 2.8–3.2 ...

A new study reveals an unprecedented increase in wildfires in tropical peatlands during the 20th century.   Peatlands store vast quantities of carbon below the Earth’s surface – more than all the world’s forest biomass combined – but when they catch fire large amounts of the stored carbon is released into the atmosphere.   Wildfires in tropical regions have been on the rise in recent decades, but the history and characteristics of wildfires in tropical peatlands remain largely unknown.   Researchers therefore analysed charcoal ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- A global analysis of more than 2,300 seawater samples from more than 20 field studies around the globe indicates that human-made chemicals make up a significant portion of organic matter in coastal oceans. The international study, led by biochemists Jarmo Kalinski and Daniel Petras at the University of California, Riverside, analyzed seawater samples collected over a decade from coastal regions from the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. Reported in Nature Geoscience, the findings show that ...

The American Meteorological Society, joined by partner societies including the Ecological Society of America, the American Statistical Association, the Woodwell Climate Research Center, and the American Institute of Biological Sciences, has released a statement on “Public Availability of Scientific Information and Scientific Evidence on Climate Change” in response to the decision by the Federal Judiciary Center (FJC) to remove the climate science chapter from the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence, Fourth Edition and a February letter from 21 state attorneys general urging the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) to omit similar guidance ...

Researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas have developed a new electrolyte system that significantly boosts the energy-harvesting performance of twistrons, which are carbon nanotube yarns that generate electricity when repeatedly stretched. The findings could aid in the manufacturing of intelligent textiles, such as fabrics used to make spacesuits, that would power wearable electronic devices or sensors by harvesting energy from human motion. In a study published in the Feb. 24 print edition of ACS Nano, the UT Dallas scientists and their collaborators reported that replacing conventional water with heavy water ...

The American Meteorological Society continuously publishes research on climate, weather, and water in its 12 journals. Many of these articles are available for early online access–they are peer-reviewed, but not yet in their final published form. Below are some recent examples of online and early-online research. JOURNAL ARTICLES 21st Century Hydrological Trends in the Mississippi River Basin Intensify the East to West Moisture Gradient Journal of Climate Models suggest precipitation and evaporation will both increase in the Mississippi basin. A study combining 19 climate models suggests that under a medium-high carbon emissions scenario (SSP3-7.0), ...

Efficient methanol synthesis is considered a promising approach for carbon resource recycling. Hydrogenation of carbon dioxide (CO2) to methanol is thermodynamically favored at low temperatures, but the sluggish activation kinetics of CO2 under such conditions lead to low catalytic activity. Higher temperatures can enhance reaction rates but also promote the reverse water-gas shift side reaction, which reduces methanol selectivity. This "seesaw" effect between activity and selectivity has long limited improvements ...

Roadmap shows how to achieve good lives for all and a safe climate by reorienting production and distribution toward well-being and ecological transformation instead of capital accumulation and elite consumption. Governments’ attempts to achieve climate goals are falling short, in large part because wealthy economies are continuing to pursue economic growth. As these economies ramp up production and consumption, they make climate mitigation more difficult to achieve. As a result, the Paris Agreement is slipping out of reach, putting nature and human societies in jeopardy.   Post-growth ...

Researchers have developed a new eco friendly method to transform biochar into a highly hydrophobic material that can repel water and absorb large amounts of oil. The innovation could help advance sustainable materials for environmental cleanup and green coatings. The study, published in the journal Biochar, introduces a solvent free mechanochemical process that functionalizes biochar using octadecylamine. The resulting material can be applied as a coating on natural hemp fibers, giving them strong water repellent properties while allowing them to absorb oil efficiently. Biochar ...

Biochar is widely studied as a low cost material that can remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Scientists have long believed that only the smallest pores in biochar play the main role in capturing carbon dioxide molecules. A new study now challenges this assumption by showing that larger pores may contribute more actively to carbon capture than previously thought. The research, published in the journal Biochar, examines how different pore structures in biochar affect its ability to capture carbon dioxide. The study combines theoretical modeling with experimental measurements to analyze the behavior ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – A potted scarlet monkeyflower would die within a few days without water. But multiple natural populations of the species survived an extreme, four-year drought in California, and researchers now know why: The flowers were rescued by their own rapid evolution. In the study, under embargo until 2pm ET on March 12, 2026 in Science, researchers tracked scarlet monkeyflower populations in Oregon and California for more than a decade and found that the populations rapidly evolved in ...

The Amazon rainforest is famous for storing massive amounts of carbon in its trees and soils, helping regulate the global climate. Yet a paper published today in New Phytologist shows that one of South America’s largest carbon-storing ecosystems exists in an often-overlooked grassy savanna: the Cerrado in Brazil.  The study was led by Larissa Verona, a technician working with senior scientist Amy Zanne at Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and a former graduate student at Universidade Estadual de Campinas in Brazil, where she carried out the work. The study is the first in-depth assessment of carbon stocks in the Cerrado’s groundwater-fed wetlands, known ...

More than 3 million years ago, when our ancient ancestors embodied by the iconic Lucy were roaming the African landscape, they would have feared a big, bad crocodile with a prominent lump on its head, patiently lurking in rivers and lakes to attack them. That crocodile is a new species, a research team led by the University of Iowa has determined. In a new study, published on March 12 in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, the researchers describe the species and give it a name: Crocodylus lucivenator, or Lucy's hunter. The name seems quite appropriate. The ancient reptile lived between 3.4 million to 3 million years ago, overlapping the time period and ...

A new study demonstrates that agricultural and medicinal plant residues can be transformed into a highly effective material for removing toxic heavy metals from contaminated water and soil while also improving crop productivity. Researchers developed a phosphorus-modified biochar derived from residues of Salvia miltiorrhiza, a widely used medicinal herb, and showed that the material can simultaneously immobilize harmful metals and enhance soil fertility. Heavy metal pollution, particularly from lead and cadmium, is a persistent environmental problem worldwide. These contaminants can accumulate in soils and water, enter the food chain, and pose ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — In April 2019, a marine heat wave struck a coral reef on the island of Moorea in French Polynesia, killing much of the coral and the beneficial algae that colonized it. This “bleaching” event reduced live coral populations on the reef from about 75% beforehand to less than 17% a year later and led to a series of unexpected changes that have thwarted the reef’s recovery. A long-term study of the area is challenging scientists’ understanding of the cycles of destruction and repair that can occur on a coral ...

New research could help engineer crops that recover after extreme weather events Plants pause their growth during stress, then press play when conditions improve, helping them recover and live on to produce food, according to a new study. Published today in New Phytologist UBC researchers have pinpointed the genes and pathways responsible for recovery from the environmental stress of cold snaps in winter or overloads of salt when coastal fields flood. “With a changing climate and extreme weather events becoming more frequent, the work could help create climate resilient crops, where genetically ...

PHILADELPHIA— The global ocean faces major threats—from illegal fishing to vanishing coastal habitats to plastic pollution. Now, a new cohort of scientists will work to bridge the knowledge gaps hindering effective ocean protections. The Pew Charitable Trusts announced today that seven fellows—based in Australia, the United States, Canada, Japan, and Thailand—will receive $150,000 grants over three years to pursue conservation-focused research aimed at strengthening ocean health and the communities that depend on it. Their work includes tracing illegal and unreported fisheries with advanced genetic techniques, improving reef restoration in Southeast Asia, ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE According to a recent multi-institute PLOS One study led by the Multisensory Research Lab at the Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Medicine, time of hearing loss onset is a key determinant of patient confidence and self-reported sound localization abilities — the ability to perceive and locate objects in an environment — even in individuals who use hearing aids or who have received vision rehabilitation training.  The National Institutes of Health-supported study highlights factors that shape how people with dual sensory ...

Californians have long dealt with wildfire smoke as a seasonal fact of life, but those fires have become more intense and frequent, raising the profile of wildfire smoke as a public health issue. Now, a study led by researchers at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography finds that the time between multi-day smoke events is shrinking — leaving communities with less time to recover before smoke returns.  The new study, published March 11 in the journal GeoHealth, found that in California the window of cleaner air between smoke waves shrank by more than 60% from 2006 to 2020. The study also finds that ...

UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 10:00 GMT / 06:00 ET WEDNESDAY 11 MARCH 2026 New research from the University of Oxford published today (11 March) shows that cold snaps and heavy rain can stunt growth and reduce survival prospects in UK great tit nestlings. However, breeding earlier within a season appears to buffer against many of these weather-related effects. The study relies on 60 years of data for over 80,000 individual wild great tits in Oxford’s Wytham Woods, combined with daily historical weather records. Researchers identified the coldest, wettest and hottest days of ...

The climate measures currently in place are unlikely to meet Paris Climate Agreement targets. Whether further political measures can move us closer to the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees and combating climate change depends heavily on public opinion and political support. Researchers at ETH Zurich led by Keith Smith, Senior Researcher in Professor Thomas Bernauer's research group, conducted a large-scale survey across 13 EU countries to find out which measures are publicly and politically acceptable, and why.  The study aimed not only to gauge ...

A long-standing debate about the evolutionary origin of the world’s most widely cultivated “magic mushroom” – Psilocybe cubensis – may now have been settled by scientists from southern Africa and the United States. In a paper published in the journal Proceedings B of the Royal Society, they describe the discovery of a new species of magic mushroom – Psilocybe ochraceocentrata – from the grasslands of South Africa and Zimbabwe. So named because of the ochre-yellow colour at ...