Environment
press releases.

Environment21 Jan 2026

Microplastics in the atmosphere: Higher emissions from land areas than from the ocean

The atmosphere is an important transport medium that carries microplastics to even the most remote parts of the world. These microplastics can be inhaled and pose a health risk to humans and animals. They can also settle out of the atmosphere and contaminate oceans and soils worldwide. A new study by the Department of Meteorology and Geophysics at the University of Vienna estimates microplastic emissions from land-based and oceanic sources into the atmosphere based on global measurement data and model simulations. The results: over 20 times more microplastic ...

Read the release

Environment21 Jan 2026

Human activities drive global dryland greening

A new global dryland assessment using long-term satellite observations reveals widespread vegetation greening over the past two decades, reversing long-held expectations of accelerating desertification. Using satellite-based productivity data, researchers quantified where greening occurred, at what speed, what forces contributed to it, and how much was driven by agricultural expansion rather than climate or CO₂ fertilization alone. The findings reshape our understanding of dryland ecosystems and highlight the strong influence of human land-use practices. Drylands cover more than 40% of the global land surface and support over three billion people while maintaining essential ecological ...

Read the release

Environment21 Jan 2026

PeroCycle announces new appointments as it builds a world-class board for meaningful climate impact

PeroCycle, which is developing a closed carbon loop system to decarbonise foundation industries, has announced the appointments of Allan Baker, Managing Director at Société Générale, as a Non-Executive Director (NED), and Ruth Herbert, a senior leader at Essar Energy Transition, as Board Advisor. The new appointments significantly strengthen the company’s strategic abilities, and reflect PeroCycle’s commitment to surrounding its leadership with experienced voices from across policy, finance, and industry to support long-term growth and meaningful climate impact. The system under ...

Read the release

Environment21 Jan 2026

Magnetic avalanches power solar flares

Just as avalanches on snowy mountains start with the movement of a small quantity of snow, the ESA-led Solar Orbiter spacecraft has discovered that a solar flare is triggered by initially weak disturbances that quickly become more violent. This rapidly evolving process creates a ‘sky’ of raining plasma blobs that continue to fall even after the flare subsides. The discovery was enabled by one of Solar Orbiter’s most detailed views of a large solar flare, observed during the spacecraft’s 30 September 2024 close approach to the Sun. It is described in a paper being published on Wednesday 21 January in Astronomy ...

Read the release

Environment21 Jan 2026

Social environment impacts sleep quality

Researchers tested what factors improve or worsen the quality of sleep in mice. A team including researchers from the University of Tokyo placed mice in two environments, one where they could see and sense other mice without physical contact, and one in complete isolation. They found that mice higher in their social hierarchy likely benefited from isolation, while those lower did not. However, the specific impact on the amount of REM sleep varied depending on the genetic background of the mice. The team hopes to investigate the relationship between social connections ...

Read the release

Environment21 Jan 2026

Urban tributaries identified as major sources of plastic chemical pollution in the Yangtze River

A new study reveals that urban tributaries flowing through Wuhan are significant sources of phthalate esters, a widely used class of plastic chemicals, to the Yangtze River, highlighting previously underestimated risks to aquatic ecosystems in one of the world’s largest river systems. Phthalate esters, often abbreviated as PAEs, are chemicals commonly added to plastics to make them flexible and durable. They are found in everyday products ranging from packaging and construction materials to personal care items and medical devices. Because these chemicals are not chemically ...

Read the release

Environment20 Jan 2026

Exposure to wildfire smoke late in pregnancy may raise autism risk in children

Exposure to wildfire smoke during the final months of pregnancy may raise the risk that a child is later diagnosed with autism, according to a new study led by Tulane University researchers. The study, published in Environmental Science & Technology, analyzed more than 200,000 births in Southern California from 2006 to 2014. Researchers found that children whose mothers were exposed to wildfire smoke during the third trimester were more likely to be diagnosed with autism by age 5. The strongest association was observed among mothers exposed to more than 10 days of wildfire smoke during the final three months of pregnancy. In that group, children ...

Read the release

Environment20 Jan 2026

Study suggests pathway for life-sustaining conditions in Europa’s ocean

PULLMAN, Wash.—A recent study by geophysicists at Washington State University offers insight into how nutrients may reach the subsurface ocean of Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons and a leading candidate for extraterrestrial life in the solar system. Scientists have long wondered how life-sustaining nutrients could make it from the surface into Europa’s ice-covered ocean, where microscopic life is believed to exist. Drawing from a process from Earth’s geology known as crustal delamination, the research team used computer modeling to show that dense, nutrient-rich ice can separate from the surrounding ...

Read the release

Environment20 Jan 2026

Dongguk University develops a new way to produce cheaper, more efficient green hydrogen

Among clean energy sources, hydrogen (H2) has emerged as the preferred energy carrier, boasting a high calorific value and net zero carbon emissions. Proton-exchange-membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) is a promising, clean and efficient method that produces high purity H2 with only oxygen as a by-product. Combined with renewable electricity sources, this method can contribute to sustainable H2 production. In recent years, metal single-atom catalysts (M-SACs) have attracted growing attention for PEM water electrolysis. Because each metal atom acts as an active catalytic site, these materials use precious metals ...

Read the release

Environment20 Jan 2026

A two-week leap in breeding: Antarctic penguins’ striking climate adaptation

UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL TUESDAY 20 JANUARY 2026 AT 5:01 AM GMT / 0:01 AM ET More images available via the link in the notes section A decade-long study led by Penguin Watch1, at the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University, has uncovered a record shift in the breeding season of Antarctic penguins, likely in response to climate change. These changes threaten to disrupt penguins’ access to food and increase interspecies competition. The results have been published today (20 January - World Penguin Awareness Day) in the Journal of Animal Ecology. Lead ...

Read the release

Environment20 Jan 2026

Climate risks to insurance and reinsurance of global supply chains

Global supply chains are increasingly exposed to climate-related disruptions, redrawing the boundaries of what can be insured and how risk is distributed across the global economy. In recent years insured catastrophe losses have grown by roughly 5–7% per year in real terms. As insurers retreat from high-risk geographies and sectors, the burden of loss increasingly shifts to public budgets, enterprises, and households. Disruption of international supply chains are a major systemic risk for Europe and countries ...

Read the release

Environment19 Jan 2026

Global warming and CO2 emissions 56 million years ago resulted in massive forest fires and soil erosion

56 million years ago, the Earth was already warm. ‘As a result, there was a lot of vegetation, even at high latitudes. That means that a lot of carbon was stored in, for example, vast coniferous forests.’ Biologist Mei Nelissen is conducting PhD research at NIOZ and Utrecht University. She analysed pollen and spores in clearly layered sediment that her supervisors had drilled from the seabed in the Norwegian Sea in 2021. This revealed unique information in great detail – even per season – about what happened when the Earth warmed by five degrees in a short period of time those 56 million years ago. Layers ...

Read the release

Environment19 Jan 2026

Exploring why adapting to the environment is more difficult as people age

As people age, structural brain changes influence their ability to adapt to the environment. New from eNeuro, Tatiana Wolfe and colleagues at the University of Arkansas characterized changes in the brain across two periods of adulthood that may correspond to changes in adaptive behavior. The researchers identified brain areas associated with the ability to adapt to the environment by analyzing previous neuroimaging studies. They ...

Read the release

Environment17 Jan 2026

Scientists trace microplastics in fertilizer from fields to the beach

Tokyo, Japan – Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have studied how polymer-coated fertilizer (PCF) applied to fields ends up on beaches and in the sea. They studied PCF deposits on beaches around Japan, finding that only 0.2% of used PCFs are washed into rivers and returned to the coastline. When there are canals connecting fields to the sea, this rises to 28%. Their findings highlight a potentially significant “sink” in the global circulation of plastics. Plastic marine pollution poses a serious threat to wildlife, ecosystems, and human health. It is estimated that around 90% of the plastic that has flowed out to sea has disappeared from ...

Read the release

Environment16 Jan 2026

Investment in farm productivity tools key to reducing greenhouse gas

CORNELL UNIVERSITY MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE FOR RELEASE: Jan. 16, 2026 Kaitlyn Serrao 607-882-1140 kms465@cornell.edu Investment in farm productivity tools key to reducing greenhouse gas ITHACA, N.Y. - A new study from Cornell University researchers finds improved farm productivity has been the driving force in keeping greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture in check. In the study, published Jan. 16 in Science Advances, researchers analyzed worldwide data from 1961-2021 to determine why agricultural production has far outpaced emissions. They found consistently that farmers’ ability to produce more output per unit of input, ...

Read the release

Environment16 Jan 2026

New review highlights electrochemical pathways to recover uranium from wastewater and seawater

As the global demand for clean and low-carbon energy grows, nuclear power is expected to play an increasingly important role. Yet the expansion of nuclear energy brings a persistent environmental challenge: the release of uranium into wastewater, mining effluents, and even the ocean. A new review paper published in Science of Carbon Materials provides the most comprehensive overview to date of how electrochemical technologies could help solve this problem by selectively capturing uranium in its most mobile and hazardous form. Uranium in water typically exists as uranyl ions, a highly soluble and toxic species that can spread easily through natural and ...

Read the release

Environment16 Jan 2026

Decades of dredging are pushing the Dutch Western Scheldt Estuary beyond its ecological limits

The Dutch Western Scheldt Estuary has been pushed onto an unsustainable trajectory since large-scale navigation channel deepening began in the 1970s. The dramatic increase in the annual volume of dredged sediment from the navigation channel has reduced feeding grounds for birds and made the estuary more vulnerable to sea-level rise. This is shown by the Dutch report De Westerscheldenatuur: Een mooie toekomst vraagt keuzes nu!. Dutch and Flemish researchers call on policymakers to use dredged sediment strategically for nature restoration and climate adaptation. After analysing nearly seventy years of monitoring data from the Dutch water ...

Read the release

Environment16 Jan 2026

S-species-stimulated deep reconstruction of ultra-homogeneous CuS nanosheets for efficient HMF electrooxidation

RESEARCH The massive consumption of fossil fuels in human society has led to increasingly severe resource crises and environmental pollution, and the efficient utilization of renewable biomass resources is one of the feasible approaches to addressing these issues. The electrocatalytic oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) to produce 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) is expected to reduce the excessive reliance on fossil resource-derived terephthalic acid (PTA), a petroleum-based platform molecule. However, the development of high-performance and low-cost electrocatalysts for the efficient HMF oxidation ...

Read the release

Environment15 Jan 2026

Learning about public consensus on climate change does little to boost people’s support for action, study shows

Providing accurate information about the climate crisis can help to correct misperceptions about how much public support exists for action. However, simply showing that others support climate action does not, on its own, have a meaningful impact on people’s own beliefs or behavioural intentions, a new study based on data from Germany shows, challenging common expectations about the power of public consensus to drive climate action. The study finds that learning about widespread public support for climate action policies can initially make people think such policies are more politically feasible and more likely to be implemented. However, these effects are small ...

Read the release

Environment15 Jan 2026

The Global Ocean Ship-Based Hydrographic Investigations Program (GO-SHIP) receives the Ocean Observing Team Award

The Oceanography Society (TOS) has awarded the Ocean Observing Team Award to the Global Ocean Ship-Based Hydrographic Investigations Program (GO-SHIP), recognizing the program’s groundbreaking and sustained contributions to ocean observing that have transformed scientific understanding of the global ocean and delivered profound societal benefits. Team members will be recognized during The Oceanography Society’s Awards Breakfast taking place on Tuesday, February 24, 2026, during the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Glasgow, Scotland. GO-SHIP is the international community’s premier program for full-depth, ...

Read the release

Environment15 Jan 2026

Elva Escobar Briones selected for The Oceanography Society Mentoring Award

The Oceanography Society (TOS) has selected Dr. Elva Escobar Briones of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, as the recipient of the TOS Mentoring Award, recognizing her outstanding and sustained excellence in mentoring the next generation of ocean scientists, as well as her leadership in advancing inclusion, equity, and capacity building in oceanography. Her achievements will be celebrated during the TOS Honors Breakfast on February 24, 2026, during the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Glasgow, Scotland. The TOS Mentoring Award honors individuals whose ...

Read the release

Environment15 Jan 2026

Fossils reveal ‘latitudinal traps’ that increased extinction risk for marine species

A new study led by researchers at the University of Oxford has shown that the shape and orientation of coastlines significantly influenced extinction patterns for animals living in the shallow oceans during the last 540 million years. In particular, animals living on convoluted or east-west orientated coastlines (such as those found in the Mediterranean and Gulf of Mexico today) were more likely to go extinct than those living on north-south orientated coastlines. The findings, published today (15 Jan) in Science, provide new insight towards understanding patterns of biodiversity distribution throughout ...

Read the release

Environment15 Jan 2026

New map reveals features of Antarctic’s ice-covered landscape

Using satellite data and the physics of ice flow, researchers have mapped Antarctica’s hidden subglacial bedrock landscape – one of the Solar System’s least mapped planetary surfaces – in unprecedented detail, revealing previously unseen geological structures shaping the ice sheet from below. The findings not only improve ice sheet models but can also guide future geophysical surveys and reduce uncertainty in projections of ice loss and sea-level rise. Hidden beneath Antarctica’s massive ice sheet lies a complex landscape of mountains, valleys, plains, ...

Read the release

Environment15 Jan 2026

Ecology: Mummified cheetahs discovery gives hope for species’ Arabic reintroduction

The discovery of seven naturally-mummified cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) in caves in northern Saudi Arabia reveals that at least two subspecies of the endangered cats inhabited the Arabian Peninsula before their local extinction. The findings, reported in Communications Earth & Environment, may open new possibilities for the reintroduction of cheetahs to the peninsula. Cheetahs once inhabited much of Africa as well as Western and Southern Asia, but now live in just 9% of their historic range. In Asia their range has decreased by 98%, and they are thought to have been locally extinct on the Arabian Peninsula since the 1970s. ...

Read the release

Environment15 Jan 2026

Study finds ocean impacts nearly double economic cost of climate change

For the first time, a study from researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego integrates climate-related damages to the ocean into the social cost of carbon— a measure of economic harm caused by greenhouse gas emissions. When ocean damage from climate change, dubbed the “blue” social cost of carbon, is calculated, the study finds that the global cost of carbon dioxide emissions to society nearly doubles. Until now, the ocean was largely overlooked in the standard accounting of the social cost ...

Read the release