Environment
press releases.

Environment8 Sep 2023

Heatwaves hitting Antarctica too

The world saw another year full of extreme weather events resulting from climate change in 2022, from intense storms to soaring temperatures and rising sea levels. Antarctica was no exception, according to new research published this week. In the 33rd annual State of the Climate report, an international assessment of the global climate published Sept. 6 in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, CU Boulder researchers report that the planet’s coldest and driest continent experienced both an unprecedented heatwave and extreme precipitation last year. “My hope is that the public starts to see both the fragility and complexity of these ...

Read the release

Environment8 Sep 2023

Study explores an underappreciated way warmer temperatures will impact ecosystems: Decomposition

Our world is changing, and warming temperatures will alter our natural ecosystems. Some of these changes will be straightforward, like animal ranges creeping northward as they strive to maintain their ideal temperatures. But other changes will be more complicated, as warming sets off complex chain reactions that reverberate through these systems. An important process in ecosystems is the decomposition of plant litter, in which dead plant material is broken down by animals, fungi, and microbes, making its nutrients accessible to the next generation of plants. How quickly this breakdown happens — the decomposition ...

Read the release

Environment8 Sep 2023

The green power of fungi

Nanoparticles are tiny structures up to 100 nanometers in size. They are characterized by different physical and chemical properties and biological activity than their larger material counterparts. - When the starting material on a micro-scale with a specific surface area is broken down to nano size, i.e. into smaller particles, its surface area will increase many times. And it is the ratio of surface to volume that results in the unique properties of nanoparticles, explains Prof. Mahendra Rai from Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University in India. Nanoparticles can be mainly ...

Read the release

Environment8 Sep 2023

New study highlights feasibility and optimization of ammonia-based power generation for carbon neutrality

Ammonia is emerging as a promising energy source to achieve carbon neutrality due to its inherent carbon-free nature. A recent study, led by Professor Hankwon Lim in the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering and the Graduate School of Carbon Neutrality at UNIST, has evaluated the feasibility of ammonia-based power generation through techno-economic and carbon footprint analyses. The research focuses on an integrated system combining ammonia decomposition and phosphoric acid fuel cells. The study, conducted using a commercial process simulator, unveils significant findings regarding the efficiency and economic viability of utilizing ammonia ...

Read the release

Environment8 Sep 2023

The climate crisis could reshape Italian mountain forests forever

As a result of the climate crisis, future forests may become unrecognizable. Trees that currently make up European woods may no longer be seen — or they may have moved several hundred meters uphill. Scientists writing in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change have mapped the forests of five vulnerable mountain areas in Italy and modelled the future of these fragile ecosystems. “If I imagine my daughter walking with me as an old man, in our mountain forests, I can imagine that we can see the initial stage of a profound ...

Read the release

Environment8 Sep 2023

Beaver activity in the Arctic increases emission of methane greenhouse gas

The climate-driven advance of beavers into the Arctic tundra is causing the release of more methane — a greenhouse gas — into the atmosphere. Beavers, as everyone knows, like to make dams. Those dams cause flooding, which inundates vegetation and turns Arctic streams and creeks into a series of ponds. Those beaver ponds and surrounding inundated vegetation can be devoid of oxygen and rich with organic sediment, which releases methane as the material decays. Methane is also released when organics-rich permafrost thaws as the result of heat carried by the spreading water. A study linking Arctic beavers to an increase in the release of methane was ...

Read the release

Environment7 Sep 2023

New study reveals the power of railroads to buffer coal plants from a carbon emissions tax

A new study by University of Maryland Economist Louis Preonas provides empirical evidence that railroads are likely to cut transportation prices to prop up coal-fired plants if U.S. climate policies further disadvantage coal in favor of less carbon-intensive energy sources. One strategy being considered to help reduce the country’s contribution to global climate change is a tax or fee on greenhouse gas emissions by coal-burning power plants. The hope is that such fees will reduce competitiveness of coal-fired energy and consumers will chose lower-emission options at a competitive cost. The new study, published September 7, 2023, in The ...

Read the release

Environment7 Sep 2023

The timing of fireworks-caused wildfire ignitions during the 4th of July holiday season

Every year on the 4th of July, fireworks cause cause a precipitous increase of wildfire ignitions in the United States (U.S.). This human-environmental phenomenon is noteworthy and highlights the impact of American culture on wildfire activity in the U.S. In other regions of the world, research has increasingly shown that human culture impacts fire activity, with weekly cycles of fire activity reflecting the local structures of workweeks and the timing of religious days of rest (e.g., Saturdays and Sundays). Although 4th of July peak in wildfire igntions has ...

Read the release

Environment7 Sep 2023

Lack of evidence hampers progress on corporate-led ecosystem restoration

A ‘near total’ lack of transparency is making it impossible to assess the quality of corporate-led ecosystem restoration projects, according to a Lancaster University-led study published today in Science. Efforts to rebuild degraded environments are vital for achieving global biodiversity targets. The United Nations has launched a Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, and in recent years businesses around the world have collectively pledged to plant billions of trees, hundreds of thousands of corals and tens of ...

Read the release

Environment7 Sep 2023

2022 Hunga-Tonga eruption triggered fast and destructive submarine volcanic flows

In 2022, the eruption of the submerged Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha apai volcano triggered a fast-moving and destructive underwater debris flow that severed telecommunication cables and reshaped the surrounding seafloor. The findings – representing some of the first fieldwork to document what happens when large volumes of erupted volcanic material are delivered directly into the ocean – provide new insights into the behavior and hazards of submerged volcanoes. Explosive volcanic eruptions on land create pyroclastic flows of hot ash and rock that, when they reach the ocean, can trigger damaging ...

Read the release

Environment7 Sep 2023

Are large corporations upholding their conservation promises?

Large transnational corporations (TNCs) are positioning themselves as environmental leaders, carrying out environmental restoration projects that go beyond their legal obligations. However, some corporations oversell their efforts. In this Policy Forum, Timothy Lamont and colleagues present an evaluation of sustainability reports of 100 of the world’s largest businesses, revealing the extent to which TNCs are claiming to contribute to, but failing to report on, ecosystem restoration. “Increased rigor, consistency, transparency, and accountability are needed to ensure that corporate-led restoration delivers quantifiable, ...

Read the release

Environment7 Sep 2023

Nudging food delivery customers to skip the fork drastically cuts plastic waste, study shows

In 2021, more than 400 million metric tons of plastic waste were produced worldwide, and it is predicted that the world’s plastic waste growth will continue to outpace the efforts to reduce plastic pollution in the coming decades. As food delivery services became increasingly popular during the COVID-19 pandemic, the surge in plastic waste generated by single-use cutlery has become a key environmental challenge for many countries. A new study finds “green nudges” that encouraged customers to skip asking for cutlery with their delivery orders were dramatically successful and could be a powerful policy tool to reduce plastic waste. “Few policies target plastic waste ...

Read the release

Environment7 Sep 2023

NYU Tandon School of Engineering researchers develop hurricane power outage prediction model that outperforms traditional methods

Utility companies are generally well-equipped to handle routine blackouts, but often struggle with extreme weather events like hurricanes. Conventional hurricane power-outage prediction models often produce incomplete or incorrect results, hampering companies’ abilities to prepare to restore power as quickly as possible, especially in cities that are susceptible to prolonged hurricane-induced power outages. New research from NYU Tandon School of Engineering may help solve that problem. By combining wind speed and precipitation ...

Read the release

Environment7 Sep 2023

Echoes of extinctions: novel method unearths disruptions in mammal trait-environment relationships

Large-bodied mammals play crucial roles in ecosystems. They create habitats, serve as prey, help plants thrive, and even influence how wildfires burn. But now, fewer than half of the large mammal species that were alive 50,000 years ago exist today, and those that remain are threatened with extinction from intensifying climate change and human activities. While mammal extinctions are well-documented, very little research has explored the impact those losses had on the nuanced ways in which mammal communities interact with their environments. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are using a novel methodology to investigate how mammals’ ability to function in their environments ...

Read the release

Environment7 Sep 2023

Stability inspection for West Antarctica shows: marine ice sheet is not destabilized yet, but possibly on a path to tipping

Antarctica’s vast ice masses seem far away, yet they store enough water to raise global sea levels by several meters. A team of experts from European research institutes has now provided the first systematic stability inspection of the ice sheet’s current state. Their diagnosis: While they found no indication of irreversible, self-reinforcing retreat of the ice sheet in West Antarctica yet, global warming to date could already be enough to trigger the slow but certain loss of ice over the next hundreds to thousands ...

Read the release

Environment7 Sep 2023

Capturing carbon in savannas: New research examines role of grasses for controlling climate change

In recent years, the escalating impact of global warming has prompted efforts to reverse troubling trends, often by planting trees to capture and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it. New research from a team led by Young Zhou, from the Quinney College of Natural Resources and the Ecology Center, shows that, in addition to trees, humble grasses also play an essential role in capturing carbon — more important than previously thought. A recent initiative set its sights on capturing carbon in tropical savannas, an ecosystem characterized by shared space of trees and grasses. The project initiated ...

Read the release

Environment6 Sep 2023

Global food system could help achieve net negative emissions by 2050

Largescale changes to the global food system could enable people not only to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but to achieve net negative emissions by 2050. A team led by Maya Almaraz of Princeton University and Benjamin Houlton of Cornell University report these findings in a new study published September 6 in the open-access journal PLOS Climate. Currently, the global food system is responsible for about one-third of greenhouse gas emissions. There are multiple opportunities within the food system to reduce emissions, and some have proposed that agriculture could act as a sink to remove carbon dioxide from the ...

Read the release

Environment6 Sep 2023

US adults who don't trust university-based research are less likely to see climate change as an important problem, indicating a need to develop 'a culture of trust'

US adults who don't trust university-based research are less likely to see climate change as an important problem, indicating a need to develop 'a culture of trust'. #### Article URL: https://journals.plos.org/climate/article?id=10.1371/journal.pclm.0000147 Article Title: Why don’t Americans trust university researchers and why it matters for climate change Author Countries: UK, USA Funding: RD’s work is supported by the Quadrature Climate Foundation [01-21-000149] and Keynes Fund [JHVH]. RMA and DE’s work is supported by Caltech’s ...

Read the release

Environment6 Sep 2023

Ag tech can cut billions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions

ITHACA, N.Y. - As the Earth’s human population grows, greenhouse gas emissions from the world’s food system are on track to expand. A new study demonstrates that state-of-the-art agricultural technology and management can not only reduce that growth, but eliminate it altogether by generating net negative emissions – reducing more greenhouse gas than food systems add. In fact, employing additional agricultural technology could result in more than 13 billion tons of net negative greenhouse gas emissions each year, as the world seeks to avoid dangerous climate extremes, according to research published Sept. 6 in PLOS Climate. The work was led by Benjamin ...

Read the release

Environment6 Sep 2023

New battery holds promise for green energy

Jimmy Jiang envisions a future where every house is powered by renewable energy stored in batteries. In his chemistry lab, Jiang and his students at the University of Cincinnati have created a new battery that could have profound implications for the large-scale energy storage needed by wind and solar farms. Innovations such as UC’s will have profound effects on green energy, Jiang said. Batteries store renewable energy for when it’s needed, not just when it’s produced. This is crucial for getting the most out of wind and solar power, he said. “Energy ...

Read the release

Environment6 Sep 2023

New global climate restoration fund announces first grant cycle

[Bethesda, Maryland, USA -- September 6] The new Climate Intervention Environmental Impact Fund (CIEIF, www.cieif.org) begins operations today, with the goal of helping kickstart new approaches to restoring Earth’s climate in the face of rapid deterioration. CIEF makes direct grants to investigators worldwide working to stop and reverse global warming. The grants are focused on predictive environmental impact assessments, impact modeling studies, and stakeholder engagement for proposed small-scale field tests of innovative climate intervention technologies. CIEIF also offers investigators expert advice on ...

Read the release

Environment6 Sep 2023

Chinese paleontologists find new fossil link in bird evolution

Birds descended from theropod dinosaurs by the Late Jurassic, but our understanding of the earliest evolution of the Avialae, the clade comprising all modern birds but not Deinonychus or Troodon, has been hampered by a limited diversity of fossils from the Jurassic. As of now, no definitive avialans have been reported except from the Middle–Late Jurassic Yanliao Biota in northeast China (166–159 million years ago; Ma) and the slightly younger German Solnhofen Limestones, which preserve Archaeopteryx. Consequently, there is a gap of about 30 million years before the oldest ...

Read the release

Environment6 Sep 2023

Balancing biodiversity, climate change, food for a trifecta

Across the globe, and particularly in Brazil, lies an embarrassment of riches that also stage a showdown as mitigating climate change and protecting biodiversity square off against growing food. In this week’s Science of the Total Environment, scientists from and once affiliated with Michigan State University’s Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability (MSU-CSIS) identify ways for landowners in rural areas to be able to capitalize on win-win situations, whether they have fruitful land ...

Read the release

Environment5 Sep 2023

Fossil spines reveal deep sea’s past

Right at the bottom of the deep sea, the first very simple forms of life on earth probably emerged a long time ago. Today, the deep sea is known for its bizarre fauna. Intensive research is being conducted into how the number of species living on the sea floor have changed in the meantime. Some theories say that the ecosystems of the deep sea have emerged again and again after multiple mass extinctions and oceanic upheavals. Today's life in the deep sea would thus be comparatively young in the history of the Earth. But there is increasing evidence that parts of this world are much older than previously thought. A research team led by the University ...

Read the release

Environment5 Sep 2023

Florida Museum researcher advances to finals in multimillion-dollar biodiversity competition

Over the course of four weeks this summer, a motley crew of biologists, engineers, entrepreneurs and programmers gathered at predetermined sites within Windsor Nature Park, a 185-acre tropical rainforest located in the heart of Singapore. They’d traveled from all over the world to participate in a one-of-a-kind competition hosted by the XPRIZE Foundation, in which 13 teams would have three days to identify as many organisms within the forest as possible. Up to 10 winning teams would equally split $2 million and advance to the 2024 finals, where they’d vie for the first-place prize of $5 million. But there was a catch: All observations and data collection ...

Read the release