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Environment
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Environment

Solar energy is now the world’s cheapest source of power, a Surrey study finds

Solar energy is now so cost-effective that, in the sunniest countries, it costs as little as £0.02 to produce one unit of power, making it cheaper than electricity generated from coal, gas or wind, according to a new study from the University of Surrey. In a study published in Energy and Environment Materials, researchers from Surrey’s Advanced Technology Institute (ATI) argue that solar photovoltaic (PV) technology is now the key driver of the world’s transition to clean, renewable power. Professor Ravi Silva, co-author of the study and Director of the ATI at the University ...

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Environment

Microplastics found to change gut microbiome in first human-sample study

Microplastics found to change gut microbiome in first human-sample study (Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, 7 October 2025) New research presented today at UEG Week 2025 shows that microplastics – plastic particles smaller than 5mm commonly found in the environment – can alter the human gut microbiome, with some changes resembling patterns linked to depression and colorectal cancer.1 This study, conducted within the framework of microONE, a pioneering COMET Module programme project led by CBmed research center in collaboration with international partners, is among the first ...

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Environment

Plastic in the soil, but not as we know it: Biodegradable microplastics rewire carbon storage in farm fields

We often think of plastic pollution as a problem of oceans and seabirds. But beneath our feet, in the quiet dark of agricultural soils, a new kind of contamination is unfolding—one with profound implications for climate, crops, and carbon. A pioneering two-year field study has revealed that biodegradable microplastics, often hailed as eco-friendly alternatives to conventional plastics, are quietly reshaping the chemistry of farmland soils in unexpected and complex ways. Published on August 22, 2025, in Carbon Research as an open-access original article, this research was co-led by Dr. Jie ...

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Environment

Inhaler-related greenhouse gas emissions in the US

About The Study: Inhaler-related emissions in the U.S. have increased over the past decade. Policymakers and regulators seeking to reduce emissions should identify targeted solutions aimed at shifting utilization to currently marketed dry powder and soft mist inhalers while facilitating the entry of newer, affordable metered-dose products containing propellants with low global warming potential. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, William B. Feldman, MD, DPhil, MPH, email wfeldman@mednet.ucla.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2025.16524) Editor’s ...

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Environment

Marine heatwaves have hidden impacts on ocean food webs and carbon cycling

New research shows that marine heatwaves can reshape ocean food webs, which in turn can slow the transport of carbon to the deep sea and hamper the ocean’s ability to buffer against climate change. The study, published in the scientific journal Nature Communications today, was conducted by an interdisciplinary team of researchers from MBARI, the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science, the Hakai Institute, Xiamen University, the University of British Columbia, the University of Southern Denmark, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada. To explore the impacts of marine heatwaves on ocean food webs and carbon flows, the research team combined multiple ...

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Environment

Africa, climate, and food: How to feed a continent without increasing its carbon footprint

Africa’s agrifood system emits nearly 2.9 billion tonnes of CO₂ equivalent every year—more than a quarter of global sector emissions. An international study compares Africa’s trajectory with China’s and proposes concrete solutions—from water management in rice paddies to modernizing logistics chains—to produce more food without worsening the climate. These analyses were conducted by researchers Xia Li, Yumei Zhang, Shenggen Fan (China Agricultural University) and Issa Ouedraogo (Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT) A ...

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Environment

Counting plastic reveals hidden waste and sparks action

Online supermarket shopping is fuelling Britain’s plastic waste crisis because packaging is less visible to consumers, according to new research from the Revolution Plastics Institute at the University of Portsmouth. The study found that nearly half of UK households underestimate how much plastic they throw away each week, a phenomenon researchers call “plastic blindness”. Those who relied most heavily on online grocery deliveries were especially likely to be shocked by the volume ...

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Environment

Warming oceans may pose a serious threat to American lobsters

The Gulf of Maine is warming faster than 99% of the world’s oceans, raising concerns for its $2 billion-a-year American lobster fishery. Scientists at William & Mary’s Batten School & VIMS have been studying the impacts of ocean acidification and warming on lobster reproduction, and the results of their most recent research suggest the rising temperatures pose the greatest risk. Utilizing a purpose-built experimental facility designed by Professor Emily Rivest and housed in the Batten School of Coastal & Marine Sciences & VIMS’ Seawater Research Laboratory, the researchers exposed egg-bearing lobsters from the Gulf of Maine ...

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Environment

Rice membrane extracts lithium from brines with greater speed, less waste

HOUSTON – (Oct. 2, 2025) – A team of researchers at Rice University has developed a new membrane that selectively filters out lithium from brines, offering a faster, cleaner way to produce the element at the heart of nearly every rechargeable battery. According to a study published in Nature Communications, the new membrane achieved one of the highest selectivities for lithium among similar membranes while using considerably less energy. The membrane design can be adapted to target the recovery of other valuable minerals, such as cobalt and nickel, and plugs ...

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Environment

Hurricane evacuation patterns differ based on where the storm hits

A study comparing evacuation patterns in response to two 2024 hurricanes, Milton and Helene, found that people in coastal areas with frequent hurricane exposure were much more likely to travel out of harm’s way compared to people in inland areas who were more likely to stay put. Researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health led the study. Their findings appear in the journal Environmental Research Letters. These geographic differences are likely due to a combination of factors, including access to transportation infrastructure, social norms, and risk perception, ...

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Environment

Global wildfire disasters are growing in frequency and cost

Wildfire disasters worldwide are growing notably in frequency and cost, according to a new study, with nearly half of the most damaging events over the last 44 years occurring in just the past decade, driven largely by increasingly extreme fire weather in vulnerable, densely populated regions. The findings, informed by an analysis of global reinsurance data and international disaster reports, reveal a concerning trend and highlight the need to adapt for a more fire-prone world. Humans have coexisted with wildfires for millennia, but climate change, land mismanagement, and expansion into flammable landscapes ...

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Environment

Wildfire management: Reactive response and recovery, or proactive mitigation and prevention

Catastrophic wildfires – those causing massive damage and soaring suppression costs – are increasing in frequency and intensity worldwide, a trend expected to worsen with climate change. In a Policy Forum, Robert Gray and colleagues use British Columbia (BC), Canada, as a case study of a government at a crossroads: continue reactive spending on suppression and recovery or invest in strategies to reduce future wildfire risk. “Although we focus on BC, this same tough question, along with lessons learned and our main recommendations, apply to regional ...

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Environment

New tiny prehistoric fish species unlocks origins of catfish and carp

The fossil of a tiny fish found in southwestern Alberta provides new insight into the origin and evolution of otophysans, the supergroup of fish that includes catfish, carp and tetras, which today account for two-thirds of all freshwater species. The specimen, studied by researchers at Western University, the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology and international collaborators, is a skeleton of a fish about 4 cm long from the Late Cretaceous period (the age of the iconic Tyrannosaurus Rex, about 100.5 million to 66 million years ago.) A new kind of fish entirely, it ...

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Environment

Fossilized ear bones rewrite the history of freshwater fish

When saltwater fish long ago evolved to live in fresh water, many of them also evolved a more sophisticated hearing system, including middle ear bones similar to those in humans. Two-thirds of all freshwater fish today — including more than 10,000 species, from catfish to popular aquarium fish like tetras and zebrafish — have this middle ear system, called the Weberian apparatus, which allows them to hear sounds at much higher frequencies than most ocean fish can, with a range close to that of humans. University of California, Berkeley paleontologist Juan Liu has now used the structure of this Weberian apparatus in a newly discovered ...

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Environment

USF study: Ancient plankton hint at steadier future for ocean life

Key takeaways: By analyzing rare nitrogen isotopes in 5-million-year-old plankton fossils, researchers reconstructed past Pacific Ocean conditions to better forecast the future. Even during the warmer Pliocene Epoch, nutrient-rich upwelling in the tropical Pacific remained stable, sustaining marine productivity. The findings challenge predictions of a fisheries collapse. TAMPA, Fla. (Oct. 1, 2025) – A team of scientists has uncovered a rare isotope in microscopic fossils, offering fresh evidence that ocean ...

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Environment

MPs and public overestimate time left for climate action, study finds

A new study has found that UK Members of Parliament (MPs) and the public overestimated the time left to meet a critical deadline for limiting global warming. Researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA) surveyed a representative sample of the previous House of Commons, and the public in Britain, Canada, Chile and Germany, on their knowledge of a well-publicised statement from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It related to when global ...

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Environment

Antarctic Sea ice emerges as key predictor of accelerated ocean warming

A groundbreaking study published today in the European Geosciences Union (EGU) journal Earth System Dynamics provides a critical and previously underestimated connection between Antarctic sea ice, cloud cover, and global warming. This research is important because it shows that a greater extent of Antarctic sea ice today, compared to climate model predictions, means we can expect more significant global warming in the coming decades. The study, led by Linus Vogt from Sorbonne University, utilized an emergent constraint based on data from 28 Earth system models and satellite observations ...

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Environment

The Crown Princess of Sweden honoured with a professorship in biodiversity

The University of Gothenburg is establishing the Crown Princess Victoria Professorship in Biodiversity. The professorship is a gift ahead of the Crown Princess's 50th birthday in 2027, in collaboration between Carl Bennet AB and the University of Gothenburg. Biodiversity is a growing field of research, and the University of Gothenburg now has the opportunity to contribute more effectively through a new professorship in biodiversity established in the Crown Princess's name. The Crown Princess has repeatedly expressed her belief that the diversity ...

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Environment

Invasive mosquito vector species detected in surveillance traps in United Kingdom

Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes are vectors of multiple diseases including dengue, chikungunya and Zika, posing a public health risk to populations within their native range. A study published in PLOS Global Public Health by Colin Johnston at Centre for Climate and Health Security, UK Health Security Agency, Porton Down, Salisbury, United Kingdom and colleagues describes the detection of invasive mosquito eggs in the United Kingdom in 2023 and 2024, suggesting an increasing incidence of importation of these species. Historically, ...

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Environment

Patchwork planets: Piecing together the early solar system

New Haven, Conn. — Our solar system is a smashing success. A new study suggests that from its earliest period — even before the last of its nebular gas had been consumed — Earth’s solar system and its planets looked more like a bin of well-used LEGO blocks than slowly-evolving spheres of untouched elements and minerals. “Far from being made of pristine material, planets — including Earth — were built from recycled fragments of shattered and rebuilt bodies,” said Damanveer Singh Grewal, an assistant professor of Earth and planetary science in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences and first author of a new study in the journal ...

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Environment

Sunlight worsens wildfire smoke pollution, study finds

Wildfire smoke causes more air pollution than current atmospheric models can predict. A new study by researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences explains why by revealing that, under sunlight, wildfire smoke particles act like tiny chemical factories, producing harmful oxidants such as peroxides, a group of highly reactive pollutants contributing to smog and haze. The new study helps explain why field measurements consistently detect ...

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Environment

CATNIP for chemists: New data-driven tool broadens access to greener chemistry

University of Michigan and Carnegie Mellon University researchers have developed a new tool that makes greener chemistry more accessible. The tool, described in a study supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation and scheduled to publish Oct. 1 in the journal Nature, removes a major barrier to wider adoption of biocatalysis. Biocatalysts, also called enzymes, are a type of protein that have evolved to perform chemistry that can be complex and incredibly efficient—typically in water and at room temperature—removing the need for toxic or expensive chemical reagents to run reactions. But they are also ...

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Environment

Cassini proves complex chemistry in Enceladus ocean

Scientists digging through data collected by the Cassini spacecraft have found new complex organic molecules spewing from Saturn’s moon Enceladus. This is a clear sign that complex chemical reactions are taking place within its underground ocean. Some of these reactions could be part of chains that lead to even more complex, potentially biologically relevant molecules. Published today in Nature Astronomy, this discovery further strengthens the case for a dedicated European Space Agency (ESA) mission to orbit and land on Enceladus. In 2005, ...

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Environment

And Swiss glaciers continue to melt

Even the United Nations International Year of Glaciers' Preservation has seen further massive melting of glaciers in Switzerland. A winter with little snow was followed by heat waves in June 2025 that saw glaciers nearing the record levels of losses of 2022. Snow reserves from the winter were already depleted in the first half of July, and the ice masses began to melt earlier than had rarely ever been recorded. The cool weather in July provided some relief and prevented an even worse outcome. Nevertheless, almost a further three per cent of the ice volume was lost across Switzerland this year, ...

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Environment

University of Miami scientists launch accessible global climate modeling framework

University of Miami scientists launch accessible global climate modeling framework Designed for education, adaptable for research—the new Python-based framework makes climate dynamics more approachable for students and researchers Miami, FL — A team of researchers at the University of Miami has developed a global atmospheric modeling framework that blends powerful research capabilities with accessibility for students and scientists alike. Written entirely in Python, a high-level, general-purpose programming language, and designed to run on an interactive Jupyter Notebook, the ...

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