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Yale Environment 360
Dragonflies Reveal Path of Mercury Pollution
To track the sources of mercury pollution across wildlands in the U.S., scientists have turned to an unlikely indictor: dragonfly larvae. As mercury settles in water and soil, it is taken up by wildlife. Mercury becomes more concentrated as it moves up the food chain, as larger creatures, such as tuna, accumulate the toxin by consuming smaller creatures, such as sardines, en masse. Past studies have focused on the higher end of the food chain, measuring mercury in fish and birds, but the new research looks toward the bottom. Though nearer the source of mercury, dragonflies have the advantage of being found almost everywhere — in lakes, rivers, forests, wetlands, and deserts.
Steelmakers Increasingly Forgoing Coal, Building Electric
The global steel industry is turning away from polluting coal-fired blast furnaces and toward cleaner electric arc furnaces, which now account for roughly half of all planned steelmaking capacity, according to a new report. “The progress is promising for a green steel transition,” said Caitlin Swalec, of Global Energy Monitor,...
Grim Dilemma: Should We Kill One Owl Species to Save Another?
On July 3, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a plan to start killing 15,000 barred owls a year in the Pacific Northwest, starting as soon as this fall. This extraordinary initiative — more than a dozen years in the making — is intended to save the imperiled northern spotted owl from extinction.
Deep Ocean Producing ‘Dark’ Oxygen, Study Finds
***EMBARGOED UNTIL 4 PM IRISH TIME, MONDAY JULY 22***. A new study suggests that metals scattered about the deep ocean may be producing oxygen, a finding that could strengthen the case against controversial deep-sea mining. Scientists have long assumed that plants and other photosynthetic life were the only source of...
Plants With Racist Names to Be Renamed
An international body of botanists voted Thursday to rename more than 200 species of plants, fungi, and algae whose scientific names include variations of the word “caffra,” an Arabic word for “infidel” that is used as a racial slur against Black people. The move by the...
On Gulf Coast, an Activist Rallies Her Community Against Gas Exports
Over the last few years, the Gulf of Mexico has become ground zero for the U.S. liquid natural gas boom. The region has five LNG export facilities in operation, and at least 16 new export facilities have been approved or are under construction or regulatory review. Roishetta Ozane, a Lake...
Peruvian Loggers Closing In on Uncontacted Tribe
Newly released photographs from the Peruvian Amazon reveal dozens of uncontacted Indigenous people, members of the Mashco Piro tribe, only a few miles from an area where logging is set to begin. The new photos are “irrefutable evidence that many Mashco Piro live in this area, which the government has...
As CO2 Levels Keep Rising, World’s Drylands Are Turning Green
Southeast Australia has been getting hotter and drier. Droughts have lengthened, and temperatures regularly soar above 95 degrees F (35 degrees C). Bush fires abound. But somehow, its woodlands keep growing. One of the more extreme and volatile ecosystems on the planet is defying meteorology and becoming greener. And Australia...
Ice Melt Is Actually Making It Harder to Cross the Northwest Passage
By melting Arctic sea ice, warming has opened the long-fabled Northwest Passage, a shipping route from Europe to Asia that traces the northern edge of Canada. But a new study finds that ships now making this journey are increasingly facing more hazardous forms of sea ice, trimming the number of days during which they can safely navigate Arctic waters.
Will La Niña End a Long Stretch of Record Heat?
There is a 70 percent chance that the Pacific will shift from its warmer El Niño phase to its cooler La Niña phase between August and October, U.S. officials say, likely bringing an end to a long stretch of unprecedented warmth. The world has seen 13 consecutive months...
China Building Twice as Much Wind and Solar as Rest of World Combined
China is erecting twice as much wind and solar capacity as every other country put together, according to an analysis of large renewable energy projects. Increasingly in China, wind and solar are edging coal off the power grid. China is building 180 gigawatts of large solar projects and 159 gigawatts...
As World’s Springs Vanish, Ripple Effects Alter Ecosystems
Strong winds sweep over the Rhön, a vast region of rolling, forested hills and pastureland in central Germany. Undeterred, Stefan Zaenker, leading a group of four volunteers, runs through his checklist alongside a forest road. Are rubber boots disinfected to prevent introducing potentially harmful microorganisms into the wetland? Are the team app and GPS functioning correctly? Have enough flags been packed?
First Solar-Covered Canal in U.S. to Go Online This Summer
Work is nearly complete on a pilot project erecting solar canopies over a canal on tribal land south of Phoenix. When finished, it will be the first solar-covered canal in the U.S. The project will cover a half-mile of the Casa-Blanca Canal, part of a network owned by the Gila...
Weaker Ocean Circulation Could Worsen Warming, Study Finds
As warming weakens ocean circulation, a new study finds the seas could increasingly become a source of heat-trapping gas. “Some climate models predict a 30-percent slowdown in the ocean circulation due to melting ice sheets, particularly around Antarctica,” said study author Jonathan Lauderdale, an environmental scientist at MIT. Ocean...
By 2027, One in Three Cars Sold in U.S. Will Be an EV, Analysts Project
Despite the recent slowdown in EV purchasing, a new analysis finds that sales of plug-in cars will surge in the U.S. over the next three years. EVs accounted for 10 percent of new car sales last year. If existing tax incentives stay in place, they will reach close to a third of sales in 2027, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
Amid A.I. Boom, Google’s Emissions Have Grown by Half
Google reported that, since 2019, its emissions have grown by 48 percent, an enormous increase that reflects the vast amounts of energy used by artificial intelligence. A.I. models run a huge number of calculations in short order, taxing computers and driving up energy consumption. “As we further integrate AI into our products, reducing emissions may be challenging due to increasing energy demands,” Google said in a report released Tuesday. The surge in emissions puts the tech giant further away from its ambitious goal of zeroing out emissions by 2030.
Brazil Is Seeing a Record Number of Wildfires This Year
In the Amazon, Brazil has made huge gains in its battle against deforesters, but it is increasingly losing ground to another threat — climate change. Amid pervasive drought this year, the number of wildfires has hit a 20-year high, official figures show. From January through June, Brazil recorded 13,489...
The Race to Save Glacial Ice Records Before They Melt Away
When Margit Schwikowski helicoptered up to Switzerland’s Corbassière glacier in 2020, it was clear that things weren’t right. “It was very warm. I mean, we were at 4,100 meters and it should be sub-zero temperatures,” she says. Instead, the team started to sweat as they lugged their ice core drill around, and the snow was sticky. “I thought, ‘This has never happened before.’”
Researchers Turn Rhino Horns Radioactive to Fight Poaching
South African researchers have inserted radioactive material into the horns of 20 live rhinos. Their goal is to be able to track horns from rhinos that were hunted illegally. Radioisotopes added to horns could be picked up by radiation detectors at airports, harbors, and border crossings, meaning they would send up a red flag. There are more than 11,000 such detectors at ports of entry around the globe, part of a vast infrastructure aimed at stemming the flow of illicit nuclear material. And the thousands of security personnel devoted to tracking nuclear material far outnumber officials working to stem the illegal wildlife trade.
Turning Brownfields to Blooming Meadows, With the Help of Fungi
The United States is dotted with up to a million brownfields — industrial and commercial properties polluted with hazardous substances. These sites are disproportionally concentrated near low-income communities and communities of color, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, and researchers predict that heavy rains and flooding due to climate change are likely to both spread and increase exposure to these contaminants.
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Yale Environment 360 is an online magazine offering opinion, analysis, reporting, and debate on global environmental issues.
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