September, 2023

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Thinking Long-Term: Why We Should Bring Back Redwood Forests

Yale E360

Only 5 percent of the redwood forests that once stretched across coastal Northern California have never been logged. An initiative to restore these forests is gaining momentum, aided by research showing that redwoods store more aboveground carbon than any forest on Earth.

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For Online Disinformation and Hate, X Marks the Spot

Union of Concerned Scientists

It was never hard to find hate and disinformation online, but it’s been much harder to avoid on X (formerly known as Twitter) since Elon Musk bought the platform in July of 2022. Numerous independent sources have documented how prevalent dishonest and hateful speech has become on platform formerly known as Twitter since Musk purchased it last year. Just last week, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) reported finding that X “continues to host nearly 86% of a set of 300 hateful posts aft

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As Soon as Possible

Real Climate

The latest contrarian crowd pleaser from Soon et al (2023) is just the latest repetition of the old “it was the sun wot done it” trope[1] that Willie Soon and his colleagues have been pushing for decades. There is literally nothing new under the sun. Before diving into the specific artifices in the latest paper, a little trip down history lane might be fun to set the context… “It’s the Sun” Solar variability as a potential cause for climate change has a long (

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The Loss of Dark Skies Is So Painful, Astronomers Coined a New Term for It

Scientific American

Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives.

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Implementing D.E.J.I. Strategies in Energy, Environment, and Transportation

Speaker: Antoine M. Thompson, Executive Director of the Greater Washington Region Clean Cities Coalition

Diversity, Equity, Justice, and Inclusion (DEJI) policies, programs, and initiatives are critically important as we move forward with public and private sector climate and sustainability goals and plans. Underserved and socially, economically, and racially disadvantaged communities bear the burden of pollution, higher energy costs, limited resources, and limited investments in the clean energy and transportation sectors.

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Statement on Premier Ford canceling $8.28-billion Greenbelt land removals

Enviromental Defense

Statement from Phil Pothen, Ontario Environment Program Manager on Premier Ford canceling $8.28-billion Greenbelt land removals Toronto | Traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat – “While we welcome Premier Ford’s full reversal of the inappropriate removals of Greenbelt lands, the Ontario government’s $8.3 billion gift to developers represented just the most visible part of a dishonest and counterproductive push for sprawl tha

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Exquisite spider fossils from Australia offer clues to their evolution

New Scientist

A large brush-footed trapdoor spider and a small jumping spider from the Miocene Epoch between 11 and 16 million years ago show how different arachnids responded to rapidly changing climate

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Will World Leaders Step Up to Deliver at the UN Climate Ambition Summit?

Union of Concerned Scientists

On September 20, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres is hosting a Climate Ambition Summit seeking to galvanize greater climate action from world leaders. Coming on the heels of the powerful ‘ March to End Fossil Fuels’ last weekend, this summit continues the pressure on governments to meet the urgency of the moment. Despite this year’s grim series of extreme climate-fueled disasters and record-breaking temperatures —part of a trend of worsening climate impacts—global heat-trapping emission

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Crowding Out Cougars

Inside Climate News

Expanded development on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, viewed as a climate refuge, is encroaching on prime wildlife habitat. As big cats find it harder to avoid people, many are winding up dead. By Liza Gross, Photos by Michael Kodas This story was supported in part by the Society of Environmental Journalists’ Fund for Environmental Journalism.

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Autism, Human Connection and the 'Double Empathy' Problem

Scientific American

Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives.

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The Best and Worst Toilet Paper, Paper Towel, and Facial Tissue Brands

NRDC

Your guide to buying the best sustainable toilet paper, paper towel, and facial tissue brands based on NRDC’s newest Issue with Tissue report. Everything we recommend.

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Shaping a Resilient Future: Climate Impact on Vulnerable Populations

Speaker: Laurie Schoeman Director, Climate & Sustainability, Capital

As households and communities across the nation face challenges such as hurricanes, wildfires, drought, extreme heat and cold, and thawing permafrost and flooding, we are increasingly searching for ways to mitigate and prevent climate impacts. During this event, national climate and housing expert Laurie Schoeman will discuss topics including: The two paths for climate action: decarbonization and adaptation.

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Twisted lasers could let us send messages with gravitational waves

New Scientist

Ripples in space-time called gravitational waves are normally associated with massive objects like black holes, but we could make our own using lasers – and perhaps even use them to communicate

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A Summer Light Show Dims: Why Are Fireflies Disappearing?

Yale E360

Fireflies — whose shimmering, magical glows light up summer nights — are in trouble, threatened by habitat destruction, light pollution, and pesticide use. With 18 species now considered at risk of extinction in North America alone, recovery efforts are only just beginning.

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Electric Vehicle Sales in US Hit the Accelerator Pedal

Union of Concerned Scientists

With more electric vehicle choices than ever, EV sales in the US are hitting new heights. In just the first half of 2023, over 670,000 EVs were sold with over 80 percent of those fully-electric battery electric vehicles (BEVs ). It took 8 years for the first million EV sales – but now more than a million have been sold in just the past 12 months. EV sales in the US are accelerating and are on pace to exceed one million vehicles per year.

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Statement on Premier Doug Ford failing to meaningfully back down on plans to hand over Greenbelt lands to developers

Enviromental Defense

Statement by Phil Pothen, Ontario Environment Program Manager, Environmental Defence, on Premier Doug Ford failing to meaningful back down on plans to hand over Greenbelt lands to developers Toronto | Traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Huron-Wendat – This morning Premier Doug Ford continued to resist calls to reverse the environmentally disastrous $8.3 billion attack on Greenbelt lands.

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Sustainability at Retail

Sustainability impacts every nation, company, and person around the world. So much so that, in 2015, the United Nations (UN) issued a call for action by all countries to work toward sustainable development. In response to this and as part of a global Sustainability at Retail initiative, Shop! worked collaboratively with its global affiliates to address these critical issues in this white paper.

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Is Consciousness Part of the Fabric of the Universe?

Scientific American

Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives.

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Meet the Giant Isopod of the Deep Sea

Ocean Conservancy

One of the creatures I’m most curious of when I consider the murky shadows of the deep sea is the giant isopod. I was pleased to discover that I’m not the only one who thinks these ancient creatures look just like giant versions of those roly-poly bugs my sister, as a child, would dig for under garden tiles. And I was surprised to find out that these critters are, in fact, relatives.

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Hopes fade for renewed contact with India's Chandrayaan-3 moon lander

New Scientist

Mission engineers had hoped that the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover could survive the freezing lunar night, but the sun rose on their landing site on 22 September and there have been no signals from the craft

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From Carbon Sink to Source: The Stark Changes in Arctic Lakes

Yale E360

For millennia, lakes in Greenland’s dry tundra have locked up huge loads of carbon in their sediment. But as the region becomes warmer and wetter, scientists believe these lakes are becoming sources of carbon, which could have major consequences for the world’s climate.

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A Climate Crossroads for the World Heritage Convention 

Union of Concerned Scientists

How will the nations that have ratified UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention respond to the threat climate change represents to iconic natural and historic sites across the globe? This is one of the biggest questions facing the countries represented at the 45 th World Heritage Committee meeting in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia. Will they for example, agree to place the city of Venice on the list of World Heritage sites “in danger” ?

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Shading the Great Barrier Reef from the sun might slow bleaching-induced coral decline

Frontiers

By Deborah Pirchner, Frontiers science writer Image: Rob Lachlan As ocean temperatures rise, corals can lose their color due to heat stress. Bleaching does not kill corals immediately, but they become more vulnerable to disease and starvation. Shading reefs by covering them with cloth or fog, can protect them from excessive heat. Now, researchers have tested the shading response of two coral species and found that four hours of shade during the hottest time of the day can significantly slow blea

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Rosalind Franklin Deserves a Posthumous Nobel Prize for Co-discovering DNA Structure

Scientific American

Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives.

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Statement on Thorold City Council’s Unanimous Vote Against a New Gas Plant in Niagara

Enviromental Defense

Keith Brooks, Programs Director, Environmental Defence Toronto | Traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Huron-Wendat – We applaud the members of Thorold City Council for voting unanimously against this unnecessary and highly polluting project. Ontario doesn’t need more gas plants. We are encouraged to see communities like Thorold recognize this and stand up for their residents.

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The world’s brightest X-ray machine has been turned on

New Scientist

The LCLS-II X-ray laser is unprecedentedly bright, and will make it possible to record exactly what atoms and molecules do during photosynthesis and other chemical reactions

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Time for New York City to Act on Extreme Heat

NRDC

The September heat wave now enveloping New York is a reminder that the time has arrived for officials in the nation’s largest city to further protect its residents from the dangers of extreme heat.

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Why Flamingos are Showing Up in the U.S. this Fall

Cool Green Science

Hurricane Idalia brought unprecedented numbers of flamingos north. In some cases, way, way north. Like Pennsylvania north. The post Why Flamingos are Showing Up in the U.S. this Fall appeared first on Cool Green Science.

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Rewild or Restore – how about doing both?

The Applied Ecologist

James Bullock and Nathalie Pettorelli summarise their Perspective piece that highlight the potential for integrating restoration and rewilding agendas into whole landscape approaches. As biodiversity continues to decline at an alarming pace, it is becoming more urgent to not only halt these losses but to reverse them.

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The Equinox Is Not What You Think It Is

Scientific American

Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives.

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EPA Approves Permit for Controversial Fracking Disposal Well in Pennsylvania

Inside Climate News

The well, in Plum Borough near Pittsburgh, is a repurposed conventional well, which locals fear is at higher risk for leaks and material failures that could contaminate local drinking water. By Jake Bolster The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this week approved a permit for a toxic fracking wastewater disposal well named Sedat 4A, a highly controversial project in Plum Borough, Pennsylvania, rejecting residents’ concerns that leaks from the well could migrate and pollute other wells

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Earliest evidence of buildings made from wood is 476,000 years old

New Scientist

We tend to think that ancient humans were constantly on the move, but at a site in Zambia there are the first tentative hints that people stayed put and built large wooden dwellings

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Media Advisory: Environmental Defence and Other Groups in Ontario to Rally Against Greenbelt Removals

Enviromental Defense

Toronto | Traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Huron-Wendat – In early November, 2022, the provincial government announced Bill 23 (“More Homes Built Faster Act”), the rollback of forward-thinking municipal plans in Halton and Hamilton, and the removal of 7,400 acres of protected land from the Greenbelt to build sprawl.

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Meet the Bison: North America’s Most Famous Mammal

Cool Green Science

For all their fame, you’d be surprised by how much you don’t know about North America’s largest land mammal. The post Meet the Bison: North America’s Most Famous Mammal appeared first on Cool Green Science.

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A Climate Week to Advance Urgent Change

NRDC

As the hottest summer on record draws to a close, the next several months could determine whether the world rises to the moment—or blows past irreversible tipping points.

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These Adorable Jellyfish Show Learning Doesn't Even Require a Brain

Scientific American

Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives.

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Like Canaries in a Coal Mine, Dragonflies Signal Threats to Freshwater Ecosystems

Inside Climate News

Research shows that some dragonfly and damselfly species may decline to near-extinction by 2100 as a result of climate change and human intervention in their habitats. Yet some freshwater ecosystems could see an increase in such species and more generally in biodiversity. By Juanita Gordon In gauging the growing threats to freshwater biodiversity, dragonflies and damselflies are viewed by ecologists as sentinels, reacting to threats by seeking out more stable homes.