environment Archives

Plastic Waste Necessitates Policies for Producers

September 5, 2019April 24, 2021 Science Connectedenvironment, microplastics, ocean, plastic pollution, science debate

By Neha Jain Countries around the world, both developed and developing, have been grappling with growing piles of plastic waste from overuse of packaging materials, such as those for food and beverages, and single-use plastic tableware. In 2015, 42 percent of all plastic produced was used for packaging, much of which is used only once and then tossed, according to a 2017 study published in Science Advances. The study estimates that from 1950 to 2015 about 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic has been produced globally. And of the 6.3 billion…

Environment

Microplastics Contaminate Snow from Alps to Arctic

September 3, 2019November 22, 2021 Science Connectedarctic, environment, microplastics, plastic pollution, pollution, snow

By Jacqueline Mattos Microplastics are tiny pieces of plastic that pollute the environment and can range from 0.05 to 5 millimeters in length. Bigger plastic items can be fragmented by the action of light, temperature fluctuations, ocean waves, or mechanical abrasion into smaller pieces that are widely dispersed, persistent in the environment, and sometimes accompanied by microorganisms. A recent article by Bergmann et al., published in the periodical Science Advances, assessed quantities of microplastics in the snow from the Alps and other northern European sites to the Arctic and found…

Craft beer aisles in a grocery store. Each aisle is labeled with the name of a different country.

Environment Science Policy

Globalization and Its Environmental Impact

April 4, 2019December 2, 2021 Science Connectedclimate, ecology, environment, globalization, weather

Globalization has many negative impacts on the environment. Corporations that benefit from globalization most must work toward sustainability.

Blogs Environment

Living with Wildfires: Fighting Fire with Fire

February 25, 2019January 30, 2023 Science Connectedenvironment, fire, fire management, wildfire

How do people live with the threat of wildfires, and what can be done to protect lives? Indigenous Californians may have a solution.

Biology Botany Physics

How Do Plants Know Which Way to Grow?

October 10, 2018December 12, 2023 Science Connectedbiology, botany, environment, gravity, plants

How do plants know which way is up and which way is down? No matter which way you put a seed in the soil, it will always send its roots down and its shoots up.

Environment Zoology

Honeybees Are Attracted to Fungicides and Herbicides

February 8, 2018September 27, 2023 Science Connectedagriculture, environment, food, honeybees, pesticides

Scientists found that honeybees are attracted to fungicides and herbicides. Honeybees have a deadly attraction to the chemicals in Roundup. By Neha Jain Whenever you eat fruits, vegetables, and nuts, take a moment to thank honeybees for their pollination services that contribute $17 billion to the US economy each year. In fact, almonds are almost solely dependent on honeybees for pollination. Populations of these much-needed pollinators have mysteriously plunged over the past decade, and many studies suggest a link to the use of neonicotinoid insecticides among other factors such as…

Environment Science Videos

Global Warming: What’s Really Warming the Earth?

October 10, 2016October 7, 2016 Science Connectedclimate change, environment, global warming

Dr. Joe Hanson explores the possible causes of global warming in this episode of It’s Okay To Be Smart. References and Further Reading July 2016 is hottest on record NOAA’s State of the Climate July 2016 Bloomberg’s climate change data viz project Solar activity and temperature show opposite trend Milankovitch cycles (I left out eccentricity because it operates on scales so long that it doesn’t affect short-term climate change) Connecting climate models with actual temperature changes NASA Goddard’s Gavin Schmidt explains the history of the instrumental temperature record Last time…

Environment Health

Marshall Islands Radiation Still Too High Decades Later

June 22, 2016June 20, 2016 Science Connectedenvironment, health

By Emily Rhode @riseandsci In the years immediately following the end of World War II, the United States government conducted large-scale testing of nuclear weapons on a small group of islands in the remote Pacific Ocean. On March 1, 1954, the largest nuclear device ever tested by the United States was detonated at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Castle Bravo, as the bomb was known, created a mushroom cloud of radiation almost four and one-half miles wide. This was more than 1,000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on…

Environment New Technologies

Recycled Smartphones Hunt Down Illegal Loggers

June 15, 2016June 15, 2016 Science Connectedclimate change, environment, environmental protection

By Neha Jain @lifesciexplore In the summer of 2011 Topher White, founder of Rainforest Connection, a nongovernmental organization (NGO), visited the rain forests of Borneo as a tourist. He was shocked to learn that among the buzzing of insects, chirping of birds, and howling of gibbons, illegal loggers were sawing down a tree, just a few hundred meters away from a ranger station. The guards could not hear the noise of the chainsaw amid the cacophony of sounds. Deforestation accounts for the second-highest emission of greenhouse gases—even higher than that…

Environment

Hot Towns, Urban Heat Islands

June 14, 2016June 13, 2016 Science Connectedclimate change, environment, heat waves, urban climates

By Steven Spence It’s Hotter in the City Have you ever noticed on weather reports that cities seem to be hotter than the surrounding areas? That’s a result of the Urban Heat Island (UHI) phenomenon. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, urban areas with 1 million or more residents have a mean annual temperature 1°C to 3°C warmer than their surroundings. At night, the effect is even more pronounced, with city temperatures reaching up to 12°C hotter. With more than half (54 percent) of the world’s population living in urban…