Earth

Calculate Your Meat, Plastic Footprints with This Student’s Tools

For the sake of the environment, we’re often told to mind our consumption habits. We’re advised to skip over that cheeseburger and, instead, opt for the salad. And, when going to the grocery store, we’re told to bring our own reusable bags. While some follow this advice religiously, many others still shrug it off. The… Read More
Sustainable Makeup for Your Skin and Our Planet

Makeup is fun. Like with anything that is fun, though, the industry and its consumers have been tagged with terms that sound excessive, or even wasteful, such as “cosmoholic” or “makeup hoarder.” Recently, however, both the industry and consumers are coming up with new terms that sound very different from their past — “zero waste”… Read More
Brands Respond to Demand for Sustainable Skincare

From Kesha revealing her natural face full of freckles to Kardashians sharing no-makeup videos, 2019 is the year for a natural, makeup-free kind of beauty. As celebrities embraced their natural selves online, social media soon followed and hashtags like #nomakeup, #nofilter went buzzing. Naturally, consumers started to invest in skincare, but not just any skincare.… Read More
Australian University’s ‘Water Battery’ Wins Global Climate Award

A brand new solar-powered air conditioning system at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia, was named one of five winners at the 6th Global District Energy Climate Awards 2019, a series of awards that seek to recognize innovative and sustainable district energy systems. The ceremony was held in Reykjavik, Iceland, on Thursday, October 24.… Read More
Researchers, Set an Example: Fly Less

The world is warming and ecosystems are dying. To avoid disastrous climatic change, massive reductions in CO2 emissions are required in all sectors, reaching net-zero globally no later than 2050. This requires an unprecedented and rapid change in our ways of life. In this, the world of research is challenged for two reasons. First, researchers… Read More
How Urban Agriculture Can Improve Food Security in US Cities

During the partial federal shutdown in December 2018 and January 2019, news reports showed furloughed government workers standing in line for donated meals. These images were reminders that for an estimated one out of eight Americans, food insecurity is a near-term risk. In California, where I teach, 80 percent of the population lives in cities.… Read More
Fossil Fuels Are Bad for Your Health and Harmful in Many Ways Besides Climate Change

Many Democratic lawmakers aim to pass a Green New Deal, a package of policies that would mobilize vast amounts of money to create new jobs and address inequality while fighting climate change. Led by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey, they are calling for massive investments in renewable energy and other measures over a… Read More
Why Stop at Plastic Bags and Straws? The Case for a Global Treaty Banning Most Single-Use Plastics

Single-use plastics are a blessing and a curse. They have fueled a revolution in commercial and consumer convenience and improved hygiene standards, but also have saturated the world’s coastlines and clogged landfills. By one estimate 79 percent of all plastic ever produced is now in a dump, a landfill or the environment, and only 9… Read More
Capturing Carbon to Fight Climate Change Is Dividing Environmentalists

Environmental activists are teaming up with fresh faces in Congress to advocate for a Green New Deal, a bundle of policies that would fight climate change while creating new jobs and reducing inequality. Not all of the activists agree on what those policies ought to be. Some 626 environmental groups, including Greenpeace, the Center for… Read More
How Frigid Polar Vortex Blasts Are Connected to Global Warming

A record-breaking cold wave is sending literal shivers down the spines of millions of Americans. Temperatures across the upper Midwest are forecast to fall an astonishing 50 degrees Fahrenheit (28 degrees Celsius) below normal this week – as low as 35 degrees below zero. Pile a gusty wind on top, and the air will feel… Read More
It’s Cold! A Physiologist Explains How to Keep Your Body Feeling Warm

Whether waiting for a bus, playing outside or walking the dog – during the colder winter season, everyone is looking for ways to stay warm. Luckily, the process your body uses to break down foods serves as an internal heater. But when the weather is cold, some defensive strategies are also necessary to prevent your… Read More
Eat Veggies! It Will Make You and The Earth Healthier

Eating a diet of poultry, whole grains and vegetables isn’t just beneficial to your health; it is also better for the environment! By assessing the carbon footprint of what more than 16,000 individuals consume in a day, researchers from Tulane University and the University of Michigan have found that environmentally-conscious eaters also have healthier diets.… Read More
A Teen Scientist Helped Me Discover Tons of Golf Balls Polluting the Ocean

Plastic pollution in the world’s oceans has become a global environmental crisis. Many people have seen images that seem to capture it, such as beaches carpeted with plastic trash or a seahorse gripping a cotton swab with its tail. As a scientist researching marine plastic pollution, I thought I had seen a lot. Then, early… Read More
Listening to Nature: How Sound Can Help Us Understand Environmental Change

Our hearing tells us of a car approaching from behind, unseen, or a bird in a distant forest. Everything vibrates, and sound passes through and around us all the time. Sound is a critical environmental signifier. Increasingly, we are learning that humans and animals are not the only organisms that use sound to communicate. So… Read More
Scientists Reconstruct 150 Years of Ocean Warming

A new method to reconstruct global ocean temperature changes since 1871 estimates that the ocean absorbed as much energy during 1921-1946 as it did during 1990-2015. Noticeable changes in warming and sea level rise throughout the past 60 years have been caused, in part, by changes in ocean circulation. This innovative mathematical approach, which was… Read More