Two recently banned pesticides have all but vanished from the atmosphere around the Great Lakes, but others phased out decades earlier don’t seem to be going anywhere. Marta Venier, an environmental chemist at Indiana University, and her colleagues used a unique long-term dataset collected by the US Environmental Protection Agency, which has been sampling the […]
environment
Some banned pesticides fade from Great Lakes air, while others persist
Two recently banned pesticides have all but disappeared from the atmosphere around the Great Lakes, while others phased out decades ago are still hanging around. Read more in Great Lakes Now.
Reducing e-waste recycling risks in Ghana
How researchers are working to help mitigate the effects of toxic pollution at Agbogbloshie, a notorious dump for the world’s e-waste. In the middle of Accra, the capital of Ghana, sits Agbogbloshie, one of the largest and oldest electronic waste recycling sites in Africa. The eight-hectare scrapyard takes in used electronics from Europe, the United […]
Acid rain: it’s not over yet for this tiny shrimp
Ecosystems have bounced back remarkably well from the environmental scourge of the ’70s and ’80s, but Canadian scientists are finding impacts to the food chain remain. Over the past year, Michael Rennie has dumped 30,000 tiny freshwater shrimp into a remote lake in northern Ontario. Rennie, a freshwater ecologist at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, […]
The Moss That Removes Lead from Polluted Water
Green plant could help clean up heavy metal contamination at industrial sites. A new solution for purifying drinking water polluted with lead could be growing under our feet. Researchers in Japan have discovered a species of moss that can absorb large amounts of lead into its cell walls as it grows. Read more in Inside Science.
US bill restricts use of science in environmental policymaking
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is facing a future in which its hands will be tied on making many policies if a new bill becomes law. Last week the US House of Representatives passed a bill, the HONEST Act, that would prevent the EPA from basing any of its regulations on science that is […]
Are we ready for the gold rush on the sea floor?
One firm reckons its planned sea-floor mines are more sustainable than those on land. But the diggers could destroy rare life and more. THE submersible Alvin encountered its first “black smoker” 2000 metres deep off the coast of the Galapagos Islands. It was 1977, and the realisation that life could survive in pitch darkness next […]
Sea-level rise may displace 13 million people in the US by 2100
Sea-level rise could force three times as many people in the US from their homes by the end of this century as previously thought, according to an analysis of population trends. Read more in New Scientist.
The Ghosts of Fishers Past
Lost fishing gear keeps on doing the job it was designed for long after its owners are gone. Lacuna is like most other humpback whales in the Atlantic Ocean. He overwinters in warm Caribbean waters—where humpbacks breed and give birth—and heads north in spring, toward colder waters to feast on the abundance of krill, copepods, […]
When Good Fish Die Young
Rising temperatures are suppressing survival rates for young fish. Climate change is making fish die young. Over the past six decades, the proportion of fish that survive to adulthood has been going down, by three percent per decade on average, according to a new analysis of global fish stock data. Compiling statistics on changing fish […]