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Last Updated: Apr 30, 2018 10:17AM • Subscribe via RSS • ATOM

All That Glitters: Sparkly Microbeads Face Ban

Apr 30, 2018 10:17AM

Decorative plastic glitter and the microbeads used in scrubs and shower gels pose a threat to fish and oceans, say scientists.

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Natural Awakenings Twin Cities
Temporary Protection: Locals Prevail Against Bristol Bay Mine

Apr 30, 2018 10:17AM

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has decided not to rescind Obama-era environmental protections that restricted the opening of a copper and gold mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay that would threaten fisheries and other natural resources.

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‘Sink’ Setback: Tropical Forests Releasing Excess Carbon

Mar 30, 2018 11:17AM

Logging, drought and wildfires may be turning forests in Africa, Asia and Latin America into carbon emitters rather than absorbers.

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Clear Gain: Window-Like Solar Cells Could Power 40 Percent of U.S. Needs

Mar 30, 2018 11:17AM

Scientists have developed a transparent, luminescent solar concentrator that looks like clear glass that could potentially supply two-fifths of U.S. energy needs.

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Natural Awakenings Twin Cities
Scientists’ Security: France Welcomes Beleaguered Climate Researchers

Mar 30, 2018 11:17AM

To counter U.S. President Donald Trump’s anti-science stance, French President Emmanuel Macron has awarded 18 climate scientists from the U.S. and elsewhere millions of euros to relocate to France to “Make Our Planet Great Again.”

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Top Polluters: Just 100 Companies Emit Most Global Emissions

Mar 30, 2018 11:17AM

New research shows that a 100 fossil-fuel producers globally are responsible for 71 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions during the last 30 years.

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We Need Trees: Arbor Day More Vital Now than Ever

Mar 30, 2018 11:17AM

With the loss of 73.4 million acres of tree cover globally in 2016, annual tree-planting programs like Arbor Day in the U.S. and more massive tree-planting programs like those in Brazil, India and New Zealand are sorely needed.

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Waxworm Wonders: Caterpillars Offer Clues to Plastic Cleanup

Mar 30, 2018 11:17AM

Bacteria found in waxworms can digest plastic in mere weeks or months, far outperforming other plastic decomposition processes requiring 10 to 1,000 years.

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Sway Congress: Save Wild Horses Campaign Update

Mar 30, 2018 11:17AM

The Trump Administration’s Fiscal Year 2019 budget again calls on Congress to lift long-standing prohibitions on the destruction and slaughter of wild horses and burros.

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Wind Harvest: Floating Farm Helps Power UK Needs

Feb 28, 2018 11:10AM

The first floating wind farm in the UK, Hywind in Scotland, will have a 30-megawatt capacity to provide clean energy to 20,000 homes.

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Grassroots Gumption: Sweet Potato Project Encourages Enterprise

Feb 28, 2018 11:10AM

The Sweet Potato Project, a collaborative venture in St. Louis, trains at-risk youth in culinary, business, horticulture and restaurant skills.

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Natural Awakenings Twin Cities
Fossilized Financing: Renewable Energy Subsidies Lag Far Behind

Feb 28, 2018 11:10AM

The world’s biggest economies provide four times more public financing for fossil fuels than for renewable energies.

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Renewable Payoff: Germany Undergoes an Energy Renaissance

Jan 31, 2018 11:39AM

For a few hours last May, Germany’s renewable mix of energy generated so much power that customers were actually paid for using electricity.

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Sealife Sanctuary: Greenpeace Lobbies to Create Huge Antarctic Preserve

Jan 31, 2018 11:39AM

Greenpeace is working with the European Union and Germany to set aside an Antarctic sanctuary of almost three-quarters of a million square miles to protect whales, penguins and other wildlife.

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Bureaucratic Bungle: Monsanto Still Gaming the System

Jan 31, 2018 11:39AM

The agriculture giant’s newest weed-killer, dicamba, is facing opposition from farmers that report crop damage and human health issues.

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Plumbing Progress: Recycled Plastics Put to Good Use

Dec 29, 2017 12:37PM

An innovative Australian project recycles discarded ocean plastic into 3-D printer filament, which is then used to make replacement plumbing parts in needy areas of the world.

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Urban Trees: City Greenery Boosts Public Health

Dec 29, 2017 12:36PM

Tree cover works to reduce depression, improve productivity and lessen disease, yet four million city trees a year are being lost due to their low priority in municipal budgets.

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Tree Tally: Digitalizing Data Helps Rainforest Census

Nov 30, 2017 03:21PM

By digitalizing photographs and other museum records, scientists are closing in on the number of tree species left to be discovered in the Amazon rainforest.

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Senior Sisterhood: New Options for Independent Co-Housing

Nov 30, 2017 03:20PM

Cohousing developments for older women are being created in the United Kingdom and United States to replace retirement homes that encourage dependency.

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Tiny Baubles: Microplastic Mess Threatens World Oceans

Nov 30, 2017 03:20PM

As many as 51 trillion particles of discarded plastic lie on the ocean floor, threatening marine life globally.

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Landfill Eulogy: Sweden Dumps its Dumps

Oct 31, 2017 11:55AM

Sweden’s waste-to-energy plants are so efficient that it has closed many landfills and actually imports trash to burn from other European countries.

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Humpback Holler: Why Whales Leap High

Oct 31, 2017 11:55AM

Humpback whales that leap out of the water are making a big splash to communicate with distant pods, Australian researchers have found.

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Window Pain: Birds Die Flying Into Reflective Glass

Oct 31, 2017 11:55AM

As many as one billion migrating birds die annually when they collide with glass windows in the United States.

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Get Outside: Black Friday Alternative

Oct 31, 2017 11:55AM

REI, the outdoor outfitter, is closing its stores on Black Friday and urging Americans to hit the trail instead of the shopping mall that day.

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Creating Community: 15 Ways to Craft a Circle of Caring

Sep 29, 2017 07:53PM ● By Linda Buzzell

With simple, clear steps and procedures, we can build bonds with our neighbors to create a better tomorrow together.

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American Roots: Columbus Day Renamed to Honor First Peoples

Sep 29, 2017 06:18PM

In a move respectful of Native American history, some Oklahoma communities have changed Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

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Migrating Trees: Forests Shift West with Climate Change

Sep 29, 2017 06:18PM

Three-quarters of American tree species have shifted to the West since 1980 due to dryer conditions in the East and changing rainfall patterns.

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Wildlife Wipeout: Wind Turbines Kill Winged Creatures

Sep 29, 2017 06:18PM

More than a million birds and bats are killed annually by wind turbines, but fatalities are cut if the turbines are located offshore and are turned off during low wind speeds.

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Plutonium Problem: Glass or Cement May Encase Nuclear Waste

Aug 31, 2017 11:14AM

To safely dispose of 56 million gallons of nuclear waste dating back to the Second World War, the Department of Energy might replace a glass-log encasement plan with a cement option.

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Bat Banter: Computers Decipher Animal Language

Aug 31, 2017 11:14AM

Computer algorithms helped Israeli researchers decode the language of Egyptian fruit bats and discover that bats exchange information about specific problems.

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Rolling Internet: Winnebago Assists Computer Literacy

Aug 31, 2017 11:14AM

A 40-foot-long Winnebago called the Digibus rolled through central California towns to train kids and adults in computer and job-searching skills.

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Elder Force: Retired Volunteers Keep National Parks Humming

Aug 31, 2017 11:14AM

The financially strapped National Park Service increasingly relies on volunteers to staff visitor centers and campsites, and a third of the workers are over age 54.

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Tuna Turnaround: Lower Mercury Levels Tied to Drop in Coal Emissions

Jul 31, 2017 11:12AM

Levels of toxic mercury in Atlantic Bluefin tuna declined 19 percent between 2004 and 2012, a drop that scientists attribute to a shift from coal to natural gas and renewable energy.

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Buzzing RoboBees: Tiny Robots Seen as Tech Fix for Reduced Bee Population

Jul 31, 2017 11:12AM

Harvard researchers have invented tiny robotic bees that may be able to eventually pollinate the crops that are under threat because of vanishing bee colonies.

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Tea Time: Citizen Scientists Needed for Carbon Storage Experiment

Jul 31, 2017 11:12AM

Australian scientists are seeking citizens around the world to bury tea bags in wetlands to measure the rate as which the bags capture and store carbon.

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Nature Rights: Waterways Granted Personhood

Jul 31, 2017 11:12AM

New Zealand and India have granted the legal status of personhood to vital rivers, forwarding an international movement that seeks to protect precious natural resources from corporate domination.

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City Smarts: Urban Planning Goes Green

Jul 31, 2017 11:12AM

Cities throughout the country are exploring fresh ways to make cities both environmentally sustainable and pedestrian- and bike-friendly.

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Bee Killers: Neonic Pesticides Again Linked to Decline

Jun 30, 2017 10:23AM

As use of controversial neonicotinoid pesticides on plants grew from 1994 onward, extinction rates of bees grew by a parallel amount.

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Last Call: Endangered Species Protection Act May Go Extinct

Jun 30, 2017 10:23AM

Endangered species may lose their federal protection if some Republican senators from western states succeed in taking the teeth out of the Endangered Species Act passed in 1973.

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Species Die-Off: Animals that Are No More

Jun 30, 2017 10:23AM

Species of rhinoceros, tortoise, treefrog and leopard are among those verified as having disappeared forever as of 2016.

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Robot Janitors: Floating Trash-Eaters Clean Up Baltimore Harbor

Jun 30, 2017 10:23AM

Solar- and hydro-powered trash robots are sucking up plastic, Styrofoam and other debris from Baltimore’s harbor, and the waste is used to generate electricity.

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Floral Throughways: Garden Clubs Help Beautify Roads

Jun 30, 2017 10:23AM

If you’re awed by the mass of blooms decorating highway meridians and embankments, you often have local garden clubs to thank, along with partnering state highway departments.

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Pesticide Peril: Common Agrichemicals Endanger Hundreds of Species

May 31, 2017 11:04AM

An astonishing 97 percent of the 1,800-plus animals and plants protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act are likely to be harmed by the widespread use of malathion and chlopyrifos on farm crops, yet the new Environmental Protection Agency administration just declined to ban chlopyrifos.

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Safe Harbor: Marine Reserve Preserves Ocean Biodiversity

Apr 28, 2017 10:47AM

Fish, seabirds, penguins, and seals have a new safe haven in the southern Indian Ocean with the French expansion of its protected reserve from 8,000 to 46,000 square miles.

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Turtle Turnaround: Record Hatchlings Give Hope

Apr 28, 2017 10:47AM

A drive to increase public awareness of turtle-friendly practices seems to be paying off with record numbers of successful hatchlings on beaches in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

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Planting Progress: New Seed-Sharing Law in California

Apr 28, 2017 10:47AM

It’s now legal to swap and collect seeds in California, making it the fourth state to loosen 80-year-old industrial regulations that hamper non-commercial seed libraries.

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Saving Sharks: Ocean Sanctuaries Expand in Pacific

Mar 31, 2017 09:20AM

With 30 percent of shark species threatened with extinction, island nations are establishing bans on shark fishing in surrounding waters.

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Tree Terminators: Insects Assault America’s Forests

Mar 31, 2017 09:20AM

From New England to the West Coast, forests are under attack from an army of invasive insects that may eat several native tree species to extinction.

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Dirty Driving: Traffic Pollution Chokes Big Cities Worldwide

Mar 31, 2017 09:20AM

From Paris to Athens to Seattle, cities are struggling to counter vehicular pollution with car-free days and other strategies.

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Water Saver: Teen Finds Drought Solution in South Africa

Mar 31, 2017 09:20AM

A South African girl has designed a super-absorbent polymer made of recycled avocado skins and orange peels that can store reserves of water hundreds of time its own weight.

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