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Biologists in Arkansas began reporting dozens of bald eagles with brain lesions over 25 years ago. The disease was soon found in other birds in the southeastern United States and was linked to a new species of cyanobacteria growing on an invasive aquatic weed. It was Susan Wilde, an aquatic ecologist at the University of Georgia, Athens, that identified the new neurotoxin produced by cyanobacteria, that is harmful to birds, fish, and invertebrates. The toxin contains bromine, which normally is a rare element in lakes and is not commonly found in cyanobacteria. One possible explanation for the presence of bromine in the toxin is that the cyanobacteria produce it from a herbicide that contains bromide, which is used by lake managers to control invasive weeds...

Chris and Julie Ramsey, a husband and wife from Aberdeen, will embark on a 17,000 mile journey from the Magnetic North to South Pole in an electric car powered by solar and wind energy. They will travel through Canada, the United States, and South America over the course of 10 months, passing through various countries such as Mexico, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and Argentina. The couple's main objective for their journey in an electric car is to challenge common misconceptions about electric vehicles. They aim to demonstrate that electric cars can travel long distances, even in harsh environments with extreme temperatures. According to Mr. Ramsey, the Pole to Pole expedition is a historic feat as it is the world's first attempt to drive from a magnetic North Pole location in the Arctic all the way to the South Pole ...

East Africa is generally much drier than other tropical regions, including the Amazon and Congo rainforests. The geography of East Africa has always been thought to contribute to its dryness and susceptibility to drought. However, the exact mechanism has been unclear until now. A research from the University of Oxford and the UK's Met Office sheds light on the important role that deep valleys play in creating arid conditions in East Africa. The study suggests that east-west river valleys, such as the Turkana Valley, channel strong winds and thus act as conduits for airborne "rivers in the sky," which direct vast amounts of water vapor from the Indian Ocean towards the Congo rainforest, rather than towards East Africa, where...

As sea levels rise, coastal ecosystems are faced with changing conditions and must adapt and evolve to survive. A new study by the Carbon Containment Lab at the Yale School of the Environment suggests that faunal organisms, like mussels, are important for protecting and building coastal ecosystems, but are often underappreciated. The study focused on the expansive salt marsh systems in the U.S. that cover around 750,000 acres. These marsh systems are located in the South Atlantic Bight, which is a region that stretches over 150 miles from Cape Fear, North Carolina to Cape Canaveral, Florida. Mussels are considered as indicators of water quality, as they help to keep streams and rivers clean by absorbing heavy metals and...

NASA and the Italian space agency Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) are collaborating to build and launch the Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols (MAIA) mission, which aims to study the health impacts of small airborne particles in highly populated cities. MAIA is the first NASA mission with a primary objective to benefit societal health and involves direct involvement from epidemiologists and public health researchers in satellite mission development. The MAIA observatory is scheduled to launch before the end of 2024 and will consist of a satellite called PLATiNO-2 provided by ASI and a science instrument built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The mission's objective is to collect and analyze data from the observatory, sensors on the ground, and atmospheric models in order to study the health impacts of small airborne particles in ...

The growing demand for electric vehicles (EVs) has raised concerns about the ability to produce enough batteries to power them, due to issues in today's EV battery supply chain. Problems in the supply chain can slow down production and increase costs, hindering the adoption of the technology. A robust, sustainable, and affordable supply chain is crucial for electrifying transportation. It is true that there are likely enough reserves of minerals in the earth's crust to meet future demand for EV batteries. However, scaling up mining operations to extract these minerals can be a time-consuming and costly process. Additionally, mining can have negative impacts on the environment, public health, and human rights. Few automakers and battery manufacturers know the exact origin of their battery minerals...

Hydrogen is already in high demand, with global demand reaching 94 million metric tons (Mt) in 2021. Most of this demand is driven by the oil refining industry, as well as the production of ammonia for fertilizer and methanol for chemical manufacturing. However, with the increasing need to replace fossil fuels in various sectors, hydrogen is expected to become an important player in transportation, heavy industry, and other fields. If countries continue to honor their climate pledges, the demand for hydrogen could reach 130 Mt by 2030, with a significant portion of this demand coming from new applications. The primary challenge with hydrogen production today is that it typically relies on fossil fuels, particularly natural gas...

The Permian-Triassic extinction event, also called the "Great Dying," happened 252 million years ago and was caused by massive volcanic eruptions that led to global warming. It killed off 95% of life on Earth. This was the greatest mass extinction in Earth's history out of a total of five. Healthy ecosystems rely on the complex interaction of different species, including plants, predators, and prey, each of which plays a unique role in maintaining ecological balance. However, if more species go extinct and the number of species in each ecological role dwindle, the ecosystem becomes increasingly unstable. Once the last species in each role goes extinct, the ecosystem rapidly collapses. Scientists led by Dr. Yuangeng Huang, at the ...

India and China faced criticism at COP26 for pushing to weaken the language on coal consumption in the final version of the Glasgow Climate Pact. As a result, the final version only called for nations to "phase down" coal power rather than "phase out" unabated coal power. At COP27, India's proposal to phase down all fossil fuels was supported by over 80 governments but did not make it into the final text of the summit. This proposal would have included oil and gas, which developed nations tend to rely on more than coal. Dezbaterile politice privind schimbările climatice stau sub egida obiectivului de 1,5C al Grupului Interguvernamental de Experți în Schimbări Climatice (IPCC). Metodele...

While electric vehicles are recognized as a way to reduce emissions and mitigate climate change, there has been limited research on the actual health benefits of reduced air pollution from these vehicles. Most studies have been hypothetical and not based on actual data. Researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of USC led by associate professor Erika Garcia, have started a study using real-world data from the State of California to examine the impact of electric vehicle adoption on air pollution and public health. This is the first study of its kind and it was published in the journal Science of the Total Environment. Researchers compared data from 2013 to 2019 on zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) registration, air pollution levels...