By Aaron Kesel Next month, the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh in the city of Ambikapur will open the country’s first “garbage café,” where attendants will be able to recycle their plastic waste and get a free meal, Reuters reported. In various parts of the…
By Children’s Health Defense Chlorpyrifos—described by some as “the most dangerous pesticide you’ve never heard of”—is an insect-killing organophosphate. Organophosphates trace their roots back to Nazi-era IG Farben nerve gases; contemporary scientists still describe the compounds as “junior-strength nerve agents” that have a mechanism of action comparable to sarin. Dow Chemical—the…
By Elias Marat While the role played by honeybees and wild bees as important pollinators is well known, the bumblebee also plays a crucial role in maintaining the health and viability of crops such as chili peppers and tomatoes. And now, researchers at the National…
By John Vibes For decades, scientists have known that trees communicate with one another through a network of underground fungi, which even allows them to trade nutrients back and forth. This incredible discovery was first made by ecologist Suzanne Simard when she was researching her…
A new study led by a researcher at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health identifies a link between proximity to hydraulic fracking activities and mental health issues during pregnancy. Results appear in the journal Environmental Research. The researchers looked at 7,715 mothers without anxiety…
Getting up close – and a little dirty – with farm animals just might help us fend off illness, say researchers who’ve further demonstrated the benefits of early exposure to a wide variety of environmental bacteria. Scientists from The Ohio State University found that bacteria…
By Amanda Froelich Once again, dozens of dead whales have washed ashore. This time, the beached pilot whales were spotted by a helicopter flying over western Iceland. According to the BBC, the mammals were noticed by sightseers who were flying over a beach at Longufjorur….
By Elias Marat In a horrific incident witnesses described as a scene “like something out of a horror movie,” around 60 birds died in Australia earlier this month after falling from the sky shrieking in pain and bleeding from their eyes and beaks. The birds,…
“Legacy” mercury pollution from decades ago and miles away is an important source of contamination in New Jersey Meadowlands waterways, according to a Rutgers-led study that could help guide cleanup efforts. The study in the Journal of Hazardous Materials identified upper Berry’s Creek and its…
By Amanda Froelich Great news! The population of New Zealand’s most endangered forest bird species—the orange-fronted parakeet—just doubled. Before the 2019 hatching season, there were only 100-300 individual parakeets and now, though the season is far from over, there are already over 150 new chicks….
By John Vibes Over the past few years, many insects have been disappearing all over the world. There have been small warning signs along the way to illustrate this massive reduction of the insect population, but it doesn’t seem like anyone is paying attention. One…
By Dagny Taggart It is currently 93 degrees in my neck of the woods, and we are being warned that with the heat index, daily temperatures could warm up to 110 degrees. We are under an “excessive heat warning” through Saturday evening. If you live…
By Gabriel Neal, Texas A&M University I easily remember laughing at Wile E. Coyote trying to catch the Road Runner while watching Saturday morning cartoons as a child. I can still see the Coyote walking slowly through the sweltering desert, sun high in the sky,…
By Sara Tipton Whether we are climate change activists or skeptics, we can all agree that we should all be doing our part to leave our Earth in the best condition possible. Sustainability isn’t always the easiest thing to accomplish considering our consumerist lifestyle in…
More “intensive” beekeeping does not raise the risk of diseases that harm or kill the insects, new research suggests. Intensive agriculture – where animals or plants are kept crowded together in very high densities – is thought to result in higher rates of disease spreading….
Imagine printing electronic devices using a simple inkjet printer — or even painting a solar panel onto the wall of a building. Such technology would slash the cost of manufacturing electronic devices and enable new ways to integrate them into our everyday lives. Over the…
Virginia Tech scientists have found that in regions where oilfield wastewater disposal is widespread — and where injected water has a higher density than deep naturally occurring fluids — earthquakes are getting deeper at the same rate as the wastewater sinks. Perhaps more critically, the…
When cabbage looper moth larvae infest a field, sustainable growers will often try to control the pests by releasing large numbers of predators, such as ladybugs. That way they can avoid spraying expensive and environmentally harmful insecticides. Still, farmers have mixed results when they supplement…
By John Vibes Last week, during a meeting of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, an Army Corps of Engineers official admitted that the agency has been dumping toxic water from Lake Okeechobee into local estuaries without any warning to the public. For years, this…
By Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch California officials ordered Chevron Friday “to take all measures” to stop a release that has spilled around 800,000 gallons of water and crude oil into a dry creek bed in Kern County, KQED reported. The order, issued by the new acting head of the state’s Division…
