High Mountain Asia, often called the “Third Pole,” holds the largest store of ice outside the Arctic and Antarctic. Its glaciers have shaped landscapes, nourished rivers, and sustained communities for thousands of years. But today, these frozen giants are shrinking at a troubling pace. 



Scientists have long agreed that warming temperatures drive the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/half-of-the-worlds-glaciers-can-be-saved-with-strong-climate-action/">retreat</a>, yet new evidence reveals another culprit: shifting rainfall and snowfall patterns, especially those tied to the South Asian monsoon.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-glaciers-losing-ice-faster">Glaciers losing ice faster</h2>



The numbers are staggering. Glaciers across the region are losing more than 22 gigatons of ice each year, equivalent to nearly nine million Olympic swimming pools. 



While rising temperatures explain much of the retreat, researchers from the <a href="https://www.utah.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Utah</a> and <a href="https://www.vt.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Virginia Tech</a> show that the timing and type of precipitation now play a major role. Rain falling instead of snow fuels melt, and shorter or weaker monsoon seasons reduce the ice that glaciers can accumulate.



“These findings highlight that glaciers dominated by the South Asian monsoons, such as the Central Himalaya, Western Himalaya and Eastern Himalaya, are especially vulnerable,” said Sonam Sherpa, assistant professor at the University of Utah and lead author of the study. 



“If the timing and intensity of the monsoon continues to alter, it could accelerate <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/glaciers-from-the-rockies-to-the-alps-are-melting-much-faster-than-expected/">ice</a> loss and threaten water availability for millions downstream.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-billions-rely-on-glacier-water">Billions rely on glacier water</h2>



The glaciers of High Mountain Asia supply freshwater to more than 1.4 billion people. These rivers sustain agriculture, hydropower, and drinking water across South and Central Asia. 



As glaciers retreat more rapidly, rivers will depend less on glacial melt and increasingly on rainfall as their main source of water.



“Looking ahead, a faster retreat of mountain glaciers will shift the main source of river flow from <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/glaciers-are-melting-from-hidden-underwater-waves/">glacier</a> melt to rainfall, thereby heightening the risk of droughts in downstream regions for future generations,” said Susanna Werth, assistant professor at Virginia Tech and co-author of the study.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-monsoon-impacts-on-glaciers">Monsoon impacts on glaciers</h2>



To understand these shifts, the researchers used satellite gravimetry from NASA’s GRACE and GRACE-FO missions. These satellites can “weigh” changes in water storage, including ice, by measuring gravity variations.



Scientists corrected the data to account for groundwater use, soil moisture, surface water, and snow. They paired this with climate reanalysis models, dividing the year into four phases: winter, premonsoon, monsoon, and postmonsoon. 



By analyzing rainfall and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/glacier-melting-threatens-global-water-supplies-and-coastal-communities/">snowfall</a> separately, they revealed how timing and precipitation type affect glacier mass.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-monsoon-timing-speeds-ice-loss">Monsoon timing speeds ice loss</h2>



The experts found that glaciers respond more strongly to seasonal precipitation than to annual totals. 



Cycles repeating every 3 to 4.5 years and 5 to 8 years match the natural rhythm of South Asian monsoons. In the Central Himalaya, glacier loss was tied to reduced premonsoon rainfall.



In the Eastern Himalaya, declining postmonsoon snowfall accelerated retreat. In the Western Himalaya, increased summer rain caused rain-on-ice events that sped melting. These details show that the seasonality of rain and snow is as important as overall precipitation amounts.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-glacier-loss-differs-by-region">Glacier loss differs by region</h2>



Different climate systems influence each subregion. Monsoon-fed glaciers in the Central and Eastern Himalaya show the highest rates of ice loss.



Glaciers dominated by the Westerlies, such as those in the Pamir–Hindu Kush and Karakoram, show slower declines or in some cases slight gains.



The Tien Shan, influenced by Siberian systems and western cyclones, also shows significant losses. These contrasts highlight how winds and precipitation phase shifts shape glacier health differently across the mountains.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-hazards-on-the-rise">Hazards on the rise</h2>



Rapid melting brings hazards that are both immediate and long-term. Glacial lake outburst floods are becoming more common as ice retreats, creating unstable lakes held back by fragile moraine walls. Landslides and river floods often follow, putting downstream communities at risk.



“This risk is not only about long-term water shortages but also about immediate threats to lives and infrastructure,” said Sherpa.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-glacier-loss-under-stronger-monsoons">Glacier loss under stronger monsoons</h2>



Climate projections suggest stronger and more intense monsoons in the coming decades, with possible changes in their timing. 



By 2100, ice loss in monsoon-dominated basins could reach 38–58 percent, depending on future emissions.



Such a shift would profoundly affect river flows, agriculture, and disaster risks. The study emphasizes that improved monitoring networks are urgently needed to capture rain, snow, and temperature changes across high-altitude regions.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-protecting-communities-downstream">Protecting communities downstream </h2>



High Mountain Asia’s glaciers are retreating under the combined weight of heat and shifting monsoons. Seasonal timing and the balance of rain versus snow now shape their fate more than annual totals. 



Protecting communities downstream will require better observation and planning that accounts for these seasonal fingerprints. 



The research makes clear that what happens in these mountains will ripple far beyond their valleys, potentially impacting the lives of more than a billion people.



The study is published in the <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11107312/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing</a>. 



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Shrinking glaciers in the Himalayas are not just threatened by heat

High Mountain Asia, often called the “Third Pole,” holds the largest store of ice outside the Arctic and Antarctic. Its glaciers have shaped landscapes, nourished rivers, and sustained communities for thousands of years. But today, these frozen giants are shrinking at a troubling pace. Scientists have long agreed that warming temperatures drive the retreat, yet new evidence reveals another culprit: shifting rainfall and snowfall patterns, especially those tied to the South Asian monsoon. Glaciers losing ice faster The numbers are staggering. Glaciers across the region are losing...

Global teams tracking classroom temperatures have found that every degree the mercury rises steals attention from millions of pupils worldwide. That loss, researchers warn, is not a momentary discomfort but a cumulative dent in future earnings, innovation, and social mobility.



A systematic review of 14.5 million student records from 61 nations shows the damage worsens with each hot school year. 



Dr. Konstantina Vasilakopoulou of RMIT University and Professor Mat Santamouris of the University of New South Wales (<a href="https://www.unsw.edu.au/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">UNSW</a>), noted that the findings make <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/experts-warn-that-education-systems-must-change-in-the-age-of-ai/">heat</a> an educational and social justice issue. This view is echoed by experts across climate science.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-heat-disrupts-focus-in-classrooms">Heat disrupts focus in classrooms</h2>



Heat forces the body to divert blood toward the skin for cooling, starving the brain of the oxygen-rich flow needed for working memory tasks. Laboratory studies reveal that even modest rises in temperature slow reaction time and decision speed, especially during complex problem-solving.



Cognitive scientists credit the long known Yerkes Dodson curve: performance peaks in a mild thermal “comfort zone,” then drops sharply once the threshold is crossed. 



Children are hit harder because their thermoregulation is still maturing and they sweat less efficiently than adults.



The review confirms the pattern, noting math scores, arguably the most cognitively demanding subject, falter first, while simple reading exercises resist <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-the-brain-learns-study-reveals-an-unexpected-twist/">heat</a> a little longer. Over years, those small drops add up to sizable deficits in high stakes exams.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-heat-lowers-classroom-scores">Heat lowers classroom scores</h2>



Researchers analyzed U.S. PSAT data, including ten million test takers, and found that a single school year only 1°F hotter cut annual learning by one percent. 



Extreme heat days above 90°F were the main culprits, not warm weekends or holidays, demonstrating that learning is disrupted specifically during classroom hours.



A separate cross-country <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-00959-9" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a> that pooled half a million 15 year olds reported that each extra hot school day above 80 °F sliced PISA math scores by 0.18 percent of a standard deviation. 



Because poorer nations rack up more of those days, the authors estimate that Brazilian students learn about six percent less math than their South Korean peers for weather reasons alone.



Looking forward, projections suggest that unchecked <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sleep-prepares-the-brain-for-the-future-while-protecting-memories-of-the-past/">climate</a> change could depress elementary achievements by nearly ten percent in parts of the United States by 2050. Those forecasts assume no further adaptation. With smart interventions, much of the loss is preventable.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-poorer-students-suffer-more">Poorer students suffer more</h2>



Hot classrooms do not treat students equally. In U.S. districts lacking reliable cooling, low income and minority pupils experience almost triple the learning erosion of their wealthier classmates - a disparity linked to outdated facilities and hotter neighborhoods.



“Heat stress doesn’t just impact physical health, it undermines educational equity and affects human potential. We must act now to protect the learning potential of future generations,” explained Professor Santamouris.



Internationally, the pattern repeats: schools serving the poorest see the steepest score declines, while elite campuses insulated by modern HVAC and shade stay relatively unscathed. Left alone, rising temperatures threaten to lock disadvantage more firmly in place.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cooling-measures-protect-learning">Cooling measures protect learning</h2>



Infrastructure can flip the story. Research led by economist Jisung Park shows that classroom air conditioning blunts roughly 73 percent of the heat-related score penalty, an effect large enough to shrink racial achievement gaps markedly.



Ventilation matters too. A <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4552953/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a> of 3,109 fifth graders in the U.S. Southwest found that every extra liter per second of fresh air raised math scores by up to eleven points while cooler rooms added another dozen points.



Since retrofitting every school with air conditioning is expensive and energy-intensive, a mix of solutions - such as ceiling fans, high-volume low-speed fans, reflective blinds, and staggered schedules - can provide practical relief now. 



Focusing first on the hottest, most under-resourced classrooms delivers the greatest equity gains per dollar spent.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-classrooms-built-for-heat">Classrooms built for heat</h2>



Climate-ready schools require a different blueprint. Light-colored roofs, deep eaves, and generous tree canopies cut surface temperatures by several degrees and ease indoor loads.



The broader <a href="https://www.epa.gov/heatislands/what-are-heat-islands" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">urban heat island</a> that bakes many campuses can lift daytime city temperatures by up to 7°F above outlying areas. Greener grounds, permeable pavements, and rooftop gardens not only cool buildings but also slash air conditioning bills, creating a virtuous cycle.



Cities such as Singapore and Medellín already weave such measures into school ground redesigns, reporting cooler play yards and calmer classrooms soon after installation. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-policymakers-can-do-today">What policymakers can do today</h2>



First, thermal comfort must be treated as part of the basic learning infrastructure, on par with textbooks and broadband. State bond programs and national stimulus packages should earmark funds for heat mitigation retrofits, with priority scoring based on poverty indices.



Second, heat thresholds need to be integrated into emergency planning. Clear protocols such as rescheduling exams, shifting to cooler wings, and supplying hydration protect learning time when <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-discover-a-better-way-for-kids-to-learn-math/">heatwaves</a> strike.



Finally, transparent reporting should be required. Annual “thermal audits” that track classroom temperatures create public pressure and data for smarter budgeting, ensuring that no student’s education melts away in silence.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://journals.plos.org/climate/article?id=10.1371/journal.pclm.0000618" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">PLOS Climate</a>.



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Classroom heat makes it physically harder for students to focus

Global teams tracking classroom temperatures have found that every degree...

Environmental change is not just an outside story. It shows up in how people feel, think, and cope. The word many researchers now use for that distress is “solastalgia.” It describes pain tied to unwanted <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/earth-faces-hidden-mechanical-stress-from-carbon-emissions/">changes</a> in the places people call home.



The <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1080/10398560701701288" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">term</a> blends solace and nostalgia. It was introduced to capture the ache people report when their familiar landscapes transform in ways they did not choose or expect.



It focuses on present loss, not longing for the past in general. The emphasis is on disruption where someone still lives, not homesickness after moving away.



The new scoping <a href="https://mentalhealth.bmj.com/content/28/1/e301639" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">review</a> comes from a group of researchers affiliated with the <a href="https://www.uzh.ch/en.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Zurich</a>. The authors followed a formal approach for <a href="https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M18-0850" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">scoping reviews</a> and mapped the evidence on solastalgia and mental health from 2003 through September 2024.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-solastalgia-where-when-how">Solastalgia - where, when, how</h2>



A single paper cannot explain every emotional response to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/genetic-fixes-may-save-crops-from-climate-stress/">climate</a> and ecological shifts. It can, however, show patterns across places and methods. 



This review did that by assembling 19 studies that referenced solastalgia and measured mental health in some way, across Australia, Germany, Peru, the United States, and additional countries.



The authors first required tools that explicitly measured solastalgia and paired them with validated mental health scales. 



They then broadened the net to include studies that discussed both topics even when the solastalgia tool was not present. 



That mixed approach helps when a field is young. It also keeps the focus on what is reproducible across different communities.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-solastalgia-studies-found">What solastalgia studies found</h2>



A scoping review reports consistent <a href="https://mentalhealth.bmj.com/content/28/1/e301639" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">links</a> between solastalgia and mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder, and somatisation. 



Across the five quantitative studies in the core set, correlations with depression and anxiety typically fell in the small to moderate range, and two studies also found similar sized links with PTSD.



In communities living near a continuously expanding open pit mine in Germany, the reported correlations with depression and anxiety were in the 0.35 to 0.53 range. 



That was higher than values observed after discrete events such as fires or floods. One U.S. study tied every 1 point rise on a solastalgia scale to a 26 percent increase in the odds of psychological <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/coping-with-eco-anxiety-turning-climate-worry-into-action/">distress</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-long-change-hits-harder">Why long change hits harder</h2>



Associations tended to be stronger when <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/earth-day-2025-what-were-really-fighting-for/">environmental</a> loss was prolonged or clearly human caused. One time disasters, while severe, often produced smaller correlations with mental health outcomes in these datasets. 



That pattern fits a broader trauma literature where repeated or interpersonal harms often predict more persistent symptoms than single incidents.



“Solastalgia might be a factor contributing to the detrimental effects of climate change on mental health,” stated <a href="https://data.snf.ch/grants/person/859859" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Alicia Vela Sandquist</a>, lead author of the scoping review. 



The authors summarized their conclusion in plain language in the paper’s front matter. That statement reflects the weight of the included evidence, while still noting that the studies were observational.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-solastalgia-matters">Why solastalgia matters</h2>



<a href="https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240045125" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Climate change</a> already affects mental health through direct events, economic and social stressors, and disruptions to safety and identity. 



Solastalgia helps name an important part of that picture. It links place based loss to specific symptoms, which moves conversations from vague worry to measurable risks.



The review looked at outcomes such as depressive symptoms, anxiety, PTSD, and physical symptoms that track with psychological stress. It also flagged lower well being, pessimism, and reduced resilience in several studies. 



Together, these measures sketch a consistent profile. The pattern is not uniform everywhere, but the direction of association rarely flips.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-the-pattern-likely-happens">Why the pattern likely happens</h2>



One suggested pathway is <a href="https://dictionary.apa.org/learned-helplessness" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">learned helplessness</a>, a response that can arise when people feel they have little control over outcomes, which is common when large scale environmental forces reshape daily life.



The review also notes that cultural ties to land can amplify distress when those ties are disrupted. That matters for indigenous communities, farmers, and others whose identity is rooted in specific places.



Researchers have built several tools to assess this form of distress, including the Environmental Distress Scale (<a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/757157370/The-Environmental-Distress-Scale" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">EDS</a>), the Scale of Solastalgia (<a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9602901/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SOS</a>), and the Brief Solastalgia Scale (<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/378739229_The_Brief_Solastalgia_Scale_A_Psychometric_Evaluation_and_Revision" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BSS</a>). 



Those instruments let teams track associations with health outcomes in a comparable way. They also support work on thresholds and change over time, which is essential for planning services.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-this-means-for-services">What this means for services</h2>



The evidence suggests that screening for solastalgia in affected regions could help identify people at higher risk of mental health problems. 



That may include communities facing <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/amazon-forests-can-survive-drought-but-it-comes-at-a-high-cost/">chronic drought</a>, repeated <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wildfire-smoke-is-an-escalating-public-health-emergency/">wildfire smoke</a> seasons, or long running industrial expansion.



Clinicians and public health planners can then match support to the type of stressor, since prolonged loss often calls for different strategies than single event response.



Most included studies were cross sectional. That design cannot nail down cause or timing, so stronger designs will be needed to map the order of events and the durability of symptoms. 



There were also fewer quantitative papers than expected given how widely the concept appears in public discussion.



Longitudinal work can track solastalgia before and after major environmental changes. Quasi-experimental designs can compare affected and unaffected regions that are otherwise similar.



Codesigned studies will matter in indigenous and non Western contexts, so that instruments capture what loss of place means locally rather than importing outside assumptions.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-eco-emotions-and-mental-health">Eco emotions and mental health</h2>



Solastalgia is one of several <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10303262/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">eco emotions</a>, alongside eco anxiety and eco grief. It does not replace those ideas, and it does not cover every mental health pathway tied to environmental change. 



It focuses on distress linked to alterations in one’s home environment. That specificity is a strength for measurement, not a claim that other effects are secondary.



Naming and measuring a risk makes it far easier to plan for it. Health systems can estimate potential demand, community groups can design supports, and leaders can factor mental health into adaptation plans. 



It also gives residents language to describe what they are experiencing without pathologizing reasonable concern.



People notice when their landscapes shift in ways that feel unsafe or unfamiliar. The review shows that this experience is not just poetic, it correlates with measurable mental health outcomes across different settings.



The study is published in <a href="https://mentalhealth.bmj.com/content/28/1/e301639" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BMJ Mental Health</a>.



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Scientists identify a new mental disorder called 'solastalgia' linked to the environment

Environmental change is not just an outside story. It shows...

The air above Lamont, Oklahoma, has offered up a surprise. Researchers recorded medium chain chlorinated paraffins (MCCPs) drifting overhead, marking the first airborne detection of the industrial pollutant on the continent.



“It’s very exciting as a scientist to find something unexpected like this that we weren’t looking for,” said <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JpjzolUAAAAJ&amp;hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Daniel Katz</a>, a University of Colorado Boulder chemistry PhD student and study lead. 



They made the find with chemical ionization mass spectrometry (<a href="https://airbornescience.nasa.gov/instrument/Chemical_Ionization_Mass_Spectrometer_0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CIMS</a>), a technique sensitive enough to spot parts per quadrillion. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-the-finding-surprised-chemists">Why the finding surprised chemists</h2>



<a href="https://sdg.iisd.org/news/experts-agree-on-two-pops-to-list-for-elimination-under-stockholm-convention/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Previous monitoring</a> caught MCCPs in polar air and several Asian cities, yet none had turned up in the Western Hemisphere, so analysts assumed levels here were negligible.



The Oklahoma readings toppled that assumption within hours of the instrument going live. Concentrations peaked around 3 nanograms per cubic meter, thousands of times higher than remote background values.



Daytime spikes and nighttime lulls hinted at daily temperature swings nudging the compounds between <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/air-pollution-confirmed-as-a-major-risk-factor-for-dementia/">air</a> and dusty farm soils. The pattern implied a nearby, ground-level source rather than distant smokestacks.



Atmospheric chemists now must rethink transport models that treated the United States as a blank spot for these contaminants.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-understanding-mccps-the-basics">Understanding MCCPs - the basics</h2>



MCCPs belong to the wider chlorinated-paraffin class used in metalworking fluids, PVC, and flame-retardant coatings. 



Their smaller cousins, short chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs), were banned for new U.S. production in 2009 after regulators labeled them persistent, bio-accumulative toxins.



“We always have these unintended consequences of regulation, where you regulate something, and then there’s still a need for the products that those were in,” said <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/chemistry/eleanor-c-browne" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Eleanor Browne</a>, a CIRES fellow at CU Boulder. 



Manufacturers often swapped to MCCPs when SCCPs fell under tighter rules. That substitution created what Browne calls a regulatory “whack-a-mole” problem. 



International negotiators now weigh an outright phase-out. The <a href="https://www.state.gov/key-topics-office-of-environmental-quality-and-transboundary-issues/stockholm-convention-on-persistent-organic-pollutants" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Stockholm Convention</a>’s expert committee recommended listing MCCPs for global elimination in 2023, and the final vote is set for 2025.



Until that happens, production and trade continue, and ton-scale shipments still cross borders for plastics, paint, and mining lubricants.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-from-factory-floor-to-fertilizer">From factory floor to fertilizer</h2>



How did a metal-shop additive end up over wheat rows? The team points to biosolid fertilizer, the nutrient-rich sludge spun from municipal wastewater. 



Studies show more than half of incoming CPs stick to sludge during treatment, turning the material into a chemical reservoir.



“When sewage sludges are spread across the fields, those toxic compounds could be released into the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/millions-of-americans-live-in-areas-without-air-quality-monitoring/">air</a>,” said Katz. Oklahoma farmers routinely spread biosolids to boost soil nitrogen.&nbsp;



Wind over freshly treated acreage can lift fine particles laden with MCCPs. Once airborne, sunlight warms the mixture, prompting the more volatile molecules to vaporize.



Australian sampling of sludge gives a sense of the stakes, with MCCP levels topping 3,600 nanograms per gram of dry material. Similar numbers in U.S. sludge would supply plenty of fuel for regional air plumes.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-health-concerns-over-mccps">Health concerns over MCCPs</h2>



Toxicologists have tied <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969723025743" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CP exposure</a> to liver stress, endocrine disruption, and developmental harm in animal studies. 



Human data remain sparse, but blood surveys in industrial towns show body burdens climbing with local emissions.



MCCPs share structural traits with PFAS “forever chemicals,” and they linger in fat tissue for years. That persistence gives them time to move up food webs and to shadow people far from any factory.



Regulators face a data gap: no federal air standard exists, and personal exposure monitoring is rare. The Oklahoma detection now puts pressure on agencies to draft guidelines that match rising public concern.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-the-team-caught-the-culprit">How the team caught the culprit</h2>



The instrument Katz used counted one-second snapshots of everything heavier than nitric acid. Each chlorinated-paraffin molecule creates a fingerprint of carbon, chlorine, and hydrogen isotopes.



Katz noticed patterns that did not belong to known sulfuric-acid clusters, so he pulled out reference spectra and matched the peaks by hand. That sleuthing confirmed at least eighteen MCCP variants, each hovering in the air for part of every day.



Concentrations climbed steeply with temperature, showing a textbook <a href="https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Physical_and_Theoretical_Chemistry_Textbook_Maps/Supplemental_Modules_(Physical_and_Theoretical_Chemistry)/Physical_Properties_of_Matter/States_of_Matter/Phase_Transitions/Clausius-Clapeyron_Equation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Clausius-Clapeyron</a> relationship. This evidence told the researchers that soil particles act like a chemical sponge, soaking up MCCPs overnight and bleeding them back at noon.



Even rainstorms failed to scrub the plume completely, suggesting a steady replenishment from the ground surface.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-happens-next">What happens next</h2>



The team plans year-round fieldwork to watch seasonal swings and to pinpoint hotspots. They will also sample local soils and sludge to track the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/chemical-process-breaks-down-90-percent-of-styrofoam-polystyrene-plastic-in-30-minutes/">chemical</a>’s full path from drain to dust.



State lawmakers have already cited the discovery while debating tighter rules on biosolid land application. Similar debates are picking up in other farm states as word spreads among environmental-health circles.



For industry, the Oklahoma data revive questions about replacing one problematic additive with another. Some manufacturers now explore non-chlorinated lubricants and plasticizers to stay ahead of potential bans.



“I think it’s important that we continue to have governmental agencies that are capable of evaluating the science and regulating these chemicals as necessary for public health and safety,” said Katz. 



The wider scientific community sees the study as proof that routine monitoring can still pull surprises from the sky. 



The study is published in <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsenvironau.5c00038" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ACS Environmental Au</a>.



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First-ever detection of a toxic chemical pollutant in the atmosphere

The air above Lamont, Oklahoma, has offered up a surprise....

Tiny metallic beads hiding in deep Arctic mud have reignited a long-running argument about why Earth shivered 12,800 years ago. The new <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0328347" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">evidence</a> comes from four sediment cores lifted out of Baffin Bay, between Greenland and Canada, that capture a razor-thin layer rich in comet-like debris.



The abrupt climate lurch, known as the <a href="https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/2021-11/3%20The%20Younger%20Dryas%20-FINAL%20NOV%20%281%29.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Younger Dryas</a>, drove Northern Hemisphere temperatures down roughly 18°F in what ice cores suggest was a matter of months. 



<a href="https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/artsandsciences/sc_institute_archeology_and_anthropology/faculty-staff/moore_christopher.php" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dr. Christopher Moore</a> of the University of South Carolina (<a href="https://sc.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SC</a>) says his team’s ocean-core data link that chill to incoming space dust rather than to a pulse of glacial meltwater.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-comet-or-meltwater-cause-of-ice-age">Comet or meltwater cause of ice age</h2>



Most textbooks trace the cold spell to floods from the collapsing Laurentide Ice Sheet that diluted Atlantic surface water and slowed heat-bearing currents. 



The rival impact idea argues that Earth blundered into a comet stream, causing airbursts, fires, and a short impact winter that tipped the climate until ocean circulation recovered.



That second scenario burst onto the scene in 2007 when scientists <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0706977104" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a> soot, glassy spheres, and a sharp platinum spike at dozens of continental sites. 



Skeptics soon countered that those clues could be contamination or the by-products of ordinary surface processes, and many paleoclimatologists stayed loyal to the meltwater narrative.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-deep-cores-show-comet-debris-in-ice-age">Deep cores show comet debris in Ice Age</h2>



Moore’s group hunted for evidence beyond the reach of plows, factories, and foot traffic. 



They sampled cores resting up to 1.5 miles beneath the waves and more than 20 feet below the modern seabed, then dated each layer with foraminifera radiocarbon counts.



At the Younger Dryas boundary the cores show dense clusters of iron-rich glassy balls called <a href="https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/metsoc2023/pdf/6214.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">microspherules</a> and nickel-bearing splinters known as metallic dust particles, both typical of flash-melt events. 



They also register peaks in platinum group elements, notably platinum and iridium, whose cosmic abundance dwarfs crustal levels.



“Our identification of a Younger Dryas impact layer in deep marine sediments underscores the potential of oceanic records to broaden our understanding of this event and its climatological impacts,” said Dr. Moore.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mix-of-earth-and-comet-dust-in-ice-age">Mix of earth and comet dust in Ice Age</h2>



The team compared element ratios in the spheres with stardust scooped from <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/comets/81p-wild/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Comet Wild 2</a> and with cosmic dust caught in the upper atmosphere. 



Most spheres carried a terrestrial silicon-iron signature seasoned with about one percent extraterrestrial nickel and chromium, the blend expected when searing shock fronts melt local rock while sprinkling comet grains.



Every year Earth sweeps up roughly 5,000 tons of <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2017JD027143" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">space dust</a>, hardly enough to leave a global platinum spike, let alone trigger a centuries-long chill. 



By contrast, the Baffin Bay layer implies a six-month influx of millions of tons, three orders of magnitude above the background drizzle.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-comet-theory-vs-meltwater-theory">Comet theory vs meltwater theory</h2>



Freshwater <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aay2915" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">models</a> can still reproduce the cold if enough melt pours into the North Atlantic at once. A separate <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-021-00228-1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a> even showed that floods routed through the Hudson Valley could jolt Atlantic circulation without outside help.



<a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1313495110" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Critiques</a> of the impact work also persist, noting mismatched dates at some sites and the absence of an obvious crater. 



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/metallic-beads_young-dryas_comet-impact_ice-age_credit-PLOS-One_1m.jpg"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/metallic-beads_young-dryas_comet-impact_ice-age_credit-PLOS-One_1s.webp" alt="Examples of Fe-rich and silica-rich impact microspherules (a and b) and metallic dust particles (MDPs; c and d) interpreted as cometary dust from Baffin Bay cores. Yellow arrows show particles of FeSi, FeS, and FeCr on microspherules (a and b) and NiFe, low-O2 Fe, and native Fe on metallic particles (c and d). Note folded edges of MDP in panel d. Credit: Moore et al., 2025, PLOS One, CC-BY 4.0" class="wp-image-1980987"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Examples of Fe-rich and silica-rich impact microspherules (a and b) and metallic dust particles (MDPs; c and d) interpreted as cometary dust from Baffin Bay cores. Yellow arrows show particles of FeSi, FeS, and FeCr on microspherules (a and b) and NiFe, low-O2 Fe, and native Fe on metallic particles (c and d). Note folded edges of MDP in panel d. Click image to enlarge. Credit: Moore et al., 2025, PLOS One, CC-BY 4.0</figcaption></figure>



Moore replies that low-altitude airbursts leave little more than tiny glassy fallout, and that glacial erosion would quickly erase shallow craters on an ice sheet.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-comet-strike-effects-on-life">Comet strike effects on life</h2>



Beyond the immediate cooling, an extraterrestrial strike of this scale could have set off a chain of environmental disruptions. 



Soot from widespread wildfires, combined with fine cometary dust, may have dimmed sunlight long enough to stress plant life and ripple through food webs.&nbsp;



Layers from the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ice-age-climate-shifts-changed-early-human-migration-patterns/">Younger Dryas</a> period in several regions hold signs of intense biomass burning, adding weight to the idea of global ecological shock.



Large-scale die-offs of megafauna and abrupt changes in human settlement patterns appear in archaeological records from this period. 



While correlation does not prove causation, the overlap in timing between these biological shifts and the impact proxies in the sediment has kept the hypothesis alive in both paleontology and anthropology circles.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ice-age-comet-event-climate-lessons">Ice Age comet event climate lessons</h2>



Understanding how fast the climate can flip is not just academic. If a brief dust veil could stall <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cold-spot-in-the-atlantic-could-signal-big-trouble-for-global-climate/">Atlantic circulation</a> once, large volcanic plumes or human-caused soot might hold similar leverage.



The work also widens the hunt for ancient impacts to offshore archives, where mud builds quietly and contamination risks drop. 



Future cores from the North Atlantic, Arctic Ocean, and even the Gulf of Mexico could trace the fallout plume and settle how widely the particles spread.



For now the Baffin Bay cores add a fresh puzzle piece rather than the final picture. Whether that piece fits better with a cosmic hailstorm or with rampaging meltwater remains an open, and lively, question.



The study is published in <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0328347" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">PLOS One</a>.



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Metallic beads in Arctic mud suggest a comet slammed into Earth not long ago

Tiny metallic beads hiding in deep Arctic mud have reignited...

A new hybrid fire ant is marching across the United States, and scientists say it can handle nearly any weather conditions or terrain that it encounters in the country.



Dubbed the "Frankenstein ant" by local residents, the invasive species is a cross between the red imported fire ant and the black imported fire ant and has now taken root in almost every state in the U.S.



“Right now, it just seems they are very adaptable, and that includes moving their nests further underground … to some degree outsmarting the environment,” said <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Amy-Michael" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Amy Michael</a>, an entomologist with the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (<a href="https://www.ncagr.gov/news/press-releases/2025/06/24/ncdacs-finds-spotted-lanternfly-caldwell-county" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NCDA&amp;CS</a>). 



Her warning comes as field teams from several universities confirm that the insect’s range is <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ants-are-shifting-to-new-habitats-to-cope-with-climate-change/">expanding faster</a> than any previous models predicted.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-from-southern-soil-to-mountain-chill">From southern soil to mountain chill</h2>



The first imported fire ants slipped into Mobile, Alabama, in the early 1900s and spread through the Gulf States before federal regulators declared a quarantine in <a href="https://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant-pests-diseases/ifa" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">1958</a>. 



As land warmed, the ants pushed north, filling every county in Georgia and Alabama and climbing into the Appalachian foothills.



<a href="https://cisr.ucr.edu/invasive-species/red-imported-fire-ant" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hybrid colonies</a> have leapfrogged even farther, showing up 250 miles beyond the traditional fire ant frontier in less than a decade. 



Range mapping <a href="https://www.ars.usda.gov/southeast-area/gainesville-fl/cmave/imported-fire-ant-and-household-insects-research/docs/potential-united-states-range-expansion-of-the-invasive-fire-ant/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">studies</a> estimate that the insects now occupy more than 100,000 square miles of new territory since 2015.



Laboratory trials indicate that workers from mixed parentage survive two hours at 28 degrees Fahrenheit, twice the endurance of their red or black relatives. 



Researchers suspect that genes for membrane stability in cold cells hitchhiked across species lines, giving the offspring an all weather edge.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-inside-the-hybrid-ant-nest">Inside the hybrid ant nest</h2>



A mature hybrid ant nest can shelter half a million workers and dozens of queens, an arrangement scientists call <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674072404" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">polygyny</a>. 



Multiple queens mean the colony rebounds quickly after pesticide treatments, because killing one breeder rarely removes them all.



Eggs hatch in about a week, and larvae pass three molts before pupating into adults that can bite, sting, or reproduce. 



Winged males and females ride thermal updrafts every spring, drifting as far as twelve miles before founding new nests.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-stings-shocks-and-short-circuits">Stings, shocks, and short circuits</h2>



The venom packs an alkaloid called solenopsin that causes painful pustules and, in sensitive people, life threatening anaphylaxis. Doctors in fire ant counties report that about five percent of sting victims need emergency care.



Livestock suffer too: newborn calves, foals, and chicks can be blinded or suffocated when <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-is-destabilizing-ant-plant-relationships/">ants</a> mob birthing sites, and poultry producers lose thousands of eggs each year as foraging workers chew through shells. 



Electric utilities spend millions replacing transformers and junction boxes after ants bridge contacts with their bodies.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-this-hybrid-ant-matters">Why this hybrid ant matters</h2>



Geneticists use the term “heterosis” to describe the extra punch hybrids often display. “[O]nce you introduce a species to a new place, anything can really happen,” added <a href="https://www.ento.vt.edu/people/Faculty0/Yang.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Scotty Yang</a>, an invasive ant specialist at <a href="https://www.vt.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Virginia Tech</a>.



Cold endurance is only one advantage. Mixed colonies out forage single species nests by about thirty percent in cage trials, converting protein into brood more quickly and swelling their ranks during long growing seasons.



The ants thrive in pine barrens, soybean rows, and suburban lawns, while red ants prefer open fields and black ants linger near water. Flexibility means almost any patch of disturbed ground can become a launchpad for the next wave.



Average winter lows in the southern Appalachians have risen about 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit since 1980, enough to push the frost line higher into the mountains. Warmer soil shortens the brood rearing pause that once kept colonies small through December and January.



El Niño years bring extra rainfall that softens clay pans, allowing queens to tunnel deeper and escape lethal freezes. 



The same storms wash loose soil into roadside ditches, perfect sites for founding nests that vehicles later move across state lines.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-managing-the-menace">Managing the menace</h2>



Because the ants travel in nursery <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-is-destabilizing-ant-plant-relationships/">plants</a>, sod, and hay bales, regulators use a patchwork of state and federal quarantines to slow the spread. 



Inspectors look for telltale soil pellets and require producers to treat stock with certified baits before shipping.



Homeowners inside quarantine zones can protect pets and children by broadcasting <a href="https://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/hydragen.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hydramethylnon</a> granules when daily highs top 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Professionals follow up ten days later with a mound drench to reach queens that survive the first pass.



Agricultural operators often alternate growth regulating baits with faster acting spinosad to avoid resistance. Surveillance never stops, and many ranchers walk pastures each month, flagging fresh mounds for treatment.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-you-can-do-today">What you can do today</h2>



Check trailers, flowerpots, and birdhouses before moving them even a few miles, because a single queen and a handful of workers can start a new infestation. Shake off loose soil, rinse equipment, and seal crates to deny the ants a free ride.



Planting native groundcovers such as blue lupine and switchgrass shades soil, lowering <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ocean-temperatures-are-rising-faster-than-expected-and-likely-to-accelerate/">temperatures</a> and moisture swings that favor mound building. 



Neighborhood groups can pool resources, hiring certified applicators to treat large common areas at once.



If you find a suspected Frankenstein ant nest outside the quarantine, collect a tablespoon of workers in rubbing alcohol and contact the <a href="https://cnas.ucr.edu/about/cooperative-extension" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cooperative Extension office at UCR</a>. Early reports help scientists map the invasion front and guide education campaigns.



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Warning issued for an invasive 'Frankenstein' hybrid insect that harms plants and humans

A new hybrid fire ant is marching across the United...

Climate change is altering life at every scale, from ice caps to insect wings. But beyond the well-known shifts in temperature and weather patterns, there is another, less obvious change underway. 



A new study published in the journal National Science Review&nbsp;reveals that rising levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) are scrambling the reproductive instincts of one of the world’s most destructive agricultural pests - the cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera).



By throwing off these insects’ ability to select the best egg-laying sites, the shift could ripple through ecosystems, affect food security, and rewrite pest management <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/insects-are-still-disappearing-and-there-are-hundreds-of-reasons-why/">strategies</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-co2-matters-to-insects">Why CO2 matters to insects</h2>



Insects have survived mass extinctions, ice ages, and volcanic winters thanks to their adaptability. Yet their fine-tuned sensory systems make them vulnerable to environmental <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/urbanization-causes-massive-decline-in-insect-pollinators/">shifts</a>. Many species use chemical cues to locate food, mates, or egg-laying spots.



For&nbsp;H. armigera, CO2 is not just background atmosphere - it is a guidepost. Female moths can detect tiny differences in plant-emitted CO2, homing in on younger leaves that produce slightly more of the gas. These leaves tend to offer better nutrition for developing larvae.



From 1750 to 2023, atmospheric CO2 climbed from 278 parts per million (ppm) to about 420 ppm, largely due to human activity. Scientists now project levels could reach 1000 ppm by 2100. The concern is that such a jump may overwhelm insects’ CO2 “signal,” replacing a clear guide with confusing noise.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-young-leaves-give-off-more-co2">Young leaves give off more CO2</h2>



The research team - led by experts at the <a href="https://www.caas.cn/en/">Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences</a> - began by confirming the bollworm’s preference for young cotton leaves. 



In semi-natural enclosures, mated females deposited the majority of their eggs on these tender leaves rather than older ones.



The choice is not cosmetic. Larvae feeding on young leaves had higher survival rates, longer bodies, and greater weights after a week compared to those on older leaves. Measurements showed young leaves emitted about 200 ppm more CO2 than mature <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/modern-farming-is-causing-many-insect-species-to-collapse/">leaves</a> - a signal strong enough for moths to track.



This makes evolutionary sense: laying eggs where food is fresh and nutritious boosts the odds of offspring survival, a fundamental driver of insect behavior.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-high-co2-confuses-moths">High CO2 confuses moths</h2>



Researchers grew cotton and bollworms in normal and high CO2. At high CO2, females lost their strong preference for young leaves.



Instead, moths laid more eggs on older leaves - less nutritious sites that could compromise larval health. 



“This disruption is akin to confusing a key olfactory cue from a GPS system,” said study co-author Professor Guirong Wang. “Without accurate CO2 signals, the insects struggle to find ideal egg-laying sites, which could affect pest population dynamics and agricultural <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rising-heat-shrinking-habitats-insects-face-hidden-threats/">damage</a>.”



Only mated females reacted to CO2 in experiments. Virgin females and males detected it but did not act on it, hinting that hormonal or brain-level changes shape how the signal is used.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-moths-have-three-co2-sensors">Moths have three CO2 sensors</h2>



The bollworm’s CO2 sense comes from three gustatory receptor genes - HarmGR1, HarmGR2, and HarmGR3 - expressed in a small sensory organ called the labial palp. From there, nerve signals travel to a specific processing center in the brain called the labial pit organ glomerulus.



While many insects use just two CO2 receptors,&nbsp;H. armigera&nbsp;needs all three. The team used CRISPR/Cas9 to delete each receptor individually. Any loss broke the insect’s ability to respond to CO2, both in lab tests and in naturalistic settings.



Interestingly, receptor loss did not change the total number of eggs laid - just where they were placed. Mutant moths spread their eggs more randomly, ignoring the young leaves they would normally target.



The trimeric receptor setup may give bollworms finer sensitivity to different CO2 concentrations. This could be an evolutionary edge in complex environments where atmospheric and plant-emitted CO2 levels fluctuate.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-insects-use-more-than-co2">Insects use more than CO2</h2>



Even without CO2 detection, mutant moths showed a faint preference for young leaves. That suggests other cues - perhaps smell, taste, touch, or even visual signals - help guide oviposition. The redundancy makes sense; in nature, relying on one sense can be risky.



Still, CO2 appears to be a major driver. Its disruption could throw insect reproductive strategies out of alignment with the environments their larvae need to thrive.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ecological-stakes-beyond-cotton-fields">Ecological stakes beyond cotton fields</h2>



H. armigera&nbsp;feeds on over 200 plants and causes huge crop losses. Lower reproduction might reduce larvae, but pests can adapt or spread, making outcomes uncertain for farmers.



On a larger scale, altered oviposition behavior could affect the balance between pests, their predators, and pollinators. 



Changes in plant chemistry under high CO2 - such as shifts in volatile compounds - could compound these effects, influencing not just bollworms but entire insect communities.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-blocking-co2-sense-in-insects">Blocking CO2 sense in insects </h2>



For decades, scientists have explored ways to manipulate insect senses to manage populations. CO2 is already used to lure mosquitoes and soil pests into traps. The bollworm’s reliance on CO2 for oviposition opens a similar door.



“By targeting the CO2 receptors, we can explore novel, eco-friendly pest control strategies,” said Dr. Qiuyan Cheng, first author of the study. 



One promising approach is RNA interference (RNAi), which can silence specific genes. Disabling CO2 receptors could make bollworms misplace their eggs, reducing their impact without pesticides.



Such strategies would need to be carefully tested to avoid unintended consequences for non-target species and ecosystems. But as chemical pesticides lose effectiveness due to resistance, sensory-based controls are gaining appeal.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-climate-change-as-a-sensory-disruptor">Climate change as a sensory disruptor</h2>



This study adds to a growing body of evidence that climate change does not just push species poleward or alter breeding seasons - it can fundamentally interfere with how animals perceive their world. 



For insects, whose survival often depends on chemical cues, this could be especially disruptive.



As atmospheric CO2 heads toward unprecedented levels, the signals insects evolved to follow may become unreliable. That means adaptation will be essential - for insects, ecosystems, and agriculture.



For the cotton bollworm, a scrambled CO2 compass might lead to lower reproductive success, but it could also drive unpredictable shifts in where and how it attacks crops. 



For farmers and ecologists, understanding these sensory changes will be key to anticipating future pest pressures.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://academic.oup.com/nsr/advance-article/doi/10.1093/nsr/nwaf270/8196188" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">National Science Review</a>.



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How rising CO2 levels threaten insect reproduction

Climate change is altering life at every scale, from ice...

Electric vehicles (EVs) are often touted as a climate solution. But new research shows that even if every gas-powered car in the U.S. were swapped for an EV, the country wouldn’t see the full benefit - unless we also fix a hidden but critical part of the equation: the power grid.



This is the conclusion of a new study by a team of scientists at <a href="https://www.northwestern.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Northwestern University</a>. The research reveals a surprising roadblock in the race to cut emissions. Electricity is not always able to travel from where it’s generated to where it’s needed. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-electric-vehicles-using-dirty-power">Electric vehicles using dirty power</h2>



The power grid is overloaded. And that bottleneck could make electric vehicles far dirtier than expected.



"Vehicle electrification, alongside renewable energy integration, is a long-term strategy toward zero carbon emissions. However, transitioning to fully renewable electricity may take decades - during which electric vehicles may still rely on carbon-intensive electricity," wrote the researchers.



Adilson Motter, who led the study, noted that even if the U.S. fully adopts EVs and generates enough renewable electricity to charge them, it still won’t be enough.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-power-grid-strained-by-ev-demand">Power grid strained by EV demand</h2>



The power grid functions like a highway system. <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/harvesting-electricity-with-nature-inspired-techniques/">Electricity</a> is generated at power plants, moves across long-distance transmission lines, then drops into local networks to serve homes, businesses, and charging stations.



But as EV adoption ramps up, so does the demand for electricity - especially in densely populated areas. 



That’s a problem, because the cleanest power sources, like <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wind-energy-potential-could-drop-as-climate-changes/">wind</a> and solar, tend to be far from where most people live. These renewable energy sources include rural wind farms in the Midwest and massive solar installations in the Southwest.



The team modeled different scenarios of vehicle electrification and renewable energy generation. In every scenario where electric vehicles played a major role, one thing stood out: the grid kept getting in the way.



In places where the grid couldn’t deliver clean power from distant wind or solar farms, local utilities had to rely on whatever was nearby. Often, that meant fossil fuel plants. The emissions savings from EVs were wiped out - sometimes by as much as a third.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-smart-charging-is-not-enough">Smart charging is not enough</h2>



Planners and automakers often tout “smart charging,” where EVs juice up at times that align with wind and solar production. But that approach only works if clean power can get where it’s needed.



“The charging schedule of EVs can be optimized to align with intermittent renewable generation,” Motter said. 



“But even with smart charging, efficient use of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/continuous-clean-energy-scientists-are-pulling-power-out-of-thin-air/">clean energy</a> still depends on having enough transmission capacity to deliver it where it’s needed.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-modest-grid-boost-cuts-emissions">Modest grid boost cuts emissions</h2>



The good news? The solution is surprisingly modest. According to the study, increasing the grid’s transmission capacity by just three to 13 percent would open up access to far more clean energy. 



That’s enough to cut congestion and avoid losing much of the emissions savings. The upgrades could involve adding new high-voltage lines or improving existing ones. There’s no need to tear it all down and start over.



“Power grids began as local networks, where consumption was close to generation,” Motter said. “Over time, they evolved into nationwide - even continent-wide - systems."



"It was a gradual growth process built on existing infrastructure. No one wants to redesign it from scratch, but we do need targeted upgrades that reflect the large-scale reach of today’s grid.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-cleaner-future-with-electric-vehicles">A cleaner future with electric vehicles </h2>



The U.S. power grid is divided into three primary regions - the Eastern, Western, and Texas grids - which function largely independently from one another. In other words, we have limited ability to transfer electricity across these regional boundaries.



Improving the connections between them would allow clean energy to flow where it’s needed most, regardless of regional boundaries.



Switching to electric vehicles is necessary, and so is scaling up wind and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/which-is-better-planting-forests-or-building-solar-farms/">solar</a>. But without investing in the power lines that connect it all, the U.S. won’t get the full climate benefit.



A cleaner future isn’t just about what we drive - it’s about how power gets from point A to point B.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-61976-8" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature Communications</a>.



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Electric vehicles can’t help the planet without a smarter power grid

Electric vehicles (EVs) are often touted as a climate solution....

Lions have shared the world with us for thousands of years, roaring through our myths, flags, and countless stories. 



On World Lion Day 2025, we’re reminded that they need more than admiration - they need protection. The survival of lions now depends on the choices we make and the actions we take.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-lions-keep-nature-in-balance">Lions keep nature in balance</h2>



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/lions-and-hyenas-change-behavior-when-tourists-are-nearby/p">Lions</a> are more than hunters. They control herbivore numbers, protect grasslands, and keep ecosystems healthy. Remove them and you create chaos - prey populations explode, plants disappear, and other species struggle to survive.



They also stand out among big cats for their social lives. A pride works together to hunt, defend territory, and raise cubs. Without those bonds, they can’t survive.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-lions-face-many-threats">Lions face many threats</h2>



Wild lions face shrinking space. Farms, towns, and roads eat away at their range. When they go after livestock, the response is often a bullet. Poachers target them for trophies. Climate change makes prey harder to find.



In some places, numbers have fallen by half within a few decades. For a species once spread across Africa, Asia, and Europe, that’s a sharp and dangerous decline.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-lions-need-to-survive">What lions need to survive</h2>



Researchers are learning that a lion’s social life plays a bigger role in survival than anyone expected.



A <a href="https://www.ox.ac.uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Oxford</a> team studied over 30 years of Serengeti lions. They found that females’ bonds with other females drop steadily with age, while males reconnect more with other males later in life. 



The pattern matters - females with strong friendships live longer, and males with bigger networks <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/male-and-female-lions-have-different-social-strategies-for-survival/">survive longer too</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-conflict-and-changing-ecosystems">Conflict and changing ecosystems </h2>



In Namibia, <a href="https://www.uga.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Georgia</a> scientists tracked human-lion conflict around Etosha National Park. From 1980 to 2018, 698 lions were killed outside its borders. 



The park acts as a safe zone, but nearby lands are what researchers call an “ecological trap.” <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/can-lions-and-farmers-coexist-experts-are-cautiously-optimistic/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lions</a> leave for prey and water - and meet armed farmers instead. Young males are hit hardest.



Another study from the <a href="https://www.adelaide.edu.au/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Adelaide</a> looked far back in time. Fossil DNA showed how climate change pushed lions out of parts of North America long before humans were involved. 



Warming altered vegetation, herbivores died off, and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-led-ancient-lions-and-bears-to-extinction/">predators</a> followed. The lesson is that ecosystems can shift fast, and predators struggle to adapt. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-action-on-world-lion-day-2025">Action on World Lion Day 2025</h2>



In Africa today, conservationists and communities are working to keep lions wild. Protected reserves and wildlife corridors give them space to move. Eco-tourism, when run well, gives local people an income and a reason to protect lions instead of kill them.



Because lions cross national borders, many projects link multiple countries. Survival depends on that kind of cooperation.



You don’t have to travel to Africa to make a difference for lions. Start by supporting wildlife groups that work directly on lion conservation. 



Many of these organizations fund anti-poaching patrols, restore habitats, and help local communities live safely alongside lions. Your donation, no matter the size, can help keep rangers in the field and give prides a fighting chance.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-awareness-can-create-change">Awareness can create change</h2>



You can also use your voice. Share news articles, documentaries, or even personal posts on social media to spark conversations about the threats lions face. Awareness creates pressure for change - and it can inspire others to take action too.



If you plan to visit a country where lions live, look into where your travel money will go. Choose safaris and tours that follow ethical practices, employ local people, and reinvest in conservation. 



Responsible tourism can bring in vital funds and give communities more reason to protect lions rather than hunt them.



Every action counts. The more people who understand the pressures on lions, the stronger the support for solutions - and the better their chances of surviving in the wild.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-future-is-uncertain">The future is uncertain</h2>



If lions disappear from the wild, the loss will be far greater than a single species. We will be losing an animal that has shaped human culture for thousands of years, appearing in ancient carvings, religious symbols, and national emblems. 



To survive, lions need vast, connected landscapes that are free from the constant threat of poaching and human-wildlife conflict. They depend on healthy ecosystems, where their role as apex predators keeps nature in balance. 



Protecting lions means safeguarding entire habitats - and the countless other species that share them. Their absence would leave a gap in nature that no other species could fill. It would also mark a failure to protect one of the planet’s most iconic predators.



Future generations would grow up knowing lions only from pictures, books, and recordings instead of seeing them roam the grasslands or hearing their calls at night.



On World Lion Day 2025, the choice is clear and urgent. We must decide whether the roar of the lion remains a living sound in the wild or fades into something remembered only from the past.



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World Lion Day 2025: The science of survival

Lions have shared the world with us for thousands of...

Natural processes on land and in the ocean already remove carbon dioxide from the air, but they do not work in isolation. A new paper argues that these processes must be seen as one connected system, a weathering continuum that stretches from high terrain to the deepest seabed and controls how much CO2 is locked away over time.



This perspective matters because many <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/earth-is-on-pace-to-surpass-1-5c-global-temperature-increase-for-second-year-in-a-row/">climate</a> ideas aim to speed up weathering to pull more CO2 from the atmosphere. If the pieces of the chain are tightly linked, pushing on one part can tug on another in ways that help or hurt the total carbon removed.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-linking-land-and-ocean-matters">Why linking land and ocean matters</h2>



Dr. Gerrit Trapp-Müller of the <a href="https://www.gatech.edu/">Georgia Institute of Technology</a> led the study, which was completed during his time at Utrecht University. 



The team brings reactions in soils, rivers, coasts, and marine sediments into one model so we can view the whole system, not just scattered parts.



In this framework, the direction and size of a local flux depend on the material’s origin, how it has been transported and altered, and the surrounding conditions. That is a practical shift, because it changes how we should place, size, and verify interventions meant to boost <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/astonishing-global-heat-in-january-2025-defied-climate-expectations/">carbon</a> removal.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-silicate-weathering-stores-co2">How silicate weathering stores CO2</h2>



At the center is silicate weathering - the set of reactions where acidic water breaks down silicate minerals, releasing cations and bicarbonate that ultimately store carbon as carbonate minerals. 



Over geologic time, silicate weathering acts as a negative feedback that steadies climate by consuming more CO2 as temperatures rise.



This thermostat effect is real but slow on human timescales. It scales with factors such as <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/webb-telescope-reveals-climate-never-before-seen-in-our-solar-system-pluto-haze/">temperature</a>, runoff, rock type, and how quickly fresh mineral surfaces are exposed.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-oceans-can-release-co2">Oceans can release CO2</h2>



There is a twist called <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0408-4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reverse weathering</a>. In marine sediments, the formation of authigenic clays can consume alkalinity, release acidity, and shift carbon back toward the atmosphere.



When reactions that consume alkalinity dominate parts of the chain, the net sink can shrink or even flip. That means the ocean side of the system can throttle what the land side achieves.



Not all settings pull equal weight. Recent <a href="https://goldschmidtabstracts.info/2024/23364.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">work</a> highlights deltas and beaches as marine weathering hotspots that can shape the balance between forward and reverse reactions along the transport path from rivers to the shelf and beyond.



Studies in delta muds, using both field data and models, show that where the sediment comes from and how it was deposited determine whether chemical reactions add or remove alkalinity - and by how much - at different depths and over time. These factors decide whether the area is a strong sink or only a weak one.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-much-co2-weathering-removes">How much CO2 weathering removes</h2>



So how much carbon does chemical weathering handle today. A global <a href="https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/20640/1/Har2009d.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">analysis</a> finds total CO2 consumption by chemical weathering near 237 million metric tons of carbon per year, with silicates accounting for roughly 63 percent of that budget, on the order of 149 million tons of carbon annually.



Within the silicate share, basaltic terrains have an outsized impact, contributing on the order of 25 to 35 percent of the silicate weathering CO2 sink because they weather quickly where <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000925410300247X" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">runoff</a> is high. 



That concentration of flux in a small fraction of the landscape explains why placement of interventions matters so much.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-we-could-boost-weathering">How we could boost weathering</h2>



Analyses suggest that spreading finely crushed silicate rock on croplands could remove on the order of 0.5 to 2.0 billion tons of CO2 per year, comparable to other land-based options if done at scale and with the right logistics. 



This is a large range, and it depends on climate, soils, farm practices, and supply chains.



Recent <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40323084/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">evaluations</a> also warn that removal efficiency varies widely and can be overestimated if you ignore side fluxes, carbonate dynamics, or downstream processes in the ocean that offset gains on land. Measuring the whole chain is not optional, it is the only way to know the real net.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-future-of-weathering-research">The future of weathering research </h2>



"The main conclusion from our work is that the various CO2 fluxes on land and in the ocean are very closely linked. This governs the efficiency of the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere," said Trapp-Müller.



Treating weathering as one system forces three practical habits. Site selection should consider downstream coupling, monitoring must track products beyond the field edge, and models need to include both forward and reverse reactions across <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rising-temperatures-will-cut-world-gdp-by-a-staggering-40-percent-if-nothing-changes/">environments</a>.



Future studies may map which river basins, coastlines, and sedimentary settings deliver the biggest net gains once ocean processes are included. That includes quantifying how fast material moves along the conveyor from hills to seabed and how reaction balances change en route.



The new perspective also invites better stress tests for proposed projects, from agricultural basalt applications to coastal alkalinity additions, against the actual carbon accounting of the full chain.&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-025-01743-y" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature Geoscience</a>.



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Earths natural weathering system removes millions of tons CO2

Natural processes on land and in the ocean already remove...

The air can look clear and still carry a problem. Across the United States, ozone has been linked to lower chances of survival for some trees, and a new analysis finally shows how much risk different species face.



Researchers paired long term forest records with measured exposure to tropospheric ozone to set species specific thresholds for harm. The <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024JD042063" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a> spans 88 species and roughly 1.5 million trees, a scale that moves the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-ozone-layer-is-healing-will-the-hole-disappear-for-good/">conversation</a> beyond seedlings and lab chambers.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-study-on-ozone-pollution">Study on ozone pollution</h2>



Nathan Pavlovic of Sonoma Technology Inc. and Charles Driscoll of <a href="https://www.syracuse.edu/">Syracuse University</a> brought together forest inventory data and air quality archives to estimate how exposure links to slower growth and lower <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/earths-ozone-layer-took-more-than-two-billion-years-to-stabilize/">survival</a>. Their team focused on mature trees observed in place, not seedlings in controlled settings.



Earlier work in the United States leaned heavily on seedling experiments, including a 16 species synthesis that set response curves for biomass loss. That seedling paper became a touchstone, but it could not tell us how older trees respond after decades in the field.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ozone-effects-on-tree-survival">Ozone effects on tree survival</h2>



The team used the concept of a critical level to summarize risk, the exposure at which a defined drop in growth or survival appears. 



The researchers expressed <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rocket-launches-threaten-earths-ozone-recovery/">exposure</a> with “W126,” a cumulative, summertime-weighted metric for ozone exposure that emphasizes higher concentrations during daylight hours, reflecting their greater potential to damage vegetation.



They modeled growth and 10 year survival separately, which matters because a small shift in survival compounds over a century long rotation. The paper reports species specific W126 levels for a 5 percent drop in growth and a 1 percent drop in survival, allowing managers to see which trees blink first.



The numbers they put forth sit in a wider policy context. The <a href="https://www3.epa.gov/ttn/naaqs/standards/ozone/data/20141021welfarereaexec.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">EPA</a> has long evaluated vegetation protection using W126 in its welfare reviews, and its advisory panel, CASAC, has considered thresholds associated with 1 to 2 percent biomass loss in trees when weighing secondary standards.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ozone-impact-in-west-vs-east">Ozone impact in west vs east</h2>



“Recently (2016-2018), portions of the western United States exceeded O3 CLs (or ozone critical levels, are the exposure thresholds at which a specific percentage decline in tree growth or survival is expected to occur) for nearly all tree species for both growth and survival,” wrote Pavlovic and colleagues.The clearest pattern appears west of the Rockies.&nbsp;



In the East, the analysis found little evidence of widespread growth impacts at current levels, with survival effects limited to sensitive species and pockets with higher exposure. 



That picture is consistent with national monitoring <a href="https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/25/5101/2025/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">records</a> showing strong declines in extreme ozone across the eastern United States since the 2000s.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-seedlings-versus-mature-trees">Seedlings versus mature trees</h2>



Seedling studies provide clean experiments, but they cannot fully replicate heat, drought, soil variation, and competition in mature stands. The earlier 16 species seedling synthesis captured broad sensitivity classes, yet some species that look tolerant in chambers can be more vulnerable in place when ozone stacks with water stress and heat.



The new analysis, by design, keeps those mediating factors in the model to produce field relevant <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ozone-pollution-may-endanger-millions-by-2050/">exposure</a> thresholds. 



That makes the species list more useful for foresters weighing which coniferous evergreens to plant and where deciduous hardwoods may hold up better under ozone.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-this-means-for-forests-and-policy">What this means for forests and policy</h2>



A practical use case is simple. If a county’s summertime W126 sits above a species’ survival threshold, managers can alter planting mixes, accelerate thinning, or shift regeneration toward less sensitive species that still meet ecological goals.



Policy makers face a different question. Secondary ozone standards under the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-clean-air-act" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Clean Air Act</a> are meant to protect crops, materials, and ecosystems, but the current form, built around an eight-hour human health metric, does not map neatly to vegetation outcomes that depend on seasonal accumulation.



Internationally, Europe often reports <a href="https://library.wmo.int/viewer/68654/download?file=1341_Quantifying-impacts-Ozone_en.pdf&amp;navigator=1&amp;type=pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AOT40</a> exceedance while the United States leans on W126, and scientific bodies favor flux based vegetation metrics that track uptake. That split underscores why an ecosystem specific exposure metric remains important in any standard that intends to protect living landscapes.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ozone-pollution-and-tree-survival">Ozone pollution and tree survival</h2>



No single metric captures every pathway to damage, and W126 emphasizes summertime peaks that matter a great deal for crops. The longer growing seasons of evergreen conifers can raise cumulative uptake, which may help explain why western forests emerge as more sensitive in the new maps.



Uncertainty also comes from interpolation in places with sparse rural monitors, from wildfire smoke chemistry, and from how drought changes stomatal behavior. Even so, the thresholds offer a practical yardstick that can be updated as monitoring improves and as exposure models evolve.



The broader science keeps moving, including new Earth system model schemes that better represent ozone injury to photosynthesis and water use. 



Better process representation should make regional carbon and climate projections more realistic, and helps translate exposure reductions into real ecological gains.



The study is published in <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024JD042063" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres</a>.



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Ozone pollution threatens tree survival across western U.S.

The air can look clear and still carry a problem....

As Greenland’s massive ice sheet continues to melt, it’s not just raising sea levels. The melting ice is also stirring up the ocean in ways that may be feeding tiny organisms at the base of the marine food chain.



The study behind this discovery comes from a team of scientists at <a href="https://www.sjsu.edu/">San José State University</a>, working in partnership with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 



Using powerful supercomputers and an advanced ocean simulation tool, the experts have shown how runoff from Greenland’s ice sheet may be helping <a href="https://www.earth.com/image/spectacular-phytoplankton-bloom-in-the-north-atlantic/">phytoplankton</a> thrive. These tiny, plantlike organisms are critical to life in the ocean - and to the planet’s climate.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-melting-ice-is-feeding-the-ocean">Melting ice is feeding the ocean</h2>



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/hidden-lake-explodes-under-greenland-ice-creating-a-massive-crater-harder-glacier/">Greenland’s ice sheet</a>, which is over a mile thick in places, is losing around 293 billion tons of ice each year. In the summer, meltwater pours into the sea at astonishing rates. 



From the base of Jakobshavn Glacier (also known as Sermeq Kujalleq), more than 300,000 gallons of fresh water enter the ocean every second.



This freshwater doesn’t just disappear. It creates a plume that rises up through the saltwater, and as it does, it appears to carry nutrients from deep in the ocean toward the surface. 



Scientists have long suspected that this upwelling may help feed phytoplankton, especially during the summer when surface nutrients run low.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-role-of-phytoplankton">The role of phytoplankton </h2>



Phytoplankton play a big role in Earth’s systems. They absorb carbon dioxide and form the base of the food web for everything from <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/antarctic-krill-keep-time-in-a-world-of-endless-days-or-nights/">krill</a> to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/humpback-whales-now-migrate-weeks-early-signaling-big-ocean-changes/">whales</a>. Despite being microscopic, they’re essential to marine ecosystems across the globe.



NASA satellite data has shown a 57% increase in phytoplankton growth in the Arctic between 1998 and 2018. 



The timing of this growth spike led researchers to think glacial melt might be part of the reason. But proving it has been difficult, especially in Greenland’s remote, iceberg-filled fjords.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-hidden-ocean-world">A hidden ocean world</h2>



Dustin Carroll is an oceanographer at San José State University who is also affiliated with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.



“We were faced with this classic problem of trying to understand a system that is so remote and buried beneath ice,” said Carroll. “We needed a gem of a computer model to help.”



The model came in the form of ECCO-Darwin, a tool developed at JPL and MIT. It’s been described as a virtual ocean laboratory. 



This tool pulls together decades of data - billions of measurements from satellites and ocean instruments - to simulate how water, heat, salt, nutrients, and life interact across the globe.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-meltwater-and-phytoplankton-growth">Meltwater and phytoplankton growth</h2>



Michael Wood, a computational oceanographer at San José State University, noted that simulating how biology, chemistry, and physics interact in just one corner of Greenland’s 27,000-mile coastline is an enormous mathematical challenge. 



Wood said that to break it down, they built a "model within a model within a model" to zoom in on the details of the fjord at the foot of the glacier.



The calculations, run on NASA’s supercomputers in Silicon Valley, showed that glacial meltwater could increase summer phytoplankton growth by 15 to 40% in the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/arctic-fjords-show-signs-of-struggle-in-a-warming-world/">fjord</a> they studied.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-more-ice-more-impact">More ice, more impact</h2>



It’s too soon to say exactly what this means for Greenland’s marine ecosystems, but it’s clear that changes in the ice are driving changes in the water.



“Melt on the Greenland ice sheet is projected to accelerate in coming decades, affecting everything from sea level and land vegetation to the saltiness of coastal waters,” Carroll said.



“We reconstructed what’s happening in one key system, but there’s more than 250 such glaciers around Greenland.” The team plans to expand their simulations to other coastal areas.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-broader-implications-of-the-study">Broader implications of the study</h2>



The researchers also looked at how these changes affect the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/satellites-reveal-how-oceans-absorb-carbon-in-unprecedented-detail/">ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide</a>. In the fjord, meltwater makes the seawater less able to dissolve carbon. 



But that loss seems to be canceled out by the larger phytoplankton blooms, which take in more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis.



“We didn’t build these tools for one specific application,” said Wood. “Our approach is applicable to any region, from the Texas Gulf to Alaska. Like a Swiss Army knife, we can apply it to lots of different scenarios.”



Image Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio



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How Greenland’s melting ice fuels ocean life

As Greenland’s massive ice sheet continues to melt, it’s not...

For flowering plants, the choice of a visiting insect or bird can be a matter of evolutionary life or death. A recent study reveals that even brief mismatches between when flowers bloom and when pollinators arrive can flip the direction of natural selection, favoring one floral form one week and a different form the next.



The work, led by biologist Liedson Carneiro from <a href="https://www.etsu.edu/ehome/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">East Tennessee State University</a>, shows how fast these “rules” can change inside a single <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/flowers-blooming-92-days-earlier-due-to-climate-change/">flowering season</a> - and hints at what may lie ahead in a warming world.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-no-bees-no-seeds">No bees, no seeds</h2>



The team focused on an oil-producing vine - nicknamed the Amazonvine - that climbs through Brazil’s dry <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/tropical-forests-have-strategies-to-survive-in-nutrient-poor-soils/">tropical forests</a>. The vine cannot self-pollinate; it relies on specialized oil-collecting <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bees-do-not-learn-to-be-cooperative-it-is-in-their-genes/">bees</a> that grasp the petals, extend their legs, and scrape off nutrient-rich floral oils. 



Those fingerprints - tiny scrapes on the petal surface - let researchers track exactly which flowers were visited and when.



The fieldwork took place in Parque Nacional do Catimbau, Pernambuco, during the species’ 2020 flowering season. Two snapshots were taken: an early census during the vine’s normal bloom peak and a second one four weeks later.



The contrast was stark. At the first visit more than 100 flowers were open, yet bee traffic was nearly absent. By the second survey, pollinator activity had surged. Ninety-four percent of late-blooming flowers bore the telltale scrape marks, compared with just 7.5 percent at peak bloom.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-bees-flip-flower-priorities">Bees flip flower priorities</h2>



Because flowers leave seeds only if they receive <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/pollen-alters-cloud-formation-and-changes-weather-patterns/">pollen</a>, the researchers could link each plant’s “fitness” to its floral display. 



During the quiet early period, vines with the largest blossoms set the most fruit: bees apparently chose the biggest targets on their rare visits.



A month later, the tables turned. With bees everywhere, plants bearing smaller flowers now produced more seeds. When every blossom attracted attention, the value of extra-large petals evaporated; large flowers may even have cost the plant energy that could have gone into seed production.



Statistical models showed the relationship between flower size and fitness did not merely weaken - it actually reversed direction between the two censuses. 



Averaged over the entire season, the contradictory pulses canceled each other, leaving only weak overall selection on blossom size.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-evolution-in-real-time"><a></a>Evolution in real time</h2>



The results matter because they confirm that evolutionary pressures can flip within weeks, not millennia.



“Our findings show that even within a single flowering season, temporal mismatches between plants and pollinators can shift how traits like flower size relate to reproductive success,” Carneiro said.



“These short-term dynamics may influence <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/evolutions-many-solutions-nature-finds-multiple-paths-to-success/">evolutionary outcomes</a>, help maintain trait diversity, and prevent rapid trait change in plant populations.”



That diversity can be a long-term boon, giving populations a preexisting mix of shapes and strategies to weather future shifts. But it also means conservationists cannot assume pollination patterns seen on one date will hold the following month - let alone the following year.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-climate-disrupts-pollinator-timing">Climate disrupts pollinator timing</h2>



Much discussion of plant-pollinator mismatches focuses on year-to-year effects: warming springs coax flowers to open earlier, while migrating hummingbirds and overwintering bees may lag behind.



The new study adds another layer of concern. In regions where rainfall, temperature, or day length fluctuate sharply over a few weeks, the “sweet spot” of overlap can shrink even inside one season.



If climate change makes those swings more extreme - stronger droughts, heavier downpours, hotter <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-has-made-heatwaves-more-deadly/">heatwaves</a> - then the brief windows of perfect synchronization could become rarer.



In the Brazilian vine, peak bloom arrived before most bees became active. In other species, pollinators might appear before nectar flows. Either way, the study illustrates that a plant’s evolutionary trajectory can hinge on such timing errors.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-timing-insights-for-conservation">Timing insights for conservation</h2>



The research also highlights the value of detailed field observation. By sampling the same population twice, the scientists captured a live-action picture of selection that would have been invisible in a single survey. 



For ecologists monitoring threatened habitats, revisiting plots through the season could reveal hidden stresses - or hidden resilience.



In practical terms, knowing how selection fluctuates could guide which genotypes to conserve or propagate in restoration projects.



If climate change is likely to lengthen dry spells, for example, managers might favor individuals whose floral schedules naturally lags behind the average, ensuring flowers and bees still meet.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-bees-and-flowers-misaligned">Bees and flowers misaligned</h2>



Plant-pollinator partnerships are often portrayed as timeless mutualisms, but they are, in fact, dynamic negotiations subject to abrupt renegotiation.



The new work from northeastern Brazil delivers a clear message: evolution does not wait for the next <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/lessons-from-the-ice-age-how-climate-change-reshapes-plant-life/">Ice Age</a>. It is happening now, blossom by blossom, as flowers and their faithful couriers dance to a rhythm increasingly disrupted by a changing climate.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://academic.oup.com/aob/advance-article/doi/10.1093/aob/mcaf126/8222357?login=false" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Annals of Botany</a>.



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When bees arrive late, flowers may vanish

For flowering plants, the choice of a visiting insect or...

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSM3EVeGHJU
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Companies like MindStudio help companies train their employees to implement the latest AI Agent building platform.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ai-agent-training-transforms-the-workplace-fear-factor-into-a-competitive-advantage">AI agent training transforms the workplace 'fear factor' into a competitive advantage</h2>



Organizations that offer comprehensive artificial intelligence training to their workers find remarkable value that extends well beyond basic <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mind-wandering-might-be-more-productive-than-you-think/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">productivity improvements</a>. Emerging research demonstrates that carefully crafted AI training programs <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ai-does-not-replace-human-creativity-but-enhances-it/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">enhance</a> corporate performance, lower operational costs, and dramatically improve employee psychological well-being by turning workplace uncertainty into professional empowerment.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-addressing-the-widespread-ai-anxiety-crisis-among-us">Addressing the widespread 'AI anxiety' crisis among us</h2>



A staggering 53% of employees expressed concern that the use of AI tools to automate work tasks could make them appear disposable to their employers, according to <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Microsoft</a>'s 2024 workplace survey. Such pervasive worry about being substituted by machines has caused what researchers have termed "AI technostress" – a psychological state that can result in occupational burnout and poorer mental well-being.



Data published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/palcomms/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Humanities and Social Sciences Communications</a> showed that belief in AI learning ability was a moderator in the link between technology adoption and work pressure, and higher confidence significantly lowered negative psychological responses. Workers provided ample training to become competent with AI software have significantly lower stress.



Companies like <a href="https://www.mindstudio.ai/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MindStudio</a> have platforms for building what are known as "AI Agents". In essence, AI Agents are simply tools that employees can build for themselves or their teams quickly and inexpensively. MindStudio will even train entire companies, from the CEO on down, at no cost. By letting MindStudio empower employees, companies avoid hiring more IT staff, buying more software, and implementing solutions to problems that do not exist.



MindStudio even has partners locally for companies, like <a href="http://www.dominnus.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dominnus</a> with offices in the Carolinas, California, and Denver, to help build AI Agents and support employees as they become resident AI experts for their organization. The training provided by MindStudio is applicable across other AI Agent building platforms as well.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-revolutionary-productivity-through-focused-learning">Revolutionary productivity through focused learning</h2>



Organizations that implement large-scale AI training programs achieve dramatic outcomes. Employees performed tasks significantly better when they utilized AI support compared to when they didn't, according to <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nielsen Norman Group</a> research findings. Their study documented productivity increases of 66% for a variety of professional tasks.



Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis research finds workers record 33% higher productivity in time working with generative AI tools. The benefit is equivalent to 5.4% of work time savings for AI users – around 2.2 hours per week for full-time workers.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-psychological-well-being-benefits-through-ai-competence">Psychological well-being benefits through AI competence</h2>



The emotional transformation when employees are provided with proper technology training is a fundamental transformation from fear to professional confidence. A survey of 600 employees across industries, carried out by ScienceDirect, proved that AI capabilities strengthen work environment commitment and improve job satisfaction.



A <a href="https://www.lut.fi/en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">LUT University</a> study discovered that AI adoption has no direct effect on workers' well-being but does so indirectly through working conditions like task optimization and safety protocols. Strategically deployed AI that involves correct training can actually increase workplace mental well-being.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-from-replacement-anxiety-to-partnership-confidence">From 'replacement anxiety' to 'partnership confidence'</h2>



Although 35% of those interviewed in recent McKinsey studies were concerned about workforce displacement, firms with large-scale training initiatives witness such fears dissipate quickly. The World Economic Forum found that two out of three respondents believe AI competencies will enhance their career prospects and job marketability.



This shift from fear to trust has measurable implications for job satisfaction. Applied Sciences research indicates AI can create tailored wellness programs based on individual employee requirements.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-financial-benefits-of-increased-retention">Financial benefits of increased retention</h2>



The mental health advantages of AI learning have a direct impact on organizational bottom lines in the form of a positive feedback cycle with high retention of employees. Recent ROI research validates that artificial intelligence learning has a beneficial impact on employee turnover and satisfaction levels.



PriceWaterhouseCoopers' research documents 20% to 30% improvements in productivity, market speed, and revenue in organizations that attempt systematic AI adoption through comprehensive training.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-environmental-advantages-of-ai-enabled-teams">Environmental advantages of AI-enabled teams</h2>



AI training has unforeseen environmental benefits as it makes the work environment more efficient. According to a study in Scientific Reports, the carbon footprint in writing and illustrating work is significantly lower when AI performs it compared to humans. AI software produces 130 to 1,500 times less CO2 equivalent per page of text created than human authors.



In addition, AI-driven remote work functionality significantly reduces environmental impact. Research by Cornell University and Microsoft indicates that remote workers reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 54% by not commuting daily to offices. Hybrid workers working remotely two to four days a week can reduce their carbon footprint by 11% to 29%.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cumulative-organizational-advantages">Cumulative organizational advantages</h2>



The compounding gains of better mental well-being, reduced turnover, increased productivity, and environmental benefits flow to enterprises from the pairing. McKinsey analysis estimates the long-term AI potential at $4.4 trillion in incremental productivity growth opportunity from business use cases.



As of now, 75% of knowledge workers globally utilize generative AI, mirroring widespread adoption patterns. Organizations that provide organized training and assistance see the most favorable results in productivity, worker satisfaction, and ecological sustainability.



The research overwhelmingly indicates that companies that invest in proper AI education, like that offered through <a href="https://www.mindstudio.ai" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MindStudio</a>, establish win-win scenarios where employees are both more empowered and less stressed, and companies enjoy the gains of increased productivity, reduced turnover, and improved mental health outcomes throughout their workforce.



For more on MindStudio's free AI training for companies, visit the website's of MindStudio and Dominnus from the links below.



The research was published across a variety of peer-reviewed journals, including <a href="https://www.nature.com/palcomms/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Humanities and Social Sciences Communications</a>, <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/artificial-intelligence" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence</a>, and <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci">Applied Sciences</a>.



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MindStudio.AI: <a href="https://www.mindstudio.ai" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.mindstudio.ai</a>



Dominnus: <a href="https://www.dominnus.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.dominnus.com</a>

AI agent training boosts mental health and profits

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSM3EVeGHJU Companies like MindStudio help companies train their employees to...

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HDXqTGEmi4
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Scientists give plants superpowers against bacterial disease</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-natural-solution-to-disease-through-crop-modification">A natural solution to disease through crop modification.</h2>



The agricultural industry stands at a crossroads between productivity and environmental responsibility, and crop modification often carries a negative connotation. While chemical pesticides have long been the go-to solution for crop protection, their harmful effects on ecosystems and human health have prompted scientists to seek alternatives. The recent breakthrough by <a href="https://www.southampton.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Southampton</a> researchers offers a promising path forward through the precise manipulation of plant-associated microbial communities.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-science-behind-microbial-partnerships">The science behind microbial partnerships</h2>



Plants naturally harbor diverse ecosystems of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms that function as biological allies. These microscopic partners contribute to disease resistance, nutrient absorption, and stress tolerance. However, until now, scientists lacked the tools to deliberately reshape these communities to enhance crop protection.



The Southampton team's approach centered on <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/engineered-plant-microbiomes-the-future-of-crop-protection/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">modifying lignin biosynthesis genes in rice plants</a>. This strategic intervention altered the plant's metabolic output, creating conditions that favored beneficial bacterial populations while suppressing harmful ones. The result was a living defense system embedded within the plant itself.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-implications-for-global-food-security">Implications for global food security</h2>



The successful demonstration against Xanthomonas oryzae, the pathogen responsible for bacterial blight in rice, represents more than a laboratory achievement. Rice feeds nearly half the world's population, and bacterial blight causes devastating crop losses annually. Traditional control methods rely heavily on pesticides that contaminate soil and water systems.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-looking-beyond-disease-resistance">Looking Beyond Disease Resistance</h2>



While disease protection represents the immediate application, the research framework opens doors to broader agricultural improvements. Future developments could engineer microbiomes to enhance nutrient uptake, reducing dependence on synthetic fertilizers. This dual benefit addresses both crop productivity and environmental sustainability.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-path-forward">The path forward</h2>



As this technology advances from laboratory to field applications, it promises to reshape sustainable agriculture. The ability to program plants with their own biological defense systems could herald a new era where crops protect themselves naturally, reducing chemical inputs while maintaining yields necessary for global food security.



The study is published in the journal&nbsp;<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-44335-3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature Communications</a>.



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Revolutionizing agriculture through microbiome engineering

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HDXqTGEmi4 Scientists give plants superpowers against bacterial disease A natural...

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prrq8Ql81zk
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Acid rain and a crisis solved.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-don-t-we-ever-hear-about-acid-rain-anymore-the-environmental-crisis-that-was-solved">Why don't we ever hear about "acid rain" anymore? The environmental crisis that was solved</h2>



Remember the 1980s when acid rain dominated headlines? Dire warnings about rain eating buildings, killing fish, and destroying forests filled every news cycle. Then, almost like magic, acid rain vanished from public discourse. What happened? Did we actually solve one of the late 20th century's most pressing environmental challenges?



The answer might surprise you. Unlike many environmental issues that drag on indefinitely, acid rain represents one of modern history's most successful ecological recovery stories. It's a tale of science, politics, and technology working together to tackle what seemed impossible.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What was acid rain?</h2>



Acid rain isn't regular rain having a bad day – it's precipitation that became significantly more acidic due to air pollution. When power plants, factories, and vehicles burn fossil fuels, they release sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) into the atmosphere.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The science behind it</h2>



Think of acid rain as nature's chemistry experiment gone wrong. These compounds react with water, oxygen, and other chemicals to form sulfuric and nitric acids. When mixed with water vapor in clouds, they create precipitation with dangerously low pH levels.



While clean rain has a pH of about 5.6, acid rain could drop as low as 4.2 to 4.4 – roughly as acidic as tomato juice or coffee. According to US Geological Survey documentation, Scottish chemist Angus Smith first coined "acid rain" in 1872, but it didn't become a household phrase until the 1960s and 1970s when Swedish scientist Svante Odén documented its devastating effects on Scandinavian lakes and European forests.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The crisis at its peak</h2>



During the height of public concern, environmental damage was both widespread and visible. This wasn't some abstract future threat – people could see destruction happening in real-time.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Environmental devastation</h2>



The most dramatic impacts were impossible to ignore. Research documented by the Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation shows that in the Adirondack Mountains, more than 200 lakes became so acidic they couldn't support fish life. The Adirondack Council reports that 409 lakes once supported brook trout, but many lost their fish populations due to acid rain.



By 1976, when scientists cataloged all acidified lakes in the Adirondack Park, researchers found that half of the lakes over 2,000 feet above sea level had no fish, according to studies published in environmental journals. The acidification process worked like a slow-motion disaster. As acid rain fell into watersheds, it gradually lowered pH levels. Fish couldn't survive in acidic water, and their food sources died off too.



Trees at high elevations showed stress directly linked to acid rain. It weakened them by leaching nutrients and making them susceptible to disease. Historical records show Germany's Black Forest saw nearly half its trees damaged by the mid-1980s.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Economic impact</h2>



Acid rain wasn't just environmental – it was expensive. Acidic precipitation corroded infrastructure, buildings, and monuments. Historic stone structures deteriorated at accelerated rates. Tourism suffered as lakes became fishless and forests declined. EPA economic analyses from the period documented repair costs mounting into billions annually.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The solution: government action and technology</h2>



Transformation from crisis to success required unprecedented cooperation between governments, industries, and environmental groups.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Clean Air Act of 1990</h2>



The turning point came with the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, signed by President George H.W. Bush. This represented a fundamentally new approach to environmental regulation, as documented in EPA historical records.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Cap-and-trade success</h2>



Instead of mandating specific technologies, the 1990 amendments introduced something revolutionary: a cap-and-trade system for sulfur dioxide emissions. EPA program documentation shows this market-based approach set overall limits but allowed companies to trade emission allowances.



The genius was harnessing market forces to find cost-effective pollution reduction. Companies reducing emissions cheaply could sell excess allowances to those facing higher costs. Research published in environmental economics journals and EPA progress reports shows this resulted in dramatic SO2 reduction at a fraction of projected costs.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Technology advances</h2>



Policy provided the framework, but technology made reductions possible. Studies in atmospheric science journals document the widespread adoption of flue gas desulfurization systems ("scrubbers") that removed sulfur dioxide before it reached the atmosphere. By the 2000s, new installations could remove over 95% of SO2 emissions, according to EPA technical reports.



The push coincided with cleaner energy development. Natural gas produces fewer sulfur compounds than coal. Wind and solar, emerging in the 1990s, captured growing market share, reducing reliance on high-sulfur coal.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-we-don-t-hear-about-it-today">Why we don't hear about it today</h2>



Why did acid rain disappear from headlines? Simple: the problem was largely solved.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Success doesn't make news</h2>



There's an old journalism saying: "If it bleeds, it leads." Environmental success stories don't generate urgency like crisis reporting. Media attention shifted to other challenges: climate change, plastic pollution, and biodiversity loss. There's only so much environmental anxiety the public can absorb, and newer concerns replaced acid rain.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Mission accomplished</h2>



The primary reason is beautifully simple: interventions worked. EPA monitoring data shows sulfur dioxide emissions dropped over 90% since 1990. Academic research published in environmental science journals confirms pH levels in formerly affected areas returned closer to normal. This represents one of history's most dramatic environmental recoveries. Studies by the Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation show fishless lakes now support healthy populations. Forests recovered, and building damage slowed dramatically.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-is-it-really-gone">Is it really gone?</h2>



The crisis is largely resolved, but monitoring data shows the problem isn't completely eliminated – it's managed to acceptable levels. Some areas still experience occasional events during high pollution periods. International environmental research indicates that rapidly industrializing Asian countries face similar problems to what we experienced decades ago, though they're implementing successful strategies.



EPA research shows nitrogen oxide emissions proved more challenging than sulfur dioxide, coming from vehicles and mobile sources. Climate science studies suggest changing weather patterns add complexity to how acid rain forms and falls.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What this teaches us</h2>



The acid rain experience proves that seemingly intractable environmental problems can be solved with scientific understanding, political will, and technological innovation. Environmental monitoring data shows recovery speed was remarkable – within a decade, measurable improvements appeared in air quality and ecosystem health.



Success came from bipartisan support across party lines. Policy analysis studies show the market-based approach appealed to those preferring economic incentives while achieving environmental goals. This support created lasting policy surviving political changes.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Conclusion</h2>



Acid rain's disappearance from public consciousness represents environmental science's greatest success stories. Through effective regulation, technological innovation, and international cooperation, we transformed an overwhelming crisis into a manageable challenge.



Today's silence isn't because we forgot – it's because we solved it. The 1990 Clean Air Act, combined with technology and energy market changes, reduced acid rain emissions over 90%, according to comprehensive EPA data analysis.



This success offers hope for current challenges. It proves complex problems can be solved when science, policy, and technology work together. As we face climate change and plastic pollution, acid rain reminds us that dramatic positive change is possible.



Next time someone asks whether environmental regulations work, remember acid rain. It's proof that sometimes, we get it right.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Sources: This article draws from EPA official documentation and progress reports, peer-reviewed research published in environmental and atmospheric science journals, historical data from the Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation records, US Geological Survey publications, policy analysis studies, and environmental monitoring data collected over three decades.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Frequently Asked Questions</h2>



1. Is acid rain completely gone? No, but EPA monitoring shows it's reduced to manageable levels. US sulfur dioxide emissions dropped over 90% since 1990, making acid rain much less severe than the 1980s crisis.



2. How long did solving take? Environmental monitoring data shows significant improvements began within 5-10 years of 1990s emission controls. Full ecosystem recovery took longer – some areas need 20-30 years for complete recovery.



3. What made the solution successful? Clear scientific understanding, visible damage motivating action, bipartisan support, available technology, and innovative market-based policies like cap-and-trade.



4. Do other countries have acid rain problems? Yes, particularly rapidly industrializing Asian countries. However, international environmental research shows many implement similar successful control strategies.



5. Could acid rain return? Potentially, if regulations weaken or we return to high-sulfur coal without controls, though effects would take years to become severe according to environmental projections.



6. Can you recommend any teaching tools on the subject of "acid rain"? The United States Environmental Protection Agency produced a wonderful teacher's guide for ages 14 and under that you can find on the EPA website here: <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2017-03/documents/teachersguide.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2017-03/documents/teachersguide.pdf</a>



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The environmental problem we actually solved

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prrq8Ql81zk Acid rain and a crisis solved. Why don't we...

Green,Ecoduct,Over,An,Empty,Highway,During,Sunset.

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://youtu.be/XYgiPzmNBTU?si=eFYY7gPHU1JznLvU
</div></figure>



A new long-term study in Monkton, Vermont, reveals that wildlife tunnels significantly reduce amphibian road mortality during seasonal migrations. 



Frogs and salamanders often cross roads to reach breeding ponds each spring, but many are killed by vehicles. 



Researchers from the <a href="https://www.uvm.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Vermont</a>, in collaboration with local citizens and the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, installed two underpass tunnels in 2015. 



Over a 12-year monitoring period, they observed an 80.2% reduction in amphibian deaths, and up to 94% for non-climbing species like salamanders. 



The study used a before-after-control-impact design and documented more than 5,200 amphibians, highlighting the tunnels’ effectiveness even in nearby buffer zones.



Funded at $342,397 - far cheaper than wildlife crossings for large mammals - the project showcased the power of community-led conservation.



Local groups initiated the effort after observing mass amphibian deaths. Wildlife cameras later captured over 2,200 amphibians using a tunnel in just one spring, along with other species like raccoons and bobcats, indicating wider ecosystem benefits.



This marks the first peer-reviewed, long-term data set in the northeastern U.S. confirming amphibian-specific underpasses work. 



The study urges transportation departments to incorporate these designs into road planning and highlights how community action, thoughtful infrastructure, and persistence can make a real difference for biodiversity.



The full study was published in the <a href="https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1617138125000780" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Journal for Nature Conservation</a>.



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Wildlife tunnels save millions of amphibians

https://youtu.be/XYgiPzmNBTU?si=eFYY7gPHU1JznLvU A new long-term study in Monkton, Vermont, reveals that...

Scientists are transforming chocolate into a functional food by infusing it with probiotics and prebiotics, aiming to create a treat that satisfies cravings while supporting gut health. 



The challenge lies in maintaining chocolate's beloved texture and flavor while adding health benefits.



<figure class="wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://youtu.be/Ug657J67iEo?si=w96YjGMsg939LD_3
</div></figure>



Probiotics - beneficial microbes that balance gut bacteria and aid digestion - are typically fragile and can be destroyed by stomach acid or processing. 



Prebiotics act as food for these microbes, helping them thrive. Together, they form "synbiotics," a powerful health combination.



Researchers Smriti Gaur and Shubhi Singh from India's Jaypee Institute of Information Technology took an innovative approach, using natural prebiotics like corn and honey instead of complex processing methods. 



They created five chocolate varieties: a control and four synbiotic versions containing different combinations of prebiotics, probiotics (Lactobacillus strains), and flavor enhancers (cinnamon or orange).



Laboratory simulations of human digestion showed the probiotics remained viable for over five hours, suggesting they could survive long enough to benefit gut health.



Taste tests were positive, with researchers particularly enjoying the orange-flavored variety, describing it as having "vibrant citrus notes" complementing the "rich cocoa" with a "luxurious" texture.



This research represents just the beginning. With further refinement of strains, textures, and flavors, chocolate could evolve beyond mere indulgence to become a functional food that nourishes while it delights.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsfoodscitech.4c00741" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ACS Food Science &amp; Technology</a>.

Is chocolate the next nutritional powerhouse?

Scientists are transforming chocolate into a functional food by infusing...

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.igb.illinois.edu/">Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology</a> reveals how scientists can modify common crops like soybean, rice, and wheat to protect them from heat stress.



“We need to double crop production by 2050 to feed a growing global population, and not only are we not on track to do that, but climate change is further complicating things,” said Amanda Cavanagh, a lecturer at the University of Essex. 



The study is part of Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE), an international research project that aims to develop food crops that turn the sun’s energy into food more efficiently.



“Using an engineering approach we designed multiple alternative metabolic pathways to photorespiration. Testing them in the field showed increases in productivity which led Amanda to significantly move the project forward by showing our engineered plants can withstand pretty extreme temperature stress,” said study co-author and RIPE researcher Paul South.&nbsp;



“As the climate changes and temperature stresses increase the pressure on our global food supply, farmers will need every tool available including engineering approaches like the synthetic biology used here to maintain safe and productive harvests.”



The experts tested plants modified to have more efficient photorespiration to see if they were better adapted to warmer temperatures.&nbsp;



The team found that the engineered plants produced 26 percent more biomass than the wild-type plants exposed to the same temperatures, and had 15 percent less yield loss under the higher temperatures.



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Designing crops that can beat the heat

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes the first comprehensive estimate of carbon density in the Saharan, Sahel, and Sudanian zones of Africa. In an effort to measure the amount of carbon stored across these drylands, a team of scientists used high-resolution satellite images and artificial intelligence to map nearly 10 billion individual trees. 



"The high spatial resolution (50 cm) combined with AI and field measurements used in this study is key to improving tree inventories in drylands," said Pierre Hiernaux, a French researcher working for NASA. "The ever-increasing availability of very high-resolution satellite imagery will make it possible to assess carbon pools and their dynamics at the individual tree level on a global scale."



"This study is exceptional because it is pioneering a type of approach that will revolutionize the monitoring of trees and forests on a global scale: in the short term, it will be possible to map the world's trees from the centre of the Amazon to our schoolyards," said <a href="https://www.inrae.fr/en">INRAE</a> researcher Jean-Pierre Wigneron.



"Many fields of application will become much more efficient and accurate, such as tracking carbon stocks, biodiversity, monitoring logging and protection against illegal forest degradation, in near real time.”



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

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Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky" Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features northwest Lesotho in South Africa.



According to ESA, Lesotho is the only nation in the world that lies completely above 1,000 m in elevation. The country is famous for its tall mountains and narrow valleys, and is known as Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky."



Out of a population of around two million people, about 80 percent live in rural areas. More than 75 percent of these people are engaged in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-will-have-a-global-impact-on-agriculture/">agriculture</a>, including rainfed cereal production and animal grazing.&nbsp;



ESA reports that the country’s agricultural system faces a growing number of issues, with climate-related vulnerabilities such as drought, floods and extreme temperatures occurring more frequently. 



Diamonds are amongst the minerals found in the mountains. Indeed, Lesotho can truly be called the Kingdom in the Sky. Beautiful, culturally rich, safe, affordable, and easily accessible from Durban and Johannesburg, mountainous Lesotho is a vastly underrated travel destination. the Kingdom of Lesotho (Sotho: 'Muso oa Lesotho) is an enclaved country in southern Africa. It is just over 30,000 km2 (11,583 sq mi) in size and has a population of around 2 million.



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 



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Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> features a visual dataset of.methane emissions from wetlands across the globe. Atmospheric methane levels have reached record highs in recent years, and wetlands are a major source of these emissions.&nbsp;



"Methane is an important greenhouse gas that contributes substantially to global warming. On a molecule by molecule basis, methane is much more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, the main driver of warming," says NASA.



"Though human activities, including agriculture, oil and natural gas production and use, and waste disposal, collectively contribute the majority of methane to the atmosphere, about a third of total methane emissions comes from wetlands."&nbsp;



According to NASA, understanding methane emissions from wetlands and other natural sources is critically important for scientists and policymakers who are working to combat climate change by reducing emissions from human activities.



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> reveals the evolution of the Columbia Glacier in southeastern Alaska. Columbia is among the fastest shrinking glaciers in the world, and the video documents its rapid retreat over the years.&nbsp;



Columbia Glacier is a large, multi-branched calving glacier that flows out of the Chugach Mountains to the Prince William Sound.&nbsp;



According to USGS, Columbia had a long history of stability prior to 1980, with a length 41 miles, and small, short-lived advances or retreats.



In the years since 1980, however, satellite images have captured Columbia’s alarming retreat. By using false-color images, scientists can distinguish between snow and ice, open water, vegetation, and rocky debris on the glacier’s surface.



The series of false-color images featured in today's video were acquired over the span of 35 years. You can see that by 2021, the glacier’s main branch had retreated about 15 miles from its initial position.



The Columbia Glacier has also lost more than 50 percent of its volume, mostly due to calving. <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/nasa-reveals-3d-visual-of-an-atmospheric-river/">NASA</a> reports that while climate change likely started the retreat, mechanical processes kept the disintegration going.



The NASA images are provided by Jesse Allen, Robert Simmon, Joshua Stevens, and Lauren Dauphin using data from Landsat satellites, from the U.S. Geological Survey, and data from MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite. The structure of Columbia’s moraine played a large role in the stability of the glacier before 1980. 



Like other tidewater glaciers, the Columbia built up a moraine over time, and the mixture of ice and rock functioned like a dam keeping out the sea. It was supported on one end by the shoreline and by the underwater terminal moraine at the other.



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/&nbsp; NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes how record-breaking heat expressed itself around the world in 2022.



Scientists have determined that 2022 was the 5th warmest year since 1880. Furthermore, the last nine consecutive years have been the warmest on record.



From devastating floods and wildfires to natural disasters like Hurricane Ian, 2022 showed us yet again how a warming climate affects people across the globe.&nbsp;



"As we look back at 20:22 and years past, we see that each year we better understand the challenges we face and how important it is to meet them," says NASA.



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes Earth’s interconnected systems, and how this network is affected by rising temperatures.&nbsp;



During 2020, average global temperatures matched the hottest year on record. The hurricane season was also record-breaking, with many of the storms intensifying at extraordinary speeds. Hot water in the ocean is fuel for hurricanes. The satellite data shows that it's all one interconnected system showing how Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected.



According to NASA, dust swept up from Northern Africa plays a major role in the formation of hurricanes, and is also a key source of fertilization in the Amazon rainforest. As a result of<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seagrass-wasting-disease-is-fueled-by-climate-change/"> climate</a> change, dust plumes are expected to decline, which will have an effect on vegetation far away.&nbsp;



Images from Earth-observing satellites show how the world’s plant life is affected by natural disasters, fires, and deforestation. Satellites also reveal how widespread changes in vegetation impact waterways,&nbsp; the climate, air quality. Satellites communicate by using radio waves to send signals to the antennas on the Earth. "Earth From Space" is a groundbreaking two-hour special that reveals a spectacular new space-based vision of our planet. 



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://welcome.miami.edu/">University of Miami</a> Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science explores how changes in water temperatures have affected tiger shark habitats and movements in the North Atlantic Ocean. The study reveals that rising temperatures have caused the sharks to shift toward the poles over the past 40 years.



“Tiger shark annual migrations have expanded poleward, paralleling rising water temperatures,” explained study lead author Neil Hammerschlag. “These results have consequences for tiger shark conservation, since shifts in their movements outside of marine protected areas may leave them more vulnerable to commercial fishing.”



The researchers analyzed nine years of tracking data from satellite-tagged tiger sharks, combined with four decades of conventional tag and recapture data provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Cooperative Shark Tagging Program.



The experts found that during the last decade of record heat, for every one-degree Celsius increase in water temperatures, tiger sharks migrated further poleward by over 400 kilometers. They also migrated two weeks earlier than usual to waters off the northeastern coast of the United States.



“Given their role as apex predators, these changes to tiger shark movements may alter predator-prey interactions, leading to ecological imbalances, and more frequent encounters with humans,” concluded Professor Hammerschlag.



Video Credit: University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

Today’s Video of the Day from the University of Miami...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> is focused on the melt ponds that emerge during the spring and summer on the Greenland Ice Sheet, which is the largest ice mass in the northern hemisphere.



"Melt ponds are vast pools of open water that form on both sea ice and ice sheets and are visible as turquoise-blue pools of water in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image," says ESA.



"When snow and ice melts atop glaciers, water flows in channels and streams and collects in depressions on the surface. These melt ponds can speed up the melting of the surrounding ice since they greatly reduce the ice’s ability to reflect sunlight."



"This can create a positive feedback where an increasing number of melt ponds absorb more heat which causes ice cover to melt even faster."



According to ESA, Greenland has been hit with a late-season heatwave that began in early September. This caused the type of melt event that usually occurs in the middle of summer.



"In a recent paper published in Nature Climate Change, scientists found that major sea-level rise from the melting of the Greenland ice cap is now ‘inevitable’ even if the burning of fossil fuels were to halt overnight," says ESA. "Using satellite observations of Greenland ice loss and ice cap from 2000 to 2019, the team found the losses will lead to a minimum rise of 27 cm regardless of climate change."



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes how Earth is unique in our solar system for its ability to sustain liquid water on its surface. But now, the water cycle is shifting as the climate warms, and scientists must find ways to predict how these changes will affect water availability.



Overall, 96 percent of Earth's water is saltwater, and nearly all of freshwater is found in ice and groundwater. These sources of water are linked as it passes through solid, liquid and gas phases.



In a warmer climate, the water cycle will be transformed. It will be easier for water to evaporate and form clouds, and storms will become more frequent and intense. Some regions will get too much water, while others will be left without enough water. In addition, soil moisture will be lost - which threatens food security.



Scientists are using satellite data from over the last 40 years to track changes that are happening in the water cycle. This will ultimately help us prepare for extreme events and better manage our water resources, according to ESA.



Video Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Tracking changes in Earth's water cycle

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a> features images of Saturn from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The photographs capture the start of the mysterious "spoke season" on Saturn - when unexplained features appear on its rings. 



According to NASA, both the cause of the spokes and their seasonal variability have yet to be fully explained by planetary scientists.



"Like Earth, Saturn is tilted on its axis and therefore has four seasons, though because of Saturn's much larger orbit, each season lasts approximately seven Earth years. Equinox occurs when the rings are tilted edge-on to the Sun," explains NASA.



"The spokes disappear when it is near summer or winter solstice on Saturn. (When the Sun appears to reach either its highest or lowest latitude in the northern or southern hemisphere of a planet.) As the autumnal equinox of Saturn's northern hemisphere on May 6, 2025, draws near, the spokes are expected to become increasingly prominent and observable."



Experts believe that the spokes may be a product of the planet's variable magnetic field. When magnetic fields interact with solar wind, an electrically charged environment is created. This phenomenon is visible on Earth as the northern lights.&nbsp;



"Scientists think that the smallest, dust-sized icy ring particles can become charged as well, which temporarily levitates those particles above the rest of the larger icy particles and boulders in the rings," says NASA.



The spokes were first observed in the early 1980s by NASA's Voyager mission. Depending on the angle of the rings, the spokes can appear dark or light.



"Thanks to Hubble's OPAL program, which is building an archive of data on the outer solar system planets, we will have longer dedicated time to study Saturn’s spokes this season than ever before," said NASA senior planetary scientist Amy Simon, head of the Hubble Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program.



"Despite years of excellent observations by the Cassini mission, the precise beginning and duration of the spoke season is still unpredictable, rather like predicting the first storm during hurricane season."



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Mysterious "spoke season" captured on Saturn

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Closeup,Of,Fresh,Green,The,Napier,Bush,Grass,As,Animal

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="http://www.ntu.edu.sg/">NTU Singapore</a> reveals that some plants can remove toxic heavy metals from soil.&nbsp;



The researchers analyzed samples of various tropical plant species to test for levels of heavy metals and metalloids. The study showed that there are existing plants with high levels of these contaminants, which means that these species are great candidates for drawing pollutants out of the soil.&nbsp;



Among the plants examined in the study, 12 species had accumulated several types of heavy metals and metalloids. These plants are widely available, including species that are native to Singapore.



“In a small nation like Singapore, land may be repurposed to support new development plans, so it is important that we have a green and sustainable way to remediate land that is contaminated," said Professor Lam Yeng Ming.



"We set out to uncover how to better make use of tropical plants to do phytoremediation and through advanced characterization techniques, we showed how some of these tropical plant species can be an environmentally friendly and literally a 'green' way to remove contaminants in soil."&nbsp;



"Phytoremediation also has benefits of cost effectiveness, simplicity of management, aesthetic advantages, and long-term applicability and sustainability. The strategy prevents erosion and metal leaching by stabilizing or accumulating heavy metals, so that helps reduce the risk of contaminant spread.”



Video Credit: NTU Singapore



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Plants help remove heavy metals from contaminated soil

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> describes why herbicides are not as effective in killing weeds anymore. In the 20th century, chemical companies developed thousands of herbicides. The most commonly used herbicide was glyphosate, which was introduced in 1974.



Over the past few decades, dozens of species of weeds have evolved resistance to glyphosate. Depending on the site of action, the part of the plant that an herbicide interacts with, weeds may even be resistant to herbicides that have not been developed yet.&nbsp;



With increasing resistance to glyphosate and other herbicides, weeds are - once again - becoming a major concern for farmers.&nbsp;



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Weeds are becoming increasingly resistant to herbicides

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/">NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory</a> (JPL) describes a dust storm on Mars that was nearly twice the size of the United States. As the storm covered the southern hemisphere of the planet, some of NASA’s explorers had to delay their normal activities.



NASA’s Insight lander put itself in a "safe mode" for 11 days to conserve battery power because solar power was disrupted by the dust. The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter postponed flights until conditions improved.



"A fleet of NASA orbiters monitor Martian dust storms like this one and serve as lifelines to Earth by relaying data from the rovers and lander on the ground back to the team. This includes the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MAVEN, and Odyssey," reports JPL.



"Dust storms like this recent one start close to the ground and are spread by wind as they rise – warming the cold Martian atmosphere."



The images in the video were captured by NASA’s Curiosity as the dust rolled in. A fleet of orbiters monitored the dust storm from above, relaying data from Mars’ explorers back to scientists on Earth.



Video &amp; Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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NASA monitors giant dust storms on Mars

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="http://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz. This strait provides the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean.



Qeshm is separated from the Iranian coast by the Clarence Strait, also known as Khuran.&nbsp;The Hara Forest Protected Area is a network of shallow waterways and forest located between the island and the mainland. This protected region is home to sea turtles, snakes, and more than 150 species of migrating birds.



Qeshm is famous for its wide range of&nbsp;ecotourist&nbsp;attractions, such as the&nbsp;Hara marine forests. According to environmentalists, about 1.5 percent of the world birds and 25 percent of Iran's native <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/female-hummingbirds-avoid-sexual-harassment-by-looking-like-males/">birds</a> annually migrate to the forests, which are the first national geo park in Iran.



Tourists are also drawn to the island to see an age-old Portuguese&nbsp;fort, historic mosques, the&nbsp;Seyyed Mozaffar&nbsp;and&nbsp;Bibi Maryam&nbsp;shrines, and the "Valley of Stars."



The average temperature on the island is 81 degress and the region is often hot and humid. From June to August, the island is described as being oppressively hot. The ideal time to visit is during the winter season. 



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz

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