Natural,Environment,Climate-neutral,Long-term,Emissions,Strategy,Net,Zero,2050,Carbon

Balancing cleaner air with rising incomes is not a luxury question for developing countries. It is a real-world, and real-life, policy problem that shapes health, jobs, and the future of their cities.



A new <a href="https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/10.1142/S0217590825500304" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a> lays out when zero emissions can go hand in hand with steady <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rising-temperatures-will-cut-world-gdp-by-a-staggering-40-percent-if-nothing-changes/">growth</a>, even when governments rely on foreign aid.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-zero-emissions-and-economic-growth">Zero emissions and economic growth</h2>



The work comes from <a href="https://tus.elsevierpure.com/en/persons/hideo-noda" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hideo Noda</a> at the Tokyo University of Science (<a href="https://www.tus.ac.jp/en/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">TUS</a>) with coauthor Fengqi Fang, a Ph.D. candidate in Business Administration from the Graduate School of Business Administration at TUS. 



The team builds a simple but testable way to check if a country can hit zero net <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/global-trade-is-fueling-a-dangerous-rise-in-methane-emissions/">emissions</a> while its economy keeps expanding.



They also verify the model numerically using real world style parameters so it is not just a chalkboard exercise. 



The paper connects theory to a specific United Nations target on decoupling growth from <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/limiting-global-warming-to-1-5c-is-almost-certainly-out-of-reach/">environmental damage</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-zero-emissions-models">Zero emissions models</h2>



First, the authors define a zero-emissions <a href="https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/net-zero-coalition" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">policy</a> as keeping net pollution at zero at every point in time, by matching abatement to emissions. That requires money, technology, and clear rules to assign who pays.



They run two versions of the economy. 



One is a public goods <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/stantcheva/files/lecture8.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">model</a> where government services like roads or schools lift private production for everyone at once, a standard growth <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/261726" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">model</a> introduced by Robert Barro in 1990. 



The second adds <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/where-will-climate-change-hit-hardest-global-index-reveals-vulnerability/">congestion</a>, where more people share the same public services so the boost per person shrinks.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-minimum-income-rule">Minimum income rule</h2>



The key test is whether gross domestic product (<a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">GDP</a>) per capita rises above a minimum income threshold so a country can fully clean what it emits. 



The authors call this the kindergarten rule level of abatement, as in: “clean-up what you make dirty.”



"Following the Kindergarten rule means implementing zero emission technologies in either finite time or asymptotically," noted M. Scott Taylor and William Brock in their related <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w9597" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>. 



This frame anchors the new threshold concept for developing countries.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-aid-supports-clean-income-growth">Aid supports clean income growth</h2>



Many low income governments fund services with official development assistance (<a href="https://www.oecd.org/en/topics/policy-issues/official-development-assistance-oda.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ODA</a>), so the model lets outside aid pay for both cleaning and public services. 



That design reflects classic work showing how aid aimed at productive public services can shift long run growth.



In related <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304387806000290" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">theory</a>, flexible labor and aid tied to public capital influence the path of output and welfare. The new paper extends this logic to pollution control that must be paid for every year.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-changing-income-threshold">Changing income threshold</h2>



The threshold depends on clean technology, population size, and how much aid is fixed to environmental <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/expanding-oil-and-gas-fields-threaten-global-climate-goals/">uses</a>. Better abatement technology lowers the income bar because each dollar of cleanup removes more pollution.



Population matters differently across the two models. In the public goods case, a larger labor force can raise growth because services scale with the economy, while in the congestion case that scale effect drops out as services get diluted.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-taxes-and-zero-emissions-targets">Taxes and zero emissions targets</h2>



The model also looks at tax policy, focusing on a labor income tax that finances services. 



There is a tax rate that maximizes the growth of income per person, and under both models governments can reach the needed income threshold in finite time if they choose that growth maximizing rate.



Public services that complement private capital are the link. When governments tax and spend on those services efficiently, private firms produce more and the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-action-economies-can-grow-while-cutting-emissions/">economy climbs</a> to the income level that makes full abatement feasible.



"Both models indicate that implementing the zero-emissions policy is compatible with sustainable economic growth," wrote Noda. 



They also show the kindergarten rule threshold is higher with congestion than without it, so crowding of public services slows the crossing.



"We call this threshold the kindergarten rule level of pollution abatement in terms of GDP per capita," wrote Noda. The result gives policymakers a clear income target, not just a slogan about decoupling.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-income-growth-and-sdgs">Income growth and SDGs</h2>



Target 8.4 of the Sustainable Development Goals (<a href="https://www.undp.org/sustainable-development-goals" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SDGs</a>) asks countries to decouple growth from environmental degradation. 



The authors argue their framework helps explain when that is possible in practice, and how policy levers change the timing.



The UN defines the <a href="https://metadata.un.org/sdg/8.4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">target</a> as improving resource efficiency and decoupling growth from environmental harm through 2030. The paper’s threshold view fits that mandate with a concrete yardstick.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-results-still-matter">Why results still matter</h2>



Earlier <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959652621009112" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">work</a> in the same research stream focused on developed, innovation-driven economies and showed that zero emissions could be achieved alongside continued growth. 



That study examined whether sustained economic expansion could occur while also maintaining <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/a-net-zero-world-will-require-75-trillion-of-investment-and-1-billion-electric-cars/">zero net pollution emissions</a>.



The new paper shows the same compatibility can hold in aid dependent settings where innovation is not the main growth engine. 



That extension fills a real gap, because many low income countries face tighter fiscal and technological limits.



Build or buy cleaner technology so the threshold falls. Treat tied aid for environmental programs as a growth tool and not just a cost center.



Set tax policy to raise the growth rate of income per person, then sustain it long enough to pass the threshold. Guard against congestion by scaling services with population, so gains are not diluted.



The study is published in <a href="https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/10.1142/S0217590825500304" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Singapore Economic Review</a>.



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Net-zero emissions and rising income levels can both be achieved simultaneously

Balancing cleaner air with rising incomes is not a luxury question for developing countries. It is a real-world, and real-life, policy problem that shapes health, jobs, and the future of their cities. A new study lays out when zero emissions can go hand in hand with steady growth, even when governments rely on foreign aid. Zero emissions and economic growth The work comes from Hideo Noda at the Tokyo University of Science (TUS) with coauthor Fengqi Fang, a Ph.D. candidate in Business Administration from the Graduate School...

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Amazon Fire Risk Differs Across East-West Divide. Scientists at <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=nasa&amp;cvid=7872fda91dbf45df883556df6fafeaa5&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">NASA</a> and the University of California, Irvine, project fire risk for South America's Amazon Basin in 2015 to fall along an east-west divide. According to their model, based on multiple satellite datasets, the forests of the western Amazon will experience average or below-average fire risk, while those in the eastern Amazon will see above-average risk.

Amazon fire season for the region, which spans portions of Bolivia, Brazil and Peru, begins in May, peaks in September and ends in January. The underlying pattern in this year's fire forecast is driven by the fact that the western Amazon is more heavily influence by sea surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic, and the eastern Amazon's fire severity risk correlates to sea surface temperature changes in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Currently, Pacific sea surface temperatures have risen as an El Niño event develops, a climate phenomenon that alters rainfall patterns around the globe.

[caption id="attachment_2383402" align="alignleft" width="150"]<a href="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/08/04132310/amazon-fire-season_1big_nasa-copy.jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-2383402" src="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/08/04132310/amazon-fire-season_1big_nasa-copy-150x150.jpg" alt="Fire season severity forecast " width="150" height="150" /></a> Fire season severity forecast[/caption]

"As we're building towards a moderate to strong El Niño, that places even more fire risk across portions of the central and eastern Amazon that are more sensitive to El Niño than to changes in the Atlantic," said Doug Morton, co-investigator on the project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

The fire severity forecast model, developed by Yang Chen and Jim Randerson at the University of California, Irvine, along with NASA scientists, was first published in 2011 in the journal Science. To develop the model, they compared historic fire data from NASA's Terra satellite with sea surface temperature data in the tropical Pacific and North Atlantic oceans from buoys and satellite images compiled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Amazon Fire Risk Differs Across East-West Divide

Conditions at the end of the rainy season are used to forecast fire activity during the dry season. Sea surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic and tropical Pacific oceans three to six months before the peak of fire season are strongly correlated with total fire activity. In general, warmer ocean temperatures at the end of the Amazon's wet season lead to reductions in rainfall and soil moisture at the beginning of the dry season. Drier conditions in the Amazon lead to more severe fires during the late dry season. But each ocean affects different regions of the Amazon.

"This year, only the El Niño [in the Pacific] is playing a major role. That's why the east-west contrast is more distinctive," said Chen.

[caption id="attachment_2383400" align="alignleft" width="150"]<a href="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/08/04132307/amazon-fire-season_2big_nasa-copy.jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-2383400" src="http://cff1.greenatom.net/uploads/2015/08/04132307/amazon-fire-season_2big_nasa-copy-150x150.jpg" alt="Blue colors show above average ground and surface water and red colors show below average ground and surface water" width="150" height="150" /></a> Blue colors show above average ground and surface water and red colors show below average ground and surface water[/caption]

Sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean are warmer than normal – El Niño conditions – which suppress rainfall in the eastern Amazon. The three regions at highest risk are Brazil states Maranhão, Mato Grosso and Pará. Meanwhile, sea surface temperatures in the tropical North Atlantic are average or cooler than average, keeping higher amounts of rainfall in the south and southwestern Amazon.

To check their model forecast, as the dry season has gotten underway, the researchers have compared their initial forecast with observations coming in from NASA's precipitation satellite missions' multisatellite datasets, as well as groundwater data from the joint NASA/German Aerospace Center Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission.

This year's fire risk comes on the heels of a severe drought in eastern and southeastern Brazil, where the satellite data showed a continued reduction in rainfall and a drawdown of groundwater associated with lower than normal precipitation. The amount of groundwater present is a good indicator of fire risk, said Morton, because the signal persists longer and holds the "memory" of water in the soil that is the main source of moisture for trees and vegetation. When ground and soil water are depleted, the region dries out and fire risk goes up.

Each year since 2012, Chen, Randerson and Morton, with the support of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, have issued an <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=amazon+river&amp;cvid=6576a65f590e4f89af07b8141c5c592f&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Amazon</a> fire forecast for the east, west and southern parts of the basin. With the exception of 2013, their forecasts based on climate conditions have been fairly accurate, said Chen. They are currently investigating the climate conditions that led to overestimating fires – and other researchers to overestimate hurricanes – in 2013.

Increasingly, scientists and agencies in Peru and <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/forest-degradation-is-more-destructive-than-deforestation-in-the-brazilian-amazon/">Brazil</a> are incorporating this type of fire risk assessment into their regional planning for disaster responses. The forecasts provide an indication of the climate component of fire risk. However, fire risk may be underestimated in some frontier regions of Peru and Brazil where humans are likely to set intentional fires for clearing land for agriculture or deforestation.

This year, if the Pacific El Niño continues to strengthen, the team expects to see fire risk increase in the central Amazon, and they may issue a fire forecast for the northern Amazon basin for the first time.

"The seasonality of fires in northern Amazonia is different," Morton said. Peak fire activity in the northern Amazon occurs in February and March, so sea surface temperatures three months earlier in October and November have the most influence on rainfall and fire risk. The last time strong El Niño conditions persisted that long was 1997.

"There were enormous fires in the ’97-’98 El Niño in Roraima," said Morton. "That was part of what put fires in the Amazon on the scientific map."

"If the El Niño continues to strengthen, that's a region that we will be watching," Morton said, adding that the link between El Niño conditions and fires in the Brazilian state of Roraima has been seen before in the historic record going back to 2000, as weaker El Niño events in 2002-2003 and 2006-2007 led to large increases in fire activity. "Roraima’s increase in fire risk during El Niño events is so consistent that you don't need our model to know that the region will experience significant fire risk in 2015-2016."

---

<a href="http://www.nasa.gov" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NASA</a>

Amazon Fire Risk Differs Across East-West Divide

Amazon Fire Risk Differs Across East-West Divide. Scientists at NASA...

New study traces the fate of carbon stored in thawing Arctic soils

As temperatures rise, some of the organic carbon stored in Arctic permafrost meets an unexpected fate--burial at sea. As many as 2.2 million metric tons of organic carbon per year are swept along by a single river system into Arctic Ocean sediment, according to a new study an international team of researchers published today in Nature. This process locks away carbon dioxide (CO2) - a greenhouse gas - and helps stabilize the earth's CO2 levels over time, and it may help scientists better predict how the natural carbon cycle will interplay with the surge of CO2 emissions due to human activities.

"The erosion of permafrost carbon is very significant," says Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Associate Scientist Valier Galy, a co-author of the study. "Over thousands of years, this process is locking CO2 away from the atmosphere in a way that amounts to fairly large carbon stocks. If we can understand how this process works, we can predict how it will respond as the climate changes."

Permafrost--frozen ground found in the Arctic and in some alpine regions--is known to hold billions of tons of organic material. Amid concerns about rising Arctic temperatures and their impact on permafrost, many researchers have directed their efforts to studying the permafrost carbon cycle--the processes through which carbon circulates between the atmosphere, the soil and plants (the biosphere), and the sea. Yet how this cycle works and how it responds to the warming, changing climate remains poorly understood.

Galy and his colleagues from Durham University, the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, the NERC Radiocarbon Facility, Stockholm University, and the Universite Paris-Sud set out to characterize the carbon cycle in one particular piece of the Arctic landscape--northern Canada's Mackenzie River, the largest river flowing into the Arctic Ocean from North America and that ocean's greatest source of sediment. The researchers hypothesized that the Mackenzie's muddy water might erode soils along its path, some from places where permafrost is melting, and wash that biosphere-derived material and the organic carbon within it into the ocean, preventing the degradation of organic carbon and associated release of CO2 into the atmosphere.

The researchers collected samples at various depths and locations along the river system, lowering a specially-designed device to take samples of the water and suspended sediments carried by the river. To take into consideration the river's seasonal variation--its flow increases sharply during the spring, when warm temperatures melt the snowpack and raise water levels, and drops during the frozen winter months--they sampled it during different seasons across three years starting in 2009.

Then the researchers sifted through the samples to isolate the carbon they contained. They used the presence of one specific isotope of carbon that decays over time, carbon-14, to determine how old the carbon was. This was important because it revealed the carbon's origin- rock or biosphere.

"The carbon that comes from the rocks has been there for hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of years," Galy says. "The other carbon can come from a tree that fell into the river two days before we sampled or from the permafrost and be thousands years old."

The carbon from rocks has been stored away from the atmosphere for a long time, and exists in a form that makes it less likely to react with its environment and enter the atmosphere. But the newer, biosphere-based carbon is more labile and likely to react, potentially entering the atmosphere and raising CO2 levels.

"If you bury the biosphere-based carbon, you have an actual carbon sink--you're taking carbon that could be out in the atmosphere and locking it away," Galy says.

The researchers compared what they found along the river to a sediment core obtained from the Arctic Ocean seabed at the Mackenzie delta, tracing the rock and biosphere carbon to the sediment deposits there. They found that a significant amount of the biosphere carbon--more than that carried by all the major Eurasian Arctic rivers combined--is swept into storage offshore. Using carbon-14 they further determined that this biosphere-derived carbon is up to 9000 years old, a clearly indication of its permafrost origin.

"That carbon is not returning to the atmosphere for a long time," says Robert Hilton, associate professor at Durham University who worked on the study. "Over geological timescales, warming conditions lead to the sequestration of that carbon at sea."

This sequestration likely kept naturally-occurring CO2 levels in check. But the researchers emphasize that this natural process is 10 to 20 times too slow to keep pace with CO2 emissions from human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels.

"River transfer is not going to solve the problem--it's not going to make the CO2 we inject into the atmosphere go away," Galy says. But the findings do reveal a more complex picture of the relationships between warming temperatures, thawing permafrost and carbon emission--a picture that Galy and his international colleagues hope to further investigate with future studies.

---

<a href="http://www.whoi.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute</a>

Study Tracks The Fate Of Melting Arctic Permafrost

New study traces the fate of carbon stored in thawing...

Study Tracks The Fate Of Melting Arctic Permafrost. New study traces the fate of carbon stored in thawing Arctic soils

As temperatures rise, some of the organic carbon stored in Arctic permafrost meets an unexpected fate--burial at sea. As many as 2.2 million metric tons of organic carbon per year are swept along by a single river system into Arctic Ocean sediment, according to a new study an international team of researchers published today in Nature. This process locks away carbon dioxide (CO2) - a greenhouse gas - and helps stabilize the earth's CO2 levels over time, and it may help scientists better predict how the natural carbon cycle will interplay with the surge of CO2 emissions due to human activities.

"The erosion of permafrost carbon is very significant," says Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Associate Scientist Valier Galy, a co-author of the study. "Over thousands of years, this process is locking CO2 away from the atmosphere in a way that amounts to fairly large carbon stocks. If we can understand how this process works, we can predict how it will respond as the climate changes."Study Tracks The Fate Of Melting Arctic Permafrost

Permafrost--frozen ground found in the Arctic and in some alpine regions--is known to hold billions of tons of organic material. Amid concerns about rising Arctic temperatures and their impact on permafrost, many researchers have directed their efforts to studying the permafrost carbon cycle--the processes through which carbon circulates between the atmosphere, the soil and plants (the biosphere), and the sea. Yet how this cycle works and how it responds to the warming, changing climate remains poorly understood.

Galy and his colleagues from Durham University, the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, the NERC Radiocarbon Facility, Stockholm University, and the Universite Paris-Sud set out to characterize the carbon cycle in one particular piece of the Arctic landscape--northern Canada's Mackenzie River, the largest river flowing into the Arctic Ocean from North America and that ocean's greatest source of sediment. The researchers hypothesized that the Mackenzie's muddy water might erode soils along its path, some from places where permafrost is melting, and wash that biosphere-derived material and the organic carbon within it into the ocean, preventing the degradation of organic carbon and associated release of CO2 into the atmosphere.

The researchers collected samples at various depths and locations along the river system, lowering a specially-designed device to take samples of the water and suspended sediments carried by the river. To take into consideration the river's seasonal variation--its flow increases sharply during the spring, when warm temperatures melt the snowpack and raise water levels, and drops during the frozen winter months--they sampled it during different seasons across three years starting in 2009.

Then the researchers sifted through the samples to isolate the carbon they contained. They used the presence of one specific isotope of carbon that decays over time, carbon-14, to determine how old the carbon was. This was important because it revealed the carbon's origin- rock or biosphere.

"The carbon that comes from the rocks has been there for hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of years," Galy says. "The other <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=carbon&amp;cvid=a66e1c1f72e94a3cb4b72dac1fbbea18&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">carbon</a> can come from a tree that fell into the river two days before we sampled or from the permafrost and be thousands years old."

The carbon from rocks has been stored away from the atmosphere for a long time, and exists in a form that makes it less likely to react with its environment and enter the atmosphere. But the newer, biosphere-based carbon is more labile and likely to react, potentially entering the atmosphere and raising CO2 levels.

"If you bury the biosphere-based carbon, you have an actual carbon sink--you're taking carbon that could be out in the atmosphere and locking it away," Galy says.

The researchers compared what they found along the river to a sediment core obtained from the Arctic Ocean seabed at the Mackenzie delta, tracing the rock and biosphere carbon to the sediment deposits there. They found that a significant amount of the biosphere carbon--more than that carried by all the major Eurasian Arctic rivers combined--is swept into storage offshore. Using carbon-14 they further determined that this biosphere-derived carbon is up to 9000 years old, a clearly indication of its permafrost origin.

"That carbon is not returning to the atmosphere for a long time," says Robert Hilton, associate professor at Durham University who worked on the study. "Over geological timescales, warming conditions lead to the sequestration of that carbon at sea."

This sequestration likely kept naturally-occurring CO2 levels in check. But the researchers emphasize that this natural process is 10 to 20 times too slow to keep pace with CO2 emissions from human activities, such as the burning of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/fossil-fuels-lower-energy-return/">fossil fuels.</a>

"River transfer is not going to solve the problem--it's not going to make the CO2 we inject into the atmosphere go away," Galy says. But the findings do reveal a more complex picture of the relationships between warming temperatures, thawing permafrost and carbon emission--a picture that Galy and his international colleagues hope to further investigate with future studies.

---

<a href="http://www.whoi.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute</a>

Study Tracks The Fate Of Melting Arctic Permafrost. New study...

Adult Corals Give Their Offspring Skills Necessary To Survive. A new study from scientists at the University of Hawai'i - Mānoa's (UHM) Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) reveals that preconditioning adult corals to increased temperature and ocean acidification resulted in offspring that may be better able to handle those future environmental stressors. This rapid trans-generational acclimatization may be able to "buy time" for corals in the race against climate change.

Hollie Putnam, lead author of the Journal of Experimental Biology-featured study and HIMB assistant researcher; and Ruth Gates, co-author and HIMB senior researcher, exposed two groups of parental corals to either ambient ocean conditions or IPCC-predicted future ocean conditions - warmer and more acidic water. As expected, the harsher future conditions negatively affected the health of the parental coral - lowering photosynthesis and production to consumption ratios. Surprisingly, however, the offspring of parents who were exposed to future conditions appeared healthier when re-exposed to the harsher environment.

"By preconditioning the corals while the offspring are being brooded it may be possible to increase the offspring's potential to perform under stressful environmental conditions," said Putnam.

Corals have been suffering huge losses in diversity and abundance on reefs worldwide due to local stressors such as overfishing, coastal development, pollution, and sedimentation, for example. Further, global stressors such as increased temperature result in coral bleaching - a breakdown in the symbiosis between the cnidarian host and the symbiotic algae - which can cause mass coral mortality. Additionally, corals exposed to ocean acidification can struggle to build their skeletons and reefs are undergoing bioerosion and dissolution.

"Together these local and global stressors are placing an unprecedented strain on coral reef ecosystems. It has even been predicted that some corals may go extinct and the reefs will not provide the same biological diversity and provisioning - goods and services valued at hundreds of billions of dollars annually," said Putnam. Adult Corals Give Their Offspring Skills Necessary To Survive

It is thought genetic adaption is the primary option for corals to respond to climate change. With the rapid rate of environmental change, however, genetic adaptation may not be able to keep pace. Putnam and Gates were interested in the potential for other more rapid response mechanisms like the acclimatization provided when adults provision their offspring based on their environmental experience. The researchers think epigenetics, or a change in the quantity and product of a gene without a change in DNA sequence, may be one such acclimatory mechanism that allows the organism to rapidly adjust to environmental change. Epigenetics and parental effects, they say, may help to buffer corals against the rapidly changing climate.

"Our work suggests that when we consider multiple life stages in connection and their environmental history, corals have resources to respond to climate change that we have not yet considered fully," said Putnam. "This may be good news for corals of the future."

In a new series of experiments, the researchers are expanding their analysis to more coral life stages by tracking the coral larvae from preconditioning in their parents until they settle and grow into juveniles. Their goal is to assess the "grandchildren" after 3-4 years, when the first offspring become reproductive. They are also comparing the response to temperature and ocean acidification simultaneously and separately to determine if one factor is more influential than another.

---

<a href="http://manoa.hawaii.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">University of Hawaii Manoa</a>

Adult Corals Give Their Offspring Skills Necessary To Survive

Adult Corals Give Their Offspring Skills Necessary To Survive. A...

NOAA researchers cite the heavy rains that pounded the middle of the country in July as reason for this summer's enlarged gulf dead zone.

The low-oxygen "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico has grown larger than normal, NOAA scientists say. At last count, the hypoxic blob covered 6,474 square miles.

A dead zone is an area of low to no oxygen water that can kill marine life, should fish or other marine mammals find themselves trapped in depleted waters. While fish and mammals can usually avoid dead zones, slow-moving shellfish and crustaceans are more vulnerable to suffocation.

Last year's dead zone measured 5,052 square miles. The latest measurements reveal a growing dead zone that is both bigger than average and larger than NOAA's yearly prediction.

Of the more than 550 dead zones found in lakes and oceans around the world, the Gulf's is the second-largest manmade hypoxic zone. The suffocating water is the result of oxygen-depleting phytoplankton blooms encouraged by high levels of nitrogen and phosphorous -- agricultural and sewage treatment runoff delivered by the mighty Mississippi River.

As phytoplankton die and sink to the bottom, bacteria feast upon them, sucking more oxygen from the water. The oxygen-deprived water remains in place until storms churn up the water layers and help replenish the dead zone with fresh oxygen.

NOAA researchers cite the heavy rains that pounded the middle of the country in July as reason for this summer's enlarged dead zone. The latest numbers are the result of a survey undertaken by NOAA scientists.

"An average area was expected because the Mississippi River discharge levels and associated nutrient data from May indicated an average delivery of nutrients during this critical month which stimulates the fuel for the mid-summer dead zone," Nancy Rabalais, executive director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON), <a class="tpstyle" href="http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2015/080415-gulf-of-mexico-dead-zone-above-average.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said in a press release</a>.

Rabalais led the recent scientific survey that mapped the fish-killing blob in the Gulf.

"Since the models are based largely on the May nitrogen loads from the Mississippi River, the heavy rains that came in June with additional nitrogen and even higher river discharges in July are the possible explanations for the larger size," she said.

In addition to rainfall totals, wind, temperature and currents affect the size and movement of the Gulf's dead zone.

"It would have been even larger without winds out of the west pushing some of the low-oxygen water back to the east," <a class="tpstyle" href="http://www.nola.com/environment/index.ssf/2015/08/2015_gulf_dead_zone_larger_tha.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rabalais told The Times-Picayune</a>.

Previous research has shown that hypoxic conditions in the Gulf result in habitat loss, species displacement and diminished reproductive abilities for many fish.

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Credit: UPI

2015 Gulf Dead Zone Bigger Than Normal

NOAA researchers cite the heavy rains that pounded the middle...

2015 Gulf Dead Zone Bigger Than Normal. NOAA researchers cite the heavy rains that pounded the middle of the country in July as reason for this summer's enlarged gulf dead zone.

The low-oxygen "dead zone" in the Gulf of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/experts-track-the-flow-of-nutrients-in-the-gulf-of-mexico/">Mexico</a> has grown larger than normal, NOAA scientists say. At last count, the hypoxic blob covered 6,474 square miles.

A dead zone is an area of low to no oxygen water that can kill marine life, should fish or other marine mammals find themselves trapped in depleted waters. While fish and mammals can usually avoid dead zones, slow-moving shellfish and crustaceans are more vulnerable to suffocation.2015 Gulf Dead Zone Bigger Than Normal

Last year's dead zone measured 5,052 square miles. The latest measurements reveal a growing dead zone that is both bigger than average and larger than NOAA's yearly prediction.

Of the more than 550 dead zones found in lakes and oceans around the world, the Gulf's is the second-largest manmade hypoxic zone. The suffocating water is the result of oxygen-depleting phytoplankton blooms encouraged by high levels of nitrogen and phosphorous -- agricultural and sewage treatment runoff delivered by the mighty Mississippi River.

As phytoplankton die and sink to the bottom, bacteria feast upon them, sucking more oxygen from the water. The oxygen-deprived water remains in place until storms churn up the water layers and help replenish the dead zone with fresh oxygen.

NOAA researchers cite the heavy rains that pounded the middle of the country in July as reason for this summer's enlarged dead zone. The latest numbers are the result of a survey undertaken by NOAA scientists.

"An average area was expected because the Mississippi River discharge levels and associated nutrient data from May indicated an average delivery of nutrients during this critical month which stimulates the fuel for the mid-summer dead zone," Nancy Rabalais, executive director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON), <a class="tpstyle" href="http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2015/080415-gulf-of-mexico-dead-zone-above-average.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said in a press release</a>.

Rabalais led the recent scientific survey that mapped the fish-killing blob in the Gulf.

"Since the models are based largely on the May nitrogen loads from the Mississippi River, the heavy rains that came in June with additional nitrogen and even higher river discharges in July are the possible explanations for the larger size," she said.

In addition to rainfall totals, wind, temperature and currents affect the size and movement of the Gulf's dead zone.

"It would have been even larger without winds out of the west pushing some of the low-oxygen water back to the east," <a class="tpstyle" href="http://www.nola.com/environment/index.ssf/2015/08/2015_gulf_dead_zone_larger_tha.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Rabalais told The Times-Picayune</a>.

Previous research has shown that hypoxic conditions in the Gulf result in habitat loss, species displacement and diminished reproductive abilities for many fish.

---

Credit: UPI

2015 Gulf Dead Zone Bigger Than Normal. NOAA researchers cite...

http://www.forestwander.com

US Raises Concerns About Natural Gas Pipeline Through Forests. The <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=us&amp;cvid=732500fc37ab49d8abc261e81de2c304&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">U.S.</a> Forest Service has raised hundreds of concerns about a proposed natural gas pipeline that would carve a 30-mile swath through national forests in Virginia and West Virginia.
The written comments to federal regulators question why the proposed route of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline has to go through the George <a href="http://www.earth.com/image/mount-rainier-in-washington/">Washington</a> and Monongahela national forests and raises similar worries cited by residents along the path of the 550-mile energy project. US Raises Concerns About Natural Gas Pipeline Through Forests
The 335 questions, comments and corrections were submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in late July by H. Thomas Speaks Jr., forest supervisor. The Forest Service already has given the builders of the proposed pipeline the green light to survey the forests.
The pipeline is proposed by Dominion Resources Inc., Duke Energy and two energy partners. It would carry natural gas from Marcellus shale drilling in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia to the Southeast. It would run from Harrison County, West Virginia, southeast to Greensville County, Virginia, and into North Carolina.
The $5 billion pipeline is intended to deliver cleaner burning natural gas to the Southeast as utilities move away from coal-burning power plants amid tighter federal rules on pollution that contributes to climate change.
The Forest Service filing was in response to a draft report filed in May by Dominion. Forest surveys of wetlands and wildlife, among other resources, are nearing completion, said Frank Mack, a spokesman for Dominion Transmission, a subsidiary that would build the pipeline.
"Much of what we have completed since May will address many of the comments the National Forest Service sent to the FERC, and which we plan to make public when we file our Resource Reports with our application to the FERC later this summer," Mack wrote in an email.
The Forest Service said Speaks' comments are intended to guide Dominion as it develops its final report with the agency on the national forest routes. The Forest Service will make the final decision whether the pipeline is a "suitable use" for the national forests, said Jennifer Adams, special project coordinator for the Forest Service.
Adams said a similar report was filed by the Forest Service on another interstate pipeline project, the Mountain Valley Pipeline, but those comments have not been released. The Mountain Valley project would go through a section of the Jefferson National Forest.
The 300-mile pipeline is a joint venture between EQT Corp. and NextEra Energy Inc. It would run from Wetzel County, West Virginia, to another pipeline in Pittsylvania County.
On the Atlantic Pipeline, one Forest Service comment questions the "necessity to cross" forestlands in building the pipeline. Speaks wrote that the Forest Service policy does not authorize the use of U.S. forests "solely because it affords the applicant a lower cost or less restrictive location when compared to non-NFS lands."
The Forest Service filing also questions whether hazardous materials such as blasting materials would be stored on forestland, the impact on streams and fish, and the restoration of habitat after the pipeline is built, among others.
While politically popular, the proposed pipeline has found opposition among its planned route by residents who object to a pipeline dissecting their land or on environmental grounds. The pipeline has spawned at least two groups opposed to its construction and several lawsuits.
---
Steve Szkotak can be reached on Twitter at <a href="http://twitter.com/sszkotakap" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://twitter.com/sszkotakap</a> .
---
Online:
Atlantic Coast Pipeline: <a href="https://www.dom.com/corporate/what-we-do/natural-gas/atlantic-coast-pipeline" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.dom.com/corporate/what-we-do/natural-gas/atlantic-coast-pipeline</a>
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US Raises Concerns About Natural Gas Pipeline

US Raises Concerns About Natural Gas Pipeline Through Forests. The...

Carbon Dioxide

Carbon Pollution From US Power Plants Hits 27-Year Low. Heat-trapping carbon pollution from U.S. power plants hit a 27-year low in April, the Department of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/earth-could-be-powered-entirely-by-renewable-energy/">Energy</a> announced Wednesday.
A big factor was the long-term shift from coal to cleaner and cheaper natural gas, said Energy Department economist Allen McFarland. Outside experts also credit more renewable fuel use and energy efficiency.
Carbon dioxide - from the burning of coal, oil and gas - is the chief greenhouse gas responsible for man-made global warming. Carbon Pollution From US Power Plants Hits 27-Year Low
"While good news for the environment, we certainly would not want to assume that this trend will continue and that we can simply relax," said John Reilly, co-director of MIT's Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change.
Electric power plants spewed 141 million tons of carbon dioxide in April, the lowest for any month since April 1988, according to Energy Department figures. The power plants are responsible for about one-third of the country's heat-trapping emissions.
April emissions peaked at 192 million tons in 2008 and dropped by 26 percent in seven years.
Carbon pollution from power plants hit their peak in August 2007 with 273 million tons; summer emissions are higher because air conditioning requires more power.
In past years, experts said the U.S. reduction in carbon dioxide pollution was more a function of a sluggish economy, but McFarland said that's no longer the case.
"You don't have a 27-year low because of an economic blip," McFarland said. "There are more things happening than that."
The price of natural gas has dropped 39 percent in the past year, he said. Federal analysts predict that this year the amount of electricity from natural gas will increase 3 percent compared to last year while the power from coal will go down 10 percent.
Those reductions were calculated before this week's announcements of new power plant rules. The new rules aim to cut carbon pollution from electricity generators another 20 percent from current levels by 2030.
The pollution cuts in April are because efficiency has cut electricity demand and energy from non-hydropower renewable sources has more than doubled, said Princeton University professor Michael Oppenheimer.
"A factor behind all these trends is that the writing is on the wall about the future of coal and thus the future of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions," Oppenheimer said in an email. "The regulatory noose is tightening and companies are anticipating a future with lower and lower dependence on fossil fuels and lower and lower carbon dioxide emissions."
---
Online:
U.S. Energy Information Administration on April emissions: <a href="http://1.usa.gov/1IXTCCG" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://1.usa.gov/1IXTCCG</a>
---
Seth Borenstein can be followed at <a href="http://twitter.com/borenbears" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://twitter.com/borenbears</a>
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Carbon Pollution From US Power Plants Hits 27-Year Low

Carbon Pollution From US Power Plants Hits 27-Year Low. Heat-trapping...

Puerto Rico Drought

Puerto Ricans Face Severe Drought And Economic Slump. Puerto Ricans are learning to live without water on an island that already was suffering an economic crisis.
A severe drought is forcing businesses to temporarily close, public schools to cancel breakfast service and people to find creative ways to stay clean amid sweltering temperatures.
Rationing rules that had meant water coming through the pipes only one day out of three will increase the cutoff to one day out of four starting next week, government officials say.
"I've grown fearful of the weather report," said Cornelio Vegazo, owner of a roof-repair company. "There's no light at the end of the tunnel."Puerto Ricans Face Severe Drought And Economic Slump
The drought is one of the worst in the U.S. territory's history. July was the fourth driest month in the capital of San Juan since 1898, the year Puerto Rico became a possession of the United States. Only 1.60 inches (4 centimeters) of rain fell last month, and forecasters predict several more weeks and possibly months of dry conditions.
Nearly 13 percent of Puerto Rico is in extreme drought and an additional 38 percent is in a severe one, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center, which says 2.5 million people are affected.
The situation has grown so dire that Puerto Rico's water and sewer company announced Wednesday that it would spend about $200,000 over three months on a pilot project to use "cloud seeding" in hopes of creating rain clouds over three of the island's main reservoirs.
If Puerto Rico does not receive significant rainfall this week, tens of thousands of clients who depend on the Carraizo reservoir will get water only every fourth day starting next week, said Alberto Lazaro, executive director of the water and sewer company.
"We are doing everything within our reach to address the situation at the reservoirs," he said. "We will not stop looking for alternatives to deal with a situation that, without a doubt, is one of the island's biggest concerns."
Forecasters blame the lack of rain on El Nino, a warming of the tropical Pacific that affects global weather and has led to a quiet Atlantic hurricane season, which began in June and ends in November.
So far this year, it has rained as much as 12 inches (31 centimeters) less than usual in San Juan and as much as 20 inches (51 centimeters) less in some areas around the Carraizo reservoir, said Carlos Anselmi, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack has declared 20 of the island's 78 municipalities as disaster zones, with farmers reporting an increase in crops shriveling and cattle dying.
The drought comes as Puerto Rico struggles in a nearly decade-long economic slump that has hit the government's coffers and led authorities to raise the sales tax, even on bottled water. Puerto Ricans also are grumbling about having to pay high water rates amid severe rationing measures.
"It's not fair," said Hector Linares, a car wash worker. But he is resigned. "You can't fight <a href="http://www.earth.com/video/puerto-rico-after-hurricane-maria/">Puerto Rico'</a>s bureaucracy."
The government has set up water trucks throughout the San Juan metropolitan area and beyond, including one at a public housing complex in a working class community in Rio Piedras.
As the truck rumbles through the Gardens of Paradise complex, Alexander Cabrera says that one of his fellow residents there has taken to yelling: "The water is here! The water is here!"
"That's when everybody comes out running. They look like ants," Cabrera said.
The drought has forced people to change their routine, with many seeking help from friends and family in places where water service has not been affected.
Jose Bonilla, a retired power company worker, said he moved in with a female friend after his service was cut. If the situation worsens, Bonilla said he would leave.
"I'm on the first flight out, to Santo Domingo or <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=new+york+times&amp;cvid=eb94a288ea4c4041aa6df1a34e9e22d6&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">New York</a>," he said.
But other Caribbean spots also are struggling with drought, including the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and St. Lucia. It is the region's worst drought in five years.
Vegazo, who has the roof-repair company, said he and his family are not thinking of leaving. They have attended a free course at their church on how to live with a minimum amount of water.
"We'll just get another barrel of water and keep on going," he said. "We're depending on God."
---
Danica Coto on Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/danicacoto" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">www.twitter.com/danicacoto</a>
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Puerto Ricans Face Severe Drought And Economic Slump

Puerto Ricans Face Severe Drought And Economic Slump. Puerto Ricans...

Puerto Ricans are learning to live without water on an island that already was suffering an economic crisis.
A severe drought is forcing businesses to temporarily close, public schools to cancel breakfast service and people to find creative ways to stay clean amid sweltering temperatures.
Rationing rules that had meant water coming through the pipes only one day out of three will increase the cutoff to one day out of four starting next week, government officials say.
"I've grown fearful of the weather report," said Cornelio Vegazo, owner of a roof-repair company. "There's no light at the end of the tunnel."
The drought is one of the worst in the U.S. territory's history. July was the fourth driest month in the capital of San Juan since 1898, the year Puerto Rico became a possession of the United States. Only 1.60 inches (4 centimeters) of rain fell last month, and forecasters predict several more weeks and possibly months of dry conditions.
Nearly 13 percent of Puerto Rico is in extreme drought and an additional 38 percent is in a severe one, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center, which says 2.5 million people are affected.
The situation has grown so dire that Puerto Rico's water and sewer company announced Wednesday that it would spend about $200,000 over three months on a pilot project to use "cloud seeding" in hopes of creating rain clouds over three of the island's main reservoirs.
If Puerto Rico does not receive significant rainfall this week, tens of thousands of clients who depend on the Carraizo reservoir will get water only every fourth day starting next week, said Alberto Lazaro, executive director of the water and sewer company.
"We are doing everything within our reach to address the situation at the reservoirs," he said. "We will not stop looking for alternatives to deal with a situation that, without a doubt, is one of the island's biggest concerns."
Forecasters blame the lack of rain on El Nino, a warming of the tropical Pacific that affects global weather and has led to a quiet Atlantic hurricane season, which began in June and ends in November.
So far this year, it has rained as much as 12 inches (31 centimeters) less than usual in San Juan and as much as 20 inches (51 centimeters) less in some areas around the Carraizo reservoir, said Carlos Anselmi, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack has declared 20 of the island's 78 municipalities as disaster zones, with farmers reporting an increase in crops shriveling and cattle dying.
The drought comes as Puerto Rico struggles in a nearly decade-long economic slump that has hit the government's coffers and led authorities to raise the sales tax, even on bottled water. Puerto Ricans also are grumbling about having to pay high water rates amid severe rationing measures.
"It's not fair," said Hector Linares, a car wash worker. But he is resigned. "You can't fight Puerto Rico's bureaucracy."
The government has set up water trucks throughout the San Juan metropolitan area and beyond, including one at a public housing complex in a working class community in Rio Piedras.
As the truck rumbles through the Gardens of Paradise complex, Alexander Cabrera says that one of his fellow residents there has taken to yelling: "The water is here! The water is here!"
"That's when everybody comes out running. They look like ants," Cabrera said.
The drought has forced people to change their routine, with many seeking help from friends and family in places where water service has not been affected.
Jose Bonilla, a retired power company worker, said he moved in with a female friend after his service was cut. If the situation worsens, Bonilla said he would leave.
"I'm on the first flight out, to Santo Domingo or New York," he said.
But other Caribbean spots also are struggling with drought, including the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and St. Lucia. It is the region's worst drought in five years.
Vegazo, who has the roof-repair company, said he and his family are not thinking of leaving. They have attended a free course at their church on how to live with a minimum amount of water.
"We'll just get another barrel of water and keep on going," he said. "We're depending on God."
---
Danica Coto on Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/danicacoto" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.twitter.com/danicacoto</a>
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Puerto Ricans are learning to live without water on an...

16 States Ask Obama To Put New Power Plant Rules On Hold. The campaign to stop President Barack Obama's sweeping emissions limits on power plants began taking shape Wednesday, as 16 states asked the government to put the power plant rules on hold while a Senate panel moved to block them.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who is leading the charge against the rules, banded together with 15 other state attorneys general in a letter to Environmental Protection Agency Gina McCarthy requesting that the agency temporarily suspend the rules while they challenge their legality in court. The letter called for the EPA to respond by Friday. 16 States Ask Obama To Put New Power Plant Rules On Hold
The EPA and the White House both said they believe the limits are legal and have no plans to put them on hold. But by submitting the formal request anyway, the attorneys general are laying the groundwork to ask the courts to suspend the emissions limits instead.
"These regulations, if allowed to proceed, will do serious harm to West Virginia and the U.S. economy," Morrisey said. "That is why we are taking quick action to bring this process to a halt."
The 16 states and a handful of others are preparing to sue the Obama administration to block the rules permanently by arguing they exceed Obama's authority. Bolstered by a recent Supreme Court ruling against the administration's mercury limits, opponents argued that states shouldn't have to start preparing to comply with a rule that may eventually get thrown out by the courts.
The speedy opposition from the states came two days after Obama unveiled the final version of the rules, which mark the first time the U.S. has ever limited carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants. Obama's revised plan mandates a 32 percent cut in emissions nationwide by 2030, compared to 2005 levels - a steeper cut than in his earlier proposal.
Most of the attorneys general signing the letter Wednesday are Republicans. Yet they were joined by Jack Conway of the coal-producing state of Kentucky. Conway and Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear are both Democrats, but have joined the state's Republican leaders in denouncing Obama's power plant limits, which form the centerpiece of his plan to fight climate change.
Although the most serious threat to Obama's power plant rules is in the courts, lawmakers in Congress are also pursuing legislative means to stop them. The first vote came Wednesday in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, where a bill blocking the rules passed the GOP-controlled panel by a voice vote - but not without a bit of drama.
Over the protests of boycotting Democrats, the Senate GOP-controlled panel approved legislation designed to block the Obama administration from implementing the tough new standards.
Democrats walked out of the committee meeting in protest of a separate bill about pesticides, arguing it should have been the subject of a fact-finding hearing. Lacking the necessary quorum for a vote, Republican Chairman Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma reconvened the meeting in a lunchroom just off the Senate floor, where the aroma of a just-completed GOP lunch was still wafting in the air.
The voice vote approving the bill sends it to the full Senate, where a filibuster battle awaits. Obama has vowed to veto any such legislation, and Republicans have yet to prove they can muster the votes to override his veto.
---
Associated Press writer Andrew Taylor contributed to this report.
---
Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at <a href="http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP</a>
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16 States Ask Obama To Put New Power Plant Rules On Hold

16 States Ask Obama To Put New Power Plant Rules...

Global Warming Is Pushing Walrus Habitat North. Anna Oxereok grew up eating walrus in the western <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=alaska&amp;cvid=b778e663a2c9415bb77b92fcf041bb75&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Alaska</a> village of Wales. Today it's such a rare treat she can't bring herself to part with the plastic gallon bag of meat in her freezer.
"I have to save it for something special," she says.
Her brother caught two animals this spring and shared the meat and fat, but it didn't go very far in the village of 150. She's thankful for what she got, though. It's become increasingly difficult to land a walrus. Global Warming Is Pushing Walrus Habitat North.
Other remote communities at the edge of the Bering Sea also are seeing a steep decline in <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/global-warming-is-pushing-walrus-habitat-north-2/">walrus</a> harvested the past several years. Walrus, described by some as having a taste between veal and beef, is highly prized by Alaska Natives as a subsistence food to store for winter, with the adult male animals averaging 2,700 pounds. The sale of carved ivory from the tusks, legal only for Alaska Natives, also brings in supplemental income to communities with high unemployment rates.
Hunters and scientists say walrus habitat migration patterns are veering from historical hunting grounds as temperatures warm and the ocean ice used by the animals to dive and rest recedes farther north. Village elders also tell biologists the wind is blowing in new directions. In 2013, a late-season icepack clustered around St. Lawrence Island, blocking hunters from the sea.
"I think one of the biggest issues is that things have gotten so variable. It's hard to really predict what's going to happen," said Jim MacCracken, Alaska walrus program supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Iver Campbell and other Yup'ik Eskimo hunters from two St. Lawrence Island communities harvested more than 1,100 walrus in 2003. But a decade later, hunters managed to take only 555 - a fraction of the ideal of one walrus per resident, per year. Things still aren't looking any better for the 1,430 residents of the villages of Gambell and Savoonga. The recent spring take was 233 walrus, according to preliminary Fish and Wildlife figures.
The shore ice once served to block the wind for hunters but that's no longer the case, said Campbell, who's lived all 64 years in Gambell, population 713.
"The ice goes out real fast, melts real fast," he said. "We don't have anything to counter the wind and the rough water."
Science backs that observation. According to the Office of Naval Research, the past eight years have had the eight lowest amounts of summer sea ice on record.
Far from the state's limited road system, costly store-bought food is not an affordable solution. At village stores, pantry staples quickly add up - nearly $7 for a dozen eggs, $15 for a gallon of milk and $6.25 for a loaf of basic white bread. People rely on the region's resources for up to 80 percent of their diets.
Their hunting practices are closely monitored by federal authorities to ensure the animals that are killed are not going to waste. Generally, such hunts don't cause a public outcry in Alaska.
In these communities, a subsistence lifestyle is a necessity. In fact, the low harvest this year recently prompted a donation of 10,000 pounds of frozen halibut to four affected villages.
"A decline in the subsistence harvest really creates an economic disaster that threatens the health and welfare of the people in the communities," said Vera Metcalf, director of the Eskimo Walrus Commission. "So we are concerned about the impacts of climate change and the ability for our hunters to harvest marine mammals."
Some Native communities can search for other animals, like domestic reindeer or caribou. But opportunities aren't as bountiful for Diomede on the western coast of Little Diomede Island, only a few miles from Russia. The community of 120 harvested one walrus in 2014, prompting city and Native leaders to seek assistance from the state.
This year, 10 walrus were harvested, according to Diomede hunter Robert Soolook. There's no shortage of walrus, he said, but they're migrating sooner. No one has initiated any long-range planning to address the shift, but Soolook believes hunters eventually will need to change their practices, even going out earlier.
"Now that we've seen this, we have to start adapting," he said.
No federal assistance is available, and state aid is minimal, at best. State Sen. Sen. Donny Olson, D-Golovin, said he might introduce legislation to allow failed subsistence hunts to qualify for state disaster funds.
Moving from her ancestral lands is not an option, according to Oxereok, an Inupiat Eskimo. Relocating would mean displacing everything she knows.
"It's not that simple because your roots are here," she said.
---
Follow Rachel D'Oro at <a href="https://twitter.com/rdoro" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://twitter.com/rdoro</a>
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Global Warming Is Pushing Walrus Habitat North

Global Warming Is Pushing Walrus Habitat North. Anna Oxereok grew...

<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=2E0mn5mTvhQ
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">'Death Star' moon Mimas conceals a 15-million-year-old ocean that scientists never expected.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-hidden-waters-beneath-ancient-craters">Hidden waters beneath ancient craters</h2>



Scientists have made a startling discovery that challenges everything we thought we knew about <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/saturn-moon-mimas-has-remarkably-young-ocean/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Saturn's moon Mimas</a>. Beneath the heavily cratered surface that earned it the nickname "Death Star" lies a global ocean that formed just 5 to 15 million years ago—a remarkably young age by cosmic standards.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cassini-data-reveals-orbital-secrets">Cassini data reveals orbital secrets</h2>



The discovery, led by Dr. Valéry Lainey of the <a href="https://observatoiredeparis.psl.eu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Observatoire de Paris</a>, emerged from careful analysis of <a href="https://www.nasa.gov" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NASA</a>'s Cassini spacecraft data. By studying subtle irregularities in Mimas's orbit around Saturn, researchers detected the gravitational signature of liquid water hidden 20 to 30 kilometers beneath the moon's icy shell.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-an-unlikely-ocean-world">An unlikely ocean world</h2>



At only 400 kilometers in diameter, Mimas seemed like the least likely candidate to harbor a subsurface ocean. Unlike other ocean moons such as Europa and Enceladus, which show clear surface signs of internal activity, Mimas displays no obvious hints of the liquid water beneath its ancient, crater-scarred exterior.



"Mimas is a small moon, and its heavily cratered surface gave no hint of the hidden ocean beneath," explained Dr. Nick Cooper from <a href="https://www.qmul.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Queen Mary University of London</a>, a study co-author.



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



The ocean's recent formation makes Mimas a prime target for studying how oceans develop and potentially support life. This discovery adds another member to the exclusive club of ocean worlds in our solar system, each offering unique insights into the conditions necessary for habitability.



The research, published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature</a> journal, demonstrates how advanced orbital analysis can reveal hidden features of celestial bodies, opening new possibilities for understanding ocean formation throughout the cosmos.



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Scientists discover unexpected young ocean on Saturn's cratered moon Mimas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E0mn5mTvhQ 'Death Star' moon Mimas conceals a 15-million-year-old ocean that...

<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=K0DuSr87SHY
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">57 million-year ice age mystery solved by Australian scientists.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-when-earth-became-a-frozen-wasteland">When Earth became a frozen wasteland</h2>



Imagine Earth as a giant snowball, frozen solid from the North Pole to the equator. This wasn't the plot of a science fiction movie – it was our planet's reality 700 million years ago during an extreme ice age that has puzzled scientists for decades.



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



Australian researchers from the <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Sydney</a> have finally cracked one of geology's greatest mysteries: what caused the Sturtian glaciation and why it persisted for an unprecedented 57 million years. This period occurred long before dinosaurs roamed the Earth, when no complex plants or multicellular animals existed.



Dr. Adriana Dutkiewicz, the study's lead author, describes a world completely unlike today's climate. "Imagine the Earth almost completely frozen over," she explained. "The planet was blanketed in ice from poles to equator, and temperatures plunged."



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-combination-of-climate-factors">The combination of climate factors</h2>



The research team discovered that this massive freeze resulted from a "double whammy" of geological events. First, plate tectonic activity reduced volcanic carbon dioxide emissions to historically low levels. Volcanic activity typically releases CO2 into the atmosphere, creating a greenhouse effect that keeps Earth warm.



Simultaneously, weathering of volcanic rocks in what is now Canada actively absorbed atmospheric CO2, further reducing greenhouse gas concentrations. When atmospheric carbon dioxide levels dropped below 200 parts per million – less than half of today's levels – glaciation engulfed the entire planet.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-modern-climate-implications">Modern climate implications</h2>



Published in the journal <a href="https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/geology" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Geology</a>, this research provides crucial insights into Earth's climate system. While geological climate changes occur over millions of years, the study emphasizes that human-induced climate change is happening at a pace ten times faster than previously observed natural changes, highlighting the urgent need to understand our planet's delicate climate balance.



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What caused the planet's longest ice age

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0DuSr87SHY 57 million-year ice age mystery solved by Australian scientists....

<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=WXXGGiynIjs
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Greenland is not sinking. In fact, it is the opposite.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-contrasting-climate-response">A contrasting climate response</h2>



Most coastal towns are <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sinking-land-will-intensify-the-effects-of-rising-sea-levels/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">preparing for higher sea levels</a>, but <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/greenland-no-longer-has-to-worry-about-rising-sea-levels/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Greenland presents</a> a different scenario during climate change. The ground there is rising at a remarkable rate. Over the past decade, some areas have lifted about 20 centimeters, which translates to roughly 2 meters per century. This rate significantly exceeds current projections for sea level rise.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-geological-rebound-process-through-climate-change">Geological rebound process through climate change</h2>



The mechanism behind this phenomenon is straightforward. As the ice sheet melts, the immense weight is removed from the bedrock, causing the land to rebound upward. This process resembles the way compressed material springs back when pressure is released.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-scientific-monitoring-networks">Scientific monitoring networks</h2>



Researchers at the <a href="https://www.dtu.dk/english/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Technical University of Denmark</a> are documenting this uplift using the GNET network, consisting of 61 GPS stations positioned around Greenland's coast. These sensors can detect movement with millimeter precision, providing detailed measurements of the ongoing changes.



The data reveal that current uplift rates exceed the gradual rebound occurring since the last ice age ended approximately 12,000 years ago. This acceleration corresponds directly with increased ice sheet melting rates.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-coastal-transformation">Coastal Transformation</h2>



This uplift is actively reshaping Greenland's coastline. New islands and rocky formations, called "skerries," are emerging as previously submerged land surfaces rise above the water level. This represents a notable contrast to global concerns about rising seas.



The study, published in Geophysical Research Letters, demonstrates the varied regional impacts of climate change. While many locations face rising water levels, Greenland's bedrock is literally rising above the surrounding seas.



The full study was recently published in <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2023GL104851" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Geophysical Research Letters</a>.



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Greenland's ground rises while coasts worldwide face higher seas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXXGGiynIjs Greenland is not sinking. In fact, it is the...

<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.



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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

[sendtonews key="QGPzYnXEtN-1712599-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from Carl...

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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

[sendtonews key="EjmSP20gQK-2593093-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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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

[sendtonews key="f8fukm28Vz-2491833-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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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

[sendtonews key="0879czfG3k-1785905-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from NASA...

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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

[sendtonews key="JbW4VsY53O-1632195-12187" type="single"] Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected...

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

[sendtonews key="fxH3eJHEkQ-2010196-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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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

[sendtonews key="Ccjk8KEMzv-2550719-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Plants help remove heavy metals from contaminated soil

[sendtonews key="6SdlLLbt0t-1988946-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from NTU...

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