High in Alaska’s Brooks Range, streams that once ran so clear you could drink from them are now the color of rusty tea. The water looks hazy, smells metallic, and can stain rocks orange for miles.&nbsp;



Fish are struggling, insect life is smothered, and the change has arrived with startling speed. Scientists say the culprit isn’t industry. It’s <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/thawing-permafrost-could-tip-earths-climate-balance/">thawing permafrost</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-when-frozen-ground-wakes-up">When frozen ground wakes up</h2>



For millennia, Arctic permafrost - permanently frozen soil - locked minerals in place. As the region warms, that icy seal is failing. Water and oxygen seep into freshly thawed ground and set off a chain reaction in sulfide-rich rocks (pyrite is a prime example).&nbsp;



The chemistry is textbook: sulfides oxidize, sulfuric acid forms, and the acid leaches metals like <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/iron-was-lifes-first-essential-metal-and-shaped-early-evolution/">iron</a>, aluminum, and cadmium from surrounding rock. Those metals then flush into rivers and streams.



“This is what acid mine drainage looks like,” said Tim Lyons, a biogeochemist at the University of California, Riverside. “But here, there’s no mine. The permafrost is thawing and changing the chemistry of the landscape.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-astounding-changes-in-water-chemistry">Astounding changes in water chemistry</h2>



A new study zeroes in on the Salmon River, a key waterway in the Brooks Range, documenting just how far the contamination has progressed.&nbsp;



But the authors stress the pattern isn’t isolated. Similar transformations are underway across dozens of Arctic watersheds that share the same mix of geology and thaw.



“I have worked and traveled in the Brooks Range since 1976, and the recent changes in landforms and water chemistry are truly astounding,” said David Cooper, a <a href="https://www.colostate.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Colorado State University</a> research scientist and co-author of the study.



The alarm first sounded in 2019. Ecologist Paddy Sullivan of the <a href="https://www.alaska.edu/alaska/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Alaska</a> was flying into the backcountry to study northward-shifting forests when his bush pilot mentioned the Salmon hadn’t cleared after snowmelt - it looked, he said, “like sewage.”&nbsp;



Sullivan’s field observations led to a collaboration with Lyons, <a href="https://www.alaskapacific.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Alaska Pacific University</a>’s Roman Dial, and others to trace the cause and measure the ecological fallout.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-toxic-metals-in-alaska-s-rivers">Toxic metals in Alaska's rivers</h2>



The team’s analysis confirmed a geochemical cascade. Permafrost thaw exposes sulfide-bearing rocks, oxidation generates acidity, and the resulting acid mobilizes a suite of metals.&nbsp;



In small doses many metals are harmless or even essential. But at higher concentrations they become toxic to aquatic life - and the Salmon River’s waters now exceed the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">U.S. Environmental Protection Agency</a> thresholds for several metals detrimental to fish and invertebrates.



Iron is the most visible signal. As iron oxidizes, it forms fine, orange precipitates that cloud the water and coat the streambed. That haze blocks sunlight that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/antarctic-algae-that-once-cooled-earth-are-now-disappearing/">algae</a> and aquatic plants need, and the sludge blankets the gravel and cobbles where insect larvae live and fish spawn. 



Cadmium is more insidious: it can accumulate in fish organs, potentially affecting predators from Dolly Varden <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/trout-living-in-polluted-rivers-evolved-to-tolerate-high-metal-levels-in-the-waters/">trout</a> and grayling to birds and bears.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ripple-effects-in-the-food-chain">Ripple effects in the food chain</h2>



For now, the researchers say metal levels in edible fish tissue are not considered hazardous to humans. But indirect risks loom large.&nbsp;



Chum salmon - central to the diets and culture of many Indigenous communities - lay their eggs in clean, oxygenated gravel. When those spaces fill with fine sediment and metal precipitates, the oxygen drops and eggs can suffocate. 



Changes in insect communities ripple up the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/oceans-twilight-zone-stabilizes-the-marine-food-chain/">food chain</a>, weakening the foundation that supports juvenile fish and the species that eat them.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-irreversible-shift-in-alaska-s-rivers">Irreversible shift in Alaska's rivers</h2>



Unlike mine sites - where engineers can install liners, drains, or neutralizing systems - these rivers wind through remote, roadless country, and the sources of contamination are everywhere thaw has reached the right rock. There is no single pipe to plug, no settling pond to build.



“Wherever you have the right kind of rock and thawing permafrost, this process can start,” Lyons said. And once it does, it tends to keep going. The only true “off switch” would be for the permafrost to refreeze - an unlikely prospect in a warming climate.



“There’s no fixing this once it starts,” Lyons said. “It’s another irreversible shift driven by a warming planet.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fingerprints-of-global-warming">Fingerprints of global warming</h2>



The experts hope their findings will help communities, land managers, and fisheries prepare - by expanding water quality monitoring, identifying vulnerable spawning grounds, planning alternative harvests if runs falter, and adapting management practices as conditions change.



The broader message is sobering. The Brooks Range is about as far from cities and smokestacks as you can get. Yet its rivers are wearing the unmistakable fingerprints of global warming.



“There are few places left on Earth as untouched as these <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/alaskas-rivers-are-rusting-and-the-changes-are-visible-from-space/">rivers</a>,” Lyons said. “But even here, far from cities and highways, the fingerprint of global warming is unmistakable. No place is spared.”



Rivers once known for their wild clarity are telling a new story - one where ancient ice, long trusted to keep the land’s chemistry in check, is finally letting go.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2425644122" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.



Image Credit: Taylor Rhoades



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Alaska's rivers are turning orange, and the changes are irreversible

High in Alaska’s Brooks Range, streams that once ran so clear you could drink from them are now the color of rusty tea. The water looks hazy, smells metallic, and can stain rocks orange for miles.&nbsp; Fish are struggling, insect life is smothered, and the change has arrived with startling speed. Scientists say the culprit isn’t industry. It’s thawing permafrost. When frozen ground wakes up For millennia, Arctic permafrost - permanently frozen soil - locked minerals in place. As the region warms, that icy seal is failing....

Plains All American Pipeline indicted on criminal charges for oil spill. A Texas pipeline company responsible for spilling more than 140,000 gallons of crude oil on the California coast last year was indicted on dozens of criminal charges in the disaster that closed popular beaches and killed sea lions and birds, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Plains All American Pipeline and one of its employees face 46 counts of state law violations in the May 19, 2015, spill that initially went undetected until oil began pouring onto a pristine beach on the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/santa-barbara-turquoise-waters/">Santa Barbara</a> coastline and running into the ocean.
Initial investigations by federal regulators found the 2-foot-wide underground pipeline was severely corroded where it broke on land.Plains All American Pipeline indicted on criminal charges for oil spill
Plains was charged in Santa Barbara Superior Court with four felony counts of spilling oil in state waters and could face fines of up to $2.8 million if convicted of all the charges, prosecutors said.
"The carelessness of Plains All American harmed hundreds of species and marine life off Refugio Beach," California Attorney General Kamala Harris said in a statement. "This conduct is criminal, and today's charges serve as a powerful reminder of the consequences that flow from jeopardizing the well-being of our ecosystems and public health."
Plains said in a statement that the spill was an accident and believes no criminal behavior occurred.
"We will demonstrate that the charges have no merit and represent an inappropriate attempt to criminalize an unfortunate accident," the company said.
The spill two weeks before Memorial Day weekend last year forced the state to close popular beaches as an oil plume spread nine miles into the Pacific Ocean. More than 220 birds, mostly pelicans, and nearly 140 marine mammals, mostly sea lions, were found dead in the aftermath, and tar balls from the spill drifted more than 100 miles away to Los Angeles beaches.
The Houston-based company faces three dozen misdemeanor counts of harming wildlife.
The spill was a grim reminder of a much larger disaster in 1969 when an offshore oil rig blowout blackened Santa Barbara beaches, killed wildlife and created a backlash that helped give birth to the environmental movement.
The Plains rupture was the largest coastal oil spill since the BP's Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico six years ago that killed 11 rig workers and spewed millions of gallons of crude. BP settled federal criminal charges by pleading guilty to 12 felony counts and two misdemeanors and reached $20 billion settlement with the Justice Department for environmental damages.
Plains could still face federal criminal charges for last year's spill. The Department of Transportation's pipeline enforcement agency is expected to release the results this spring of its year-long investigation into the disaster's cause.
Initial investigation results have pointed to a badly corroded pipeline that had undergone strength tests just weeks before the spill, but the results had not been analyzed before it broke. Preliminary reports also show that it took hours for Plains to recognize what happened and notify officials.
A Plains employee and the company were charged in the indictment with misdemeanor counts of failing to report the spill quickly enough to state emergency officials.
James Buchanan, 41, the company's environmental and regulatory compliance specialist, faces up to three years if convicted of all charges, prosecutors said.
The company and Buchanan are scheduled for arraignment June 6.
Plains said it had cooperated fully in the investigation, but Harris said at a news conference the company had been "far less than cooperative."
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Plains All American Pipeline indicted on criminal charges for oil spill

Plains All American Pipeline indicted on criminal charges for oil...

Officials: 2016 California wildfire season should be severe. California could face a dangerous and difficult 2016 California wildfire season despite a relatively wet winter, federal officials warned Tuesday.
Most of the rest of the nation is expected to see an average summer, but even that means thousands of wildfires, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said after a briefing from the U.S. Forest Service, which is part of his department.
A five-year drought has left 40 million dead and dried-out trees in<a href="http://www.earth.com/image/august-complex-fire-has-become-the-largest-in-californias-history/"> California</a>, including 29 million that died last year alone, Vilsack said.
"This creates a tremendous hazard, potential hazard, for fires and firefighting this year," he said.
An El Nino weather pattern brought near-normal snowfall to parts of California last winter, but its forests need much more rain and snow to recover fully from the drought, Vilsack said.
Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell said Southern California didn't benefit from the El Nino as much as the state's northern mountains.
He said the effects of drought will continue to kill California's trees for at least three more years.
Tidwell and Vilsack said the Forest Service - the primary federal wildfire-fighting agency - has 10,000 firefighters ready nationwide, along with more than 350 aircraft and 900 fire trucks.
Wildfires are increasing in number and intensity in the U.S., and the wildfire season has grown by 78 days since 1970, Tidwell said.
Last year, wildfires burned a record 15,800 square miles. Seven Forest Service firefighters died and 4,500 homes were damaged or destroyed.
Vilsack and Tidwell said climate change was responsible for the worsening fires.
"This is not weather," Tidwell said. "This is climate change. That's what we're dealing with."
Vilsack and Tidwell's warnings about the 2016 season largely echoed what forecasters at the National Interagency Fire Coordinating Center said two weeks ago when they issued their outlook for the summer months.
They said Hawaii, Alaska, California and other parts of the Southwest face an above-average threat. The potential for significant fires will be below average for much of Texas, the South and the southern Midwest, they said.
Sounding frustrated and impatient, Vilsack repeated his plea Tuesday for Congress to pay the cost of fighting the worst fires from disaster emergency funds, not the Forest Service budget.
The Forest Service says the largest 1 or 2 percent of wildfires account for about 30 percent of the costs.
Firefighting consumed more than half the Forest Service budget last year, draining money from forest management and other programs, Vilsack said. Fires will soon eat up two-thirds of the agency's budget, he said.
"Congress has an affirmative responsibility and duty to fix this problem," he said.
Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said money alone isn't enough. He said environmental regulations and lawsuits keep the Forest Service from culling enough fire-prone trees from the forests.
---
Follow Dan Elliott at <a href="http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP.</a> His work can be found at <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/content/dan-elliott." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://bigstory.ap.org/content/dan-elliott.</a>
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Officials: 2016 California wildfire season should be severe

Officials: 2016 California wildfire season should be severe. California could...

<div>

The environmental and public health benefits of solar power. Berkeley, CA -- Solar power could deliver $400 billion in environmental and public health benefits throughout the United States by 2050, according to a <a href="https://emp.lbl.gov/publications/environmental-and-public-health" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">study</a> from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

"We find that a U.S. electric system in which solar plays a major role--supplying 14% of demand in 2030, and 27% in 2050--would result in enduring environmental and health benefits. Moreover, we find that the existing fleet of solar plants is already offering a down-payment towards those benefits, and that there are sizable regional differences in the benefits," said Ryan Wiser of Berkeley Lab's Energy Technologies Area.

The total monetary value of the greenhouse-gas and air pollution benefits of the high-penetration solar scenario exceeds $400 billion in present-value terms under central assumptions. Focusing on the existing end-of-2014 fleet of solar power projects, recent annual benefits equal more than $1.5 billion under central assumptions.

The report, The Environmental and Public Health Benefits of Achieving High Penetrations of Solar Energy in the United States, may be downloaded <a href="https://emp.lbl.gov/publications/environmental-and-public-health" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>. The report is part of a series of papers published as part of the U.S. Department of Energy's <a href="http://energy.gov/eere/sunshot/path-sunshot" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">On the Path to SunShot</a> study. The DOE launched the <a href="http://energy.gov/eere/sunshot/sunshot-initiative" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SunShot Initiative</a> in 2011, with the goal of driving down the cost of solar energy so that it was cost-competitive with other forms of electricity by the end of the decade. The new reports take stock of the progress already made, and highlight various barriers and opportunities that remain to achieving SunShot-level <a href="http://energy.gov/eere/sunshot/about-sunshot-initiative" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cost reductions</a>. The full set of reports, including two others involving Berkeley Lab, can be found <a href="http://energy.gov/eere/sunshot/path-sunshot" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>.

The SunShot Initiative aims to lower the installed cost of solar by 75% between 2010 and 2020. In their <a href="http://energy.gov/eere/sunshot/sunshot-vision-study" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SunShot Vision Study</a>, published in 2012, DOE found that meeting SunShot's low-cost solar goal could result in solar supplying 14% of U.S. electricity demand by 2030 and 27% by 2050.

The new study follows up on that work by evaluating the greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions reductions, air-pollution health and environmental impacts, and water-use reductions from large amounts of solar. As Trieu Mai from NREL explains, "This study augments the original DOE report by attaching specific numbers to the benefits of solar energy. It also assesses the benefits already being delivered by the existing fleet of solar projects. Importantly, we take great care to describe our methods and highlight underlying uncertainties."

Benefits of the Existing Fleet of Solar Projects

The study finds that the 20 gigawatts (GW) of solar installed as of the end of 2014 is already lowering annual GHGs by 17 million metric tons, worth about $700 million per year if valued with a central estimate of the "social cost of carbon" - the Obama Administration's estimate of the long-term damage done by one ton of carbon emissions. Over half of these benefits come from emissions reductions in California.

Solar is also reducing conventional air pollutants from power plants - sulfur, nitrogen, and particulates - and the corresponding health benefits are greatest in the eastern United States. Overall, the health and environmental benefits of this pollution reduction are worth an estimated $890 million from avoiding premature mortality and a range of other negative health outcomes. "The East has more coal-fired power generation than the rest of the country, and therefore sees greater benefits in reducing conventional pollutants," explained Wiser, the lead author of the study.

Benefits from a High-Penetration Solar Energy Future

Looking further ahead, with solar growing to 14% of demand by 2030 and 27% by 2050, the study finds GHG reductions of 13% in 2030 and 18% in 2050, compared to a scenario of no new solar. These emission reductions are worth about $259 billion in reduced global climate damages based on central estimates, or 2.2 cents per kWh of solar.

Hitting SunShot goals is also found to reduce sulfur, nitrogen, and particulate emissions, delivering $167 billion in health and environmental benefits, or 1.4 cents per kWh of solar, again based on central estimates. The most notable benefit comes from reducing premature mortality from sulfate particles. Achieving the SunShot Vision scenario reduces premature mortalities by between 25,000 and 59,000 lives, based on methods developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Lastly, solar power reduces water use by power plants. Relative to the baseline scenario, achieving the SunShot Vision scenario reduces power-sector water withdrawals by 8% in 2030 and 5% in 2050, while water consumption is reduced by 10% in 2030 and 16% in 2050. Importantly, states that are sunny, but drought-prone and arid like California and Texas, are among those with the largest reductions in water use.

The research was supported by funding from the U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative.
###
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world's most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab's scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. For more, visit <a href="http://www.lbl.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://www. lbl. gov</a>.

DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.

The SunShot Initiative is a collaborative national effort that aggressively drives innovation to make solar energy fully cost-competitive with traditional energy sources before the end of the decade. Through SunShot, DOE supports efforts by private companies, universities, and national laboratories to drive down the cost of solar electricity to $0.06 per kilowatt-hour. Learn more at energy.gov/sunshot.

</div>

The environmental and public health benefits of solar power

The environmental and public health benefits of solar power. Berkeley,...

Climate change is worsening Houston flooding. With clay soil and tabletop-flat terrain, Houston has endured flooding for generations. Its 1,700 miles of man-made channels struggle to dispatch storm runoff to the Gulf of Mexico.
Now Houston is being overwhelmed with more frequent and more destructive floods. The latest calamity occurred April 18, killing eight people and causing tens of millions of dollars in damage. The worsening floods aren't simple acts of nature or just costly local concerns. Federal taxpayers get soaked too. Climate change is worsening Houston flooding
Extreme downpours have doubled in frequency over the past three decades, climatologists say, in part because of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/melting-sea-ice-accelerates-global-warming-in-a-vicious-cycle/">global warming</a>. The other main culprit is unrestrained development in the only major U.S. city without zoning rules. That combination means more pavement and deeper floodwaters. Critics blame cozy relations between developers and local leaders for inadequate flood-protection measures.
An Associated Press analysis of government data found that if Harris County, which includes Houston, were a state it would rank in the top five or six in every category of repeat federal flood losses - defined as any property with two or more losses in a 10-year-period amounting to at least $1,000 each.
Since 1998, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has paid more than $3 billion in today's dollars for flood losses in metropolitan Houston.
While <a href="https://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/20130726-1709-25045-4851/2-severerepetetiveloss.pdf">repeat federal flood relief payouts</a> average about $3,000 per square mile nationally, they are nearly half a million dollars per square mile in metro Houston. Six of Texas' eight federally declared disasters since December 2013 included floods.
"Houston has always had a flood problem, and the growth in the paving has only made it worse," FEMA Director Craig Fugate said. When the best building and land-use practices aren't followed, "we see the costs of disasters go up."
Metro Houston, which includes smaller communities and unincorporated parts of Harris County, has added more than a million people since 1992, while the amount of water-absorbing wetlands per capita has been halved. Paved surfaces in the county increased by well over 25 percent in that period, according to researchers.
Paved land generates five times more runoff than woodlands.
"There's basically very little control of development," said Susan Cutter, director of the Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute at the University of South Carolina.
Since the 1980s, Houston's preferred approach to flood control, besides improving drainage, has been to build thousands of detention ponds, concrete-lined pools that capture stormwater and pipe it out slowly.
But developers don't build enough floodwater retention into their projects, and "areas that never flooded before now flood in the smallest event," said Ed Browne, chairmen of the citizens' group <a href="http://drainagecoalition.com/">Residents Against Flooding</a> .
For example, if a property previously had construction and is being redeveloped, building codes don't require detention ponds.
"That's just not how the laws are set up," said Mike Talbott, executive director of the<a href="https://www.hcfcd.org/">Harris County Flood Control District.</a>
He said blaming new construction for worsening flooding is unwarranted.
"The new growth is mitigating its own impacts," he said.
---
HOMEOWNER COMPLAINTS, CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS
Across Houston, anxiety rises when heavy rain is forecast, and people dread what hydrologists call "sheet flow."
That's especially true in places such as Frostwood, a west Houston neighborhood downhill from Memorial City, a development with big-box stores, office towers, a hospital, a hotel and condos.
Memorial City's owner, Metro National, has benefited from more than a decade of infrastructure improvements made by a quasi-governmental authority that the company's own lawyers helped create.
Flooded residents claim the authority failed to honor a 2003 pledge to build stormwater detention ponds on their side of Interstate 10, which the state Department of Transportation subsequently expanded to 26 lanes including frontage.
"It seems like we've just got a concrete jungle around us now with no place for the water to go," said Carolyn Elliott, an 81-year-old widow whose husband was critically ill when an April 2009 deluge forced them from their home of three decades.
Jim Jard, a former Metro National president who sat on the Houston Planning Commission for 25 years and is still involved with the company, said "there is no civil engineer that will tell you projects at Metro National caused additional flooding."
Developers play big in Houston politics.
Nearly half of the $313,000 that Harris County's top elected official, Commissioner Ed Emmett, collected in campaign contributions in the first half of 2014 came from engineers, builders, developers and real estate interests. Emmett said it's unfair to say the donations gave them outsized influence. So why do they give?
"Why does anyone give money to campaigns? You'd have to ask them," said Emmett, a Republican re-elected in November 2014.
More than a quarter of the $726,000 in contributions to Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner last December came from developers, engineers, builders and real estate interests. Some of the money for Turner, a Democrat who won a Dec. 12 runoff, was collected at a Metro National fundraiser. Turner's spokeswoman, Janice Evans, said project choices in the "Rebuild Houston" program for improving drainage are based on need and data, "not influence from any one group."
Freshman city council member Greg Travis said Metro National backed his opponent during last year's race. After Travis won, he said, the company gave him six or seven personal checks, including one from Jard. He said he never cashed the checks and didn't recall the amounts.
"I am not opposed to Metro National," Travis said. "I like a lot of what they do. But there are certain things I don't like. And the fact is, I don't need their money."
---
RISING TEMPERATURES, FREQUENT DOWNPOURS
Climate change is increasingly concentrating downpours into smaller areas, with big implications for urban flooding, scientists say. On April 18, one northwest section of Harris County got 4.7 inches in an hour.
Rising average temperatures since 1985 have packed 7 percent more moisture into the atmosphere above Houston, while warmer Gulf of Mexico waters collude in the heavier rains.
Since 1986, extreme downpours - the type measured in double-digit inches - have occurred twice as often as in the previous 30 years, the AP weather analysis showed.
Texas State Climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon said to expect more frequent and bigger downpours. "The odds are twice as high as they have been in the past."
Since the late 1970s, FEMA has made more flood damage payments in Harris County than in any place outside New Orleans and two other Louisiana parishes also ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. The agency received more than 8,000 claims from last month's deluge but has yet to calculate how many are repeat victims.
Entire blocks of chronically flooded Houston neighborhoods should be acquired for conversion into water-absorbing open spaces, said Roy Wright, FEMA's associate deputy administrator. But buyouts are voluntary, and FEMA doesn't pay for relocation.
Harris County has done about 3,000 buyouts over the past three decades, underwritten mostly by federal dollars. Talbott said buyouts will remain part of the strategy, though Mark Loethen of Houston's Public Works Department said the city prefers helping homeowners get federal grants to raise homes above flood levels.
With each new flood, the maps FEMA uses to determine flood insurance eligibility and other matters become instantly obsolete. A 2013 presidential directive told the agency to start using computer modeling to update the maps, but that hasn't happened yet.
Harris County boasts of being among just seven agencies nationwide that is empowered to independently update flood maps, although FEMA must give final approval. In places such as Denver and North Carolina, that practice has worked well, said Alan Lulloff of the Association of State Flood Plain Managers.
But Houston environmental attorney Jim Blackburn said Harris County's autonomy emerged out of the pro-developer 1980s. "In some of the more egregious cases, it appeared to us that developers had an undue influence in the shape or extent of the flood plain," he said.
Blackburn has filed three related lawsuits in the last 15 years. A Sierra Club suit prompted FEMA to raise the flood plain by some 4 feet in a northwestern suburb. Another suit failed to halt construction of a section of Houston's third outer-ring highway. The Texas Supreme Court is rehearing a 2002 lawsuit filed by homeowners along oft-flooded White Oak Bayou so they might qualify for federal relief.
---
ONE FAMILY, TWO FLOODS
Parts of Meyerland, a leafy subdivision inaugurated on a former rice field in 1955 by then-Vice President Richard Nixon, are now a forlorn hodgepodge of flood-ravaged, one-story ranch homes, many with "for sale" signs. The neighborhood 10 miles southwest of downtown includes many homes that were rebuilt 5 feet above ground.
Self-employed IT administrator Harry Duffey, 48, was just about to move back in with his wife and four kids when the latest flood hit. A few miles upstream, nearly 8 inches of rain fell in just three hours.
The family bought their 5,100-square-foot home, located just a block from Bray's Bayou, three years ago for $750,000. Nothing in its records indicated it had ever flooded, Duffey said.
On Memorial Day 2015, the Duffeys were wading in 2.5 feet of fetid water. They had not yet moved back in when the water returned a month ago. Wood floors and drywall were ripped out again.
The graduate of nearby Rice University got a $250,000 flood insurance payout last time. Deeply in debt, he hopes for the same again.
"From a financial standpoint, the only thing that makes sense is to move back, to remodel a third time," he said.
---
Borenstein reported from Washington, D.C.
---
Follow Borenstein at <a href="http://twitter.com/borenbears">http://twitter.com/borenbears</a> . His work can be found at<a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/content/seth-borenstein">http://bigstory.ap.org/content/seth-borenstein</a> .
Follow Bajak at <a href="http://twitter.com/fbajak">http://twitter.com/fbajak</a> . His work can be found at<a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/content/frank-bajak">http://bigstory.ap.org/content/frank-bajak</a> .
© 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Climate change is worsening Houston flooding

Climate change is worsening Houston flooding. With clay soil and...

ENV-SMOG

GM: Pollution control hardware changes caused SUV mileage drop. A change in pollution control hardware between model years cut the gas mileage on some General Motors SUVs and forced it to correct the figures on window stickers, the company said Wednesday.
GM announced last week that the fuel economy was overstated by one-to-two miles per gallon on the 2016 GMC Acadia, Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enclave.GM: Pollution control hardware changes caused SUV mileage drop
But Consumer Reports magazine questioned why the 2016 mileage would be worse than the 2015 models when little was changed between model years and the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/dogs-hurt-legs-jumping-cars/">SUVs</a> from each year had the same engines and transmissions.
GM spokesman Nick Richards said Wednesday he doesn't know why the pollution hardware was changed. But he said the SUVs from all model years comply with clean air laws. The mileage was recalculated for 2016 but never made it onto the window stickers, he said.
The mistake was discovered recently by engineers who were working on the 2017 model stickers. The company said the mistake was inadvertent and that it informed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
GM now is in the process of tracking down 170,000 owners of 2016 models to give them new stickers, Richards said. It's likely that they'll get some money, too. In similar cases automakers including Hyundai and Kia compensated owners for the difference in window sticker mileage estimates.
Jake Fisher, Consumer Reports' auto testing chief, said GM's explanation still doesn't make sense. He said he's not aware of any change in pollution control standards that would require any hardware change and that it's rare for a company to make such alterations between model years.
"If they changed that car for pollution reasons and the 2015s passed pollution controls, I don't understand why they would do that and cut fuel economy by 10 percent," Fisher said.
EPA spokeswoman Laura Allen deferred comment on the mileage to GM and didn't answer questions about whether the agency is investigating. But Richards said GM employees "continue to work with the EPA on this issue."
GM told dealers to stop selling the roughly 60,000 of the SUVs on their lots until new stickers could be printed. Richards said most dealers now have the new stickers and can resume sales once they're glued to the windows.
For a front-wheel-drive version, the 2016 fuel economy of the SUVs was revised to 15 mpg city, 22 mpg highway and 18 mpg combined. The 2015 models got 17 mpg in the city, 24 on the highway and 19 combined.
© 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

GM: Pollution control hardware changes caused SUV mileage drop

GM: Pollution control hardware changes caused SUV mileage drop. A...

Fish can adapt warm water but not extreme heat. Fish can adjust to warmer ocean temperatures, but heat waves can still kill them, a team of researchers from Sweden, Norway and <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/australian-bees-adapted-their-vision-to-forage-at-night/">Australia</a> reports in an article published this week in Nature Communications.

"A species might adapt and grow well (in warmer waters) but once you get strong heat spells, the water temperature might reach lethal temperatures and kill them," said Fredrik Jutfelt, an associate professor in biology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology who was senior author of the study. Fish can adapt warm water but not extreme heat

Jutfelt and his colleagues studied European perch that live in a unique enclosed basin of warm water off the Swedish coast. The man-made basin, called the Forsmark Biotest Enclosure, was created three decades ago as a 1-km2 open-air laboratory by piping warm water from the nearby Forsmark nuclear power plant into an enclosed basin.

The result is water that is between five and 10 degrees C warmer than the surrounding Baltic Sea, but that otherwise experiences natural daily and seasonal fluctuations. It offers researchers a kind of crystal ball on what can happen to fish in a warmer world.

"It's a fantastic model for studying climate change effects," Jutfelt said. "It's a whole natural ecosystem experiencing long-term warming."

Plastic floors....

In experiments conducted in 2012 and 2013, researchers compared the Biotest perch to European perch by putting perch from outside of the enclosure into tanks filled from warm water from the enclosure l to see how their metabolic rates changed.

The resting metabolism for the Biotest fish was lower than for the perch from outside of the enclosure, the researchers found, which showed that the Biotest fish had been able to adjust their metabolisms to the overall higher temperatures in the basin over time.

"When we warmed up the reference perch quickly, their resting metabolic rate went up dramatically, whereas the Biotest fishes' resting metabolic rates were significantly lower at the same temperature," said Timothy Clark, a senior research fellow at the University of Tasmania in Australia who was part of the research team.

The researchers described this metabolic adaptation as a "plastic floor," meaning that there was some flexibility in the ways the Biotest fish had adjusted their resting metabolisms to the warmer temperatures.

...but concrete ceilings

But the fish that inhabited the Biotest enclosure weren't able to make the same kind of change in their ability to tolerate temperature extremes, the researchers found.

For example, perch living in the Baltic outside of the Biotest enclosure were able to survive in temperatures that were as much as 10 degrees C warmer than the water temperatures they had been used to living in during the summer.

The fish inside the Biotest enclosure, while adjusted to much warmer waters than the Baltic fish, were only able to survive temperatures that were 4.6 degrees C warmer than the waters they were used to living in during the summer. The researchers called this phenomenon a "concrete ceiling," because the Biotest enclosure fish were unable to tolerate much more of a maximum temperature than their free-living Baltic brethren.

"Even though the (Biotest) fish had been there for at least their lifetime, if not for generations, there was very little change in the lethal temperature" the fish could tolerate, Jutfelt said. "They have almost completely adjusted their resting physiology to the higher temperatures. But there has been very little adjustment in their tolerance to lethal temperatures."

In other words, Jutfelt said, the fish are living very close to their lethal limit.

"They have a very small safety margin to their lethal temperature," he said.

Weak link in physiological adaptation

Jutfelt said this limited ability to adjust to higher maximum lethal temperatures was a potential "weak link" in the ability of fish to adjust to climate change.

"Rather than having problems with their growth rates and normal daily life, the real problem will be with short heat spells," he said.

If this finding holds true for other fish species, he said, then fish living in northern lakes or the ocean may appear to be healthy even as water temperatures climb. But if waters warm too much, from a strong heat wave, the apparently well-adapted fish populations might die, he said.

"We think this might be important in fish (overall), the fact that they might not be able to adjust their tolerance to maximum levels," he said. "We think that might be the bottleneck for survival."

First author Erik Sandblom, from the University of Gothenburg's Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, agreed.

"In a future with a warmer climate and more extreme weather, it will be more difficult for fish to survive," he said.

<hr />
<a href="https://www.ntnu.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Norwegian University of Science and Technology</a>

Fish can adapt warm water but not extreme heat

Fish can adapt warm water but not extreme heat. Fish...

UN appoints Patricia Espinosa as new climate chief. The <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/united-nations-bans-trade-of-african-grey-parrots/">United Nations</a> has appointed a Mexican diplomat as the top U.N. official leading the fight against global warming.
Patricia Espinosa said in a statement Thursday that she is "grateful and honored" to be named executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The appointment was announced by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The 57-year-old Espinosa is Mexico's ambassador to Germany so she won't have to move far - the U.N.'s climate secretariat is in Bonn, the former capital of West Germany.
She will succeed Costa Rican Christiana Figueres who is stepping down in July after six years as the <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=un&amp;cvid=999bb9b80a4540539b4c60532eed7175&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">U.N.'s</a> climate boss.UN appoints Patricia Espinosa as new climate chief
Espinosa's main task will be to ensure that countries implement a landmark agreement to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, reached in Paris in December.
© 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Patricia Espinosa Cantellano (born October 21, 1958) is a Mexican politician and diplomat who is currently serving as the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. She was Mexican Ambassador to <a title="Austria" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austria">Austria</a>, <a title="Germany" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany">Germany</a>, <a title="Slovenia" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovenia">Slovenia</a> and Slovakia and served as <a title="Secretary of Foreign Affairs (Mexico)" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretary_of_Foreign_Affairs_(Mexico)">Secretary of Foreign Affairs</a> in the cabinet of President Felipe Calderón.

She graduated with a bachelor's degree in International Relations from <a title="El Colegio de México" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Colegio_de_M%C3%A9xico">El Colegio de México</a> and earned a diploma in International Law at the <a title="Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graduate_Institute_of_International_and_Development_Studies">Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies</a> in <a title="Switzerland" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland">Switzerland</a>. She is married and has two children

UN appoints Patricia Espinosa as new climate chief

UN appoints Patricia Espinosa as new climate chief. The United...

Dry winter means more dust storm danger in Southwest. It's that time of year in the Southwest - and as far as Alaska - when dust storms take shape, raising health and safety risks as plumes of dirt take to the sky.
A dry winter means the Southwest is seeing a greater number of dust storms. Experts say the infamous haboobs, as they're known in the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/phoenix-heavy-air-pollution/">Phoenix</a> area, will likely be active this summer when monsoon season begins. Dry winter means more dust storm danger in Southwest
In southern Arizona, a series of dust blasts on Interstate 10 near the New Mexico border have shut down the highway at least seven times in the past few weeks, sending drivers on a 60-mile detour. The dust is coming from a farm near San Simon, Arizona, that was readied for planting but never seeded, leaving loose soil that is easily picked up by winds.
That's caused zero-visibility storms that resulted in car accidents. Arizona State troopers now preemptively close the highway every time a storm approaches in an effort to keep drivers safe.
State officials say they're seeking fines against the farm's owner because he hasn't cooperated fast enough. The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality has watered the land to the tune of $20,000 a day for several days and is now using a biodegradable liquid designed to control dust erosion. The state plans to bill the landowner.
"Things can turn very quickly. And you're seeing that all over that place right now, but in other areas in Colorado, parts of Oklahoma," said Dave DuBois, climatologist at New Mexico State University.
DuBois said environmental conditions like drought, along with land use practices, affect how dusty the air will be. This calendar year has been particularly dry in the Southwest, which increases the risk of blowing dust.
"It's amazing to see the same issues whenever there's a dry spell combined with a land use practice of disturbing the soil. I mean it could be in Idaho, it could be Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas."
Scientists have also kept track of dust storms in more remote places like Alaska, where webcam images show cloud-like plumes of dirt circling near the upper Copper River in southeastern Alaska.
University of Arizona meteorologist Mike Leuthold says predicting dust storms is difficult because they form quickly.
Leuthold also specializes in forecasting haboobs in the Phoenix area. This year could see the giant walls of dust that roll in with thunderstorms more active because of the dry winter, Leuthold said.
In southern Arizona, the dust storms on I-10 have posed risks to both health and public safety, authorities say.
"To us it comes down to if we have to add 50 miles onto someone's trip to avoid any fatality or serious injury, we're just going to do it. We're just going to close the highway for the safety of everyone," Kameron Lee, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Public Safety, said.
Lee said authorities don't take the decision to shut down the highway lightly. Closures have economic repercussions, especially for commercial drivers who regularly use I-10.
Dust also poses health hazards to people with breathing or lung disorders.
Caroline Oppleman, spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, said the department at first thought the landowner was cooperating but realized he isn't acting fast enough. The Associated Press made several attempts via email and phone to contact the landowner, identified as David Turner by the department.
The department will seek fines of up to $10,000 a day against Turner, Oppleman said.
"In our opinion, he's not really moving with the urgency and quickness in the response that we would expect. We have to take whatever steps we need to take to mitigate that dust," she said.
© 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Dry winter means more dust storm danger in Southwest

Dry winter means more dust storm danger in Southwest. It's...

New water conservation plan in California. Officials with water districts throughout drought-stricken California said Wednesday they support a proposed move to put the agencies in control of water conservation after a wet winter eased conditions in some parts of the state.
A proposal being considered by the State Water Resources Control Board in Sacramento would allow local districts to compare their water supplies and demand then set savings goals into January.
Shannon Catullo of the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/new-water-conservation-plan-in-california/">South Tahoe</a> Public Utility District and other officials told the board they favor the plan. New water conservation plan in California
At her home in Irvine, Lee Nguyen says she's done her part to save water and supports local control over conservation efforts.
"I wash my veggies and I save water," she said, explaining that she uses it on her plants. "I save water for myself, for all of us, and for the environment."
Her supplier, the Irvine Ranch Water District in Orange County, led the push for a regional approach. Fiona Sanchez, director of water resources for the district, said she is confident that districts statewide will carefully study their supply and demand ratio.
"If agencies are not taking it seriously, it will be very evident they can't meet their customers' demands," she said.
If the change is made, some districts might set strict conservation goals for residents and businesses, while others could determine it is time to lift conservation mandates altogether.
California is in its fifth year of drought. Regulators are considering the new approach after El Nino storms delivered nearly average amounts of rain and snow this winter in Northern California, filling key reservoirs.
Southern California, however, remains deep in drought.
Bans on wasting water by washing sidewalks with a hose or cars without a shut-off nozzle would become permanent under the proposed regulation.
Max Gomberg, a senior climate scientist for the state water board, said Californians understand the drought remains critical. He doesn't expect people to suddenly begin wasting water with any changes.
"Californians have shown that when there's a serious drought and a need to conserve, people step up and pitch in," he said.
The new approach would be welcomed by Southern California landscaper Greg Gritters, who says local water officials are best suited to manage their supplies.
His clients have had to choose between keeping their lawns green at the expense of huge water bills or turn down their sprinklers and watch their yard turn brown.
"Either way they're unhappy," said Gritters, owner of Vintage Landscape in Coachella Valley.
-----
Taxin reported from Irvine, California.
© 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

New water conservation plan in California

New water conservation plan in California. Officials with water districts...

Coal industry bankruptcies creating more abandoned mines. The growing number of coal industry bankruptcies make it increasingly likely taxpayers will get stuck with the huge environmental costs of abandoned mines.
Analysts say it's only a matter of when, where and how many more coal mines will close. Concerns are growing bankrupt coal companies can't meet their cleanup and reclamation obligations. Coal industry <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/coal-industry-bankruptcies-creating-more-abandoned-mines/">bankruptcies</a> creating more abandoned mines
State and federal regulators for years have allowed coal companies to promise to clean up mines instead of setting aside money to do so. The practice is called <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=self+bonding&amp;cvid=432ae3c669a64602b99b20794ef33280&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">self-bonding</a>.
The Associated Press has counted up more than $3.3 billion in coal self-bonding obligations in nine top coal-mining states. That includes $2.3 billion in self-bonding by the three biggest coal companies in Chapter 11: Alpha Natural Resources, Arch Coal and Peabody Energy., rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Coal is primarily used as a fuel. While coal has been known and used for thousands of years, its usage was limited prior to the <a title="Industrial Revolution" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution">Industrial Revolution</a>. With the invention of the steam engine coal consumption increased. As of 2016, coal remains an important fuel as it supplied about a quarter of the world's <a title="Primary energy" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_energy">primary energy</a> and two-fifths of <a title="Electricity generation" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_generation">electricity</a>. Some <a title="Iron" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron">iron</a> and <a title="Steel" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel">steel</a> making and other industrial processes burn coal.

Coal industry bankruptcies creating more abandoned mines

Coal industry bankruptcies creating more abandoned mines. The growing number...

La Niña is coming!. One of the strongest El Niños on record has been dominating the tropical Pacific Ocean for the past year. But beneath the surface, a deep pool of cool water has been sliding slowly eastward for the past couple of months. This massive, slow-motion wave is a favorable sign that La Niña—the cool phase of the ENSO climate pattern—might develop.

This animated gif shows where temperatures in the top 300 meters (~1,000 feet) of the Pacific Ocean at the equator were warmer or cooler than average during 5-day periods centered on three dates this spring: March 14, April 13, and May 3.

As the weeks pass, the layer of warm water at the surface contracts to the central Pacific and becomes very shallow, a sign that the current El Niño is on its way out. By the final frame of the animation, the cold pool is just breaching the surface of the eastern Pacific off South America. (You can see these cool-water breakthroughs in our map of April 2016 surface temperatures.)

ENSO (which scientists pronounce “en-so,” like a word) is short for El Niño-Southern Oscillation. ENSO is a natural climate pattern in which the central-eastern tropical Pacific swings back and forth between a warm and rainy state (El Niño) and a cooler and drier state (La Niña).

ENSO’s impacts on wind, air pressure, and rain throughout the tropics can have cascading side effects around the whole globe, including shifting the location of the mid-latitude jet streams that guide storms towards the United States. El Niño and La Niña also tend to have seesawing impacts on the Atlantic and eastern Pacific hurricane seasons.

The influence of ENSO on temperature and precipitation in the United States is weakest in summer and strongest in winter. Last week, NOAA continued the previous month’s La Niña watch, indicating that conditions were favorable for La Niña to develop by fall. Read more about it on our ENSO blog.

---

<a href="http://www.noaa.gov" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NOAA</a>

La Niña is coming!

La Niña is coming!. One of the strongest El Niños...

Will more snow in Antarctica offset rising seas? Will more snow in Antarctica offset rising seas?. Many factors related to warming will conspire to raise the planet's oceans over coming decades -- thermal expansion of the world's oceans, melting of snow and ice worldwide, and the collapse of massive ice sheets.
<div>

But there are a few potential brakes. One was supposed to be heavier snow in Antarctica. Warmer air will hold more moisture and thus generate more snow to fall inland and slightly rebuild the glacier, according to climate model projections.

Not so fast, says a University of <a href="http://www.earth.com/image/mount-rainier-in-washington/">Washington</a> study published in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union. The authors looked at evidence from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide ice core to get a first clear look at how the continent's snowfall has varied over 31,000 years.

"It's allowed us to look at the snow accumulation back in time in much more detail than we've been able to do with any other deep ice core in Antarctica," said lead author T.J. Fudge, a UW postdoctoral researcher in Earth and space sciences. "We show that warmer temperatures and snowfall sometimes go together, but often they don't."

For example, the record includes periods before 8,000 years ago, as Earth was coming out of its last ice age, when the air temperature went up by several degrees without any boost in the amount of snowfall.

"Our results make it clear that we cannot have confidence in projections of future snowfall over Antarctica under global warming," said co-author Eric Steig, a UW professor of Earth and space sciences.

The plateau of East Antarctica, the site of most previous ice cores, is relatively high and dry. About 80 percent of the continent's precipitation falls on the lower, stormier edges, like where this core was drilled in 2006-2011. (To prepare scientists for conditions during a West Antarctic snowstorm, Fudge notes, researchers had to practice navigating outside with a bucket over their heads.) The 2.1-mile, or 3.5-kilometer, ice core preserves climate history in enough detail to show individual snow years.

Many climate models predict that warming temperatures will mean more snow in Antarctica in the future. When more snow falls inland at the upper edge of the flowing ice sheet, it counteracts mass lost to melting or calving at the edges. This extra snowfall would reverse 2 to 4 centimeters, or about 1 inch, of global sea-level rise by 2100, researchers said.

"It's not a huge component," Fudge acknowledges, "but if you live close to sea level, centimeters certainly matter."

The new study, however, shows that temperature is an unreliable predictor of Antarctic snowfall.

"Depending on what part of the record you look at, you can draw different conclusions," Fudge said. "During some of the more abrupt climate changes, from when we had ice sheets to our current climate state, there's actually no relationship between temperature and snowfall."

The large variation seen in the historical record probably reflects shifts in atmospheric patterns and how storm tracks reach Antarctica, Fudge said. Research is increasingly showing that winds play a big role in Antarctic temperature, sea ice and weather patterns, especially on shorter timescales, and that the gale-force winds that whip around the continent are connected to weather patterns in the tropics.

"For sea-level rise, we're not really interested in what happens over thousands of years," Fudge said. "We're interested in what happens over the next few hundred years. At that shorter timescale, the variability in how the storms reach the continent matters much more than a few degrees of warming."

The snowfall record may help to understand how winds affect Antarctic weather, and how atmospheric connections with the tropics influence the amount of relatively warm ocean water that laps at the frozen continent's edge.

"By getting models to better capture the variability in our snowfall record, we actually will get a better idea of how the warm ocean is going to interact with the ice sheets at the edge, and those will have an even bigger impact on sea level, eventually," Fudge said.
###
The study, published online April 28, 2016 was funded by the National Science Foundation and NASA. Other co-authors are UW doctoral student Bradley Markle; UW faculty members Edwin Waddington, Howard Conway and Michelle Koutnik; Kurt Cuffrey at the University of California, Berkeley; Christo Buizert at Oregon State University; and Kendrick Taylor at Nevada's Desert Research Institute.

For more information:

Fudge
<a href="mailto:tjfudge@uw.edu">tjfudge@uw.edu</a>
650-743-5227

Steig
<a href="mailto:steig@uw.edu">steig@uw.edu</a>
206-685-3715

</div>

Will more snow in Antarctica offset rising seas?

Will more snow in Antarctica offset rising seas? Will more...

<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.

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</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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https://youtu.be/Ug657J67iEo?si=w96YjGMsg939LD_3
</div></figure>



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Is chocolate the next nutritional powerhouse?

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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



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Designing crops that can beat the heat

[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



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.

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 



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.

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

[sendtonews key="uV9Lh2fQbV-1760058-12187" type="single"] Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky" Today’s...

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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



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.

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



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.

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



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.

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



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.

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



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.

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



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.

Tracking changes in Earth's water cycle

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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.

Mysterious "spoke season" captured on Saturn

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NTU Singapore



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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.

Weeds are becoming increasingly resistant to herbicides

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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.

NASA monitors giant dust storms on Mars

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