In The News

Esquire: The Water Crises Are Here

Alec Wilkinson August 29, 2018
Earth has a limited supply of water, and an increasing amount could become unusable due to every imaginable contamination, explains Alec Wilkinson in an article for Esquire. “Water cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be damaged,” he writes. “Having evaporated from lakes and rivers and oceans and returned as snow and rain, the water we consume has been through innumerable uses. Dinosaurs...

South China Morning Post: Pollution Can Damage Brain

Alice Shen August 28, 2018
Air pollution has long been listed as a health hazard, causing respiratory problems and reducing life expectancy. New research also points to harm for the brain and cognition skills, especially among the elderly. The Chinese research study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “The researchers came to the conclusions by comparing the results of 32,000 Chinese men...

The Diplomat: Plans for South China Sea Nuclear Power Plants

Viet Phuong Nguyen May 11, 2018
Environmentalists express concerns about a floating nuclear power plant, the Akademik Lomonosov, dispatched by Russia in late April to the Arctic. China also plans as many as 20 floating nuclear reactors in the South China Sea: “In 2016, two major Chinese state-owned nuclear suppliers, the China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC) and China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN), announced a plan to...

Japan Times: Tourism Takes Its Toll on Coral

Jessica Kozuka April 24, 2018
Coral growth is a delicate process, depending on marine microeukarvotes living inside the marine networks. Coral dies without the photosynthetic organisms. The UN Environment Program recommends a dive site be limited to 6,000 visitors per year to remain healthy. Concerned that Japan’s coral reefs receives little monitoring, a marine scientist at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology...

Nature: Ocean Circulation Is Changing

April 12, 2018
Rising temperatures and melting polar ice influence the system of ocean currents that shift cold water from Greenland. “Since the 1950s, geologists and oceanographers have been gathering convincing evidence that alterations in ocean circulation are a key determinant of climate change,” notes an editorial from Nature, warning that abrupt shifts in the past have resulted in dramatic temperature...

ScienceDaily: Agricultural Production vs. Biodiversity

April 9, 2018
Increased land use by the agriculture industry reduces wildlife and biodiversity. A team of German researchers based at Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research relied on global datasets quantifying the needs of major crops with geographical distribution of animals and their other requirements, and “found that 88 percent of the biodiversity that is expected to be lost under future agricultural...

New Yorker: When 26,000 Stinkbugs Invade a Home

Kathryn Schulz March 9, 2018
Brown marmorated stinkbugs are ravaging an array of crops along with ordinary trees and plants. They also swarm some US homes by the thousands. The insect, known for a noxious smell, is a product of globalization, explains Kathryn Schulz for the New Yorker. The stinkbug’s native habitat is East Asia, and the United States lacks natural predators like the samurai wasp. Stinkbugs are attracted to...