Magazine

Listening to nature: How sound can help us understand environmental change

Garth Paine, Arizona State University Our hearing tells us of a car approaching from behind, unseen, or a bird in a distant forest. Everything vibrates, and sound passes through and around us all the time. Sound is a critical environmental signifier. Increasingly, we are learning that humans and animals are not the only organisms that …

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Retired oil rigs off the California coast could find new lives as artificial reefs

Ann Scarborough Bull, University of California, Santa Barbara and Milton Love, University of California, Santa Barbara Offshore oil and gas drilling has been a contentious issue in California for 50 years, ever since a rig ruptured and spilled 80,000 to 100,000 barrels of crude oil off Santa Barbara in 1969. Today it’s spurring a new …

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As more developing countries reject plastic waste exports, wealthy nations seek solutions at home

Kate O’Neill, University of California, Berkeley Less than two years after China banned most imports of scrap material from abroad, many of its neighbors are following suit. On May 28, 2019, Malaysia’s environment minister announced that the country was sending 3,000 metric tons of contaminated plastic wastes back to their countries of origin, including the …

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To solve climate change and biodiversity loss, we need a Global Deal for Nature

Greg Asner, Arizona State University Earth’s cornucopia of life has evolved over 550 million years. Along the way, five mass extinction events have caused serious setbacks to life on our planet. The fifth, which was caused by a gargantuan meteorite impact along Mexico’s Yucatan coast, changed Earth’s climate, took out the dinosaurs and altered the …

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Why reducing carbon emissions from cars and trucks will be so hard

David Keith, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Christopher R. Knittel, MIT Sloan School of Management A growing number of cities, states and countries aim to dramatically reduce or even eliminate carbon emissions to avert catastrophic levels of climate change. Ideas about how to get this done as soon as possible, including those Democratic lawmakers like …

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humpback-whale

Sea creatures store carbon in the ocean – could protecting them help slow climate change?

Heidi Pearson, University of Alaska Southeast As the prospect of catastrophic effects from climate change becomes increasingly likely, a search is on for innovative ways to reduce the risks. One potentially powerful and low-cost strategy is to recognize and protect natural carbon sinks – places and processes that store carbon, keeping it out of Earth’s …

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When people downsize to tiny houses, they adopt more environmentally friendly lifestyles

Maria Saxton, Virginia Tech Interest is surging in tiny homes – livable dwelling units that typically measure under 400 square feet. Much of this interest is driven by media coverage that claims that living in tiny homes is good for the planet. It may seem intuitively obvious that downsizing to a tiny home would reduce …

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3 ways activist kids these days resemble their predecessors

David S. Meyer, University of California, Irvine A gaggle of young activists recently paid Dianne Feinstein a visit at the senator’s San Francisco office, imploring her to support the Green New Deal framework for confronting climate change. She responded by explaining the complicated legislative process, emphasizing her decades of experience and promising to pursue a …

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