Feature Channels: Environmental Science

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A study published January 28 in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives suggests that women with higher exposure to phthalates during their pregnancy report more disruptive and problem behaviors in their children, using standardized measures. The study included 188 children whose mothers enrolled in Mount Sinai School of Medicine’s New York Children’s Environmental Health Study during their third trimester of pregnancy.

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A deadly fish virus that was first discovered in the Northeast in 2005 has been found for the first time in fish from Lake Superior, report Cornell researchers. That means that the virus has now been documented in all of the Great Lakes.

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Through effective policy implementation, grazinglands can reduce greenhouse gases through carbon sequestration and emissions reduction offset credits. Carbon sequestration is the long-term storage of carbon in the ground or oceans, slowing the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere enters the soil of grazinglands through the natural process of photosynthesis by green plants. The subsequent cycling turns some of that carbon into soil organic carbon—and into an environmental, societal and economic benefit for every country with these grazinglands.

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Researchers from NIST and the College of Charleston are at work trying to identify the clues that will finger specific, yet elusive, environmental threats to the Atlantic blue crab.

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More than half a century after the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959, Clarkson University biologist Michael R. Twiss is among a corps of scientists charting the environmental change the Seaway and hydroelectric power projects have wrought.

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Rising and falling sea levels over relatively short periods do not indicate long-term trends. An assessment of hundreds and thousands of years shows that what seems an irregular phenomenon today is in fact nothing new," explains Dr. Dorit Sivan.

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A study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) provides new information about the rates at which three of the most powerful greenhouse gases are destroyed by a chemical reaction that takes place in the upper atmosphere.

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A team of UK scientists has developed a technique for monitoring the condition of peatlands by capturing images from Earth and space to measure spatial patterning. This method could help monitor peatland damage. This research appears in January-February 2010 Journal of Environmental Quality.

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Based on a study of seasonal rainfall variations in the desert Southwest up to 56,000 years ago as recorded in cave stalagmites, geoscientists suggest the rapidly growing Southwest could become even more arid as global temperatures rise. Findings appear in Nature Geosciences this week.

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Salisbury University students are moving into its newly renovated Pocomoke Residence Hall. Originally opened in 1966, the building in now one of the most environmentally friendly, and secure, structures on campus.

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Clarkson University researchers are helping the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health study the link between air pollutants and health problems in children in Detroit. The project is examining the relationship between asthma in children and exposures within 150 yards of major highways.

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Civil engineers at the University of Washington and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Seattle office have taken a first look at how dams in the Columbia River basin, the nation's largest hydropower system, could be managed for a different climate.

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The simple formula we’ve learned in recent years – forests remove CO2 from the atmosphere; therefore forests help prevent global warming – may not be quite so simple. New Weizmann Institute research shows that forests can directly absorb and retain heat. In at least one type of forest, these effects may cancel out a good part of the benefit in lowered CO2.

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With many companies investing heavily in algae-based biofuels, researchers from the University of Virginia's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering have found there are significant environmental hurdles to overcome before fuel production ramps up. They propose using wastewater as a solution to some of these challenges.

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Pioneering University of Maryland ecological economist, Herman Daly, will receive a lifetime achievement award from the National Council for Science and the Environment, recognizing his decades-long research into the underpinnings of a Green Economy. Daly argues that conventional economics fails to account for the true costs of environmental degradation.

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Crop genetics play key role in understanding the impact of environmental stress.

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The combination of low concentrations of oxygen and nutrients in the lower layers of the beaches of Alaska’s Prince William Sound is slowing the aerobic biodegradation of oil remaining from the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill.

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'Greenroads,' released today, assigns points for using sustainable practices in building roads and highways. It aims to do for road construction what the LEED rating system has done for the building industry.

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University of Iowa researchers have confirmed that sediments of the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal (IHSC) in East Chicago, Ind., are contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The IHSC, part of the Calumet River tributary of Lake Michigan, will begin being dredged in the next few years to maintain the proper depth for ship traffic, with uncertain environmental impacts in regard to PCBs.

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There may be a strong link between our political affiliation and how we react to certain labels. Democratic, Republican, and Independent volunteers support a mandatory environmental surcharge if it is described as an “offset,” while only Democratic volunteers support the surcharge when it is labeled as a “tax.”

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Climate specialist Jeff Gaffney explains Union of Concern Scientists' call for dialogue with American Farm Bureau, which recently said there is no generally agreed scientific assesment on the impact of carbon emissions from human activities.

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While governments around the world continue to explore strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, a new study suggests policymakers should focus on what needs to be achieved in the next 40 years in order to keep long-term options viable for avoiding dangerous levels of warming. The study is the first of its kind to use a detailed energy system model to analyze the relationship between mid-century targets and the likelihood of achieving long-term outcomes.

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From now through Feb. 1, USC blog summerinantarctica.usc.edu will chronicle the adventures of students learning what it's like to do science way south. And yes, there will be penguins.

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For every $100 of taxpayer money spent on refrigerators under the federal appliance rebate program, $6 is entirely lost, say two University of Delaware economists.

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An El Nino Pacific Ocean warming event kept global temperatures warmer than seasonal norms through December, with temperatures in the tropics a full 0.50 C (0.9 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than seasonal norms.

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In a vivid example of how a small geographic feature can have far-reaching impacts on climate, new research shows that water levels in the Bering Strait helped drive global climate patterns during ice age episodes dating back more than 100,000 years.

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When a new student center opens its doors at Clarkson University, it will utilize locally produced concrete blocks more economical, energy-efficient, and environmentally friendly than traditional ones. Twenty percent of the Portland cement has been replaced with recycled industrial glass powder.

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Cornell marks a significant step forward in the university’s Climate Action Plan--the start-up of the Combined Heat and Power Plant (CHPP) and the elimination of coal as a campus energy source by mid-2011--at a Jan. 15 event.

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A new Baylor University study funded by the Environmental Protection Agency has found that concentrations of phosphorus above 20 parts per billion (ppb) are linked to declines in water quality and aquatic plant and animal life.

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The overwhelming majority of Americans support action to limit carbon pollution and move the U.S. toward a clean energy future, according to a new poll released today by National Wildlife Federation.

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Conservationists have long known that lines on a map are not sufficient to protect nature because what happens outside those boundaries can affect what happens within. Now, a study by two University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists in the department of forest and wildlife ecology measures the threat of housing development around protected areas in the United States.

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NWF says Copenhagen Climate Talks show progress but ,ore needed.

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A Baylor University researcher who has studied the Eastern Screech Owl for more than 40 years says an increase in the number of the owls that are red – known as “rufus” – is another sign of global warming.

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A Baylor University researcher has explored various means by which individuals and communities are responding to weather and climate change.

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Only a year old, this national alliance for nurses who study and teach about the connection between the environment and health is making a major impact.

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First-person reports from the UN climate change summit, from a graduate student in forest ecology and an undergraduate in environmental anthropology at Michigan Technological University.

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The Climate Change Conference produced a successfully green conference of an enormous magnitude. What can we take away from the UN’s success? The knowledge that if a large scale operation can be green, there is no reason that businesses can’t act similarly on a smaller scale.

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Keeping Williams College on course to meet its sustainability goals is central to the work of the college's year-old Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives. It takes not only thinking big, but also thinking small. The center is charged with finding ways to incorporate principles of sustainability into campus life and to help the college in reducing its greenhouse gas emissions to 10 percent below 1990-91 levels by 2020.

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Sustainability is more than a buzzword within Williams College dining services; it's an imperative. One of the most important ways the college achieves sustainability is by reducing food waste and minimizing resource consumption -- a goal that is written into the department's systems, policies, infrastructure, and building design.

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On the front door of the Williams College dining services office -- a small grey clapboard house tucked in the middle of the school's campus in bucolic western Massachusetts -- staffers have placed a bumper sticker that reads "No Farms, No Food." It's a message the college takes to heart. Williams dining services prepares 885,690 meals annually, for its approximately 2000 students, in 4 dining halls, a faculty house, and a number of snack bars.

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Environmental Protection Agency funds study that says climate change has effect on continent's waterfowl numbers.

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Which came first, the warmer temperatures or the clearer skies? Answers to that and similar "chicken or egg" type questions could have a significant impact on our understanding of both the climate system and manmade global warming.

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Those seeking to understand and predict climate change can now use an additional tool to calculate carbon dioxide exchanges on land, according to a scientific journal article publishing this week.

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Scientists who study the melting of Greenland’s glaciers are discovering that water flowing beneath the ice plays a much more complex role than they previously imagined.

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Building materials that better retain heat in the winter, and reflect it in the summer; plumbing fixtures that save water; and facilities that encourage employees to bicycle to work. Environmentally-friendly features like these enable the new research building at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to be certified as a green structure.

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This study analyzed the impact of experiential learning on students through a study of an agroecology course. Via a mixed-methods analysis, researchers determined that the course measurably impacted participating students. The research results are published in the latest issue of the Journal of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Education.

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State assistance to improve energy efficiency of Maryland homes heated by natural gas would generate economic and environmental benefits over the next 10 years, including more than 80,000 new jobs, savings of hundreds of dollars in average heating bills and a nine percent reduction in residential carbon emissions, concludes a new University of Maryland study.

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Dime-sized temperature sensors, first built for the refrigerated food industry, have been adapted for sensing mountain microclimates.

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Exquisite new fish & water pendant designed exclusively for Institute for Ocean Conservation Science and modelled on Institute’s logo; 50% of net proceeds go to support Institute’s initiatives.

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American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society, and the ACS Green Chemistry Institute® have provided a few tips that can make your holidays more environmentally friendly.