States around the country are forging ahead on reducing carbon emissions, even when national policies seem stuck in a holding pattern. 



Researchers have analyzed state-level actions and discovered that localized strategies can cut nearly half of the nation’s <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/met-office-2024-co2-levels-will-surpass-the-point-of-no-return/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">greenhouse</a> gases by the middle of the century, with costs that differ from those of a unified approach by less than one percent.



Jeremiah Johnson is an associate professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering at <a href="https://www.ncsu.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">North Carolina State University</a>.



“We think there is significant value in assessing what kind of difference state-led efforts could make,” said Johnson. He sees this pattern as vital for regions eager to protect their economies and communities.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-some-states-lead-on-climate">Why some states lead on climate</h2>



Some places feel a direct impact from shifting <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/global-warming-is-accelerating-beyond-control-as-co2-levels-rise/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">weather</a>, so local leaders seek methods that keep their energy grids flexible and their industries secure. 



They often implement firm timelines to reach <a href="https://netzeroclimate.org/what-is-net-zero-2/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">net-zero goals</a>, which ensures each part of their economy invests in cleaner fuels and infrastructure.



Others try a mix of regulations and economic steps to spark homegrown innovation. That can mean new policies for industrial heating, more efficient transport, or robust local power systems that lean on wind, solar, and carbon capture rather than coal or oil.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-states-can-cut-emissions-at-low-costs">States can cut emissions at low costs</h2>



The researchers found that states following their own <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cutting-methane-emissions-could-quickly-slow-global-warming/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">climate</a> plans could still reach emissions targets at a total cost only 0.7% higher than what a nationwide approach would require.



The study also showed that different policy paths lead to diverse technology solutions, including advanced manufacturing processes or cleaner power sources in certain corners of the country.



Modeling suggests that regional strategies might rely more on industry-specific changes. Meanwhile, a broad effort might tap wind and solar resources across all states, especially areas with steady breezes or plenty of sunshine.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-emissions-across-state-lines">Emissions across state lines</h2>



Varying approaches can affect surrounding areas. If some states slash emissions through electrification or <a href="https://www.iea.org/energy-system/carbon-capture-utilisation-and-storage/direct-air-capture" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">direct air capture</a>, others might shift their energy mix in unexpected ways that raise or lower their own pollution.



When a region invests in cleaner power, cheap electricity could flow across state lines. On the flip side, places without mandates might ramp up cheaper fossil options and export certain goods or services, which affects overall <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plants-absorb-31-more-co2-than-previously-estimated/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">greenhouse</a> gas levels nationwide.



When only some states commit to climate action, others may increase their own emissions to meet demand for power or fuel. This <a href="https://clear.ucdavis.edu/news/what-carbon-leakage" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">carbon leakage</a> can cancel out progress made by cleaner regions.



Models show this happening when unconstrained areas export fossil-based electricity or biofuels to states with strict targets. Without safeguards, the emissions just shift around instead of decreasing.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-state-action-brings-jobs-and-growth">State action brings jobs and growth</h2>



State-led decarbonization isn't just about cutting pollution - it could unlock long-term economic growth. Regions that take early action might attract new jobs in clean energy, grid modernization, or next-gen manufacturing.



With rising public support for sustainable policies, states that build out local green infrastructure could become magnets for skilled workers and private investment. 



Over time, these decisions could help reshape regional economies from the ground up.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-untapped-clean-energy-in-the-southeast">Untapped clean energy in the Southeast</h2>



The Southeast stands out in models as the region with the most untapped potential. When included in a national climate strategy, it delivers the largest emissions drop of any region - more than California or the Northeast.



It also has ample biomass, solar capacity, and carbon storage options. Without policy nudges, though, these assets remain idle. That makes the Southeast a crucial player in hitting national <a href="https://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">targets</a>, even if it’s slow to act on its own.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-delaying-emissions-cuts-may-raise-costs">Delaying emissions cuts may raise costs</h2>



Even though the price gap between state and national action is small, the longer states wait to implement change, the more expensive it becomes to catch up. Delays can lock in high-emission <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/inventory-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-and-sinks" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">infrastructure</a> that’s harder and costlier to replace later.



Early movers avoid that trap. By upgrading systems now, they reduce long-term costs and position themselves for federal funding or private partnerships down the line.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-states-must-work-together">States must work together</h2>



Some experts say that states with big ambitions should coordinate with neighbors to avoid leakage of emissions. 



Joint investments in renewables, shared energy storage, or new grids could keep everyone moving in the same direction without undercutting progress.



Others highlight the power of well-designed incentives for regions that lack strict goals. If those communities harness options like direct air capture, or turn to large-scale bioenergy, the entire country benefits in ways that no single strategy can achieve on its own.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59696-0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature Communications</a>.



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States taking action on their own can cut half of U.S. emissions

States around the country are forging ahead on reducing carbon emissions, even when national policies seem stuck in a holding pattern. Researchers have analyzed state-level actions and discovered that localized strategies can cut nearly half of the nation’s greenhouse gases by the middle of the century, with costs that differ from those of a unified approach by less than one percent. Jeremiah Johnson is an associate professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering at North Carolina State University. “We think there is significant value in assessing what...

Animal-based products constitute a major portion of an average American’s diet, and, as food systems in the U.S. become increasingly more complex and interconnected, these products often impact the environment in previously unknown ways. For instance, <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/scientists-cannot-fully-explain-the-behavior-of-water/">water</a> is heavily needed throughout the entire food supply. Now, a team of researchers from the <a href="https://www.pitt.edu/">University of Pittsburgh</a> has designed a model to assess the beef industry’s impact on virtual water flows (the hidden movement of water in food production) by tracing beef supply chains from calf production to beef consumption at the county level.



“Understanding beef demands and the spatial distribution of both feed and cattle production are key for evaluating the environmental sustainability of food systems and developing improvement strategies,” said study senior author Vikas Khanna, an associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh.



According to the experts, all animal production requires large quantities of water, with the vast majority being used to produce feed. Since the irrigation process for feed requires “blue water” – water found in surface and ground reservoirs – it can lead to major environmental concerns such as water depletion, water logging, salinization, and soil degradation.



“To irrigate feed crops for each ton of boneless beef eaten in the U.S., we found that approximately 3.5 cubic meters of blue water is needed,”&nbsp;said study lead author Anaís Ostroski, a PhD student at Pittsburgh.&nbsp;“That’s equivalent to more than 900 gallons of water.”&nbsp;



By using an optimization-based framework, together with publicly available datasets on supply and demand, the researchers discovered that there is a large disconnect between consumption and production counties, with more than 22 billion cubic meters of virtual blue water being transferred in 2017 alone (more than the volume of the Great Salt Lake).



“Typically, real-world networks have a highly skewed degree of distributions with few highly connected intersections,” explained Khanna. “We observed this in our network, as the majority of counties have very few connections, while a small number of counties have a large amount of connections.”&nbsp;



In future research, the scientists aim to apply the framework they developed to clarify the environmental impact of other animal-based production practices and identify improvement opportunities.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.2c03986">Environmental Science &amp; Technology</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

What is the water impact of the U.S. beef industry?

Animal-based products constitute a major portion of an average American’s...

Narwhals (Monodon monoceros) are iconic Arctic marine <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mammals-fight-over-scarce-resources-in-brutal-environments/">mammals</a> that show seasonal migrations in response to the presence of ice. They spend their summers in ice-free coastal waters around Arctic Greenland, Canada and Russia, and move to deeper waters that are 95 percent covered in ice for the winter. They need to time their fall migration to coincide with the formation of ice floes so that they do not become stuck in the fast ice. As the climate has changed, ice has formed later each year and melted earlier in the spring, and researchers have wondered what impacts these environmental changes are having on narwhal seasonal movements.&nbsp;



The small whales, also known as ‘unicorns of the sea,’ are creatures of habit, following relatively inflexible migratory paths and patterns each year. And, since they are long-lived – most survive until they are at least 50, and some until they are 100 – it has always been thought that they would be more susceptible to the impacts of climate change. Animal species with long lifespans produce offspring relatively slowly and take longer to manifest genetic change or evolution than animals with shorter lifespans.&nbsp;&nbsp;



In a new study, published in the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2121092119">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>, researchers from universities in Canada and Denmark have used satellite telemetry to track the seasonal movements of 40 narwhals between 1997 and 2018. They have focused particularly on the timing of the animals’ movements and compared them with data on local and regional changes in temperature and ice formation.&nbsp;



The results of the long-term study show that, over the 21 years, narwhals have delayed the timing of their fall departure by around 10 days per decade. They leave their summer grounds later and later each year, and also take an average of about four days extra in the earliest phase of their transit. Currently, the pod of narwhals leaves its summer grounds 17 days later than it did in 1997.



“We looked at satellite tracking data spanning 21 years from the Canadian Arctic, and found significant delays in the timing of narwhal autumn migrations, where narwhals were remaining longer in their summer areas at a rate of 10 days per decade,” said Dr. Courtney Shuert, lead author and post-doctoral fellow in the Statistical Ecology Research Group in the University of British Columbia’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries (IOF). “There were also sex-specific differences in departures, with the male narwhals starting the migration out of the summering areas, while females, potentially with dependent young, departed later by almost a week.”



Narwhals have a preference for cold water, and their space use is largely tempered by ice cover and the availability of open water regions. As a result, they may be residing in coastal waters within the larger summering areas, until ice formation in the autumn, and an increasing risk of entrapment, forces them to move off to deeper waters in the wintering areas in central Baffin Bay.&nbsp;Other research has shown that ocean freeze-over in this area is shifting to occur, on average, around five days later per decade, thus matching the pattern of narwhal movement changes.



“There’s this general trend [towards delaying migration], but there’s also a lot of inter-annual flexibility, which highlights that they’re having this strategic approach to when they’re leaving and they’re tracking these broad-scale climate trends,” Shuert said.



These findings raise hope that narwhals in particular, and long-lived species in general, may be able to survive global warming despite their slower genetic evolution. Changing behavior patterns may be one of the only adaptive strategies available for species that exhibit high site fidelity and strong ties with migration routes, and that are faced with climate change.&nbsp;



Prior research has shown that many&nbsp;<a href="https://phys.org/tags/land+animals/">land animals</a>&nbsp;and birds have been able to alter their migration patterns as the planet has grown warmer. But, as the researchers involved in the current study note, little research has been done to find out if marine species are doing the same. “The rate of change that we’re seeing now in the Arctic is a huge concern for a lot of animals because it could exceed how quickly the animals can adapt through evolution,” said Shuert. “But [these findings] really show this idea of behavioral flexibility and how important it can be to bolster these populations against change.”



Does this change in behavior mean that narwhals will be able to adapt to climate change successfully? “Unfortunately, departing later is not necessarily good news for the narwhal,” said Dr. Marie Auger-Méthé, senior author and an associate professor in the IOF. “Because staying in the summering grounds could result in further exposure to shipping traffic associated with the new iron mine, it may not be beneficial to the narwhals in the long term. We know they are sensitive to shipping disturbance, and that their stress levels have been rising over the past 20 years.”



“In addition, staying in their summering grounds longer could increase the chance of narwhals being caught in quickly freezing ice. Such ice entrapments can kill hundreds of narwhals.” The narwhals may also increase their exposure to predators, such as Orcas, by staying back in summering grounds or leaving the wintering grounds too early.



Climate change and loss of sea ice is creating stressors for these animals, and they are adapting to a new life in the Arctic. “Natural resource exploitation, ice breaking, and tourism are also impacting narwhal migratory patterns, “Auger-Méthé said. “Climate change and increased human exposure are creating additional stress for these whales, and with it, comes consequences for human activity as well.”



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Narwhals are modifying their behavior due to climate change

Narwhals (Monodon monoceros) are iconic Arctic marine mammals that show...

Scruffy yards are usually frowned upon and, especially in fall, people go to great trouble to collect up leaves and ‘tidy’ their gardens. Queues of trailers packed with garden waste are a familiar sight at recycling centers, as home owners work to keep control of their green space. But what if we saw garden waste differently – what if it had value left right there, in our back yards. According to Professor Per Gundersen of the <a href="https://www.ku.dk/english/">University of Copenhagen</a>, we would be making a useful contribution to both the climate and the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/vanilla-cultivation-can-boost-biodiversity-in-madagascar/">biodiversity</a> crisis if we simply left our garden waste where it falls.&nbsp;



Each year, Danes shuttle nearly a million tons of waste from their gardens to recycling depots, calculates Gundersen, who is a professor of forest ecology at the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management. This consists mostly of leaves, twigs and branches, and it is all sorted and processed by municipal waste management systems. The largest branches and trunks are burned for bioenergy, while small branches, leaves and grass clippings are composted.&nbsp;



According to a simple modelling exercise carried out by Gundersen, leaving this waste to decompose in our gardens represents an opportunity to store large quantities of carbon, rather than delivering it back into the atmosphere as CO2 when the waste is burned.&nbsp;



“When garden waste is burned or composted by municipal waste schemes, CO2 is returned to the atmosphere very quickly. By keeping waste in the garden, the decomposition process is significantly slower, sometimes taking several years. In practice, this means that one builds up a larger and larger storage of CO2 in the garden in the form of twigs, dead branches and leaves that are left to decompose,” says Gundersen. “If everyone went all-in and learned how to manage their garden’s branches and twigs, for example, my calculations suggest that we could store about 600,000 tons of CO2 annually.”&nbsp;



In fact, when Gundersen deducts the utility that branches and trunks used for bioenergy in the current system provide, the CO2 storage potential of garden waste could meet about half of one percent of Denmark’s 70 percent reduction target for 2030. Additionally, leaves and twigs are a boon for backyard biodiversity as they provide a food source and diverse microhabitats for animals to inhabit.&nbsp;



“Leaves help nourish the garden as they feed an entire ecosystem of decomposers. From fungi, bacteria and tiny, invisible soil creatures to earthworms and roly-poly bugs, which help break down and metabolize organic material so that nutrients are released into the soil. These decomposers then act as important food for larger animals, like hedgehogs and birds,” explains Gundersen.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



As microorganisms, worms and other decomposers use the leaves for food, they will convert the biomass into energy and release CO2 slowly as a consequence of respiration. It will take several years for the CO2 to be released into the atmosphere, in contrast to the rapid release due to burning. A portion of the gnawed leaves will also become soil humus, a common name for the organic material that enriches soil and is important for plant health.&nbsp;



“A high humus content in topsoil makes for a dark soil that has a good structure and retains water and nutrients well, which is important if you want garden plants to thrive,” explains Gundersen.



He suggests raking the fallen leaves into planting beds where vegetables are grown, or over to areas where you want to prevent the establishment of weeds. They can also be gathered in a part of the garden that you are willing to keep wild and allow to manage itself. By spring, a large portion of the leaves will have already disintegrated and returned into the invisible garden cycle. Leaves from linden and ash trees disappear quickly from gardens, while oak and fruit tree leaves are slower to break down, making them ideal for soil insulation around bulbous plants or vegetables, for example.



“Our gardens can contribute to both the climate and biodiversity crisis by harnessing more garden waste. I also think that it will lead to a little less gardening in the long run. And then it’s more fun, because there will be a greater abundance of life around the garden. We just need to dare to let go of control and make more room for nature by allowing for twigs and a few dead branches, for example,” concludes Gundersen.



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Garden waste could store 600,000 tons of CO2  annually

Scruffy yards are usually frowned upon and, especially in fall,...

Over the past two centuries, human activities have led to global warming, a massive carbon imbalance, and biodiversity loss. However, according to a new study led by the <a href="https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/">University of Sheffield</a>, there are certain cases where human stewardship appears to help remediate these damages. By examining tropical <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/diverse-forests-are-more-resilient-and-productive/">forests</a> from Asia, Africa, and the Americas, the experts found that those located on protected Indigenous lands were the healthiest, highest functioning, most ecologically resilient, and most diverse.&nbsp;



“I’m looking at Indigenous lands to see how conservation outcomes on these lands are, instead of only focusing on protected areas, which are often state run, so that conservation policies might be designed to be more effective and equitable,” said study lead author Jocelyne Sze, an ecologist at the University of Sheffield.



To evaluate forest health, the scientists examined four types of lands: non-protected lands, Indigenous lands, protected areas that overlap Indigenous lands, and protected forests outside of Indigenous lands.



“We used a metric called forest integrity to measure the quality of the forest pertaining to its structure, its composition, and its function—it refers to how resilient and healthy a forest is. Our previous research found that across the tropics, deforestation and degradation rates were lower in Indigenous lands compared to non-protected areas, but deforestation and degradation rates are quite simple measures, so we wanted to look at forest integrity,” Sze explained.



The analysis revealed that forests in areas where protected and Indigenous lands overlapped had the highest integrity, with the Americas having the most land falling into this category, and Africa the least.&nbsp;



However, some of the findings surprised the scientists. “It was actually really interesting that it wasn’t all positive. We found that, in Asia and the Americas, within spaces that are only Indigenous lands - so outside of protected areas - the effect on integrity was actually worse than non-protected areas,” Sze reported.



This surprising feature may be explained by the fact that, in many parts of Asia, for instance, Indigenous lands and Indigenous rights were not recognized. Thus, although an area may be characterized as traditionally Indigenous, Indigenous people may actually have little control over their lands. Moreover, since many minerals, oil, and gas deposits are often found within Indigenous lands, these lands are often highly exploited.



In future studies, the researchers hope to clarify how Indigenous land rights and management fit into current conservation policies. “My research is very much inspired by what decolonial climate movements are trying to achieve, in trying to have Indigenous communities and local communities have more autonomy over these spaces,” Sze concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.09.040">Current Biology</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Forests in protected Indigenous lands are healthy and resilient

Over the past two centuries, human activities have led to...

According to a new report from the <a href="https://public.wmo.int/en">World Meteorological Association</a> (WMO), atmospheric levels of the three main greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide) all reached new record highs in 2021, with the largest year-to-year rise of methane concentrations since systematic measurements began four decades ago. While the causes of this staggering rise in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/methane-emissions-are-higher-than-previously-estimated/">methane emissions</a> is not yet clear, the scientists believe that a combination of biological and human-induced processes could have led to this worrisome situation.



“WMO’s Greenhouse Gas Bulletin has underlined, once again, the enormous challenge – and the vital necessity – of urgent action to cut greenhouse gas emissions and prevent global temperatures rising even further in the future,” said Petteri Taalas, WMO’s Secretary-General. “The continuing rise in concentrations of the main heat-trapping gases, including the record acceleration in methane levels, shows that we are heading in the wrong direction.”



Since 2007, atmospheric methane concentrations have been increasing at an unprecedented rate. While scientists argue that the largest contribution to these increases comes from biogenic sources, such as wetlands or rice paddies, anthropogenic climate change could also play a critical role in the rise of methane emissions, due to the fact that, in a warming climate, organic materials decompose faster, and, if this process happens in water – without oxygen – more methane will be released in the atmosphere. Thus, if tropical wetlands become wetter and warmer due to human-induced climate change, they will emit more methane.&nbsp;



“There are cost-effective strategies available to tackle methane emissions, especially from the fossil fuel sector, and we should implement these without delay,” said Professor Taalas. “However, methane has a relatively short lifetime of less than ten years and so its impact on climate is reversible. As the top and most urgent priority, we have to slash carbon dioxide emissions which are the main driver of climate change and associated extreme weather, and which will affect climate for thousands of years through polar ice loss, ocean warming, and sea level rise.”



“We need to transform our industrial, energy and transport systems and whole way of life.&nbsp;The needed changes are economically affordable and technically possible. Time is running out,”&nbsp;he concluded.



The 2021 Greenhouse Gas Bulletin can be found <a href="https://public.wmo.int/en/greenhouse-gas-bulletin">here</a>. &nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Methane emissions are rising faster than ever

According to a new report from the World Meteorological Association...

While the journeys of night-migrating birds are already fraught with dangers – such as increased risk of collisions with buildings or communication towers – a research team from <a href="https://www.cornell.edu/">Cornell University</a> has identified yet another hazard these birds currently face. According to the experts, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/migratory-birds-can-change-their-restless-ways/">migratory birds</a> attracted by the glow of artificial lights at night are drawn into regions in which they are also exposed to higher concentrations of airborne toxic chemicals.&nbsp;



“We examined the correlation between the concentration of airborne toxic chemicals, artificial light at night, and the weekly abundance of 165 nocturnally migrating songbird species,” said study lead author Frank La Sorte, an expert in Ornithology at Cornell. “What we found is that light pollution does indeed increase exposure to toxic chemicals when birds stop to rest during spring and fall migration. Surprisingly, we also found that exposure to toxic chemicals is high during the non-breeding season, a time when birds typically avoid light pollution.”



In a first step of the study, the scientists compared levels of artificial light at night with the presence of 479 toxic chemicals from 15,743 releasing facilities across continental U.S., and found that higher light pollution did correlate with higher levels of airborne toxic chemicals. Then, they cross-referenced these data with the weekly abundance of 165 night-migrating songbirds throughout their annual life cycles.



The analysis revealed that the only instance without increased exposure to toxic chemicals was during these birds’ breeding season, when they usually nest in habitats far away from areas with intense human activity.&nbsp;



“One region of special concern is along the Gulf of Mexico, especially in Texas and Louisiana,” La Sorte reported. “Migratory birds that spend the winter in this region are being exposed to higher concentrations of airborne toxic chemicals for a longer period - the non-breeding season makes up the largest portion of these species’ annual life cycles.”



According to La Sorte, efforts to reduce light pollution during the spring and autumn could reduce the chances of toxic chemical contamination during migration stopovers, thus improving the birds’ survival and reproductive success. “However, this would have no effect on the long-term exposure occurring along the U.S. Gulf Coast, a region that could be a significant source of toxic chemical contamination for North American birds,” he concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16443">Global Change Biology</a>.



Image Credit: Craig Kerns, Cornell Lab of Ornithology



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Light pollution exposes migrating birds to toxic chemicals

While the journeys of night-migrating birds are already fraught with...

A new study led by the <a href="https://www.uq.edu.au/">University of Queensland</a> and the <a href="https://www.cmu.edu/">Carnegie Mellon University</a> has found that sharing real-time air quality readings in developing countries could help reduce air <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/study-reveals-link-between-air-pollution-and-obesity/">pollution</a> and lead to lower mortality rates.



This research was prompted by live air quality updates being posted on Twitter by US diplomatic sites around the world. “In 2008, the US Embassy in Beijing began tweeting hourly air quality information from a new pollution monitor, which dramatically increased attention to air pollution in China,” said study co-author Andrea La Nauze, an environmental economist at the University of Queensland.



“US embassies now tweet live air quality readings in 38 non-OECD countries worldwide. We looked at 36&nbsp;of those countries and found the sharing of real-time data increased local public interest in air quality and led to reduced air pollution levels.”



The scientists used air pollution measurements taken from satellite data in order to evaluate pollution levels both before and after the US embassy in a city started posting on Twitter air quality readings, and compared them with measurements from non-OECD cities without such live monitoring. The analysis revealed that sharing real-time air quality information led to an average reduction in fine particulate matter concentration levels of two to four micrograms per cubic meter each year.&nbsp;



“Poor air quality is a leading cause of premature death worldwide, responsible for one out of every nine deaths,” said study lead author Akshaya Jha, an assistant professor of Economics and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon. “Sharing credible air quality information can highlight this issue and have huge health and economic benefits that far outweigh the costs of the monitoring technology.”



Unfortunately, according to the researchers, the state of air quality monitoring is currently “inadequate” in many less developed countries. “Around 30 per cent of countries had at least some form of monitoring by 2018, but that includes monitoring that is intermittent, only covers a small part of the country or isn’t available publicly,” Dr. La Nauze explained.



“Even Australia – where state governments monitor air quality and provide access to real-time data – could benefit substantially from a denser monitoring network. Policymakers, diplomats and community organizations worldwide should push for the rapid deployment of credible, real-time air quality monitoring and reporting,” she concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2201092119">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Real-time air quality monitoring can save lives

A new study led by the University of Queensland and...

For so long, the world has been focused on the impacts of carbon dioxide (CO2) <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/unchecked-emissions-could-kill-90-percent-of-marine-species/">emissions</a> on global warming and subsequent changes in climate. But CO2 is not the sole product released as a result of industrial processes or the combustion of fossil fuels. There is an array of other airborne pollutants that enter the atmosphere along with CO2 that behave very differently from the greenhouse gases. A new study finds that the impacts of these other pollutants on human health, economies, and agriculture differ drastically depending on where the pollutants are emitted.



Led by scientists from the <a href="https://www.utexas.edu/">University of Texas at Austin</a> and the University of California San Diego, the study is the first to simulate how aerosol pollution affects both climate and air quality for locations around the globe. Although the atmosphere is made up largely of gases, there are also tiny solid particles and droplets of liquid that are present, suspended in the air. These small suspended droplets and particles are known as aerosols. They originate from natural sources, such as ocean spray and mineral dust from deserts, and also from human activities, including the combustion of fossil fuels.&nbsp;



Unlike CO2, which is a long-lived gas that spreads out through the atmosphere globally, aerosols are short-lived and tend to have more local and regional effects. Aerosols can absorb incident sunlight and scatter it back into the atmosphere, meaning that they actually have a cooling effect that is opposite to the effect of greenhouse gases. However, if they occur at high densities, the aerosols can also prevent light from reaching the leaves of crops where photosynthesis takes place. They are also involved in the formation of smog. In these ways, aerosols can impact human health and agricultural and economic productivity.



Although CO2&nbsp;and aerosols are often emitted at the same time during the combustion of fuels, the two substances behave differently in Earth’s atmosphere, said co-lead author Geeta Persad, an assistant professor at the UT Austin Jackson School of Geosciences. “Carbon dioxide has the same impact on climate no matter who emits it,” said Persad. “But for these aerosol pollutants, they tend to stay concentrated near where they're emitted, so the effect that they have on the climate system is very patchy and very dependent on where they’re coming from.”



The researchers investigated the influence of aerosols in worsening the social costs of carbon (a measure of the economic costs of greenhouse gases on society) in eight key regions of the world: Brazil, China, East Africa, Western Europe, India, Indonesia, United States and South Africa. They considered these costs both for the region producing the aerosols and for neighboring countries.&nbsp;



In order to do this, the researchers created a set of climate simulations using the Community Earth System Model version 1 developed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research. They then ran simulations in which each of the eight regions produced identical aerosol emissions and mapped how temperature, precipitation, and surface air quality were affected in these regions and across the globe.



The experts connected this data with known relationships between climate and air quality and infant mortality, crop productivity, and gross domestic product across the eight regions. In a final step, they compared the total societal costs of these aerosol-driven impacts against the societal costs of co-emitted CO2&nbsp;in each of the eight regions, and produced global maps of the combined effects of aerosols and CO2 emissions. The researchers said the study is a big step forward from previous work, which either only estimated the air quality impacts of aerosols or didn’t consider their diverse global climate effects.



The findings showed that, depending on the geographic location of the emissions, aerosols can increase the social costs of carbon emissions by as much as 66 percent. Aerosols can directly affect human health and the climate independently of CO2. They are associated with negative health impacts when inhaled, and can affect the climate by influencing temperature, precipitation patterns and how much sunlight reaches the Earth’s surface.



“This research highlights how the harmful effects of our emissions are generally underestimated,” said Jennifer Burney, co-lead author and the Marshall Saunders Chancellor’s Endowed Chair in Global Climate Policy and Research at the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy. “CO2&nbsp;is making the planet warmer, but it also gets emitted with a bunch of other compounds that impact people and plants directly and cause climate changes in their own right.”



The outcome paints a fairly complicated picture. Emissions from some regions produce climate and air quality effects that are between two and 10 times more severe as those seen in other regions. In addition, the social costs of this pollution can sometimes affect neighboring regions more than the region that produced the aerosol emissions. For example, in Europe local emissions result in four times as many infant deaths outside Europe as within its borders. Despite the complex relationships that emerge from the modelling exercise, the researchers note that aerosol emissions are always bad for both the emitter and the planet overall.



“While we might think about aerosols, which cool the climate, as having the silver lining of counteracting CO2-driven warming, when we look at all these effects in combination, we find that no region experiences overall local benefits or generates overall global benefits by emitting aerosols,” said Persad.



For example, the study found that adding aerosol costs to CO2&nbsp;costs could double China’s incentive to mitigate emissions. And it switches the impact of local emissions in Europe from a net local benefit to a net cost. The study also shows that some emerging economies, like in East African nations and India, might be motivated to collaborate on emission cuts since they are strongly impacted by each other’s emissions.&nbsp;



Overall, the findings indicate that individual countries would often benefit from working together with their neighbors to cut emissions since regional emissions affect everyone, not just the country doing the emitting. Researchers also said the findings create potentially new motivations for countries to cut emissions – and to care about other countries cutting their own emissions.



The framework developed in this study can also be applied to maximize societal benefits from current mitigation strategies being considered by policy makers. For example, the researchers applied it to the “fair-share” approach laid out in the Paris Climate Agreement in which all countries target the same per-capita CO2&nbsp;emissions. They found the approach, while beneficial for climate stability, does not improve the mortality and crop impacts from combined aerosol and CO2&nbsp;emissions because it focuses mitigation in regions that already have fairly low aerosol impacts, like the U.S. and Europe.



“By expanding societal cost calculations to include the geographically-resolved societal impacts of co-emitted aerosols, we’re showing that the incentive for individual countries to mitigate and collaborate on mitigation is much higher than if we only think about greenhouse gases,” Burney said.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.science.org/journal/sciadv">Science Advances</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Airborne pollutants amplify the effects of climate change

For so long, the world has been focused on the...

As the world’s cities grow, it becomes increasingly important to find ways of making them greener and more sustainable. A popular option for achieving this goal are rooftop gardens and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/noise-from-wind-farms-could-affect-marine-mammal-behavior/">farms</a> which take advantage of underutilized roof space, providing new food resources, while at the same time cooling the surrounding area, increasing building insulation, and improving air quality. Yet, conditions on rooftops such as higher solar radiation, more wind exposure, and lesser soil moisture often make plants grow smaller and be less healthy. 



Now, a research team led by Sarabeth Buckley, an expert in Plant Sciences at the <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge</a>, has found that repurposing the CO2 from building exhaust as a kind of fertilizer may help counter some of these challenges.



“We wanted to test whether there is an untapped resource inside buildings that could be used to make plants grow larger in rooftop farms. Creating more favorable conditions that increase growth could help make rooftop farms more successful and therefore more viable options for installation on buildings,” said Dr. Buckley.



The researchers chose corn and spinach as a test case, since they are edible plants that use different pathways to photosynthesize, one of which – called “C3” and used by spinach but not by corn – being highly sensitive to elevated CO2 levels, and grew them on the roof of a campus building at <a href="https://www.bu.edu/">Boston University</a>. Thus, corn acted as a control used to explore how other aspects of placement close to the exhaust vents, such as different temperatures, affected plant growth.&nbsp;



Moreover, the rooftop garden also featured controls that were fanned by large fans without any exhaust air, to check whether air movement from the vents was a contributing factor. The concentrations of CO2 in the classrooms and on the roof were regularly measured to see how much extra CO2 is reaching the plants.



The scientists monitored the plants during their growth for size, number of leaves, and – after harvesting – for wet and dry biomass. The examination revealed that spinach grown next to the exhaust vents had four times the biomass of spinach grown next to a control fan and, even when high winds decreased the size advantage, these plants were still twice as large as the ones in the control group.



“We are hoping this could lead to the further development of this system and eventual implementation in rooftop gardens and farms. If that happens, then hopefully more rooftop farms will be installed. They could provide a multitude of environmental and social benefits such as energy savings for the building, carbon drawdown, climate mitigation, urban heat reduction, local food production, community building opportunities, and aesthetic and mental health benefits,” Dr. Buckley concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2022.918027">Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems</a>.&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

How building exhaust could boost rooftop gardens

As the world’s cities grow, it becomes increasingly important to...

During evolution, when there are limited resources available, plants and animals often compete for nutrients, mates, and habitats. This makes the flower-covered meadows of China’s Hengduan mountains an evolutionary mystery, sporting dozens of species of closely-related rhododendrons – a family of flowering shrubs – which all live in harmony. Now, a team of scientists led by the <a href="https://www.fieldmuseum.org/">Field Museum</a> in Chicago has found that these <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mountain-formation-led-to-an-explosion-in-plant-diversity/">plants</a> are able to co-exist because they burst into bloom at different times of the season, and thus, don’t have to compete for pollinators.&nbsp;



“There’s this basic idea in ecology of the niche, that a species’ lifestyle, like what it eats and how it fits into the environment, cannot be replicated in the same community. If two species with the same lifestyle are living in the same space, they’ll compete with each other, so either one or both of them will adapt to have different, non-overlapping lifestyles, or they’ll go extinct,” explained study lead author Rick Ree, a curator at the Field Museum. “Since there are so many closely-related species of&nbsp;rhododendrons all living together in these mountains, we wanted to figure out how they were able to co-exist.”



According to Ree, the rhododendron diversity in this area is partly caused by speciation – the divergence of new ecologically-similar species from a common ancestor. This process, however, would theoretically increase the likelihood that the various species will need to compete with one another. Thus, in order to survive, they need to adapt so they can co-exist, by using different strategies.



“They can become very different in terms of their preferences for soil, light, and moisture, very basic physiological functional traits,” Ree said. “They can also evolve differences to reduce this potential for cross pollination or competing for pollinators. That would be manifested through differences in flower shape, size, or color, or could be manifested in when they make their flowers available for pollinators. By partitioning that timeline, they can reduce their chances of wasting their pollen and the resources that go into reproduction.”



By examining over 100 sites in the Hengduan mountains four times throughout the season, the scientists discovered that the key factor in allowing these plants to co-exist was that they all flower at different times. Unfortunately, while this strategy allows them to survive and share resources, it also makes the highly sensitive to climate change.



“There’s abundant evidence that the pace of climate change is messing with plants’ flowering times, causing population declines and extinctions. The question is, how are plant communities around the globe going to respond? Weather is part of what signals them to blossom, and since climate change affects the weather, it’s likely to shift that competitive landscape. When the environment changes, species have three choices: you move, you adapt, or you die. Climate change is accelerating that dynamic,”&nbsp;Ree concluded.



The study is published in the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.14002">Journal of Ecology</a>.&nbsp;



Image Credit: Qin Li



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Flowers share resources by blooming at different times

During evolution, when there are limited resources available, plants and...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/study-confirms-microplastics-have-entered-our-food-chain/">Microplastics</a> are tiny pieces of plastic which can get into our bodies through our food, drinks, or even the air that we breathe. Although scientists are not yet sure what is the effect of these compounds on human health, increasingly more studies have provided clear evidence that exposure to microplastics can lead to oxidative stress, inflammation, and even DNA damage.&nbsp;



A research team led by <a href="https://en.scu.edu.cn/">Sichuan University</a> in China has now found that drinking a single cup of takeaway coffee per week could expose a person to over 90,000 microplastic particles each year.



The scientists examined three different types of plastic cups in which takeaway coffee is usually served: polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and polyethylene (PE). They filled each of the three kinds of cups with 400 milliliters of water, sealed them with foil to avoid airborne microplastics entering the cups, and shook them for one minute. These procedures were carried out on a clean glass beaker, in order to avoid potential procedural contaminations.&nbsp;



The analysis revealed that, in about five minutes, the number of microplastic particles in the water reached between 723 and 1,489 particles per cup. Polypropylene cups produced the highest numbers of particles, which is highly concerning, considering the widespread use of such materials all over the world.&nbsp;



Moreover, cups containing hot liquids released significantly more microplastics than those with cold ones. Finally, shaking of the cups – which is common in the case of takeaway coffee – further promoted the release of microplastics.



“Based on the results, we estimated that people may unconsciously ingest 37,613–89,294 microplastics a year due to the use of one plastic cup every 4–5 days. Considering the potential harm of microplastics, the contamination of microplastics resulting from the use of plastic cups for drinks needs to be taken seriously,” the authors warned.



The study is published in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2022.129982">Journal of Hazardous Materials</a>.&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

One carryout coffee could expose you to 1,500 plastic particles

Microplastics are tiny pieces of plastic which can get into...

With a population of over 7,000 individuals spread across the Carpathian Mountains and neighboring areas, Romania has the highest density of brown <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/untangling-the-history-of-polar-bears-and-brown-bears/">bears</a> in Europe. However, as they often inhabit human-populated areas, conflicts with people are not uncommon. Recently, a team of researchers led by the&nbsp;<a href="https://unibuc.ro/?lang=en">University of Bucharest</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://en.asociacionchelonia.org/inicio">Chelonia Romania</a> has explored how Romanian media depict human-bear interactions, and found that media depictions are largely negative, thus hindering conservation efforts.



“The media play an influential role in how the public perceives brown bears, thus, it can promote human-wildlife coexistence or exacerbate future conflicts,” the scientists explained. Their investigations revealed that news stories related to brown bears became common only after 2016, following a one-year ban on culling, and increased dramatically in 2021, after the whistleblowing of an alleged trophy hunting event.&nbsp;



Most of the media reports were about human-bear interactions, hunting, and poaching, offering to the public very little context and information on how to avoid conflicts. Moreover, articles focusing on the biology and ecology of brown bear were scarce, indicating less consideration of the ecological significance and impact of human activities on bears’ conservation status.



These articles’ attitude toward brown bears was predominantly negative (in 53 percent of the cases), using phrases such as: “At any moment the people can find themselves in front of a hungry bear;” “Beyond the horror they live with every day, they have lost their patience and trust in the authorities;” and “People are afraid of the worst.”&nbsp;



Even when reporting encounters with bears with no casualties, Romanian media continued to promote a negative image of the bears to their audiences. “Focusing on alarming messages without offering evidence or advice can increase fear and undermine efforts to protect the species and the welfare of society,” the researchers wrote.



Most importantly, the experts discovered that media outlets failed to consult wildlife and conservation biologists when reporting on human-bear interactions. According to the scientists, this could be because the experts are reluctant to take part in these debates, or because the media is not interested in bringing more scientific context to their reports.



“In conclusion, increasing the frequency of reporting interaction events with alarming messages can only lower the level of tolerance for wildlife and negatively influence political decisions regarding the management of the brown bear population. Evidence-informed news can help authorities better understand conflicts and create bottom-up pathways toward an optimistic future for brown bears and Romanian society,” the authors concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.50.86019">Nature Conservation</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

How are brown bears depicted by Romanian media?

With a population of over 7,000 individuals spread across the...

Scientists are transforming chocolate into a functional food by infusing it with probiotics and prebiotics, aiming to create a treat that satisfies cravings while supporting gut health. 



The challenge lies in maintaining chocolate's beloved texture and flavor while adding health benefits.



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Is chocolate the next nutritional powerhouse?

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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



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Designing crops that can beat the heat

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

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes the first comprehensive estimate of carbon density in the Saharan, Sahel, and Sudanian zones of Africa. In an effort to measure the amount of carbon stored across these drylands, a team of scientists used high-resolution satellite images and artificial intelligence to map nearly 10 billion individual trees. 



"The high spatial resolution (50 cm) combined with AI and field measurements used in this study is key to improving tree inventories in drylands," said Pierre Hiernaux, a French researcher working for NASA. "The ever-increasing availability of very high-resolution satellite imagery will make it possible to assess carbon pools and their dynamics at the individual tree level on a global scale."



"This study is exceptional because it is pioneering a type of approach that will revolutionize the monitoring of trees and forests on a global scale: in the short term, it will be possible to map the world's trees from the centre of the Amazon to our schoolyards," said <a href="https://www.inrae.fr/en">INRAE</a> researcher Jean-Pierre Wigneron.



"Many fields of application will become much more efficient and accurate, such as tracking carbon stocks, biodiversity, monitoring logging and protection against illegal forest degradation, in near real time.”



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

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

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Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky" Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features northwest Lesotho in South Africa.



According to ESA, Lesotho is the only nation in the world that lies completely above 1,000 m in elevation. The country is famous for its tall mountains and narrow valleys, and is known as Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky."



Out of a population of around two million people, about 80 percent live in rural areas. More than 75 percent of these people are engaged in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-will-have-a-global-impact-on-agriculture/">agriculture</a>, including rainfed cereal production and animal grazing.&nbsp;



ESA reports that the country’s agricultural system faces a growing number of issues, with climate-related vulnerabilities such as drought, floods and extreme temperatures occurring more frequently. 



Diamonds are amongst the minerals found in the mountains. Indeed, Lesotho can truly be called the Kingdom in the Sky. Beautiful, culturally rich, safe, affordable, and easily accessible from Durban and Johannesburg, mountainous Lesotho is a vastly underrated travel destination. the Kingdom of Lesotho (Sotho: 'Muso oa Lesotho) is an enclaved country in southern Africa. It is just over 30,000 km2 (11,583 sq mi) in size and has a population of around 2 million.



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> features a visual dataset of.methane emissions from wetlands across the globe. Atmospheric methane levels have reached record highs in recent years, and wetlands are a major source of these emissions.&nbsp;



"Methane is an important greenhouse gas that contributes substantially to global warming. On a molecule by molecule basis, methane is much more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, the main driver of warming," says NASA.



"Though human activities, including agriculture, oil and natural gas production and use, and waste disposal, collectively contribute the majority of methane to the atmosphere, about a third of total methane emissions comes from wetlands."&nbsp;



According to NASA, understanding methane emissions from wetlands and other natural sources is critically important for scientists and policymakers who are working to combat climate change by reducing emissions from human activities.



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

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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

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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



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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://welcome.miami.edu/">University of Miami</a> Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science explores how changes in water temperatures have affected tiger shark habitats and movements in the North Atlantic Ocean. The study reveals that rising temperatures have caused the sharks to shift toward the poles over the past 40 years.



“Tiger shark annual migrations have expanded poleward, paralleling rising water temperatures,” explained study lead author Neil Hammerschlag. “These results have consequences for tiger shark conservation, since shifts in their movements outside of marine protected areas may leave them more vulnerable to commercial fishing.”



The researchers analyzed nine years of tracking data from satellite-tagged tiger sharks, combined with four decades of conventional tag and recapture data provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Cooperative Shark Tagging Program.



The experts found that during the last decade of record heat, for every one-degree Celsius increase in water temperatures, tiger sharks migrated further poleward by over 400 kilometers. They also migrated two weeks earlier than usual to waters off the northeastern coast of the United States.



“Given their role as apex predators, these changes to tiger shark movements may alter predator-prey interactions, leading to ecological imbalances, and more frequent encounters with humans,” concluded Professor Hammerschlag.



Video Credit: University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science



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



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Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

Today’s Video of the Day from the University of Miami...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> is focused on the melt ponds that emerge during the spring and summer on the Greenland Ice Sheet, which is the largest ice mass in the northern hemisphere.



"Melt ponds are vast pools of open water that form on both sea ice and ice sheets and are visible as turquoise-blue pools of water in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image," says ESA.



"When snow and ice melts atop glaciers, water flows in channels and streams and collects in depressions on the surface. These melt ponds can speed up the melting of the surrounding ice since they greatly reduce the ice’s ability to reflect sunlight."



"This can create a positive feedback where an increasing number of melt ponds absorb more heat which causes ice cover to melt even faster."



According to ESA, Greenland has been hit with a late-season heatwave that began in early September. This caused the type of melt event that usually occurs in the middle of summer.



"In a recent paper published in Nature Climate Change, scientists found that major sea-level rise from the melting of the Greenland ice cap is now ‘inevitable’ even if the burning of fossil fuels were to halt overnight," says ESA. "Using satellite observations of Greenland ice loss and ice cap from 2000 to 2019, the team found the losses will lead to a minimum rise of 27 cm regardless of climate change."



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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



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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



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Plants help remove heavy metals from contaminated soil

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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



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NASA monitors giant dust storms on Mars

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="http://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz. This strait provides the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean.



Qeshm is separated from the Iranian coast by the Clarence Strait, also known as Khuran.&nbsp;The Hara Forest Protected Area is a network of shallow waterways and forest located between the island and the mainland. This protected region is home to sea turtles, snakes, and more than 150 species of migrating birds.



Qeshm is famous for its wide range of&nbsp;ecotourist&nbsp;attractions, such as the&nbsp;Hara marine forests. According to environmentalists, about 1.5 percent of the world birds and 25 percent of Iran's native <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/female-hummingbirds-avoid-sexual-harassment-by-looking-like-males/">birds</a> annually migrate to the forests, which are the first national geo park in Iran.



Tourists are also drawn to the island to see an age-old Portuguese&nbsp;fort, historic mosques, the&nbsp;Seyyed Mozaffar&nbsp;and&nbsp;Bibi Maryam&nbsp;shrines, and the "Valley of Stars."



The average temperature on the island is 81 degress and the region is often hot and humid. From June to August, the island is described as being oppressively hot. The ideal time to visit is during the winter season. 



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Inhambane Bay in southeast Mozambique.&nbsp;



"Inhambane Bay is a deep inlet into which the small Mutamba River flows," says ESA. "On one side of the bay lies the historical city of Inhambane, capital of the Inhambane Province, while the sister city of Maxixe, the economic capital of Inhambane, sits across from it. The province is the second largest grower of cashews, after Nampula, and it also produces coconut and citrus fruits."



The beaches of Barra and Tofo are popular with tourists. There are also coral reefs along the long coastline of Inhambane, making it an ideal destination for scuba diving and snorkeling.



"Mozambique’s extensive coastline heightens the country’s vulnerability to tropical cyclones that develop in the Indian Ocean as well as storm surge flooding," says ESA.



"More than half of the population lives in low lying coastal areas, putting communities at risk. Inhambane Bay was dangerously close to where Cyclone Idai made landfall in 2019 causing widespread destruction to the country."



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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Inhambane Bay in southeast Mozambique

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency </a>&nbsp;features the Kangerlussuaq Glacier, one of the largest tidewater outlet glaciers in Greenland. The glacier is located on the east coast of the Greenland ice sheet.



As human-induced climate change continues to drive up temperatures, global ice loss is accelerating at an alarming rate. ESA reports that, over the past decade alone, 3.5 trillion tons of ice have melted from the Greenland ice sheet. This is enough to cover the UK with meltwater 15 meters deep.



Based on satellite imagery, researchers determined that Kangerlussuaq entered a new phase of rapid retreat and acceleration in 2017. In their study, published in <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feart.2019.00123/full">Frontiers in Earth Science</a>,&nbsp; the experts report that the glacier's ice front is now at its most retreated position since the early 20th century.



"Given Kangerlussuaq’s previous impacts on both the magnitude and pattern of ice sheet wide mass loss, we predict that its new phase of retreat, acceleration and thinning will markedly enhance the south-east region’s contribution to increasing discharge from the ice sheet," wrote the study authors.&nbsp;&nbsp;



"More broadly, accurate forecasting of the ice sheet’s contribution to sea level rise will require a deeper understanding of, and responses to, these non-linear ice dynamic processes."



Video Credit: ESA



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



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Kangerlussuaq Glacier 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 the complex relationship between ocean and climate. ESA's Climate Change Initiative will help us understand how oceans influence the climate and how climate change is impacting the oceans.&nbsp;



"Earth’s oceans are huge heat stores, soaking up 93% of the excess heat from human activity over the past 70 years. Ocean currents redistribute heat around the planet, from the Equator to the poles. Where this ocean heat goes influences weather patterns and regional climate," explains ESA.



"As well as absorbing heat, oceans are a natural carbon sink, absorbing a quarter of carbon dioxide emissions from human activity. This has led to the acidification of ocean water, threating marine life."



The amount of heat and carbon dioxide soaked up by the ocean depends on specific variables, including phytoplankton, temperatures, waves, salinity, and ice cover. Satellites can be used to measure these variables from space.



"From their unique vantage point, satellites provide key information for understanding the complexities of our planet and monitoring environmental issues," says ESA.



Video Credit: ESA



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



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Ocean heat influences regional climate

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes the importance of monitoring the shape of the sea surface, which is constantly changing. These observations have many applications, such as ship routing, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-modem-ocean-is-a-tough-place-for-whales-to-survive/">ocean</a> current forecasting, and debris tracking.



"A project supported by the Discovery element of ESA’s Basic Activities recently investigated a new technique to measure sea surface topography very precisely," reports ESA.



"The technique involves looking at satellite navigation (GNSS) signals that have been reflected off of the sea surface at very low angles. At these so-called grazing angles, waves and surface roughness have very little impact on the reflection process; the sea surface acts as a very smooth mirror."



Estel Cardellach is the principal investigator at the Institute for Space Studies of Catalonia, who first submitted the idea for the project.



“In a mirror-like reflection the phase of the signal can be tracked – it is continuous," said Cardellach. "Different surface heights result in different phase measurements. It gives a very precise measurement of the surface altitude at a few centimetres’ precision.”



The researchers developed a GNSS receiver and set up an experiment in the Balaeric Islands to collect signals from the receiver that were reflected off the sea surface. Ultimately, these signals will provide improved measurements of the shape of the sea surface.



Image/ Video Credit: ESA



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

Monitoring the dynamic shape of the sea surface

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