There’s a heat-driven health crisis creeping in - not with coughing or fevers in a doctor’s office, but with buzzing mosquitoes.



Dengue fever, a disease that used to stick mostly to tropical zones, is breaking borders and heading toward cities and countries that never had to worry about it before. The reason? It’s getting warmer.



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mosquito-borne-diseases-are-a-growing-threat-in-a-warming-world/">Dengue</a> is far more than a nuisance. The illness often starts with high fever, headaches, and body aches. In some cases, it spirals into internal bleeding, organ failure, and death.



Once mostly seen in places like Brazil and the Philippines, it’s now on track to affect millions more across both Asia and the Americas.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-temperature-and-dengue-transmission">Temperature and dengue transmission </h2>



Until now, scientists had a pretty good hunch that heat played a role in dengue’s spread. What this new study makes clear is just how big that role is - and how dangerous the trend could become.



The analysis looked at 1.4 million records of dengue across 21 countries, mainly in Central and South America, plus Southeast and South Asia. The research shows that even small increases in average temperature are already making dengue infections worse and more widespread.



“The effects of temperature were much larger than I expected,” said Marissa Childs, the lead author from the <a href="https://www.summer.uw.edu/">University of Washington</a>. “Even small shifts in temperature can have a big impact for dengue transmission, and we’re already seeing the fingerprint of climate warming.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-mosquito-s-sweet-spot">The mosquito’s sweet spot</h2>



Dengue doesn’t spread well in just any heat. It thrives in a narrow band of temperatures. The peak danger zone? Around 82°F. That’s the sweet spot where <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mosquitoes-use-thermal-infrared-vision-to-track-and-bite-humans/">mosquitoes</a> are most active and the dengue virus replicates fast.



This means that as previously cooler cities and regions warm up, they’re becoming perfect breeding grounds for mosquitoes that carry dengue. This includes major population centers in Mexico, Peru, and Brazil. Many are just now reaching that danger zone, and that’s where the biggest spikes are expected.



The study found that hotter areas already above this optimal temperature might actually see slight dips in dengue spread. But those declines don’t come close to canceling out the massive increases elsewhere. The total global impact is still a steep rise in infections.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-millions-of-infections-linked-to-heat">Millions of infections linked to heat</h2>



Between 1995 and 2014, warmer temperatures were responsible for 18% of dengue infections across the 21 countries studied. That’s not a future estimate - it’s already happened. 



Based on current rates, over 4.6 million extra dengue cases have been caused by climate-driven warming every year.



Looking ahead, things could get worse, and fast. Depending on how much <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/greenhouse-gas-emissions-reach-another-all-time-high/">greenhouse gas emissions</a> rise, cases could jump another 49% to 76% by 2050. That means more than double the current number of dengue infections in places that are already home to over 260 million people.



“Many studies have linked temperature and dengue transmission,” said Erin Mordecai, senior author of the study. “What’s unique about this work is that we are able to separate warming from all the other factors that influence dengue - mobility, land use change, population dynamics - to estimate its effect on the real-world dengue burden." 



"This is not just hypothetical future change but a large amount of human suffering that has already happened because of warming-driven dengue transmission.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-new-places-new-risks">New places, new risks</h2>



The numbers in the study might actually be lower than the real totals. The research didn’t include places where data is unreliable or hard to get - such as large parts of India and Africa. 



The analysis also doesn’t fully cover areas where dengue is still emerging, like parts of the United States and Europe.



But signs are showing up. Dengue cases have already been reported in California, Texas, Florida, Hawaii, and even southern parts of Europe. As people move, cities grow, and the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-variables-can-predict-future-mosquito-activity/">virus</a> evolves, the risks are rising.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-to-slow-the-spread">How to slow the spread</h2>



The study points to two ways forward: prevention and preparation. On the prevention side, aggressive action to cut carbon emissions would slow down global warming and reduce heat-driven spread of dengue. 



This strategy would require more investment in clean energy and fewer emissions from fossil fuels.



But even with strong prevention efforts, adaptation is critical. Health systems need to be ready. Mosquito control programs have to expand. And access to new vaccines will matter more than ever.



“<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cities-are-largely-unprepared-for-the-effects-of-climate-change/">Climate change</a> is not just affecting the weather - it has cascading consequences for human health, including fueling disease transmission by mosquitoes,” Mordecai said.



"Even as the U.S. federal government moves away from investing in climate mitigation and climate and health research, this work is more crucial than ever for anticipating and mitigating the human suffering caused by fossil fuel emissions.”



What this study shows isn’t just that dengue is spreading. It proves that climate change is already making people sick in ways that were once hard to measure. The suffering isn’t tomorrow’s problem - it’s today’s reality. And unless big changes happen fast, that reality is only going to get worse.



The full study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.



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Rising heat is supercharging dengue and spreading it into new regions

There’s a heat-driven health crisis creeping in - not with coughing or fevers in a doctor’s office, but with buzzing mosquitoes. Dengue fever, a disease that used to stick mostly to tropical zones, is breaking borders and heading toward cities and countries that never had to worry about it before. The reason? It’s getting warmer. Dengue is far more than a nuisance. The illness often starts with high fever, headaches, and body aches. In some cases, it spirals into internal bleeding, organ failure, and death. Once mostly...

The <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> (ESA) has released atmospheric methane and ozone data captured by the Sentinel 5P Copernicus satellite, making it available to climate scientists and researchers. 

Sentinel-5P was launched in 2017, and it’s the first of the Copernicus satellites tasked with monitoring the atmosphere, which it can do in vivid detail thanks to a spectrometer called a Tropomi.

CO2 may make all the headlines when it comes to greenhouse gasses and climate change, but methane is <a href="https://www.edf.org/climate/methane-other-important-greenhouse-gas">84 times</a> more potent. 

Unfortunately, despite its potency as a greenhouse gas, research has shown that methane emissions are often <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/methane-emissions-measured-reported/">underreported or inaccurately measured</a>. 

Data from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P mission were used to produce global maps of methane and ozone emissions. Now, climate models will be able to more accurately project climate changes and temperature increases in the coming years and better target the source of emissions.

[caption id="attachment_1869164" align="aligncenter" width="650"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/global-methane.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1869164" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/global-methane.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="443" /></a> Global methane, Image Credit: ESA/Copernicus data (2018–19), processed by SRON[/caption]

“Like all gases that enter the atmosphere, methane is spread by the wind, so it is unclear where it originates,” said Jochen Landgraf, from the <a href="https://www.sron.nl/">SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research</a>, said in an ESA news article. “But thanks to Tropomi’s ability to measures at a spatial resolution of 7 x 7 km and global coverage every 24 hours, we can see daily methane emissions on regional scales and also larger point sources.”

While the satellite has been collecting data on our atmosphere’s greenhouse gas concentrations, before the data on methane and ozone levels could be made available, ESA scientists first had to confirm the accuracy of the data.

[caption id="attachment_1869165" align="aligncenter" width="650"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/ozone.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1869165" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/ozone.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="165" /></a> Global tropospheric ozone, Image Credit: ESA/Copernicus data (2018–19), processed by DLR[/caption]

“We have spent more than a year carefully testing the methane data, and now the availability of data to everyone offers new opportunities for climate services,” said Landgraf. “This information is important for policymakers working on climate regulations and for checking that countries adhere to agreements.”

ESA will continue to verify the data and maps produced by the satellites, but having access to tropospheric ozone data could play an important part in informing future climate models and public health assessments on pollution. 

“Tropospheric ozone is a difficult greenhouse gas to measure because of its short lifespan and the fact that concentrations can vary hugely from place to place,” said Diego Loyola from the <a href="https://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/">German Aerospace Center</a>. “The unprecedented spatial resolution offered by Copernicus Sentinel-5P’s Tropomi instrument means that we can now better analyse the complex relationship between tropospheric ozone and climate.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>,<a href="https://www.earth.com/"> Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

New maps reveal global distribution of atmospheric methane and ozone

The European Space Agency (ESA) has released atmospheric methane and...

The oldest horse fossils we can find are from North America.  When Europeans arrived in the Americas, horses had already moved across the Bering land bridge and made a home in Europe and Asia. Europeans of course brought their horses with them.

Camels appear to have first evolved in North America as well.  The lineage of camels split, with some migrating south, through Central America and into the Andes where they evolved into llamas.  Other camels crossed the land bridge and ended up as two species that can still be found in Africa and Asia. These stories of movement and evolution are common.  

Many animals and plants have deep evolutionary roots far from where they are found today.  Some biological lineages, such as birds, have simply spread across the world, evolving different forms and strategies to accommodate different environments.  Given enough time, the movement of organisms is one across the entire planet that shifts with the slow movement of continents themselves. 

You can see related and similar plants and animals mirroring each other in Africa and South America.  There’s a reason that hornbills and toucans look similar even though they live so far apart today. Movements from one place to another continue today just at a pace that’s hard to appreciate from the point of view of a short human life span.  Obviously, even our own species has moved across the globe, colonizing almost every livable spit of land. It’s only relatively recently with strict political borders that migrations human and otherwise have been put under so much pressure to halt.  

I previously <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/us-mexico-border-wildlife/">reported</a> on the fluidity of movement across the US-Mexico border by animals and parks that align with each other on both the Mexico and the US side of the border.  <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> has reported many times on the consequences that Trump’s proposed border wall would have on wildlife.  In August 2017, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/us-mexico-border-wall-threaten-100-endangered-species/">we reported</a> that 100 endangered species would be threatened by the building of a border wall between the US and Mexico.  The problem goes even deeper than that, though. Barriers can shape evolution. Rivers, mountains, canyons, even deserts all act as natural barriers and have created the formation of different species.  To survive and thrive, lineages of organisms must travel and spread their genes across broad areas.

<a href="https://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/magazine/focal-point/00000163-0889-d820-a1e3-7aedafd20000?source=relatedvideo">National Geographic</a> reports that birds have 247 families and 10,731 species, the largest diversity in vertebrates besides fish, of which there are more than 33,000 species of fish globally, according to <a href="https://www.fishbase.de/home.htm">Fishbase</a>.  Why birds and fish are so diverse and found globally isn’t completely understood.  It does seem like diversity and widespread distribution go hand in hand to a certain degree.  Fish and birds have one thing in common besides a backbone – the ability to move long distances, through the oceans and skies respectively.  It seems likely that the ability of these animals to transport themselves long distances is related in some ways to their diversity. 

Bats, like birds, can disperse over long distances and are the second most species rich mammal order.  Whales are also part of one of the six most species rich orders within mammalia. Of course, the picture is a bit complicated.  Rodents don’t seem to have any special ability to spread across the world and there are more species of rodents than bats. Other groups of mammals are so diverse because they’re isolated.  Tenrecs in Madagascar are diverse because they arrived on an island with few species and were able to adapt to many wide open niches until there were 29 species of tenrec, most of them on Madagascar.  Over the long term, barriers like mountains, canyons, or walls affect diversity, evolution and ecology.  The ability to move often constitutes survival.

When habitat conditions such as prey availability or climate are changed, many animals have no other choice but to move to habitat with better conditions.  Jaguars have slowly been seen moving north into the United States. It’s unclear why exactly, but it could be that conditions are slowly becoming less favorable to the big cats south of the border and moving north is a means of survival.   

To pretend like a barrier, especially one that cuts off most of North America from Central America, won’t affect the entirety of the mainland Americas is simply incorrect.  On the other side of the issue, it’s unlikely the border wall will last more than a metaphorical blink of an eye in geologic time, and it seems unlikely it will really have any lasting effect on evolution.  It isn’t impossible though. 

A <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12634804">study</a> from 2003 suggests that the Great Wall of China actually had an effect on evolution.  The study looked at gene flow between five plant species that live on each side of the wall.  The researchers found that there was a greater difference in diversity between populations divided by the wall than control populations divided by a simple mountain path.  Essentially, the wall is a barrier to gene flow. Gene flow is important to evolution. A small population without new genes can wither and die from inbreeding. Two large populations with slightly different genetic makeup can evolve into separate species if isolated from one another long enough.  Both of these outcomes are possible from the wall Trump is now trying to build under an emergency declaration.

Even if the wall is built but only lasts for a short time, it may have long lasting effects.  The <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27129727">BBC</a> reported in 2014, 25 years after the iron curtain fell, the deer still avoid the border of Germany and the Czech Republic.  Most deer stick to their side of the border, despite the once electrified barrier fence being removed. Researchers tracked 300 deer with radio collars to conclude that mainly, the deer don’t cross the border.  Even an imaginary barrier such as this one could shape the evolution of an organism. If the deer don’t commingle, they might as well be separated by a wall or fence.

The truth is – we don’t fully understand the full consequences of a border wall between the US and Mexico – which should be enough to make us take a step back and think long and hard.               

--

By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer                   

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Human-made borders can have lasting effects on the natural world

The oldest horse fossils we can find are from North...

In the Spanish language, “niño” and “niña” are the words for boy and girl, respectively. But when talking about weather and climate, the words “El Niño” and “La Niña” carry a much more significant burden. El Niño and La Niña are part of a recurring shift in climate that happens when warm water moves from one side of the Pacific to the other around the equator. They influence weather conditions around the world, and experts now believe that <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/el-nino-la-nina-weather/">El Niño</a> in 2015-2016, the strongest ever on record, is to blame for a worldwide increase in occurrences of killer viruses.

According to scientists from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/">NASA</a>, the 2015-2016 event resulted in precipitation levels and vegetation that created the perfect conditions for dengue fever, cholera, and the plague to spread. This resulted in a spike in infections in Colorado, New Mexico, Tanzania, Brazil, and Southeast Asia. “The impact on weather and therefore diseases in these regions was especially pronounced,” says Assaf Anyamba, lead author of the study and a research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

For this study, the researchers used many climate datasets and public health records to quantify the relationship between El Niño and the disease outbreak. A spike in cases of the plague and hantavirus – a family of viruses spread mainly by rodents through urine and feces – was shown to be the result of an increase in rainfall and milder temperatures over the American Southwest. The rainfall led to more vegetative growth, which provided more food for rodents that carry the hantavirus and are host to plague-carrying fleas. 

Increased rainfall in East Africa during El Niño also caused sewage to contaminate local water sources, which could have led to the increase in cholera infections in East Africa’s Tanzania. “Cholera doesn’t flush out of the system quickly,” Anyamba explains “So even though it was amplified in 2015-2016, it actually continued into 2017 and 2018. We’re talking about a long-tailed, lasting peak.”

The researchers also suspect that El Niño produced higher than normal land surface temperatures in Brazil and Southeast Asia, which resulted in drier habitats and thus pushed mosquitoes into populated, urban areas to lay eggs. When the air began. To warm, mosquitoes became hungrier and reached sexual maturity more quickly, leading to increased mosquito bites and more cases of dengue fever than normal for both regions.

This research is believed to be the first study by NASA to assess the public health impacts of the major climate event on a global scale and could be a useful tool to build on existing models that predict outbreaks – therefore saving lives through the ability to produce earlier warnings for the public to take necessary preventative measures and precautions. 

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Is El Niño to blame for the recent spike in cases of deadly viruses?

In the Spanish language, “niño” and “niña” are the words...

The amount of Sun that reaches the Earth's surface fluctuates due to cyclic changes in how the planet spins on its axis and the shape of its orbit. For years, scientists have speculated that major shifts in our climate are driven by these fluctuations. The lengths of planetary cycles, however, are inconsistent and difficult to predict, which has made it challenging for experts to pinpoint what caused <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/deep-ocean-predators-thrived/">ancient climate shifts</a>. 

Up until now, researchers had only tracked the movement of planets back to about 60 million years ago. However, a new study led by geologist and paleontologist Paul Olsen of <a href="https://www.columbia.edu/">Columbia University</a> has extended this record by 140 million years. The research was based on periodic changes in ancient sediments drilled from Arizona and New Jersey. 

Last year, Olsen’s team identified a 405,000-year cycle in Earth's orbit that apparently has not changed at all in the last 200 million years. Using the same rock cores for the current study, the experts identified a cycle that once lasted 1.75 million years, but currently persists for 2.4 million years. According to the experts, knowing the length of the planetary cycle helps them to interpret long-term changes in the paths of Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, and Mars - the planetary movement that is most likely to impact the Earth.

“With two major coring experiments to date, we've we learned that changes in tropical climates from wet to dry during the time of early dinosaurs, from about 252 to 199 million years ago, were paced by orbital cycles lasting about 20,000, 100,000 and 400,000 years. On top of that is a much longer cycle of about 1.75 million years,” explained Olsen.

“The shorter cycles are about the same today, but the 1.75 million year cycle is way off - it's 2.4 million years today. We think the difference is caused by a gravitational dance between Earth and Mars. This difference is the fingerprint of solar system chaos. No existing set of models or calculations precisely duplicates these data.”

Olsen wants to use sediments to develop a record of climatic changes on Earth that will inform the creation of a map of solar system movement over hundreds of millions of years. Olsen refers to this record as a “Geological Orrery,” which he says would offer new insight into our own climate and also into the evolution of the solar system itself.

“The Geological Orrery is the opposite of an equation or model. It's designed to provide a precise and accurate history of the solar system. We get that history right here on Earth, from the history of our climates, which is recorded in the geological record, especially in large, long-lived lakes,” said Olsen. “Earth's orbit and axis orientation are constantly changing because they are being deformed by the gravitational attractions of other bodies. These changes affect the distribution of sunlight hitting our surface, which in turn affects climate, and the kinds of sediments that are deposited. That gives us the geological record of solar system behavior.”

Olsen pointed out that what is new about his research is the systematic approach of taking rock cores that date back tens of millions of years, looking at the sedimentary record of climate, and accurately dating those changes over multiple sites. 

“That allows us to capture the full range of solar system-driven deformations of our orbit and axis over long time periods,” Olsen said.

Olsen also explained how his work is relevant to the climatic changes we are experiencing today.

“In addition to the way climate is tuned to our orbit, it's also affected by the amount of carbon dioxide in the air. Now we're heading into a time when CO2 levels may be as high as they were 200 million years ago, early dinosaur times. This gives us a potential way to see how all the factors interact. It also has resonance with our search for life on Mars, or for habitable exoplanets.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.pnas.org/">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

The movement of other planets has impacted Earth’s climate

The amount of Sun that reaches the Earth's surface fluctuates...

California has suffered through a string of extreme <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/carr-fire-california/">wildfires</a> in recent years, and 12 out of 15 of the state’s largest and most destructive fires have occurred in the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ventura-county-la-fires-california-worsening-trend-2017-12">last 19 years.</a>

Drought and record-breaking heat waves due to climate change have been linked to the increase in severe fires in recent years. By that logic, it would make sense that California’s winter precipitation would go a long way in determining potential fire risk. 

However, a new study has found that a wet winter can no longer be counted on as a deterrent for wildfires, and the data shows that winter precipitation has had little impact on fire risk since 1904. 

An international team of researchers conducted the first-ever study of the link between winter precipitation, the North Pacific jet stream, and fire risk dating as far back as 1571. 

The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[caption id="attachment_1869101" align="aligncenter" width="650"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/california-fire.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1869101" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/california-fire.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="488" /></a> Image Credit: C.N. Skinner/USFS[/caption]

The amount of winter precipitation in California depends on the position of the North Pacific jet stream. But from 1600 to 1903, the wetter a winter meant the lesser chance of a severe wildfire season. 

However, this connection got weaker and weaker after 1904 due to the push for fire suppression on federal lands, and by 1977, the relationship completely disappeared. 

“The moisture availability over California is still strongly linked to the position of the jet stream, but fire no longer is,” said Valerie Trouet, a co-author of the study. “I didn't expect there to be no relationship between jet stream dynamics and fire in the 20th century. I expected it to be maybe weaker than before, but not to completely disappear.”

Today, fire risk in California is aggravated by both climate change and decades of fire suppression. The researchers found that no matter how much winter precipitation occurs in a year, the chance of a large fire remains the same. 

The researchers used a combination of tree ring data and 400 years of temperature, precipitation and fire records to reconstruct California’s fire patterns in correlation with the position of the North Pacific jet stream. 

“The method we used to determine the average winter jet stream conditions is a real advance,” said Eugene R. Wahl from the <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/">National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</a>, the lead author of the study. “Coupled with independent precipitation and fire records, this is a state-of-the-art coupling of paleoclimate and paleoecology.”

Wahl was already in the process of studying how the position of the North Pacific jet stream impacts on winter precipitation, and Trouet had reconstructed a record of fires in California dating back to 1600. 

The two researchers collaborated together to create a bigger picture of fire risk over the years.

The study’s results are sobering and show that heavy winter precipitation does little to mitigate wildfire risk in California. 

“Fire not being influenced by moisture anymore? That is surprising. It's going to be a problem for people, for firefighters, for society,” said Alan Taylor, a co-author of the study. “Between 1600 and 1903 there was not a single case of a high-precipitation year coupled with a high-fire year as occurred in 2017.”
--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Main Image Copyright 2018 Eric Knapp

A wet winter is no longer enough to dampen California wildfire risk

California has suffered through a string of extreme wildfires in...

Researchers at the <a href="https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/">University of Nottingham</a> have found that exposure to <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/wash-hands-unhealthy-chemicals/">chemical pollutants</a> in the home environment can degrade fertility in both human men and domesticated dogs. Their findings, published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/srep/">Science Advances</a>, may explain the 50% global drop in sperm quality over the past 80 years.

The team focused in on the effects of two man-made chemicals — DEHP, found home products and features like carpets, flooring, upholstery, clothes, wires, and toys, and polychlorinated biphenyl 153, which has been banned globally, however it is still widely detectable in the environment, including food.

Using donated sperm from sample males and stud dogs living within a specific region in the UK, the researchers found that the chemicals had a clear damaging effect on both sperm samples.

"This new study supports our theory that the domestic dog is indeed a 'sentinel' or mirror for human male reproductive decline and our findings suggest that man-made chemicals that have been widely used in the home and working environment may be responsible for the fall in sperm quality reported in both man and dog that share the same environment,” said lead researcher Richard Lea, Associate Professor and Reader in Reproductive Biology at the <a href="https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/vet/">School of Veterinary Medicine and Science</a>.

“Our previous study in dogs showed that the chemical pollutants found in the sperm of adult dogs, and in some pet foods, had a detrimental effect on sperm function at the concentrations previously found in the male reproductive tract,” Lea continued. “This new study is the first to test the effect of two known environmental contaminants, DEHP and PCB153, on both dog and human sperm in vitro, in the same concentrations as found in vivo.”

Team member Rebecca Sumner, PhD, said that the aforementioned chemicals caused reduced sperm motility and increased DNA fragmentation.

"We know that when human sperm motility is poor, DNA fragmentation is increased and that human male infertility is linked to increased levels of DNA damage in sperm,” Dr. Sumner said. “We now believe this is the same in pet dogs because they live in the same domestic environment and are exposed to the same household contaminants. This means that dogs may be an effective model for future research into the effects of pollutants on declining fertility, particularly because external influences such as diet are more easily controlled than in humans."

Next, the team will focus on region to see if location also impacts sperm vitality in both men and dogs.

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Home chemical pollutants harm fertility in both men and dogs

Researchers at the University of Nottingham have found that exposure...

Carbon capture technology could be a key weapon in the fight against climate change, and researchers are now working on viable large-scale options for scrubbing CO2 from the atmosphere and storing it over the long-term. 

While the scientists have come up with many methods for capturing and storing carbon, policymakers, power companies, and manufacturers are lagging far behind when it comes to implementing meaningful changes to reduce emissions let alone shift to a carbon neutral midframe. 

Some of the various carbon scrubbing methods include taking carbon emissions and recycling them to make a sturdy material that could be used in everything from <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/recycling-carbon-emissions/">concrete to shoes</a>, along with scrubbing carbon emissions from factory or power plant emissions and storing them into the ground. 

There are even developing technologies that could suck carbon out of the air using <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fans-suck-carbon-dioxide/">huge fans</a>.

At our current rates, we’re adding around 37 gigatons of carbon into to the atmosphere every year, and the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</a> has issued stark warnings about how much more carbon our atmosphere can hold before temperatures rise more than 1.5 Degrees Celsius.  

If emissions continue unchecked, we’ll use up our carbon budget in the next 22 years. 

There’s no one clear answer to climate change. Slowing the impacts of climate change and reversing the course of global warming before temperatures reach a point of no return will take a major overhaul of our business as usual energy consumption and emissions. 

Carbon capture may not provide all the answers, but storing more carbon into newly planted forests and scrubbing CO2 emissions from factory smokestacks is a start. 

One recent  study found that the globe fit up to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/planting-trillion-trees-cancel-emissions/">1.2 trillion more trees</a> without encroaching on agriculture land. 

We may be closer to large-scale carbon capture operations thanks to the passing of a carbon tax credit called <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshuarhodes/2018/03/09/the-new-federal-carbon-credits-might-bring-back-some-coal/#2ef2af2d5ef4">45Q</a> by Congress last February. The tax credit gives companies $35 for each ton of carbon dioxide stored in oil and gas fields and $50 for carbon stored in oil-free areas. 

Now companies have more of an incentive to store carbon rather than release it into the atmosphere. 

Whether we scrub, plant, reuse, or store it, something has to be done with the large amounts of carbon we emit every day. With all the new promising advancements being made in carbon capture, hopefully large scale CO2 storage solutions will be a real-world possibility sooner rather than later. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>,<a href="https://www.earth.com/"> Earth.com </a>Staff Writer

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Carbon capture could play a key role in mitigating climate change

Carbon capture technology could be a key weapon in the...

Carbon footprints measure the total emissions that individuals release through their day to day activities such as driving to work, but the total human footprint examines the impacts of all human activities on an area including the strain put on natural resources. 

For the first time, researchers from the <a href="http://www.imas.utas.edu.au/">University of Tasmania Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies</a> measured the total footprint of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/human-linked-pathogens-antarctica/">human activities</a> on the pristine frozen landscape that is Antarctica. 

Dozens of research stations have been built on Antarctica since the passing of the Antarctic Treaty, which was signed by 53 countries in 1959, and the <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/geo/opp/support/mcmurdo.jsp">McMurdo Station</a> is the largest Antarctic station with around 85 buildings. 

The Antarctic has also become a tourist destination for extreme adventurers who want an experience like no other and thousands can flock to Antarctica in any given summer season.

For this study, published in the journal Nature Sustainability, the researchers wanted to measure the total human impact on Antarctica to better inform conservation and environmental management for the remote continent. 

“Although the 53 countries that have signed the Antarctic Treaty agreed to protect the Antarctic environment, until now there has been only limited data on the spatial extent of human activity on the continent,” said Shaun Brooks, the lead author of the study. “Our research shows that human impacts are the greatest on land that is also the most environmentally sensitive - ice-free areas within a few kilometres of the coast.”

According to Brooks, the ice-free areas where human activity is at its peak is also home to some of the region’s key wildlife and vegetation like the Adelie penguins. 

“We found that 81 per cent of the buildings in the Antarctic are located within just 0.44 per cent of the land that is free of ice,” said Brooks. 

Research and tourism are only expected to increase in Antarctica which will continue to put a strain on the vulnerable ice-free areas, and Brooks hopes that the study will make conservation a priority. 

“The data we have collected can be used to inform decision-making on Antarctic conservation and environmental management, as well as to track future impacts and changes,” said Brooks. 

“Hopefully our research can help to inform a sustainable balance between these competing imperatives.” 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Shaun Brooks

Total human impact on Antarctica has been measured for the first time

Carbon footprints measure the total emissions that individuals release through...

A team of ecologists at <a href="https://www.yale.edu/">Yale University</a> investigated how potential changes in land cover may impact the geographic distributions of about 19,400 species worldwide. They found that by 2070, an increase in land use for <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/freshwater-bodies-increasingly-polluted/">human activities</a> will shrink the natural habitats of 1,700 species, putting them at a greater risk of extinction. 

The changes in land cover projected in the research were based on four different trajectories that scientists have established as being likely. The scenarios represent reasonable expectations about upcoming developments in society, demographics, and economics on a global scale.

Study co-author Walter Jetz is a professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale.

“Our findings link these plausible futures with their implications for biodiversity,” said Professor Jetz. “Our analyses allow us to track how political and economic decisions - through their associated changes to the global land cover - are expected to cause habitat range declines in species worldwide.”

With just moderate changes in human land-use, the experts determined that about 1,700 species will likely lose between 30 and 50 percent of their current habitat ranges by 2070. The species, which will become much more vulnerable to extinction, include 886 species of amphibians, 436 types of birds, and 376 species of mammals.

“The integration of our analyses with the Map of Life can support anyone keen to assess how species may suffer under specific future land-use scenarios and help prevent or mitigate these effects,” said study co-author Ryan P. Powers.

The greatest habitat loss and extinction risk will be suffered by species in Central and East Africa, Mesoamerica, South America, and Southeast Asia.

“Losses in species populations can irreversibly hamper the functioning of ecosystems and human quality of life,” said Professor Jetz. “While biodiversity erosion in far-away parts of the planet may not seem to affect us directly, its consequences for human livelihood can reverberate globally. It is also often the far-away demand that drives these losses - think tropical hardwoods, palm oil, or soybeans - thus making us all co-responsible.”


The study is published in the journal <a href="http://www.nature.com/natureclimatechange">Nature Climate Change</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Human activity will shrink natural habitats of 1,700 species by 2070

A team of ecologists at Yale University investigated how potential...

The proposed Green New Deal of course references FDR’s famous New Deal that put many Americans back to work and jump started the economy after the Great Depression. Some of the most obvious and lasting aspects of the New Deal are reflected in the work done by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).  Historic buildings and other infrastructure at parks are small monuments to the CCC and work done under the New Deal. Today, the Green New Deal is also quite bold and ambitious, but what exactly does it include?

The Green New Deal is an unbinding resolution proposed by freshman lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-resolution/109/text">The bill</a> begins with a straightforward list of the problems associated with global climate change and the possibility of a 2 degree Celsius rise in temperature.  It also outlines the environmental and economic problems caused by or projected to be caused by climate change now and in the near future Highlights of the problems that the two degrees change are projected to cause include loss of 99% of the world’s coral reefs and the exposure of 350 million more people to deadly heat stress.  The deal then asserts the necessity of keeping climate below a 1.5 °C change above pre-industrial levels. 

Ocasio-Cortez is a popular target for conservatives, many of which fully deny the validity of climate change science. As such, the right wing has already begun lambasting the resolution.  Conservatives have taken to social media with pictures of grilling beef over a comment on <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/431119-ocasio-cortez-explains-farting-cows-comment-weve-got-to-address-factory">farting cows</a> in a document accompanying the proposed Green New Deal itself.  A Fox News contributor actually joked that the Green New Deal could <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/03/fox-news-green-new-deal-katherine-timpf-cannibalism.html">lead to cannibalism</a>.  More serious criticism has come from Republicans and even Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who called it the ‘<a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/02/07/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-green-new-deal-climate-change-green-dream-pelosi-sot-vpx.cnn">green dream</a>’ before embracing it.  

To achieve the climate goal, the Green New Deal requires a reduction of greenhouse gases by 40 to 60% of the 2010 levels by the year 2030.  The end emissions goal stated in the Green New Deal is net greenhouse gas emissions of zero by 2050. These are ambitious goals to say the least, especially for a country that by electing Donald Trump seems headed in the opposite direction.  However, the Green New Deal goes on to lay out the responsibilities and consequences particular to the US. 

The US is responsible for a large part of greenhouse gas emissions.  We also have plenty of problems at home, connected directly and indirectly to environmental destruction.  A declining life expectancy and inadequate access to clean air, water, healthy food, healthcare, housing and other essentials are tackled in the Green New Deal.  Inequality on the basis of gender and race are all connected to the unequal suffering caused by environmental catastrophe. As I’ve <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/environmental-destruction-hurts-people-color/">previously reported</a>, pollution disproportionally hurts people of color and other underprivileged groups.  

As a solution, The Green New Deal calls on a new mobilization, the creation of a new, more inclusive middle class, empowered by new green jobs and technologies.  Investments in infrastructure and a transition for all communities to a new green economy are also called for. The Green New Deal would secure for all Americans, clean air and water, climate and community resilience, healthy food, access to nature, and a sustainable environment.

The resolution aims to “promote justice and equity by stopping current, preventing future, and repairing historic oppression of indigenous peoples, communities of color, migrant communities, deindustrialized communities, depopulated rural communities, the poor, low-income workers, women, the elderly, the unhoused, people with disabilities, and youth (referred to in this resolution as ‘frontline and vulnerable communities’).”

There are a few real world solutions outlined – that any infrastructure bill before Congress would also address climate change, expanding and upgrading renewable energy and investing in a more efficient ‘smart’ power grid for all public electricity.  Family and sustainable farming would be supported under the plan and the resolution proposes the government work with farmers to limit pollution and climate change. Restoring and preserving natural environments as proven low-tech solutions to climate change are also called for.  

Promotion of an international trade in technology and ideas is also suggested as a way to support innovation in tackling environmental challenges.  The proposal calls for economic justice, good jobs and honoring agreements with indigenous leaders. 

But many people have been quick to criticize the Green New Deal as well as its sponsor Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. As a first-term U.S. Representative from New York and chief architect of the Green New Deal, Ocasio-Cortez has been consistently ridiculed by conservatives, including criticism of a video of her <a href="https://www.thisisinsider.com/video-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-dancing-backfire-critics-2019-1">dancing</a> in college.  The <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/mar/3/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-anti-burger-narrative-imp/">Washington Times</a> reports that Representative Rob Bishop ate a cheeseburger to show his opposition to the bill, claiming that the Green New Deal would outlaw burgers, even though it doesn’t specifically say anything about meat at all.  Trump echoed these sentiments <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1094375749279248385">tweeting</a> that the Green New Deal would permanently eliminate, “all planes, cars, cows, oil, gas &amp; the military.”  

The Green New Deal didn’t specify anything about red meat, but according to the <a href="https://psmag.com/news/democrats-are-not-trying-to-take-away-your-hamburgers">Pacific Standard</a>, Ocasio-Cortez did say in an interview, “maybe we shouldn't be eating a hamburger for breakfast, lunch, and dinner” while also specifically saying she didn’t want to get rid of agriculture.  

Meat consumption and food waste are real problems for the environment, as I’ve <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/eat-impacts-environment-climate-change/">previously reported</a>.  It’s hard to really think eating less red meat than the average American is a bad suggestion.  The US is also plagued with <a href="https://stateofobesity.org/data/">obesity</a> and <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2017/p0718-diabetes-report.html">diabetes</a>, both problems that can be partially alleviated by diets with <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/meatless-meals/art-20048193">less meat</a>.  Meat production of course also contributes greenhouse gases. 

But the most substantial criticisms of the Green New Deal boil down to specifics. The bill as it stands does leave a lot left up to the imagination, as it is little more than a bill of hopes for our country and the world.  As such, it mainly demands equality and health for people and the environment they live in. One sentiment echoed by many is that we can’t afford it. The main question we must ask ourselves is how can we afford not to secure our own lives and the lives we share earth with?  

In response to growing energy and buzz surrounding the Green New Deal and Democrat-led action against climate change, <a href="http://time.com/5540480/conservation-caucus-green-new-deal/">Time</a> reports that two Republican senators have formed their own new environmental group. The Roosevelt Conservation Caucus, created by Senators Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and Cory Gardner (R-Colorado), will seek “market-based approaches” to solve environmental issues.

The Green New Deal is pretty open, though, leaving room for thought, innovation, even criticism for any who want to work for a better world or even those who wish to hold on to what’s good in this one.         

--

By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer          

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

What the Green New Deal really includes

The proposed Green New Deal of course references FDR’s famous...

A team of psychologists in Sweden has developed a theory that may explain why we harm the environment, even when our intentions are good. The experts suggest that we treat our relationship with the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/fast-fashion-toll-environment/">environment</a> like a social exchange, believing that environmentally friendly behavior can compensate for harmful behavior.

The problem is that we cannot smooth things over later with the environment like we can in our social lives. According to the researchers, it would be impossible to mentally account for the environmental impact of all of our actions, so we use mental “rules of thumb” to track our green footprint and seek out eco-friendly products to make up for any damage we may have done. 

Study lead author Patrik Sörqvist is a professor of Environmental Psychology at the <a href="https://www.hig.se/Ext/En/University-of-Gavle.html">University of Gävle</a>.

“Reciprocity and balance in social relations have been fundamental to social cooperation, and thus to survival, so the human brain has become specialized through natural selection to compute and seek this balance,” said Professor Sörqvist. “But when applied to climate change, this social give-and-take thinking leads to the misconception that 'green' choices can compensate for unsustainable ones.”

In reality, all consumption causes permanent environmental harm. Green options are not fully restorative, but are simply less harmful.

“You can't kiss and make up with the environment. Jetting to the Caribbean will make you a huge environmental burden, no matter how many meat free Mondays you have,” said Professor Sörqvist.

When eco-friendly items are incorporated with conventional items, people often believe that the overall product is environmentally friendly. 

“For instance, some groups have found that people intuitively think the environmental burden of a hamburger and an organic apple in combination is lower than the environmental burden of the hamburger alone - or that the total emissions of a car pool remain the same when hybrid cars are added to the pool.” 

The new theory suggests that this leads us to pursue misguided quick fixes to address our guilt for harming the environment. The researchers explained that stricter legislation of marketing devices and a carbon footprint label for products would be a way to better guide consumer behavior.

“Terms like 'eco-friendly' or 'green' encourage the view that objects, behaviors and decisions with these labels are 'good' rather than 'less bad' for the environment,” said study co-author Dr. Linda Langeborg. “Calling a hamburger restaurant '100 % climate compensated', for example, may deceive people into believing that eating dinner at that restaurant has no environmental burden.”

“Instead, we should give consumers immediate feedback on how much 'eco-labeled' and other products add to the environmental impact of what they are buying. For example, self-scanning systems in supermarkets could provide customers with an accumulated carbon footprint estimate of their shopping basket.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology">Frontiers in Psychology</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Eco-friendly choices don’t compensate for environmental harm

A team of psychologists in Sweden has developed a theory...

New research has revealed that toxic byproducts of the herbicide Agent Orange used by the US military continue to contaminate soils in Vietnam today. 

Over the course of the war, the US dumped 20 million gallons of herbicides over Vietnam to kill trees, plants, and crops that were potentially concealing Viet Cong fighters. 

While the herbicides were effective at defoliating the thick jungle vegetation, a contaminant known as dioxin that formed in Agent Orange was <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/agent-orange-exposure-hypertension/">extremely toxic</a> and caused devastation among the Vietnamese and US military personnel. 

Even now, 50 years later, dioxin is still being consumed by fish and making its way up the food chain. 

To better understand Agent Orange's toll on the environment and public health, researchers from the <a href="https://illinois.edu/">University of Illinois</a> and <a href="https://www.iastate.edu/">Iowa State</a> conducted a study published in the journal Open Journal of Soil Science investigating dioxin's long and deadly legacy. 

“In this paper, we examine the short and long-term environmental effects on the Vietnamese natural resource base and how persistence of dioxin continues to affect soils, water, sediment, fish, aquatic species, the food supply, and Vietnamese health,” said Ken Olson, a co-author of the article. 

The research team reviewed reports on Vietnam's airbase sites and an 870-page <a href="https://www.usaid.gov/">USAID </a>report to track the contamination of dioxin as it spread through through the environment. 

Agent Orange is made up of two chemical herbicides, 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T, and during the production of Agent Orange, dioxin TCDD is formed. 

Unlike the other chemical components of Agent Orange, dioxin can remain in soils and stuck to sediments for decades to centuries. 

Once the US military started spraying the trees, contaminated leaves and shrubs decayed in the soil and from the soil TCDD made its way to wetlands, rivers, and lakes. 

The researchers point out ten airbase sites where dioxin concentrations are still at dangerous levels, and millions of people are potentially exposed to the pollutant. 

Incineration was ruled by the researchers as the most effective way to rid the soils of TCDD.

“While incineration is the most expensive technology currently available, it would eliminate dioxin rather than temporarily store it in a landfill, and incineration would not require future maintenance or treatment,” the researchers said. “Incineration is one of the most commonly used technologies, having been used to treat soils at more than 150 superfund sites, and is a mature and tested technology.” 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Image Credit: US Army Flight Operations Specialist 4 John Crivello in 1969

50 years later, Agent Orange toxic byproducts found in Vietnam soil

New research has revealed that toxic byproducts of the herbicide...

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHHxOej4QfE
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Researchers found a correlation between Alzheimer's disease and traffic pollution.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-invisible-threat-in-urban-air">Invisible threat in urban air</h2>



City dwellers face an unseen danger with every breath. New findings from Emory University researchers suggest that fine particulate matter from <a href="http://earth.com/news/traffic-related-air-pollution-might-increase-alzheimers-risk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">vehicle emissions may significantly elevate the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease</a>. The study examined brain tissue samples from 224 individuals who had confirmed diagnoses and volunteered their brains for scientific research.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-disturbing-connections-emerge">Disturbing connections emerge</h2>



Scientists analyzed neuritic plaques — protein clusters that characterize Alzheimer's — while mapping each participant's exposure to PM2.5 particles based on residential location and surrounding traffic density. The correlation proved more alarming than anticipated. Individuals experiencing higher pollution exposure showed nearly double the likelihood of elevated plaque accumulation in brain tissue.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-timing-matters">Timing matters</h2>



The research team discovered that pollution exposure during the final year before death demonstrated the strongest association with brain changes. This timeline suggests relatively rapid impacts from environmental toxins on neural health. The connection remained robust even after accounting for various demographic and health factors.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-genetic-vulnerability-patterns">Genetic vulnerability patterns</h2>



Perhaps most concerning, people lacking the APOE gene—which naturally predisposes individuals to Alzheimer's — exhibited more than twice the susceptibility to pollution-related brain damage. Study author Dr. Anke Huels noted this indicates environmental elements like air contamination could trigger the disease in cases where hereditary factors don't explain.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-public-health-implications">Public health implications</h2>



These findings, published in <a href="https://www.neurology.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Neurology</a>, underscore the critical importance of air quality regulations in urban planning. The research suggests that implementing stricter emission controls and promoting alternative transportation could serve as powerful tools in Alzheimer's prevention.



As cities worldwide grapple with growing traffic congestion and aging populations, this study highlights an urgent need for comprehensive approaches to environmental health that protect both our lungs and our minds.



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Traffic fumes may trigger Alzheimer's

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHHxOej4QfE Researchers found a correlation between Alzheimer's disease and traffic...

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E0mn5mTvhQ
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">'Death Star' moon Mimas conceals a 15-million-year-old ocean that scientists never expected.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-hidden-waters-beneath-ancient-craters">Hidden waters beneath ancient craters</h2>



Scientists have made a startling discovery that challenges everything we thought we knew about <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/saturn-moon-mimas-has-remarkably-young-ocean/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Saturn's moon Mimas</a>. Beneath the heavily cratered surface that earned it the nickname "Death Star" lies a global ocean that formed just 5 to 15 million years ago—a remarkably young age by cosmic standards.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cassini-data-reveals-orbital-secrets">Cassini data reveals orbital secrets</h2>



The discovery, led by Dr. Valéry Lainey of the <a href="https://observatoiredeparis.psl.eu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Observatoire de Paris</a>, emerged from careful analysis of <a href="https://www.nasa.gov" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NASA</a>'s Cassini spacecraft data. By studying subtle irregularities in Mimas's orbit around Saturn, researchers detected the gravitational signature of liquid water hidden 20 to 30 kilometers beneath the moon's icy shell.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-an-unlikely-ocean-world">An unlikely ocean world</h2>



At only 400 kilometers in diameter, Mimas seemed like the least likely candidate to harbor a subsurface ocean. Unlike other ocean moons such as Europa and Enceladus, which show clear surface signs of internal activity, Mimas displays no obvious hints of the liquid water beneath its ancient, crater-scarred exterior.



"Mimas is a small moon, and its heavily cratered surface gave no hint of the hidden ocean beneath," explained Dr. Nick Cooper from <a href="https://www.qmul.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Queen Mary University of London</a>, a study co-author.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-implications-for-astrobiology">Implications for astrobiology</h2>



The ocean's recent formation makes Mimas a prime target for studying how oceans develop and potentially support life. This discovery adds another member to the exclusive club of ocean worlds in our solar system, each offering unique insights into the conditions necessary for habitability.



The research, published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature</a> journal, demonstrates how advanced orbital analysis can reveal hidden features of celestial bodies, opening new possibilities for understanding ocean formation throughout the cosmos.



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Scientists discover unexpected young ocean on Saturn's cratered moon Mimas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E0mn5mTvhQ 'Death Star' moon Mimas conceals a 15-million-year-old ocean that...

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0DuSr87SHY
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">57 million-year ice age mystery solved by Australian scientists.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-when-earth-became-a-frozen-wasteland">When Earth became a frozen wasteland</h2>



Imagine Earth as a giant snowball, frozen solid from the North Pole to the equator. This wasn't the plot of a science fiction movie – it was our planet's reality 700 million years ago during an extreme ice age that has puzzled scientists for decades.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-discovery">The discovery</h2>



Australian researchers from the <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Sydney</a> have finally cracked one of geology's greatest mysteries: what caused the Sturtian glaciation and why it persisted for an unprecedented 57 million years. This period occurred long before dinosaurs roamed the Earth, when no complex plants or multicellular animals existed.



Dr. Adriana Dutkiewicz, the study's lead author, describes a world completely unlike today's climate. "Imagine the Earth almost completely frozen over," she explained. "The planet was blanketed in ice from poles to equator, and temperatures plunged."



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-combination-of-climate-factors">The combination of climate factors</h2>



The research team discovered that this massive freeze resulted from a "double whammy" of geological events. First, plate tectonic activity reduced volcanic carbon dioxide emissions to historically low levels. Volcanic activity typically releases CO2 into the atmosphere, creating a greenhouse effect that keeps Earth warm.



Simultaneously, weathering of volcanic rocks in what is now Canada actively absorbed atmospheric CO2, further reducing greenhouse gas concentrations. When atmospheric carbon dioxide levels dropped below 200 parts per million – less than half of today's levels – glaciation engulfed the entire planet.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-modern-climate-implications">Modern climate implications</h2>



Published in the journal <a href="https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/geology" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Geology</a>, this research provides crucial insights into Earth's climate system. While geological climate changes occur over millions of years, the study emphasizes that human-induced climate change is happening at a pace ten times faster than previously observed natural changes, highlighting the urgent need to understand our planet's delicate climate balance.



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What caused the planet's longest ice age

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0DuSr87SHY 57 million-year ice age mystery solved by Australian scientists....

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXXGGiynIjs
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Greenland is not sinking. In fact, it is the opposite.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-contrasting-climate-response">A contrasting climate response</h2>



Most coastal towns are <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sinking-land-will-intensify-the-effects-of-rising-sea-levels/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">preparing for higher sea levels</a>, but <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/greenland-no-longer-has-to-worry-about-rising-sea-levels/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Greenland presents</a> a different scenario during climate change. The ground there is rising at a remarkable rate. Over the past decade, some areas have lifted about 20 centimeters, which translates to roughly 2 meters per century. This rate significantly exceeds current projections for sea level rise.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-geological-rebound-process-through-climate-change">Geological rebound process through climate change</h2>



The mechanism behind this phenomenon is straightforward. As the ice sheet melts, the immense weight is removed from the bedrock, causing the land to rebound upward. This process resembles the way compressed material springs back when pressure is released.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-scientific-monitoring-networks">Scientific monitoring networks</h2>



Researchers at the <a href="https://www.dtu.dk/english/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Technical University of Denmark</a> are documenting this uplift using the GNET network, consisting of 61 GPS stations positioned around Greenland's coast. These sensors can detect movement with millimeter precision, providing detailed measurements of the ongoing changes.



The data reveal that current uplift rates exceed the gradual rebound occurring since the last ice age ended approximately 12,000 years ago. This acceleration corresponds directly with increased ice sheet melting rates.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-coastal-transformation">Coastal Transformation</h2>



This uplift is actively reshaping Greenland's coastline. New islands and rocky formations, called "skerries," are emerging as previously submerged land surfaces rise above the water level. This represents a notable contrast to global concerns about rising seas.



The study, published in Geophysical Research Letters, demonstrates the varied regional impacts of climate change. While many locations face rising water levels, Greenland's bedrock is literally rising above the surrounding seas.



The full study was recently published in <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2023GL104851" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Geophysical Research Letters</a>.



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Greenland's ground rises while coasts worldwide face higher seas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXXGGiynIjs Greenland is not sinking. In fact, it is the...

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSM3EVeGHJU
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Companies like MindStudio help companies train their employees to implement the latest AI Agent building platform.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ai-agent-training-transforms-the-workplace-fear-factor-into-a-competitive-advantage">AI agent training transforms the workplace 'fear factor' into a competitive advantage</h2>



Organizations that offer comprehensive artificial intelligence training to their workers find remarkable value that extends well beyond basic <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mind-wandering-might-be-more-productive-than-you-think/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">productivity improvements</a>. Emerging research demonstrates that carefully crafted AI training programs <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ai-does-not-replace-human-creativity-but-enhances-it/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">enhance</a> corporate performance, lower operational costs, and dramatically improve employee psychological well-being by turning workplace uncertainty into professional empowerment.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-addressing-the-widespread-ai-anxiety-crisis-among-us">Addressing the widespread 'AI anxiety' crisis among us</h2>



A staggering 53% of employees expressed concern that the use of AI tools to automate work tasks could make them appear disposable to their employers, according to <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Microsoft</a>'s 2024 workplace survey. Such pervasive worry about being substituted by machines has caused what researchers have termed "AI technostress" – a psychological state that can result in occupational burnout and poorer mental well-being.



Data published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/palcomms/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Humanities and Social Sciences Communications</a> showed that belief in AI learning ability was a moderator in the link between technology adoption and work pressure, and higher confidence significantly lowered negative psychological responses. Workers provided ample training to become competent with AI software have significantly lower stress.



Companies like <a href="https://www.mindstudio.ai/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MindStudio</a> have platforms for building what are known as "AI Agents". In essence, AI Agents are simply tools that employees can build for themselves or their teams quickly and inexpensively. MindStudio will even train entire companies, from the CEO on down, at no cost. By letting MindStudio empower employees, companies avoid hiring more IT staff, buying more software, and implementing solutions to problems that do not exist.



MindStudio even has partners locally for companies, like <a href="http://www.dominnus.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dominnus</a> with offices in the Carolinas, California, and Denver, to help build AI Agents and support employees as they become resident AI experts for their organization. The training provided by MindStudio is applicable across other AI Agent building platforms as well.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-revolutionary-productivity-through-focused-learning">Revolutionary productivity through focused learning</h2>



Organizations that implement large-scale AI training programs achieve dramatic outcomes. Employees performed tasks significantly better when they utilized AI support compared to when they didn't, according to <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nielsen Norman Group</a> research findings. Their study documented productivity increases of 66% for a variety of professional tasks.



Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis research finds workers record 33% higher productivity in time working with generative AI tools. The benefit is equivalent to 5.4% of work time savings for AI users – around 2.2 hours per week for full-time workers.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-psychological-well-being-benefits-through-ai-competence">Psychological well-being benefits through AI competence</h2>



The emotional transformation when employees are provided with proper technology training is a fundamental transformation from fear to professional confidence. A survey of 600 employees across industries, carried out by ScienceDirect, proved that AI capabilities strengthen work environment commitment and improve job satisfaction.



A <a href="https://www.lut.fi/en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">LUT University</a> study discovered that AI adoption has no direct effect on workers' well-being but does so indirectly through working conditions like task optimization and safety protocols. Strategically deployed AI that involves correct training can actually increase workplace mental well-being.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-from-replacement-anxiety-to-partnership-confidence">From 'replacement anxiety' to 'partnership confidence'</h2>



Although 35% of those interviewed in recent McKinsey studies were concerned about workforce displacement, firms with large-scale training initiatives witness such fears dissipate quickly. The World Economic Forum found that two out of three respondents believe AI competencies will enhance their career prospects and job marketability.



This shift from fear to trust has measurable implications for job satisfaction. Applied Sciences research indicates AI can create tailored wellness programs based on individual employee requirements.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-financial-benefits-of-increased-retention">Financial benefits of increased retention</h2>



The mental health advantages of AI learning have a direct impact on organizational bottom lines in the form of a positive feedback cycle with high retention of employees. Recent ROI research validates that artificial intelligence learning has a beneficial impact on employee turnover and satisfaction levels.



PriceWaterhouseCoopers' research documents 20% to 30% improvements in productivity, market speed, and revenue in organizations that attempt systematic AI adoption through comprehensive training.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-environmental-advantages-of-ai-enabled-teams">Environmental advantages of AI-enabled teams</h2>



AI training has unforeseen environmental benefits as it makes the work environment more efficient. According to a study in Scientific Reports, the carbon footprint in writing and illustrating work is significantly lower when AI performs it compared to humans. AI software produces 130 to 1,500 times less CO2 equivalent per page of text created than human authors.



In addition, AI-driven remote work functionality significantly reduces environmental impact. Research by Cornell University and Microsoft indicates that remote workers reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 54% by not commuting daily to offices. Hybrid workers working remotely two to four days a week can reduce their carbon footprint by 11% to 29%.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cumulative-organizational-advantages">Cumulative organizational advantages</h2>



The compounding gains of better mental well-being, reduced turnover, increased productivity, and environmental benefits flow to enterprises from the pairing. McKinsey analysis estimates the long-term AI potential at $4.4 trillion in incremental productivity growth opportunity from business use cases.



As of now, 75% of knowledge workers globally utilize generative AI, mirroring widespread adoption patterns. Organizations that provide organized training and assistance see the most favorable results in productivity, worker satisfaction, and ecological sustainability.



The research overwhelmingly indicates that companies that invest in proper AI education, like that offered through <a href="https://www.mindstudio.ai" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MindStudio</a>, establish win-win scenarios where employees are both more empowered and less stressed, and companies enjoy the gains of increased productivity, reduced turnover, and improved mental health outcomes throughout their workforce.



For more on MindStudio's free AI training for companies, visit the website's of MindStudio and Dominnus from the links below.



The research was published across a variety of peer-reviewed journals, including <a href="https://www.nature.com/palcomms/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Humanities and Social Sciences Communications</a>, <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/artificial-intelligence" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence</a>, and <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci">Applied Sciences</a>.



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MindStudio.AI: <a href="https://www.mindstudio.ai" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.mindstudio.ai</a>



Dominnus: <a href="https://www.dominnus.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.dominnus.com</a>

AI agent training boosts mental health and profits

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSM3EVeGHJU Companies like MindStudio help companies train their employees to...

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HDXqTGEmi4
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Scientists give plants superpowers against bacterial disease</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-natural-solution-to-disease-through-crop-modification">A natural solution to disease through crop modification.</h2>



The agricultural industry stands at a crossroads between productivity and environmental responsibility, and crop modification often carries a negative connotation. While chemical pesticides have long been the go-to solution for crop protection, their harmful effects on ecosystems and human health have prompted scientists to seek alternatives. The recent breakthrough by <a href="https://www.southampton.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Southampton</a> researchers offers a promising path forward through the precise manipulation of plant-associated microbial communities.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-science-behind-microbial-partnerships">The science behind microbial partnerships</h2>



Plants naturally harbor diverse ecosystems of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms that function as biological allies. These microscopic partners contribute to disease resistance, nutrient absorption, and stress tolerance. However, until now, scientists lacked the tools to deliberately reshape these communities to enhance crop protection.



The Southampton team's approach centered on <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/engineered-plant-microbiomes-the-future-of-crop-protection/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">modifying lignin biosynthesis genes in rice plants</a>. This strategic intervention altered the plant's metabolic output, creating conditions that favored beneficial bacterial populations while suppressing harmful ones. The result was a living defense system embedded within the plant itself.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-implications-for-global-food-security">Implications for global food security</h2>



The successful demonstration against Xanthomonas oryzae, the pathogen responsible for bacterial blight in rice, represents more than a laboratory achievement. Rice feeds nearly half the world's population, and bacterial blight causes devastating crop losses annually. Traditional control methods rely heavily on pesticides that contaminate soil and water systems.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-looking-beyond-disease-resistance">Looking Beyond Disease Resistance</h2>



While disease protection represents the immediate application, the research framework opens doors to broader agricultural improvements. Future developments could engineer microbiomes to enhance nutrient uptake, reducing dependence on synthetic fertilizers. This dual benefit addresses both crop productivity and environmental sustainability.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-path-forward">The path forward</h2>



As this technology advances from laboratory to field applications, it promises to reshape sustainable agriculture. The ability to program plants with their own biological defense systems could herald a new era where crops protect themselves naturally, reducing chemical inputs while maintaining yields necessary for global food security.



The study is published in the journal&nbsp;<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-44335-3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature Communications</a>.



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Revolutionizing agriculture through microbiome engineering

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HDXqTGEmi4 Scientists give plants superpowers against bacterial disease A natural...

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prrq8Ql81zk
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Acid rain and a crisis solved.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-don-t-we-ever-hear-about-acid-rain-anymore-the-environmental-crisis-that-was-solved">Why don't we ever hear about "acid rain" anymore? The environmental crisis that was solved</h2>



Remember the 1980s when acid rain dominated headlines? Dire warnings about rain eating buildings, killing fish, and destroying forests filled every news cycle. Then, almost like magic, acid rain vanished from public discourse. What happened? Did we actually solve one of the late 20th century's most pressing environmental challenges?



The answer might surprise you. Unlike many environmental issues that drag on indefinitely, acid rain represents one of modern history's most successful ecological recovery stories. It's a tale of science, politics, and technology working together to tackle what seemed impossible.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What was acid rain?</h2>



Acid rain isn't regular rain having a bad day – it's precipitation that became significantly more acidic due to air pollution. When power plants, factories, and vehicles burn fossil fuels, they release sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) into the atmosphere.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The science behind it</h2>



Think of acid rain as nature's chemistry experiment gone wrong. These compounds react with water, oxygen, and other chemicals to form sulfuric and nitric acids. When mixed with water vapor in clouds, they create precipitation with dangerously low pH levels.



While clean rain has a pH of about 5.6, acid rain could drop as low as 4.2 to 4.4 – roughly as acidic as tomato juice or coffee. According to US Geological Survey documentation, Scottish chemist Angus Smith first coined "acid rain" in 1872, but it didn't become a household phrase until the 1960s and 1970s when Swedish scientist Svante Odén documented its devastating effects on Scandinavian lakes and European forests.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The crisis at its peak</h2>



During the height of public concern, environmental damage was both widespread and visible. This wasn't some abstract future threat – people could see destruction happening in real-time.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Environmental devastation</h2>



The most dramatic impacts were impossible to ignore. Research documented by the Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation shows that in the Adirondack Mountains, more than 200 lakes became so acidic they couldn't support fish life. The Adirondack Council reports that 409 lakes once supported brook trout, but many lost their fish populations due to acid rain.



By 1976, when scientists cataloged all acidified lakes in the Adirondack Park, researchers found that half of the lakes over 2,000 feet above sea level had no fish, according to studies published in environmental journals. The acidification process worked like a slow-motion disaster. As acid rain fell into watersheds, it gradually lowered pH levels. Fish couldn't survive in acidic water, and their food sources died off too.



Trees at high elevations showed stress directly linked to acid rain. It weakened them by leaching nutrients and making them susceptible to disease. Historical records show Germany's Black Forest saw nearly half its trees damaged by the mid-1980s.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Economic impact</h2>



Acid rain wasn't just environmental – it was expensive. Acidic precipitation corroded infrastructure, buildings, and monuments. Historic stone structures deteriorated at accelerated rates. Tourism suffered as lakes became fishless and forests declined. EPA economic analyses from the period documented repair costs mounting into billions annually.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The solution: government action and technology</h2>



Transformation from crisis to success required unprecedented cooperation between governments, industries, and environmental groups.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Clean Air Act of 1990</h2>



The turning point came with the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, signed by President George H.W. Bush. This represented a fundamentally new approach to environmental regulation, as documented in EPA historical records.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Cap-and-trade success</h2>



Instead of mandating specific technologies, the 1990 amendments introduced something revolutionary: a cap-and-trade system for sulfur dioxide emissions. EPA program documentation shows this market-based approach set overall limits but allowed companies to trade emission allowances.



The genius was harnessing market forces to find cost-effective pollution reduction. Companies reducing emissions cheaply could sell excess allowances to those facing higher costs. Research published in environmental economics journals and EPA progress reports shows this resulted in dramatic SO2 reduction at a fraction of projected costs.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Technology advances</h2>



Policy provided the framework, but technology made reductions possible. Studies in atmospheric science journals document the widespread adoption of flue gas desulfurization systems ("scrubbers") that removed sulfur dioxide before it reached the atmosphere. By the 2000s, new installations could remove over 95% of SO2 emissions, according to EPA technical reports.



The push coincided with cleaner energy development. Natural gas produces fewer sulfur compounds than coal. Wind and solar, emerging in the 1990s, captured growing market share, reducing reliance on high-sulfur coal.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-we-don-t-hear-about-it-today">Why we don't hear about it today</h2>



Why did acid rain disappear from headlines? Simple: the problem was largely solved.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Success doesn't make news</h2>



There's an old journalism saying: "If it bleeds, it leads." Environmental success stories don't generate urgency like crisis reporting. Media attention shifted to other challenges: climate change, plastic pollution, and biodiversity loss. There's only so much environmental anxiety the public can absorb, and newer concerns replaced acid rain.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Mission accomplished</h2>



The primary reason is beautifully simple: interventions worked. EPA monitoring data shows sulfur dioxide emissions dropped over 90% since 1990. Academic research published in environmental science journals confirms pH levels in formerly affected areas returned closer to normal. This represents one of history's most dramatic environmental recoveries. Studies by the Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation show fishless lakes now support healthy populations. Forests recovered, and building damage slowed dramatically.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-is-it-really-gone">Is it really gone?</h2>



The crisis is largely resolved, but monitoring data shows the problem isn't completely eliminated – it's managed to acceptable levels. Some areas still experience occasional events during high pollution periods. International environmental research indicates that rapidly industrializing Asian countries face similar problems to what we experienced decades ago, though they're implementing successful strategies.



EPA research shows nitrogen oxide emissions proved more challenging than sulfur dioxide, coming from vehicles and mobile sources. Climate science studies suggest changing weather patterns add complexity to how acid rain forms and falls.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What this teaches us</h2>



The acid rain experience proves that seemingly intractable environmental problems can be solved with scientific understanding, political will, and technological innovation. Environmental monitoring data shows recovery speed was remarkable – within a decade, measurable improvements appeared in air quality and ecosystem health.



Success came from bipartisan support across party lines. Policy analysis studies show the market-based approach appealed to those preferring economic incentives while achieving environmental goals. This support created lasting policy surviving political changes.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Conclusion</h2>



Acid rain's disappearance from public consciousness represents environmental science's greatest success stories. Through effective regulation, technological innovation, and international cooperation, we transformed an overwhelming crisis into a manageable challenge.



Today's silence isn't because we forgot – it's because we solved it. The 1990 Clean Air Act, combined with technology and energy market changes, reduced acid rain emissions over 90%, according to comprehensive EPA data analysis.



This success offers hope for current challenges. It proves complex problems can be solved when science, policy, and technology work together. As we face climate change and plastic pollution, acid rain reminds us that dramatic positive change is possible.



Next time someone asks whether environmental regulations work, remember acid rain. It's proof that sometimes, we get it right.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Sources: This article draws from EPA official documentation and progress reports, peer-reviewed research published in environmental and atmospheric science journals, historical data from the Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation records, US Geological Survey publications, policy analysis studies, and environmental monitoring data collected over three decades.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Frequently Asked Questions</h2>



1. Is acid rain completely gone? No, but EPA monitoring shows it's reduced to manageable levels. US sulfur dioxide emissions dropped over 90% since 1990, making acid rain much less severe than the 1980s crisis.



2. How long did solving take? Environmental monitoring data shows significant improvements began within 5-10 years of 1990s emission controls. Full ecosystem recovery took longer – some areas need 20-30 years for complete recovery.



3. What made the solution successful? Clear scientific understanding, visible damage motivating action, bipartisan support, available technology, and innovative market-based policies like cap-and-trade.



4. Do other countries have acid rain problems? Yes, particularly rapidly industrializing Asian countries. However, international environmental research shows many implement similar successful control strategies.



5. Could acid rain return? Potentially, if regulations weaken or we return to high-sulfur coal without controls, though effects would take years to become severe according to environmental projections.



6. Can you recommend any teaching tools on the subject of "acid rain"? The United States Environmental Protection Agency produced a wonderful teacher's guide for ages 14 and under that you can find on the EPA website here: <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2017-03/documents/teachersguide.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2017-03/documents/teachersguide.pdf</a>



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The environmental problem we actually solved

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prrq8Ql81zk Acid rain and a crisis solved. Why don't we...

Green,Ecoduct,Over,An,Empty,Highway,During,Sunset.

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://youtu.be/XYgiPzmNBTU?si=eFYY7gPHU1JznLvU
</div></figure>



A new long-term study in Monkton, Vermont, reveals that wildlife tunnels significantly reduce amphibian road mortality during seasonal migrations. 



Frogs and salamanders often cross roads to reach breeding ponds each spring, but many are killed by vehicles. 



Researchers from the <a href="https://www.uvm.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Vermont</a>, in collaboration with local citizens and the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, installed two underpass tunnels in 2015. 



Over a 12-year monitoring period, they observed an 80.2% reduction in amphibian deaths, and up to 94% for non-climbing species like salamanders. 



The study used a before-after-control-impact design and documented more than 5,200 amphibians, highlighting the tunnels’ effectiveness even in nearby buffer zones.



Funded at $342,397 - far cheaper than wildlife crossings for large mammals - the project showcased the power of community-led conservation.



Local groups initiated the effort after observing mass amphibian deaths. Wildlife cameras later captured over 2,200 amphibians using a tunnel in just one spring, along with other species like raccoons and bobcats, indicating wider ecosystem benefits.



This marks the first peer-reviewed, long-term data set in the northeastern U.S. confirming amphibian-specific underpasses work. 



The study urges transportation departments to incorporate these designs into road planning and highlights how community action, thoughtful infrastructure, and persistence can make a real difference for biodiversity.



The full study was published in the <a href="https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1617138125000780" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Journal for Nature Conservation</a>.



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Wildlife tunnels save millions of amphibians

https://youtu.be/XYgiPzmNBTU?si=eFYY7gPHU1JznLvU A new long-term study in Monkton, Vermont, reveals that...

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



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



<figure class="wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://youtu.be/Ug657J67iEo?si=w96YjGMsg939LD_3
</div></figure>



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Is chocolate the next nutritional powerhouse?

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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



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Designing crops that can beat the heat

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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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



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.

Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

[sendtonews key="f8fukm28Vz-2491833-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> reveals the evolution of the Columbia Glacier in southeastern Alaska. Columbia is among the fastest shrinking glaciers in the world, and the video documents its rapid retreat over the years.&nbsp;



Columbia Glacier is a large, multi-branched calving glacier that flows out of the Chugach Mountains to the Prince William Sound.&nbsp;



According to USGS, Columbia had a long history of stability prior to 1980, with a length 41 miles, and small, short-lived advances or retreats.



In the years since 1980, however, satellite images have captured Columbia’s alarming retreat. By using false-color images, scientists can distinguish between snow and ice, open water, vegetation, and rocky debris on the glacier’s surface.



The series of false-color images featured in today's video were acquired over the span of 35 years. You can see that by 2021, the glacier’s main branch had retreated about 15 miles from its initial position.



The Columbia Glacier has also lost more than 50 percent of its volume, mostly due to calving. <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/nasa-reveals-3d-visual-of-an-atmospheric-river/">NASA</a> reports that while climate change likely started the retreat, mechanical processes kept the disintegration going.



The NASA images are provided by Jesse Allen, Robert Simmon, Joshua Stevens, and Lauren Dauphin using data from Landsat satellites, from the U.S. Geological Survey, and data from MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite. The structure of Columbia’s moraine played a large role in the stability of the glacier before 1980. 



Like other tidewater glaciers, the Columbia built up a moraine over time, and the mixture of ice and rock functioned like a dam keeping out the sea. It was supported on one end by the shoreline and by the underwater terminal moraine at the other.



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/&nbsp; NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio



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



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

[sendtonews key="0879czfG3k-1785905-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from NASA...

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes how record-breaking heat expressed itself around the world in 2022.



Scientists have determined that 2022 was the 5th warmest year since 1880. Furthermore, the last nine consecutive years have been the warmest on record.



From devastating floods and wildfires to natural disasters like Hurricane Ian, 2022 showed us yet again how a warming climate affects people across the globe.&nbsp;



"As we look back at 20:22 and years past, we see that each year we better understand the challenges we face and how important it is to meet them," says NASA.



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes Earth’s interconnected systems, and how this network is affected by rising temperatures.&nbsp;



During 2020, average global temperatures matched the hottest year on record. The hurricane season was also record-breaking, with many of the storms intensifying at extraordinary speeds. Hot water in the ocean is fuel for hurricanes. The satellite data shows that it's all one interconnected system showing how Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected.



According to NASA, dust swept up from Northern Africa plays a major role in the formation of hurricanes, and is also a key source of fertilization in the Amazon rainforest. As a result of<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seagrass-wasting-disease-is-fueled-by-climate-change/"> climate</a> change, dust plumes are expected to decline, which will have an effect on vegetation far away.&nbsp;



Images from Earth-observing satellites show how the world’s plant life is affected by natural disasters, fires, and deforestation. Satellites also reveal how widespread changes in vegetation impact waterways,&nbsp; the climate, air quality. Satellites communicate by using radio waves to send signals to the antennas on the Earth. "Earth From Space" is a groundbreaking two-hour special that reveals a spectacular new space-based vision of our planet. 



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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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



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes how Earth is unique in our solar system for its ability to sustain liquid water on its surface. But now, the water cycle is shifting as the climate warms, and scientists must find ways to predict how these changes will affect water availability.



Overall, 96 percent of Earth's water is saltwater, and nearly all of freshwater is found in ice and groundwater. These sources of water are linked as it passes through solid, liquid and gas phases.



In a warmer climate, the water cycle will be transformed. It will be easier for water to evaporate and form clouds, and storms will become more frequent and intense. Some regions will get too much water, while others will be left without enough water. In addition, soil moisture will be lost - which threatens food security.



Scientists are using satellite data from over the last 40 years to track changes that are happening in the water cycle. This will ultimately help us prepare for extreme events and better manage our water resources, according to ESA.



Video Credit: ESA



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



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Tracking changes in Earth's water cycle

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Saturn,-,High,Resolution,3d,Images,Presents,Planets,Of,The

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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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