A massive new analysis suggests Americans don’t just differ in what they earn or how long they live - they also differ in how they experience wellness. 



Drawing on more than 325,000 survey responses collected over eight years, researchers found clear regional differences in wellness.



People in the Northeastern and Midwestern regions tend to score higher on “traditional” wellness, which includes <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fitness-focused-medicine-physical-activity-reduces-chronic-disease-risk/">physical health,</a> finances, and social support.



Many Southern regions, by contrast, rank higher on “existential” wellness, such as purpose, meaning, and a strong sense of community identity. The pattern lines up with centuries-old settlement histories that still shape local norms today.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-measuring-wellness-two-ways">Measuring wellness two ways</h2>



The team worked with data from the <a href="https://news.gallup.com/topic/well-being-index.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index</a> spanning 2009–2016 and grouped responses into two broader composites.



“Traditional” wellness bundles tangible aspects of life - physical and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mental-health-crisis-half-of-the-worlds-population-will-be-affected-by-age-75/">mental health</a>, financial security, and day-to-day social support. 



“Existential” wellness captures the less tangible side - purpose, personal growth, community belonging, and living in line with one’s values.



Separating the two helps explain why some places thrive on paper (jobs, hospitals, income) yet still report a thinner sense of meaning - or the reverse.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-an-old-map-explains-modern-feelings"><a></a>An old map explains modern feelings</h2>



To test whether regional culture matters in wellness, the researchers turned to the American Nations Model. 



This framework divides the U.S. into historical “nations” based on who settled there first. Think Yankeedom, the Deep South, Greater Appalachia, El Norte, and others.



Each region inherited durable folkways about trust, autonomy, community, and authority. Even after accounting for education and income, these cultural footprints predicted distinctive wellness profiles where people live.



The headline split was clear. Northeastern and Midwestern regions, including Yankeedom, leaned higher on traditional wellness. 



Several Southern and frontier-legacy regions - such as the Deep South, Greater Appalachia, El Norte, and parts of the Far West - leaned higher on existential wellness.



In other words, the balance of “health and money” versus “purpose and belonging” shifts in systematic ways across the cultural map.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-wellness-differences-stand-out">Wellness differences stand out</h2>



Statistically, the contrasts weren’t subtle. In within-region comparisons, traditional wellness significantly exceeded existential wellness in Yankeedom.



Existential wellness was higher in the Deep South and especially Greater Appalachia - the largest reversal in the set.



Several other regions showed smaller or no gaps, demonstrating that not every place fits a single mold.



These effects held in mixed-effects models that controlled for <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/why-education-matters-for-healthy-aging-and-longevity/">education</a> and income and accounted for clustering within metropolitan areas.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/existential-wellness_american-nations-settlements_PLOS-One_1m.jpg"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/existential-wellness_american-nations-settlements_PLOS-One_1s.webp" alt="Wellbeing across the American Nations: First Settler Effects influence traditional and existential wellness. Credit: David R. Samson, Nathan Oesch, Colin Woodard" class="wp-image-1985865"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Wellbeing across the American Nations: First Settler Effects influence traditional and existential wellness. Click image to enlarge. Credit: David R. Samson, Nathan Oesch, Colin Woodard</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-culture-race-and-wellness">Culture, race, and wellness</h2>



The study also looked at Black and Hispanic residents across regions. Patterns generally echoed the broader map. 



Black and Hispanic respondents tended to show higher traditional wellness in Northeastern and Midwestern regions. They also reported higher existential wellness in Southern regions.



Notably, Black respondents showed consistently lower traditional wellness than white respondents across regions. In the Northeast and Midwest, they also fared worse on existential wellness. 



Together, these patterns suggest that material constraints and structural disparities remain powerful drivers.



At the same time, the relatively stronger existential scores in many Southern contexts may reflect the buffering role of community networks and cultural identity.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cultural-roots-of-wellness">Cultural roots of wellness</h2>



Culture shapes where institutions flourish (hospitals, schools, civic groups), how people relate to one another (trust, norms of reciprocity), and what counts as a good life (autonomy vs. solidarity, achievement vs. belonging).



Those long-running preferences influence migration, policy choices, and investments that, over time, help set the table for different “flavors” of well-being.



The authors found the pattern persisted even after adjusting for education and income, and they reported model checks to reduce issues like multicollinearity among predictors.



That suggests the American Nations framework isn’t just a clever historical story - it adds real explanatory power to why wellness feels different in different parts of the country.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-wellness-policy-must-fit-culture">Wellness policy must fit culture</h2>



If you want to boost <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/simply-looking-at-art-can-improve-your-well-being/">well-being</a>, focusing only on income or clinics may miss what makes people feel whole in a given place.



In regions that already score high on traditional metrics, investing in community identity, public spaces, and opportunities for contribution might move the needle on meaning and purpose.



In places rich in existential wellness but poorer on traditional metrics, policies that improve access to preventive care, stable work, and safety nets could pay outsized dividends.



Put simply, the study argues that wellness strategies work best when they respect the cultural ecologies where people live - strengthening what’s already strong while shoring up what’s thin.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-limits-and-a-next-step"><a></a>Limits - and a next step</h2>



This is an observational study using self-reported survey data; it can’t prove cause and effect. The American Nations borders blur in real life, people move, and city-level differences within regions can be large.



Still, with more than 325,000 respondents across 110 metro areas and eight years of data, the signal is hard to ignore. 



The authors call for digging into mechanisms: Which specific institutions or community practices best translate cultural inheritance into day-to-day well-being? 



And which levers - health infrastructure, schooling, neighborhood design, civic organizations - offer the highest return in each region?



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-place-and-culture-shape-wellness">Place and culture shape wellness</h2>



Where you live doesn’t just shape your paycheck and your hospital bill. It also shapes how you experience a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/creativity-improves-life-satisfaction-and-overall-well-being/">good life</a> - whether that’s feeling financially secure and physically well, or feeling rooted in purpose and community.



The United States’ oldest settlement patterns still echo in those experiences today. 



They remind policymakers that the most effective pathways to human flourishing may look different from Boston to Birmingham to El Paso.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0327972" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">PLOS One</a>.



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Wellness in America depends on culture and where you live

A massive new analysis suggests Americans don’t just differ in what they earn or how long they live - they also differ in how they experience wellness. Drawing on more than 325,000 survey responses collected over eight years, researchers found clear regional differences in wellness. People in the Northeastern and Midwestern regions tend to score higher on “traditional” wellness, which includes physical health, finances, and social support. Many Southern regions, by contrast, rank higher on “existential” wellness, such as purpose, meaning, and a strong sense of community...

Researchers have found that people who have had a <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/women-wait-heart-attack/">heart attack</a>, stroke, or cardiac arrest are much less likely to be employed, and those who are working tend to have lower incomes.

Cardiovascular disease and stroke are the leading causes of death, but can also result in disability or loss of income. Overall, one-third of heart attacks, 25 percent of strokes, and 40 percent of cardiac arrests affect people who have not yet reached retirement age. 

The investigation was focused on how these conditions affect the labor market. The researchers compared outcomes of people between 40 and 61 years old who were working before their health event.

Study co-author Dr. Allan Garland is a professor of Medicine and Community Health Sciences at the <a href="http://umanitoba.ca/">University of Manitoba</a> and a physician at the Health Sciences Centre Winnipeg. 

"Three years after admission to hospital for any of these health events, people who survived were less likely than the matched participants to be working and had greater losses in annual earnings,” said Dr. Garland. “The loss in earnings was substantial, with reductions ranging from 8% to 31%. Even if people were able to work, their incomes in the third year after the event were 5% to 20% less than before.”

The income losses were the highest among individuals who had a stroke, with a 31 percent decrease on average. Earnings decreased by 23 percent for those who suffered from cardiac arrest, and there was an 8 percent decrease among those who had a heart attack. 

“Unemployment and lost earning owing to common health events have broad societal relevance, with consequences for patients, families and governments, such as bankruptcy, worsening health and lost productivity,” says Dr. Garland.

The researchers hope that the study will ultimately lead to interventions and policies that will support people after major health events and help them return to work, which is associated with greater life satisfaction and well-being.

The study is published in the <a href="http://www.cmaj.ca/">Canadian Medical Association Journal</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Heart attack, stroke often lead to unemployment or lower incomes

Researchers have found that people who have had a heart...

A new study has revealed that individuals have a significantly higher risk of suicide after a cancer diagnosis, and that the type of cancer can increase the danger. The findings highlight the need for newly diagnosed patients to be screened for <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/suicide-twice-common-homicide/">suicide risk</a> and to have access to emotional support.

“Awareness among providers to screen for suicide risk and refer to mental health services is important for mitigating such risk and saving lives, especially within the first six months after diagnosis,” explained co-senior author Dr. Ahmad Alfaar of Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin. “Moreover, family members and caregivers must be trained to provide psychological support for their ill relatives.”

In the United States, suicide is the tenth leading cause of death and there are more deaths from suicide among cancer patients compared to the general population. The research team, which also included co-senior author Dr. Hesham Hamoda of <a href="http://www.childrenshospital.org/">Boston Children's Hospital</a> and <a href="https://hms.harvard.edu/">Harvard Medical School</a>, set out to investigate the risk of suicide within the year after a cancer diagnosis. 

The study was focused on cancer patients in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database between 2000 and 2014. This sample represented about 28 percent of all patients with cancer in the United States.

“This is the largest study to assess recent trends in suicide risk after a cancer diagnosis in the US population,” said study lead author Anas Saad of <a href="http://www.asu.edu.eg/">Ain Shams University</a> in Cairo, Egypt.

Out of the 4,671,989 patients examined for the study, 1,585 committed suicide within one year of their diagnosis. This risk is two and a half times higher than what is estimated among the general population.

The highest increase in suicide risk was found following the diagnosis of pancreatic or lung cancer. The risk of suicide also increased following a diagnosis of colorectal cancer, but did not significantly increase following a breast or prostate cancer diagnosis.

“Both cancer and suicide are leading causes of death and present a major public health challenge. Our study highlights the fact that for some patients with cancer, their mortality will not be a direct result of the cancer itself, but rather because of the stress of dealing with it, culminating in suicide,” said Dr. Hamoda. “This finding challenges us all to ensure that psychosocial support services are integrated early in cancer care.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10970142">Cancer</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

The risk of suicide increases following a cancer diagnosis

A new study has revealed that individuals have a significantly...

By the time they turn 14, young girls are twice as likely to show symptoms of depression than boys – and researchers are blaming social media.

The problem, according to a new study published in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589537018300609?via%3Dihub">EClinical Medicine</a>, is that girls tend to use social media much more than their male counterparts.

“Greater social media use related to online harassment, poor sleep, low self-esteem and poor body image; in turn these related to higher depressive symptom scores,” the researchers wrote.

To see how sites and apps like <a href="http://www.twitter.com/">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://www.snapchat.com">Snapchat</a> affected young teens’ mental health, the team from <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/">University College London</a> and <a href="https://www.essex.ac.uk/">University of Essex</a> looked at data collected by the UK’s <a href="https://cls.ucl.ac.uk/cls-studies/millennium-cohort-study/">Millennium Cohort Study</a>. That project involved collecting information from 10,904 14-year-olds.

The study found that 10 percent of boys reported that they don’t use social media, compared to just 4 percent of girls. About 40 percent of girls were on social media for more than three hours per day; only 20 percent of boys said the same.

Those differences put girls at more risk of online bullying, and tended to lead to more interrupted sleep, due to use of chat apps. Those issues, in turn, led to mental health challenges for female tweens and teens.

“The link between social media use and depressive symptoms was stronger for girls compared with boys,” Dr. Yvonne Kelly, the study’s lead author, told the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html">Daily Mail</a>. “For girls, greater daily hours of social media use corresponded to a stepwise increase in depressive symptoms. For boys, higher depressive symptom scores were seen among those reporting three or more hours of daily social media use.”

Rates of depression symptoms among heavy users were more than three times higher than light users.

The study follows on the heels of another report, released in October, that found <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/unlimited-screen-time-depression/">unlimited screen time</a> is linked to worse mental health in young people.

“Our findings highlight the potential pitfalls of lengthy social media use for young people's mental health,” the research team wrote in their study. “Findings are highly relevant for the development of guidelines for the safe use of social media and calls on industry to more tightly regulate hours of social media use.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kcathey@earth.com">Kyla Cathey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Social media use, depression linked in teen girls

By the time they turn 14, young girls are twice...

Over 115 people die every day from an opioid overdose, according to the <a href="https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-overdose-crisis">National Institute on Drug Abuse</a>.  

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/opioid-crisis-kids-adolescents/">Opioid addiction</a> has become a major national crisis and policymakers as well as health experts are working to combat opioid misuse and addiction. 

Not long ago, the United States was dealing with an entirely different health crisis. Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s, nearly 675,000 people in the US have died from the autoimmune condition, according to the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom/docs/factsheets/todaysepidemic-508.pdf">Centers for Disease Control</a>. 

Now, researchers from the <a href="https://www.mailman.columbia.edu/">University Mailman School of Public Health</a> suggest that there is much to be gained from looking at how the AIDS epidemic was handled, including treatments, political response, and media attention, that could inform more effective strategies in battling opioids.

“Despite the effectiveness of medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorders, the mortality rate for opioids has surpassed that of the AIDS epidemic during its peak in the early 1990s--a time when there was no effective treatment for HIV/AIDS,” said Silvia Martins, an author of the study. 

The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, and the researchers say that advances in medical treatment options won’t be enough to reduce opioid addiction in the US. 

To say that the government, media, and the medical community failed in their response to the AIDS Epidemic is an understatement. 

The stigma that surrounded HIV/AIDS and the gay community during the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s only helped spur prejudice and spread misinformation about the disease, including how it was contracted. 

Doctors debated about the moral obligation of treating people with HIV/AIDS and the Reagan Administration was infamously silent on the issue until President Reagan finally publicly addressed the epidemic in 1987 after 23,000 people had died, according to the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2015/12/01/a-disturbing-new-glimpse-at-the-reagan-administrations-indifference-to-aids/?utm_term=.318bdd2f032f">Washington Post</a>. 


In their New England Journal of Medicine study, the researchers say that these failings can be looked on an as important learning opportunity for how to address the opioid crisis on all fronts both medically and socially. 

“Even as efforts are under way to scale up access to medication-assisted treatment for opioid use, it is vital not to assume a position of  ‘if we build it, they will come,’” said Caroline Parker, the first author of the study. “The benefits of scientific progress have been unequally distributed, with growing ethnic and sexuality-related disparities. This failure of equity should draw our attention to the importance of social factors in shaping who benefits from effective biomedical therapies.” 

The researchers suggest a five-point action plan to help combat the opioid crisis. 

Step one of the plan involves identifying the cultural, social, economic and structural barriers that prevent people from receiving treatment. So far, 80 percent of people with an opioid addiction don’t get the care they need. 

“As the HIV/AIDS epidemic has taught us, the existence of effective medical treatment does not mean that people who need treatment can and will obtain it,” said Parker. 

Step two says that policymakers and the medical community need to stop addressing the crisis on a case-by-case basis. 

For step three, the researchers emphasize the importance of addressing the stigma of opioid misuse. 

“It is critical to directly engage affected families and communities in policymaking and changing legislation to stop the criminalization of substance use disorders,” said Parker. 

Step four calls on family and community members to take action and create a supportive network for people with opioid misuse problems. This will help with healthcare engagement and encourage more people to seek treatment. 

Step five follows step four in that community engagement and action is critical to the success of any opioid crisis plan. 

“As millions of dollars are appropriated at the state and federal levels for the opioid crisis, we face a choice,” said Martins. “Committing those resources exclusively to biomedical solutions is likely to reproduce the sharp disparities that we have seen with HIV, but learning from the failures and successes of our response to HIV can help us leverage support to ensure that the opioid response benefits all sectors of society.” 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Lessons from the AIDS epidemic can help battle the opioid crisis

Over 115 people die every day from an opioid overdose,...

Retailers must be more transparent about their palm oil sources. The production of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/palm-oil-deforestation-emissions/">palm oil</a>, a commonly used ingredient in cosmetics, food, cleaning products, and biofuel, causes massive deforestation, loss of biodiversity, and greenhouse gas emissions when not harvested sustainably — which massive quantities aren’t. However, many consumers are not aware when and if sustainably sourced palm oil is in their daily products. 

A new study from the <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge</a>, published in <a href="http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aaf0e4/meta">Environmental Research Letters</a>, proves that companies must be more upfront about their usage of palm oil due to the fact that, generally, consumers are not informed about palm oil labelling on products. Retailers must be more transparent about their palm oil sources

“The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) has made efforts to improve the sustainability of palm oil production by creating an environmental certification system for palm oil. But currently only 19 percent of palm oil is RSPO-certified,” said the study’s leader, Dr. Rosemary Ostfeld. “This means the majority that finds its way into products people buy daily is still produced using conventional practices.”

Dr. Ostfeld and her team surveyed 1,695 British consumers and found that 77% of them were aware of what palm oil is. Furthermore, 44% considered palm oil “environmentally unfriendly.” But almost none of those surveyed knew that the RSPO label represented a product made with sustainably-sourced palm oil.

"In terms of label recognition versus action, 82 percent of people recognised the Fairtrade label, but only 29 percent actively buy Fairtrade products,” Dr. Ostfeld said. “Only five percent recognised the RSPO label - the same as a fictional label we put into the survey as a control. Of that small number, only one percent said they actively include products with the label in their shopping.”

Dr. Ostfeld believes that the lack of consumer recognition of this label could be blamed on the fact that major companies and retailers don’t use it. “This may be due in part to reluctance to draw attention to their use of palm oil, or it may be because they fall short of the 95 percent physical certified palm oil content that used to be needed to use the label,” Dr. Ostfeld hypothesized.

No matter the reason, the research team found that labelling alone will not necessarily encourage a consumer to choose to sustainable palm oil product over a non-sustainable one. Government policy is needed to make sure the palm oil industry is not overstepping its bounds.

“We recommend governments require consumer goods companies and retailers to buy identity-preserved certified palm oil, which can be traced back to the individual plantation,” Dr. Ostfeld said. “If national targets must be met with identity-preserved certified palm oil, demand for it will increase. It will also enable unsustainable practices to be uncovered more easily.”

Dr. Ostfeld also recommends that companies become transparent about their palm oil suppliers, which will lead the public to make more informed choices and encourage companies to stick with ethical suppliers.

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Retailers must be more transparent about their palm oil sources

Retailers must be more transparent about their palm oil sources....

While extensive research has shown the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/air-pollution-asthma-attacks/">negative impacts of pollution</a> on public health and wellbeing, few studies have examined how air pollution affects worker productivity. 

But now, a new study published in the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics is the first of its kind to comprehensively show how long-term exposure to pollution in a factory setting has a dramatic impact on both health and productivity for employees. 

Researchers from the <a href="http://nus.edu.sg/">National University of Singapore</a> conducted the research and spent over a year interviewing factory managers in China, gathering productivity information from textile mills, and analyzing data. 

“Our aim with this research was to broaden the understanding of air pollution in ways that have not been explored,” said Alberto Salvo, an author of the study. “We typically think that firms benefit from lax pollution regulations, by saving on emission control equipment and the like; here we document an adverse effect on the productivity of their work force.” 

The researchers reviewed the daily records of two textile factories where the workers were paid per piece of fabric made and compared the records to daily pollution levels using measurements of fine particles. 

Having such detailed records of productivity allowed the researchers to find out how a factory’s pollution impacted its employees both on a day to basis and over a longer period. 

On most days, the factories had pollution levels that were above levels deemed safe by the<a href="https://www.epa.gov/"> US Environmental Protection Agency</a>. 

The researchers found on a day to day basis, pollution exposure had little influence on worker productivity, but exposure over a period of 30 days adversely affected the employees. 

“We found that an increase in PM2.5, by 10 micrograms per cubic meter sustained over 25 days, reduces daily output by 1 per cent, harming firms and workers,” said Haoming Liu, a co-author of the study. “The effects are subtle but highly significant.”

One explanation for why productivity is impacted by pollution exposure could be that the highly polluted factory environments reduce well-being. 

“Besides entering via the lungs and into the bloodstream, there could also be a psychological element,” said Liu, “Working in a highly polluted setting for long periods of time could affect your mood or disposition to work.”

Previous research found that in California, fruit packers exposed to a certain level of air pollution were immediately six percent less productive, but this study found that effects are more subtle for workers in China.  

“Laborers in China can be working under far worse daily conditions while maintaining levels of productivity that look comparable to clean air days,” said Liu. “Therefore, our finding that pollution has a subtle influence on productivity seems realistic.” 

--

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://earthcom">Earth.com</a>

Air pollution found to impact worker productivity

While extensive research has shown the negative impacts of pollution...

The mysterious collapse of the Akkadian Empire may finally have been solved thanks to paleoclimatologists from Oxford who examined stalagmites in the Gole-e-Zard Cave in Northern Iran. 

4,300 years ago, Sargon of Akkad formed the Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia. It was the first empire in the world spanning across what is now Southern Iraq, Syria, and Turkey along the Euphrates River. 

But the empire ultimately collapsed and Akkadian people migrated out of the area leaving behind few clues as to why. 

In a new piece in <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-climate-change-caused-the-worlds-first-ever-empire-to-collapse-109060">The Conversation</a>, Vasile Ersek discussed how he and a team of <a href="http://www.ox.ac.uk/">Oxford</a> researchers found evidence that widespread drought and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-ancient-societies/">climate change</a> were to blame. 

Ersek and colleagues are not the first researchers to point to drought as the cause of Akkad’s downfall, but what makes this study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, different from past research is the evidence found in cave stalagmites. 

Akkad was dependent on agriculture in the northern regions, but about a century after the Empire’s formation, the area was fraught with food and water shortages.

Previous research conducted by <a href="https://www.yale.edu/">Yale</a> archeologists found evidence of drought that reduced agricultural productivity in the northern regions and this led to people fleeing. The once fertile areas of Akkad were replaced by sand and dust, and sediment cores from the Red Sea confirm this fact. 

However, drought as the cause remained highly contested by researchers saying that there was not enough evidence to prove that widespread climate change drove people out of Akkad and ruined the once great empire. 

Ersek, along with a team of researchers led by Stacy Carolin, dated stalagmites in the Gol-e-Zard Cave to see if the mineral composition of the stalagmites could provide more insight into the climate conditions at the time of Akkad’s collapse. 

Stalagmites, like sediment cores, serve as accurate records of climate conditions in years past. 

The researchers found thousands of years of dust activity in the stalagmites, and the stalagmites with high concentrations of magnesium pointed to periods of high dust activity indicative of desert drought. 

“Combining these methods, our new study provides a detailed history of dustiness in the area, and identifies two major drought periods which started 4,510 and 4,260 years ago, and lasted 110 and 290 years respectively,” Ersek wrote in the Conversation. “The latter event occurs precisely at the time of the Akkadian Empire’s collapse and provides a strong argument that climate change was at least in part responsible.”

--

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>

Drought and climate change brought down the Akkad Empire

The mysterious collapse of the Akkadian Empire may finally have...

A new study from the environmental analysis group <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/">Carbon Brief</a> has revealed that product energy efficiency has been even more effective in cutting CO2 emissions across the UK than <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/california-renewable-2045/">renewable energy</a>, even though the potential of energy efficiency is largely overlooked. 

The analysis comes at a time when power generation in the UK is the lowest it has been in 25 years.

A review of the findings, written by Carbon Brief’s deputy editor Dr. Simon Evans, explains that “low-energy light bulbs can cut electricity use by up to 90 percent while newer ‘white goods’ such as fridges, freezers, and washing machines can use up to 75 percent less electricity each year than the oldest models.” 

According to the <a href="https://www.theccc.org.uk/">Committee on Climate Change</a> (CCC), there is a great amount of potential for cutting energy use by simply replacing old appliances with the latest models. 

“Although the picture is complex it’s clear that energy efficiency has played a huge role in help the UK to decarbonize - and I don’t think it’s got the recognition it should have,” Dr. Evans told <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news">BBC News</a>: 

“Say you change from a B or C-rated fridge to an A++ rated fridge. That can halve your energy use from the appliance, so it’s pretty significant.”

The Carbon Brief reports that use of renewable energy has cut back on fossil fuel energy by the equivalent of 95 terawatt hours (TWh) since 2005. Meanwhile, energy efficiency cut energy demand across the UK by 103 TWh. 


Dr. Joanne Wade is the CEO of the <a href="https://www.ukace.org/">Association for Conservation of Energy</a> (ACE). She told BBC News, “I haven’t seen these figures before but I’m not surprised.”

“The huge improvement in energy efficiency tends to be completely ignored. People haven’t noticed it because if efficiency improves, they are still able to have the energy services that they want. I suppose I should reluctantly agree that the fact that no-one notices it is part of its appeal.”

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Energy efficient products substantially lowered UK energy demand

A new study from the environmental analysis group Carbon Brief...

A new study has found that 19 percent of adults in the United States think they have a food allergy, but not all of them actually do. The researchers found that just over 10 percent of the population, or 26 million Americans, have symptoms that are consistent with a true <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/eat-restaurants-food-allergy/">food allergy</a>, which can be life-threatening. 

Study lead author Dr. Ruchi Gupta is from the <a href="https://www.luriechildrens.org/">Ann &amp; Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago</a> and is also a professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University.

“While we found that one in 10 adults have food allergy, nearly twice as many adults think that they are allergic to foods, while their symptoms may suggest food intolerance or other food related conditions,” said Dr. Gupta. 

“It is important to see a physician for appropriate testing and diagnosis before completely eliminating foods from the diet. If food allergy is confirmed, understanding the management is also critical, including recognizing symptoms of anaphylaxis and how and when to use epinephrine.”


The investigation was based on a nationally representative survey of over 40,000 adults. The researchers found that only half of the adults that likely had a true food allergy had been diagnosed by a physician, and less than 25 percent had a current prescription for epinephrine.

The study also revealed that nearly half of the adults with convincing food allergies had developed at least one of them as an adult.

“We were surprised to find that adult-onset food allergies were so common,” said Dr. Gupta. “More research is needed to understand why this is occurring and how we might prevent it.”

The study results suggest that the most prevalent food allergen among U.S. adults is shellfish, followed by milk, peanuts, tree nuts, fin fish, eggs, wheat, soy, and sesame.

“Our data show that shellfish is the top food allergen in adults, that shellfish allergy commonly begins in adulthood, and that this allergy is remarkably common across the lifespan,” said Dr. Gupta. “We need more studies to clarify why shellfish allergy appears to be so common and persistent among U.S. adults.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen">JAMA Network Open</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

1 in 10 adults have a food allergy, but twice as many think they do

A new study has found that 19 percent of adults...

It could be argued that overall, Chinese law is rather ambivalent to environmental destruction, making compromises between conservation when convenient and destruction when profitable, not unlike US law.  So it makes sense that along with China’s less than stellar record when it comes to the trade in endangered species, the large nation would also have a national park system. 

<a href="https://www.biographic.com/posts/sto/green-glove-iron-fist?mpweb=1018-7418-1251639">Biographic</a> has reported on the opening of new parks in China.  With more of China’s tigers in captivity than in the wild and less than 2,000 pandas left in the wild, the stakes of conservation efforts in China are extremely high.  

Forest cover has been slowly increasing in China since commercial logging was banned in state owned forests two years ago.  Air pollution in China’s cities has been decreasing, largely due to efforts by the federal government. However, cattle grazing even in protected areas threaten pandas.  <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/decline-giant-salamander/">Giant salamander</a> numbers are in fast decline in China, where the amphibian is endangered, perhaps partially by misguided government policies meant to protect them.  

What happens in China’s environment is important to the rest of the world simply because of scale.  China is the world’s second largest nation in terms of land mass after Russia, taking up 6.303% of the world’s land mass.  China is also the world’s most populated country with a population of 1.42 billion people, according to <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/07/11/world-population-day/">Pew Research</a>.  This means that China alone holds approximately <a href="http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/china-population/">18.54%</a> of the world’s entire human population.  The land size and number of people means that China is in a special position to promote its own global agenda, especially when it comes to the environment.  

Much of Asia and Africa has been depleted of specific wildlife species to meet a largely Chinese demand for animal parts for superstitious ‘remedies’.  China is also pushing to become a world leader in clean technology and climate change mitigation, especially since the US has pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement.  China is also home to an authoritarian government which at its whim can mean good or bad things for the environment. When changes come in Chinese political decisions, they can be acted upon immediately.  This is all to say that when China announces the start of a national park system, it’s potentially big news.

<a href="https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/10152-China-overhauls-its-national-parks-">Chinadialogue</a> reports that the Chinese government has <a href="https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1807032">issued plans</a> for a trial of 10 national parks which will be officially kicked off in 2020.  So far, China has roughly <a href="https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/9436-China-s-pilot-national-park-a-land-of-golden-opportunity-">10,000 protected areas</a>, but they’re all managed by different government agencies.  The new move by the Chinese government will not only draw new boundaries and create new parks but take a step towards centralizing management of parks under a specific national park system.  The plans lack many concrete details, but it’s clear that they call for many big changes and seems to be modelled on the US system of national parks. The plans call the national parks part of China’s ‘ecological civilization’.  Several of the new national parks announced are well situated to protect a few of China’s most iconic wildlife species.

<a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/05/chinas-first-national-park-an-experiment-in-living-with-snow-leopards/">Mongabay</a> reports that one of the new national parks, Sanjiangyuan National Park, is situated on the Tibetan Plateau, in Qinghai province.  The area was once part of an independent Tibet, now controlled by China, and it’s also home to the snow leopard (Panthera uncia).  The snow leopard is an extremely rare and endangered cat that still manages to often come into conflict with humans by preying on livestock.  The new national park is planned to protect the water and wildlife of the region, including the iconic snow leopard. 

The amount of water originating within what will be the boundaries of the park is impressive, as 15% of the Mekong’s water discharge, 25% of the Yangtze’s, and 49% of the Yellow River’s start there.  

But <a href="https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/9436-China-s-pilot-national-park-a-land-of-golden-opportunity-">Chinadialogue</a> raises doubts about the national park plans.  The Chinese news source points out that the newly formed national park service exists only on paper and that the officials running still maintain their old posts in the government.  Other protected areas in China have failed to live up to their promise, capitalizing on tourism rather than protecting ecology. Tibetan Buddhist traditions in the area have long promoted harmony between humans and the natural world but those traditions are eroding as the Chinese government promotes tourism development.  Cultural taboos that have protected wildlife and water sources are less often recognized. Nomadic herders are also leaving their rural homelands and moving into urban areas where it’s easier to make a living. 

A Tibetan monk was quoted in the Chinadialogue article:

“I do not know what our national park will be like in the future. One thing is certain as far as I am concerned: if there is no monastery and monks any more in the region, and once the herders are also moved out, the valley will be dead, despite the increasing number of brown bears and snow leopards…”

Another park in Sichuan province is set to be twice the size of Yosemite and provide vital habitat for panda bears, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/08/chinese-bank-giant-panda-conservation-park">The Guardian</a>.  <a href="https://www.biographic.com/posts/sto/green-glove-iron-fist?mpweb=1018-7418-1251639">Biographic</a> reports the area where this park is planned to occupy has long been recovering, due to local and NGO efforts.  Poaching, logging and overfishing have been in decline, partly due to the local economy turning to honey instead of these more destructive means.  Locals supported by an NGO also patrol the forest for poachers. 

Despite these improvements, the Panda National Park is set to evict 170,000 people from the area.  This follows the pattern of US parks that evicted natives from within their boundaries, probably the darkest part of the National Park legacy.  Undoubtedly however the specific plans end up, tourism will cash in on the last of the pandas left in the wild. 

<a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/china-national-park-amur-leopard-tiger_us_58bfca5fe4b0ed7182682c7b">Huffington Post</a> reports that another park China plans to create will protect Siberian Tigers and the Amur Leopard.  This park is set to be one of the largest sanctuaries for large cats in the world. Considering China’s overall ambivalence over tigers during international <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/nepals-tigers-double-population/">summits</a>, this is more than ironic.  The main question is can we trust the Chinese government to do the right thing or is the new national park system just a piece of propaganda to prop up a totalitarian government and for tourism profit at the cost of rural farmers?                                  

--

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>

China plans new national parks amid skepticism

It could be argued that overall, Chinese law is rather...

A little healthy competition is good for you, isn’t it?  While <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/men-winners-testosterone-confidence/">competition</a> may help people get ahead and drive some to succeed, a new study has found that our need to outdo our peers makes us less logical. 

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.eva.mpg.de/">Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology</a> and <a href="https://www.yale.edu/">Yale University </a>recently conducted a study comparing how chimpanzees and young children apply logic and reasoning to different tasks. 

The results of the study show that older children and adults are less logical than chimps and children and it all has to do with competition and social comparison. 

“Human evolutionary success is often argued to be rooted in specialized social skills and motivations that result in more prosocial, rational and cooperative decisions,” the researchers wrote in their <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2018.2228">study</a>. “One manifestation of human ultra-sociality is the tendency to engage in social comparison.” 

The research was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

For the study, 96 children between the ages of five and ten were given the same task as 15 chimpanzees. 

Two children were asked to sit opposite each other at a small table and on the table were two trays of treats. One tray had three and the other nine snacks, but the trays were sorted so that each child had a certain number of treats directly in front of them. 

The children had to choose then which tray they wanted to get the treats. If one of the children chose the tray with three, they would get two snacks and their partner only one. 

If the other tray were chosen, one child would get three and the other six. 

Both chimpanzees and the children under the age of six chose the latter option because it resulted in more treats for everyone involved. Three is better than two, even if the opposite child gets six. 

Older children, however, chose the first option because it gave them an advantage over their peer. In other words, children in the older group saw the task as a competition. 

“While even children as young as 9 and 10 years of age showed a willingness to reduce their own and their partner’s payoff simply in order to come out on top, chimpanzees' decisions—in terms of their outcome—maximized both their own and their partner's payoffs, dispelling the notion that more sociality is always associated with more prosociality,” the researchers wrote in their study. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Does competition make us irrational? A new study says yes

A little healthy competition is good for you, isn’t it?...

When you hear about bubonic plague, your mind probably automatically takes you back to medieval Europe, where one-third the population died of the disease between 1347 and 1350.

You might also think that it was rats that spread the “Black Death,” but recent research has come to light proving that it wasn’t rats, but fleas and ticks spread by humans that caused such widespread fatalities. 


A new study conducted by researchers from <a href="https://www.uio.no/english/">Oslo University</a> has found that flea and ticks feeding on humans were behind the 35 cases of bubonic plague in Glasgow, Scotland in 1900, of which 40 percent died. 

An <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fleas-rats-black-death/">earlier study</a> by the same team had reached a similar conclusion, but this recent research focused specifically on the 20th-century outbreak.

By studying rare cases of bubonic plague in more recent times, like that of the 20th-century pandemic, researchers can get a better understanding of how the plague spreads because the its impacts were recorded in detail.

The researchers analyzed each of the 35 cases in Glasgow and tried to reconstruct the path that the infection took to spread from one person to another.

It started with two cases in tenement living quarters in Glasgow, a grandmother and her granddaughter who became sick on August 3rd and both died six days later. 

People who had visited the two women also got sick, and so authorities took measures to quarantine people to prevent the disease from spreading. 

Because rat infestations were common in slum neighborhoods during the early 20th century, public health officials also trapped and tested rats to see if any were carrying the Yersinia pestis bacteria, which is the bacteria behind the bubonic plague. 

Surprisingly none of the rodents had the bacteria, which meant that it wasn’t rats that caused the spread of the disease. 

“Despite their efforts, they found no evidence of plague in the rat population at any time during the outbreak, leading them to conclude that plague may have spread directly between humans through clothing among other means, and possibly by ‘the suctorial parasites of mankind,’” the researchers wrote in <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/06/08/340547">their study</a>.

The team used this information to prove that it wasn’t rats but fleas and ticks spreading from person to person in tightly packed family quarters that led to the spread of the disease in the early 20th century. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Growing evidence shows that rats didn’t spread the plague in Europe

When you hear about bubonic plague, your mind probably automatically...

<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=3Y4eLFNYrKE
</div></figure>



On the unforgiving landscape of North Greenland, temperatures drop and sunlight barely penetrates through the polar winter. It was here, however, that an international team of scientists found <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/predatory-worms-were-terror-beasts-half-a-billion-years-ago/#google_vignette" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">evidence of sea monsters</a> that would change our understanding of ocean life in the past.



This video captures the discovery of Timorebestia fossils that had been hidden for more than 500 million years in the Sirius Passet formation. The "terror beasts," as they are called, are a hidden chapter in the evolutionary history of <a href="https://www.earth.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Earth</a>, showing that sophisticated predator-prey interactions occurred much earlier than previously envisioned.



Dr. Jakob Vinther and his research team at the <a href="https://www.bristol.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Bristol</a>, in collaboration with researchers at the <a href="https://eng.kopri.re.kr/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Korean Polar Research Institute</a>, braved extreme weather conditions at 82.5 north latitude to locate these giant creatures. Using sophisticated electron microprobe analysis, they revealed the detailed anatomy of the animals, including their muscle and nerve tissues.



The find upsets the traditional timeline of sea predators. Although we've long appreciated that Cambrian oceans were at one time ruled by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWI3-UgA3_o&amp;list=PL1QLQMW9MWDwpkFOnvgAmu7wT6rZmYqdJ&amp;index=19" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">arthropods</a>, these discoveries indicate that relatives of arrow worms were first to dominate the seas. These worms were building sophisticated food webs several million years before other predator groups arose.



Each fossil is a story of ancient hunger, with fossil stomach contents revealing these meter-long beasts dined on heavily armored arthropods regularly, cementing their place as the ocean's first apex predators.



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Worms dominated seas before dinosaurs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y4eLFNYrKE On the unforgiving landscape of North Greenland, temperatures drop...

<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=Ow3JH03PqEQ
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">New York is the site of the world's oldest forest.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-385-million-year-old-trees-discovered">385-million-year-old trees discovered</h2>



Scientists have uncovered something extraordinary just two hours north of New York City. The <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/worlds-oldest-forest-discovered-close-to-new-york-city/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">world's oldest forest</a>, dating back 385 million years, offers a window into how Earth's first complex forests shaped our planet's atmosphere.



Located near <a href="https://townofcairo.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cairo, New York</a>, in Greene County, these weren't merely primitive plants struggling to survive. These were sophisticated trees with root systems remarkably similar to modern forests. This ancient woodland predates dinosaurs by 140 million years.



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



385 million years ago, upstate New York was a tropical paradise near the equator. Thanks to continental drift, this ancient forest has traveled thousands of miles to its current location.



The fossil forest sits in an abandoned quarry, roughly half the size of a football field. This represents just a slice of what was likely a massive forest system stretching from New York into Pennsylvania.



Charles Ver Straeten, curator of sedimentary rocks at the <a href="https://www.nysm.nysed.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">New York State Museum</a>, made the discovery in 2009. While scouting the former highway department property, his trained eye spotted wandering patterns in the stone that looked like marine features.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-revolutionary-age-and-preservation">Revolutionary age and preservation</h2>



The site contains 385-million-year-old rocks with fossilized woody roots forming horizontal patterns up to 18 feet (5.5 meters) wide. As Christopher Berry, a paleobotanist at Cardiff University, explains: "You are walking through the roots of ancient trees."



This discovery pushes back advanced tree evolution by millions of years. The research, published in <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/home" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Current Biology</a> in December 2019, fundamentally changes our understanding of when complex forests first emerged.



Researchers believe a massive flood buried the forest floor, creating perfect fossilization conditions. Over millions of years, sediment hardened into rock, preserving these root patterns like nature's time capsule.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-meet-archaeopteris-the-first-modern-tree">Meet Archaeopteris: the first modern tree</h2>



The star of this ancient forest is Archaeopteris – not to be confused with the feathered dinosaur Archaeopteryx. This tree was far older and more revolutionary.



William Stein from <a href="https://www.binghamton.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Binghamton University</a> describes the roots as "strikingly modern, essentially what you'd see outside in my yard right now." These weren't simple root systems you'd expect from ancient plants.



Some fossilized roots are six inches (15 centimeters) in diameter, forming 36-foot-wide (11-meter) patterns. These giants grew up to 65 feet (20 meters) tall with five-foot-diameter (1.5-meter) trunks.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-climate-changing-impact">Climate-changing impact</h2>



These trees fundamentally changed Earth's environment. Kevin Boyce, a Stanford University geoscientist, explains how their deep roots triggered "weathering," chemical reactions that pulled carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.



This process dropped atmospheric CO2 levels from 10-15 times higher than today to roughly modern concentrations. These ancient trees helped create atmospheric conditions that made complex life possible.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ancient-forest-ecosystem">Ancient forest ecosystem</h2>



The forest was remarkably diverse. Scientists identified Eospermatopteris, palm tree-like plants with short roots that reached 30 feet (9 meters) tall but lacked woody structure. The forest also housed cladoxylopsids and a mysterious third species still being studied.



All reproduced through spores rather than seeds – millions of years before seeds evolved. This tropical environment had no grass, flowers, or flying insects, just towering trees creating Earth's first complex forest canopy.



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



Before this finding, the Gilboa forest, located 25 miles (40 kilometers) away, held the "oldest forest" title. Cairo's trees are 2-3 million years older, showing that complex forest ecosystems developed much faster than scientists believed possible.



Patricia Gensel, a <a href="https://www.unc.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of North Carolina</a> paleobotanist, notes: "The size of those root systems is really changing the picture. Even 20 years ago, researchers assumed trees with such complex root systems didn't evolve so early."



The Cairo site presents three unique root systems, suggesting Devonian period forests were diverse ecosystems with different trees occupying different environmental niches, much like today's forests.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-modern-preservation-efforts">Modern preservation efforts</h2>



In 2022, New York State Senator Michelle Hinchey secured a $170,000 grant for the town of Cairo to construct specialized fencing around the fossil forest site. The town plans to conduct a feasibility study exploring the possibility of creating an educational center and working lab on-site.



Joe Hasenkopf, chair of the Cairo Planning Board, hopes to partner with educational institutions to create a research facility serving scientists, students, and the public.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-lessons-for-today-s-climate">Lessons for today's climate</h2>



Why does a 385-million-year-old forest matter today? It shows how dramatically forests can change Earth's climate. These ancient woodlands created the atmospheric conditions supporting complex life.



Understanding how prehistoric forests transformed the planet helps us appreciate modern forests' critical role in addressing climate change. Forests remain Earth's most effective carbon capture systems.



These prehistoric trees changed Earth's atmosphere by pulling massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the air. As we face modern climate challenges, this ancient forest reminds us of trees' incredible power to transform our planet's environment.



The next time you walk through a forest, remember you're experiencing an ecosystem whose blueprint was established 385 million years ago in upstate New York. These ancient pioneers didn't just survive – they thrived and changed the world forever.



The full study was published in the journal Current Biology.



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Earth's oldest forest found in the United States

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow3JH03PqEQ New York is the site of the world's oldest...

<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...

Fresh,Radish,Harvest,On,Soil,In,Garden.

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Mid-July is an opportune time to kick-start a thriving fall garden, and this guide lays out the best vegetables and herbs to plant now for a fruitful autumn harvest. 



Fast-growing leafy greens such as spinach, lettuce, kale, and arugula perform especially well in the waning summer heat, with harvests beginning as soon as 30 days. 



These cool-season crops relish the transition into fall, offering repeated yields with cut-and-come-again methods.



Root vegetables like radishes, carrots, and beets also excel during this period. Radishes deliver satisfaction in under a month, while carrots and beets mature in about two months. Employing succession planting ensures a continuous stream of produce deep into the cooler months. 



For a boost of fresh flavor, herbs like cilantro, basil, dill, and chervil are excellent picks. These heat-loving varieties flourish in July’s warmth and are harvest-ready in about 30 days, especially when sown continuously.



Gardeners in zones 6 through 9 can benefit from planting bush beans and snap peas, which don’t require trellising and are ideal for compact plots. 



Maturing in 50–60 days, they’re a smart choice for quick, protein-rich harvests. For those in hotter regions, heat-tolerant crops such as okra and southern peas provide reliable yields and thrive in scorching conditions.



This guide emphasizes more than crop selection—it highlights the importance of timing, soil preparation, and ongoing sowing techniques. 



With thoughtful planning and attention to regional climate needs, even late-summer gardeners can enjoy fresh salads, hearty stews, and the satisfaction of a robust, homegrown harvest well into fall.



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What to plant in your garden in mid-July

https://youtu.be/Fi2OeEwuzRM?si=vTyd2m9FMmtyWkex Mid-July is an opportune time to kick-start a thriving...

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

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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 the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Nushagak Bay, a large estuary in southwest Alaska. Nushagak runs mainly north to south and exits in Bristol Bay, a large body of water in the Bering Sea.



"The bay is primarily fed by the Nushagak River, which begins in the Alaska Range and flows southwest approximately 450 km. The bay is also fed by several additional rivers including the Wood, Igushik, Snake and Weary rivers," says ESA.



"The dark colors of the Nushagak River are most likely due to tannins or lignins (chemical substances found in plants). Tannins and lignins from roots, leaves, seeds, bark and soil can leach into the water and give it a brown or even black colour. The sediments then flow southwards where it is mixed with the bluer waters of the bay."



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

[sendtonews key="0ynNMYkMKa-2340414-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> (ACS) reveals that proteins on flu viruses are actually flexible, tilting and waving in a “breath-like” motion. According to the experts, these proteins could be used to better defend against the flu.



"The main antigenic targets of influenza virus are two surface glycoproteins, hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). Whereas the structural and dynamical properties of both glycoproteins have been studied previously, the understanding of their plasticity in the whole-virion context is fragmented," wrote the researchers.



To investigate, the team conducted detailed simulations of the influenza A H1N1 virion, or the swine flu. The experts concluded that the visualizations show many new vulnerable states of flu viruses, which could improve future vaccines and antiviral drugs.



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

[sendtonews key="G9bUoxcjr4-2511624-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Lake Trasimeno, which is located west of Perugia in central Italy. It is the fourth largest lake in the country. While Trasimeno’s water level varies, it has a maximum depth of approximately six meters.&nbsp;



"In this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image, captured on 6 August 2022, the lake’s emerald green colour is likely due to the presence of phytoplankton. Streaks in the water, particularly visible in the west, indicate the presence of soil and sediments which have been stirred up by winds. Dark colored waters in the southern part of the lake indicate a presence of submerged and floating macrophytes (aquatic plants) as well as algae," says ESA.



"Surrounded by hills on three sides, Trasimeno is subject to heavy storms created by winds, especially from the north and west. There are three islets in the lake: Maggiore, Minore and Polvese (the largest). The lake’s shores are sparsely inhabited with only two popular villages: Castiglione del Lago and Passignano sul Trasimeno."



"Italy is experiencing its worst drought in 70 years which has affected drinking water supplies, hydroelectric power and agricultural production. High temperatures, hot winds and lack of rainfall are the main causes of drought in the Umbrian region which saw Lake Trasimeno’s drop 1.3 m, reaching the limit of the hydrometric zero in July 2022."



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

[sendtonews key="3upvlAaHgO-2256633-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> describes a new self-powered nanosensor that can instantly detect mercury contamination with the tap of a finger.&nbsp;



The oxidized form of mercury can be harmful when it is ingested through contaminated water or food. This makes it necessary for experts to develop sensors that can quickly and accurately detect the presence of mercury.&nbsp;



Zong-Hong Lin and colleagues have now created a triboelectric nanosensor (TENS) that can detect mercury by simply by touching a sample. According to the researchers, their TENS could serve as the basis for similar devices to safely and remotely monitor other pollutants.



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

[sendtonews key="LvS8v8bp9z-2564889-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> explores the ability of salt to transform the way that foods and beverages taste. Salt is known to cover up undesirable flavors, such as bitterness in coffee or beer, but how exactly does sodium chloride change the taste of other compounds?



One previous study showed that, not only does salt suppress bitterness, but also enhances sweetness and sourness. Another study revealed that bitterness reduction by salt seems to be happening at the tongue receptor level as well as in the brain.&nbsp;



While it is known that salt taste is mediated by the presence of sodium channels in the form of taste buds, experts believe that there is also an unknown receptor responsible for how we taste salt that has not yet been identified.&nbsp;



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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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.

How does salt makes things taste better?

[sendtonews key="X0f6OHYoI4-2310561-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Santiago, the capital city of Chile. The city is located in the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Region, which has a population of about eight million people.&nbsp;



'The weather of Santiago resembles the Mediterranean climate with dry and warm summers with temperatures reaching up to 35°C (from October to March) and cool and humid winters that can drop to 0°C (from April to September)."



"The city lies in the centre of the country’s central valley around 80 km from the Pacific Ocean to the west and borders Argentina to the east. A tiny part of Argentina is visible in the top-right corner of the image where the mountain crest of the Andes Mountains acts as a divider between the two countries," says ESA.



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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.

Santiago, Chile in South America

[sendtonews key="JRaP49ISmm-2357509-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

Spiral,Galaxy,,Illustration,Of,Milky,Way

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Astronomers at <a href="https://www.jhu.edu/">Johns Hopkins University</a> have created an interactive map of the universe, including the actual position and real colors of 200,000 galaxies. The map allows the public to access data that was previously only available to scientists.



The map was developed using data collected by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. For over two decades, a telescope in New Mexico was aimed at slightly different locations to capture the night sky.&nbsp;



"Growing up I was very inspired by astronomy pictures, stars, nebulae and galaxies, and now it's our time to create a new type of picture to inspire people," said map creator Brice Ménard, a professor at Johns Hopkins. "Astrophysicists around the world have been analyzing this data for years, leading to thousands of scientific papers and discoveries. But nobody took the time to create a map that is beautiful, scientifically accurate, and accessible to people who are not scientists. Our goal here is to show everybody what the universe really looks like."



"In this map, we are just a speck at the very bottom, just one pixel. And when I say we, I mean our galaxy, the Milky Way which has billions of stars and planets. We are used to seeing astronomical pictures showing one galaxy here, one galaxy there or perhaps a group of galaxies. But what this map shows is a very, very different scale."



"From this speck at the bottom, we are able to map out galaxies across the entire universe, and that says something about the power of science."



The <a href="https://mapoftheuniverse.net/">interactive map</a> is available online, where it can be downloaded for free.



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&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.

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

[sendtonews key="e4ZG0Jawp3-2374785-12187" type="single"] Astronomers at Johns Hopkins University have created...

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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 



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.

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

[sendtonews key="uV9Lh2fQbV-1760058-12187" type="single"] Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky" Today’s...

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Dublin, the capital and largest city of Ireland. Beyond its pub culture, Dublin is known as a modern culinary destination and a UNESCO City of Literature.



"Dublin is located near the midpoint of Ireland’s east coast in the province of Leinster. The city, which covers an area of around 115 square kilometers, is bordered by the Dublin Mountains, a low mountain range to the south, and is surrounded by flat farmland to the north and west," says ESA.



"The city straddles the River Liffey, which rises in the Wicklow Mountains and flows around 80 kilometers eastwards through the city of Dublin, in which it is canalised and bordered with quays. It then empties into Dublin Bay, an arm of the Irish Sea."



Dublin has an abundance of green spaces, including one of the largest enclosed public parks in any European capital city. Phoenix Park, which was originally formed as a royal hunting park in the 1660s, includes 707 hectares of green space.



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.

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features the province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain. The image was captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.



"Together with the provinces of Huesca and Teruel, Zaragoza formed the old kingdom of Aragon. Its capital, also called Zaragoza (not visible in this image) is home to around half of Aragon’s population," says ESA.



"The Ebro River can be seen winding its way through the province from west to east in this image. Between its source in the Cantabrian Mountains in the northwest and its delta on the Mediterranean coast, the Ebro River is fed by more than 200 tributaries as it flows 910 km across much of northern Spain."



Since rainfall is very scarce in this region, irrigation in the Ebro basin is critically important. In the valleys surrounding the Ebro River, many fields are used for growing crops such as corn, wheat, and barley.



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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 province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features the Pyrenees Mountains, which form a natural boundary between France and Spain in southwest Europe.



The mountain range is 430 kilometers in length. It stretches from the Mediterranean Sea on the east to the Atlantic Ocean on the west.



At an elevation of 3404 meters, Pico de Aneto is the highest mountain peak in the Pyrenees, and the third-highest peak in Spain. Pico de Aneto is located in the Posets-Maladeta Natural Park, which spans more than 82,000 acres.&nbsp;



"Geological studies have revealed that the Pyrenees Mountains have been around for longer than the Alps, with their sediments first deposited in coastal basins during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras," reports ESA.



"The entire mountain range formed due to the upwelling of large sedimentary rocks by the collision of the Iberian and the Eurasian plate around 100 to 150 million years ago, followed by intense erosion from ice and water."



The western Pyrenees receive more precipitation due to moisture blowing in from the Atlantic Ocean. The mountain range contains many lakes, several small glaciers, and some of the highest waterfalls in Europe.



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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 Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes two exoplanets that are orbiting a star 218 light-years away. A team of researchers led by the University of Montreal has found evidence that these planets are "water worlds."



The experts used data from NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. They discovered that exoplanets Kepler-138 c and Kepler-138 could be composed largely of water.



"We previously thought that planets that were a bit larger than Earth were big balls of metal and rock, like scaled-up versions of Earth, and that's why we called them super-Earths," explained study co-author Björn Benneke.&nbsp;



"However, we have now shown that these two planets, Kepler-138 c and d, are quite different in nature and that a big fraction of their entire volume is likely composed of water. It is the best evidence yet for water worlds, a type of planet that was theorized by astronomers to exist for a long time."



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and Leah Hustak (STScI)



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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.

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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