Environment5
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Huge Land Buys Are Driving Tropical Forest Destruction
A new study finds that investments to establish new oil palm or tree plantations seem to consistently have higher rates of forest loss than other types of activities, such as mining and logging.
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Potentially Fatal Combinations of Humidity and Heat Are Emerging Across the Globe
A new study has identified thousands of incidents of previously rare or unprecedented extreme heat/humidity combinations in parts of Asia, Africa, Australia, South America and North America, including in the U.S. Gulf Coast region.
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Shrinking Snowcaps Fuel Harmful Algal Blooms in Arabian Sea
Driven by changing climate, a uniquely resilient organism is taking over the Arabian Sea, disrupting food chains, fisheries, oil refineries and water desalination plants.
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We Were So Young and Naive. And We Got Things Done.
A journalist looks back on his efforts to cover the first Earth Day.
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The Shutdown Is Clearing New York’s Air. Don’t Cheer Too Hard.
Researchers are measuring severe drops in pollutants at the ground level, but warn that the benefits will be short-lived unless we take away some longer-term lessons.
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Increasingly Mobile Sea Ice Means Arctic Neighbors May Pollute Each Others’ Waters
The movement of sea ice between Arctic countries is expected to significantly increase this century, raising the risk of more widely transporting pollutants like microplastics and oil, according to new research.
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Rain, More Than Wind, Led to Massive Toppling of Trees in Hurricane Maria, Says Study
The surprising finding suggests that future hurricanes stoked by warming climate may be even more destructive to forests than scientists have already projected.
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A Guide to the Good, Low-Carbon Life
For about 10 years, environmental law professor Karl Coplan has been trying to winnow down his direct footprint of CO2 emissions. He has been successful, and has just published a book chronicling his efforts.
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Completing My Fieldwork and Returning to Dhaka
My last days in the field brought us to monuments in a makeshift home near the ocean, a flooded field next to a school, and adjacent to a jute mill. Most of us now head back to Dhaka, the capital. Céline will stay on a few more days, then Hasnat with Saif and Nahin will…
