Environment

No More Plastic Straws in Taiwan

A new plastic straw ban came into effect on July 1 in Taiwan as the country seeks to cut back on the plastic pollution plaguing the island. Taiwan uses around 3 billion plastic straws annually. With the new law, it is hoped that the number can be reduced by 100 million per year. The ban ...

Max Lu

Plastic straws at an eating place in Taiwan.

The Largest Seaweed Bloom in the World Discovered

Scientists, led by the USF College of Marine Science, used NASA satellite observations to discover the largest bloom of seaweed in the world called the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt (GASB), as reported in Science. They confirmed that the belt of brown macroalgae seaweed called Sargassum forms its shape in response to ocean currents, based on ...

Troy Oakes

Piles of Sargassum seaweed.

Scientists Develop New Method for Studying Early Life in Ancient Rocks

Scientists have developed a new method for detecting traces of primordial life in ancient rock formations using potassium. The method relies on searching for high concentrations of potassium in ancient sedimentary rocks, rather than traditional methods that look for carbon, sulfur, or nitrogen—which can appear in ancient rocks through processes unrelated to ancient life. University ...

Troy Oakes

Ancient sediment from a clay formation.

Scorching Australia: Living in Brisbane Turning Difficult

A report published in the International Journal of Climatology predicts Brisbane, Australia, will become a “difficult place to live” in the next three decades due to soaring temperatures. The extreme heat is also expected to lead to more deaths. Hot Brisbane According to the report, the number of hot days and nights will double in ...

Troy Oakes

Brisbane, Australia.

Largest-Ever Simulation of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

In a 600-ft-long saltwater wave tank on the coast of New Jersey, a team of NJIT researchers is conducting the largest-ever simulation of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to determine more precisely where hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil dispersed to following the drilling rig’s explosion in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Led ...

Troy Oakes

UN Report Warns of an Imminent Climatic Genocide

A few years back, the Paris Climate Agreement was signed by world governments. The agreement aims to cut back greenhouse gas emissions over the next several decades with the goal being to keep the world’s temperature from rising above 1.5°C. In October 2018, the United Nations issued a report that warned about the consequences of ...

Jack Roberts

Melting glaciers.

U.S. military and Its Massive Carbon Footprint

The U.S. military’s carbon footprint is enormous and must be confronted to have a substantial effect on battling global warming. Research by social scientists from Durham University and Lancaster University shows the U.S. military is one of the largest climate polluters in history, consuming more liquid fuels and emitting more CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) than ...

Troy Oakes

A U.S. jet.

Canada Decides to Ban Single-Use Plastics

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced that his country will ban single-use plastics by 2021. Referring to the plastic pollution problem plaguing our planet, Trudeau reminded us that we can no longer continue to ignore it. Banning single-use plastics In the announcement, Trudeau did not specifically mention which items will be banned. The government ...

Armin Auctor

Single-use plastics.

Scientists Map Huge Undersea Freshwater Aquifer Off U.S. Northeast

In a new survey of the sub-seafloor off the U.S. Northeast coast, scientists have made a surprising discovery: a gigantic aquifer of relatively fresh water trapped in porous sediments lying below the salty ocean. It appears to be the largest such formation yet found in the world. The aquifer stretches from the shore at least from Massachusetts to New Jersey, extending ...

Troy Oakes

An electromagnetic receiver.

China Leads the U.S. in Banning Harmful Pesticides

Many pesticides that have been banned or are being phased out in the EU, Brazil, and China are still widely used in the U.S., according to a study published in the open-access journal Environmental Health. Study author Nathan Donley, at the Center for Biological Diversity, U.S., said: “The USA is generally regarded as being highly ...

Troy Oakes

A farmer spraying pesticides.