It’s an old story: environmental protections laws enacted with the highest hopes end up entangled in lawsuits for years or even decades due to vague wording. But there may be a way to avoid the legal gridlock, argue two Australian scholars: Road test proposed rules in mock trials in “moot courts” before they get chiseled […] Read More »
Nobody’s against cleaner, greener neighborhoods. But some social scientists have worried that cleaning up could end up clearing out the poor residents who often live around polluted sites. Now, a study from Portland, Oregon looks for a link between gentrification and environmental clean-up.
Researchers have long documented the impact of LULUs — “locally undesirable land […] Read More »
For years, scientists have wondered whether it’s possible to turn the mosquito’s ability to spread malaria into a weapon against diseases that plague humans and wildlife. But no one had been able to genetically alter the insects to deliver vaccines—until now. A pioneering group of Japanese scientists has used mosquitoes to inoculate lab mice […] Read More »
Some researchers have argued that a warming world will favor the spread of parasites that cause malaria. But by examining the history of malaria distribution, a new paper in Nature finds that a few public-health strategies will do more than enough to counteract the coming malaria risk.
A team led by Peter Gething of […] Read More »
You already know your carbon footprint. How about your nitrogen footprint? Researchers have calculated how much nitrogen pollution is produced by the production of common foods. Ultimately, they hope the approach might help consumers curb nutrient pollution that is creating oxygen-poor “dead zones” in many coastal seas.
Over the past few decades, researchers have […] Read More »
Are today’s urban forests another legacy of the Baby Boom generation? A new study of vegetation cover in neighborhoods near Baltimore, Maryland suggests that the wealth and education levels of residents 50 years ago helps explain how many trees we see today. The finding could have implications for current efforts to conserve and restore urban […] Read More »
The preening oil that wild waterbirds spread over their feathers may be acting as a magnet for avian flu viruses, according to a PLoS ONE study.
Researchers studied 345 mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) in Italy and found that 27 percent of the birds tested positive for avian flu virus on their feathers. When feather tufts or […] Read More »
A study of aphid-fighting pesticides has revealed that organic products can sometimes be more environmentally harmful than synthetic products.
Many people take it for granted that organic pesticides are more eco-friendly. There’s also a “fundamental misconception that organic farms do not use pesticides,” researchers write in PLoS ONE. Organic farming practices do allow the application […] Read More »
In search of a better way to get people to conserve energy, researchers Cees Midden and Jaap Ham turned to an unconventional technique: using a robotic cat to scold people when they use too much electricity.
Research has found that showing people their energy usage as they program an appliance could significantly reduce energy […] Read More »
Scientists, economists, and politicians have long debated the environmental benefits of reducing emissions, but they have paid far less attention to how many lives could be saved or improved by cutting carbon. A series of papers in the British medical journal The Lancet took on this question, showing that emissions cuts could be a […] Read More »
Many people are willing to pay more for products labeled with environmentally friendly terms such as “organic.” But that may not be the case for wine, researchers have found. In fact, consumers seem to value ecolabeled wines even less than other wines.
A team discovered this trend while analyzing 13,426 California wines produced from […] Read More »
Bacteria resistant to antibiotics are becoming disturbingly common in people. Even more worrisome, genes conferring this resistance are showing up in bacteria found in other animals. When resistant bacteria hop between species, that can increase the rate of evolution and turn a mildly resistant bug into a serious threat.
This has left researchers wondering […] Read More »
All those people driving Toyota Priuses aren’t necessarily acting out of concern for the planet, a new study suggests. Rather, consumers may buy environmentally friendly products in order to make themselves appear superior.
Being a green consumer doesn’t always make economic sense. After all, many green products are more expensive and lack some of […] Read More »
One problem environmentalists face is the widespread presumption that individual or household behavior doesn’t matter. So finally, some smart people—led by Thomas Dietz of Michigan State University—did everyone a favor and ran the numbers. And it turns out that, while consumers can’t stop global warming on their own, they can have a measureable impact.
The […] Read More »
American crow populations declined more severely in urban than rural areas after West Nile virus reached the northeastern US, according to a study in Ecological Research.
West Nile virus made its first reported appearance in the US in 1999. The virus is carried by mosquitoes and can infect birds and humans. American crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) […] Read More »
