Environment

A paper by The Environmental Justice and Health Alliance (EJHA), Center for Effective Government (CEG) and Coming Clean, links higher poverty to many Black and Latino communities living within chemical disaster "vulnerability zones" and say the risk of danger is much greater for those communities than for the U.S. as a whole - the very definition of disproportionate danger.  They also have higher rates of poverty than the U.S. as a whole, and have lower housing values, incomes, and education levels than the national average. The disproportionate or unequal danger is sharply magnified in…

Corn yields in the central United States have increased dramatically in the last few decades - but they have also become more sensitive to drought conditions. Maximizing crop yields has been a driving force behind agricultural research as the world's population grows. One big challenge for science is figuring out whether crops can adapt to climate change by becoming less sensitive to hotter and drier weather.  David Lobell, associate professor of environmental Earth system science at Stanford, is co-author of a paper in Science which predicts that corn could be in trouble. "The Corn…

The Federal Trade Commission Friday approved a final order prohibiting a Washington-based plastic bag manufacturer from making false biodegradability claims about its products. American Plastic Manufacturing, Inc. may not make biodegradability claims unless the representations are true and supported by competent and reliable scientific evidence, according to a press announcement from the FTC. “The company must have evidence that the entire plastic product will completely decompose into elements found in nature within one year after customary disposal (defined as disposal in a landfill,…

In a Twitter age, one where mainstream media desperately needs to keep people watching and reading, every event is magnified. A tropical storm that hit New York City was transformed into a Superstorm and a drought in the West is a harbinger of global warming that will crack the planet. But nature isn't even having fun with us yet. Things have been much worse plenty of times, and they can be again, and only media coverage will make it seem extreme. The US drought of the 1930s, for example, that was the catalyst for the now legendary Dust Bowl, barely even cracks the Top 10 of a list of…

North Carolina farmers and landowners are participating in program to grow giant miscanthus grass for renewable products using underutilized and marginal land. Giant miscanthus grass is a rapidly renewable biomass crop that provides a viable economic alternative for many farmers and landowners with underutilized and marginal land that might otherwise lay dormant or fail to provide annual profits. Perennial giant miscanthus grows well under a range of soil and environmental conditions. It requires little to grow and maintain. It's a simple, convenient and profitable crop to raise. Planting…

If you really care about the climate, you can stop filling out surveys and complaining about what people believe and do something more meaningful than buy carbon credits - you can give up meat.  And 11 other things that can separate you from the pack that are more interested in uniform bans and mitigation. Those won't work. Take the initiative and it doesn't matter what anyone else does. A new report, Strategies for Mitigating Climate Change in Agriculture by Mitigation 2014, says it can eliminate the climate nosedive that will occur if people continue to eat meat and use air conditionin…

During the 20 year span of global warming policy debates, climate scientists have used an estimate of soil organic carbon sequestration rates suggesting that soil organic carbon can be sequestered by simply switching from moldboard or conventional tillage systems to no-till systems. More accurate analyses find that is not so; no-till systems in corn and soybean rotations without cover crops, small grains, and forages are not increasing soil organic carbon stocks as much as estimates. Worse, they may be an environmental negative. The review was conducted by a team of researchers who…

The USA alone has more wilderness than the entire continent of Africa does, but the natural world is not the same as it was 20, 50 or 100 years ago.  And the natural world than was far different than preceding generations. Late 20th century conservation adopted an arbitrary point in time and declared that nothing should change beyond that point, but it was never a reasonable policy. 21st century conservation needs to be a little more practical. While American farmers have successfully dematerialized and produce far more food on less land and with less environmental strain…

Mercury levels in excess of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency health thresholds for potential impacts to fish, birds, and humans have been detected in fish in some of the most remote national park lakes and streams in the western United States and Alaska.  Mercury is harmful to human and wildlife health. It arises from natural sources, such as volcanic eruptions, and from human sources such as burning fossil fuels in power plants. Mercury is distributed at local or regional scales as a result of current and historic mining activities. Human activities have increased levels of…

The world could be less than 40 years away from a food shortage that will have serious implications for people and governments, according to a senior science advisor at the U.S. Agency for International Development. It's not Paul Ehrlich/John Holdren Doomsday Prophet levels of gloom, but it's a sign we need to keep science advancing. USAID, created under executive order by President John. F. Kennedy in 1961, is the lead U.S. Government agency that works to end extreme global poverty and promote democracy. "For the first time in human history, food production will be limited on a global scale…