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Environmental News Network -- Know Your Environment
Studies of how climate change might affect agriculture generally look only at crop yields — the amount of product harvested from a given unit of land. But climate change may also influence how much land people choose to farm and the number of crops they plant each growing season. A new study takes all of these variables into account, and suggests researchers may be underestimating the total effect of climate change on the world’s food supply.
Oregon is ready to kick its filthy coal habit, and now it has passed a law to hold itself to this pledge. The Clean Energy and Coal Transition Act blocks the state’s largest power companies from purchasing coal-based electricity by 2030. By taking this important step, the state will effectively double its reliance on renewable energy in the upcoming decades. Moreover, Oregon’s energy should be approximately 80% carbon-free by the year 2040.
The legislation makes Oregon the first state to commit to ditching coal completely. As such, it is easily one of the most progressive energy policies in the United States. Hawaii’s goal to go 100% renewable by 2045 and California’s ambitious 2020 wind and solar goals deserve some credit, too, though.
Oregon’s coal plan is not only exciting because of its unprecedented nature, but because it was a genuinely collaborative effort from all sorts of people in the state. Legislators, citizens, environmental groups, Governor Kate Brown and even the state’s two largest utility companies (Portland General Election and Pacific Power) teamed together to work out new energy goals.
Ice melt in the Arctic Ocean is opening up previously untouched areas to industrial fishing fleets using ecologically risky bottom trawling methods, writes Joe Sandler Clarke. Ecosystems supporting walruses, polar bears, puffins and other sea birds could be stripped bare.
Bottom trawling is widely considered to be the among most destructive fishing techniques, with vast nets catching fish as they are dragged along the sea bed.
Using official data and ship tracking systems, researchers found that large numbers of fishing vessels owned by major companies have taken advantage of melting sea ice to fish in previously impossible to reach parts of the Norwegian and Russian Arctic.
A new study led by researchers at UC Berkeley and Clinica de Salud del Valle de Salinas demonstrates how even a short break from certain kinds of makeup, shampoos and lotions can lead to a significant drop in levels of hormone-disrupting chemicals in the body.
The shampoos, lotions and other personal care products you use can affect the amount of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in one’s body, a new study showed.
The results, published today in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, came from a study of 100 Latina teenagers participating in the Health and Environmental Research on Makeup of Salinas Adolescents (HERMOSA) study.
El uso de la bicicleta está disminuyendo en todo el mundo en medio de crecientes niveles de riqueza y aumento del uso de vehículos motorizados en los países en desarrollo, reveló un estudio.
Cuatro de cada diez hogares en el planeta tienen una bicicleta, de acuerdo con un documento elaborado sobre la base de encuestas de 150 países entre 1989 y 2012. Sin embargo, la creciente popularidad y la asequibilidad del transporte motorizado, tales como coches y motos, "han desfavorecido el uso de la bicicleta", los investigadores dicen.
China en particular experimentó un colapso en las tasas de propiedad en bicicleta desde 1992, cuando el 97 por ciento de los hogares tenía bicicletas. Sin embargo, esto se redujo a 63 por ciento...
Una libélula de apenas una pulgada y media de largo parece ser el más prolífico viajero de larga distancia del mundo animal: vuela miles de millas sobre los océanos, ya que migra de un continente a otro, según una investigación publicada recientemente.
