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Features
December 13, 2017
Hydraulic Fracturing Negatively Impacts Infant Health
From North Dakota to Ohio to Pennsylvania, hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, has transformed small towns into energy powerhouses. While some see the new energy boom as benefiting the local economy and decreasing U.S. reliance on foreign oil, others fear the potential health and environmental consequences that come…
Features
October 30, 2017
Are the Grandkids Worth It? Climate Change Policy Depends on How We Value Human Population
If the human population continues to grow, more pressure will be put on carbon dioxide emissions — leaving future generations vulnerable to the effects of climate change. To head this off, greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced, but that could cost billions of dollars or more over the next few decades, a dilemma plaguing…
Features
October 23, 2017
Air Pollution Cuts Solar Energy Potential in China
China is rapidly expanding its solar power supply, hoping to meet 10 percent of the nation’s electricity needs with solar energy by 2030. But there’s a problem: Severe air pollution is blocking light from the sun, significantly reducing China’s output of solar energy, particularly in the northern and eastern parts of the…
Features
September 15, 2017
To Predict How Climate Change Will Affect Disease, Researchers Must Fuse Climate Science and Biology
Predicting how climate change will affect the incidence of infectious diseases would have great public health benefits. But the relationship between climate and disease is extraordinarily complex, making such predictions difficult. Simply identifying correlations and statistical associations between climatic factors and disease…
Features
August 22, 2017
Orange is the New Green: How Orange Peels Revived a Costa Rican Forest
In the mid-1990s, 1,000 truckloads of orange peels and orange pulp were purposefully unloaded onto a barren pasture in a Costa Rican national park. Today, that area is covered in lush, vine-laden forest.A team led by Princeton University researchers surveyed the land 16 years after the orange peels were deposited. They found a…
Research
Features
June 29, 2017
Climate Change to Damage U.S. Economy, Increase Inequality
Unmitigated climate change will make the United States poorer and more unequal, according to a study published June 29 in the journal Science. The poorest third of counties could sustain economic damage costing as much as 20 percent of their income if warming proceeds unabated.States in the South and lower Midwest, which tend…
Research
Features
May 25, 2017
U.S. Nuclear Regulators Greatly Underestimate Potential for Nuclear Disaster
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) relied on faulty analysis to justify its refusal to adopt a critical measure for protecting Americans from the occurrence of a catastrophic nuclear-waste fire at any one of dozens of reactor sites around the country, according to an article in the May 26 issue of Science magazine…
Features
May 18, 2017
'A Bee, a Tree, What’s In It For Me?' Class Examines Environmental Policy
On a morning in March, Professor Michael Oppenheimer pointed to a photograph he took while flying over the North Pole.A mosaic of fragmented ice stretched across the projection screen. The blue-green sea of the central Arctic Ocean flowed to the surface, visible between small and large pieces of ice. Once a thick, solid ice…
Features
May 03, 2017
Current Climate Change Measurements Mask Trade-Offs Necessary for Policy Debates
Scientists and policymakers use measurements like global warming potential to compare how varying greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide and methane, contribute to climate change.Yet, despite its widespread use, global warming potential fails to provide an accurate look at how greenhouse gases affect the environment in the short…
Features
April 28, 2017
Synthetic Gas Would Cut Air Pollution but Worsen Climate Damage in China
Severe air pollution has plagued China's industrial regions in recent decades, a situation that has received worldwide attention thanks to photos of Beijing and other smog-blanketed Chinese cities.More than just an eyesore, China's smog has created a public health crisis that has led the Chinese government to declare a war on…