The US Can Halve Its Emissions by 2030—if It Wants To

The US Can Halve Its Emissions by 2030—if It Wants To

Different teams have modeled how exactly this decarbonization might play out—by rolling out more solar and wind energy, for example, and more electric vehicles —and landed on several paths to cutting emissions in half in the next eight years.

It’s Hard to Do Climate Research When Your Glacier Is Melting

It’s Hard to Do Climate Research When Your Glacier Is Melting

The site, near the terminus—aka the lower end of the glacier—contains a mass balance stake that Christopher McNeil, a geophysicist for the US Geological Survey, uses to measure the rate at which the glacier is growing or melting.

Seen a stunning sunrise or sunset lately? The Tongan volcano may be the cause

Seen a stunning sunrise or sunset lately? The Tongan volcano may be the cause

To understand these sightings, the forecasting team contacted their colleagues at the Lauder Atmospheric Research Station in Central Otago, who confirmed that their ground-based LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) instrument has been detecting unusual spikes in aerosols in the stratosphere, at around 20-25 kilometres above New Zealand.

How Lost Hikers Can Send an SOS to Space

How Lost Hikers Can Send an SOS to Space

These instruments, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking program (Sarsat), picked up the signal and immediately pinged alerts to Earth.

Australia Has Finally Woken Up to Climate Change

Australia Has Finally Woken Up to Climate Change

Labor went into the election with a range of climate and energy promises, including a commitment to a 43 percent reduction in emissions, which McKenzie says is “certainly not enough.” Analysis suggests this is still consistent with 2 degrees of warming.

The FAA Says SpaceX Can't Expand Its Texas Launch Site—Yet

The FAA Says SpaceX Can't Expand Its Texas Launch Site—Yet

The agency says that if SpaceX takes some 75 actions to limit environmental hazards, the company can continue that expansion and its application for a launch license for its Starship spacecraft and the Super Heavy rocket booster.

Demand grows for NIWA’s Riparian Management Training

Demand grows for NIWA’s Riparian Management Training

The first Targeted Riparian Management Course since 2015 was held for Hawke’s Bay Regional Council staff in Napier over two days in late February 2022.There were 12 Hawke’s Bay Regional Council staff on the course with a background in physical geography, looking to increase their knowledge around stream ecosystems.

Reshuffled Rivers Bolster the Amazon’s Hyper-Biodiversity

Reshuffled Rivers Bolster the Amazon’s Hyper-Biodiversity

The relationship between geographic change and biodiversity is “one of the most contentious topics in evolutionary biology,” said Musher, who did the study as part of his doctoral work.

The Last-Ditch Effort to Save Wild Salmon

The Last-Ditch Effort to Save Wild Salmon

Mill Creek is part of the Russian River watershed, which drains 3,900 square kilometers of Sonoma and Mendocino counties.A century ago, roughly 20,000 coho—a salmon species known for spawning in even the smallest creeks—would return to the Russian River and its tributaries in a typical year.

Discover the Benefits of Cover Crops Plus 4R Nutrient Management

Discover the Benefits of Cover Crops Plus 4R Nutrient Management

“What we’ve found is cover crops is a pretty easy way… and a cool practice that can help improve our 4Rs. They really contribute,” says Lisa Kubik, a farmer and the former Iowa Field Manager for the Soil Health Partnership, a farmer-led initiative of the National Corn Growers Association, that worked with farmers from 2014 to 2021 to study the economic and environmental benefits of soil health practices.

In the snow: new tool to advise New Zealanders of snow conditions

In the snow: new tool to advise New Zealanders of snow conditions

NIWA’s Snow and Ice Network (SIN) provides information on snowfall, depth of snowpack, snow melt and climate for ten alpine sites across New Zealand, including Mueller Hut above Mount Cook Village.

How to Make the Video Game Industry Greener

How to Make the Video Game Industry Greener

(When contacted, Nintendo declined to comment on the discrepancy in reporting and instead pointed to its most recent CSR report which states that its renewable energy usage is now 44 percent.).

India Isn’t Ready for a Deadly Combination of Heat and Humidity

India Isn’t Ready for a Deadly Combination of Heat and Humidity

When heat and humidity combine to push wet-bulb temperatures past 32 degrees Celsius, physical exertion becomes dangerous.On May 1, 2022, the wet-bulb temperature in Lakshmanan’s home city of Chennai hit 31 degrees Celsius.

A Pandemic Tragedy on Brazil’s Lago Verde

A Pandemic Tragedy on Brazil’s Lago Verde

The Indigenous leader, whose life story is inextricably linked with the struggle for the rights and recognition of the Borari people, was beloved in her village, Alter do Chão, Brazil, along the banks of the Tapajós River in the western state of Pará.Dona Lusia died from Covid-19 , which generated trepidation and fear.

Ki uta ki tai: NIWA’s role in mountains-to-sea estuarine management

Ki uta ki tai: NIWA’s role in mountains-to-sea estuarine management

Researchers from Sustainable Seas and Our Land & Water National Science Challenges are involved in a two-year project called Ki uta ki tai: Estuaries, thresholds and values, which includes interwoven critical steps funded by MfE.

‘Plastitar’ Is the Unholy Spawn of Oil Spills and Microplastics

‘Plastitar’ Is the Unholy Spawn of Oil Spills and Microplastics

“We saw that the tar was completely full of mainly plastics,” says Javier Hernández-Borges, an analytical chemist at the University of La Laguna and coauthor of a new paper in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

The Next Challenge for Solid-State Batteries? Making Lots of Them

The Next Challenge for Solid-State Batteries? Making Lots of Them

Solid Power has designed what he describes as a uniquely manufacturable “flavor” of solid-state design that allows battery makers to reuse existing processes and equipment designed for lithium-ion batteries.Like their liquid-filled cousins, solid-state batteries require an anode , a cathode, and some way for ions to migrate between the two.

Smaller Reactors May Still Have a Big Nuclear Waste Problem

Smaller Reactors May Still Have a Big Nuclear Waste Problem

A Department of Energy-sponsored report estimated in 2014 that the US nuclear industry would produce 94 percent less fuel waste if big, old reactors were replaced with new smaller ones.

How Ants Inspired a New Way to Measure Snow With Space Lasers

How Ants Inspired a New Way to Measure Snow With Space Lasers

“We can measure that distance of each individual photon traveling inside the snow,” says Hu, a researcher at NASA’s Langley Research Center.Just as an ant wanders around its underground colony, a photon shot from a space laser takes a random route through the snow.

Snapped! Tag reveals fish’s 20-year history

Snapped! Tag reveals fish’s 20-year history

The snapper contained a tag – known as a passive integrated transponder (PIT) – that was implanted into the fish on 21 February 2002 by NIWA principal technician Derrick Parkinson, who incidentally still works at NIWA.

This Startup Wants You to Eat Ground-Up Chicken Bones

This Startup Wants You to Eat Ground-Up Chicken Bones

In a small pilot plant in the Finnish city of Kotka, the founders of SuperGround have figured out how to process chicken bones so they can be incorporated into ground chicken products like nuggets or meatballs.

Let’s Get Our Shit Together—Literally

Let’s Get Our Shit Together—Literally

According to its 2020 annual report, in that year the company shipped 3,445 fecal microbiota transplantation treatments to more than 1,250 hospitals and clinics across the US.Animal poops are similarly prized by scientists as a window into an animal’s identity, diet, movements, stress state, sex, maturity, reproduction, habits, predator–prey relationships, overall health, pollution exposure, parasites, and microbiome.

‘Flash Droughts’ Are the Midwest’s Next Big Climate Threat

‘Flash Droughts’ Are the Midwest’s Next Big Climate Threat

Fast-moving droughts like this one are developing more and more quickly as climate change pushes temperatures to new extremes, recent research indicates—adding a new threat to the dangers of pests, flooding, and more long-term drought that farmers in the US already face.

Why Was the Tonga Eruption So Massive? Scientists Have New Clues

Why Was the Tonga Eruption So Massive? Scientists Have New Clues

A team of scientists from New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, or NIWA, recently observed something different.The slopes of the underwater volcano are still largely as they were before the eruption; the same features still contour the surrounding seafloor.

8 Conservation Writing Awards for Cool Green Science

8 Conservation Writing Awards for Cool Green Science

We hope that you enjoy this selection of the winning entries, with stories on everything from the love lives of bowerbirds to whitefish conservation, from glow-in-the-dark mammals to fishing in mountain hotspots full of freak invasives.

The Wetlands Are Drowning

The Wetlands Are Drowning

“We often call them ecosystem engineers,” says Pat Megonigal, an ecologist who directs the Smithsonian’s Global Change Research Wetland and studies the plants.For a long while, wetland researchers have wondered whether that skill could help the plants build their way out of climate change.

How Scientists Fish: The Hand Line

How Scientists Fish: The Hand Line

“You’ll know,” says Kydd Pollock, fisheries science manager for The Nature Conservancy and research leader for the Fishing for Science program at Palmyra Atoll.He had substantial experience with a form of hand line: He tagged more than 2,500 sharks at Palmyra using the method.

Tonga eruption discoveries defy expectations

Tonga eruption discoveries defy expectations

NIWA’s research vessel, RV Tangaroa , has returned from a month-long expedition as part of the Nippon Foundation-funded Tonga Eruption Seabed Mapping Project (TESMaP), where scientists were studying the effects of January’s eruption of Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai (HT – HH).

What the World’s Largest Organism Reveals About Fires and Forests

What the World’s Largest Organism Reveals About Fires and Forests

“If there were no trees dying, I wouldn’t have a job,” says forest pathologist Mike McWilliams, who calls himself the unofficial tour guide of the massive fungus.McWilliams continues driving, following dirt roads deeper into the forest, where the trees become smaller and closer together.

Hotspot Watch 20 May 2022

Hotspot Watch 20 May 2022

As of 17 May, the New Zealand Drought Index (NZDI) map below shows that dry conditions are located in parts of Waikato, northern Manawatū-Whanganui, much of the upper South Island, Banks Peninsula, and much of Otago.

More