Science in Personal and Social Perspectives - Populations, resources, and environments

  • Roads: helpful here, harmful there
    Roads: helpful here, harmful there

    Roads are the first insult to pristine natural areas — and a key to agricultural productivity in places where farming makes sense. Here’s a proposal to decide where roads make sense, and where they make mayhem.


    Thursday, March 21st, 2013
  • Energy report: Plentiful supplies, warning signs
    Energy report: Plentiful supplies, warning signs

    Conservation and fracking will help United States reach energy independence by 2030. How will cheap natural gas affect renewable energy? How will a one-third increase in fossil fuel use affect greenhouse warming? Are we about to be locked into a 3.6ºC of global warming?


    Thursday, November 22nd, 2012
  • Greenhouse gas maps
    Greenhouse gas maps

    Using at least 20 sources of data, scientists have modeled releases of carbon dioxide from Indianapolis. The new view will help cities map reductions in greenhouse warming, and help people understand that the climate warming problem belongs to everybody.


    Thursday, October 11th, 2012
  • Nature reserves: Part of the local environment
    Nature reserves: Part of the local environment

    Deforestation, fires, mining and agriculture outside a nature reserve can have as much impact as the same activities inside the reserve, says a new study. If a line on a map cannot protect nature, what can?


    Thursday, July 26th, 2012
  • Freaky fish flirting
    Freaky fish flirting

    A chemical from plastics “looks” like estrogen to the body. If it makes female fish more likely to flirt with males of a different species, could endocrine disruptors cause cross-breeding, and a decline in native fish after invaders enter their rivers?


    Thursday, July 12th, 2012
  • Fracking fracas
    Fracking fracas

    A high-pressure rock-buster caused natural gas production to explode. How does fracking work? What’s up with groundwater pollution?


    Thursday, December 1st, 2011
  • Feeding 7+ billion
    Feeding 7+ billion

    The green revolution fed billions, but population keeps rising, water is short and the climate is changing. How will Africans feed themselves despite poor soil and widespread poverty? Could small projects that fit the environment and culture make farmers an engine of prosperity and a big source of food?


    Thursday, November 10th, 2011
  • Texas is dry and hot. Global warming?
    Texas is dry and hot. Global warming?

    Was the epic 2011 heat wave in Texas due to global warming or natural variation?


    Thursday, October 27th, 2011
  • Tundra fire: Bad news on warming
    Tundra fire: Bad news on warming

    The globe warms, and the Arctic starts to burn. If warming causes fires that release carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas, will this accelerate further warming? A new study measures carbon releases from the largest tundra fire in North America.


    Thursday, July 28th, 2011
  • Wildfire!
    Wildfire!

    Constant fire-fighting has made fire the remaining fires more intense, but controlled burns have their own hazards. Are we already seeing the effect of climate change on forest fires?


    Thursday, July 7th, 2011
  • Bats under attack
    Bats under attack

    White nose syndrome has killed a million bats in the eastern U.S., and spread to Nova Scotia, South Carolina and Tennessee. Why is the fungus deadly here, but not in Europe? Can quarantines, anti-fungals or heated bat houses help our bats survive the onslaught?


    Thursday, June 2nd, 2011
  • Cholera: Haiti’s latest scourge
    Cholera: Haiti’s latest scourge

    Cholera can kill with record speed. The bacterium is easy to control — if wastewater and drinking water are treated. Haiti — chronically corrupt, painfully poor, and wasted by the January quake, is paradise for the cholera bug. How is cholera prevented, and what are the enduring gifts of this deadly bug?


    Thursday, November 25th, 2010
  • Planetary limits: More than just global warming
    Planetary limits: More than just global warming

    Scientists propose 9 limits on human actions: Wrecking ozone, over-using fertilizer, killing species could block key “ecosystem services.” Are there natural limits to fresh water use and pollution?


    Thursday, October 1st, 2009
  • New concern as ocean grows more acidic
    New concern as ocean grows more acidic

    Each hour, the ocean dissolves 1 million tons of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuel. As the water grows more acidic, sound travels further. What will happen to marine mammals, which rely on an exquisite sense of hearing?


    Thursday, November 13th, 2008
  • Mystery of the disappearing ice sheet

    Rapid melting of Canadian ice sheet suggests that Greenland’s massive ice cap could melt and raise sea level much faster than predicted within a century.


    Thursday, September 4th, 2008


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