A new study has found that, contrary to previous claims, the ocean is not a significant source of microplastics to the atmosphere, but rather a major sink.&nbsp;



The research team used a global chemical transport model to evaluate how tiny plastic particles, known as microplastics, move around the world. 



The finding challenges past assumptions about the ocean’s role in releasing plastic fragments into the air.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-journey-of-airborne-microplastics-nbsp">The journey of airborne microplastics&nbsp;</h2>



Plastic debris in dust form is increasingly recognized as a worldwide contaminant. <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/microplastics-in-the-brain-alarming-new-details-revealed/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Microplastics</a> (particles less than 5 mm in diameter) have been detected in soils, freshwater, the ocean, and even in the air that we breathe.&nbsp;



Scientists warn that microscopic plastic bits pose risks for human health, since they can easily enter the respiratory system and the bloodstream.&nbsp;



Once airborne, these tiny pieces can travel large distances and eventually settle in remote or sensitive regions, harming wildlife and potentially impacting human populations.



But how do these particles enter the atmosphere in the first place? The planet’s primary sources of microplastics are typically found on land, from everyday materials such as vehicle tires shedding particles on roads, or synthetic clothing fibers washed out in domestic wastewater.&nbsp;



However, earlier models had suggested that there might be an additional large source at sea. Microplastics often accumulate in the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/microplastics-pose-a-greater-threat-to-some-ocean-animals/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">oceans</a>, carried there by rivers and other waterways. Then, once present in the marine environment, it was believed that they could be lofted into the air by sea spray or wind-driven wave action.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-is-the-ocean-s-contribution">What is the ocean's contribution?</h2>



Prior reports pointing to a large marine source relied on an inverse modeling technique. That method uses atmospheric measurements of particular substances and attempts to infer their origin by matching observed concentrations with predicted distributions.&nbsp;



Applied to microplastics, inverse modeling suggested the ocean might contribute hundreds of millions - or even billions - of kilograms of these fragments to the air each year.



Such massive figures were then tested experimentally, with scientists using wave tanks and other controlled setups to see how vigorously wave action or bursting bubbles could transfer plastics from the water surface into the atmosphere.&nbsp;



Those studies, however, hinted that only tens or hundreds of thousands of kilograms of plastic might plausibly be introduced into the air - orders of magnitude smaller than the figures derived from inverse modeling.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-global-chemical-transport-model">A global chemical transport model</h2>



In an effort to reconcile these contradictory outcomes, a group led by researchers at the <a href="https://mpimet.mpg.de/en/homepage" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Max Planck Institute for Meteorology</a> (MPI-M) ran a global chemical transport model. This computer model simulates the movement of substances, such as microplastic particles, through the atmosphere.&nbsp;



By prescribing a minor oceanic emission of microplastics - consistent with the low estimates from laboratory work - they were able to predict how microplastic concentrations should appear in the air at various locations around the globe.



The results aligned well with real-world measurements. Based on the model, the ocean in fact took up some of these airborne particles instead of emitting them in large quantities.&nbsp;



The scientists learned that rather than being a source, the ocean appeared to be a sink, in which 15 percent of all airborne microplastics are deposited.&nbsp;



In other words, waves, spray, and wind may occasionally lift small amounts of plastic out of the sea, but far more of the material is settling onto the water rather than emanating from it.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-airborne-microplastics-travel">How airborne microplastics travel</h2>



The study also uncovered the significant influence of particle size on how microplastics travel. Larger plastic fragments drop out of the atmosphere relatively quickly, often landing in coastal areas or not far from their point of emission.&nbsp;



By contrast, smaller particles can remain suspended for up to a year. That extended flight time allows them to cross entire oceans or continents and reach distant regions such as the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/citizen-scientists-uncover-microplastics-in-the-remote-arctic/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Arctic</a>, where they land on ice or snow.



These discoveries highlight the global character of plastic contamination, showing that microplastic dust can be widespread in places typically considered pristine.&nbsp;



They also clarify that stopping microplastic pollution at its land-based sources may be the most efficient approach, as the ocean itself is neither the greatest emitter nor the root cause.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-roadmap-for-pollution-reduction">A roadmap for pollution reduction</h2>



Given that airborne microplastics reach faraway corners of the planet, the research team’s results have immediate practical value. Any broad plan to cut plastic pollution should focus on terrestrial origins: tire wear on roads, textiles shedding fibers, and insufficiently treated wastewater.&nbsp;



Additionally, lessening single-use plastics and improving waste management at landfills can help limit microplastics before they disperse into the environment.



These findings show that ocean waters, already burdened by plastic accumulations, are predominantly sinks - taking in plastic particles from the air. They also emphasize that microplastics do not stay put in the environment: large ones settle nearby, while smaller ones can travel global distances.&nbsp;



Future models aimed at <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plastic-pollution-is-changing-the-entire-earth-system/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">plastic pollution</a> will need to consider these dynamics in more detail, particularly when mapping out strategies to protect vulnerable ecosystems, reduce human exposure, and maintain cleaner oceans.



By settling this debate over whether the ocean is more of a source or a sink, scientists can now direct their attention to mitigating the true origins of airborne microplastics, thus improving targeted policies to help address this pressing environmental concern.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41612-025-00914-3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">npj Climate and Atmospheric Science</a>.



-----



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Airborne microplastics: Where they come from and where they go

A new study has found that, contrary to previous claims, the ocean is not a significant source of microplastics to the atmosphere, but rather a major sink.&nbsp; The research team used a global chemical transport model to evaluate how tiny plastic particles, known as microplastics, move around the world. The finding challenges past assumptions about the ocean’s role in releasing plastic fragments into the air. The journey of airborne microplastics&nbsp; Plastic debris in dust form is increasingly recognized as a worldwide contaminant. Microplastics (particles less than 5...

Volkswagen Emission Testing

Volkswagen settles emissions scandal for $10.2 billion. Volkswagen has agreed to take a series of steps costing about $10.2 billion to settle claims from its unprecedented diesel emissions scandal in the U.S., two people briefed on the matter said Thursday.
Most of the money would go to compensate 482,000 owners of cars with 2-liter diesel engines that were programmed to turn on emissions controls during lab tests and turn them off while on the road, said the people, who asked not to be identified because a judge has issued a gag order in the case.
One of the people said the agreement was tentative and could change by the time the terms are officially announced by the judge on Tuesday. The bulk of the cash would be used to fix the cars, buy them back and compensate owners. Some funds would go to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plan-manage-wild-horses/">government</a> agencies as penalties and for a program to remediate the environmental damage caused by pollution, the person said.
Owners would have a choice between selling their vehicles back to VW at the value before the scandal broke on Sept. 18, 2015, or keeping the cars and letting the company repair them for free. Either way, they would also get $1,000 to $7,000 depending on their cars' age, with an average payment of about $5,000, one of the people said.
Attorneys representing owners, VW and government agencies including the Environmental Protection Agency have not yet agreed on the steps VW will take to repair the cars, the person said. Any fix likely would require a bigger catalytic converter or injection of the chemical urea into the exhaust to help neutralize the pollution.
The $10.2 billion cost eclipses costs of all recent automotive scandals. General Motors, for instance, paid roughly $6.9 billion for its giant recall of defective ignition switches two years ago. But unlike other scandals, VW has admitted to deliberately deceiving government regulators.
The EPA has said the cars, which include many of VW's most popular models, can give off more than 40 times the legal limit of nitrogen oxide, which can cause respiratory problems in humans. Around 11 million cars worldwide also had the cheating software, but nitrogen oxide emissions standards aren't as stringent outside the U.S.
Neither VW spokeswoman Jeannine Ginivan nor EPA spokesman Nick Conger would comment on the settlement.
VW may have to pay additional penalties to government agencies, one of the people said. The Justice Department has sued VW on the EPA's behalf, and the automaker could also be penalized by the California Air Resources Board and the Federal Trade Commission, which has sued over false advertising claims.
Volkswagen owners filed dozens of lawsuits against VW after it acknowledged in September that it intentionally defeated emissions tests and put dirty vehicles on the road.
The company faces as much as $20 billion in fines for Clean Air Act violations alone, on top of paying to fix the cars or compensate their owners.
The settlement does not include 3-liter Volkswagen diesels, which had another version of cheating software.
Full details of the settlement are scheduled to be released Tuesday by Senior U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco.
----
Biesecker reported from Washington. Follow Tom Krisher at <a href="https://twitter.com/tkrisher." target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://twitter.com/tkrisher.</a> His work can be found at <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/content/tom-krisher" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://bigstory.ap.org/content/tom-krisher</a>
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Volkswagen settles emissions scandal for $10.2 billion

Volkswagen settles emissions scandal for $10.2 billion. Volkswagen has agreed...

APTOPIX Mine Waste Leak

New Mexico is suing the state of Colorado, saying its northern neighbor should be held responsible for the contamination from the massive Gold King Mine waste spill last year as well as decades of toxic drainage from mines near the headwaters of a shared river.
The New Mexico Attorney General's Office and the state Environment Department announced late Wednesday that they filed a complaint against Colorado with the U.S. Supreme Court. It seeks damages and demands that Colorado address problems at the mines.
It marks the second major legal salvo fired by New Mexico in the wake of the August 2015 spill, which fouled rivers in three Western states with a bright-yellow plume of arsenic, lead and other heavy metals. The state also is suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the owners of two mines.
"We had hoped EPA and <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=colorado&amp;form=EDGEAR&amp;qs=PF&amp;cvid=43a1bcd8519042938587934e6410c467&amp;cc=US&amp;setlang=en-US&amp;elv=AY3%21uAY7tbNNZGZ2yiGNjfNO4RA7ltALoNE5SspyvjPippfC5dYryHbFj%21iL6CyeVzODeCYVxBPjGgZaG6pe0mG8clvmyzw1vPyBZKyfra7h&amp;plvar=0&amp;PC=HCTS">Colorado</a> would try to work with us and come up with solutions," New Mexico Environment Secretary Ryan Flynn told The Associated Press. "But the state of Colorado, its leadership, seems intent on defending EPA at every turn and is unwilling to work with us to move forward in a meaningful manner."
The Colorado governor's office said it is disappointed New Mexico has chosen "costly and time-consuming litigation."
"While the Gold King Mine spill was a striking reminder throughout the West that there are thousands of abandoned mines that would benefit from joint cleanup efforts, the litigation doesn't impact our commitment to addressing the challenges posed by historic mine drainage," the governor's office said in a statement.
The EPA has declined to comment on the lawsuit, but it has said it takes responsibility for the cleanup at the Gold King Mine.
An agency contractor accidentally triggered the spill. Wastewater made its way into the Animas River and eventually down to the San Juan River, setting off a major response by government agencies and private groups.
During the spill, water utilities shut down intake valves and farmers stopped drawing from the rivers as the plume moved downstream.
The EPA said water quality quickly returned to pre-spill levels. But New Mexico officials and others warn about heavy metals collecting in the sediment and getting stirred up each time rain or snowmelt results in runoff.
The lawsuit against Colorado details the results of recent soil samples taken north of Durango, Colorado, where discolored sediment was visible at residential properties. The results showed lead at concentrations far above the risk level established by the EPA.
It also outlines the business and regulatory history of the Sunnyside Gold Mine, where operators were allowed to install plugs that eventually caused wastewater to back up and fill the mine. That led to problems at nearby mines.
The shuttering of a water treatment plant for mine discharge further aggravated the situation, according to New Mexico officials.
By 2011, acidic drainage from four inactive mines at and above the former treatment plant - including at Gold King Mine - was pouring into Cement Creek, a tributary of the Animas River, at a rate of nearly 850 gallons per minute, according to the lawsuit.
"The Gold King Mine release was the coup de grâce of two decades of disastrous environmental decision-making by Colorado, for which New Mexico and its citizens are now paying the price," the lawsuit says.
New Mexico contends Colorado's conduct now and in the past and the resulting contamination amounts to a public nuisance.
Attorney General Hector Balderas said New Mexicans rely on the Animas and San Juan rivers for drinking water, ranching, farming, tourism and more, so communities must be compensated and protected from future health and safety risks.
New Mexico and Colorado officials had been in talks for months, and Flynn said the state is still open to discussions in hopes of settling with the EPA and Colorado.
"We're here out of necessity," the environment secretary said. "I would prefer to spend time and resources resolving this rather than duking it out in court."
---
Associated Press writer Dan Elliott in Denver contributed to this report.
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New Mexico sues Colorado over Gold King Mine spill

New Mexico is suing the state of Colorado, saying its...

Feds: Filtered tap water in Flint is safe. Filtered tap water is safe for everyone in Flint, Michigan, the federal government said Thursday, lifting a recommendation that pregnant women, nursing mothers and children under 6 drink only bottled water to avoid lead exposure.
The announcement was based on tests of filters that have been distributed for months for free by the state of Michigan. The Environmental Protection Agency said the filters remove or reduce lead to well below the action level of 15 parts per billion, although no lead is considered safe. Some samples from high-risk areas in Flint have been coming back at less than 1 part per billion. Feds: Filtered tap water in Flint is safe
"It is encouraging news," said Mayor Karen Weaver, who still wants all lead-tainted plumbing replaced.
Flint used the Flint River for 18 months, but lead leached from old pipes at homes because the water wasn't treated to control corrosion. Although the city switched water sources last fall, there still is lead in the system.
Officials have been telling most Flint residents that it's OK to drink filtered tap water, including President Barack Obama, who sipped from a glass during a visit in May. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said he drank filtered water from a Flint home for more than 30 days.
"People using filtered water instead of bottled water can relieve a significant burden on themselves because they don't have to deal with transporting and storing it," Snyder said.
Trust still is a hurdle in Flint, 60 miles north of Detroit, where people were repeatedly told that water from the Flint River was safe before Snyder and his environmental regulators last fall finally acknowledged that the system was poisoned by lead.
Marc Edwards, an environmental engineering expert at Virginia Tech who helped uncover the lead scandal, praised the government for confirming that filters were working properly before lifting the bottled water recommendation.
"The agencies involved in the disaster response are now worthy of the public trust," Edwards said.
Bob Kaplan, the EPA's Midwest acting regional administrator, said water quality is improving but it's not known when Flint can drink unfiltered tap water.
Volunteers will be fanning out Saturday to check more than 2,300 homes for filters and provide help if needed. Weaver said donations of bottled water still are needed because there are homes where filters don't fit on old faucets.
"This is not the ultimate solution to the problem in Flint," the mayor said of filters. "We still need new infrastructure."
In March, a state task force that investigated the Flint crisis concluded that it was a "case of environmental injustice" in a poor, majority black city. While under state emergency management, the city began using the Flint River to save money while a regional pipeline was being built to Lake Huron.
---
Follow Ed White at <a href="http://twitter.com/edwhiteap">http://twitter.com/edwhiteap</a>
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Feds: Filtered tap water in Flint is safe

Feds: Filtered tap water in Flint is safe. Filtered tap...

Climate impacts life strategies, time orientation, self-control

Climate change is linked to violent behavior. Researchers have long struggled to explain why some violent crime rates are higher near the equator than other parts of the world. Now, a team of researchers have developed a model that could help explain why. This new model goes beyond the simple fact that hotter temperatures seem to be linked to more violent behavior. Paul van Lange, a professor of psychology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam along with Maria I. Rinderu (VU Amsterdam) and Brad Bushman, a professor of psychology at The Ohio State University and VU Amsterdam developed a new model - called CLASH (CLimate Aggression, and Self-control in Humans). They describe the CLASH model in an online article in the journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences.Climate change is linked to violent behavior

The researchers believe that hot climates and less variation in seasonal temperatures leads to a faster life strategy, less focus on the future, and less self-control - all of which contribute to more aggression and violence. "Climate shapes how people live, it affects the culture in ways that we don't think about in our daily lives," said Paul Van Lange, lead author of the article. "We believe our model can help explain the impact of climate on rates of violence in different parts of the world."

Many studies have shown that levels of violence and aggression are higher in hot climates. "But the two leading explanations of why that is so aren't satisfactory", Bushman said. The General Aggression Model (which Bushman helped develop) suggests hot temperatures make people uncomfortable and irritated, which makes them more aggressive. "But that doesn't explain more extreme acts, such as murder", he said. Another explanation (Routine Activity Theory) is that people are outdoors and interacting more with others when the weather is warm, which leads to more opportunities for conflict. But that doesn't explain why there's more violence when the temperature is 95 degrees F (35 °C) than when it is 75 degrees F (24 °C) - even though people might be outside under both circumstances.

Not just hotter temperatures lead to violence

The CLASH model states that it is not just hotter temperatures that lead to more violence - it is also climates that have less seasonal variation in temperature. "Less variation in temperature, combined with heat, brings some measure of consistency to daily life", Rinderu said. That means there is less need to plan for large swings between warm and cold weather. The result is a faster life strategy that isn't as concerned about the future and leads to less need for self-control. "Strong seasonal variation in temperature affects culture in powerful ways. Planning in agriculture, hoarding, or simply preparing for cold winters shapes the culture in many ways, often with people not even noticing it. But it does shape how much a culture values time and self-control, " Van Lange said. "If there is less variation, you're freer to do what you want now, because you're not preparing foods or chopping firewood or making winter clothes to get you through the winter. You also may be more concerned with the immediate stress that comes along with parasites and other risks of hot climates, such as <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=venomous&amp;form=EDGEAR&amp;qs=PF&amp;cvid=bd3786fe91f54a9aaca37de066a2a5aa&amp;cc=US&amp;setlang=en-US&amp;elv=AY3%21uAY7tbNNZGZ2yiGNjfNO4RA7ltALoNE5SspyvjPizdbvc29r90BnjdqidggKkm9xnaRfoQ6bHJF5mnAon6Rn7d7wY7qXPfInfCSfDgGP&amp;plvar=0&amp;PC=HCTS">venomous</a> animals "

People living in these climates are oriented to the present rather than the future and have a fast life strategy - they do things now. "We see evidence of a faster life strategy in hotter climates with less temperature variation - they are less strict about time, they have less use of birth control, they have children earlier and more often," Bushman said. With a faster life strategy and an orientation toward the present, people have to practice less self-control, he said. That can lead people to react more quickly with aggression and sometimes violence.

The theory is not deterministic and isn't meant to suggest that people in hotter, consistent climates can't help themselves when it comes to violence and aggression. "How people approach life is a part of culture and <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/urban-agriculture-food-desert/">culture</a> is strongly affected by climate," Van Lange said. "Climate doesn't make a person, but it is one part of what influences each of us. We believe it shapes the culture in important ways," he said. Since CLASH is a new theory, studies have to be done to prove it is correct. But Rinderu said a lot of evidence already suggests that the theory may be on to something. "We believe CLASH can help account for differences in aggression and violence both within and between countries around the world," Van Lange said. "We think it provides a strong framework for understanding the violence differences we see around the world," he said.
###
Note for the editors

Contact: Paul Van Lange, <a href="mailto:p.a.m.van.lange@vu.nl">p.a.m.van.lange@vu.nl</a> or Brad Bushman, 614-688-8779;<a href="mailto:Bushman.20@osu.edu">Bushman.20@osu.edu</a>

Or contact our press officers at Ohio State: Jeff Grabmeier, 614-292-8457;<a href="mailto:Grabmeier.1@osu.edu">Grabmeier.1@osu.edu</a> or Doede van der Hoeven from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam via<a href="mailto:d.c.vander.hoeven@vu.nl">d.c.vander.hoeven@vu.nl</a> or 0031-205982726

Climate change is linked to violent behavior

Climate impacts life strategies, time orientation, self-control Climate change is...

Good bacteria vital to coral reef survival. Scientists say good bacteria could be the key to keeping coral healthy, able to withstand the impacts of global warming and to secure the long-term survival of reefs worldwide.

"Healthy corals interact with complex communities of beneficial microbes or 'good bacteria'," says Dr. Tracy Ainsworth from the ARC Centre of Excellence for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_reef">Coral Reef</a> Studies at James Cook University who led the study. "It is very likely that these microorganisms play a pivotal role in the capacity of coral to recover from bouts of bleaching caused by rising temperatures."

"Facilitating coral survival and promoting coral recovery are growing areas of research for coral reef scientists," says co-author Dr. Ruth Gates from Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawai'i. "To do this we need to explore and understand the bacteria that help keep corals and coral reefs healthy."

Dr. Ainsworth and Dr. Gates have identified new directions for research in understanding coral survival in rapidly changing reef environments.

"We know that lasting changes to the community of beneficial bacteria affects important aspects of the function of host organisms such as humans or corals, including their ability to withstand further stress," says Dr. Ainsworth.

"Corals rely on good bacteria but crucially we don't yet understand these microbes well enough to know how they influence coral survival."

Their latest research has been published in the journal Science, and gives an overview of the current understanding of bacterial communities on corals. It highlights the vital importance of good bacteria to coral health.

The scientists discuss how corals, and coral reefs that survive large-scale changes in the environment over the coming decades, are likely to be very different from those of today.

They say the interaction between corals and good bacteria is crucial to long-term survival.

Their work comes from recent advances in understanding the complexity of the coral's genetic make-up and the unique bacterial communities that corals maintain.

"Preventing physical contact with corals and maintaining high water quality on reefs during stress events will reduce stress loads on corals and creates the best case scenario for survival and recovery," says Dr. Gates.

Good bacteria vital to coral reef survival

Good bacteria vital to coral reef survival. Scientists say good...

Climate change makes it difficult to understand extreme weather. Scientists need more credible and relevant information to help communities become more resilient to extreme weather events such as floods, a <a href="http://www.exeter.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">University of Exeter</a> expert has said.

Researchers need improved techniques to be able to understand why the climate is changing, and the part humans play in this process, according to Professor Peter Stott, who also leads the Climate Monitoring and Attribution team at the Met Office.

In an article in the journal Science Professor Stott, who is part of the Mathematics Department at the University of Exeter, says reliable information is vital for policymakers as they decide how to safeguard people from extreme weather. Knowing what causes natural disasters can help inform decisions about how to rebuild or price insurance.

"Placing recent extreme events in the context of past and future climate variability and change would enhance the ability of societies to manage weather and climate-related risks," Professor Stott says in the article.

Climate change caused by humans has led to an overall increase in the frequency and intensity of daily temperature extremes and has led to more extreme rain over the world as a whole. But the risks of unusual weather events such as floods, droughts, and heat waves have changed differently in different parts of the world. More research is needed to understand exactly how communities are being affected by climate change.

Professor Stott co-edits an annual report explaining how the climate has affected extreme events of the previous year. The report has grown from considering only six events in 2011 to covering 28 different events in 2014. These reports help to explain if climate change has influenced either the magnitude or the probability of specific types of weather events.

Most researchers use mathematical modelling to help assess the extent of climate change. It is easier for them to find evidence that human-induced climate change causes extreme temperatures because there is a wealth of data on extreme hot and cold events and they can be well captured in climate models. Heatwaves occur over a wide area.

It is more difficult to examine extreme rainfall because there is a lack of accurate data, climate models can fail to represent them adequately, and their relationship with climate variability and change is often not well understood. Flooding is often extremely localised. Scientists are trying to rectify this through projects, including the European project EUCLEIA (European Climate and Weather Events: Interpretation and Attribution) which is led by Professor Stott and a team from the Met Office.

Professor Stott believes better ways of modelling and analysing climate change will be available very soon. He said: "I believe there is the potential for improvement in our ability to attribute extreme weather events within the next year or two. It is both possible to do this and important that we do. With this information societies will be in a better position to manage the risks of weather and climate-related disasters."

Climate change makes it difficult to understand extreme weather

Climate change makes it difficult to understand extreme weather. Scientists...

Mount Nyiragongo brings rich soil with eruption threat. Hacking away in the midday sun, 49-year-old farmer Daniel Lazuba remembers vividly his life before one of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa">Africa's</a> most active volcanos erupted 14 years ago.
"All of this was corn before," he said as he pointed to rows of new banana trees pushing up between black stones. "My cabbage seems to be growing better than ever these days, but in this area, I still have to start from zero."
Traumatized farmers like Lazuba are slowly returning to fields decimated by the 2002 eruption of Mount Nyiragongo in eastern <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/nyiragongo-volcano-congo-active/">Congo</a>. Flowing lava flattened more than 30 percent of the city of Goma, 20 kilometers away. Nearly 150 people died, and 400,000 fled into neighboring Rwanda.
Now farmers returning to their fields find increased harvests from the rich volcanic soil, but there are signs that Nyiragongo will erupt again. Mount Nyiragongo brings rich soil with eruption threat
One farmer, Patrick Tamoini, said his harvests have risen over the past two harvests since he returned to his patch of land a short walk from the volcano's base. The 41-year-old pockets more than $100 a month after taking care of family expenses, more than double his earnings before the eruption, he said. The average per capita monthly income in Congo is nearly $32 a month, according to the World Bank.
But returning to the fields wasn't easy.
"The pain of what I lost kept me from coming back for such a long time," Tamoini said. "With this level of production, I'm glad I finally did."
The chemical makeup of volcanic soil makes for lucrative farming conditions, say researchers at the Goma Volcano Observatory.
"Lava actually enriches the soil that it initially burned," said Mathieu Yalira, the chair of observatory's geochemistry and environment department. Volcanic soil includes fertilizing elements such as iron, phosphorus and potassium, he said. In the years after an eruption, a process known as chemical weathering slowly makes lava soil more fertile than ordinary earth.
Local farmers didn't seize on those benefits right away, observers say.
"Initially, no one was coming back because they were too devastated to see their burned fields," said the chair of the observatory's seismology department, Georges Mavonga. "But within the past year, visits toward the volcano have shown new villages in areas that were uninhabited before."
He said the increase in lava soil farming may be a result of initial farmers seeing the benefits and spreading information to friends and family.
But the farmers should not get too attached to the newly fertile fields, warns the Rwanda Red Cross, which cared for many fleeing the 2002 eruption.
In February, an earthquake far beneath the surface caused rumbling noises near Virunga National Park, where the volcano is located. Since then, a new vent has appeared on the northeastern edge of the crater floor that shoots lava into the air every 30 seconds.
The Rwanda Red Cross has increased surveillance of the volcano in conjunction with the observatory.
"There are only presumptions about the next eruption, but people who study the daily life of this volcano tell us it could happen any day," said Yves Riupi, a Red Cross crisis manager who works with seismologists at the Rwanda Natural Resources Authority.
The risk of another eruption is one that some farmers, whose lives depend on their crops, are now willing to take.
With vegetation growing more than six feet tall in some places with the rich volcanic soil, farmers say they want to keep working their fields, until the volcano erupts.
"If another one comes, who am I to stop it?" Lazuba asked. "There is nothing I can do."
---
Roby's reporting was assisted by the International Women's Media Foundation African Great Lakes Reporting Initiative: <a href="https://www.iwmf.org/programs/african-great-lakes-reporting-initiative/">https://www.iwmf.org/programs/african-great-lakes-reporting-initiative/</a>
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Mount Nyiragongo brings rich soil with eruption threat

Mount Nyiragongo brings rich soil with eruption threat. Hacking away...

Flint children under the age of 6 had significantly higher blood-lead levels after the city switched its water source in 2014 to save money, according to a report released Friday by U.S. disease experts.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's report said the likelihood a child would have a concerning blood-lead level - at least 5 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood - was about 50 percent higher after the April 2014 switch from Detroit's water system to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_River_(Georgia)">Flint River</a>. Flint used the water for 18 months, during which lead leached from old pipes in homes, businesses and schools because the water wasn't treated to control corrosion. The city switched back to Detroit's system in October.
"This crisis was entirely preventable, and a startling reminder of the critical need to eliminate all sources of lead from our children's environment," Patrick Breysse, director of CDC's National Center for Environmental Health, said in a statement. Flint children have higher lead levels after drinking water switch.
About 9,600 children younger than 6 years old lived in homes served by Flint's water system, the report said. Among them, about 7,300 received nearly 9,700 blood lead tests before, during and after the water source switch.
Children can develop learning disabilities and behavior problems from lead exposure, even in low levels.
According to the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/electric-scooter-safety-injuries/">CDC</a>, blood-lead testing in Michigan is targeted toward children at or below the poverty level and those enrolled in Medicaid. All children on Medicaid are required to receive blood-lead screenings when they're 1 and 2 years old, or 3 and 6 years old if previous screenings weren't done.
The lead-level test periods were: the year leading up to the initial switch; between April 2014 and the January 2015 release of a water advisory because of high levels of disinfectant byproducts; between the advisory and return to Detroit water; and after the return to Detroit.
After last fall, children's blood-lead levels dropped to what had been found before the switch to the Flint River.
The study underscores the need for a "big, public health discussion" about lead, Breysse told The Associated Press. A recent national health survey estimated that a half-million children under 6 have elevated blood-lead levels in the area of concern and 4 million U.S. households have lead-paint hazards.
"We have concerns being raised across the country," he said.
Officials noted some limitations with the Flint findings: They couldn't account for all factors that might have contributed to a child's lead exposure, such as whether lead-based paint was present in the children's homes or whether a decline in blood-lead levels post-return to Detroit water was at least partly because of the increased consumption of bottled water.
Still, the authors say the analysis suggests increased lead exposure related to consuming contaminated water in Flint.
Marc Edwards, an environmental engineering expert at Virginia Tech who helped uncover the lead scandal, said the study corroborates his work and that of Flint pediatrician Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha.
"It's a solid report confirming the veracity of our warnings of adverse health effects from water lead exposure in Flint (in) August 2015, as well as Dr. Mona's studies of elevated blood lead in September," he wrote in an email to the AP.
The report comes a day after federal officials announced filtered tap water was safe for everyone in Flint, lifting a recommendation that pregnant women, nursing mothers and children under 6 drink bottled water to avoid lead exposure. The announcement was based on tests of filters that have been distributed for months for free by the state of Michigan.
In March, a state task force that investigated the Flint crisis concluded that it was a "case of environmental injustice" in a poor, majority black city.
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Flint children have higher lead levels after drinking water switch

Flint children under the age of 6 had significantly higher...

A comparison of recent and previous nourishments of San Diego beaches suggests that a larger sand grain size improved nourishment performance

A team of researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego compared sand levels on several San Diego beaches during the last seven winters. The El Niños of winter 2009-10 and 2015-16 were the two most erosive. Three<a href="https://www.bing.com/travelguide?q=San+Diego&amp;l2sid=dbb1c326-5b67-4591-a264-0929e070e5ee&amp;form=PLACAB"> San Diego</a> County beaches that received imported sand in 2012 were about 10 meters (33 feet) wider, and one to two meters (three to six feet) higher in 2015-16 than in 2009-10, with the coarseness of the sand apparently aiding the effectiveness of the effort. Beach replenishment helps protect against storm erosion

In contrast, <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/beach-replenishment-helps-protect-against-storm-erosion/">Torrey Pines</a> State Beach, which had received no recent sand infusions, had slightly more storm erosion than in 2009-10.

"After sand is lifted off the ocean floor by waves, coarse grains fall more quickly to the bottom than finer grains, making it more difficult for the currents to move them around," said study leader Bonnie Ludka, a former Scripps graduate student partially supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.Beach replenishment helps protect against storm erosion

The research, funded by the California Department of Parks and Recreation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Sea Grant, focused on San Diego beaches but has implications for beaches worldwide. As sea levels rise, already threatened coastal infrastructure will become more vulnerable to flooding and erosion. El Niño is superimposed on this long-term trend, modifying regional coastal sea levels by as much as 25 centimeters for a year or more. Most significantly, El Niño modulates the locations of storms responsible for large waves that can raise nearshore water levels by a meter or more.

Sand nourishments widen beaches to promote tourism and protect coastal infrastructure, but the transport of the sand by waves and currents remains poorly understood.

The 2012 effort deposited 1.15 million cubic meters of sand on eight San Diego County beaches (including Cardiff, Solana, and Imperial beaches) at a cost of $28.5 million. A 2001 project added 1.6 million cubic meters of sand to 12 local beaches at a cost of $17.5 million. The sand pad placed at Torrey Pines that year was swept out to sea after just one storm. The sand grains imported there were of a similar size as the sand naturally found on that beach.

The 2015-16 winter provided a wealth of data to researchers, who used relatively new technologies. Ludka, who received her doctorate in oceanography from Scripps in May, and other scientists used jet-ski- and ATV-mounted GPS instruments to study beach slope and width.

The study is described in the article "Mid-El Niño erosion at nourished and unnourished Southern California beaches" appearing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Other co-authors of the study include Scripps oceanographer Robert Guza, graduate student Sean Crosby, and postdoctoral researcher Timu Gallien.

"We do not understand the underlying processes sufficiently to design nourishments for effective mitigation," said Guza. "Monitoring is necessary to learn as we go, from failures as well as successes."

--

<a href="http://www.ucsd.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">University of California San Diego</a>

Beach replenishment helps protect against storm erosion

A comparison of recent and previous nourishments of San Diego...

Scientists send plea to Australia to save coral reefs. As the largest international gathering of coral reef experts comes to a close, scientists have sent a letter to Australian officials calling for action to save the world's coral reefs, which are being rapidly damaged.
The letter was sent Saturday to Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull imploring his government to do more to conserve the nation's reefs and curb fossil fuel consumption. Scientists send plea to Australia to save coral reefs
The letter, signed by past and present presidents of the International Society for Reef Studies on behalf of the 2,000 attendees of the International <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-tool-can-detect-heat-stress-in-corals/">Coral</a> Reef Symposium that was held in Honolulu this week, urged the Australian government to prioritize its Great Barrier Reef.
"This year has seen the worst mass bleaching in history, threatening many coral reefs around the world including the whole of the northern Great Barrier Reef, the biggest and best-known of all reefs," the letter said. "The damage to this Australian icon has already been devastating. In addition to damage from greenhouse gasses, port dredging and shipping of fossil fuels across the Great Barrier Reef contravene Australia's responsibilities for stewardship of the Reef under the World Heritage Convention."
Leaders from the scientific community at the convention in Honolulu said Friday that the unprecedented letter was critical to the conservation of the fragile reef habitat.
Scientists are not known for their political activism, said James Cook University professor Terry Hughes, but they felt this crisis warranted such action.
"We are not ready to write the obituary for coral reefs," said Hughes, who is also the president of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies in Australia.
Messages seeking comment from the Australian prime minister Saturday were not returned.
A call to action from three Pacific island nations whose reefs are in the crosshairs of the largest and longest-lasting coral bleaching event in recorded history was presented Friday at the conclusion of the International Coral Reef Symposium.
The heads of state from Palau, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands attended the conference and provided a plan to help save their ailing coral reefs, which are major contributors to their local economies and the daily sustenance of their people. The call to action, signed by the three presidents, asked for better collaboration between the scientific community and local governments, saying there needs to be more funding and a strengthened commitment to protecting the reefs.
"If our coral reefs are further degraded, then our reef-dependent communities will suffer and be displaced," the letter said. They also called for more integration of "traditional knowledge, customary practices and scientific research" in building a comprehensive coral reef policy.
In response to the letter, the scientific community at the conference said: "We pledge to take up the 13th ICRS Leaders' Call to Action, and will work together with national leaders of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of Palau, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the world to curb the continued loss of coral reefs."
Bleaching is a process where corals, stressed by hot ocean waters and other environmental changes, lose their color as the symbiotic algae that lives within them is released. Severe or concurrent years of bleaching can kill coral reefs, as has been documented over the past two years in oceans around the world. Scientists expect a third year of bleaching to last through the end of 2016.
In the northern third of the Great Barrier Reef, close to half of the corals have died in the past three months, said Hughes, who focuses his research there. The area of the reef that suffered most is extremely remote, he said, with no pollution, very little fishing pressure and no coastal development.
"That's an absolute catastrophe," Hughes said. "There's nowhere to hide from climate change."
Last year, the United Nations expressed concern about the state of the Great Barrier Reef and urged Australia to boost its conservation efforts.
Following the release of a bleaching report in May, Australian politicians - who are in the midst of an election campaign - jumped on the issue, with the opposition Labor Party pledging to create a $500 million fund for better management and research of the reef. Environment Minister Greg Hunt, meanwhile, announced that if his party is re-elected, the government would invest $6 million to helping combat the crown-of-thorns starfish, which feast on coral.
The panel of scientists in Hawaii emphasized the progress they have made over the past 30 years in helping improve the health of coral reefs and stressed that good research and management programs for coral reefs are available. The scientists said they just need the proper funding and political will to enact them.
The researchers focused on the economic and social benefits coral reefs contribute to communities across the globe, saying the critical habitats generate trillions of dollars annually but conservation efforts are not proportionately or adequately funded.
---
Follow Caleb Jones on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/CalebAP" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://twitter.com/CalebAP</a> Find more of his work at <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/caleb-jones" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/caleb-jones</a>
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Scientists send plea to Australia to save coral reefs

Scientists send plea to Australia to save coral reefs. As...

'Rule-breaker' forests revealed in Andes and Amazon. It turns out that forests in the Andean and western Amazonian regions of <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=south+america&amp;filters=ufn%3a%22south+america%22+sid%3a%22077019ff-3910-a5c7-9283-9e4feadb1f67%22&amp;form=EDGEAR&amp;qs=MB&amp;cvid=64216551149146eeb6f99c76c4103132&amp;cc=US&amp;setlang=en-US&amp;elv=AY3%21uAY7tbNNZGZ2yiGNjfNcV7JLaCA2lHOMI7gGhmWqoRw83oQS1o21YsTbpslrzcpUjVv0%21sYNVad4gTLODA4AsBoxuKundJUw7UFJ7kXY&amp;plvar=0&amp;PC=HCTS">South America</a> break long-understood rules about how ecosystems are put together, according to new research led by Carnegie's Greg Asner and published in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Their findings could help scientists understand how tropical forests will respond to global climate change.

One of forest ecology's fundamental undertakings has long focused on how tree growth is influenced by a host of environmental factors ranging from soils and elevation to hydrology and climate. These factors create an economy of resources that the trees must exploit through different strategies, some of which are optimized for quick growth while others favor slow growth.'Rule-breaker' forests revealed in Andes and Amazon

More than a decade ago, ecologists established a framework to measure and quantify the calculus between fast- and slow-growth strategies among plant species. The idea was simple:

Some plants are like high-rollers looking for the quickest-possible returns, which comes in the form of highly efficient photosynthesis--the process by which plants use the Sun's energy to store carbon. These types of plants have been associated with environments that supply high concentrations of essential nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorous, and warm-wet climatic conditions, both of which help plants photosynthesize more productively.

Other plants are like prudent savers that invest in long-term infrastructure, meaning growing leaves with strong internal structures and increased mass that are designed to live for a long time. These structural investments allow more photosynthesis to be accomplished per leaf over the plant's lifetime. This strategy is thought to be employed by longer-living plants in areas where nutrients are scarcer, or where climates are colder or drier.

To understand the tradeoffs between these high-roller and prudent investor strategies, ecologists often plot leaf nutrients in comparison to leaf mass per area in response to different environmental factors. This is a particularly useful approach for understanding how to predict forest physiological responses to changing environmental conditions, including climate.

However, until now, this "leaf economics" approach has never been studied on large geographically continuous scales.

Using a unique, high-fidelity imaging spectrometer onboard the Carnegie Airborne Observatory, Asner and his team made the first-ever forest canopy maps of leaf nitrogen, phosphorous, and mass over a large portion of the biosphere covering nearly 200 million acres of Peru.

"We tested a traditional ecological principle at a completely new scale--in this case, the vast and under-explored <a href="http://www.earth.com/image/smoky-canyons-andes-mountains/">Andes</a> and Amazon region," Asner explained.

They discovered that the leaf economics of forests are not as straightforward as scientists once believed.

"We found that Andean and Amazonian forests have evolved into diverse communities that break simple ecological 'rules' previously developed through field-based studies. These forests are actually much more interesting and functionally diverse than previously thought, and have sorted themselves out across a variety of environmental templates like geology, elevation and temperature," Asner added.

It turns out the forests aren't so simply split between high-rollers and prudent investors either. Rather the authors found a continuum of forest canopy nitrogen, phosphorous, and leaf mass relationships that are sensitive to the enormous range of geophysical conditions found throughout the region.

Why do these findings matter?

The team believes that the mapped continuum of factors mediating tree growth in response to the environment will play a key role in determining how these forests will respond to climate change. Understanding these relationships is crucial to figuring out how to project changes in Andean-Amazonian forests using the next generation of climate models.

"These findings also make a clear case for taking our airborne science to Earth orbit as a satellite mission. This is the only way to create new global-scale maps, which are needed to better understand these ecological processes and to predict the roles they will play in Earth's future," Asner said.
###
This study was funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

The Carnegie Airborne Observatory is currently supported by the Avatar Alliance Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Mary Anny Nyburg Baker and G. Leonard Baker Jr., and William R. Hearst III.

The Carnegie Institution for Science (<a href="http://carnegiescience.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">carnegiescience.edu</a>) is a private, nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with six research departments throughout the U.S. Since its founding in 1902, the Carnegie Institution has been a pioneering force in basic scientific research. Carnegie scientists are leaders in plant biology, developmental biology, astronomy, materials science, global ecology, and Earth and planetary science.

'Rule-breaker' forests revealed in Andes and Amazon

'Rule-breaker' forests revealed in Andes and Amazon. It turns out...

China's plan to reduce Beijing pollution must include household fuels, surrounding regions

Household fuels a major contributor to air pollution. <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/insomnia-struck-chinas-healthcare-workers-during-covid-19-outbreak/">China's</a> plans to curb Beijing's health-damaging air by focusing on restricting emissions from power plants and vehicles may have limited impact if household use of coal and other dirty fuels is not also curtailed, according to a new study.

"You cannot have a clean outdoor environment if a large percentage of the population is burning dirty fuels in households several times a day," said Kirk Smith, a professor with the University of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California">California</a>, Berkeley's School of Public Health who co-led the study with Tong Zhu of Peking University and Denise Mauzerall of Princeton University. "The smoke may start indoors, but soon leaves the house and becomes a significant part of regional air pollution."

Beijing's polluted air came to international attention before the 2008 summer Olympics. Today, the average daily concentration of the smallest particulates - those that can lodge deeply in the lungs and trigger chronic and acute respiratory illness, heart disease and lung cancer - is more than six times what the World Health Organization regards as safe. Levels of other major pollutants, such as ozone, also rank high.

China developed a five-year plan to reduce emissions, but the researchers concluded that focusing too narrowly on controlling emissions of pollutants just within Beijing and its suburbs, without also reducing emissions from the entire region, including widespread surrounding rural areas, may limit the potential effectiveness of pollution-control efforts.

Their study will be published next week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The modeling study is the first to incorporate local and regional datasets on air emissions and to combine these with modeling of weather impacts and atmospheric chemistry in the region to come up with estimates of impacts of household emissions during winter months, when heating demands are greatest.

"We show that due to uncontrolled and inefficient combustion of solid fuels in household devices, emission reductions from the residential sector may have greater air quality benefits in the North China Plain, including Beijing, than reductions from other sectors," the researchers wrote. Household uses include cooking and heating.

The researchers used the Weather Research and Forecasting Model with Chemistry, a model developed in the United States and used by researchers worldwide, to generate atmospheric simulations using real data from China. They focused on Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei provinces, where more than 100 million people live.

They then made estimates of the relative contributions of emissions sources using data from 2010, and also modeled emissions reductions scenarios to derive estimates for reduction levels of small particulates over the region that would result from different mitigation efforts.

The researchers concluded that eliminating household emissions alone would reduce levels of small particulate pollution in the air over Beijing in winter by about 22 percent, but that eliminating household emissions in all three provinces surrounding Beijing would nearly double the reduction in particulate levels in the city itself.

In other words, Beijing does not have its fate entirely in its own hands, according to Smith, and the results highlight the importance of regional efforts to reduce urban air pollution.

"On a smaller scale, here in the Bay Area, air-quality control is not only focused on San Francisco and Oakland, but also coordinated across nine Bay Area counties through a regional governing body," Smith said. "One might think that, because China has a powerful central government, it would be easy to coordinate regional governing bodies to fight pollution, but that is not necessarily the case."

The researchers did not attempt to evaluate how climate change might be affected by Chinese efforts to reduce household burning of biomass fuel by supplying natural gas. China has begun building plants to convert coal to "synthetic natural gas," which burns cleaner, but results in more carbon dioxide emissions than direct burning of coal.

Nor did the researchers try to gauge the health benefits of reducing household emissions. However, a Global Burden of Disease study found that direct household exposure to air pollution from solid fuels was responsible for 800,000 premature deaths in China in 2013, about equal to the number of premature deaths from outdoor particulate pollution, Smith said. The work by Smith and colleagues indicates that a significant portion of the ill-health from outdoor pollution in China should also be attributed to household fuels.
###
The research was funded by National Natural Science Foundation Committee of China, the European Seventh Framework Programme Project PURGE (Public Health Impacts in Urban Environments of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions Strategies), and the Collaborative Innovation Center for Regional Environmental Quality.

Household fuels a major contributor to air pollution

China's plan to reduce Beijing pollution must include household fuels,...

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.igb.illinois.edu/">Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology</a> reveals how scientists can modify common crops like soybean, rice, and wheat to protect them from heat stress.



“We need to double crop production by 2050 to feed a growing global population, and not only are we not on track to do that, but climate change is further complicating things,” said Amanda Cavanagh, a lecturer at the University of Essex. 



The study is part of Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE), an international research project that aims to develop food crops that turn the sun’s energy into food more efficiently.



“Using an engineering approach we designed multiple alternative metabolic pathways to photorespiration. Testing them in the field showed increases in productivity which led Amanda to significantly move the project forward by showing our engineered plants can withstand pretty extreme temperature stress,” said study co-author and RIPE researcher Paul South.&nbsp;



“As the climate changes and temperature stresses increase the pressure on our global food supply, farmers will need every tool available including engineering approaches like the synthetic biology used here to maintain safe and productive harvests.”



The experts tested plants modified to have more efficient photorespiration to see if they were better adapted to warmer temperatures.&nbsp;



The team found that the engineered plants produced 26 percent more biomass than the wild-type plants exposed to the same temperatures, and had 15 percent less yield loss under the higher temperatures.



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Designing crops that can beat the heat

[sendtonews key="QGPzYnXEtN-1712599-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from Carl...

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes the first comprehensive estimate of carbon density in the Saharan, Sahel, and Sudanian zones of Africa. In an effort to measure the amount of carbon stored across these drylands, a team of scientists used high-resolution satellite images and artificial intelligence to map nearly 10 billion individual trees. 



"The high spatial resolution (50 cm) combined with AI and field measurements used in this study is key to improving tree inventories in drylands," said Pierre Hiernaux, a French researcher working for NASA. "The ever-increasing availability of very high-resolution satellite imagery will make it possible to assess carbon pools and their dynamics at the individual tree level on a global scale."



"This study is exceptional because it is pioneering a type of approach that will revolutionize the monitoring of trees and forests on a global scale: in the short term, it will be possible to map the world's trees from the centre of the Amazon to our schoolyards," said <a href="https://www.inrae.fr/en">INRAE</a> researcher Jean-Pierre Wigneron.



"Many fields of application will become much more efficient and accurate, such as tracking carbon stocks, biodiversity, monitoring logging and protection against illegal forest degradation, in near real time.”



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

[sendtonews key="EjmSP20gQK-2593093-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky" Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features northwest Lesotho in South Africa.



According to ESA, Lesotho is the only nation in the world that lies completely above 1,000 m in elevation. The country is famous for its tall mountains and narrow valleys, and is known as Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky."



Out of a population of around two million people, about 80 percent live in rural areas. More than 75 percent of these people are engaged in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-will-have-a-global-impact-on-agriculture/">agriculture</a>, including rainfed cereal production and animal grazing.&nbsp;



ESA reports that the country’s agricultural system faces a growing number of issues, with climate-related vulnerabilities such as drought, floods and extreme temperatures occurring more frequently. 



Diamonds are amongst the minerals found in the mountains. Indeed, Lesotho can truly be called the Kingdom in the Sky. Beautiful, culturally rich, safe, affordable, and easily accessible from Durban and Johannesburg, mountainous Lesotho is a vastly underrated travel destination. the Kingdom of Lesotho (Sotho: 'Muso oa Lesotho) is an enclaved country in southern Africa. It is just over 30,000 km2 (11,583 sq mi) in size and has a population of around 2 million.



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

[sendtonews key="uV9Lh2fQbV-1760058-12187" type="single"] Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky" Today’s...

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> features a visual dataset of.methane emissions from wetlands across the globe. Atmospheric methane levels have reached record highs in recent years, and wetlands are a major source of these emissions.&nbsp;



"Methane is an important greenhouse gas that contributes substantially to global warming. On a molecule by molecule basis, methane is much more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, the main driver of warming," says NASA.



"Though human activities, including agriculture, oil and natural gas production and use, and waste disposal, collectively contribute the majority of methane to the atmosphere, about a third of total methane emissions comes from wetlands."&nbsp;



According to NASA, understanding methane emissions from wetlands and other natural sources is critically important for scientists and policymakers who are working to combat climate change by reducing emissions from human activities.



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

[sendtonews key="f8fukm28Vz-2491833-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> reveals the evolution of the Columbia Glacier in southeastern Alaska. Columbia is among the fastest shrinking glaciers in the world, and the video documents its rapid retreat over the years.&nbsp;



Columbia Glacier is a large, multi-branched calving glacier that flows out of the Chugach Mountains to the Prince William Sound.&nbsp;



According to USGS, Columbia had a long history of stability prior to 1980, with a length 41 miles, and small, short-lived advances or retreats.



In the years since 1980, however, satellite images have captured Columbia’s alarming retreat. By using false-color images, scientists can distinguish between snow and ice, open water, vegetation, and rocky debris on the glacier’s surface.



The series of false-color images featured in today's video were acquired over the span of 35 years. You can see that by 2021, the glacier’s main branch had retreated about 15 miles from its initial position.



The Columbia Glacier has also lost more than 50 percent of its volume, mostly due to calving. <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/nasa-reveals-3d-visual-of-an-atmospheric-river/">NASA</a> reports that while climate change likely started the retreat, mechanical processes kept the disintegration going.



The NASA images are provided by Jesse Allen, Robert Simmon, Joshua Stevens, and Lauren Dauphin using data from Landsat satellites, from the U.S. Geological Survey, and data from MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite. The structure of Columbia’s moraine played a large role in the stability of the glacier before 1980. 



Like other tidewater glaciers, the Columbia built up a moraine over time, and the mixture of ice and rock functioned like a dam keeping out the sea. It was supported on one end by the shoreline and by the underwater terminal moraine at the other.



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/&nbsp; NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

[sendtonews key="0879czfG3k-1785905-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from NASA...

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes how record-breaking heat expressed itself around the world in 2022.



Scientists have determined that 2022 was the 5th warmest year since 1880. Furthermore, the last nine consecutive years have been the warmest on record.



From devastating floods and wildfires to natural disasters like Hurricane Ian, 2022 showed us yet again how a warming climate affects people across the globe.&nbsp;



"As we look back at 20:22 and years past, we see that each year we better understand the challenges we face and how important it is to meet them," says NASA.



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes Earth’s interconnected systems, and how this network is affected by rising temperatures.&nbsp;



During 2020, average global temperatures matched the hottest year on record. The hurricane season was also record-breaking, with many of the storms intensifying at extraordinary speeds. Hot water in the ocean is fuel for hurricanes. The satellite data shows that it's all one interconnected system showing how Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected.



According to NASA, dust swept up from Northern Africa plays a major role in the formation of hurricanes, and is also a key source of fertilization in the Amazon rainforest. As a result of<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seagrass-wasting-disease-is-fueled-by-climate-change/"> climate</a> change, dust plumes are expected to decline, which will have an effect on vegetation far away.&nbsp;



Images from Earth-observing satellites show how the world’s plant life is affected by natural disasters, fires, and deforestation. Satellites also reveal how widespread changes in vegetation impact waterways,&nbsp; the climate, air quality. Satellites communicate by using radio waves to send signals to the antennas on the Earth. "Earth From Space" is a groundbreaking two-hour special that reveals a spectacular new space-based vision of our planet. 



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

[sendtonews key="JbW4VsY53O-1632195-12187" type="single"] Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected...

Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://welcome.miami.edu/">University of Miami</a> Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science explores how changes in water temperatures have affected tiger shark habitats and movements in the North Atlantic Ocean. The study reveals that rising temperatures have caused the sharks to shift toward the poles over the past 40 years.



“Tiger shark annual migrations have expanded poleward, paralleling rising water temperatures,” explained study lead author Neil Hammerschlag. “These results have consequences for tiger shark conservation, since shifts in their movements outside of marine protected areas may leave them more vulnerable to commercial fishing.”



The researchers analyzed nine years of tracking data from satellite-tagged tiger sharks, combined with four decades of conventional tag and recapture data provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Cooperative Shark Tagging Program.



The experts found that during the last decade of record heat, for every one-degree Celsius increase in water temperatures, tiger sharks migrated further poleward by over 400 kilometers. They also migrated two weeks earlier than usual to waters off the northeastern coast of the United States.



“Given their role as apex predators, these changes to tiger shark movements may alter predator-prey interactions, leading to ecological imbalances, and more frequent encounters with humans,” concluded Professor Hammerschlag.



Video Credit: University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

Today’s Video of the Day from the University of Miami...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> is focused on the melt ponds that emerge during the spring and summer on the Greenland Ice Sheet, which is the largest ice mass in the northern hemisphere.



"Melt ponds are vast pools of open water that form on both sea ice and ice sheets and are visible as turquoise-blue pools of water in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image," says ESA.



"When snow and ice melts atop glaciers, water flows in channels and streams and collects in depressions on the surface. These melt ponds can speed up the melting of the surrounding ice since they greatly reduce the ice’s ability to reflect sunlight."



"This can create a positive feedback where an increasing number of melt ponds absorb more heat which causes ice cover to melt even faster."



According to ESA, Greenland has been hit with a late-season heatwave that began in early September. This caused the type of melt event that usually occurs in the middle of summer.



"In a recent paper published in Nature Climate Change, scientists found that major sea-level rise from the melting of the Greenland ice cap is now ‘inevitable’ even if the burning of fossil fuels were to halt overnight," says ESA. "Using satellite observations of Greenland ice loss and ice cap from 2000 to 2019, the team found the losses will lead to a minimum rise of 27 cm regardless of climate change."



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes how Earth is unique in our solar system for its ability to sustain liquid water on its surface. But now, the water cycle is shifting as the climate warms, and scientists must find ways to predict how these changes will affect water availability.



Overall, 96 percent of Earth's water is saltwater, and nearly all of freshwater is found in ice and groundwater. These sources of water are linked as it passes through solid, liquid and gas phases.



In a warmer climate, the water cycle will be transformed. It will be easier for water to evaporate and form clouds, and storms will become more frequent and intense. Some regions will get too much water, while others will be left without enough water. In addition, soil moisture will be lost - which threatens food security.



Scientists are using satellite data from over the last 40 years to track changes that are happening in the water cycle. This will ultimately help us prepare for extreme events and better manage our water resources, according to ESA.



Video Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Tracking changes in Earth's water cycle

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Saturn,-,High,Resolution,3d,Images,Presents,Planets,Of,The

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a> features images of Saturn from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The photographs capture the start of the mysterious "spoke season" on Saturn - when unexplained features appear on its rings. 



According to NASA, both the cause of the spokes and their seasonal variability have yet to be fully explained by planetary scientists.



"Like Earth, Saturn is tilted on its axis and therefore has four seasons, though because of Saturn's much larger orbit, each season lasts approximately seven Earth years. Equinox occurs when the rings are tilted edge-on to the Sun," explains NASA.



"The spokes disappear when it is near summer or winter solstice on Saturn. (When the Sun appears to reach either its highest or lowest latitude in the northern or southern hemisphere of a planet.) As the autumnal equinox of Saturn's northern hemisphere on May 6, 2025, draws near, the spokes are expected to become increasingly prominent and observable."



Experts believe that the spokes may be a product of the planet's variable magnetic field. When magnetic fields interact with solar wind, an electrically charged environment is created. This phenomenon is visible on Earth as the northern lights.&nbsp;



"Scientists think that the smallest, dust-sized icy ring particles can become charged as well, which temporarily levitates those particles above the rest of the larger icy particles and boulders in the rings," says NASA.



The spokes were first observed in the early 1980s by NASA's Voyager mission. Depending on the angle of the rings, the spokes can appear dark or light.



"Thanks to Hubble's OPAL program, which is building an archive of data on the outer solar system planets, we will have longer dedicated time to study Saturn’s spokes this season than ever before," said NASA senior planetary scientist Amy Simon, head of the Hubble Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program.



"Despite years of excellent observations by the Cassini mission, the precise beginning and duration of the spoke season is still unpredictable, rather like predicting the first storm during hurricane season."



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Mysterious "spoke season" captured on Saturn

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Closeup,Of,Fresh,Green,The,Napier,Bush,Grass,As,Animal

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="http://www.ntu.edu.sg/">NTU Singapore</a> reveals that some plants can remove toxic heavy metals from soil.&nbsp;



The researchers analyzed samples of various tropical plant species to test for levels of heavy metals and metalloids. The study showed that there are existing plants with high levels of these contaminants, which means that these species are great candidates for drawing pollutants out of the soil.&nbsp;



Among the plants examined in the study, 12 species had accumulated several types of heavy metals and metalloids. These plants are widely available, including species that are native to Singapore.



“In a small nation like Singapore, land may be repurposed to support new development plans, so it is important that we have a green and sustainable way to remediate land that is contaminated," said Professor Lam Yeng Ming.



"We set out to uncover how to better make use of tropical plants to do phytoremediation and through advanced characterization techniques, we showed how some of these tropical plant species can be an environmentally friendly and literally a 'green' way to remove contaminants in soil."&nbsp;



"Phytoremediation also has benefits of cost effectiveness, simplicity of management, aesthetic advantages, and long-term applicability and sustainability. The strategy prevents erosion and metal leaching by stabilizing or accumulating heavy metals, so that helps reduce the risk of contaminant spread.”



Video Credit: NTU Singapore



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Plants help remove heavy metals from contaminated soil

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> describes why herbicides are not as effective in killing weeds anymore. In the 20th century, chemical companies developed thousands of herbicides. The most commonly used herbicide was glyphosate, which was introduced in 1974.



Over the past few decades, dozens of species of weeds have evolved resistance to glyphosate. Depending on the site of action, the part of the plant that an herbicide interacts with, weeds may even be resistant to herbicides that have not been developed yet.&nbsp;



With increasing resistance to glyphosate and other herbicides, weeds are - once again - becoming a major concern for farmers.&nbsp;



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Weeds are becoming increasingly resistant to herbicides

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/">NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory</a> (JPL) describes a dust storm on Mars that was nearly twice the size of the United States. As the storm covered the southern hemisphere of the planet, some of NASA’s explorers had to delay their normal activities.



NASA’s Insight lander put itself in a "safe mode" for 11 days to conserve battery power because solar power was disrupted by the dust. The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter postponed flights until conditions improved.



"A fleet of NASA orbiters monitor Martian dust storms like this one and serve as lifelines to Earth by relaying data from the rovers and lander on the ground back to the team. This includes the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MAVEN, and Odyssey," reports JPL.



"Dust storms like this recent one start close to the ground and are spread by wind as they rise – warming the cold Martian atmosphere."



The images in the video were captured by NASA’s Curiosity as the dust rolled in. A fleet of orbiters monitored the dust storm from above, relaying data from Mars’ explorers back to scientists on Earth.



Video &amp; Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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NASA monitors giant dust storms on Mars

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="http://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz. This strait provides the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean.



Qeshm is separated from the Iranian coast by the Clarence Strait, also known as Khuran.&nbsp;The Hara Forest Protected Area is a network of shallow waterways and forest located between the island and the mainland. This protected region is home to sea turtles, snakes, and more than 150 species of migrating birds.



Qeshm is famous for its wide range of&nbsp;ecotourist&nbsp;attractions, such as the&nbsp;Hara marine forests. According to environmentalists, about 1.5 percent of the world birds and 25 percent of Iran's native <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/female-hummingbirds-avoid-sexual-harassment-by-looking-like-males/">birds</a> annually migrate to the forests, which are the first national geo park in Iran.



Tourists are also drawn to the island to see an age-old Portuguese&nbsp;fort, historic mosques, the&nbsp;Seyyed Mozaffar&nbsp;and&nbsp;Bibi Maryam&nbsp;shrines, and the "Valley of Stars."



The average temperature on the island is 81 degress and the region is often hot and humid. From June to August, the island is described as being oppressively hot. The ideal time to visit is during the winter season. 



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Inhambane Bay in southeast Mozambique.&nbsp;



"Inhambane Bay is a deep inlet into which the small Mutamba River flows," says ESA. "On one side of the bay lies the historical city of Inhambane, capital of the Inhambane Province, while the sister city of Maxixe, the economic capital of Inhambane, sits across from it. The province is the second largest grower of cashews, after Nampula, and it also produces coconut and citrus fruits."



The beaches of Barra and Tofo are popular with tourists. There are also coral reefs along the long coastline of Inhambane, making it an ideal destination for scuba diving and snorkeling.



"Mozambique’s extensive coastline heightens the country’s vulnerability to tropical cyclones that develop in the Indian Ocean as well as storm surge flooding," says ESA.



"More than half of the population lives in low lying coastal areas, putting communities at risk. Inhambane Bay was dangerously close to where Cyclone Idai made landfall in 2019 causing widespread destruction to the country."



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Inhambane Bay in southeast Mozambique

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency </a>&nbsp;features the Kangerlussuaq Glacier, one of the largest tidewater outlet glaciers in Greenland. The glacier is located on the east coast of the Greenland ice sheet.



As human-induced climate change continues to drive up temperatures, global ice loss is accelerating at an alarming rate. ESA reports that, over the past decade alone, 3.5 trillion tons of ice have melted from the Greenland ice sheet. This is enough to cover the UK with meltwater 15 meters deep.



Based on satellite imagery, researchers determined that Kangerlussuaq entered a new phase of rapid retreat and acceleration in 2017. In their study, published in <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feart.2019.00123/full">Frontiers in Earth Science</a>,&nbsp; the experts report that the glacier's ice front is now at its most retreated position since the early 20th century.



"Given Kangerlussuaq’s previous impacts on both the magnitude and pattern of ice sheet wide mass loss, we predict that its new phase of retreat, acceleration and thinning will markedly enhance the south-east region’s contribution to increasing discharge from the ice sheet," wrote the study authors.&nbsp;&nbsp;



"More broadly, accurate forecasting of the ice sheet’s contribution to sea level rise will require a deeper understanding of, and responses to, these non-linear ice dynamic processes."



Video Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Kangerlussuaq Glacier on the Greenland ice sheet

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes the complex relationship between ocean and climate. ESA's Climate Change Initiative will help us understand how oceans influence the climate and how climate change is impacting the oceans.&nbsp;



"Earth’s oceans are huge heat stores, soaking up 93% of the excess heat from human activity over the past 70 years. Ocean currents redistribute heat around the planet, from the Equator to the poles. Where this ocean heat goes influences weather patterns and regional climate," explains ESA.



"As well as absorbing heat, oceans are a natural carbon sink, absorbing a quarter of carbon dioxide emissions from human activity. This has led to the acidification of ocean water, threating marine life."



The amount of heat and carbon dioxide soaked up by the ocean depends on specific variables, including phytoplankton, temperatures, waves, salinity, and ice cover. Satellites can be used to measure these variables from space.



"From their unique vantage point, satellites provide key information for understanding the complexities of our planet and monitoring environmental issues," says ESA.



Video Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Ocean heat influences regional climate

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes the importance of monitoring the shape of the sea surface, which is constantly changing. These observations have many applications, such as ship routing, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-modem-ocean-is-a-tough-place-for-whales-to-survive/">ocean</a> current forecasting, and debris tracking.



"A project supported by the Discovery element of ESA’s Basic Activities recently investigated a new technique to measure sea surface topography very precisely," reports ESA.



"The technique involves looking at satellite navigation (GNSS) signals that have been reflected off of the sea surface at very low angles. At these so-called grazing angles, waves and surface roughness have very little impact on the reflection process; the sea surface acts as a very smooth mirror."



Estel Cardellach is the principal investigator at the Institute for Space Studies of Catalonia, who first submitted the idea for the project.



“In a mirror-like reflection the phase of the signal can be tracked – it is continuous," said Cardellach. "Different surface heights result in different phase measurements. It gives a very precise measurement of the surface altitude at a few centimetres’ precision.”



The researchers developed a GNSS receiver and set up an experiment in the Balaeric Islands to collect signals from the receiver that were reflected off the sea surface. Ultimately, these signals will provide improved measurements of the shape of the sea surface.



Image/ Video Credit: ESA



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Monitoring the dynamic shape of the sea surface

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Aerial,Photo,Of,River,In,Amazon,Rainforest,Jungle,In,Peru

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center</a> describes how scientists are using autonomous sound sensors to monitor deforestation in the Amazon. By recording soundscapes, the experts can determine which animals are present through their distinct sounds.&nbsp;



Using this method, sounds can be used as scientific measurements to analyze the effects of deforestation. The researchers will gain a better understanding of how the acoustics of a forest can be used to measure its health.&nbsp;



"From space, parts of the Amazon rainforest that have previously been logged or burned may look lush and green, like a place buzzing with activity and full of sounds. But inside the rainforest, the animal life may tell a different story, of a harsh environment and a quieter soundscape," says NASA.



Video Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Monitoring deforestation in the Amazon through sounds

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