UTHealth School of Public Health researchers find cold weather linked to mortality risks in Texas

Cold weather increases the risk of mortality in Texas residents, according to researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Public Health. The findings were recently published in the journal Environmental Pollution.

Heavy Precipitation Speeds Carbon Exchange in Tropics

New research by the University of Montana and its partner institutions gives insight into how forests globally will respond to long-term climate change.

Cory Cleveland, a UM professor of terrestrial ecosystem ecology, said that previous research in the wet tropics – where much of global forest productivity occurs – indicates that the increased rainfall that may occur with climate change would cause declines in plant growth.

As government delays pollution plan, study shows how killer nanoparticles cause heart disease

A new study explains for the first time how nanoparticles like those in diesel exhaust fumes cause heart disease by lodging in inflamed blood vessels, writes Oliver Tickell. The study, published as the UK government is ordered before the High Court to justify its refusal to publish plans to tackle illegal air pollution which afflicts 38 million people, also raises wider fears about 'engineered nanoparticles' in the environment.

Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlements: Where the money went

On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded off the Gulf Coast, killing 11 people and injuring 17. So began an 87-day oil spill that spewed 3.19 million barrels, or nearly 134 million gallons, into the Gulf of Mexico. It fouled the coasts of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas and launched a six-year long environmental and legal battle.

International team of researchers release status report on changing Arctic

The latest SWIPA Report, an international scientific assessment of what has changed in the Arctic and the consequences of those changes, will be released today.

UCF Professor Invents Way to Trigger Artificial Photosynthesis to Clean Air, Produce Energy

A chemistry professor has just found a way to trigger the process of photosynthesis in a synthetic material, turning greenhouse gases into clean air and producing energy all at the same time.

The process has great potential for creating a technology that could significantly reduce greenhouse gases linked to climate change, while also creating a clean way to produce energy.

“This work is a breakthrough,” said UCF Assistant Professor Fernando Uribe-Romo. “Tailoring materials that will absorb a specific color of light is very difficult from the scientific point of view, but from the societal point of view we are contributing to the development of a technology that can help reduce greenhouse gases.”

New Study Suggests Overfishing in One of World's Most Productive Fishing Regions

A new study suggests that more small-scale fishing boats are operating in the Gulf of California than is economically and ecologically sustainable, suggesting that local fishermen are spending more time and money to catch fewer fish.  

NASA Examines Newly Formed Tropical Depression 3W in 3-D

Tropical Depression 03W formed in the Pacific Ocean west of Guam on April 24, 2017, and data from the Global Precipitation Measurement Mission or GPM core satellite was used to look at the storm in 3-D.

Tropical Depression 03W formed on April 24 at 2100 UTC (5 p.m. EDT) about 201 nautical miles north-northwest of Yap.

The GPM core observatory satellite had an excellent view of Tropical Depression 03W or TD03W when it flew over on April 14, 2017 at 1901 UTC (3:01 p.m. EDT). The GPM satellite found that the newly formed tropical depression contained some very powerful convective storms. Intense storms in the middle of the organizing convective cluster were dropping precipitation at extreme rates. GPM's Microwave Imager (GMI) and Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) instruments unveiled tall convective storm towers on the eastern side of this cluster of storms that were dropping rain at a rate of over 215 mm (8.5 inches) per hour.

India's outsized coal plans would wipe out Paris climate goals

India will not be able to meet its Paris climate agreement commitments in the coming years if it carries through with plans to construct nearly 370 coal-fired power plants, according to University of California, Irvine and CoalSwarm researchers.

“India is facing a dilemma of its own making,” said UCI associate professor of Earth system science Steven Davis, co-author of a study published today in the American Geophysical Union journal Earth’s Future. “The country has vowed to curtail its use of fossil fuels in electricity generation, but it has also put itself on a path to building hundreds of coal-burning power plants to feed its growing industrial economy.”

Thought Antarctica's Biodiversity Was Doing Well? Think Again

Twenty-three experts involved in the study “Antarctica and the strategic plan for biodiversity,” recently published in PLoS Biology, debunked the popular view that Antarctica and the Southern Ocean are in a better environmental shape than the rest of the world. In fact, the difference between the status of biodiversity in the region and planet Earth as a whole is negligible.