Environmental News Network

Palm Oil: The Carbon Cost of Deforestation

Palm oil has become part of our daily lives, but a recent study by EPFL and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) serves as a reminder that intensive farming of this crop has a major impact on the environment. Both short- and long-term solutions exist, however.

Light pollution a reason for insect decline!?

Climate change, pesticides and land use changes alone cannot fully explain the decline in insect populations in Germany. Scientists from the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) have now discovered that regions that have experienced a sharp decline in flying insects also have high levels of light pollution. Many studies already suggest that artificial light at night has negative impacts on insects, and scientists should pay greater attention to this factor when exploring the causes of insect population declines in the future.

The sunflower's rapid evolutionary transformation

A new CU Boulder-led study sheds light on the genetic mechanisms that allowed sunflowers to undergo a relatively rapid evolutionary transition from wild to domesticated in just over 5,000 years.

Study finds hidden harvest in world’s inland fisheries

A new study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says we are dramatically underestimating the role inland fisheries play in global food security.

NASA Finds Tropical Depression Carlotta's Strong Storms over Mexico, Eastern Pacific

Tropical Depression Carlotta continues to hug the coast of southwestern Mexico and drop heavy rainfall. NASA's Aqua satellite provided a look at cloud top temperatures through infrared imagery to find out where the most powerful parts of Tropical Depression Carlotta were located.

NASA's Aqua satellite found very cold cloud top temperatures and strong storms in fragmented thunderstorms over mainland Mexico and the Eastern Pacific Ocean.