Exploring environmental science, sustainability, and our relationship with the natural world through research-backed insights from a youth perspective.
An algal bloom develops when microscopic algae accumulate in water in unusually large amounts. Off the state of South Australia, a bloom along the southern coast has lasted for over a year and has been linked to widespread marine…
On the morning of August 26, 2026, rock and glacier ice broke away from a mountainside in the Langtang region, near Nepal’s border with China, and rushed into the valley below. The moving mixture picked up water and debris…
On June 7, 2023, smoke obscured New York City's skyline and turned the sky orange. The fires responsible were burning in Canada. Smoke from Quebec had travelled south into the northeastern United States, reaching the air that…
Warmer-than-usual water across the central and eastern tropical Pacific is again changing the winds and rainfall above it. NOAA confirmed El Niño’s return on June 11 and expects the event to strengthen through the Northern…
Apples, blueberries and squash depend, to different degrees, on animals visiting their flowers. Their dependence on pollination means that the health of insect populations, along with the places where they feed and reproduce, can…
Dive teams were deployed between Cairns and Lizard Island in early 2026 as a new wave of coral-eating starfish developed on the northern Great Barrier Reef. The Reef Authority’s work aimed to suppress the fifth recorded outbreak…
During winter, the Arctic Ocean loses heat and sea ice can spread across open water and thicken beneath the snow. This seasonal growth helps determine how much ice remains by spring and what condition it is in before melting begins…
When Cyclone Gezani reached Madagascar’s eastern coast on February 10, 2026, it struck the port city of Toamasina with destructive winds that damaged buildings and essential infrastructure. The World Meteorological Organization…
By late January 2026, parts of southern Mozambique had experienced weeks of persistent rain through December and January. Rivers swelled and reservoirs were overwhelmed, while satellite images showed the Limpopo and Incomati…
AI systems that generate text, create images and analyse information run on computing equipment inside data centres. As their use expands, more electricity is needed to operate that equipment. The heat produced also has to be…
Understanding ozone's dual nature and the EPA's Good Neighbor Policy aimed at controlling cross-border air pollution from power plants.
Continued crop production does not always mean that soil remains healthy. Fertilizer and other inputs can maintain harvests while the land becomes less able to support plant growth on its own. This can make degradation difficult to…
When a phone’s screen breaks or a component fails, the metals inside it do not necessarily lose their usefulness. Copper, gold and other materials may still be recovered, but they first have to be separated from a device in which…
A shirt containing 60% cotton and 40% polyester combines materials with different chemical properties. These differences become a problem during recycling, since a treatment that removes one fibre can damage the other and make it…
Lithium has to be extracted and processed before it can be used in a battery. Producing a material pure enough for manufacturing connects electric vehicles and energy storage with mines, chemical plants, and the surrounding…
Food waste can continue contributing to climate change after it has been buried. As oxygen is used up inside a landfill, the microbial processes breaking down the food change, eventually producing methane. This powerful greenhouse…
River sand is widely used to build roads and homes, but removing it also changes the place it comes from. The sand forms part of the riverbed, influencing the channel through which water and sediment move. When it is extracted…
Cities use groundwater to supply homes, businesses and agriculture, but sustained extraction can also affect the ground beneath them. In vulnerable aquifers, pumping causes underground sediments to compact and the land surface to…
Solar power is supplying a growing amount of the world’s electricity. In April 2025, Ember’s Global Electricity Review, released on 8 April, reported that renewables and nuclear together supplied 40.9% of global electricity in…
Fungi help plants obtain nutrients and break down dead material, but their decline can be difficult to notice because much of their activity is hidden. An expanded assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature…
After being hunted to extinction centuries ago, beavers have returned to England. Their presence can change the rivers around them, as dam building, channel digging and tree felling turn sections of stream into ponds and wet…
PFAS pollution can remain long after the products containing these chemicals have been used and discarded. In January 2025, the Forever Lobbying Project, a collaboration between journalists and scientific experts, investigated what…
When a borehole was drilled for water near Bourakebougou, Mali, in 1987, it encountered something that would eventually draw attention far beyond the village: naturally occurring hydrogen. Years later, analysis showed that gas from…
Protecting a forest can help the climate, but claiming that the payment compensates for emissions somewhere else requires more explanation. The trees might have remained standing without the money, logging could move to…
Producing the materials for a building releases greenhouse gases before anyone begins using it. Cement accounts for a substantial share of this footprint: an October 2024 account from UCLA put its production at about 8% of global…
On August 28, 2024, crews breached the last temporary barriers at the former Iron Gate and Copco No. 1 dam sites, allowing the Klamath River to flow through its historic channel again. Salmon now had a route they had been unable to…
Andrew Sweetman and his colleagues were studying a seafloor about four kilometres beneath the Pacific Ocean, where animals and microbes consume oxygen. Yet the oxygen recorded by their instruments kept increasing. Sweetman,…
Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has left homes and neighbourhoods in ruins, with concrete, roofing, wiring and household possessions covering places where people need shelter and hope to rebuild. As this material remains in…
In spring 2024, periodical cicadas emerged across parts of the central and eastern United States as two broods reached the end of their underground development. Brood XIII followed a 17-year cycle, while Brood XIX followed a…
Trees can hold soil in place, shelter farmland from wind and store carbon, making them useful for restoring damaged landscapes. But in drylands, rainfall is limited relative to the atmosphere's demand for water. Growing more…
My experience representing Japan at my first Model United Nations conference, debating UNFCCC action steps and proposing fusion nuclear reactor solutions.
Satellite data reveals alarming land subsidence across Chinese cities, with 45% of urban areas sinking and 270 million people at risk.
LESC researchers combine sodium ions, solid-state electrolytes, and anode-free design to create a groundbreaking eco-friendly battery that could transform renewable energy storage.