https://phys.org/earth-news/environment en-us The latest news on the environment, environmental issues, earth science and space exploration. Hurricane Norma on Friday once again strengthened to a Category 3 storm as it approaches a tourist hotspot on Mexico's Pacific coast. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-hurricane-norma-category-mexico-landfall.html Environment Sat, 21 Oct 2023 02:22:11 EDT news617073728 Hurricane Norma weakened Friday to a Category 2 storm ahead of landfall near a tourist hotspot on Mexico's Pacific coast. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-hurricane-norma-downgraded-category-mexico.html Environment Fri, 20 Oct 2023 14:18:41 EDT news617030318 Scientists from the U.N. nuclear agency watched Friday as Japanese lab workers prepared samples of fish collected at a seafood market near the Fukushima nuclear plant to test the safety of treated radioactive wastewater released from the damaged plant into the sea. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-nuclear-agency-team-japanese-lab.html Environment Fri, 20 Oct 2023 13:47:07 EDT news617028418 A technology that combines satellite data and numerical model data for forest fire detection has been developed, offering a more comprehensive and adaptable approach to monitor and respond to wildfires. This innovative solution, developed by Professor Jungho Im and his team in the Department of Civil, Urban, Earth, and Environmental Engineering at UNIST, has the potential to significantly minimize the damage caused by medium and large forest fires. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-unveils-breakthrough-forest-environmental.html Earth Sciences Environment Fri, 20 Oct 2023 13:18:02 EDT news617026681 A pioneering cost-benefit study could transform the way local authorities handle non-household plastic waste, such as polyethene terephthalate (PET) trays and low-density polyethene (LDPE) wrapping film. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-larger-scale-recycling-neglected-plastic-economic.html Environment Fri, 20 Oct 2023 13:03:16 EDT news617025795 Almost 200 kilometers off the coast of Nova Scotia sits a slender, crescent-shaped spit of land known for mythic wild horses that roam its dunes, seals that dot its low-slung shores and hundreds of shipwrecks still populating its watery depths. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-sable-island-shifting-landscape-insights.html Earth Sciences Environment Fri, 20 Oct 2023 12:08:03 EDT news617022481 Why do we feel stuck in our efforts to solve the great sustainability crises of the 21st century? Between the dire need to successfully mitigate climate change while making progress on human-focused Sustainable Development Goals, the challenges of the Anthropocene—the era in which we now live—can appear insurmountable. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-minutes-daily-pollution.html Earth Sciences Environment Fri, 20 Oct 2023 11:48:03 EDT news617021281 A large team of atmospheric specialists has found that when the Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha'apai volcano erupted last year, it took part of the ozone layer with it. Their findings are published in the journal Science. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-hunga-tonga-hunga-haapai-eruption-depleted-ozone.html Earth Sciences Environment Fri, 20 Oct 2023 11:30:01 EDT news617015778 Two people died and emergency services battled to rescue families trapped by flood waters in Scotland Friday as Storm Babet moved east, forcing the cancellation of flights and ferries in Scandinavia. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-deadly-storm-babet-batters-scotland.html Environment Fri, 20 Oct 2023 10:17:17 EDT news617015832 Doubling food production, saving water, and increasing carbon storage capacity—this may sound paradoxical, but would be theoretically feasible considering the biophysical potential of the Earth. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-food-carbon.html Earth Sciences Environment Fri, 20 Oct 2023 09:46:02 EDT news617013953 Thai officials on Friday promised action to address a spike in air pollution that came before the normal peak of seasonal haze, but environmental activists accused authorities of hot air. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-thai-pledges-action-bangkok-pollution.html Environment Fri, 20 Oct 2023 06:18:11 EDT news617001488 A University of Oklahoma-led article published in Geophysical Research Letters highlights newly measured extremes recorded during the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere field project. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-documents-extremes-stratospheric-vapor.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 19 Oct 2023 17:04:02 EDT news616953841 During the Early-Middle Devonian period, a large landmass called Gondwana—which included parts of today's Africa, South America, and Antarctica—was located near the South Pole. Unlike today's icy conditions, the climate was warmer, and the sea levels were higher, flooding most of the land. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-sea-levels-climate-marine-ecosystems-south.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 19 Oct 2023 16:55:38 EDT news616953335 Hurricane Norma weakened Thursday to a Category 3 storm as it headed for Mexico's Pacific coast—still strong enough to cause flash floods and damage, forecasters said. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-mexico-hurricane-norma-category.html Environment Thu, 19 Oct 2023 14:24:07 EDT news616944245 The upcoming United States winter looks likely to be a bit low on snow and extreme cold outbreaks, with federal forecasters predicting the North to get warmer than normal and the South wetter and stormier. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-federal-winter-el-nino-climate.html Environment Thu, 19 Oct 2023 14:22:52 EDT news616944167 Satellites and on-the-ground sensors are helping Kenya, Ghana and Zambia tackle inundation risks and farmers cope with drought. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-africa-advance-eu-expertise.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 19 Oct 2023 14:13:04 EDT news616943581 Last month, we heard yet again about the need to stop global warming at about 1.5 degrees centigrade above pre-industrial levels. The International Energy Agency outlined a plan to meet that goal, and the United Nations secretary-general implored nations to get serious about cutting emissions to make it a reality. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-opinion-climate-isnt-emissions-huge.html Environment Thu, 19 Oct 2023 13:22:04 EDT news616940521 Text messages began to circulate about five minutes after an earthquake warning sounded for celebrants at St. James' Episcopal Church in South Pasadena on Sunday morning. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-churches-key-quake-survival-expert.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 19 Oct 2023 13:21:03 EDT news616940461 In a study released on August 24, 2023, in the journal Eco-Environment & Health, the Global Ecology Unit CREAF‐CSIC‐UAB delved into the profound health implications of changing N:P ratios. This comprehensive analysis spanned across non-infectious to infectious diseases, unraveling their intricate ties to these nutrient imbalances and revealed the deep influence of global fertilizer disparities on human growth patterns. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-human-actions-global-nutrient-shifts.html Environment Thu, 19 Oct 2023 12:50:04 EDT news616938602 Water surged through a desolate canyon of gray rock into a blue-gray lake, an ancient landscape only revealed to humanity in recent decades because France's glaciers have retreated so far. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-retreating-glaciers-reveal-pastures-conservationists.html Environment Thu, 19 Oct 2023 11:33:10 EDT news616933986 People ducked under desks and tables in California and other earthquake-prone areas around the world for an annual drill held Thursday to practice ways to stay safe during quakes. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-earthquake-country-residents-annual-shakeout.html Environment Thu, 19 Oct 2023 11:29:15 EDT news616933753 Atlantic hurricanes may now be more than twice as likely to strengthen from a weak Category 1 hurricane to a major Category 3 or stronger hurricane in a 24-hour period than they were between 1970 and 1990, suggests a paper published in Scientific Reports. The paper also suggests that hurricanes are now more likely to strengthen more rapidly along the east coast of the U.S. than they were between 1970 and 1990. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-atlantic-hurricanes-weak-major-intensity.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 19 Oct 2023 11:00:02 EDT news616926165 Global coastal adaptations are "incremental in scale," short-sighted and inadequate to address the root causes of vulnerability to climate change, according to an international team of researchers. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-urgent-action-climate-threats-coastal.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 19 Oct 2023 11:00:01 EDT news616926345 Biodegradable plastics may not be the solution to plastic pollution many hoped for, with a University of Otago study showing they are still harmful to fish. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-biodegradable-plastics-fish.html Environment Thu, 19 Oct 2023 10:21:28 EDT news616929685 Many aquifers in California and around the world are being drained of their groundwater because of the combined impacts of excess pumping, shifts in land use, and climate change. However, a new study by scientists at UC Santa Cruz and UC Berkeley, published on Oct. 18 in Nature Water, may offer a solution. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-rebates-solutions-california-groundwater-woes.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 19 Oct 2023 10:07:03 EDT news616928821 Two recent scientific studies led by Dr. Paul Wilcox from the Department of Geology at the University of Innsbruck provide new insights into Earth's climate dynamics, with a particular focus on the El Niño phenomenon. The results show how El Niño responds to natural factors over extended periods, while highlighting the increasing role of human activities in shaping this climatic phenomenon in the modern era. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-el-nio-patterns-human-natural.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 19 Oct 2023 09:53:03 EDT news616927981 As climate change warms the planet and droughts are anticipated to become more frequent and extreme, a new study reveals how reduced water flows and rising atmospheric temperatures are set to heat our rivers—creating major challenges for aquatic life, ecosystems, and society. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-drought-conditions-expose-rivers-hotter.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 18 Oct 2023 16:57:03 EDT news616867021 Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich is the latest satellite contributing to a 30-year sea level record that researchers are using to compare this year's El Niño with those of the past. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-international-ocean-satellite-el-nio.html Environment Wed, 18 Oct 2023 16:27:03 EDT news616865222 More than 200 scientists from 19 countries will release the first comprehensive assessment of trends in Southern Ocean ecosystems on 18 October, in a reportmade available on Zenodo and written specifically for policy makers. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-sea-blueprint-southern-ocean-survival.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 18 Oct 2023 13:19:21 EDT news616853959 Collecting accurate weather data in remote and challenging environments like the polar regions and mountains can be extremely difficult. These areas often lack the infrastructure and resources needed for traditional weather stations, and the harsh weather conditions can make it dangerous for humans to access and maintain these stations. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-safety-efficacy-drone-flights-polar.html Environment Wed, 18 Oct 2023 13:06:03 EDT news616853161