Environment + Energy - The Conversation - Climate change, environmental health, biodiversity, extreme weather

A cloud of exhaust emerges from a vehicle tailpipe.

Leaving vehicle engines idling is unhealthy, expensive – and often illegal

Richard Marcantonio, University of Notre Dame

A fire truck near flames and a fire whirl looking like a small tornado.

Wildfires can generate tornadoes, lightning and other extreme weather, sometimes miles from the flames

Yunyao Li, University of Texas at Arlington

Women carrying boogie boards walk along the shoreline, which is lined with brown seaweed for as far as the eye can see.

Sargassum, the smelly nemesis of beach vacations, has become a self-sustaining disaster that will keep coming back

Xing Zhou, Georgia Institute of Technology; Annalisa Bracco, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Joseph Montoya, Georgia Institute of Technology

French climate lawsuit offers a window into the next round of the global legal fight

Aminta Ossom, Harvard University; Harvard Kennedy School

A person in a helmet and protective equipment stands on a paved area between two massive industrial buildings covered with tubes, wires and staircases.

Better guacamole? How avocado import rules helped cut Mexico’s water pollution – it holds lessons for future US trade deals

Jayash Paudel, University of Oklahoma

Rows of avocados sliced open showing the seed.

Bird droppings were a foundation of modern agriculture and American empire

Edward D. Melillo, Amherst College

A drawing of a seabird perched on a mound, with other birds in the air and a large island in the background.

How do scientists know if climate change made a heat wave, extreme storm or wildfire worse?

Kevin T. Smiley, Louisiana State University ; Deepti Singh, Washington State University; Jennifer Marlon, Yale University, and Jim Hurrell, Colorado State University

Two people walk in opposite directions on a city street, one carrying an umbrella for shade and the other wiping his face with a handkerchief.

A bird with unique spoon-shaped bill stands in water on the sand.

More than half of Earth’s migratory bird species are declining – here’s how we can still save them

Peter P. Marra, Georgetown University and Nathan W. Cooper, Smithsonian Institution

Rain on wildfire burn scars can trigger dangerous flooding and mudflows – a geologist explains how

Jen Pierce, Boise State University

Large burned trees have been carried by debris flows after wildfire, leaving a tangle of debris, mud and ash.

It’s getting hotter in classrooms and on playgrounds – schools aren’t ready to handle extreme temperatures

Allison Poulos, Arizona State University and Jennifer Vanos, Arizona State University

A large standing fan blows on students who are seated at green chairs and look forward in a classroom.

A person lying on a bed reaches toward a machine installed in the window.

Why 78 degrees isn’t the right thermostat setting for everyone during a heat wave

Destenie Nock, Carnegie Mellon University

The US has acknowledged Bears Ears and Grand Staircase as sacred for over a century, but keeps stripping away protections

Kerri J. Malloy, San José State University

A massive sandstone arch frames a lone tree growing in the distance, against a backdrop of a clear blue sky.

Most Americans support conservation – here’s how the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative got politicians from both parties on board too

Mike Shriberg, University of Michigan

A silhouetted figure walks along a body of water with a Ferris wheel visible in the distance.

The National Climate Assessment is broken – appointing Matthew Wielicki to lead it won’t help

Joe Árvai, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

A city flooded by muddy, swollen river. Water spreads around houses several blocks from the river.

Yes, breathing wildfire smoke can harm your health – here’s what you can do to protect yourself

Colleen E. Reid, University of Colorado Boulder

A woman rides a bike through city air tinted orange by wildfire smoke. Neither she nor a woman walking in the background is wearing a protective mask.

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War in the Middle East

A Mexican ranch worker, on a horse, drives cattle into a corral for inspection for New World screwworm in Chiapas, Mexico, in July 2025.

Soaring US beef prices likely to rise further thanks to trade tensions and disease outbreaks

Andrew Muhammad, University of Tennessee and Charles Martinez, University of Tennessee

Suspending federal gas tax wouldn’t save drivers as much as they might hope – here’s what goes into the price of a gallon of gas

Robert I. Harris, Georgia Institute of Technology

A gas station sign displays a price of $5.53 per gallon of regular gas.

When oil prices spike, where does the money go?

Matthew E. Oliver, Georgia Institute of Technology and Tibor Besedeš, Georgia Institute of Technology

A shadow of an oil pump jack over a spread of hundred-dollar bills.

Why the Persian Gulf has more oil and gas than anywhere else on Earth

Scott L. Montgomery, University of Washington

Hormuz closure threatens the global food supply – why grocery price hikes are coming

Aya S. Chacar, Florida International University

A tractor spreads fertilizer on a field.

Extreme weather + disasters

A church, it's wall missing, collapses against the side of a bridge after being swept off its foundation

Repeated storms are turning disaster recovery into a way of life, and leaving communities facing disaster fatigue

Lee Ann Rawlins Williams, University of North Dakota

Heat waves can leave homes dangerously hot – even for young, healthy adults

Zoltan Nagy, Eindhoven University of Technology

A family sits outside in the shade on a hot day

How heat waves increase wildfire risk

Dmitri Kalashnikov, University of California, Merced; Cong Yin, University of California, Merced; Madhulika Gurazada, University of California, Merced, and Mukesh Kumar, University of California, Merced

El Niño is back, and ocean temperatures are already near record highs – that can spell disaster for fish and corals

Dillon Amaya, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

The US is seeing stronger storms, so why are droughts getting worse?

David Boutt, UMass Amherst

Two women carrying umbrellas laugh as they run through ankle-deep puddles in a city street.

Energy + infrastructure

Electric companies don’t need to black out customers to prevent wildfires – here are 3 relatively fast, affordable solutions

Jasmine Garland, University of Colorado Boulder

Energy costs are high and unaffordable – what utilities, governments, communities and you can do to help save consumers money

Sanya Carley, University of Pennsylvania; Alexandra Klass, University of Michigan; Alison L. Knasin, University of Pennsylvania; David Konisky, Indiana University, and Shelley Welton, University of Pennsylvania

A hand holds an electric plug as its wire forms the shape of a rising-trend graph.

Blackout risks are rising – why neighboring power grids can’t just send extra electricity where it’s needed

Sufan Jiang, University of Tennessee; Nanyang Technological University and Fangxing Fran Li, University of Tennessee

The silhouettes of a series of large transmission towers loom in the photo with the glow of the setting sun behind them.

How Wall Street is shifting electric utilities toward consolidation and profit

Conor Harrison, University of South Carolina

Two wires come in from opposite sides of the frame and are twisted into a single wire.

How window-mounted heat pumps can give tenants efficient heating and cooling

Moncef Krarti, University of Colorado Boulder

A view of a large brick building with windows, air conditioners and heating vents visible.

AI's energy demand

It may be almost impossible to make data centers pay their ‘fair share’ of electricity costs

Theodore J. Kury, University of Florida

Data center fights pit social values, democracy and capitalism against each other

Lauren Mullenbach, University of Michigan

A view of open grassland with a barn and a sign reading 'No data center.'

How local communities are challenging Big Tech data centers’ noise, pollution and rising electricity bills

Rachel Mural, Harvard Kennedy School

A man stands at a lectern, speaking and gesturing, while a group of people stand and sit nearby, watching and listening.

5 ways data centers endanger their local communities and the country as a whole

Neha Gour, George Mason University; Ed Maibach, George Mason University, and Luis Ortiz, George Mason University

Large commercial or industrial buildings sit in rows near homes that line residential roads.

When can a power company take your land for data center infrastructure?

Aaron Walayat, University of Dayton

Transmission towers and power lines above a hillside neighborhood

Biodiversity + environment

Beyond birds and mice, free-ranging cats eat a surprising number of insects

Christopher A. Lepczyk, Auburn University; Daniel Rubinoff, University of Hawaii, and Jean E. Fantle-Lepczyk, Auburn University

The world agreed to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030 – but marine protection can’t be judged by area alone

Kirsten Grorud-Colvert, Oregon State University and Ana K. Spalding, Smithsonian Institution

Life after death: From burned trees to bleached corals, how dead organisms live on as the building blocks of new life

Kai Kopecky, University of Colorado Boulder and John Kominoski, Florida International University

A new seedling grows at base of a burned tree.

Bison restoration efforts and grazing rights hinge on one question: Are bison wildlife?

Madison Stevens, Montana State University and Elizabeth (Libby) Lunstrum, Boise State University

A group of large hairy animals with horns stand in a grassy area with snow-covered mountains in the background.

What to do if a bat gets in your house: Here’s how to remove it safely

Tara Hohoff, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

A bat on cloth, its wings out partially.

Climate change

Residents of different ages wait in line to vote in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 2024.

5 lessons from 20 years of climate surveys: Political party matters, but it doesn’t explain everything

Mayank Kejriwal, University of Southern California and Yidan Sun, University of Southern California

You’ve never heard of these glaciers, but they’re becoming critical climate havens as America’s iconic mountain glaciers and their water fade

Dan McGrath, Colorado State University; Ashlesha Khatiwada, Colorado State University, and Scott Hotaling, Utah State University

An image of the Teton Mountains and a large rock glacier.

Longtime Exxon CEO Lee Raymond’s legacy of climate denial and misinformation lives on – a psychologist offers ways to counter it

Joe Árvai, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

A huge landslide tsunami in Alaska sent a wave 1,580 feet up the fjord walls – and left clues for building a warning system

Michael E. West, University of Alaska Fairbanks and Ezgi Karasözen, University of Alaska Fairbanks

An aerial view of the landslide area and glacier

Formula 1 racing shows the hard part of reaching net-zero carbon emissions isn’t the engineering

Caitlin Grady, George Washington University and Sachi Nandurkar, George Washington University

Several open-wheel race cars jostle for position, emitting a cloud including smoke from tires and exhaust from their engines.

Laws + regulations

Why Trump’s move to gut the Endangered Species Act likely won’t hold up in court

Patrick Parenteau, Vermont Law & Graduate School

How redefining one word strips the Endangered Species Act’s ability to protect vital habitat

Mariah Meek, Michigan State University and Karrigan Börk, University of California, Davis

An owl peeks around the side of a tree trunk.

Supreme Court bars states from protecting consumers if federal agencies won’t

Sarah J. Morath, Wake Forest University

Plastic containers of the Roundup weed killer sit on a store shelf.

Research about global fishing shows value of detailed environmental data, which the Trump administration seeks to limit

Mark Axelrod, Michigan State University

People stand in a parking lot, while behind them a large pile of metal and junk looms.

Paving paradise: Dismantling the US Roadless Rule threatens to disrupt wildlife, water and peace in the last quiet places in America

Mariah Meek, Michigan State University and Travis Belote, Montana State University

Environmental health

A person uses tweezers to pull a tick out of skin.

How to avoid tick bites in your yard or while hiking in the woods, and what to do if one starts feasting on you

Amanda Roome, Binghamton University, State University of New York

Replacing gas stoves with electric stoves greatly reduces asthma symptoms

Ashwini Sehgal, Case Western Reserve University

Fishing for DNA – how a cup of river water can reveal secrets about human health, pollution and biodiversity

Jenny Whilde, University of Florida

Trees and other greenery lining a river, a small cooler set on rocks in the foreground

Wildfires are reversing America’s progress on ozone pollution, the main ingredient in smog

Weizhi Deng, University of Iowa; Jun Wang, University of Iowa, and Meng Zhou, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

People stand on a train platform in very smoky, orange air.

Firefighters face a higher risk of skin cancer – nano fabrics with tiny, rough fibers can help keep them safer

Sumit Mandal, Oklahoma State University

A firefighters works with a chainsaw to cut a partially burning tree.

Agriculture + water

A cross section of soybean plants in soils show their roots.

Fertilizers carry a hidden cost for soil’s crucial microbes – using less as prices rise might pay off for farms in unexpected ways

Esther Ndumi Ngumbi, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

When your local reflecting pool or pond turns green with algae, don’t reach for chemicals – nature has better solutions

Eric Palkovacs, University of California, Santa Cruz

A man using an underwater vacuum stands knee-deep in the Reflecting Pool with the Washington Monument in the background.

War-induced fertilizer shortage may be reducing US soil and water pollution

Kimberly Van Meter, Penn State and Nandita Basu, University of Waterloo

A large green vehicle with tracks instead of wheels pulls additional equipment, including sprayers and tanks, across an open, level dirt area.

How everyone pays the cost for patents on seeds, and private companies get rich from keeping them secret

Julie Dawson, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Kiki Hubbard, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Paulina Jenney, University of Wisconsin-Madison

A person pours the contents of a large bag into several plastic bins mounted on wheels.

Shutting down federal bee labs threatens bees, beekeepers and the US food system

Jennie L. Durant, University of California, Davis

Lands of ice and snow

Lakes the color of turquoise gem stones stand out against the white glaciers that send meltwater into them.

Alaska’s glacial lakes are expanding, increasing the risk of destructive outburst floods

Dan McGrath, Colorado State University

A walk across Alaska’s Arctic sea ice brings to life the losses that appear in climate data

Alexandra Jahn, University of Colorado Boulder

A white landscape with blocky ridges extends under a blue sky.

US military has a long history in Greenland, from mining during WWII to a nuclear-powered Army base built into the ice

Paul Bierman, University of Vermont

A view of a mountain with dozens of rusted fuel drams left on the ground in the foreground.

West Antarctica’s history of rapid melting foretells sudden shifts in continent’s ‘catastrophic’ geology

Christine Siddoway, Colorado College; Anna Ruth (Ruthie) Halberstadt, The University of Texas at Austin, and Keiji Horikawa, University of Toyama

A graphic shows the outline of the modern area of the Antarctic continent, most of which is not covered by ice.

From record warming to rusting rivers, 2025 Arctic Report Card shows a region transforming faster than expected

Matthew L. Druckenmiller, University of Colorado Boulder; Rick Thoman, University of Alaska Fairbanks, and Twila A. Moon, University of Colorado Boulder

Two people walk across snow and ice with areas of water evident and mountains in the background.

Critical minerals

The missing link in America’s critical minerals push isn’t mining – it’s processing expertise

Hélène Nguemgaing, University of Maryland and Alan Collins, West Virginia University

The race to mine critical minerals for AI and clean energy is creating ‘sacrifice zones’ that harm water and health of world’s poor

Abraham Nunbogu, United Nations University and Kaveh Madani, United Nations University

A man in a muddy tanktop holds a large chunk of greenish stone.

In its hunt for critical minerals, the US is misconstruing what is and is not America’s

Coalter G Lathrop, Duke University

A photo of a mechanical claw from a submersible and surrounding seafloor that appears almost paved in nodules.

Mining the ocean floor: 5 deep-sea sources of critical minerals essential to technology, and the fragile marine life at risk

Leonardo Macelloni, University of Mississippi

A mechanical claw holds a polymetallic nodule underwater

America’s next big critical minerals source could be coal mine pollution – if we can agree on who owns it