metazine

Scientists have uncovered a "blind spot" in the research on rising seas, revealing that tens of millions of people thought safe from coastal flooding are at risk of inundation. Across much of the world, sea levels are higher than previously assumed and land is sinking faster.

In his latest book, biologist David George Haskell describes flowering plants as “world creators. ” In an interview with Yale Environment 360, he explains how they spurred the evolution of new ecosystems and what flowering plants can teach us about survival on a warming planet.

For people who came of age in the 1970s, it is especially painful to witness the Trump administration’s relentless rollback of hard-won environmental progress. But as the assaults on clean air and water, endangered species, and more mount, a noted ecologist finds reasons for hope.

Despite being a renewables superpower, China continues to permit and build new coal-fired power plants at a rapid pace. Analysts say the nation’s new five-year plan will ensure further coal plant expansion and jeopardize China’s ability to deliver on its climate promises.

Gray wolves made an uneasy comeback in the Northern Rockies and are struggling to return to the Southwest. But legislation now working its way through Congress is being spurred by misinformation and myth, rather than science, and threatens to end wolf recovery in the U. S.

Zambia is expanding development of its rich deposits of critical minerals, which are needed for the global shift to renewables. But contamination from past mining and a toxic spill at a mine site are raising fears that new wealth will come at a high cost for people and the environment.

Fungi create soil, sequester vast amounts of carbon, and contribute $55 trillion to the global economy, but knowledge about them is scarce. Now, mycologists are pushing to get the international scientific community to recognize fungi on the same level as plants and animals.

When scientists recently analyzed hundreds of studies of ecosystems, they were surprised to see a marked slowing in the rate of species turnover. If new species don’t replace old ones, they say, ecosystems may have less flexibility to respond to habitat loss and climate change.

Environmentalists are challenging the EPA’s repeal of the “endangerment finding, ” which empowered it to regulate greenhouse gases. Whether or not the action holds up in court, now is the time to develop climate strategies that can be pursued when the political balance shifts.

Europe’s new Right to Repair Directive will make it easier — and cheaper — for consumers to get their household goods fixed, rather than buy something new. Part of the E. U. ’s Green Deal, the plan is expected to slash waste, promote recycling, and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

For years, baboons have roamed Cape Town suburbs, entering houses and yards in search of food. Now officials have a conservation plan aimed at reducing conflicts between the big primates and people — but like most things baboon-related here, it is sparking heated controversy.

Russia continues to bomb Ukraine’s fossil-fueled power plants, leaving much of the nation shivering during a brutal winter. But Ukraine’s new emphasis on developing decentralized power — from solar panels to wind turbines — is advancing an unexpected green energy transition.

President Trump has made access to Greenland’s vast reserves of critical minerals a focus of ongoing negotiations. But experts say the U. S. is underestimating the difficulties of mining in a rapidly changing Arctic region that is warming faster than anywhere else on Earth.

With warming set to pass the critical 1.5-degree goal, scientists are warning that the world is on course to trigger tipping points that would lead to cascading consequences — from the melting of ice sheets to the death of the Amazon rainforest — that could not be reversed.