covid-19

The amount of disposable face masks littered in the environment increased by nearly 9,000 percent from March to October 2020 in response to the coronavirus pandemic. That is the finding of a new study published in Nature Sustainability December 9, which used an app to track the emergence of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) pollution during […]

In another example of the risk COVID-19 poses to big cats, three snow leopards died of complications related to the disease at a zoo in Lincoln, Nebraska. The Lincoln Children’s Zoo announced the deaths in a Facebook post on Friday. “Our leopards, Ranney, Everest, and Makalu, were beloved by our entire community inside and outside […]

One of the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic has been the introduction of a new type of plastic waste in the form of single-use personal protective equipment (PPE). Now, a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America calculates for the first time how much of that […]

Scientists in a South Florida county have gotten a pleasant surprise this year. A record number of endangered leatherback sea turtles nested on beaches in Broward County this season, nearly doubling the previous record high. “It’s difficult to say why Broward County saw such an increase in leatherback nesting this season,” Broward County biologist and […]

From the goats that ran wild in a Welsh town to the endangered turtles that nested on deserted beaches, many animals used the first months of the coronavirus lockdown to get comfortable in places normally dominated by humans. Now, a study published in Science Advances confirms that the number of birds in North American cities […]

There is growing concern about how the single-use Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) that we have all begun wearing in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic may add to plastic pollution already plaguing our environment. Now, there is good news for anyone hoping to protect themselves sustainably with a cloth mask. A new study published in […]

Some of the nations most vulnerable to the climate crisis are calling for an “emergency pact” to limit global temperature rise. The Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), which represents around 1.2 billion people from countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America and the Pacific, released a manifesto Tuesday ahead of the 26th UN Climate Change […]

Hurricane Ida made landfall near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, just before noon local time on Sunday as a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph, 7 mph short of being just the fifth Category 5 storm to ever hit the U.S. The storm, which made landfall on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s […]