A considerable portion of the population sleeps past sunrise. aphrodite74 / E+ / Getty Images
By Steve Calandrillo
In my research on daylight saving time, I have found that Americans don't like it when Congress messes with their clocks.
In an effort to avoid the biannual clock switch in spring and fall, some well-intended critics of DST have made the mistake of suggesting that the abolition of DST – and a return to permanent standard time – would benefit society. In other words, the U.S. would never "spring forward" or "fall back."
Salting streets in Milwaukee. Michael Pereckas / CC BY-SA
By Jennifer Marie Hurley
Every winter, local governments across the U.S. apply millions of tons of road salt to keep streets navigable during snow and ice storms. Runoff from melting snow carries road salt into streams and lakes, and causes many bodies of water to have extraordinarily high salinity.
At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, my colleague Rick Relyea and his lab are working to quantify how increases in salinity affect ecosystems. Not surprisingly, they have found that high salinity has negative impacts on many species. They have also discovered that some species have the ability to cope with these increases in salinity.
