After the United Nations adopted a resolution in September 2026 endorsing a map that more fairly represents the size of Earth's landmasses, author and journalist Moky Makura of Africa No Filter—a main sponsor of the Correct the Map initiative—asked: "What else about Africa is the world underestimating that's also hidden in plain sight?"
The shape of microplastics can influence how deadly a viral infection can be for fish, according to new research from William & Mary's Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS). The findings suggest that some forms of plastic pollution pose greater biological risks than others, offering scientists a potential path toward reducing the environmental impacts of microplastics.
Plastic that enters the environment does not necessarily make its way to the sea via rivers. In fact, only a tiny fraction eventually reaches river mouths. Most plastic remains on land or within river systems.
The authors call on governments, investors and conservation organizers to reimagine nature finance based on a central tenet: raising funds should be a means to an end, not an end in itself.
Polynyas are one of Antarctica's great counterintuitive features: recurring areas of open water surrounded by vast expanses of sea ice. These unusual environments are hot spots for sea-ice production, ocean–atmosphere exchange and biological productivity. They are commonly maintained by powerful winds that push newly formed ice away from the coast, repeatedly exposing the ocean to the freezing Antarctic atmosphere.
For more than 30 years, MBARI technology has recorded real-time data about Monterey Bay, from oceanographic conditions at the surface to biological surveys in the depths of Monterey Canyon. These data are integral to understanding our changing ocean and underpin the institute's efforts to monitor the impacts of the incoming El Niño, which has been predicted to be among the strongest since the beginning of modern oceanography.
When the Baja California peninsula broke from mainland Mexico nearly 12 million years ago, it gave rise to the Gulf of California. New research suggests that this process of continental rifting was greatly accelerated due to tectonic forces on the opposite side of the Pacific Ocean.
In eThekwini, researchers have harnessed machine learning and satellite data to spot the city's most landslide-prone zones. A new study published in Scientific Reports has found that urban development activities, including road construction, property development and vegetation loss, are significantly increasing landslide susceptibility across parts of eThekwini.
A U.N. report finds that 252 million hectares (ha) (623 million acres) across 149 countries are being restored, creating more than 1 million green jobs—the largest documented global restoration effort to date.
Pollution from smoke emitted by months of wildfires across Indonesia caused an estimated 3,560 deaths in the vast Southeast Asian archipelago in September, according to a new study.
A new modeling study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, suggests that the East Antarctic Ice Sheet may be more resilient to extreme long-term warming than previously estimated. Increased snowfall, greater cloud cover and changes in atmospheric circulation could partially offset ice loss—even under very high carbon dioxide concentrations.
Environmental pollutants containing chlorine or bromine have been widely studied, but compounds containing both elements have remained largely unexplored. Researchers have now detected bromochloropyrene in industrial soils and harbor sediments, investigated its breakdown under simulated sunlight, and measured its activity through a biological receptor linked to toxic effects. The findings reveal distinct environmental and biological properties, highlighting the need to investigate other mixed-halogen pollutants and improve future environmental monitoring and risk assessment.
A doctoral dissertation by Andrea Porcheddu, MSc in the field of Technical Physics will be examined at the Faculty of Science, Forestry and Technology, Kuopio campus.
Every day, two NASA space instruments known as the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 and -3 (OCO-2 and OCO-3) capture more than a million observations of sunlight reflecting off Earth's surface. Using the physics of how light travels through the air, an algorithm converts these raw data into atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentrations.
A University of Massachusetts Amherst-led research team has discovered that weaker rock in mountain landscapes erodes three times faster than harder rock—even on gentler slopes—and is one of the main attributes governing mountain erosion. The finding also challenges our current understanding of the relationship between erosion and the release of carbon dioxide, and suggests that geologists and atmospheric scientists may be underestimating the CO₂ contributions coming from the Earth's rocky places.
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