Dutch reforestation company Land Life started what has become a 35,000 acre forest fire in Spain earlier this week. The fire started in Bubierca, a province of Zaragoza, the capital of autonomous community Aragon, when a Land Life contractor planting trees accidentally set off sparks that ignited nearby plant life. Read more…
The western and southwestern U.S. is wilting under the biggest drought in 1,200 years — a megadrought… “But the longer the West’s dry spell goes on, the more bizarre the drought-related stories get.” Some examples? Long-sunken history and even evidence of past crimes are emerging from the receding waters. First, Read more…
[N]ew research from the University of California, Irvine reports that trees in California’s mountain ranges and open spaces are dying from wildfires and other pressures — and fewer new trees are filling the void. “The forests are not keeping up with these large fires,” said study co-author James Randerson, the Read more…
A new study from Germany has found that working in virtual reality does not increase productivity, comfort, or wellbeing, but does say the report will help identify opportunities for improving the experience of working in VR in the future. The project was headed by Dr Jens Grubert, a specialist in Read more…
In a rare move, more than 200 congressional staffers have sent a letter to Democratic leadership in the House and Senate, demanding they close the deal on a climate and clean energy package and warning that failure could doom younger generations. “We’ve crafted the legislation necessary to avert climate catastrophe. Read more…
More than 80% of Americans have a widely used herbicide lurking in their urine, a new government study suggests. The chemical, known as glyphosate, is “probably carcinogenic to humans,” the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer has said. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup, a well-known Read more…
City lights that blaze all night are profoundly disrupting urban plants’ phenology — shifting when their buds open in the spring and when their leaves change colors and drop in the fall. New research I coauthored shows how nighttime lights are lengthening the growing season in cities, which can affect Read more…