The Planet (on, and off)

[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…

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…