Your Thoughts Matter
Ecology
Wildfires, health and climate change: Research and resources
Source: JournalistsResource.orgFires have always burned in the planet’s temperate forests. They hasten regeneration by thinning undergrowth and fertilizing the soil. Before there were humans to flick cigarette butts into the brush, there were lightning storms and cyclical droughts.
Fracking seems to poison groundwater within one kilometer
Source: JournalistsResource.orgFor almost a decade, residents of some Pennsylvania counties have complained that the natural gas prospectors nearby have contaminated their water. Locals say that after the fracking for gas began, the water made them sick, that it turned brown, even that it became flammable.
Drugs in our rivers: Bugs on speed and Prozac in the food chain
Source: JournalistsResource.org- Read more about Drugs in our rivers: Bugs on speed and Prozac in the food chain
- Log in to post comments
Legislation like the Clean Water Act has helped check the effluent flowing into rivers and streams. Though that fight is far from over, a new, all-too-modern danger has meanwhile seeped invisibly into waters around the world: legal and illegal drugs. And their effect on the ecosystem is poorly understood.
Shark attacks: Research and resources
Source: JournalistsResource.org- Read more about Shark attacks: Research and resources
- Log in to post comments
Each year as the weather warms, crowds of families and tourists flock to the beaches. People sometimes don’t realize the risk they take when they enter the ocean, a vast aquatic habitat. Newsrooms in coastal communities are well aware that when humans and wildlife interact, the results can be tragic – especially when sharks make an appearance. Even a minor run-in with a shark can send someone to the emergency room for surgery and stitches.
Greenhouse gas mitigation by agricultural intensification
Source: JournalistsResource.orgBeginning in the 1940s, the “green revolution” increased crop yields around the globe through seed hybrids, increased irrigation and new fertilizers and pesticides. The result was “agricultural intensification,” getting more grain from each acre of land. While the increase in productivity is unquestioned, drawbacks exist as well — negative environmental and health consequences from pesticide use, increased water demand, reductions in biodiversity and increased vulnerability to future famines.
Evaluating the relative environmental impact of countries
Source: JournalistsResource.orgJust as nations have different levels of population, industrial and agricultural production, income and education, so they have varied environmental impacts. Such impacts aren’t stable over time: Countries’ use of resources and generation of wastes often rises as production grows, then may fall as cleaner technologies and better environmental practices come into use. While this trend has been theorized, empirical evidence has been mixed.