Jan 29, 2024 | Salon.com
In their daily job of protecting lives, firefighters are exposed to a lot of hazards — not just smoke and fire, but unsafe traffic, violence and vicious cats in trees. However, one of the most perilous risks in firefighting can be somewhat invisible: so-called “forever chemicals,” the substances that are use to suppress fires, such as in fire extinguishers and foams dumped on wildfires....
Originally posted on salon.com
Jan 29, 2024 | Salon.com
When fishing companies go trawling, an industrial fishing method the involves dragging a fishing net across the seafloor, they wreak havoc on the lives of countless ocean creatures. These heavily-weighted nets can severely disrupt the delicate ecosystems deep beneath the waves. Furthermore, trawling doesn’t discriminate, frequently scooping up aquatic life that is unmarketable, or sometimes even illegal to fish, right along with any desired catch....
Originally posted on salon.com
Jan 26, 2024 | Salon.com
Microplastics, or plastic particles five millimeters or less across or in length, are so prevalent that they have been spotted all over the world. Tiny plastic flecks and specks have been spotted from the ocean’s deepest point, the Mariana Trench, to the pristine reef area of the tiny, remote island republic of Palau....
Originally posted on salon.com
Jan 26, 2024 | Salon.com
This won’t surprise most people, but seagulls didn’t evolve to eat your french fries. They typically eat what’s around the ocean, whether it’s fish, molluscs or small mammals. Nonetheless, human wastefulness and urban expansion are providing ample food sources for these birds, which is seeming to significantly change their behavior, specifically where they prefer to live....
Originally posted on salon.com
Jan 24, 2024 | Salon.com
Humans rely on groundwater for many things, but especially our food. Roughly 30 percent of all the planet’s available freshwater comes from groundwater, or water that is found underground in the spaces between rocks, soil and sand. It is primarily used for agriculture and billions of humans are dependent on it, facing severe food deprivation without it....
Originally posted on salon.com
Jan 23, 2024 | Salon.com
With their roly-poly bodies, child-like eyes, long whiskers and tiny padded paws, otters are some of the most charismatic animals in nature. But while being cute doesn’t serve much purpose in the wild, new research suggests these little furballs have been helping mitigate climate change.
A recent study in the journal PLOS Climate, led by researchers from the Monterey Bay Aquarium, details how southern sea otters (Enhydra lutris) off the coast of California have helped kelp forests remain resilient to the impacts of climate change....
Originally posted on salon.com
Jan 22, 2024 | Salon.com
During the so-called Little Ice Age, medieval European were afflicted with bitterly cold winters and unusually mild summers. Extreme weather disasters became more common, bringing with them the scourges of disease and famine. Because we didn’t entirely understand climate science back then, many blamed evil or magic for the prolonged cold snap....
Originally posted on salon.com
Jan 18, 2024 | Salon.com
“Off fossil fuels, Manchin! Off fossil fuels!”
There is a rhythm to the chant that makes it stick in a person’s mind, even after they’ve stopped hearing it in the clip. On Friday, climate change activists from the organization Climate Defiance confronted Sen. Joe Manchin at a diner in New Hampshire....
Originally posted on salon.com
Jan 12, 2024 | Salon.com
In science fiction movies that imagine a climate catastrophe, characters are often driven to flee disastrous conditions and retreat to a safer place to live. Whether the seeking a mysterious territory of Dryland in “Waterworld” or fleeing from all northern latitudes in “The Day After Tomorrow,” pop culture foregrounds the notion that one can somehow “run away” from climate change....
Originally posted on salon.com
Jan 11, 2024 | Salon.com
Dr. Colin Sullivan is a prominent sleep expert the inventor of the continuous positive airway pressure machine, better known as the CPAP, which helps the millions of patients who suffer from obstructive sleep apnea, or OSA, get a decent night’s sleep. So when he shared his views about snoring with Salon during an interview last year, it was worthy of attention....
Originally posted on salon.com