Earth and Human Activity
- Agriculture
Your food choices affect Earth’s climate
Producing food can put a lot of climate-warming pollutants into the atmosphere. But some foods, especially meats, contribute more than others.
- Animals
Salted butterflies
The salt used on winter ice can alter the bodies of summer's butterflies. Males develop larger muscles and females get bigger brains.
- Environment
Seeing red: North’s CO2 hits new peak
CO2 values are now 50 percent higher than before the Industrial Revolution.
- Animals
Decoding bee dances
Biologists have started eavesdropping on bees — or their dancing sign language — to identify where these buzzers prefer to forage. This info is pointing to which bee-friendly habitats may be most important to preserve.
- Animals
Teen studies water strider disappearing act
As a child, Xidian Zhang loved to play with water striders. Now they’re gone, and pollution may be the reason. This teen’s findings earned him a spot at the 2014 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.
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Science stars are on display at the White House
One hundred students from 30 states participated in the fourth annual White House Science Fair in Washington, D.C.
- Earth
Thirst for water moves and shakes California
Here’s a scary cost to pumping up groundwater to slake the thirst of crops in California’s Central Valley: It may uplift nearby mountains and trigger tiny earthquakes, experts find.
- Animals
Electronics may confuse a bird’s ‘compass’
Birds use Earth’s magnetic field to help guide them as they migrate. A new study suggests that electromagnetic radiation given off by some electronic devices may act like “noise” and confuse the long-traveling birds.
- Tech
The road less worn
Two teens have found a new use for old tires. By grinding them up and adding them to asphalt, the old rubber can create stronger, longer-lived roads. And the bonus: The process recycles tires that might otherwise have been burned, creating pollution.
- Climate
Arctic sends weird weather south
Arctic warming is affecting weather farther south, where most of the world lives. The impacts are especially worrisome for agriculture.
- Earth
Intel STS finalist takes on arsenic poisoning
Concerned about arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh, Intel Science Talent Search finalist Thabit Pulak invented an affordable filter to help people remove this toxic pollutant from their drinking water.
- Environment
China exports pollution alongside goods
Many companies have moved the plants that make their products to developing countries, such as China. But the pollution linked to making those products can travel around the world.
