Environment Science

The wild and varied landscapes of southwest Wyoming are home to many of the state’s natural treasures, including the world’s largest herd of desert elk and the biggest active sand dune system in the U.S., and they also host one of the longest terrestrial wildlife migrations in North America. Spectacular areas such as Greater Adobe Town, Little Mountain, and Devil’s Playground... Read More

With Earth’s natural environment under increasing pressure from human activities, many experts and decision makers are looking to innovative solutions—specifically, technological advances—to help limit the damage. On the flip side, others are concerned that an over-reliance on technology, some of it unproven, will drive complacency in a situation that calls for urgent... Read More

Interested in recording and discussing changes in your environment with scientists and experts? There’s an app for that. The LEO Network—which stands for Local Environmental Observer—is an online community that connects citizens with technical experts to identify and document signs of environmental change. Read More

As you read this, the opportunity for Americans to voice their opinion on an extraordinarily biodiverse area of the Atlantic Ocean is closing. Aug. 15 is the final day to submit comments to the Department of Commerce on the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, which was established to safeguard an ecosystem teeming with sea life, including deep-sea corals that can take... Read More

The White House repealed a federal standard today which required that bridges, schools, fire stations, roads, and other public infrastructure be built to withstand increasing flood risks. As the administration considers a plan to improve infrastructure, eliminating the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard means losing a prudent policy that would have reduced taxpayers’ exposure to damage... Read More

The wild and varied landscapes of southwest Wyoming are home to many of the state’s natural treasures, including the world’s largest herd of desert elk and the biggest active sand dune system in the U.S., and they also host one of the longest terrestrial wildlife migrations in North America. Spectacular areas such as Greater Adobe Town, Little Mountain, and Devil’s Playground... Read More

With Earth’s natural environment under increasing pressure from human activities, many experts and decision makers are looking to innovative solutions—specifically, technological advances—to help limit the damage. On the flip side, others are concerned that an over-reliance on technology, some of it unproven, will drive complacency in a situation that calls for urgent... Read More

Interested in recording and discussing changes in your environment with scientists and experts? There’s an app for that. The LEO Network—which stands for Local Environmental Observer—is an online community that connects citizens with technical experts to identify and document signs of environmental change. Read More

As you read this, the opportunity for Americans to voice their opinion on an extraordinarily biodiverse area of the Atlantic Ocean is closing. Aug. 15 is the final day to submit comments to the Department of Commerce on the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, which was established to safeguard an ecosystem teeming with sea life, including deep-sea corals that can take... Read More

The White House repealed a federal standard today which required that bridges, schools, fire stations, roads, and other public infrastructure be built to withstand increasing flood risks. As the administration considers a plan to improve infrastructure, eliminating the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard means losing a prudent policy that would have reduced taxpayers’ exposure to damage... Read More

Philadelphia: From engineering to public policy to the internet, human ingenuity and invention are constantly changing lives. Yet new knowledge—and innovative ways to live and work that are the result of technological change—also presents new dilemmas. On Wednesday, July 19, 2017 contributors to The Pew Charitable Trusts’ latest issue of Trend magazine discussed how modern... Read More

The Pew Charitable Trusts announces 22 exceptional early-career researchers as Pew scholars in the biomedical sciences. Each scholar will receive four years of flexible funding to pursue foundational research. Read More

Ten pioneering postdoctoral scientists from Latin America will each be awarded two years of funding to conduct research at laboratories and academic institutions in the United States. The 2017 fellows are from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico, and their research interests range from the design of mosquito control tools to combat the spread of malaria to how obesity, cancer, and... Read More

The work of the 2017 class is investigating several promising avenues to slow or stop the development of cancer, including research on how to destroy leukemia cells and how cancer cells evade destruction by drug therapies. Read More

WASHINGTON—Nonmotorized recreation on U.S. lands overseen by the Bureau of Land Management supports 25,000 jobs and adds $2.8 billion to the U.S. economy, according to the first study devoted to the economic contribution of “quiet recreation” visitors on BLM lands. Read More

Researchers at Oxford University say 47 percent of jobs are at risk of being overtaken by robots in the next two decades. In this episode of After the Fact, host Dan LeDuc speaks with Brian David Johnson, futurist in residence at Arizona State University and contributor to The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Trend magazine. Johnson says that we can invent our futures but that to be successful we must keep... Read More

Thirty percent of global fish catch may be unreported, according to new research. Read More

The sailfish—a type of marlin— is the fastest fish in the ocean. These fish move at an average speed of 40mph—that’s a whopping seven times faster than Olympic athletes swim. Read More

The population growth of any species depends on its life-history characteristics. With many of the world’s shark populations declining, it is important to examine how these characteristics differ from other fish to identify the most effective management approaches. Read More

Humans kill some 100 million sharks annually, largely for shark fin soup. Some shark species, like the oceanic whitetip, have declined up to 99 percent. Read More