Local adaptation allows plants and animals to thrive in a diversity of places. Sometimes adaptation sharpens patterns of where organisms live, but 85% of the time, it creates a more homogeneous world.
A snapshot of the rich plant diversity in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.
Gui Becker
The effect of a warmer climate on ecosystems and large and small vertebrates is being widely studied. But warmer temperatures seem to alter the microbes that live in and on these animals and plants.
Then-president of Mexico Enrique Pena Nieto, U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sign the new Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The agreement was ratified in April 2020 and came into force last July.
The Canadian Press
The Canada-U.S.-Mexico Free Trade Agreement, which came into force in July 2020, puts more emphasis on the environment and gives greater authority in Canada in the matter.
Lagos only gets about 10 percent of its electricity needs, leaving its 20 million inhabitants to their own devices.
Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty Images
Lee Smee, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and Joseph W. Reustle, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Hurricane Harvey destroyed the fishing infrastructure of Aransas Bay and reduced fishing by 80% over the following year. This removed humans from the trophic cascade and whole food webs changed.
Eko Atlantic city in Lagos is described as the largest real estate project in Africa and dubbed the “Dubai of Africa”.
Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty Images
To achieve sustainable, functional buildings, architects in cities like Lagos need to consider local realities.
The same chronic illnesses associated with exposure to endocrine-disrupting compounds also increase risk of developing severe COVID-19.
Engin Akyurt and Kai Dahms/Unsplash
Endocrine-disrupting compounds are pervasive in modern life, from food packaging to shampoo. Research is connecting their effects on humans to risk of severe illness or death from the coronavirus.
Llwynypia, South Wales, a colliery village built up around a coal mine.
Shutterstock
The miners might be fondly remembered, but
literature helps us bear in mind the environmental damage the industry caused.
The health impact of wildfire exposure depends in part on the fire itself and how much smoke a person breathes in, how often and for how long.
AP Photos/Noah Berger
Jill Johnston, University of Southern California and Lara Cushing, University of California, Los Angeles
A study shows that low-income communities and communities of color are bearing the brunt of the energy industry’s pollution in the region. The risks also extend to the unborn.
A woman carrying a child stands in front of a giant mound of plastic waste in Bekasi, West Java.
ANTARA FOTO/ Fakhri Hermansyah/pras
Swarms of locusts are seen on a tree in a residential area in the southwestern Pakistan city of Quetta on June 12, 2020.
BANARAS KHAN/AFP via Getty Images
Eco-fiction to help you rethink your role in the climate crisis.
Situated on a plateau and surrounded by mountains, Mexico City – seen here in a haze on May 20, 2018 – is a ‘bowl’ that traps smog and dust.
AP Photo/Marco Ugarte
The Aztecs had a shining city on a lake, with canals, causeways and aqueducts – until the Spanish came. Mexico City is still suffering the consequences of their bad public health decisions.
A law to fast-track development consents is being fast-tracked itself. Before it’s too late, politicians should insist on greater protection against long-term environmental damage.
Protesters rally to have Colorado’s then-incoming governor put an up-to-nine-month moratorium on oil and gas development.
Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via Getty Images
Millions of dollars are spent every election by corporations that want to influence state regulations and policies, and that’s likely to continue in the upcoming election.
This Arctic heat wave has been unusually long-lived. The darkest reds on this map of the Arctic are areas that were more than 14 degrees Fahrenheit warmer in the spring of 2020 compared to the recent 15-year average.
Joshua Stevens/NASA Earth Observatory
The Arctic is warming about twice as fast as the planet as a whole, with serious consequences. Scientists have been warning about this for decades.
People have been rediscovering nature during the pandemic, but it’s not just good for public heath. Conservation also creates jobs.
Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
The Trump administration is rolling back environmental regulations, claiming it’s good for the economy. But research shows that conservation is better both for public health and for job creation.
Idi-Araba abattoir canal, in Lagos, Nigeria.
Photo by Olukayode Jaiyeola/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Haphazard development of abattoirs without environmental and health considerations in Nigeria can only invite diseases – and potentially pandemics such as COVID-19.
Natural fabrics could be as bad for the environment as their synthetic counterparts.
kazoka/Shutterstock
While natural fibre textiles like cotton have generated an environmentally friendly reputation in recent years they might be just as bad as microplastic textiles like polyester and Nylon.