Gleanings of the Week Ending September 12, 2026

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

08/27/2026 Plastic Pollution Coalition The Plastic We Wear: Hidden Fibers, Chemical Dyes, and the Future of Clean Textiles - Washing synthetic clothing releases hundreds of thousands to millions of microplastic fibers per load, many of which are not captured by wastewater treatment and instead are often discharged directly into waterways. Synthetic dyes and chemical finishes used on many mass-produced textiles have been linked to skin irritation and allergic contact dermatitis.

0 9/3/2026 Smithsonian Magazine Leaf-Peeping Season Is Almost Here. These Interactive Maps Can Help You Figure Out When Fall Foliage Will Peak in Your Area – The article points to several site but Explore Fall is my favorite. I’ve always enjoyed fall foliage road trips!

9/2/2026 Science Daily Too much coffee may weaken bones - Following nearly 10,000 older women for 10 years, researchers found that tea drinking was associated with slightly higher hip bone density. Moderate coffee consumption did not appear harmful, but drinking more than five cups a day was linked to lower bone density. The findings suggest tea may offer a small bone-health boost, while excessive coffee could carry some drawbacks.

09/1/2026 Clean Technica Most EU Ships Are Being Scrapped in South Asia Despite Sufficient Domestic Recycling Capacity - The vast majority of EU-owned or EU-flagged ships are being scrapped under poor conditions in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, while EU-located ship recycling facilities operate under capacitya new study from the NGO Shipbreaking Platform and T&E shows. This is both an environmental scandal and a loss of high-quality materials for the EU economy, say the NGOs, who issued a report concluding that the EU has enough domestic capacity to recycle all EU-flagged and EU-owned vessels.

08/31/2026 NWF Blog 5 Benefits of Using Fallen Leaves in Your Garden - One of the best things you can do for wildlife, the environment, and even your wallet is to intentionally use the fallen leaves and other organic matter in your garden.

08/31/2026 Our World in Data Beef production in Brazil has been the largest driver of global deforestation in recent decades - When we look at the largest drivers of this deforestation, beef production is the standout. The clearing of forests to make space for grazing pastures has driven 41% of global deforestation in recent decades. Almost two-thirds of it has taken place in Brazil. The expansion of cattle pastures has not just come at the expense of natural forests, but particularly of biodiverse regions in the Amazon rainforest and Cerrado savanna. Beef consumption has grown a lot in Brazil, with per-person demand doubling over the past 50 years. Average consumption is now three times the European average.

08/31/2026 NASA Pasterze Hangs on as Austria’s Largest Glacier - Austria’s largest glacier was holding on by one dwindling thread of ice. The last icefall connecting the upper and lower portions of the Pasterze Glacier in the Eastern Alps appeared poised to break, which would put an end to its reign as the country’s largest. Groups monitoring the glacier say the last conduit of ice may, depending on weather conditions, survive to see another year or two, or it may face its demise before the cold months arrive this year.

08/31/2926 NPR NPR spent 2 years tracking deaths from heat. We found a staggering hidden toll - As summer heat intensifies because of human-driven climate change, the United States' official tally of heat-related deaths does not come close to capturing the full human toll. The data feeding into nationwide death counts is collected inconsistently and rarely thoroughly. The result is a vast undercount of the number of people who die because of heat. And experts say failing to recognize and address this may cost more people their lives. The reasons for the undercount are complex. Heat can often be the trigger that pushes someone's health condition — like cardiovascular disease — from manageable to fatal. But often because heat leaves no obvious mark behind for doctors or coroners to examine, the cause of death gets marked down only as a heart attack. Heat isn't noted on the death certificate. There is better counting of heat-related deaths in some parts of the country. For example, Arizona's Maricopa County — home to Phoenix — has developed sophisticated protocols for sussing out the subtle influences of heat on people's deaths. Maricopa County trains "death investigators" to look for signs of heat stress, such as asking about the state of the deceased's air conditioning system, their ability to pay electric bills to run ACs, their use of medications that increase heat sensitivity, and more.

08/28/2026 Smithsonian Magazine Forests Didn’t Fare Well During an Ancient Global Warming Event, Offering a ‘Cautionary’ Tale About Today’s Climate Change - An intense global warming event 56 million years ago caused a forest in modern-day Wyoming to lose around 60 percent of its canopy cover, and it took more than 100,000 years to bounce back.

08/27/2026 Planetizen Feds want to stop notifying landowners about drilling under their land - Currently, if the BLM owns the mineral rights underneath private property, the bureau is required to notify the owners of proposed drilling and give the public 90 days to comment on any leasing of rights to outside companies. But a recent proposal would eliminate the landowner notification requirement and reduce public comment time to 10 days. A rancher in Wyoming said that ditches from developers trying to build pipelines stranded his cattle during a blizzard, and abandoned oil wells have caused bovine health issues. In a separate proposal, the BLM also proposed reducing the minimum bonds companies are required to pay if drilling is abandoned without environmental cleanup.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 5, 2026

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

08/24/2026 The Washington Post Leaked memo shows how U.S. aims to weaken global limits on plastic pollution – Depressing and sad for so many reasons.

08/25/2026 Inside Climate News The Biggest Carbon Polluters Are to Blame for Half of U.S. Western Water Lost to Climate Change - Dozens of states and cities across the U.S. have sued large oil and gas companies for environmental damages associated with emissions from their products. This study supports plaintiffs’ position in those cases as they seek to put a price tag on climate change for fossil fuel companies.

08/26/2028 Yale Environment 360 Access to Urban Woodlands Linked with Lower Use of Antidepressants - A study from Scotland found that living near an accessible urban woodland significantly lowered the likelihood of being prescribed antidepressants. A host of prior studies have found that living near green spaces can reduce stress, improve moods, and lower the risk of developing anxiety or depression. Some research has even found that exposure to nature can help reduce violent crime. Considering the well-documented benefits of living near green spaces, the World Health Organization recommends urban planners establish at least 1 acre of green space within 1,000 feet of every home.

08/26/2026 Smithsonian Magazine See 16 Stunning Animal Images from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards - The 62nd Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, developed and produced by the Natural History Museum in London.

08/26/2026 NWF Blog U.S. Workers Deserve Protection from Extreme Heat - Comprehensive heat rules that protect all workers require shade, paid rest, and cold water along with a written heat stress prevention plan that includes science-based temperature triggers, annual training, acclimatization, retaliation protection and emergency response procedures. America’s workforce keeps our country moving—delivering mail, teaching our children, constructing new buildings, maintaining infrastructure, and more.

08/26/2026 The Conversation Tiny house villages are increasingly responding to the homeless crisis in America’s fast‑growing cities - The proliferation of tiny house villages across the U.S. is occurring at a time when many cities are attracting new residents and investment, while struggling to provide housing that remains accessible to all.

08/23/2026 Science Daily Scientists left this farm field alone. Thousands of orchids appeared - An abandoned farm field became a flourishing wildflower meadow within little more than a decade, with plant diversity doubling and thousands of orchids appearing naturally. Aside from a traditional annual hay cut, the field was largely allowed to recover without intervention. The discovery suggests that simply giving nature time to recover could be a powerful and inexpensive tool for restoring biodiversity.

08/24/2026 Smithsonian Magazine ‘Only One of Its Kind’ Jellyfish Museum Astounds Visitors with Awe-Inspiring Displays of Sea Nettles Safely Behind Glass - The Florida-based museum opened in the spring and was founded by two aquarium experts who fled the Russia-Ukraine war.

08/26/2026 Clean Technica Photovoltaic Windows Have Been Heating Water in a Bucharest Apartment for Two Years - Solar electricity produced over several hours during the day is converted directly into heat and stored as hot water for use later. There is no photovoltaic battery and no solar inverter between the photovoltaic glazing and the heating element. The PV side operates off-grid and does not inject electricity into the public grid. When solar energy is insufficient, the controller switches the same water heater to the normal AC grid after sunset so that it can reach the thermostat setpoint.

8/27/2026 Yale Environment 360 A Hard-Won Rule to Cut Chemical Plant Pollution Is Being Unraveled - For decades, regulations on emissions of hazardous chemicals such as benzene, ethylene oxide, and vinyl chloride have been weaker than restrictions on more common pollutants, such as those emitted by vehicles. Toughening requirements on six different pollutants at more than 200 petrochemical plants, it was one of a slate of regulations enacted beginning in 2024 on air toxics, each covering a specific industry, from steelmaking to tire manufacturing. Recently, the EPA has invited companies to request exemptions from hazardous pollutant regulations. Also - an online data tool created to give communities located near petrochemical plants information about their operations, including their accident history, emergency response plans, and the chemicals they handle has been removed.

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 29, 2026

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

08/15/2026 BBC  Future The controversial story of the North American raccoons wreaking havoc in Germany - One morning in April 1934, the records show, the animals were released from two crates to the south side of Lake Edersee near Vöhl, around 50km (30 miles) to the south-west of Kassel. This population grew and grew. Today, Kassel has been called the "raccoon capital of Europe", with an estimated urban population of around 30,000 of the animals.    

08/21/2026 Smithsonian Magazine An ‘Extremely Rare’ Half-Male, Half-Female Bird Temporarily Took Up Residence Outside of Chicago - An eye-catching bobolink with both male and female characteristics temporarily took up residence at a nature preserve just west of Chicago. The bobolink is what’s known as a “bilateral gynandromorph.” Because of a genetic anomaly, the right side of its body is male while the left side is female, with a straight vertical line dividing the two halves. It’s believed to be the first documented gynandromorphic bobolink. The bird behaved like a male, eventually wooing a mate and raising fledglings.

08/21/2026 Science Daily Archaeologists discover mysterious 400-year-old Indigenous pot in Florida - The pot was compact enough to fit in a palm, with a simple rim, a smooth dull gray surface, and no decoration. Its original purpose is unknown, as is the number of people who may have used it. What archaeologists do know is that the vessel survived for centuries underground

08/21/2026 Artnet Why Louis Comfort Tiffany Still Dazzles Collectors - Louis Comfort Tiffany‘s lamps are coveted and his stained glass is celebrated, but the artist behind the famous brand has remained stubbornly in the shadows. Two new exhibitions aim to throw the spotlight on his full talents.

08/21/2026 Clean Technica Sunrun Shifts Away from Affiliates to Direct Sales - Sunrun has been the #1 rooftop solar power installed in the United States for several years now.Sunrun installed 19,793 subscriber systems in the second quarter of this year, which is an amazingly high number. However, the bad news is that this was down 31% from Q2 2025. Yikes. On the plus side, the company had a higher percentage of its solar power systems get energy storage add-ons than ever before — a whopping 74%. That’s up from 70% in Q2 2025. Sunrun has surpassed 266,000 total storage systems installed, accounting for 4.6 GWh of capacity. That includes the 332 MWh installed last quarter.

08/19/2026 NASA Elephant Butte Reservoir Runs Low - Elephant Butte Reservoir, the largest reservoir in New Mexico, is at its lowest level since 1971. My husband and I took a birding field trip in a boat on the reservoir in November 2016; they told us it was low then…and I wonder what has happened to the birds (pelicans, grebes, coots, and cormorants) that won’t find much water when they return to the area this fall.

08/19/2026 The Prairie Ecologist The Notorious (and other) Visitors to Our New Prairie Garden – Lots to photograph in a native plant garden!

08/19/2026 Planetizen To guarantee residents fresh water, Tijuana looks to the sea - The project is expected to produce 2,200 liters of fresh water per second — about 190,000 cubic meters a day — and increase available freshwater in the region by 45%. Construction is set to begin on Aug. 18, one day after signing the contract but nearly three weeks after the project's intended start date of Aug. 1.  It is expected to be complete in 2029.

08/18/2026 Yale Environment 360 Collapse of Atlantic Currents Could Drive a Surge in Warming - A vast system of Atlantic currents appears to be weakening, and scientists say its collapse could lead to dramatic cooling in northern Europe. A new study suggests an additional risk: a surge in warming across the rest of the globe.

08/21/2026 BBC Future India is turning to ancient water systems as modern ones run dry - In recent years, India is increasingly looking to revive ancient water structures as a way to help address the country's looming water crisis. Baoris, or ancient stepwells – large scale tiers of carved stone with steps that descend into the water table, allowing access to groundwater – are the most striking. Thousands of disused subterranean stepwells, built from the 7th to the mid-19th Centuries, famously dot India's landscape. From New Delhi to Jodphur, dozens have been restored in recent years. Open traditional structures like stepwells do not escape evaporation completely, but by helping to move water beyond reach of the Sun into aquifers they allow it to stay both cool and reachable by any well or handpump nearby.

Stress

Back in April 2025, I posted about my stress reduction strategies. I am still applying all the strategies I mentioned in that post….but there are l times that they seem to fail, and it takes a day or two to recover!

With the many ‘heat advisory’ days recently, I am acknowledging that heat is playing a role in my stress levels. When I work in my yard or at the Lake Springfield boathouse, my stress level stays relatively high even after I have cooled down and rehydrated! I am going to try moving my electrolyte drink to during and immediately after yard work…see if that will help.

Of course, I have taken on more responsibilities with the local Missouri Master Naturalist chapter since April 2025. I am utilizing a lot of the skills I learned during by career and there might be a stress-memory coming along with reactivating the skills. It is rewarding and I want to do it…but stressful too. I am learning to ask for help sooner rather than later!

Recently, I remembered one of my employees from more than 15 years ago talking about taking ‘mental health days’ and it is something I am finding useful now. For me that involves not looking at email or news or doing anything with a group of people….it’s a retreat to my introvert core usually with a good book or (during the summer) enjoying the greenery of my shade garden from a window or yoga or Zentangle tiles….and then drifting off to sleep at the usual time.

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 22, 2026

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

07/30/2026 Project Drawdown Is climate change unfolding faster and fiercer than scientists expected?  - Climate change is driving unprecedented extreme weather around the world, from catastrophic floods and prolonged droughts to blistering heat waves and raging wildfires. While these events are unprecedented, they were not unpredicted and largely align with what scientists have been warning about for decades. Climate science tells us that things will get worse as long as humans keep emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. But the science also shows us that a better future is still within reach.

08/07/2026 Smart Cities Dive For local governments, full benefits of ROAD to Housing Act could take years - The bipartisan legislation promises sweeping regulatory reforms and funding incentives designed to increase housing development.  Of the 124 implementation actions detailed in the bill, HUD is responsible for 88, or 71%.L ocal governments can begin assessing what regulatory changes — such as updating zoning, building codes and permitting policies — they will need to enact to take advantage of federal funding once it becomes attainable.

08/09/2026 Cool Green Science Bug Highway: The Hidden Paths Used by Insects - Many important pollinators have home ranges no larger than 400 or 500 meters. Some are even smaller. So, in order for them to survive, they must find something to eat within their home range, the distance they’re willing to stray from their nests. And that means every window box, every garden, every bit of green space could be what some insects need to survive.

08/10/2026 Our World in Data 138 million children are in child labor. What does this actually mean? - Child labor is work that is done by a child and is likely to be harmful. This general principle was first codified in international legal conventions more than a century ago, and a series of them in the 20th century made its scope more precise, linking harms to work that endangers children’s “health, safety, or morals” or work that interferes with their schooling. It spans children working in exploitative and dangerous conditions, as well as children who are counted not because of the conditions they work in, but because they are too young to be working at all, even if that means helping on a family farm for only a few hours a day.

08/05/2026 NASA The Paradox of Lençóis Maranhenses National Park - The coastal dune system in Lençóis Maranhenses National Park in northeastern Brazil is among the most surreal landscapes on Earth: rows of sparkling white quartz dunes, some rising 30 meters (100 feet), soar over a mosaic of blue and green freshwater lagoons.

08/11/2026 My Modern Met Mini Wildlife Portraits Made with Plastic Toys and Other Materials That Threaten Real Animals Today – Look at the pictures and watch the 6-minute video about how they were created.

08/10/2026 Smithsonian Magazine Spinal Deformities in Saber-Toothed Cat Fossils Reveal How the Now-Extinct Felines May Have Spent Their Final Days - Thousands of years ago, sticky tar pits in modern-day Los Angeles, California, became the graveyard for prehistoric felines struggling with deformities and disease. 3,722 vertebrae from at least 849 saber-toothed cats were examined. CT scans revealed a significant number of developmental abnormalities in the feline spines. The team identified 32 vertebrae with arches that hadn’t completely developed, 48 “block” vertebrae where bones had fused together and 226 “transitional” vertebrae that hadn’t formed correctly. Perhaps most notably, three vertebrae from different individuals contained enlarged holes that allowed nerves and blood vessels to thread through them. The holes’ sizes and smooth remodeled surfaces hint that the cats had spinal nerve tumors.

07/24/2026 Project Drawdown Reversing soil degradation 10% could feed 70 million more - Human-caused damage to soils is a limiting factor for food production on agricultural lands. Soil degradation can be slowed or reversed. Reversing degradation by 10% could make it possible to feed 70 million more people while also enhancing soils’ ability to pull greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and reducing pressure to turn forests into farmland.

08/11/2026 NASA Bountiful Roebuck Bay - Roebuck Bay's tidal range can reach a remarkable 9 meters (30 feet). Rising and falling tides repeatedly inundate and expose expansive mudflats, flood broad mangrove forests and salt marshes, and feed branching networks of tidal drainage channels. The bay's dramatic tidal and seasonal changes are striking from above, and they also support a bounty of life on the ground. The mangroves serve as nurseries for crustaceans and fish, and the mudflats teem with dozens of types of invertebrates, including snails, worms, crabs, clams, and cockles. Shells and snails can reach an abundance of 2,500 per square meter. The bay, one of the most important sites for migratory birds in Australia and a key stop on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, regularly hosts hundreds of thousands of birds, including plovers, godwits, and knots.

08/10/2026 BBC Future We're getting mealtimes wrong - here's the best time to have dinner - Aim to eat at regular times and eat fiber-rich carbohydrates such as whole grains, legumes (beans, peas and lentils) as well as fruit, earlier in the day when the body is better able to process them. In the evening, opt for a lighter meal, ideally one rich in protein….making lunch the largest meal.

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 15, 2026

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

08/01/2026 Science Daily Scientists detect a sharp acceleration in global warming - After removing the effects of El Niño, volcanic eruptions, and solar cycles, researchers found that the planet has warmed at roughly 0.35°C per decade over the past ten years, compared with just under 0.2°C per decade from 1970 to 2015. The acceleration, which becomes visible around 2013 to 2015, appeared across five major global temperature datasets with more than 98% statistical certainty. Whether the acceleration continues will depend heavily on future carbon dioxide emissions from coal, oil, and natural gas.

07/28/2026 BBC Future The devil worm is the deepest-living animal. It's redefining life at its limits - Before the 1980s, most biologists didn't think that life existed more than 30cm (1ft) or so below the ground. The detection of deep-dwelling bacteria – and the 2011 discovery of the devil worm – represented a seismic shift in our understanding of the Earth's depths. The devil worm and its subterranean brethren may well be some of the most enduring kind of life on Earth. Studying the deep biosphere could help us better understand the conditions under which living things first came into existence, and even help inform searches for extraterrestrial life; if there is life on Mars, it's probably lurking under the surface. 

07/30/2026 Smithsonian Magazine A Man Unearthed a Mysterious Metal Object Sticking Straight Up from the Ground. It Turned Out to Be a 2,700-Year-Old Sword - Measuring nearly two feet long, the sword dates to between roughly 900 and 700 B.C.E., according to a statement from the Provincial Office for the Protection of Monuments (PUOZ). At that time, it was likely quite valuable. Experts think that it once featured a handle made from organic materials like wood or bone. The handle hasn’t survived, but the engraved patterns decorating the blade are still visible.

07/27/2026 Clean Technica This New Underground Energy Storage System Supports Wind and Solar Power - Flywheels are marking out space in the somewhat rarified world of long duration energy storage. Going by a benchmark set by the US Department of Energy, that means a capacity of at least 10 hours, though ideally long duration technology can stretch into multiple days and longer.

07/16/2026 Yale Environment 360 In Steel Country, the Fight for Clean Air Faces New Obstacles - A Japanese steel giant has pledged billions in new investment in Pennsylvania’s Monongahela River Valley, raising hopes that it would clean up pollution from its steel mills in the region. But documents show that its plans to ramp up production will worsen local air quality.

07/02/2026 Science Daily Eating less protein could slow aging - The findings suggest that protein guidance may be most effective when it takes both age and activity level into account, rather than applying the same recommendation to everyone.

07/26/2026 Clean Technica Every Day in Every Way, Attribution Science Is Getting Better & Better - The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, engineering, and medicine. They operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln. This week, the organization published a report that claims attribution science — which seeks to define the connection between human activity and alterations in the climate — has made great strides forward since the last report a decade ago. That report backs a growing body of scientific knowledge that could help governments hold oil, gas, and coal companies responsible for the damage caused by extreme weather.

7/19/2026 BBC Future Scientists are regrowing human teeth - A visit to the dentist could one day involve regrowing damaged teeth tissue or even an entire tooth, rather than repairing it with synthetic materials or yanking it out – an appealing prospect not only because of its novelty, but also because teeth play a greater role in health and well-being than many may realize.

07/17/2026 Yale Environment 360 Drained Under Soviet Rule, Aral Sea Has Become a Huge Source of Emissions - The Aral Sea sits between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and was once the fourth-largest inland body of water on Earth. For the past 60 years, though, humans have bled it nearly dry irrigating cotton crops, leaving behind a salty plain the size of Ireland. Its loss has long been seen as an ecological and humanitarian problem, but new research shows that it has also been a significant driver of climate change. When a lake dries up, stored carbon from organic matter on the floor of the old lake bed is released as the dust blows away.

07/16/2026 Science Daily New “living plastic” self-destructs in just 6 days without leaving microplastics - Researchers have created self-destructing living plastic that uses engineered bacteria to completely break itself down when activated. The material degrades in just six days without creating microplastics, offering a potential new solution for single-use plastic waste. (Note that this research was done in China with funding from Chinese government.)

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 1, 2026

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

07/22/2026 I’m Plastic Free 8 Plastic-Free School Supplies & Zero-Waste Tips for Students – Some good ideas for reducing plastics for the beginning of the school year.

07/22/2026 Clean Technica It’s Time to Adopt a New Mindset About the Planet - The author suggests: Begin with the Billionaires. Oil companies must clean up their pollution. Chemicals need to be reined in, not excused. Accountability for climate change. Returning rivers, streams, and the oceans. Vote!

07/21/2026 BBC Future A stranding in Ireland sheds new light on the long, slow, ice-cold life of a deep-sea shark – Some species factoids: The Greenland shark, the longest living vertebrate on the planet, can live for around 400 years; Greenland sharks are among the world's biggest sharks, measuring up to 5m (16ft); Greenland sharks are slow-swimming, solitary scavengers and predators. The post documents the study of a Greenland shark carcass that washed up on an Ireland beach in April.

07/21/2026 Yale Environment 360 Long Presumed Dead, a Thriving Coral Reef Is Discovered in West Africa – A paragraph in a 1960s report…and then no investigation again until recently. Researchers have classified the site as a mesophotic coral ecosystem (MCE). Such systems are light-dependent communities existing at the lower limits of reef-building corals. At more than 175 feet below the surface, the coral garden they discovered appears patchily scattered on a rocky substrate.

07/20/2026 Cool Green Science The Bird That Needs Fire: What Bachman’s Sparrow Can Teach Us About Restoration - Long before most people spot one, a Bachman’s Sparrow announces itself from a patch of native grasses, delivering one of the first songs of the season. Small and easily overlooked, it has become one of the most important indicators of whether longleaf pine forest ecosystems are functioning as they should.

07/17/2026 Science Daily Tiny plastics in drinking water may be making dangerous bacteria stronger - New research suggests nanoplastics can actually help harmful bacteria survive by strengthening the slimy biofilms they form inside water systems. These tougher biofilms become more resistant to disinfectants, making them harder to remove and potentially increasing public health risks.

07/17/2026 Smithsonian Magazine These 16 Splendid Aerial Views Capture Wildlife from Above, Revealing the Beauty and Mystery of Nature - A selection of the photos that spotlight animals from a new perspective – from the Second International Aerial Photographer of the Year contest.

07/15/2026 My Modern Met Tennessee Introduces Anti-AI Seal Supporting Photographers Taking Real Photos of the State - Tennessee tourism has been booming, breaking new records in recent years for the Volunteer State. In 2024, they brought in 147 million visitors and $31.7 billion. This was the fourth consecutive year to break the record in tourist spending, which has surged 36.6% since 2018, more than double the national average. It is important to the state that “what you see is what you get.”

07/23/2026 Science Daily Goodbye, cavities? New gel could regrow tooth enamel - Inspired by the proteins that guide enamel formation in infancy, the gel fills microscopic cracks and draws calcium and phosphate from saliva to grow a new mineral layer that closely matches healthy enamel. After the gel is placed on a tooth, it forms a thin but durable coating that penetrates the tooth's surface and fills small cracks, pores, and other damaged areas. This coating then acts as a framework for rebuilding the mineral structure of enamel. When applied to exposed dentine, the gel can grow an enamel like mineral layer over the surface. This could help reduce tooth sensitivity while also creating a stronger surface for dental restorations to bond to.

07/23/2026 The Prairie Ecologist Those bugs are eating my flowers! What do I do? - If a species is reducing the resilience of a site - mitigate that. Stepping back to put that scene in context with the broader area usually helps answer the question about whether or what to do anything about it. After all, one of the benefits of facilitating ecological resilience is that it gives prairies the ability to adapt and absorb impacts, including Japanese beetles shredding some plants here and there.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 25, 2026

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

07/13/2026 Science Daily Why are healthy young non-smokers developing lung cancer? - Younger Americans under age 50 who have never smoked and consume more of fruits and vegetable than average may face a higher risk of developing lung cancer. Commercially grown (non-organic) fruits, vegetables, and whole grains generally contain higher levels of pesticide residues than dairy products, meat, and many processed foods. There is also previous research showing that agricultural workers with long term pesticide exposure experience higher rates of lung cancer. The next phase of the research will involve measuring pesticide levels directly in patients' blood or urine samples. That work could help determine whether certain pesticides are more strongly associated with lung cancer risk than others.

07/09/2026 NWF Blog Spark Joy in Your Outdoor Events by Blending Forest Bathing, Nature Appreciation, and Wildlife Education - Learn more about the practice of forest bathing and to access tips and resources on how to level up your outdoor events this summer through forest bathing, nature appreciation, and wildlife education.

07/08/26 Archaeology Magazine Scythian DNA Study Examines Elite Family Ties - The remains of 38 of the Scythians were recovered from kurgans that also contained elite weapons and gold artifacts, while the other 47 were recovered from smaller kurgans that lacked gold grave goods. The elite Scythians were 11 times more likely to be related to each other than to the other Scythians. Nearly half of the elite individuals in our dataset were female, indicating that women held high social status within Iron Age Scythian society.

07/08/2026 Smithsonian Magazine Sperm Whales Living in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea Seem to Have Developed a Distinct Dialect from Those in the West - From Southern drawls to Irish brogues, humans can sound very different while speaking the same language. It turns out that some whales might have similar regional variations in their vocalizations, too. Sperm whales living in different parts of the Mediterranean Sea appear to have their own distinct dialects. Scientists think that about 20,000 years ago, a group of intrepid sperm whales swam into the Strait of Gibraltar and entered the Mediterranean Sea, where they’ve remained ever since. The individuals living in the Mediterranean rarely leave the sea—and other sperm whales don’t often enter the area—so they’re considered a genetically distinct subpopulation.

07/07/2026 Clean Technica New York Now at 8 Gigawatts of Distributed Solar Power - New York has just reached 8 gigawatts (GW) of installed solar power capacity in the “distributed” solar market — rooftops and small-scale installations. The state has a target of reaching 10 GW by 2030, and this new milestone puts them ahead of schedule. Just from lowering electricity demand on the power grid during times of peak demand, solar power is estimated to have saved New York $90 million last summer. Greater savings will come this summer.

07/08/2026 Yale Environment 360 What Do We Actually Know About the Microplastics Inside Us? - I know it is easy to say we don’t have enough information yet, but we do know about [the health risks from] these chemicals that are in all the plastics that your food is wrapped in. From that perspective, it is still a good idea to reduce plastics or eliminate them where possible. – Cassandra Rauert

07/07/2026 The Conversation Island life changed how Brazil’s Noronha skink reproduces, but the lizard’s strategy might be failing in a rapidly evolving world - Reproduction occurs during a relatively narrow period of the year, in the dry season. Not all females reproduce annually: our data suggest that many reproduce only every two or even three years. When they do, they produce only two eggs at a time — a very low number for lizards in this group. These eggs, however, are large relative to the mother’s body size, indicating a high investment in each offspring.

05/20/2026 PLOS One Skeletons in the permafrost: Exploring climate-driven heritage loss and occupational health at the early modern whaling burial site of Likneset, Svalbard - Rapid Arctic warming is accelerating the degradation of permafrost-preserved archaeological sites, threatening both cultural heritage and the scientific information it contains. Early modern whaling burial sites on Svalbard are particularly vulnerable due to their organic-rich burial contexts and exposed coastal settings.

Homegrown National Park How to build a mosquito bucket – A non-toxic way to control mosquitos in your yard.

Leaf & Limb 7 Ways to Help Your Trees and Shrubs During (and After) a Drought – My area of Missouri is not in drought right now….but it has been in previous summers. The suggestions in this post can be done any time….and keep trees healthier ahead of the next drought!  

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 18, 2026

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

07/06/2026 Clean Technica Fixing Climate Communications Part 1 - Make consequences such as your insurance bill, your home, and your children’s health urgent and tangible; make the cause concrete by anchoring every message to pollution rather than climate change; and make the cure feel expansive rather than restrictive. Reaching enough people to sustain the transition will require a delivery infrastructure built around genuine community engagement, economically grounded wins, and a willingness to hold accountable the interests that have made this conversation harder than it needs to be.

07072026 Clean Technica Climate Communications — From Losing the Argument to Winning It Part 2 - Telling the climate story with the value proposition of cost, risk management, improved operational performance, supply chain resiliency, and long-term enterprise value is a winning one. It’s a strategy that appeals to the C-suite, is durable, and can be couched in shareholder returns.

07/06/2026 Smithsonian Magazine These 11 Wildlife Images from the Ocean Conservancy’s Photography Contest Showcase the Wonder of Earth’s Waters - The annual contest received more than 1,000 photographs of marine wildlife and habitats this year. The ones that rose to the top were portraits of ocean wildlife, and I think that’s because we crave to see and connect with animals on an interpersonal level.

07/07/2026 The Conversation 3.1 billion‑year‑old rocks in Australia reveal a forgotten chapter of Earth’s water cycle - We learn the water cycle in school as a story of evaporation and precipitation. But Earth runs a second, far slower one deep beneath our feet. On the ocean floor, seawater seeps into the oceanic crust and reacts with the rock, becoming chemically bound inside its minerals, locked into their crystal structures rather than sitting as free water. Over millions of years, sinking tectonic plates carry these water-bearing minerals down into the mantle, the hot rock layer beneath the crust. This sinking of one plate beneath another is called subduction, and volcanoes eventually breathe the water back out. The deep water cycle moderates Earth’s water budget. At the surface, it keeps the oceans from drying up or drowning the continents, while in the interior, it changes how the mantle melts and builds continents.

07/06/2026 NWF Blog Marine Animal Quiz: It’s Plastic Free July! - Take the time to learn more about how plastic pollution in the oceans of the world harms marine life and consider action steps you can take to reduce your plastic waste footprint.

07/04/2026 ScienceDaily The secret to healthy aging may be hidden in your blood - A new study found that centenarians have a unique chemical "fingerprint" in their blood that sets them apart from normal aging, including unusual patterns of bile acids and steroids linked to longer survival.

07/03/2026 Planetizen Lake Powell reaches lowest water level on record - Currently, Lake Powell is around 24 percent full. The last time it was completely full was in 1983. Since then, water levels have fluctuated, but in 2026, they have fallen to a critical point. And there are multiple concerns if the water levels continue to drop. One includes reaching "dead pool," the point at which water levels are so low that water can no longer move across the dam and into the Grand Canyon, which would cause significant ecological impacts and reduce the capacity for hydroelectricity. 

07/03/2026 Yale Environment 360 In Overfished Adriatic Sea, Dolphins Look to Trawlers for Food - Off the eastern coast of Italy, large numbers of bottlenose dolphins are looking to fishing trawlers as a source of food, a sign that dolphins may be struggling to feed themselves in waters depleted by overfishing. Dolphins may also suffer hearing damage that results from chronic exposure to the noise of trawlers. It is risky behavior. However, finding sufficient prey away from trawlers in an overfished sea may be too difficult. It appears that for these animals, taking the risks is better than going hungry.

7/2/2026 Smithsonian Magazine Earth Might Be Home to 20 Million Insect Species—More Than Three Times as Many as Previously Thought – Only about one million species have been named and described, meaning up to 95 percent of the planet’s insect diversity might remain a mystery…. With more than 40 percent of known insect species threatened with extinction. “The library is being burned before the books can be read.”

6/21/2025 YouTube Slicing and Dicing Onions – Learn some practical kitchen knife skills via a video from the American College of Culinary Medicine!

Suburban Savana – 4

Continuing my series on my progress toward transitioning my yard to a suburban savanna…..

This month I am focusing on water. My yard has a sprinkler system that was installed in the late 90s. We get it checked at the beginning of each season and replaced the controller last year so that it doesn’t come on if there was rain recently (prior that that we often manually turned if off earlier in the growing season when our area gets enough rain for plants to thrive).

This year I am watering as I have in years past since so many of the plants are new. Next year I will likely reduce either the duration or the frequency since the plants are native and should thrive without extra water. In subsequent years when most plants are well established, I might simply turn on the sprinklers manually…only when there are very long periods with no rainfall (i.e. in drought conditions).

The only plant that will likely need extra attention is an Kousa dogwood (planted by a previous owner) that is growing in full sun. Even with the watering I do now, it tends to get some dry/brown leaves in summers with high heat and little rain. It’s not a native so obviously is not honed to our Missouri climate! I might put a soaker hose in to specifically provide water to the roots of the tree….or plant some green native ground cover (something like golden ragwort on the north and south, Missouri evening primrose on the western side, violets on the eastern side) under the tree that will keep the soil cooler than the mulch that is currently there.  

In a few years, if something on the sprinkler system breaks enough that it would required replacement – maybe I will decide I don’t need a sprinkler system often enough to warrant the expense!

More about my suburban savanna and blooms for pollinators next month.

Previous Suburban Savanna Posts:

April 2026 – Overview

May 2026 – Planting Natives

June 2026 – Shade Garden

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 11, 2026

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

07/01/2026 Clean Technica Southeast Missouri Smelter Announces Intent to Restart This Year - Not mentioned in the release today is how the smelter will be powered, and whether the smelter will be in compliance with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources plan to reduce sulfur dioxide pollution to levels that are safe to breathe. New Madrid County recorded the worst air quality in the United States before idling.

07/01/2026 Yale Environment 360 A Home Battery Revolution Is Reshaping the Power Grid - As residential batteries have become more energy dense, cheaper, and smaller, more households are storing their excess solar power. Now, utilities and energy companies in dozens of countries are buying up those electrons, bundling them together, and using them to balance the grid.

07/01/2026 Planetizen Replacing lead pipes in Chicago costs more than 6 times the national average - Chicago has the nation's largest inventory of lead water pipes. Officials say replacing each one costs about $31,000 on average — more than six times the Environmental Protection Agency’s national estimate of $4,700 a line. The most significant factors driving up costs include inefficient early contracts, cumbersome permitting requirements, and the city’s reliance on one-off replacements rather than undertaking whole blocks at once.

07/01/2026 NPR Lone star ticks are covering much of the U.S. Here's what you need to know - The lone star is spreading across vast regions of the U.S., and the illness it carries, the alpha-gal syndrome, is spreading in more than 30 countries on six continents, often spread by various other ticks. The alpha-gal syndrome is more difficult to diagnose and treat than lime disease, and the symptoms are more severe. In many cases, the victim develops an allergy to all red meat, including nearly microscopic particles of it. The allergy can become so extreme it can kill you.

06/28/2026 BBC What watching the sunset really does for your health - There's growing evidence that sunsets – and sunrises, for that matter – can have a meaningful impact on our brain and mental health: diminishing anxiety and depression while boosting memory, creativity, sleep and even altruism. 

6/25/2026 The Conversation Most bees are solitary and don’t live in hives. Climate change risks them starving - Currently, most of what we know about bee nutrition comes from highly social species such as honeybees or bumblebees. Yet most bees are solitary or communal (group living but with no queens and workers). They might experience the nutritional landscape and nutritional stress in very different ways.

06/22/2026 NASA A Turquoise Tint for the Black Sea - The Black Sea sits at the boundary between Europe and Asia and connects to the Mediterranean Sea via a chain of waterways. Its surface often appears dark, but each spring and summer it transforms into a striking expanse of swirling turquoise. The turquoise color is likely caused by coccolithophores, a type of phytoplankton covered with calcium carbonate plates that can give surface waters a milky-blue appearance. These types of phytoplankton tend to dominate in late spring and early summer. Other times of the year, diatoms—a type of microscopic algae with silica shells—can become more prevalent, and they tend to darken the water rather than brighten it.   

6/24/2026 NWF Blog 7 Moths that Make Butterflies Look Boring – The only one I haven’t seen is the Texas Wasp Moth!

06/30/2026 Artnet These 10 U.S. Landmarks Are At-Risk - As America gears up to mark the 250th year of its independence, the World Monuments Fund (WMF) is throwing a spotlight on 10 historic places that it says are most urgently in need of preservation.

6/27/2026 Science Daily Yellowstone’s supervolcano may be fueled by something unexpected - Instead of a deep plume rising from near Earth’s core, a broad “mantle wind” may push hot rock beneath Yellowstone, generating magma closer to the surface. This process helps create a massive underground magma network and may explain how supervolcanoes remain active for long periods.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 04, 2026

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

06/24/2026 I’m Plastic Free How to Tell if a Company is Actually Reducing its Plastic Footprint? - In the 2020s, it is no longer enough for companies to say they care about the planet while their products, packaging, and supply chains continue to leak plastic into the environment. Plastic pollution is not only a litter problem. It is a materials, design, energy, waste, and accountability problem.

6/24/2026 NWF Blog Go Plastic Free This July - Reducing our plastic waste helps the environment by not only ensuring it’s pristine, but it also prevents plastic from being ingested by wildlife, where injury and death are common outcomes when they interact with plastic. Plastic is also a known hormone disruptor, which can and does affect wildlife and humans.

06/23/2026 The Conversation We found microplastics in hedgehogs – then we traced them back to pet food - The story began in 2021, when we collected 189 hedgehog faeces samples from residential gardens and rehabilitation centres across the UK. We found plastic in 19% of them. Research suggests that food left out by people is the single biggest reason European hedgehogs visit residential gardens. Many hedgehogs have even become reliant on it, especially during the autumn and winter. We found microplastics in 29 of the 38 pet food products we tested. In 18 products, contamination appeared in more than one retail unit. Although plastic was found across the products tested, those in the “value” price category had more positive samples.

06/23/2026 The New York Times Former NOAA Employees Revive Climate Site Shut by Trump Administration - The new site, climate.us, is an effort by former staff members at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to present climate science previously housed at climate.gov, including data, reports, articles, and congressionally mandated national climate assessments. The new site is effectively the “first full clone” of climate.gov.

6/23/2026 Clean Technica How you fight climate disinformation – Several strategies….including Pope Leo XIV has called “the drug of fake news” a threat to a health society and has called on journalists to “safeguard voices and faces, cultivate seriousness in every report and every analysis, preserve the beauty of cultures and territories.”

6/25/2026 BBC Droughts are transforming the Turkish landscape with massive sinkholes - The "breadbasket" of Turkey, Konya's valleys are filled with the farms needed to feed a growing nation. But the available groundwater is drying up and causing fields to collapse. Turkey has been seized by ongoing drought, with a United Nations report predicting that Turkey would become a water-poor country by 2030. Konya's sinkhole problem is a perfect storm of geology, drought and intensive agriculture draining the groundwater.

6/25/2026 Science Daily Osteopenia is silently weakening bones in millions of people - Exercise, adequate calcium and vitamin D, and other healthy habits can slow or even partially reverse the decline.

6/23/2026 The Conversation Earth’s oldest crater really is over 3 billion years old - Zircon is tiny, tough and unusually good at keeping time. It contains uranium, which slowly decays into lead. By measuring uranium and lead in a zircon crystal, we can estimate when that crystal formed, or when something strongly altered it. Apatite can grow when hot fluids move through broken rock – exactly the kind of system an impact creates, as heat and fractures drive water through a crater. The apatite gave the same age as the modified zircons. Two clocks, in different minerals and different rocks, pointed to the same event about 3.02 billion years ago.

6/22/2026 Smithsonian Magazine Authorities Investigated Reports of an Illegal Excavation in Rome. Then, They Stumbled Upon an Ancient Villa Adorned with Mosaics - In mid-February, residents of Castel di Guido, a village on the outskirts of Rome, notified police of unusual activity taking place nearby. Locals had spotted people digging at night, seemingly without authorization. When authorities investigated the site, they realized that looters had used a backhoe to access an underground cavern protected by fencing. Archaeologists jumped into action to prevent further damage—and soon discovered a well-preserved set of ruins that may have been visited by Roman emperors. Emergency excavations revealed the ancient structure’s entrance hall, which featured a central impluvium, or marble basin at the center of the room, and a mosaic floor adorned with botanical and geometric designs.

6/17/2026 Yale Environment 360 A Missing Piece in Climate Models: Nature’s Own Emissions - For decades, climate scientists have issued warnings about positive global warming feedbacks, vicious cycles in the Earth system in which rising temperatures from burning fossil fuels beget more warming. Feedbacks in which ecosystems emit more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere are so complex that they are often left out entirely. For example, how much more carbon dioxide will be emitted as wildfires increase? How much more methane will bubble up from fermenting wetlands or seep from thawing permafrost? Remarkably, these so-called warming-induced emissions are poorly represented or absent from the most influential climate models. Climate modelers are scrambling to catch up.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 27, 2026

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

06/17/2026 Science Daily Scientists say most of what’s in your food is still a mystery - Most chemicals in food are invisible to us in terms of research. We consume them every day, but we have little idea what they do. Projects such as the Foodome Project are now attempting to catalogue this hidden chemical universe. More than 130,000 molecules have already been listed, linking food compounds to human proteins, gut microbes and disease processes. The aim is to build an atlas of how diet interacts with the body, and to pinpoint which molecules really matter for health.

06/17/2026 The Conversation Levels of ‘forever chemicals’ in dolphins and whales are rising globally - Whales and dolphins inhabit some of the largest and seemingly most pristine environments on Earth, from tropical coastlines to Antarctic waters. Yet even they cannot escape PFAS – persistent “forever chemicals” that leak from our homes, factories and waterways into the sea. Whales and dolphins inhabit some of the largest and seemingly most pristine environments on Earth, from tropical coastlines to Antarctic waters. Yet even they cannot escape PFAS – persistent “forever chemicals” that leak from our homes, factories and waterways into the sea. Some dolphin studies have reported changes in immune-related markers associated with PFAS exposure. The highest concentrations tended to be found in coastal dolphins and porpoises, suggesting animals living near urban and industrial areas face greater exposure.

06/15/2026 Smithsonian Magazine Venus Flytraps Snap Their Traps Shut in Less Than a Second - A team reports that the chomping motion happens when rigid walls of cells on the leaves’ outer surface suddenly soften. The findings provide new insights into plant biology and could inspire new robotic designs.

6/16/2026 The Conversation Microplastics are everywhere in Pennsylvania’s water – but the tide may be turning - Microplastics are nearly everywhere, their concentration in sediment has been doubling every 20 years, and some of the most common types are among the most toxic. More than 80% of mismanaged plastic waste - plastic that’s littered, dumped or otherwise not properly contained - is estimated to be transported by rivers to coastal environments. What can you do to decrease your exposure to microplastics and help decrease their spread? You can stay informed about which plastics carry the greatest health risks and check the recycling number on the bottom of containers before you buy. You can also swap out single-use plastic cups, straws and food containers for alternatives, such as glass, stainless steel or unbleached paper.

06/11/2026 NASA Air Pollution’s Daily Pulse Over the Northeast - More than 35 million people live along the New York–Washington corridor and breathe the region’s air. While air quality has improved significantly in recent decades, outbreaks of ground-level ozone remain common, particularly in the warm summer months, when the chemical reactions that produce the pollutant accelerate and stagnant air allows ozone to accumulate. A reminder of this seasonal phenomenon came earlier than usual in 2026, when a mid-May heat wave prompted the New York State Department of Health and the New York Department of Environmental Conservation to issue a health advisory on May 17 over concerns about ozone.

06/13/2026 Clean Technica Solar & Storage Provide Over 90% of All New Power Added to the U.S. Grid in Q1 - The United States added 7.8 gigawatts (GW) of new solar capacity in the first quarter of 2026, surpassing 6 million cumulative installations as solar remained the leading source of new power added to the grid. Despite changing tax policy and regulatory actions targeting clean energy, solar and energy storage represented 91% of new capacity installed in Q1 as utilities, homeowners and businesses seek energy security amid global gas and gas turbine supply disruptions.

03/17/2026 National Geographic To study microplastics, Cassandra Rauert first had to build a plastic-free lab. It wasn't easy - An air-locked, 250-square-foot facility built almost entirely from stainless steel and nicknamed “the submarine”—though it feels less like a sub and more like a starship from a galaxy where plastic never took over modern life. Known as the Minderoo Plastics and Human Health Laboratory

06/09/2026 Science Daily An invisible forever chemical rain is falling across the planet - Researchers found that refrigerants and certain anesthetic gases have generated more than 335,000 tons of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), a highly persistent "forever chemical," that has been deposited across Earth's surface since 2000. The pollutant is now showing up everywhere from rainwater to remote Arctic ice, and scientists expect levels to keep rising. Scientists are still working to fully understand the long-term effects of TFA. The European Chemicals Agency classifies the chemical as harmful to aquatic life. Researchers have also detected TFA in human blood and urine. In addition, the German Federal Office for Chemicals recently proposed classifying TFA as potentially toxic to human reproduction.

06/09/2026 National Wildlife Federation Data Centers are Driving Up Your Energy Bill - Clean energy has become the cheapest form of energy, but wind and solar still only account for 17 percent of the country’s energy generation. The biggest barrier to deploying clean energy is usually transmission. Without enough transmission to deliver cheaper clean energy to where it’s needed, over 900 GW of solar and wind projects sit waiting in queue, and utilities often default to more expensive fossil fuel generation instead. We can double down on outdated systems that pollute our air and water and drive up prices, or we can invest in the resilient energy solutions that have proven to be the cheapest, build the grid needed to deliver them, and ensure the largest electricity users pay their fair share of the costs they trigger.

06/08/2026 National Parks Traveler Young Mountains, Old Rocks: A Geological Overview of the Teton Range - The Tetons continue to grow. The tectonic forces that built the range are still active, and stress continues to build even if the Teton Fault has not experienced major movement in recorded history. Evidence of ongoing stress appears east of the Teton Range, where the Snake River does not flow down the center of its riverbed. Instead, the river flows preferentially along the western side of its banks as the extensional stress builds and the eastern block of the fault (the block underlying Jackson Hole) tilts more westward.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 20, 2026

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

06/06/2026 New York Times Looking for Love in the Big City? It’s Tough for Bowerbirds, Too. - The birds will choose artificial (plastic) accouterments over natural ones when given the choice.

06/05/2026 CNN Health Ultraprocessed food scientists say Americans are ‘fed up’ with industry and government inaction - Up to 70% of Americans want companies banned from advertising ultraprocessed foods on children’s television, while up to 87% want government safety testing for all laboratory-made chemicals long before they can be used in any food product, according to the survey published in the American Journal of Public Health. According to the US Centers for Disease and Prevention, 53% of American adults get most of their calories from ultraprocessed foods. For children ages 1 to 18, the percentage rises to 62%.

06/04/2026 The Conversation Poison or poverty: the impossible economic choices facing Ghana’s e‑waste workers - Agbogbloshie, in Ghana’s capital city, Accra, is a sprawling, open-air scrapyard located next to a lagoon and a growing informal settlement. Roughly 6,000 people dismantle, recycle and burn old and broken electronics there. Informal recycling provides an income for workers which is often relatively better than other available work. But the side effects of burning plastic and metal or using acid to extract minerals from the e-waste are devastating to human health and the natural environment.

06/05/2026 The Conversation A lot of ‘recycled’ plastic is being burned overseas – and causing widespread pollution linked to health problems - A large amount of plastic waste gets shipped overseas.  A new study analyzed what happens when plastic waste is shipped to lower- and middle-income countries, where open burning is a common way of dealing with excess waste. The study found pronounced increases in toxic air pollution. When plastic burns, it releases particularly toxic air pollutants. Fine particles can penetrate deep into people’s bodies, along with gases that include carbon monoxide, styrene gas and hydrogen cyanide. It also releases persistent organic pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and dioxins. These particles and gases have been linked to health risks ranging from respiratory and cardiovascular disease to cancer and reproductive and neurological disorders. Since 2021, seven states have enacted extended producer responsibility laws focused on packaging: Maine, Oregon, California, Colorado, Minnesota, Washington and Maryland. However, it will take time to see the effects.

06/02/2026 YaleEnvironment360 Tire Pollution May Threaten Human Health, Study Finds - Tiny particles of rubber cast off by car tires, which have long been known to harm wildlife, may also pose a risk to humans.

05/06/2026 Toxic-Free Future Endocrine-Disrupting Plastic Chemicals in Breast Milk - Testing found bisphenols, melamine and related chemicals, and triclosan in breast milk samples, pointing to widespread exposure from everyday products and materials, including plastics, food-contact materials, receipts, antimicrobial treatments, and many other products. To understand the potential health risks from tire pollution, researchers exposed human immune cells to a mixture of tire-derived pollutants as well as 6PPD-quinone (one of the known pollutants from tire rubber) on its own. The mixture caused rapid cell death, among other harms.

05/18/2026 NPR Thousands of U.S. countertop workers could have damaged lungs - Occupational health experts who have petitioned California to ban quartz say this material "is too toxic to fabricate and install safely, and education and enforcement alone will not be sufficient to curtail the escalating occupational health emergency caused by this product. A few weeks ago, in the first quartz and silicosis lawsuit to come to trial outside of California, a jury in Colorado awarded damages to an injured worker - finding that actions by several companies led to his illnesses. 

05/19/2026 Planetizen Public works officials indicate alarming decline in condition of water and sewer systems - According to a survey in the National League of Cities’ 2026 Municipal Infrastructure Conditions Report, the confidence of public works and city officials in their water systems has dropped significantly, with just 39% of officials surveyed saying their own water and sewer infrastructure is 'satisfactory,' down from 82% in 2022.

06/03/2026 Artnet Crystal Bridges’s New Expansion Makes Room for More of Its Story - Crystal Bridges is now set to unveil its new 114,000-square-foot expansion on June 6–7, complemented by five acres of specially landscaped trails, gardens, a stream, and a 15,000-square-foot pond, all situated within the greater 134-acre forested park that the museum calls home. (Maybe time to make another visit the museum/Bentonville, AR).

05/28/2026 NASA A Shift in What’s Shaping U.S. Landscapes - For most of the past four decades, observations from the Landsat satellite record show that humans have dominated changes to the U.S. landscape. Recent research revealed a shift in that trend, suggesting that disasters might be catching up.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 13, 2026

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

06/1/2026 Science Daily Your kitchen sponge is releasing microplastics every time you wash dishes – Use sponges with lower plastic (or no plastic) content! Using less water for dishes has and even greater environmental impact.

05/30/2026 Clean Technica Illinois First Great Lakes State to Enact Plastic Pellet Pollution Law - Just days before the end of the 2026 legislative session, the Illinois state legislature passed HB4418, which defines pre-production plastic pellets as a pollutant and gives the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency the authority to establish policies to prevent them from being released into the environment. eople complain about government overreach and faceless bureaucrats, but the truth is that without legislation such as this and governmental organizations like the Illinois EPA to enforce it, the world would be a much more toxic and dangerous place. It is long past time to stop giving polluters a free pass so they can maximize their profits.

05/11/2026 RNZ Is it really possible to live a plastic-free life? - Our lives are riddled with plastic, and growing evidence suggests it is affecting our health in myriad ways. (New Zealand)

04/27/2026 Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology Endocrine-disrupting chemicals in breast milk and early life exposure for infants in the United States – Melamine, cyanuric acid, BPA, BPS, and triclosan were detected with high frequency in breast milk samples in the study, and our study suggests that breast milk is an important exposure pathway for these chemicals among nursing infants. Given the importance of breastfeeding for infant health, our study highlights the need to investigate potential health effects of these chronic exposures.

04/26/2026 Earth.com Plastics are entering food crops and stunting their growth - Farmers, waste managers, and regulators now face a harder truth: plastic in soil can slow crops, gather around roots, and enter plants. The next step is tracing whether weathered nanoplastics reach edible tissues at harvest and deciding which plastic inputs should be cut first.

04/02/2026 Medical Xpress Seven days without plastic contact slashes phthalates and bisphenols in body – A clinical trial investigating levels of plastic chemicals in the human body has found that a low-plastic diet could be a fast and effective way to reduce exposure. (Australia)

05/31/2026 The Conversation Trees and greenery can cool cities by as much as 18°C – but only if it’s the right type - Field measurements from Melbourne, Munich and Hong Kong were compared to test how different kinds of urban planting changed the heat people experience outdoors. Layered vegetation – where trees are combined with shrubs and ground cover – often cooled cities more effectively than trees alone. We also found local climate and street design strongly shaped whether greening worked well. Cities need planting strategies tailored to local conditions rather than universal greening formulas. In parks and open green spaces, layered vegetation can provide strong cooling while also supporting biodiversity. In dense streets, planners may need to balance shade with ventilation.

05/28/2026 My Modern Met Hand-Colored Photos From 19th-Century Japan Offer a Glimpse of Traditional Life - Photography arrived in Japan very early—a little less than a decade after it was invented in Europe. Throughout the 1850s, as Japan opened up to foreigners, the images from this time capture not only a nearly forgotten moment in history but also a rare transitional time in which traditional Japanese life was being affected by rapid modernization.

05/20/2026 BBC Chile's Atacama Desert is one of the darkest places on Earth. But now the light is intruding - The battle against encroaching artificial light in the Atacama is a microcosm of a global problem. As electric bulbs have proliferated, around 80% of Earth's population now lives under light-polluted skies. A recent study of star visibility found that, on average globally, the sky brightened due to light pollution by almost 10% a year between 2011-2022. If a person could see 250 stars at the start of the period, the researchers found, they would only spot 100 by the end.

5/28/2026 Smithsonian Magazine Giant, Destructive Hail Is Becoming More Common with Climate Change - A new study finds that these giant hailstones will become more common as the climate warms from human-caused carbon emissions. In models of predicted future warming, the researchers found that the frequency of hail larger than a marble will increase 47 percent by 2100 in a worst-case scenario. Even in a more optimistic model of future climate change, the potential for storms producing giant hail will rise 38 percent.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 06, 2026

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

05/18/2026 The Scientist How Extreme Heat May Be Raising the Risk of Gestational Diabetes - A growing body of research shows that climate change-driven extreme heat may be increasing the risk of GDM. Studies from around the world are also pointing to critical windows of vulnerability, suggesting that rising temperatures may be shaping maternal health in overlooked ways.

05/19/2026 BBC Japan is gripped by mass allergies. A 1950s project is to blame - Large-scale afforestation after World War II was carried out by public works, funded by tax revenues, to prevent soil erosion. Aiming for rapid reforestation, the government chose to plant reams of only two different native, fast-growing evergreen species that could quickly reforest landscapes and provide wood for future use in construction: the Japanese cedar, sugi, and the Japanese cypress, hinoki.

05/26/2026 Planetizen Two years after California reintroduced beavers, they are transforming the landscape into a 'climate-resilient powerhouse' – Collaboration between California Native American tribes and California Department of Fish and Wildlife….a  beaver created wetland complex created since 2023.

5/26/2026 Yale Environment 360 Warming Is Raising the Risk of Encounters with Venomous Snakes – When I went through Master Naturalist training in Maryland more than a decade ago – we were told that cottonmouth moccasins were not found in Maryland….that they were found as far north as Viriginia. I wondered at the time how long it would take for temperatures to warm enough for them to move northward. The post says that “Cottonmouth moccasins in the US are forecast to head as far north as New York” although it does not say how soon.

05/14/2026 The Scientist Bioelectric Contact Lenses Alleviate Depression in Mice - This wearable, drug-free approach holds promise for transforming how depression and other brain conditions are treated, including anxiety, drug addiction, and cognitive decline. The problem is, sugi and hinoki trees also produce large amounts of lightweight pollen which can easily drift into cities. It's this pollen, often released all at once from the monoculture plantations, that is responsible for most seasonal allergies in Japan.

05/26/2026 Science Daily Scientists say they’ve reversed brain aging with a simple nasal spray - The therapy relies on microscopic biological particles called extracellular vesicles (EVs). These tiny structures naturally transport genetic material between cells. In this case, they were loaded with microRNAs, molecules that help regulate important biological processes in the brain. Once inside the brain, the treatment targeted immune cells involved in chronic inflammation. Scientists also found that it restored activity in mitochondria, the tiny structures inside cells responsible for producing energy. Aging and inflammation can damage mitochondria, leaving brain cells less efficient and more vulnerable to decline. (More work required before the treatment can be testing in humans).

5/26/2026 BBC The hidden dead zones spreading across the Baltic Sea floor - Cod fishing has collapsed. It may take more than 400 years for the maritime environment to recover from factors such as overfishing, oxygen depletion and rising sea temperatures. Some believe it may not happen at all.Areas of the sea floor with little or no oxygen, known as "dead zones", appear to be creeping closer to Bornholm's beaches. This is due to human pollution from fertilizers and sewage creating huge algal blooms, which, when they die, sink to the sea floor and cover it. Their decomposition uses up the available oxygen, kills the living organisms that depend on it, and – as a result – creates dead zones.

5/25/2026 Our World in Data Five million children die every year — what do they die from? – Worldwide 44% die from infectious diseases and 42% die from birth disorders….but there is a huge difference between low and high income countries.

5/21/2026 My Modern Met Amazing Winners of This Scientific Microscopic Imaging Contest Capture the Unseen Beauty of Life – I always enjoy magnified photography of life…the world we cannot see without our technology that often is quite beautiful.

5/22/2026 Artnet A 4,500-Year-Old Building Near Stonehenge Has Been Brought Back to Life - More than 100 volunteers have built a 20-foot high structure using the tools and techniques of Neolithic England - ecreating stone tools, using a woodland management technique known as coppicing, and creating a cement-like mixture of chalk, water, and straw called chalk daub.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 30, 2026

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

05/18/2026 Washington Post EPA wants to repeal limits on ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water - The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday proposed repealing limits on four types of “forever chemicals” in drinking water, while delaying regulations on two others. Beyond the six compounds in question, there are hundreds of PFAS being used in manufacturing today that are also toxic and demand to be regulated together as a chemical class, an idea the EPA has so far resisted.

5/16/2026 Science Daily Scientists warn that the world’s rivers are running out of oxygen - Rivers around the world are quietly running out of oxygen — and climate change is emerging as the main culprit. A sweeping global analysis of more than 21,000 river systems found that nearly 80% have been steadily losing dissolved oxygen over the past four decades, threatening fish, biodiversity, and the overall health of freshwater ecosystems. Surprisingly, tropical rivers are being hit the hardest, even more than rivers in rapidly warming polar regions.

5/11/2026 Planetizen New Orleans sea level rise is at 'point of no return' - Since the 1930s, Louisiana has lost 2,000 sq miles of land to coastal erosion, equivalent to the size of Delaware, with a further 3,000 sq miles set to vanish over the next 50 years. The rate of land loss is so rapid that a football pitch-sized area is wiped out every 100 minutes.

5/4/2026 BBC Food labels have far-reaching effects on our health - Many leading experts say the food environment – such as the way food is produced, marketed and sold – itself is "obesogenic" (creating the conditions for weight gain) and this influences consumers to make unhealthy choices. To combat the growing levels of obesity, we need to change what we eat – and emerging research shows that behavioural interventions as well as policy change could make a meaningful difference.

5/14/2026 NPR The MAHA movement is coming to school cafeterias. Here's what that means for kids - Exactly how the government's new dietary guidelines will impact schools is unclear. The Department of Agriculture (USDA) said it is still working to update the nutrition standards it requires of institutions taking part in the National School Lunch Program, which fed 30 million children last year, and the School Breakfast Program.

5/13/2026 Modern Met Haunting and Hopeful Images Win the 2026 Environmental Photography Award - Selected from roughly 10,000 submissions, this year’s winning images span five categories—Changemakers, Forests, Humanity vs Nature, Ocean, and Polar Regions. Together, they document everything from wildlife trafficking and climate disasters to moments of breathtaking beauty in the natural world.

5/15/2026 Archaeology Magazine Mysterious Ancient Tunnel Discovered Beneath Jerusalem Streets – “Usually we have explanations for the discoveries we uncover, but sometimes, as in this case, we stand astonished and amazed.”

5/14/2026 Yale Environment 360 Restoring the Flow: A Milestone in the Revival of the Everglades - In Picayune Strand State Forest, the state and federal governments have been working for more than two decades to undo the damage wrought by that failed development. It’s been a huge undertaking across 55,000 acres. Recently, though, the state and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers put the finishing touches on the most critical part of the work: restoring the natural flow of water across the land. How well this hydrological restoration leads to wider ecological recovery remains to be seen. But the transformation is already underway.

5/11/2026 NASA Color Off the Mid-Atlantic Coast - Starting in early April, NASA satellites began to detect a patch of brownish, blue-green water lingering off the coasts of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. The colors and patterns were most intense in the shallow coastal zone where the waters of Raritan Bay, Delaware Bay, and Chesapeake Bay merged with the Atlantic Ocean—an area known as the Mid-Atlantic Bight. 

5/14/2026 National Parks Traveler What to Expect on The Grand Canyon's North Rim This Summer -Visitors need to be self-sufficient as they encounter burned landscapes, limited services, no potable water, portable toilets and ongoing construction tied to rebuilding facilities, utilities and infrastructure destroyed by the wildfire that started last July 4 and exploded out of control under strong fanning winds. 

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 23, 2026

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

05/10/26 Poets.org Forever Plastics – A poem by Ronald Carson. He says “In this poem, I wanted plastics to speak in the first-person plural, tracing the path from postwar convenience to biological saturation, where the environment is no longer outside us but lodged within us.”

04/22/2026 The New York Times You Paid to Have Old Clothes Recycled. Here’s What That Really Means. - Collection services offer convenience, but most garments are shredded into low-grade stuffing or sent abroad to an uncertain fate. The most important thing, experts and environmental activists say, is to buy less in the first place. It’s easier to deal with clothes responsibly if there are fewer of them to begin with.

05/7/2026 Super Age Life Expectancy Gains Are Slowing. Your Choices Are More Important Than Ever - The future of longevity will most likely be shaped less by sweeping public health revolutions and more by targeted, personalized strategies: slowing biological aging, optimizing midlife health, and extending the years we remain active, engaged, and independent.

05/12/2026 Planetizen 16% of roads that received federal funds remain in poor condition - State DOTs are spending most of that money on highway expansions instead of repair and maintenance work. And "Because increasingly lax reporting standards conceal broken roads from public view, and DOTs routinely mis-categorize expensive expansion projects as simple 'maintenance' or lump them into a mysterious 'other' category, Transportation for America suspects the national highway network is actually even more drastically overbuilt than it appears on paper."

05/11/2026 I’m Plastic Free How to Reduce Microplastics Exposure: The Ultimate Guide & Checklist - This guide breaks down exactly how microplastics enter your system, and provides a practical, but very thorough, science-backed checklist to reduce your exposure across your home, diet, and daily habits.

05/12/2026 BBC 'Fatbergs' are taking over city sewers - scientists are fighting back - Reeking coagulations of grease and debris are clotting sewers around the world on a colossal scale. Cities are deploying new technologies to control this modern menace. New York City – where 40% of sewer backups are due to grease – spends around $18.8m annually degreasing and removing blockages from the sewers beneath its streets. 

5/12/2026 National Parks Traveler Musings About the Parks | Things I Worry About – A list from Kurt Rapanshek. He ends the post this way: “Without question, there are many, many things that are uplifting about exploring the National Park System. But if the Park Service truly is going to preserve these places and their natural resources for future generations, it really needs a lot more help from Congress and presidential administrations.”

5/11/2026 Smithsonian Magazine See 15 Stunning Images That Won the German Society for Nature Photography’s Annual Contest – Beautiful and thought-provoking images.

05/06/2026 YaleEnvironment360 Airborne Microplastics May Be Warming the Planet - Tiny particles of plastic amassing in the atmosphere may be intensifying warming. Darker bits of plastic are absorbing heat. And even though lighter particles are reflecting sunlight, with a cooling influence, in the aggregate microplastics are having a warming effect. The warming impact is tiny, far less than the impact of carbon dioxide emissions, and only a fraction of the impact of soot. The microplastic emissions produced globally each year have roughly the same warming effect as running 200 coal power plants for that year….but more study is needed

05/04/2026 CNN The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a plastic trash nightmare. It could also be part of a much bigger, hidden problem - The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a significant source of airborne microplastics and nanoplastics, but there are many other places where tiny plastic particles can be whipped up into the skies, including from landfills, roadside litter and car tires. Colored plastics, especially red, yellow, blue and black, absorbed around 75 times more light than pristine, non-pigmented plastics.

05/10/2026 Science Daily Antarctica is melting from below and scientists say it’s worse than expected - Deep beneath floating ice shelves, long channels carved into the ice appear to trap warmer ocean water, dramatically speeding up melting from below. Even regions of East Antarctica once considered relatively stable may be far more vulnerable than scientists realized. Researchers warn that current climate models may be missing this dangerous process entirely, meaning future sea level rise could be underestimated.

Suburban Savanna – 2

Last month was my first post about my goal to turn my yard into a suburban savanna. The series continues this month.

I’ve done the planting for the year already.

The last new plant was a free smooth sumac from the Earth Day Music Festival that I planted in the corner of the yard where oak leaves (neighbor’s tree) accumulate, and the dandelions have very large leaves. I hope it will eventually fill that corner of the yard.

View fullsize

View fullsize

I have discovered a sturdy red oak seeding (squirrel planted) in the bed that I made after a pine fell. I am letting it grow. There will be elderberry and beautyberry along with iris and naked lady lilies around its base. It will be a long time before the oak will be big enough to make shade an issue. I anticipate that the progression of this garden will be the most interesting of the yard.

View fullsize

View fullsize

The panicled aster Symphyotrichum lanceolatum that came up next to my driveway last summer is there again – and is larger. I am letting it grow since it is a fall bloomer and was full of pollinating insects last fall.

Goldenrods, rudbekias, and other asters are coming up in the yard too. I mow them in the front yard – keeping up the ‘look’ that the HOA wants for now – but I mow around them in the back and will let them bloom.

View fullsize

View fullsize

Our sprinkler system is over 25 years old and is fixed to begin the season…but might need to be replaced as more of the underground components fail (or leak). The further I get in the transition to native plants, the less watering the yard will require. I am going to water the native plant garden in the front yard this season to help the plants get established, but it might not need it in 2027! The decision to keep a sprinkler system might be driven more by our perception of how variable the rains will be as the climate continues to change than what the native plants require.

Next month I will write about the shade garden which is the most developed part of my suburban savanna.

Previous Suburban Savanna Posts:

April 2026

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 16, 2026

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

5/1/2026 Science Daily A hidden brain “cleaning” effect triggered by movement - Every time you tighten your abdominal muscles—even slightly—your brain may gently sway inside your skull. This subtle motion, triggered by pressure changes in connected blood vessels, appears to help circulate cerebrospinal fluid around the brain, potentially flushing out harmful waste.

4/30/2026 NWF Blog Fighting Toxic “Forever Chemicals” on Our Farms - The Department of Defense has identified over 4,000 high-risk or already-contaminated agricultural sites across the U.S.  The PFAS contamination often came from ‘biosludge’ from local wastewater treatment plants that was spread of field as cheap fertilizer before the PFAS danger was understood. But we know how to fix this: ban PFAS at the source, regulate what’s left, and clean up what’s left without leaving the people who have already suffered to pay.

4/30/2026 Clean Technica The Petroleum System Is Entering Its Volatile Decline Phase - he UAE’s decision to leave OPEC+ is not just another Gulf oil story. It is an early signal of what happens when a producer with low-cost barrels, spare capacity ambitions, and a long view of electrification decides that flexibility may be worth more than cartel discipline. Oil demand is beginning to bend under the weight of EVs, electric trucks, efficiency, remote work, substitution, and changing logistics. The petroleum system is more likely to become less stable as it declines, because the institutions, companies, states, supply chains, and fiscal bargains built around oil were built for growth. A declining oil market does not just reduce demand. It changes incentives.

4/29/2026 NPR Baby teeth hold clues to the harms of toxic metals for infants — and older kids – A study of the baby teeth shed by 500 children in Mexico City…. s the children reached adolescence, the researchers also took detailed behavior assessments for some of the kids and MRI scans of their brains. The researchers looked at exposures to nine metals common in the environment. It's not just how much of these metals babies are exposed to that matters, but when that exposure happens. Exposure to this metal mixture during this critical period of around 6 to 9 months of development was strongly associated with negative changes in behavior in these adolescents including inattention and hyperactivity. They also found a strong link to changes in the brain, including a decrease in overall brain volume and changes in the way different areas of the brain connect with each other. They also found abnormalities in the brain's white matter, which is important to the speed and efficiency of thought.

4/30/2026 Archaeology Magazine Skeleton Study Reveals Life on the Frontier After the Fall of Rome – 250 sets of human remains in Southern Germany from between AD 400-700. After the Roman Empire fell in A.D. 476, the study suggests that life expectancy rose to 43.3 years for men and 39.8 years for women. Women are thought to have had a lower life expectancy due to the risks of childbirth, but the overall rise in life expectancy may have been due to fewer violent conflicts in the region. The study also determined that in the late fifth century, after the collapse of the Roman Empire, northern Europeans mixed with diverse Roman provincial groups as people migrated north into southern Germany and away from Roman territory. By the seventh century A.D., the population living in the area had become genetically similar to today’s Central Europeans.

5/1/2026 National Parks Traveler Climate Change Is Altering When Water Is Available - In the Upper Midwest and New England, streamflow has already become more evenly spread throughout the year due to climate change. In contrast, patterns in the western United States are more complex. I n snow-dominated regions of the U.S. West, warmer years tend to produce a wider distribution of streamflow across the year—conditions that may benefit senior water users while disadvantaging junior users. In non-snowy parts of the region, the opposite pattern emerges: warmer years are associated with more concentrated flows, potentially offering a relative advantage to junior water users.

4/29/2026 Yale Environment 360 How the Next El Niño Could Lock in a Hotter Climate - In a world already superheated by greenhouse gases, a strong El Niño during the next 12 to 18 months could permanently push the planet’s average annual temperature past the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming threshold. The potential for more destructive physical impacts raises deeper concerns about how societies that developed under relatively stable climate conditions will function in a world with shifting baselines and sharper swings between droughts and floods, more intense tropical storms, expanded fire seasons, and long-lasting unseasonal extreme heat.

4/29/2026 Smithsonian Magazine Video of a Sumatran Orangutan Crossing a Human-Made Wildlife Bridge in the Treetops - The human-made treetop overpass stretches across the Pakpak Bharat district’s Lagan-Pagindar road, which runs through the habitat of about 350 wild orangutans and separates the Siranggas Wildlife Reserve from the Sikulaping Protection Forest.

4/28/2026 The Conversation A probe into ‘forever chemicals’ in activewear lays bare fashion’s greenwashing problem - While most major brands promised to phase out PFAS by 2020, follow-up testing shows they still appear in leggings and sports bras across the sector. The transition has been slow because finding safer alternatives that perform just as well is both expensive and technically complex. Until we move from a system of voluntary promises to one of legal requirements, “sustainable” will remain a marketing choice rather than a guarantee.

4/29/2026 Science Daily Earth is splitting open beneath the Pacific Northwest - Scientists have, for the first time, clearly captured a subduction zone in the act of breaking apart. These zones form where one tectonic plate sinks beneath another, and they are responsible for some of the most powerful geological events on Earth.