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.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 28, 2024

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.

The ancient practice of 'good fire' is reviving Nebraska's birds, bears and berries - In its original shape, the once wide, but relatively shallow Platte River provided an open space for the (sandhill) cranes to roost, while also keeping an eye on predators. These four-to-five-foot tall birds with wingspans of six-to-seven feet found abundant plants and insects to eat on the Nebraskan prairies. Lightning strikes brought occasional wildfires, which cleared out dead material and refreshed native plant life. Fire suppression is not always a good thing…

Giant Slab of Bog Butter Recovered in Ireland – Nearly 50 pounds! It is being analyzed by the National Museum of Ireland. It would be interesting to know how long it had been in the bog.

How Agroforestry Could Help Revitalize America’s Corn Belt – 8,200 hazelnut saplings growing with flocks of chickens in narrow grass paddocks between the rows of fledgling trees…. By combining food-bearing trees and shrubs with poultry production it is an example of agroforestry — an ancient practice that intertwines annual and perennial agriculture. Other forms include alley cropping, in which annual crops including grains, legumes, and vegetables grow between rows of food-bearing trees, and silvopasture, which features cattle munching grass between the rows. An acre of land under agroforestry can sequester five metric tons of CO2 annually, versus one ton for an acre of corn or soybeans. As the region’s vast corn and soybean operations continue hemorrhaging soil and fouling water and climate change proceeds apace, they may find themselves looking for new directions sooner than later.

Humans Pollute the Environment With 57 Million Tons of Plastic Each Year - Uncollected waste is the biggest source of plastic pollution, with at least 1.2 billion people living without waste collection services forced to ‘self-manage’ waste, often by dumping it on land, in rivers, or burning it in open fires. This “self-managed” plastic waste makes up more than two-thirds of the modeled plastic pollution. The study also calculated the largest contributors to plastic pollution in the world: India is in first place, producing 10.2 million tons a year; Nigeria is in second; Indonesia is in third; and China—which had been ranked in first place according to other models—instead comes in fourth. The U.S. ranks 90th, with more than 52,500 tons of plastic pollution produced annually.

One of world's fastest ocean currents is remarkably stable - There is growing scientific and public interest in the global Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, a three-dimensional system of ocean currents that act as a "conveyer belt" to distribute heat, salt, nutrients, and carbon dioxide across the world's oceans. This study found that Florida Current, the beginning of the Gulf Stream system and a key component of the AMOC, has remained stable for the past four decades. Understanding the state of the Florida Current is very important for developing coastal sea level forecast systems, assessing local weather and ecosystem and societal impacts.

Growth of Solar Continues to Defy Predictions - The world is set to install a third more solar capacity this year than it did in 2023, surpassing forecasts by both industry experts and independent analysts. China is driving the bulk of the growth. Through May, India installed more solar capacity than it did in the whole of last year, and in the U.S., new tax breaks are giving the industry a significant boost. Solar manufacturing has jumped fourfold since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022.

Birds Form Surprising Relationships with Other Avian Species During Migration - The researchers found that songbirds tended to show up together rather than avoid each other. American redstarts and magnolia warblers reliably appeared together in the researchers’ nets in spring and fall. The same thing happened with ruby-crowned kinglets and white-throated sparrows. The presence of other birds with similar foraging behavior or similar food preferences may signal to newcomers where the good habitat is, helping them refuel more quickly.

Residents in San Joaquin Valley breathe chemical pesticides - A new study found 22% of adults and 10% of children who participated in an air-quality study in California's San Joaquin Valley were breathing detectable levels of pesticides. Participants in this study served as citizen scientists, going about their normal days while wearing the backpacks to collect the samples.

Creative ways communities are reducing food waste – Returning oyster shells to the water in Alabama, collecting food waste for composting in almond orchards in California, gleaning fruit at the end of the season to supply the needy in New Hampshire-Massachusetts, and using underused land to grow free food in Washington.

Only Two US Metro Areas Are Affordable for Homebuyers - Before the Covid-19 pandemic, 20 U.S. states were considered affordable home-buying markets for most households. Today, just two metro areas remain ‘affordable’ by that definition issued by the National Association of Realtors — and no entire states fit the bill. The two metro areas are Youngstown and Akron, Ohio. Home prices have increased by 47% nationwide just since 2020, according to a June report by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. A major factor is that there aren’t many homes for sale.