Gleanings of the Week Ending April 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.

4/9/2026 Yale 360 A More Troubling Picture of Sea Level Rise Is Coming into View - Sea levels are much higher than we thought. Real-world oceans are making a mockery of flood-risk forecasts based on crude global modeling. And to make matters worse, coastal lands almost everywhere are subsiding faster than anyone realized — often many times faster than the seas are rising. 

4/10/2026 BBC The air throughout our homes is infused with microplastics. But there are things you can do to breathe less of them - Scientists believe the majority of our exposure to microplastics happens when we're indoors. To solve the microplastic pollution crisis will take a lot more than changes within the home – there are plenty of broader sustainability concerns too. If moving to replace synthetic fibers in your home with natural fibers, for instance, there's also the greater water and land use from organic cotton use to think about. Or if choosing to ventilate your home more to usher away microplastics, that pollution is only being pushed outdoors. Short of systemic change and a global reduction from the 460 million tons of plastic made each year, there's only so much individuals can do. 

4/9/2026 National Parks Traveler Deer Test Positive for Chronic Wasting Disease at Catoctin Mountain Park – We enjoyed Catoctin when we lived in Maryland….I’m sad that the deer there and in nearby parks have tested positive for CWD.

4/08/2026 Smithsonian Magazine See the 2,000-Year-Old Ancient Roman Cargo from an Accidental Shipwreck Discovered at the Bottom of a Lake in Switzerland - Roughly 2,000 years ago, an ancient Roman ship sailed across a large lake in what is now Switzerland, transporting supplies ranging from olive oil to chariot wheels. For some unknown reason, the vessel scattered its cargo across the lakebed. The cargo is in good condition, but researchers are concerned it may become damaged or destroyed by erosion, boat anchors, vandals and looters. As a precautionary measure, they decided to bring the most vulnerable pieces up from the depths.

4/10 2026 Artnet How a Hopi Potter Named Nampeyo Became a 19th-Century Art Star - Born in 1859 in the village of Hano, a Tewa village on First Mesa, in modern-day Arizona, Nampeyo (1859–1942) is believed to have learned the art of pottery making from her paternal grandmother. By the 1870s, Nampeyo was selling her works at trading posts throughout the region. Nampeyo’s legacy is a complex one, shaped by ancestry, archaeology, and the shifting trade systems of the still-expanding United States as it entered the 20th century.

4/11/2026 Science Daily Unusual airborne toxin detected in the U.S. for the first time - Scientists searching for air pollution clues stumbled onto something unexpected: toxic MCCPs drifting through the air for the first time in the Western Hemisphere. Although these pollutants have previously been detected in places like Antarctica and Asia, scientists had struggled to measure them in the air over the Western Hemisphere until this study. These chemicals are commonly used in industrial processes, including metalworking fluids and the production of PVC and textiles. They frequently appear in wastewater and can end up in biosolid fertilizer, also called sewage sludge, which is produced during wastewater treatment. The researchers believe the MCCPs they detected in Oklahoma likely originated from nearby fields where this type of fertilizer had been applied.

4/8/2026 My Modert Met Winners of the Scottish Nature Photography Awards 2025 Celebrate Scotland’s Wild Beauty - The winning photos span 10 primary categories, including Environmental, Natural Abstract, Scottish Botanical, and Scottish Wildlife Portrait, among others. I appreciated the beauty among so many other blog posts that were somber….depressing.

4/3/2026 NWF Blog How to Grow More - Conservation outreach professionals are tasked with the challenge of not only clearly explaining conservation programs but also personally connecting with farmers. This combination of technical skills and personal communication skills is rare, since the skills are seldom taught in school and professional development opportunities are uncommon or unsupported.

4/3/2026 The Conversation Toxic dust from California’s shrinking Salton Sea is harming children’s lung growth - As the lake shrinks, wind blowing across the exposed lake bed kicks up toxic dust left by years of agriculture chemicals and metals washing into the lake. That dust makes its way into the lungs of the children of the Imperial Valley. The study began to show that higher levels of dust exposure, especially among those children living closer to the sea, are linked to poorer lung function, as well as reductions in children’s lung growth over time. Reduced lung function increases the risk for chronic respiratory disease, such as COPD, or more frequent respiratory infections, such as pneumonia, as adults.

3/19/2026 Mongabay Should potentially harmful chemicals be appraised by class, not one at a time? - Some scientists and health advocates are pushing for a “Six Classes” framework that evaluates entire groups of chemicals, or chemically related subgroups, together, flagging them for scrutiny before harm is documented rather than after. The framework targets six broad categories of chemicals that share many common traits: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), flame retardants, phthalates and bisphenols, antimicrobials, certain solvents, and certain metals.