Featured Articles
An invisible enemy: The battle to save the black-
footed ferret from the plague
in The Guardian
Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes plague, killed millions of people across Europe in the Middle Ages. Today it remains a deadly threat to one of the most endangered species in the United States, and taking an unknown toll on America’s prairie ecosystems.
How Maryland’s Preference for Burning Trash Galvanized Environmental Activists in Baltimore
in InsideClimate News
Waste-to-energy incinerators gained traction in the 1980s as an environmentally-friendly alternative to throwing trash in landfills by burning it and converting it to energy. But by some metrics, burning trash can be even dirtier than burning coal.
Conservationists Condemn US Failure to Protect Wolverines
in The Guardian (republished by High Country News)
The US Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that they are withdrawing a proposal to list wolverines as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, frustrating conservationists who say the animal faces an existential threat from climate change.
WRITING BY TOPIC
Environment and Sustainability
To save low-lying atolls, adaptive measures need to start now, in Eos
Most of the Arctic’s microscopic algae are chilling under ice, in Eos
To Protect the World’s Sand, We Need to Know How to Measure It, in Eos
For the Sunrise Movement’s DC Hub, a call to support Black lives, in InsideClimate News
Agriculture, mining, hunting push critically endangered gorilla to the brink in Mongabay
The world needs to get serious about managing sand in Science Magazine
Huge rubber plantation in Cameroon halts deforestation following rebuke in Mongabay
Tropical deforestation is the third-biggest carbon emitter in the world in Pacific Standard
What’s causing deforestation? in Mongabay
Plantations can produce more palm oil if they keep rivers forested in Mongabay
As biomass energy gains traction, southern US forests feel the burn in Mongabay
Estonia’s trees: valued resource or squandered second chance? in Mongabay
Mothers vs. loggers: the destruction of Bialowieza Forest splits Poland in Mongabay
Sand mining ban lifted on beach in Suriname in Mongabay
In the fishing industry, gear recycling is finally catching on in Ensia
Earth and Space Sciences
Fibers pick up Silicon Valley traffic during quarantine, in Eos
Jupiter’s ocean moons raise tidal waves on one another, in Eos
Megaripple migration offers insight into Martian atmosphere, in Eos
NSF Plots a Course for the Next Decade of Earth Sciences Research, in Eos
New England forests were historically shaped by climate, not people, in Eos
Poor water management implicated in failure of ancient Khmer capital in Eos
Forgotten trove of fossil feathers belonged to tiny polar dinosaurs in Ars Technica
Hurricanes, climate change, and the decline of the Maya in Ars Technica
Pre-Inca Canal System Uses Hillsides as Sponges to Store Water in Eos
One of Europe’s worst famines likely caused by devastating floods in AGU’s GeoSpace
A 450-Year Record of North Sea Herring, Pried from Clams in Hakai Magazine
Animals
Jellies transfer a significant amount of carbon to the deep ocean in Eos
Power lines may mess with honeybees’ behavior and ability to learn in Science News
A new pesticide is all the buzz in Ars Technica
This shrimplike creature makes aluminum armor in Science Magazine
Super-spreaders: How the curious life of a newt could ignite a pandemic in Mongabay
How acoustic monitoring gave us a last chance to save the vaquita in Mongabay
Nearly half of Mount Oku frogs are in danger of croaking, study finds in Mongabay
A spate of death’s in India’s oldest tiger reserve causes concern in Pacific Standard
Science History
Space Weather Lessons from a 1928 Dirigible Debacle, in Eos
How the Institute went coed in MIT Technology Review
Edmond Dewan, citizen science, and the mystery of ball lightning in Eos
The Mystery of the 19th Century Maine Marine Monster in Hakai Magazine
Profiles and Q&A’s
Drawing lessons from deep history, Annalee Newitz puts a pandemic in perspective
A profile of science writer Anil Ananthaswamy
A profile of podcaster Molly Segal
