Category: Environment

Climate change could have a major impact on the environment of Costa Rica, upsetting delicate mountain cloud forests, and causing a decrease in plant and animal species in a region famous for its biodiversity. Regional climate models predict that the area will become warmer and drier as climate change accelerates.

While melting Arctic sea ice and glaciers have become a symbol of climate change, new research from the University of Massachusetts Amherst indicates that highland forests in Costa Rica could also be seriously affected by future changes in climate, reducing the number of species in a region famous for its biodiversity.

California's native plant species are so vulnerable to global climate change that two-thirds of them could suffer 80 percent reduction in their geographic range by the end of the 21st century.

Two-thirds of the plants native to the state of California could suffer more than an 80 percent reduction in geographic range by the end of the century, according to a recent study.

In honor of the impending wedding season, The Nature Conservancy offers tips to make your special day one Mother Nature will celebrate.

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something ... green? It’s really not as out of the ordinary as it sounds - last year, Brides.com estimated that approximately 33% of future brides and grooms in the U.S. are planning an eco-friendly wedding.

When researchers observe natural changes in clouds and temperature, they have assumed that temperature change caused the clouds to change, and not the other way around. This can lead to overestimates of how sensitive Earth's climate is to greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate experts agree that the seriousness of manmade global warming depends greatly upon how clouds in the climate system respond to the small warming tendency from the extra carbon dioxide mankind produces.

According to new research, by 2030, expanding urban areas will fill 350,000 square miles, an area the size of Texas. At present, humans are building the equivalent of a city the size of Vancouver every week.

Today, The Nature Conservancy and Harvard University released a new study examining the effect of staggering urban growth on nature and people that finds if we don’t improve urban planning now, we may lose some animals, plants and natural resources for good.

Prof. John Quigley conducts the first systematic analysis of environmentally-sustainable construction and its economic impact on the real estate market.

Everyone’s talking about “going green” but the cost of the investment has, up to now, been difficult to justify. Energy savings aside, what are the financial benefits of using environmentally sustainable materials and technology in construction? Professor John Quigley at the University of California, Berkeley – Haas School of Business is conducting the first systematic analysis of environmentally-sustainable construction and its economic impact on the real estate market.

World Ocean Day, June 8th, highlights threats to oceans around the world, and opportunities to help improve the health of our seas.

This World Ocean Day, June 8th, The Nature Conservancy is offering simple tips to help restore oceans and coasts around the world.

Rising background levels of ozone in the atmosphere are a likely contributor to the global food crisis, since ozone has been shown to damage plants and reduce yields of important crop, including soybeans and wheat.

Heat waves, droughts and fuel prices are just a few reasons for the current global food crisis that is making headlines around the world. Research by William Manning of the University of Massachusetts Amherst indicates that rising background levels of ozone in the atmosphere are a likely contributor to the problem, lowering the yield of important food crops, such as wheat and soybeans.

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Ozone damage on morning glory plant.

Although efforts to improve the fresh water side of the salmon's life cycle, many are not surviving their salt water stay. Global warming might be partially to blame.

Since 1983, sports fishermen from the Drammen River in Norway have been saving the scales of Atlantic salmon, caught as they return from years at sea to spawn in fresh water. A team of researchers including Jennifer McCarthy of the University of Massachusetts Amherst is using these scales to solve the mystery of why most of these endangered fish never survive their ocean stay.

Killing 83 acres of aspen and birch for environmental purposes might seem to be counter productive. However, scientists are hoping to learn that what comes after the kill will be more efficient at helping reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Armed with chainsaws and pry bars, University of Michigan researchers and their colleagues recently hastened the end for nearly 7,000 mature aspen and birch trees in a large-scale, long-term experiment to glimpse the Great Lakes region's future forests.