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As flooding increases in the Chicago area, many communities are left without funding
August 7, 2023 — This story will publish August 15, 2023. Check back then!. Editor’s note: This story is part of a collaboration that includes the Institute for Nonprofit News, Borderless, Ensia, Planet Detroit, Sahan Journal, and Wisconsin Watch, as well as the Guardian and Inside Climate News. The project was supported by the Joyce Foundation. You can read the launch story from Ensia, “Inundation and Injustice: Flooding presents a formidable threat to the Great Lakes region,” here.
Climate costs imperil unique, diverse Detroit neighborhood
Editor’s note: This story is part of a collaboration that includes the Institute for Nonprofit News, Borderless, Ensia, Planet Detroit, Sahan Journal, and Wisconsin Watch, as well as the Guardian and Inside Climate News. The project was supported by the Joyce Foundation. You can read the launch story from Ensia, “Inundation and Injustice: Flooding presents a formidable threat to the Great Lakes region,” here.
Milwaukee residents fear more flooding due to planned highway expansion
August 10, 2023 — Editor’s note: This story is part of a collaboration that includes the Institute for Nonprofit News, Borderless, Ensia, Planet Detroit, Sahan Journal, and Wisconsin Watch, as well as the Guardian and Inside Climate News. The project was supported by the Joyce Foundation. You can read the launch story from Ensia, “Inundation and Injustice: Flooding presents a formidable threat to the Great Lakes region,”here. This story was originally published by Wisconsin Watch.
On Chicago’s South Side, neighbors fight to keep Lake Michigan at bay
Editor’s note: This story is part of a collaboration that includes the Institute for Nonprofit News, Borderless, Ensia, Planet Detroit, Sahan Journal, and Wisconsin Watch, as well as the Guardian and Inside Climate News. The project was supported by the Joyce Foundation. You can read the launch story from Ensia, “Inundation and Injustice: Flooding presents a formidable threat to the Great Lakes region,” here. This story was originally published by Grist.
Inundation and Injustice: Flooding presents a formidable threat to the Great Lakes region
August 8, 2023 — Editor’s note: This story is the introductory piece in a six-part collaboration — “Inundated: Flooding and vulnerable communities in the Great Lakes region”— that includes the Institute for Nonprofit News, Borderless, Ensia, Grist, Planet Detroit, Sahan Journal and Wisconsin Watch, as well as the Guardian and Inside Climate News. The project was supported by the Joyce Foundation.
Opinion: Climate-friendly food systems start with different values, not technologies
July 26, 2023 — Mainstream conversations about transforming Western food systems in light of their adverse impacts on things such as climate and biodiversity have become overly dominated by a handful of relatively superficial technological matters. In the ongoing debate over the promises, merits and pitfalls of different sources of protein, for example, details like carbon emissions, productivity and efficiency have become the primary — and sometimes only — benchmarks used to evaluate and compare solutions. While these matter, there are additional factors that deserve as much, if not more, consideration.
Opinion: Evolving toward community-led conservation
July 14, 2023 — Cruising the crystal-blue waters off Mafia Island, Tanzania, you never feel alone. Boats of all shapes and sizes glide past, fishing the nutrient-rich Mafia channel. Seabirds circle overhead, looking to snag a bit of catch for their morning meal. And you may be lucky enough to catch sight of a dorsal fin cutting through the water or watch the spotted head of a famous Mafia Island whale shark bob past.
Global pesticide use is on the rise
June 27, 2023 — A global environmental problem that Ensia shone light on in 2016 is worse than suspected, researchers inspired by our reporting have found. While the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates suggest global pesticide use is plateauing, Indiana University assistant professor of geography Annie Shattuck and colleagues, writing in the July 2023 issue of Global Environmental Change, report that use is actually growing.
Wildfire smoke can harm human health, even when the fire is hundreds of miles away
A toxicologist explains the health risks people can face when smoke blows in from distant wildfires. June 8, 2023 — Smoke from more than 100 wildfires burning across Canada has been rolling into North American cities far from the flames. New York City and Detroit were both listed among the five most polluted cities in the world because of the fires on June 7, 2023. The smoke has triggered air quality alerts in several states in recent weeks.
Resource-rich countries find it pays to pay landholders to protect their land
May 11, 2023 — The Osa Peninsula on Costa Rica’s west coast occupies just 0.001% of the planet’s surface area, yet is home to an estimated 2.5% of all the biodiversity in the world. Inhabited by jaguar, tapir and close to 400 species of birds, the forests here — and others like them around the world — combat biodiversity loss and play a key role in capturing carbon and fighting climate change.
Thinking about a heat pump? Here are a few things to consider.
March 30, 2023 — When a powerful Arctic front arrived in Denver late last year, my husband and I crossed our fingers, hoping that our new heat pump could handle the cold blast. On December 22, during what became Denver’s second coldest day on record, we were warm and cozy in our home. Our heat pump worked.
The surprising role of land use in alleviating the climate crisis
February 17, 2023 — When people think of turning the tide on climate change, we often think of reforming energy use. But there’s another group of actions with big potential for averting climate crisis: improving our interactions with the land. A report released last September by Conservation International in partnership with the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, WWF and Exponential Roadmap Initiative describes how altering agricultural and other land use practices could make a substantial contribution to stabilizing climate for future generations.
How do carbon dioxide removal strategies compare?
January 26, 2023 — As the impacts of climate change become more visible in everyday life, attention is increasingly turning to ways to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and so minimize further harm. A new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) provides a valuable overview of various approaches to doing so.
Reconnecting environment and health
January 19, 2023 — A few months into the Covid-19 pandemic, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggested that people drive alone to work to reduce infections. Perhaps good advice for avoiding the virus — but what it didn’t consider was a less obvious adverse impact on health: Doing so would increase air pollution, which, in addition to contributing to lung and heart disease, research shows is linked to increased Covid-19 infections and more severe illness and death in people with Covid-19.
Top conservation issues to watch out for in 2023
Each year since 2009 scientists and conservationists from around the world have come together under the direction of researchers from Cambridge University to answer that question. Their goal is to “provide novel information that society and decision-makers may wish to consider in legislation, planning and actions that contribute to environmental sustainability and mitigating threats.”
Should companies with animal mascots pay for species conservation?
November 22, 2022 — One lazy summer day, film writer and director Christopher Nelius was watching a cricket game on TV at home in Sydney when a commercial for a local telecommunications company caught his eye. A realistic, animated family of elephants appeared on his screen, exuding feelings of warmth and homeliness ostensibly associated with the product being advertised: phone data.
Wanted: healthier healthcare products
November 11, 2022 — What’s in that IV bag besides saline and medication? As we become more aware of the harms of chemicals embedded in plastics and other materials, consumers — including patients — are demanding a higher standard. Research suggests that the presence of certain...
Lakes are more sensitive to salt than we thought
November 1, 2022 — Long known for its crystal-clear water, Lake George in New York experienced its first confirmed harmful algal bloom in 2020, turning the lake pea-soup green. Runoff, especially from extreme rainfall events, dumps pollutants such as road salt into the lake, says Eric Siy, president of the nonprofit Lake George Association. Road salt can lurk in soil and streams and on roadsides until it washes into lakes. And it doesn’t just provoke algal blooms.
What does forest restoration in the U.S. Southwest look like in the age of climate change?
October 19, 2022 — On April 6, 2022, a prescribed fire driven by unusually strong spring winds jumped a control line northwest of Las Vegas, New Mexico. About two weeks later, the same dry winds rekindled embers from another nearby prescribed burn. Driven by 60-mile-per-hour (27-meter-per-second) winds with gusts reaching upwards of 80 miles per hour (36 meters per second), the two fires merged, and the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak complex became the largest in New Mexico history. By the time the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) declared the fire contained in late August, almost 350,000 acres (141,600 hectares), an area greater than the size of Los Angeles, had burned. Nearly 1,000 structures were destroyed and thousands of people were displaced. Post-fire flooding killed multiple area residents and caused extensive damage.
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