Topic

Environment

Page 2

An elephant named Happy stands upright looking at the cage enclosing her

Does the Constitution protect an elephant from unlawful detention?

 Environment
• January 13, 2024

What a bid to free a zoo elephant says about the evolving legal rights of animals

Visualization of plastic straws breaking down into smaller pieces of plastic.

Munching on plastic?

 Environment
• January 10, 2024

Microplastics are everywhere — including in our bodies. Here is what you need to know

Yellow mealworms, the larvae of the yellow mealworm beetle, sit in clear plastic bins across from containers of small white plastic beads.

Insect microbes face off against the plastic pollution crisis

 Environment
• January 4, 2024

Plastic-eating enzymes in the guts of mealworms are one of many bug-centric ideas being studied, but environmentalists say it dodges the real solution: use less

A juvenile scallop and an adult scallop on the palm of a bayman's hand

Long Island’s scallops are dying out. Scientists are hunting for answers.

 Environment
• August 14, 2023

Unless researchers can pull off a genetic rescue, the triple-whammy of warmer temperatures, oxygen-starved waters and a newly discovered parasite may soon obliterate the few survivors

Joe Hollins lying down in grass facing Jonathan the giant tortoise to feed him from a metal bowl with white building in background

The tortoise and the caretaker

 Environment
• August 7, 2023

Meet Joe Hollins, the recently retired veterinarian who cared for a record-breaking 190-year-old tortoise named Jonathan in his remote island home

An endangered blue and red striped candy darter in a river.

This freshwater fish is facing an identity crisis

 Environment
• July 24, 2023

Efforts to restore candy darter populations are underway, but their genes live on in other fish and raise thorny questions for conservation biologists

Global seaweed farming could be a boon, but only if it scales sustainably

 Environment
• May 18, 2023

For all of kelp’s potential benefits to people and the planet, its success will depend on cultural shifts

A botanist peers through a tiny magnifying glass to observe a small piece of moss. He is surrounded by tall phragmites, a type of invasive plant.

On Staten Island, flood control plans threaten a haven for rare plants

 Environment
• May 5, 2023

Ten years after Superstorm Sandy struck the east coast, naturalists worry a government-funded storm mitigation plan will wipe out a historic ecosystem

When it comes to mental health, there might be something in the air

 Environment
• April 4, 2023

Scientists are unraveling air pollution's effects on mental health

Two hands with grey fingerless gloves hold up the ridged underside of a white oyster mushroom

A mushroom walk on Staten Island

 Environment
• March 18, 2023

The New York Mycological Society is a “mushroom club for anyone”

Damaged homes line a street in the wake of Hurricane Ian.

Hurricane Ian wrecked southwest Florida. Why weren’t there more warnings in Spanish?

 Environment
• February 20, 2023

Delayed evacuation orders and a dearth of Spanish-language weather programming left many in the Hispanic community unprepared

A river runs through a forest of trees. Water flows over a small barrier in the foreground, and continues on through rocks covered in fall leaves.

On the hunt for hidden dams

 Environment
• February 10, 2023

Scientists say the "ghost dams" scattered throughout the country's waterways pose ecological risks

child smashing a pumpkin with a garden tool

Don’t toss your rotting pumpkins — smash them!

 Environment
• February 1, 2023

Millions of pumpkins end up in landfills every Halloween season, but there’s a better alternative

A wide image photograph of la plaza cultural, where you can see a scraggly tree arched over the koi pond, with a gazebo in the distance and the city peaking out from behind the foliage.

Compost, the stuff of life

 Environment
• November 3, 2022

Tucked away in the East Village of Manhattan sits La Plaza Cultural de Armando Perez, a symbol of community resilience and dedication to greenspace

A photograph of the activist/artist Sarah Cameron Sunde in a red wind breaker, standing on the beach in her climate change performance.

The transformative power of environmental art

 Environment
• October 14, 2022

Sarah Cameron Sunde’s performance art contemplates our interconnection with nature

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