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Two factors are pushing for a switch away from coal—the desire to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to reduce global climate change, and the low price of natural gas, which is now competitive with coal in electric power plants. But environmental advocates face a dilemma with natural gas—it is cleaner, but about half is derived via fracking. And, natural gas is a fossil fuel that releases CO2 to the atmosphere.

It is natural to think that burning firewood would have a minor effect on atmospheric CO2. After all, as trees grow back, they remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Thus, unlike fossil fuels, trees might be regarded as “carbon-neutral.” However, there are several fundamental misunderstandings about the carbon neutrality of biomass.

The value of materials collected for recycling is at historic lows, especially for glass.  Meanwhile the cost to operate a municipal recycling program has risen, so that in 2020, a recycling program gathering only 20% of household waste cost 8% more than a traditional garbage collection program.

From observation and experiment, scientists can evaluate what is now known, especially as it pertains to many issues facing policy makers. Modern medicine and the prevention of toxic exposures have all derived from the pursuit of facts by scientist, and at any moment, scientists can deliver the best understanding of what we know.

One can only understand the global distribution of mercury and its accumulation in habitats that we might expect to be pristine by understanding where it is released, how it is transported, and how it is deposited in polar regions. Concentrations of mercury in the Greenland snowpack have increased since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, showing the impact of humans on its global cycle.

Cary Institute President Dr. Joshua Ginsberg discusses how global populations of many large carnivores have started to recover. Discover which animals are on the rebound and what their improvement tells us about the future of wildlife conservation.

Croplands collectively are a source of atmospheric carbon dioxide, whereas the natural lands they replaced were close to neutral with respect to the atmosphere. Our best estimate of how much of the world’s plant productivity goes to feed seven billion humans is certainly less than a few percent, which we take from about 35% of the land that we manage for that purpose.

Whether we look at the source of our pets’ food or the disposal of their waste, household pets have an enormous impact on the environment, which extends globally.

What’s important is the net, long-term trend in the amount of ice on the Antarctic continent. We’ve known for about 10 years from a variety of studies that the ice pack on Antarctica is getting smaller. Some of the ice sheets lost have been stable for up to 10,000 years; their loss is indicative of a new set of conditions, likely due to human activity.

When sea ice covers the Arctic, it offers a reflective white surface to the incoming radiation of the sun. When the ice melts, much of the sun’s radiation is absorbed by the darker sea water now exposed, which itself warms, causing more sea ice to melt.

Changes in climate, and thus climate zones, will move plant hardiness zones northward and impact what we can grow in gardens.  Less frequently discussed are changes in the distribution of natural vegetation that can be expected with climate change, both temperature and rainfall.

A new paper argues for a synergy between AI and ecology that could both strengthen AI and help to solve complex global challenges, such as disease outbreaks, loss of biodiversity, and climate change impacts.

On September 20, join Cary Institute President Joshua Ginsberg and forest ecologist Winslow Hansen for a discussion about what’s causing wildfires to be worse than ever, and how predictive science can help. The event will be held in person at WNYC’s Greene Space as part of Climate Week NYC. A livestream will also be available.

Cary's Peter Groffman explores the field of urban ecology and what the striking similarities across urban landscapes mean for the long-term sustainability of metropolitan areas.

Dr. Winslow Hansen explores how wildfires are transforming landscapes and communities, with a focus on the power of predictive science to address the fire crisis. Topics to be explored include: impacts to air and water resources, fire-driven shifts in ecosystems, breaking the climate change-fire feedback loop, and how advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and computing can inform stewardship and management that reduce wildfire risk.

Loss of sea ice exacerbates the rate of global warming. And, meteorologists believe that an ice-free Arctic, with warmer ocean waters, will have dramatic impacts on the position of the jet stream, other wind patterns, and the climate we experience in the temperate zone.

Abandoning the Clean Water Rule, weakening the Endangered Species Act, exiting the Paris Agreement that would have nations commit to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases...all are actions that have dangerous implications for our climate.

With so much dependence on recycled water, it should give us all pause to see proposals now before government agencies to relax the standards for discharge and stream protection. Sewage treatment plants were not designed to remove pharmaceutical residues, plasticizers, insecticides, herbicides, and other products that we have introduced into natural waters.

Ecologists embrace long-term studies of nature; long-term records underpin our recognition of the ozone hole, acid rain, species decline, mercury contamination, water quality, and more. In addition, an invaluable record of paintings of nature, in which we can see land-use patterns, forest cover, and agricultural activities, also document how humans perceived and used their environment years ago.

As with islands, a large protected area will preserve more species than a smaller one. Small protected areas are often the most vulnerable to invasions of exotic species and to human encroachment along their borders. At the same time, ecologists have noted that even small islands of habitat are more effective at species preservation if they are connected by corridors that allow the individuals of species to move between habitat fragments.