Storing greater amounts of water in Brazil’s reservoirs could increase precipitation and river flow, alleviating the water and energy supply crisis in Brazil, a new study finds. «It is widely accepted that river flow impacts reservoir levels. This is true on a weekly and monthly scale. However, on an annual scale the level of the…

Researchers have been monitoring wastewater on the UC Davis campus and in the city of Davis for COVID-19 through the Healthy Davis Together program. A new article reviews their experiences and the advantages and limitations of wastewater testing as a public health tool in the COVID-19 pandemic. Assistant Professor Heather Bischel and doctoral student Hannah…

The fossil record, which documents the history of life on Earth, is heavily biased by influences such as colonialism, history and global economics, palaeontologists argue. The findings have significance across the field of palaeontology, but also for the ways in which researchers are able to use our knowledge of ancient fossil records to gain clearer,…

Strict COVID-19 lockdown policies such as workplace closures in European cities reduced levels of air pollution and the number of associated deaths, according to new estimates. The research, which was funded by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) on behalf of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), was led by a team of…

A new scoring method to identify the risk of forced labor in fruits and vegetables sold in the U.S. has been developed by researchers. Limited, scattered data serve as a call to action to build evidence base and address accompanying equity issues. The study, published August 23, 2021, was led by Nicole Tichenor Blackstone in…

CO2 emissions from electricity in the UK fell by two thirds in the last decade due to several factors working together, rather than a single panacea. This decline, faster than in any other large country, was driven by a complex interplay of policies and events, according to research from Imperial College London published today in…

There should be greater investment in using a wider group of experts to make decisions about how the landscape is managed if the UK is to reach climate targets such as net zero, a new report warns. Tackling the climate emergency should involve those knowledgeable in the arts, business owners, farmers, landowners, developers and investors,…

A major new public attitudes survey on fracking reveals very little public support for relaxing the rules and regulations around fracking — a key demand of major shale gas extraction companies. The team, including Professor Lorraine Whitmarsh from Cardiff University, also found that people have low trust in the energy companies involved and want decisions…

Public perceptions of climate change, the future cost and effectiveness of climate mitigation and technologies, and how political institutions respond to public pressure are all important determinants of the degree to which the climate will change over the 21st century, according to a new study. The study, published today in the journal Nature, indicates that…

Part of UC San Diego’s Return to Learn program, wastewater screening helped prevent outbreaks by detecting 85 percent of cases early, allowing for timely testing, contact tracing and isolation. Now they have data to back it up: Screening for SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater, the team showed they can detect even a single infected, asymptomatic person living…