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Environment + Sustainability

a picture of smoke rising from a wildfire in the hills behind a coastal city
The Palisades Fire of January, 2025, burned watersheds in the Santa Monica Mountains, subsequently impacting water quality at several Southern California beaches

Researchers link wildfires in California’s coastal watersheds to the water quality at the beach

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An aerial view of the Totten Ice Shelf during the 61st Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition in late 2019 and early 2020.
Photo Credit
Yoshihiro Nakayama
The Totten Ice Shelf contributes to ice loss in East Antarctica, but this was offset by the increased snowfall from 2021 to 2023.

Antarctica’s brief rebound was caused by climate variability, not a ‘new normal’
Two Mapuche women smiling and wearing colorful, traditional attire with silver necklaces.
Photo Credit
Oscar Gutierrez Zozulia via iStock
The Mapuche are Chile’s largest Indigenous group, having retained independence form the Spanish empire for centuries.

Indigenous land restitution empowers communities, but environmental gains require extra support
a charging cable into an electric vehicle at sunset.
Photo Credit
Michael Fousert, Unsplash
Accounting for the emissions over a vehicle’s entire lifecycle overturns the sunk-cost thinking that keeps gasoline vehicles on the roads.

Thinking about trading your car in for an EV? There’s a compelling new reason to do it now
A shark fin sticks out of the ice at a fish market.
Photo Credit
enginakyurt11 via iStock
Small and easily stored, shark fins can be far more valuable than the rest of the animal’s carcass.

Combining fishing regulations and trade data reveals the complex global market for shark products
sunset photo of Grand Canyon Lodge
The Grand Canyon Lodge before it burned down in 2025

Thousands of America's historic landmarks face significant wildfire risk
a view of the Black Sea

UCSB-led international team evaluates anoxic marine basins as potential sites for carbon sequestration
An oil palm plantation at edge of rainforest with a boarder of trees that were logged to clear land for agricultural expansion.
Photo Credit
Richcarey via iStock
Crafting strategies to stop deforestation will require understanding the factors that accelerate and arrest it.

Declines in deforestation aren’t driven by corporate sustainability pledges
giant kelp in the water

Disturbance has a greater effect on giant kelp productivity than does resource availability
A group of elephants prepare to cross a road as oncoming headlights can be seen in the distance.
Photo Credit
Davide Antoniani via iStock
Elephants and humans could be headed for a collision in Southern Africa as climate change and bears down and more land comes under cultivation.

Human expansion will fuel more conflict with elephants without careful planning
sand dunes against an ocean background

California has lost more than half of its coastal sand dunes, first-ever comprehensive assessment reveals
A woman tends to casava while carrying a baby on her back.
Photo Credit
Annie Spratt via Unsplash
Rain forecasts and drought warnings can save lives in regions like Sierra Leone, where subsistence farming is still a major part of society.

New rainfall dataset enhances global monitoring of extreme weather
A field of potatoes framed by wildflowers in the foreground and forest in the background.
Photo Credit
Grigorev_Vladimir via iStock
Agriculture and timber production need not come at the expense of carbon storage and biodiversity.

Better land use and management could improve biodiversity, climate and economic development
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